“WORSHIP, WORK, PLAY”

7TH Sunday after Pentecost         July 23, 2006

United Lutheran Church-Red Wing, Minnesota

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

                                  “COME AWAY TO A DESERTED PLACE ALL

                                BY YOURSELVES AND REST A WHILE”.

              There are rhythms to life.  Important rhythms if we are going to stay both healthy and faithful as the People of God.  Some of you don’t have a vocation quite like mine and those of us who are clergy, to which you might be thinking, “Thank God, for small favors”.

              A good friend of mine, also a pastor as well as a counselor, told me about a day when he was working in his home office which he did most mornings.  He had the door of his office open, his feet up on the desk, and he was thinking through some ideas for a sermon—trying to get it going.  He heard footsteps coming down the hallway and the voices of his youngest son and a friend.   As they passed by his open door, they glanced in and stopped shortly after they passed the open door, and the following conversation went something like this.

              Friend:  “Who is that in the office?”    Son:  “MY DAD!”

              Friend:  “What’s he doing?”                        Son:  “WORKING!”

              Friend:  “But what’s he doing?”     Son:  “THINKING!”

              Friend:  “Thinking?”                                      Son:   “YUP!”

              Friend:  “Does he get paid for that?”   Son:  “GUESS SO!”

              Friend: (Long Pause)  “Does he

                            do that every day?”                       Son:  “YUP!”

              Friend: “Is that all he does and he

                            gets paid for it?”                           Son:  “YUP…THAT’S ABOUT IT!”

              Bob laughed as he relayed the episode and then commented that solitude, quiet,

Contemplation, time along, even if it doesn’t look like it’s being very productive, is part

of the rhythm of life.

              There comes a time to “draw apart” away from the pressures of everyday encoun-

ters, the noise of the crowd, the emotional demands, and whatever it is that would deny us counsel with ourselves.  Jesus says to his disciples, “COME AWAY TO A DESERTED PLACE ALL BY YOURSELVES AND REST A WHILE!”

              Who wouldn’t find these words appealing?  A vacation, a break, a respite, a time to empty ourselves of all responsibilities  or pressures, a time to be in the presence of God.   It was in the desert that Israel really got to know her God.  It was in the desert that the apostles truly relaxed in the presence of Jesus(even if it was quickly interrupted).   It is in the “desert” or places apart, to which the Lord invites us to spend time with God and to let God work anew in our lives.

              Several years ago, Jay Beech, wrote a piece with words that affirm this thought.

“EVERYBODY NEEDS A QUIET POLACE TO PRAY, TO THINK ABOUT THE FATHER’S GRACE, WE ALL NEED A QUIET PLACE TO PRAY.   EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEONE TO BEAR THEIR LOAD.  EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEONE TO BEAR, A SPOTLESS LAMB IS HANGING THERE.  JESUS HAS ALREADY BORNE OUR LOAD.”

              It isn’t unusual in the Gospel of Mark to find part of the rhythm that Jesus established to be withdrawing from the crowds.  This is the only time however when he specifically invite the disciples to withdraw with him to rest.  Other times, Jesus goes by himself for prayer or to instruct or to teach the disciples.  But here, the “deserted place” pulls the disciples from the crush of the crowds around Jesus, where they hardly had time to eat.  And in this snapshot of his life, we find that the disciples have done what Jesus commissioned them to do and they need this well-deserved rest. Those who have shared in his ministry are invited to join him.

              Mark reports these growing crows around Jesus as a testimonial to the growing interest in and acceptance of the ministry of Jesus.  Yet the success is a burden for those

who attempt to minister to their needs.  Jesus has led his followers into engagement with the needs of the world which leads them toward suffering and eventually the cross.  It’s wonderful that Jesus has compassion for the crowds and even more wonderful that he has compassion for his fatigued followers.

              We ought to recognize that God established this need for the Sabbath way back

in the book of Genesis.    For it was on the seventh day of creation, that God took a break, God rested and said-“It was good!”  But one of the things that seem more difficult to hold on to in our culture is the sense of the rhythm in our lives. The rhythm which I believe God truly intended for human life.  The rhythm of moving back and forth between work and play, between doing and being, between action and rest.  We see that rhythm carried out in Jesus life and his instruction for the disciples who have been teaching and healing and ministering in Jesus name and then are led into the quiet place to rest.  Fulfilling res-ponsibilities and then resting.  For even the Son of God needed to rest.  To be fed and healed himself if he was to be able to feed and heal others.

              William Barclay calls this “The Rhythm of the Christian Life”.  We know that it is not possible to be all that Christ calls us to be.  It’s even less possible  without moments of retreat and renewal.  It’s not possible to continually pour one’s self out, without stepping back into times of rejuvenation which might include quiet, prayer, contemplation and more.  We are NOT God, after all.  The weight of the world is on God’s shoulders.  God can handle it, if we step back.

              For while we claim to believe that we are saved by Grace through Faith in Christ, we too often act as if we are saved by how hard we work.  Henri Nouwen in his book, Out of Solitude,  suggest that when Jesus went back to the lonely place to pray, it was to grow in awareness that all the power he had was given to Him.  That all the words he spoke came from his heavenly Father.  That all the works that he did were not really his own but the works of the One who had sent him.  Nouwen writes: “IT IS IN SOLITUDE THAT WE DISCOVER THAT BEING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN HAVING, AND THAT WE ARE WORTH MORE THAN THE RESULTS OF OUR EFFORTS.  IN SOLITUDE WE DISCOVER THAT OUR LIFE IS NOT A POSSESSION TO BE DEFENDED BUT A GIFT TO BE SHARED.  WE BECOME AWARE THAT OUR WORTH IS NOT THE SAME AS OUR USEFULNESS.”

              As children of God we ought to know that our worth has little to do with how much we accomplish or how hard we work.  Christ proved our worth, when he spread his arms and hands out on the cross for us.  We have our value, our worth, our identity which far surpasses what we do.

              Several years ago I had in my personal library a book that was very helpful to me. I don’t have it any more and I honestly don’t remember the author, but I remember his premise, his theme which was memorable. It struck home at the time and has stuck with me—at least in my memory if not always in my actions.  He wrote:

                   “WE WORSHIP OUR WORK, WE WORK AT OUR PLAY,

                                          AND WE PLAY AT OUR WORSHIP”.

He was not affirming those priorities, but trying to help redefine the emphases and rhythms of our lives, so that we would see through different lenses how we view and live out our lives. Where we play our emphasis determines not only what we get out of life

But how we live our lives, and how the values and priorities of life can often become distorted.   Let’s take a brief look at those three in the context of this rhythm of life

which Jesus suggests here in Mark.

#1 WE WORSHIP OUR WORK

              How many of us, when we describe ourselves to someone else begin with our work?  We tell who we are by what we do.  Our job, career, profession, and how long we’ve been at it.  I confess!  When someone asks me what I do when they find out I’m in Red Wing I tell them about my work here.  But that is not all that I am. First and foremost,  I’m a child of God… That’s my vocation!  It isn’t that we shouldn’t be proud of using the gifts and abilities that God has given us in a life’s work that is enriching, fulfilling, purposeful, helpful to others and provides us with what we need for our families.

              It’s great to love our work, even at times to be defined by it.  But to worship it in such a manner that it becomes the center of life and devotion and even idolatrous.  What a joy to find a career where we are able to put to use, who we are, what we have been given and to find fulfillment and enrichment in that arena.  Can we work at our work without worshipping it?   I wonder!

#2 WE WORK AT OUR PLAY

              Developing interests, abilities, skills in those events, games, downtime, interaction with others…provides relaxation, enjoyment, laughter, even a sense of accom-plishment.  It can be a time or RE-CREATION!   What we have seen taking place often is working out of our frustrations from other aspects of our lives…and playing ourselves

into a frenzy.  Not to wonder that our expectations not only of ourselves in what is meant to be recreational so often turns into competitive, combatative interaction.   Every game becomes a contest where we need to win.   “Winning isn’t everything…it’s the only thing!”

              It’s truly refreshing to encounter someone who keeps in perspective the joy of being with others, the sportsmanlike attitude regardless of the contest or how the game comes out.  I’ve watched, as you have, and been guilty of turning events of our children into competitiveness where we lose perspective of the purpose and the spirit of letting the children play and not living out our own need to win through them.  It’s is so good when there is a renewing and re-CREATIONAL  spirit.  Can we play at our play?  I wonder!

#3 WE PLAY AT OUR WORSHIP

              To play at worship is to miss seeing it as a priority in our journey of faith.  When we dabble at prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.  Perhaps this thought in the triad is the most telling of all.  Sunday worship gives us a taste of the “good grace of God”.   William Willimon likes to say that while we do much activity in worship: praying, singing, listening, meditating…little of it is useful or productive or essential as the world defines these matters.  We are here relaxing, resting, simply enjoying being with each other and with our Lord.

              We believe as Christians that these days together are set apart as the Day of Rest or Sabbath and yet a foretaste of eternity when we shall have nothing better to do but to rest from our labors, to relax and to enjoy being in the presence of God not just one day of the week on Sunday, but always.  The rest is a great tribute to God.   Our ultimate destiny is not in our hands, not the result of our vigorous hard work or good work.  But in what God has been doing and continues to do in us, for us, and through us.

              We come to worship tired, hungry, worn out from lives in the world and are met and restored by Jesus’ compassion.  Then we are sent out, in that rhythm of life again to care for those who haven’t yet experienced Christ’s presence.  Then Sunday comes again and another opportunity arrives to be met by Jesus, restored, and sent out once again.

This gathering and sending is yet the rhythm of our lives as Christians, reaching back to the days when Jesus first welcomed, healed, called, and sent people to share the good news of God’s coming kingdom.

              Here it is that we come to center once again, to earnestly be renewed, refreshed, and recharged.   Can we worship with joy and thanksgiving and not simply play at wor-shipping?  Perhaps the word is that we come to CELEBRATE IN WORSHIP,  but not

simply to play at worshiping. Celebration can only really come about where fear and love, joy and sorrow, tears and smiles exist together.  Celebration is the acceptance of life in a constantly increasing awareness of its preciousness.

              When we recognize the greatness of God and the gifts of God given to us in and through Jesus Christ…there should be great reason to make worship truly a celebration as the Children God has called us to be.   Then the engagement with all that life holds and the ability to step back to be renewed in Christ will provide us with the rhythm of life that is wholesome, healthy, and full.

              And work will regain its proper focus.  And play will regain its rightful and joyful place in our lives.  And Worship,  worship will be central even as Christ is central for us and for all of life.   “COME AWAY WITH ME AND REST A WHILE”… in Christ who is Lord of life.    Amen.          

                                                                                    Pastor Clark Cary