Mark 6:6b-13, 30-32 (NIV)
Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.
Learning to Slow Down
Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
This week, we continue our series looking at opening ourselves up to God. We do this as we work towards our goal for 2021: to become spiritually strong. Last week, we looked at the idea of simplifying our lives. We acknowledged that Christ calls us to lead simple lives and that when we live life chasing after things, things end up running our life. As we saw, the call for simplicity isn’t just about things, it’s about worries and everything that gums up your life and makes us loose sight of what we’re really chasing after. This week, we’re looking at slowing down but before we do, let’s take a moment to practice our memory verse!
“Trust in God at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.” – Psalm 62:8
Before we begin, I invite you to take one minute of silence – of doing absolutely nothing so that we might slow our thoughts and worries and listen to what God is teaching us today.
—
Let me tell you, I have had a crazy week this last week. I’ve had five separate meetings, all of which ran over their time, and five major assignments for seminary that entailed reading a long book and writing a long paper of some kind. Lois, the church secretary, is out of the office this week – so I had to get everything ready for this last week on top of getting things ready for this coming week. Of course, this is on top of everything else that I normally have to do. What does that mean? I was constantly behind this week and constantly rushing trying to catch up!
Let me tell you the results thus far: I tried to rush the bulletins out on Tuesday because I couldn’t do it at my regular time on Monday which resulted in one of the bulletins not saving at all and me having to completely redo it. In my rush to redo it, it was riddled with typos (thanks be to God Lois can figure what I actually mean and fix it!). Writing and rewriting the bulletins caused me to run out of time to finish the E-news so I had to push it to Thursday. On Wednesday, I almost forgot the meeting I had scheduled with Christian Education and so I was out rushing trying to buy all the office supplies I needed from Walmart and forgot three items. And because I was shopping, I forgot about the meeting I had with Donna Roloff before the Education meeting. Thursday came without me having accomplished anything I wanted to this week besides the bulletin. I tried to finish the E-news but kept getting interrupted until I had another meeting. This means that I didn’t get the E-news out at all nor was I able to print out the Spiritual Discipline sheet until this morning along with write the sermon (because all weekend I was working on school work). On top of it all, as I was rushing to finish things this morning, I cut my finger while getting dressed and scared my dog by yelling that it was time to go to the bathroom. So, if you think that this sermon’s only for you, don’t worry, it’s also for me too.
Can any of you relate to this kind of week? Have any of experienced this kind of week before? They really are terrible because you can’t get anything done and you’re always rushing to try and catch up. What I’ve found is that my rushing also makes me mess up more and forces me to be even more behind as I try to fix the mistakes caused by my rushing. In my hurry, I find that I miss out on a lot of the special moments which happen in life. In fact, being behind stresses me out so much that I rush, and then get angry at everything else for not trying to rush alongside me. I get mad at the dog for not going to the bathroom fast enough. I get angry at the cars around me for not driving 15 mph above the speed limit. I get made at the people for talking too long when I have stuff to do. In short, rushing and moving quickly makes me make mistakes and be short with others. In all honestly, it takes a lot of the joy of life out of living.
Clearly rushing isn’t a great thing, but how does one live life without doing it? How do we actually slow down? This seems especially hard when the work we do is so important to us. In our scripture for today, Jesus meets us right at that junction of important work to do and slowing down. He starts by sending out His disciples to do important work.
Mark says, “Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. 8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.
Firstly, what a great call back to simplicity. Jesus tells His disciples to only take what they need to do the work they were tasked to do. (Some might even say that He instructs them to take less.) Secondly, Jesus gives the disciples clear instructions not to rush this work. He says, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” In other words, don’t rush to find some place to live or to be constantly looking to find the best place to live when you’re doing ministry in a town. Instead, take your time. Find a good place to stay, one that you can live with for your whole stay. And if you can’t find a place, don’t freak out or rush around desperately trying to find a place to stay. Instead, brush it off and move on.
This no-rush approach to ministry is what the disciples took on and they did a lot of work. Mark says that they healed the sick, drove out demons, and taught the teachings of Christ. At the end of it all, when they came back to report, they were so excited to share with Him everything they had done and all that had happened. But amongst this, Jesus is still being Jesus and people are coming from all around to be healed and to hear Him speak – in the craziness of it all, they hadn’t even been able to eat!
This is how Mark describes it, “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place.”
Did you catch what Jesus does here? There is craziness and rush that has caused them to miss a part of the good life – eating together and sharing a meal (an important aspect of Godly living throughout the Bible!). So, Jesus brings His disciples away from the rush and busyness of life to a solitary place. Notice that He doesn’t take them to a theater, or to an arena. Jesus isn’t trying to relax through entertainment; Jesus is bringing the disciples to a place of peace. This doesn’t mean that the work they were doing wasn’t important. It doesn’t mean that the people they were serving didn’t matter. What it means is that they mattered too much – that they were too important to be rushed.
Jesus clearly shows that His message and the Good News He came to bring is urgent stuff. But as Adele Calhoun says, “Growth takes time. Hurrying people along their discipleship journeys can set them up to pretend they are further along than they are. Jesus gave His disciples time and space to grow. He was patient with the process. Dallas Willard suggests that though Jesus saw His work in the lives of others as urgent, He pursued it patiently. Urgent and patient may not seem like words that go together. But in the Christian journey a sense for both is absolutely necessary.” In other words, there are things in life that are too important to be rushed. Things like discipleship, caring for others, serving as Christ calls us to, loving our families, and experiencing the Holy Spirit in our lives. When we rush, we close our focus in so tightly on what we are trying to accomplish that we leave no room for the special, important moments of life. We miss God’s movements and life loses its joy.
So, our challenge for this week is to slow down – to take on the long line in the grocery store, to be okay with not accomplishing everything you wanted to get done, to welcome the interruptions in life, and to seek God in the everyday happenings. Because it is in these things – especially in the workings of God – that we find joy, peace, growth, and patience. And for that, thanks be to God. Amen.