The Rev. Carol Wedell
July 26, 2009

Have you ever stopped to think about the way we talk about time?  "I'll be with you in just a second."  "Do you have a minute?"  With our overscheduled lives we often act as if we can actually put more than 60 minutes into an hour by squeezing in just one more thing.  Time may wait for no one, but with certain sports, at least, we have stretched minutes, even seconds into an eternity with time outs, out of bound etc... 

The younger we are, the slower time seems to move. "How can my birthday be so far away?" "It will be forever until I'm old enough to drive."  Those of us with a few more years under our belt (isn't that a funny expression about time?  I don't even wear belts!) always seem amazed that time has flown by so quickly.  I wonder - does this have anything to do with how we spend our time?   Who takes the time to stoop down on the sidewalk to watch a bug crawl, or splash through puddles?  Who has to be reminded to take a deep, full breath?

"If only I had a little bit more time..." becomes our mantra as we consider all that we would like or need to do.  Many of us can relate to Bernard Berenson when he says, "I wish I could stand on a busy corner, hat in hand, and beg people to throw me all their wasted hours."  Wasting time seems to be considered the greatest of all sins.  Charles Darwin writes, "A man (sic) who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life." 

So just what is it that constitutes wasting time? Is our time only well-used when we have filled it with non-stop activity?  Certainly the way that many of us "spend" our time suggests that filling each moment to the brim is the only good use of time.  But underneath all of that busyness, buried beneath the "to do" lists and the emails needing to be returned, if we pause just a bit, turn the volume down just a little, there is another voice that calls: Slow down.  Take a break.  Go for a walk.  Turn off your cell phone.  Spend some time in quiet.  (Quiet, what's that?)

And then we hear our own responses: "When I get through school, things will slow down."  "When the kids grow up, then we'll have more time to relax and spend time together."  "When I retire there will be all the time I want to volunteer, to read, to sleep in - all of the things that seem so difficult to fit in right now."  Funny how that time never quite seems to come.

So most of us can relate, I suspect, to the situation in which Jesus' disciples find themselves in this morning's gospel reading.  This morning's reading from Mark is a bit disjointed as it begins with the 12 disciples returning from their first mission on Jesus' behalf --- excited to be sure, but also exhausted.  (Those of us who recently traveled to South Dakota can relate!)  Jesus gathers the twelve and while they are talking on and on about all that happened and how exciting it was, and how much they want to do it again, he quietly holds up his hand, silencing the chatter. "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat." 

We understand.  We know what it's like to arrive at the end of a long week, exhausted and ready for the weekend, ready to have a break and take a deep breath and rest, catch up on sleep, laundry, hear what the kids have been doing, and enjoy the people who bring renewed energy and life to our souls. We call out for pizza or pick up Chinese food and almost forget to sit down to eat together, we are so accustomed to grabbing something on the go. For many of us it's almost dangerous to sit down - for the sleep deprivation of the week catches up, as the eyelids get heavy.  (Take note:  I know the regular Sunday worship nappers - but I love you anyway - and try not to take your droopy eyes as a statement regarding my sermons!)

Jesus now explicitly tells the depleted disciples to do what he has done throughout his ministry: take time away in solitude to reconnect with God, the source of compassion and power.  He reminds them of the concept of Sabbath rest, given to all of us as a gift from the very beginning of creation.  Time set apart from work, from toil, from the drain of responsibilities.  And so the disciples got into the boat and set off for a deserted place.

There are times in life when we become so overloaded, so run-down, so overwhelmed, that we, like the disciples, need to stop and rest. This is why God created Sabbath - a day of renewal and re-creation in our weekly schedule.  Hopefully, by worshiping together each Sunday you are able to be renewed and refreshed for life, for ministry, and for mission.  Each of us needs time in our lives to worship God, to reflect, to pray, and be refreshed.  Times of peace and quiet help us renew our spiritual lives, help us sharpen our spiritual focus and see the larger picture God has for us, and hopefully become more aware of God's presence and plan for us, and for God's world.

Yet how easy it is for us to walk away from that incredible gift.  "I just don't have time."  I actually got angry with a colleague who was asking me when my Sabbath day was.  She didn't have a family.  It was easy for her!  In truth very few of us have grown up assuming that one day a week belongs to God - and that spending it with and for God is actually the best gift we can give ourselves.

"Sunday is the only day we have to sleep in." "This is our one ‘down' day." "I'll do my worship on the golf course...."  "This is our day for family."  Hmmm.  Church isn't family? And then in what is ordinarily the slowest time of all for most of us, we "take the summer off" from church!  If we wonder why our children or grandchildren don't make time for worship, do we need to ask more?  We make time for the things we think are truly important, don't you think? 

Jesus demonstrates in both his words and actions a balance for life that is critical if we are going to be the people God calls us to be and to be those who are able to serve others with "energy, intelligence, imagination and love."  Jesus models a life that is healthy, joyful and not pointlessly bound to the clock. Yes, good use of the gift of time includes productive work, whether that be nurturing children at home, teaching, serving meals with grace, being loyal at the factory or competent and compassionate at the hospital. But it is no less important to find those life-giving moments of rest and renewal, so that we will actually have something to give to those who meet us with their need.

I love how scripture is so often like our lives.  The disciples are all ready to head off to this quiet place and what happens?  There is another crowd waiting on the other side, with enormous needs and expectations.  It's like a new parent, who has just fallen asleep when the baby cries again.  Or like the person ready to head out the door for home, when a voice calls out from down the hall, "hey, I really need to talk with you for a minute." (Talk about a minute that will undoubtedly be much longer than 60 seconds!).  You're just about to fall asleep and the phone rings - a parent, a child, a friend - needs help, and you are who they called. 

You and I don't walk away from those cries for help, and neither did Jesus.  He had compassion on the crowd, and met them with their needs.  Now it is a bit unclear when exactly the disciples get off of the boat.  But for today, let's assume that they get out when Jesus did.  That when Jesus was met with that crowd, so were they.  And as his disciples they had as much compassion on those people as Jesus did.

What happens then, when the intended break, the much needed rest, the gift of Sabbath seems to elude us?  I think the answer has several parts.  The first is that you and I (and I am preaching to myself here) need to find and nurture the gift of a true Sabbath day - a day that isn't spent catching up on the work that needs to be done around home, or that somehow finds us answering emails from work, or beginning the next project.  We need to make that a true goal, not merely something to which we give lip service.

A day to spend at church, or with the worshiping community, followed up by a walk in the woods, or sitting quietly on a park bench.  A day to reflect on God's presence in our life:  where we are and where we are called to go.  Taking this kind of time may look like the kind of "self-care" often prescribed for anyone who is under too much stress.  And to be sure it will help on that front. 

But at a deeper level we need to remember that the reason we need rest and renewal is to draw closer to our Creator and to become more available for the ministry to which God has uniquely called us.  If we spent that kind of time regularly, we would still have something to give when the phone rings in the middle of the night. As Diana Butler Bass has written in her book, Keeping the Sabbath, "One day to resist the tyranny of too much or too little work and to celebrate with God and others, remembering thereby who we really are and what is really important.  One day that, week after week, anchors a way of life that makes a difference every day."

Very few of us here this morning are actually comfortable with silence.  We fill the space up with more noise.  I often ask our Session to spend moments in reflection, and it isn't long before someone or another will start tapping a foot or playing with a piece of paper.  Some have learned the gift of contemplative prayer and are enormously at ease in the quiet.  I will be spending a part of this next week of study leave in contemplative worship, with time intentionally set apart for quiet and reflection. The goal of study leave for ministers is obvious:  so that we too will be refreshed in our spirits and ready to return to the work to which we have been called. 

But when our life is interrupted by one of those needs we cannot put aside, any more than Jesus could put aside the people truly in need of him, I think this passage has something very important to tell us.  This time the disciples didn't get that much desired day of rest and recuperation.  No.  Not this time.  But they did have some time:  from the moment their feet entered the boat until the came out, they had a chance to find their center in God.  The boat surely was full - so this wasn't an occasion for solitude.  But as Jesus' community all together, they could do a variety of things to renew their souls.  They could sing.  They could pray.  They could be in silence together.  It might not be a Sabbath day, but it could be a Sabbath moment.  Minutes in which they did indeed have a choice. That time on the boat was an interlude, offering them just enough refreshment to keep on going, to reach out yet again in Jesus' name.

The Jewish prayer at the beginning of the Sabbath begins, "Days pass and years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles."  Days or even minutes of keeping Sabbath may open our eyes to see as young children do - the glory of God in every day things.

In his famous poem entitled, "If" Rudyard Kipling says, "If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty second's worth of distance run..."  That unforgiving minute is, no matter what we try to make it, just sixty seconds.  To run it well means giving it our best, as any runner knows.  It also means training ahead of time, day after day.  It means taking breaks to allow your body to recover.  It means eating well, and avoiding things that make your body less able to run.  It means stretching and pushing yourself.  And then, if we hand those sixty seconds over to God, we will never worry if they have been wasted.