He said to them, "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. (
Mark 6:31)
I'm looking forward to hearing stories from Anne Griffiths Sabrina Peelman, and Kim Taber. They just returned from their
trip to Russian and I'm confident that they had a wonderful time.
I'm guessing that Anne has a particularly unique view of the trip given that she was responsible for feeding the group. I hear that they ate a great deal of fish. Fish and loaves of bread perhaps? I also guess that they didn't necessarily have a lot of leisure time but this picture of Kim and Sabrina suggests that they had some time for fun and frolicking. Cool!
This coming
Sunday's Gospel teaches that we all need Sabbath time. Trips like the one that Anne, Sabrina, and Kim went on remind us that we shouldn't strive to live out our Christian faith absent of joy. Some of our youth are away at camp this week. Others who will be going to camp on this coming Monday. Those are robust but meaningful places of respite too.
There are lots of time at camp and mission trips for making new and deeper relationships with friends and Jesus. Summer traditionally offers other "vacation" time - time to get away, renew relationships, dream, and restore our sense of being healthy and human.
I spend a great deal of time thinking, praying, and preaching about Christ's call to us to act as Jesus' helping and heart-felt hands and minds in the world. Ironically Jesus and his disciples' attempt to seclude themselves is sandwiched between the disciples' return from their mission work and prior to Jesus' feeding of the 5,000 hungry people. The amount of labor in God's vineyard can be overwhelming. The world's requirements to work, tend to our families' wants and needs, and somehow keep our heads above waters are often mentally, physically, and spiritually frustratingly hard.
We offer "timeouts" to children when they get angry, sad, or tired. Maybe God beckons us to take some more pleasurable timeouts too.
The Rev. Eric Shafer writes:
there is a two fold lesson for us in this Gospel story: Like the disciples, we too are empowered by Jesus to do ministry in our daily lives, reaching out with God's love to our families and friends and even strangers. However, the second lesson is that, like the disciples, we are not Jesus. Unlike Jesus, we do experience compassion fatigue. We need a break like those first disciples. And Jesus offers us a break by telling us, as he did his first disciples, that the work of God on earth is not dependent on us alone -- God continues to work with or without us. (
Compassion Fatigue, para. #3&4)
Here's hoping that you're enjoying some story-making time off and trips this summer. I can't wait to hear what joys God is offering you. I also look forward to continue sharing Jesus' story and Gospel with you at St. James this Sunday.
Blessings Along The Way, Jim+
