SABBATH TANGO: A MODEL FOR MINISTRY & LIFE

(Preached on Sunday, June 22, 2008)

And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. ... As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.                                                                                          -Mark 6: 32, 34

 

We=re all caught up in the busy-ness of our lives, the business of living.  Even when it really is business, it often is done at such a frantic pace that it is busy-ness.  At the same time, we dream of days that are leisurely.  Working people love to think of all the time that we would have if we quit working.  Yet, most retired folks I know talk about how busy they are now, how they wish they  had more free time, and wonder how they were ever able to fit a job into the schedule.  Amazing, isn=t it?  We all get caught up in a pace of life that leaves us breathless and tired much of the time.  

 

We weren=t created for this lifestyle.  Even God understood the importance of time-off, for God=s own self.  The creation story tells us that God worked for six days creating the world and then God created the Sabbath, a day for rest, for no work, and for enjoying and contemplating the creation.  And Jesus understood the important balance needed in life between compassionate activity and restful solitude.  Jesus welcomes his disciples back from their first solo flight in ministry, hearing wondrous reports of all they accomplished.  His response is to direct them now to take some time off, to come away with him to a deserted place for some rest.  Mark says Jesus proposed this trip because Amany were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.@  Of course, it doesn=t work out because the crowds recognize where they are headed and beat them to the spot, so that when they get out of the boat they are again surrounded by a crowd.  Jesus does not react angrily, but compassionately.  He demonstrates that ministry is never about us, but is for the benefit of others.

 

Restful solitude and compassionate activity are the two poles of ministry.  Eighteen years ago, when I was researching the role of the pastor throughout the history of the church for my doctoral thesis, I discovered this was clearly understood for the first 1700 years of the church=s life.  Augustine in the fifth century wrote about his role as bishop and pastor: A...I feed you with what I feed on myself; I am a servant, not the head of the family; what I set before you comes from the same source as I live from myself; from our Lord=s Storeroom,... The better the preacher has prepared himself by a holy life and by meditation on the scripture, the more solid and more delicious will be the bread he can proffer to the faithful.@  John Calvin and Martin Luther, the reformers of the 1500's, stressed the nurturing role of the pastor and the need for solitude, study and prayer to fulfill that role.

 

This balance has always been difficult to maintain, as demonstrated even by our scripture passage where Jesus was not able to find that time away for his followers because the need was so great.  As one reads the writings through history of the leaders of the church, there are constant admonitions to pastors on the importance of this balance.  But after the 1700's I believe clergy clearly lost that balance.  There was the rise of scientific knowledge, a continuing institutionalizing of the church and the subsequent growing demands for the care and maintenance of church buildings and church programs, as well as the rise of professionalism in general within society.  The result was an ordained ministry that developed a professional model.  As it did so, it became more focused on doing, on skills and tasks, and on measuring their achievements and worth by the objective measures of science and business.  In the process the importance of solitude, meditation, contemplation, and personal Sabbath fell by the wayside.

 

We wandered away from and did not regularly return to the very wellspring for our activity as pastors.  Without that time alone with God, nurturing our own souls, learning the important matters of the spirit and life, we struggled and many of us became like blind guides leading the blind.  The very charge Jesus leveled against the Pharisees and Sadducees and Priests, the professional religious leaders of his day.  We cannot respond to this calling on our own strength.  It is only by regularly reconnecting with the source of all life, the source of my life, the source of all strength and wisdom, the God who called my to this role, that I can be your pastor.

 

When I did my research for my doctorate and studied the role of the pastor I was able to reassess my priorities in life and ministry and redefine my identity as a pastor.  I came to understand that the important tasks for me, as pastor and spiritual leader are:

1. Take time to nurture my own spiritual growth.

2. Take time to study the scripture.

3. Pray daily, constantly, for the people in my care.

4. Be constantly among the people to share in their lives

and help them build their connections to God.

5. Develop leaders to care for the administration and

program of the church.

 

In the 18 years since writing that essay, ministry and life have worn away the clarity I developed.  That is one important reason I am taking this sabbatical, to regain that clarity about who I am and what I am called to be doing as a person of faith, as a pastor, as a spiritual leader.  I know we have focused a lot on my journey to learn Spanish, and that is an important element in this time away.  But the most important element is to follow the invitation of Jesus: ACome 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 stress other commands of Jesus to love the poor, to feed the hungry, to bind up one another=s wounds, and to bear one another=s burdens.  Why not equally stress this command?  Jesus clearly calls us to fully engage with the problems of our world.  But Jesus also calls us to find a balance between engagement and disengagement, between restful solitude and compassionate activity.  We need to be open to times to go away by ourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.

 

This principle does not apply only to my life and work as pastor.  It applies to you and your lives as well.  Martin Luther once pointed out that the Christian life is a vocation, not a profession.  There are no  Aprofessional Christians.@  In the economy of God, there are only Christians, and Christians are called to ministry.  By virtue of our union with Christ in baptism we all share in this calling.  We all partake of his ministry, that ministry of service, of compassionate activity. 

 

But in our individual lives as Christians we too can go overboard in trying to provide compassionate caring for people, especially with the mass of needs today.  We run the risk of falling into the trap of believing that the salvation of the world is up to us, it=s up to us to set the world right or it won=t get done.  We need the reminder of Jesus to balance that compassionate activity with time away in a deserted place. 

 

To those of us accustomed to a life of modern diversion -- TV, cell phone, Palm Pilot, laptop at the ready -- this essential solitude and quiet will seem hard.  It may even seem boring.  But there is an old saying, beloved by ascetics, that it is because the trees are still that the birds come to them.  We give ourselves a chance to hear God when we unplug ourselves C when we take time to wait, to watch, to not talk, to truly listen, to slow down, to retreat, to observe Sabbath.  The space we create by doing so isn=t a lonely, empty place.  It is the place where God is waiting for us.