“Rest a While”
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, July 18, 2021
Jeremiah 23:1-6 • Ephesians 2:11-22 • Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
“Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”
Forgive me Bishop Marc. I apologize in advance Rev. Jane and Rev. Debra. I mean no offense dear Sisters. I beg your pardon friends. I have to be honest. Most things I know about evangelism and discipleship I learned from a Basset Hound.
Our Basset Hound mix, Fudge, never misses an opportunity to hit the pavement. He loves his walks and goes out on them like a disciple on a mission. He takes nothing with him except a leash and one of us on the other end of it – “no bread, no bag, no money in [his belt].”1 In inclement weather, he goes out wearing only one tunic,2 just large enough to cover his long body and ears. He has settled on his usual route, but sometimes he mixes it up. As he walks with intensity down the streets of our neighborhood, he goes door to door, and into open garages, bringing good news and greeting to God’s people. In the houses that welcome him, he goes in and stays a while3 – just long enough for a scratch, a pet, or a hamburger patty treat – and then he is off again. He continues unphased past homes and people that do not welcome him.4 He casts out many demons by bringing good cheer to those in sorrow and just about everyone else.5 He even anoints – grass, mostly. We know of no physical or medical illnesses that he’s cured, but he brings smiles, and laughter, and love to many.6 His trips into the neighborhood can last over an hour, and when he comes home, the first thing he does when he gets inside, is howl from the top of his little lungs, telling us, our cats, and anything and anyone else in earshot “all that he has done and taught.”7 And, then, he rests. Sometimes he collapses on the cool floor, or strolls off to his bed and curls up. And he’s quickly asleep, snoring up a storm, recharging before the next journey.
I have had other dogs, but Fudge has taught me the most. I have learned that, whatever you’re doing, try to be “all in;” be present; do things with focus, intensity, joy, and love; extend hospitality beyond your own home; know that everyone is your neighbor; bring greeting, and welcome, and love to those you meet on the road. And, as important, rest. Because you cannot give what you do not have.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls his disciples to rest after “all that they had done and taught.” He invites them: “go away to a quiet place all by yourselves and rest a while.” The disciples had been busy healing and spreading the good news that God’s Reign had come near. But Jesus reminds them that their rest also needed to be attended to – rest for their bodies, rest for their spirits, rest for their souls. Of course, today’s Gospel shows us the disciples’ plans for rest being interrupted. But the command to find time for rest is front and center in today’s Gospel. Jesus is calling his disciples to remember the need for Sabbath time – the command of God to honor the Sabbath and keep it holy, just as God rested on the seventh day. As retired Presbyterian pastor John M. Buchanan writes, “God’s rest is part of the magnificent mystery of creation. Creation itself requires rest to be completed. God knows when to stop and rest. God knows how to step back, take a deep breath, and enjoy what God has created. The work of creation includes the cessation, the enjoyment.”
When Jesus asks his friends to “go away to a quiet place ... and rest a while,” he is reminding them of the necessity of Sabbath rest that anchors their faith and their ministry. Jesus doesn’t want his disciples to forget that. Even as they get caught up in their ministry, even as the demands of their ministry increase and seem endless, they must find time to rest. Jesus wants to be sure that their ministry, their work in the world, isn’t only about doing and doing more; it is also about being. And, central to being, is ceasing labor, being unconstrained by time, freeing the mind and the body from the burdens of work, that we might notice the beauty of all that God has done and is doing, as well as our place as a part of that beautiful creation.
In his book, The Sabbath, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel explains that Sabbath is all about the sanctification of time and our mindfulness of that. He writes that “the Sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn... [The Sabbath] is a day on which we are called upon to share in what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”
The command of the Sabbath stands in stark contrast to Pharoah’s endless system of exploitive production. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann, in his book, Sabbath as Resistance, explains that Sabbath time represents a time for ceasing the perpetuation of economic systems that, if left unchecked, would leave people economically vulnerable. Brueggemann explains that, without Sabbath, the economic system would cause those at the bottom to labor without rest so that those at the top might enjoy more of it. According to Brueggemann, the command of observing Sabbath protects the common good of the community, especially the most vulnerable, by placing a restraint on what could be demanded of people.
But, as is so often the case in the United States, some of us are doing better than others when it comes to accessing Sabbath. Our economic system can, at times, seem a lot like Pharoah’s. To be blunt, one could argue that, in the United States, Sabbath has become a privilege. Many low wage workers need to work two and three jobs to survive. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “Out of Reach: 2021 Report,” in California, a person needs to earn $39.03 an hour over a 40-hour week to afford to rent a median-priced, two- bedroom apartment. If you’re paid the state minimum wage of $14.00 per hour, to afford that median-priced, two-bedroom apartment, you’d need to work 112 hours per week, or roughly 18 hours a day, six days a week.8 These are just some of the indications that our economic system leaves many people vulnerable, over-worked, under-paid, and unable to enjoy or afford Sabbath time. Like Pharoah, from an underclass of warehouse workers, piecemeal delivery drivers, day laborers, and other low-wage workers, we demand more and more bricks! In this way, we have created a system that limits access to Sabbath. Neither the Romans, nor the Germans were able to burn the “great cathedral” of Sabbath, but our economic system has managed to close that cathedral’s doors to so many.
In all of this, there is an invitation to us as followers of the liberating God – the God who freed God’s people from exploitive economic systems in Pharoah’s Egypt. There is hope for us as followers of the liberating Jesus who gave himself generously and lovingly on the Cross so that all might be freed from sin – the sins we do and the sins done in our names. We are invited to reform those parts of our economy that value production and profitability above all else. Our invitation is to support policies that reflect the dignity of working people, to ensure they are paid a living wage and receive health care and other benefits. We are invited to consider how we can live in economic solidarity with one another.
There is much work to be done. But we cannot give what we do not have. So, my dear friends, as we are able, let us take our Sabbath rest. Let’s find those silent and holy places where we can quiet our minds and turn our attention away from “the world of creation, [and] to the creation of the world” – a time when all things were made to live in relationship with all things. Let’s find a space to feel close to the liberating God who made us, and loves us, and liberated us, and seeks our liberation still. May we find renewal today, because tomorrow we begin anew. Tomorrow is a new day for our labors – a day when we are invited to venture into our neighborhood and work for the common good of all with focus, intensity, joy, and love. We are invited to take up our work again to seek to ensure that all people may join us in this “Great Cathedral,” this “Holy of Holies” of Sabbath. Now, wouldn’t that be something to howl about?
Amen.
(1) Mark 6:8. (2) Mark 6:10. (3) Mark 6:10. (4) Mark 6:11. (5) Mark 6:12. (6) Mark 6:13. (7) Mark 6:30.
(8) National Low Income Housing Coalition, Out of Reach: 2021 Report, available at <https://reports.nlihc.org/oor/california>.