Mark 1:29-39 McHenry UMC
You may or may know this,
But I worked at a couple of church camps
During the summer of my young adulthood.
Those were good summers.
I have many great memories of them.
The days are always delightfully busy
At church camp.
Kids seemed to be everywhere.
Going somewhere.
Playing some game.
Singing some silly song…
Over and over and over!
But no matter how much they enjoyed everything else
There was one part of the day
That the kids universally hated.
It was that time after lunch
When they headed back to their tents or cabins
With their counselors
For a quiet time.
One camp called it “H-hour”—
“Horizontal Hour.”
Everyone was supposed to be on their bunks
Quiet and still.
There was always a lot of negotiating
Between kids and counselors
As to what they could do
And still be considered being
“quiet and still.”
You know,
I couldn’t have cared less
Whether or not my campers
Liked H-hour or not!
Because, to be honest,
It wasn’t in the schedule for their benefit.
They weren’t the ones who needed it!
It was all for the counselors!
Being responsible for 10-12 kids
24/7
Can take it out of you
In a hurry!
A lot of the time—
Especially with the younger campers—
It feels a lot like herding cats!
And you often feel like there’s not enough of you to go around.
So you need a break…
But to be honest again,
That’s pretty hard to do in a cabin full of kids.
You really NEED to be alone.
And that is something that Jesus understood.
You see,
Jesus had had a long Sabbath day.
It started,
As we heard last Sunday,
In the synagogue where he spent the morning
Teaching in ways that amazed everyone.
They he topped of his morning
By casting out a noisy demon.
After they left the synagogue,
They went to Peter and Andrew’s house
Where Peter’s mother-in-law was sick.
They asked Jesus to help her,
Which he did.
Somehow word of this healing got out
And along with the story of the exorcism
Earlier in the day,
It drew a large crowd to the house.
“The whole town,” Mark tells us.
And they brought with them
All their sick and demon possessed,
Hoping Jesus would help them.
Which he did…
Healing and liberating them
As the sun dropped below the horizon.
I don’t know how long this took,
But I can imagine it taking up
The evening and into the night.
I can see him working well into the night,
But that may just be my imagination.
What I can safely say
Is that by the end of the day
Jesus was tired, drained, worn out.
His teaching and healing
Had taken it out of him
And not just physically,
But emotionally and spiritually as well.
I know this because of what he did the next morning.
While it was still dark out
He got up and found a deserted place
Where he could be by himself.
Where he could be alone.
Think about that for a minute.
Jesus’ 1st day of public ministry
Had taken such a toll on him
That he had to get up early
And go off by himself to recoup.
And this was not the only time he did this.
After perhaps his greatest single miracle—
Volume-wise—
He did the same thing.
After he finished feeding the At-Least-5000
He said goodbye to his disciples
And lit out for the mountains.
How many of us think we can function
Like Jesus didn’t?
Why do we think that we can just go and go and go
And still be of any use at all
To the kingdom?
Just snag a little Jesus on the fly
And we’re good.
Maybe we should install a drive-through window
So people can pull up,
Get a cup of coffee
And a quick prayer.
We could call it “Java and Jesus”
The truth is
We all need time to stop.
We need some time alone.
By ourselves.
With no one else.
Just us…and God.
But these days it takes some work
To be alone.
We are less and less alone all the time.
When are we alone?
When do we allow ourselves to stop?
When do we give ourselves some down-time?
Not when we are at work.
Not when we are on-line.
Not when we are on the phone.
Not when we are watching TV.
Not when we are listening to the news.
Friends,
Stopping for a while is vital to our health.
Not just to our physical health,
Although it helps.
Keeps us from breaking down.
Not just to our emotional health,
Although it helps.
It keeps us from going nuts
Quite so quickly.
It is vital for our spiritual health…
Which is my primary concern.
If we keep going and going,
And pushing ourselves,
Our souls WILL suffer.
As a friend says,
“We have to come a-part,
Before we come apart.”
If we don’t stop long enough
To let the noise in our hearts
And our heads quiet down,
We will not be able to hear
The whispers of God.
We must stop!
Jesus had to!
We must stop!
The world will get along fine
Without us for a little while.
We must stop!
So, this week stop.
Even if only for a few minutes.
Look at a sunset…
Or a sunrise if you are one of those odd people
Who like to get up that early.
Watch a skein of geese fly over your head.
Or take a couple of minutes
And do absolutely nothing.
Just be.
And listen.
Listen for God.
And I think that if you get still enough,
You will hear something like,
“I love you. You are mine.”
“I love you. I am here.”
And that’s really all any of us need to hear
From our God.
But we may miss it if we don’t slow down and stop once in a while.