Sabbatical Reflections
September 9, 2012
BMC- Mark 1:32-42
Introduction:
Well, it’s been a little while
hasn’t it? This morning, I would like to
take the opportunity to share a bit about my recent family renewal sabbatical
and how I experienced God moving during that time. I don’t plan to share a lot about the “what
we did,” because I have already recorded the events of the sabbatical on my
blog. Many of you have already read
about the things that we did. And those
of you who haven’t read it yet and would like to know more about our travels
over the summer can still read it by using the link on the church website.
Before I offer those reflections,
however, I do want to take a moment to offer my thanks not only for the
opportunity to have this sabbatical but also to all of you who stepped up and
took on some additional responsibility to cover for my absence. Obviously, I am thankful to Pastor Rick, and
Erin and James for the ways that they adapted their roles. But I know that many of you also took on
additional responsibility to fill in and I am very thankful to you as well. It was a comfort to know that things were in
good hands while I was away.
This morning, you have this chance
to hear from me about how God was moving in my midst during that time. But I would also invite you to consider the
ways that God was moving in your midst as well during that time. What did you experience God doing over the
summer? How did you experience God using
you? Things didn’t just stop over the
summer and I would love to hear from you personally during the sharing time or
at another time the ways that you experienced God moving.
Mark 1:32-42
In our passage for this morning
from Mark, we hear what I believe to be an example of a fairly common pattern
in Jesus’ ministry. The people come to
Jesus for healing and deliverance. In
this case in the evening after sunset, the whole town comes to the door. And we read that Jesus healed them, but
notice what happened next.
Very early in the morning, before
the sun even came up, Jesus went off by himself to pray. Now we don’t know how long he was able to remain
alone in this time of prayer, but at some point Simon and some others came
looking for Jesus. When they found him,
they told him that the people were looking for him and I believe that Jesus’
response here is interesting.
Jesus says to them let us go to
another place, to nearby villages, to preach because that is why I have
come. So they traveled throughout
Galilee preaching in the synagogues and casting out demons. And then we read that Jesus healed a man who
had leprosy.
So what do we see happening
here? Well at the surface level we see
the obvious, that Jesus had the ability to heal the sick and to cast out
demons. We also see that Jesus
prayed. Both of these are important, but
it seems to me that beneath these surface realities of what Jesus did, we also
see a model for how we should be living our lives and how we should be acting
out our faith.
First off, Jesus’ ministry wasn’t
just about doing. Jesus did a lot of
things in his three years of ministry.
He healed many people. He told a
lot of parables and He preached a lot of sermons. He challenged the religious authorities and
ultimately He died on the cross and rose from the dead. All of these things are very important, but
Jesus didn’t spend all of his time “doing.”
He also spent time “being.”
We live in a culture that is very
results oriented. We participate in a
faith tradition that places a lot of value on doing things that flow out of our
faith and that help others. And doing
these things is very good. We need to
put our faith into action and Jesus modeled helping those in need, but that is
not all that he modeled. He also modeled
a life of balancing our “doing” with our “being,” of doing what God calls us to
do but also of being in God’s presence. How
well do we live out that balance?
Second, we see within this example
of Jesus’ ministry a pattern that happens throughout the Gospels. Jesus ministers to the needs of the
people. He heals them and delivers them
from demons, but even Jesus did not do this nonstop. There were surely more people that could have
been healed in that place, but Jesus retreats to a solitary place to pray. He takes Sabbath for rest and renewal, but he
also doesn’t stop there.
After Jesus has spent his time in
prayer and rest, he re-enters into ministry.
Times of rest and renewal are important, even Jesus took them; but they
are not an end in themselves. They are
for the purpose of preparing for additional ministry. Jesus often retreats after times of ministry;
but then he also reengages into ministry out of his times of retreat, often
performing tremendous miracles. This is
a pattern that Jesus lived and that he modeled for us. Do we live out this pattern? Do we take times for rest and after our
period of rest, do we reengage in ministry?
Third, I think that we see within
this story a deeper implication for what purpose this time of prayer served for
Jesus. Certainly it was a time of rest
and renewal, but more than that it was also a refocusing of his call, of his
vision. Jesus had spent a lot of time
healing and casting out demons. He
retreated for prayer and when the disciples found him, they told him that the
people were looking for him.
At this point, Jesus could have
gotten up and returned to those people and performed more miracles. That is what we would probably expect him to
do, right? But instead Jesus says, “let
us go elsewhere… so that I may preach there also. That is why I have
come.” That is why I have come.
Here is a statement of purpose, of
vision. That is why I have come. Now certainly, Jesus’ healings were a part of
his ministry. And even after he says
this, he still heals the man from leprosy; but notice the refocusing here. “So
that I may preach there also.”
I would imagine that with the
crowds clamoring for healings and with the praise that he received for
performing them, it would have been very natural and tempting for Jesus to have
just focused in on healings to the exclusion of the preaching portion of his
ministry. After all, while there were
those who saw wisdom in his words, there were also those who just didn’t get it
and there were those who were deeply offended when they did get it.
It might have been tempting to let
the preaching portion of his ministry drop by the way side and just focus in on
doing the awe inspiring miracle stuff.
Yet out of this time in prayer, we see Jesus refocusing. When the disciples call him to go back to the
clamoring crowds and continue the healings, Jesus chooses to go elsewhere that
he may preach there also. That is why he
came.
Lesson 1: My Purpose in Life
With that
background in mind, I would like to share some of the reflections and
observations that I made over the summer.
First, I came to realize in a much deeper way that my life is about
investing in people. Now to all of you,
this may not seem all that profound of an observation. And even to me, this is not entirely new; but
it became much more clear to me in a new way over the summer.
I’m sure
that given the fact that I am a pastor, declaring that my life is about
investing in people seems a bit obvious and yet it’s not always that
simple. You see, ministry is one of
those callings in which you typically don’t specialize, rather you
generalize. What does that mean?
Well for
instance in most professions or disciplines, when one goes on for additional
education to get their masters or their doctorate, the focus of their study
tends to narrow down. They tend to have
a more particular area of study and then to go much deeper into that to become
the fore most expert on that particular area.
Yet in ministry, the standard program for a pastor is to get a Masters
in Divinity.
Now I’m not
sure about the implication that we are mastering divinity by taking this course
of study, but that’s for another time.
This is a three year program rather than the two years that many masters
programs are. And it is a course of
study that touches on all of the various aspects of ministry briefly but rarely
goes into any depth with any of them.
Why? Well my guess is because that is the nature
of the role. Ministry isn’t a
specialized profession. Our call
includes such a variety of tasks from teaching and preaching to visiting and
administration. It includes
understanding history, culture, language, theology, and philosophy. It includes finances, counseling, being a
good listener, being a good speaker, conflict resolution, and vision casting.
So within
my call to ministry, receiving clarity that my life is about investing in
people is rather significant. Because
within the various parts of what it means to be a pastor, it is easy for me to
get too wrapped up into one part or another.
For me because of who I am and what my giftings are, it is very natural
for me to pour most of my time and energy into administration, coordinating
this or that and making sure that things are getting done and running
smoothly. And this is an important part
of ministry. I need to do this; but it
is also not the whole of my ministry and when it gets out of balance, it can
limit my investing in people.
Out of his
time of rest and prayer, Jesus gained clarity about his ministry, not that he
stopped healing, but that he continued preaching. I believe that I too received clarity of my
call. Now the challenge becomes
maintaining that focus in the midst of ministry and being intentional about
living it out. How are you doing at
maintaining your focus?
Lesson 2: My Ministry Flows Out of My Life in Christ
The second
observation that I want to share is that my ministry flows out of my life with
Christ. Once again, this may seem like a
no brainer to most of you, but within the daily grind of ministry, it is easy
to loose sight of this fact. It is easy
within the clamor of the crowds or the endless to do lists to become focused on
getting things done. And things do still
need to get done, but in order for things to be done, in order for us to
minister with the power of the Holy Spirit; we must also take time to care for
ourselves. We must take time to sit at
the feet of Christ as Mary did rather than getting caught up in all that there
is to do as Martha did.
Last year,
Steve and I participated in the Values Based Leadership program. One of the images that they use comes from
the mandatory tutorial that you receive every time that you fly on an airplane. You know the drill, right? The stewardess stands at the front of the
aisle and demonstrates how to fasten and unfasten your seatbelt. She points to the various exits. She tells you that your seat cushion may be
used as a flotation device. And she
tells you that in the event of loss of cabin pressure, masks with oxygen will
drop from the ceiling.
And she
always tells you that you should help the person beside you to put on their
mask first, right? Wrong. They always tell you to put on your mask
first before helping your neighbor. That
seems pretty selfish, right? Well
actually it is not selfish it is practical, because if you don’t get your mask
on, you may pass out and then you are not going to be any help to your neighbor
or yourself. First you need to put on
your mask so that you are then able to help your neighbor.
Our
spiritual lives are similar. It is not
selfish for us to take times of rest and renewal. It is essential to the success of our ministries
and living out the call that God has placed on our lives. If we are not following Jesus’ model of
taking time for rest and prayer and renewal, we will not be able to minister to
the needs of others. We will not have
the spiritual fortitude to draw on as we minister to those we encounter.
Likewise,
within my ministry I have to attend to my relationship with Christ because it
is out of that relationship that my ministry flows. When I allow myself to become too wrapped up
in the doing of ministry and neglect the being in Christ, my ability to
minister is compromised. How are you
doing at taking the times to be with Christ and growing in your own personal
relationship?
Lesson 3: Healing Doesn’t Always Mean Being 100%
My third
observation is that healing does not always mean being back to 100%. In our culture and in our humanness, we tend
to fixate on “real” healing being a full recovery as if nothing had ever
happened. Yet the reality is that in our
lives we experience injuries and while we do receive healing, we often still
carry with us the scars. And many times
healing is not so much a return to the way things were as it is “owning” a new
normal.
I have been
experiencing this in a physical way over the summer. You may remember that in December of 2010, I
was hospitalized due to a blood clot in my left leg. And this wasn’t just your run of the mill
blood clot. They did a blood test in
which 500 would have suggested that I probably had a blood clot and my reading
came back as 5,000. It turned out that
it was a clot that extended the full length of my leg.
It was a pretty serious
situation. In fact while the technician
was doing an ultra sound of my leg to determine the extent of the clot, I
coughed. After which he said, “Don’t do
that again.” Now, I thought he said that
because it might be affecting his scan.
That was until he said, “In fact don’t do that for a couple of
days.” My coughing could have released a
part of the clot and killed me.
As a result, I was hospitalized and
put on blood thinners. I was still on medication
a year and a half later this past spring when I had a follow-up ultra sound
that showed that there was still a portion of the clot there. My primary care physician sent me to a
specialist in Bellefontaine who told me that what remains is scar tissue that
will never go away. She did blood tests
to be sure that I do not have a hereditary cause to have developed a clot at
33.
Those tests came back negative and
so in July I was faced with a choice. Do
I remain on the blood thinners knowing the risk that I will develop
complications eventually from some other injury. Or do I go off of the blood thinners knowing
that my chances of developing another clot are small as long as I exercise
regularly and wear a ted hose.
What’s more is that in the process
of trying to make a decision, my doctor suggested that the clot probably did
not originate from the November 2010 flight that I took. Rather that it probably originated from the
trauma to my foot back in February of 2010.
Over the Presidents Day holiday, we
got away as a family to do an overnight in a hotel and go swimming in their
pool. Monday morning we were down at the
pool and I was standing outside of the pool on the tiles holding Josiah, who
would have been 2 at the time.
Apparently at one time, there had been drainage grates along that part
of the floor and when they took them out, they simply placed tiles over them
without adding any support underneath.
Unfortunately, my left foot was on
one of those unsupported tiles and when I shifted my weight onto my left foot,
it went through the tile and got cut up pretty badly. I needed stitches and my recovery time
included staying off of my left foot for a while. Of course, we’ll never know for sure; but the
doctor seemed to think that I probably developed a clot at that time and that
the airline flight pushed things over the edge 9 months later.
However it is that things came to
be as they are, I like many of you have experienced a physical injury that for
all intensive purposes is “healed” and yet scaring remains. And the healing is not a full return to the
way things were. It is a recovery that
results in taking on a new normal. I did
go off of the blood thinners and have been working out most weekdays to
maintain good blood flow. I have also
begun wearing a ted hose when I will be sitting around for extended periods of
time.
It seems to me that we experience
similar realities within our spiritual and emotional health as well. Though they are typically less tangible, we
experience spiritual and emotional injuries of one kind or another. And we desire to receive “complete” healing,
to return things back to the way that they were.
When the healing that we receive
creates a new normal instead, we have a choice to make. We can be discouraged and complain, or we can
choose to embrace the new normal and move ahead in the life and the strength
that the Lord has provided us.
How are you doing with the physical, spiritual
or emotional wounds that you have received?
Are you living into the healing that you have received, even if it means
a new normal? Or are you trapped or
limited by it in some way?
Conclusion
In our Mark
passage for today, we see that Christ healed the people, that he went away to
pray and rest, and then he returned to ministry. Through that He models for us a balance of
“doing” and “being.” He models for us a
rhythm of rest but then also of reengaging in ministry. And he models for us gaining clarity of purpose
through our times of prayer and rest in the Lord.
Over the
summer in my times of prayer and rest, I found clarity that my life is about
investing in people. I was reminded that
my ministry flows not from what I do, but from continuing to develop my
relationship with Christ and being in his presence. And I saw that healing is not necessarily a
return to what was, but rather an ownership of a new normal. May we all live more fully into these
realities through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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