B, Proper 11
Mk. 6:30-34, 53-56 By the Rev. Blake R. Hutson
Good morning. Today is Sunday July the 19th. We find ourselves in the middle of the Summer months and the middle of vacation season. Some of us may have already gotten away for some vacation time this summer. Others of us may be looking forward to some vacation time in the next few weeks.
As we find ourselves in the middle of vacation season, this morning, I would like for us to think about the religious practice of Sabbath. Maybe you’ve never thought of your vacation time as Sabbath, but us as Christians, I think there is a connection. In addition to needing what you might call personal Sabbath time, I think we also need to observe Sabbath as a part of a community.
Now, when you think of Sabbath, what comes to mind? For some of us the practice may have a negative connotation—we may think of a day of rules and restrictions. We may think of it as a day of obligation. A day or a time where we aren’t allowed to do certain things.
It may be worth our time to take a fresh look at the concept
of Sabbath. When we do we might find the
gift it offers to us both as individuals and as members of a community. Author and theologian, Dorothy
The way we organize our time in our personal lives says a lot about what we value and what we think is important. The same is true for us as a community—the way we spend our time says a lot about us. The spiritual descendants of Abraham—Jews, Christians and Muslims keep time in a seven day weekly cycle. Of course, for our Jewish brothers and sisters, Sabbath has always been a fundamental building block of their religious and cultural life.
As Bass and others have noted, the pattern of Sabbath—six
days of work followed by a day of rest is woven deeply into the
scriptures. The very first story of the
Hebrew scriptures—the story of creation ends when God rests on the seventh day—this
was of course the very first time there was a designated ‘seventh day.’ God blesses this day as a day of rest and
makes it holy. Later, the observance of
Sabbath is commanded in the Ten Commandments that Moses receives. There are actually two versions of the Ten
Commandments, one in Exodus (
As Christians, how do we honor God’s creative work? What would it look like to imitate God’s pattern of work and rest? How do we experience liberation today? If we were to keep a Christian form of Sabbath, what might that look like in our personal lives and in our communal life together?
In our personal lives, I think Jesus gives us an example in this morning’s text.
You might say that Jesus needed and Jesus encouraged personal Sabbath time in this morning’s Gospel. The picture we get is that people were coming to see Jesus and his disciples were so busy tending to needs and caring for the people that they were becoming overwhelmed. The text literally says "they didn't even have an opportunity to have a meal." It was as if Jesus came to the point of saying to them, we need to "Stop [ourselves] from doing so much."[3] This isn’t an image or picture of Jesus that we see very often, but like we feel from time to time, Jesus felt the need to get away from things and rest.
In a sense, Jesus was encouraging them to do something
familiar. They knew the commandments
about observing the Sabbath when it came around in the seven day week. But as we know, Jesus had a different take on
the subject than the religious leaders of his day. A few chapters earlier in Mark chapter two
Jesus taught his followers not to get caught up on the rules that had developed
surrounding the Sabbath. Rather he
taught them, “the Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the
Sabbath” (Mk.
In today’s text they had been meeting the needs of people day after day after day. And so for a short time, rather than meeting the needs of other people you might say that Jesus encouraged them to look to their own needs for a change. Jesus encouraged them and gave them permission to carve out personal Sabbath time for themselves.
The underlying teaching, the underlying reality is that when
we care for ourselves we find that we can care for others. I think that Jesus knew that and he knew that
he and his disciples needed to care for themselves for awhile. Ironically as we keep reading, we find out
that Jesus and the disciples never got their vacation or their time away to
care for themselves, because people saw them get in a boat to leave and they
followed them. Jesus and his disciples
go on to be busy over the next few days—there is a gap of 19 verses in our
reading in which Jesus goes on to perform the miracle of feeding five thousand
people and then walking on the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus never really got his personal Sabbath, his personal rest
time. As one commentator said, after three years of ministry, Jesus would have to come to
the end of his life, to finally get three days of rest in the tomb.
In this story we find a parallel
with our lives. Many things fill up our
time. Family, friends, personal business
and community groups keep us busy. This
is especially true if we have talents or treasures that people or groups
desire. Think about this in Jesus case
and think about it in your own life. It
seems the more we have to offer, the more people want from us.
But you know, when we are heavily
involved in something, we have to be careful.
Whatever good things we are doing in life, whether it is, raising and
caring for children, caring for an aging parent, working for a group in the
community, working in a ministry here in the Church, we don’t want to get
overworked and burned out. We need
personal Sabbath time so that we can rest, rejuvenate and recharge. In doing this we’ll be able to effectively
care for others.
In our weekly schedules, for many
of us, Sundays might make the best Sabbaths because our schedules are relatively
free and because at its best, Sabbath involves a community experience. Since the earliest centuries of the Church,
Christians have gathered on the first day of the week. Sunday was the day they first encountered the
risen Lord. It became a day to gather, to
eat together, and to worship. It reminded them to live one day of the week in
light of the resurrection. For us in our day, joining an assembled group of
Christians for the celebration of Word and Sacrament reminds us that Sabbath is
not about taking a day off. Rather
Sabbath is about being reminded of God’s creative work in the world and God’s
creative work in our lives. At its best
we experience freedom and liberation in the relationship we have with God and
the relationships we have with one another.
Through Jesus and his resurrection we have liberation from the power of
death and promise of eternal life. All
of these things we celebrate when we come together as a community.
So on the first day of this week,
as a member of this community, celebrate God’s handiwork in your life and in
the world. Spend your vacation time this summer getting rested and
recharged. As you leave here and go
about your day and your week, remember to take time for your personal needs. Each of us has innate worth and value. God gives us permission to care for ourselves
so that we can care for others.
Amen.