“Deserted Places” Colchester Federated Church, July 21, 2024, Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (Mark 6:30-34, 53-56)

We’ve spent the first half of the summer exploring Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.  The rest of the summer will be spent exploring various Gospel stories.  Today’s Gospel text begins with a seemingly simple statement from Mark: “the apostles returned to Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught.”[1]  Though this seemingly simple statement leads to some immediate questions.  Returned from where?  And what exactly had the apostles done and taught?  For the answers to these questions, we have to go back a bit in Chapter 6. 

Jesus had been traveling throughout the surrounding villages of Nazareth teaching.  During his travels, Jesus called the twelve disciples to come and follow him.  Eventually, Jesus sent them out in pairs and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.  He told them to take nothing for their journey except a walking stick.  Jesus even got specific about what not to take—no bread, no bags, and no money in their belts.  The disciples could wear sandals, but not put on two shirts.  Jesus had instructed, “Whatever house you enter, remain there until you leave that place.  If a place doesn’t welcome you or listen to you, as you leave, shake the dust off your feet as a witness against them.”[2]  The gesture of shaking the dust from one’s feet was meant to symbolize a broken relationship.  By even giving this instruction Jesus is making it clear to the disciples that their mission will not be totally successful.  It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Here’s the thing, not everyone is going to welcome you or listen to you, but that will be on them.  Just shake off the dust and move on.  Your job is still to go out there and share the good news, to help people in need, to plant the seeds—because none of us can know for sure when a seed planted may just grow.”

This appears to be just what the disciples did.  They went out and proclaimed that people could change their hearts and lives.  The disciples cast out demons and anointed many who were sick with olive oil, healing them.  This journey of being sent out in pairs was about radical trust in God and their mission from Jesus, among other lessons.  Because remember the disciples were not supposed to take bread, bags, money, or even to bring an extra shirt for the trip!  We hear all about this near the beginning of Chapter 6.

By the time we get to today’s story near the end of Chapter 6, the disciples are back from their journeys.  They come back and tell Jesus everything they had done and taught.  Mark has a habit of getting on with the next thing.  The Gospel according to Mark is known for being action-packed and sometimes a little sparse on details that Matthew and Luke would fill in later.  As a result, we get no additional information.  So, how did it go?  Who did the disciples meet along the way?  Did everyone welcome them or did they have to shake off the dust and move on from some places?  We don’t know!  There are details about their travels that we just don’t know, and sometimes this is just plain frustrating.

Though what we do know is that the disciples have returned from their journeys.  And because many people were coming and going (since Jesus was present and there apparently wasn’t even time for them to eat), Jesus tells the disciples to take care of themselves.  He had given them all sorts of instructions for their journey and now Jesus says, “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.”[3]  Mark tells us that Jesus and these close friends depart in a boat by themselves for a deserted place.

Let’s pause here for a moment.  Because after these travels that required faith and trust, embarking on a journey that entailed teaching and healing and possible rejection—Jesus told those closest to him to rest for a while.  This is so important.  Jesus goes further by going with his followers into a boat to go off by themselves to a deserted place away from the crowds to rest.  They rested before Jesus himself gets back to the work of teaching and preaching and healing. 

There is a pattern here that we modern people would do well to remember.  Though let’s be clear, Jesus didn’t instruct the disciples to rest just so they could get back to work to heal those in need.  The disciples were worthy of rest because they were beloved children of God—full stop.  We don’t rest just so we can be more productive.  We rest because God told us to rest (and God rested), that’s the whole point of Sabbath.  It reminds me of the joke that a husband once said to his wife, “Reverend Jones told me that he never takes a day off because the devil never takes a day off.”  And his wife says, “Well, it seems to me that Reverend Jones needs to pick a better role model!” 

God rested.  So why should we not rest?  Sabbath is a day of peace and harmony—peace between people, peace within ourselves, and peace with all things.  We are even invited to rest on the Sabbath as if all our work is done.  Of course all our work is not done, and that has to be okay if we are going to embrace Sabbath rest.  This is the invitation that Jesus was extending to his weary followers.  Rest from your labor.  Rest from the very thought of labor.  “Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.”[4]  Come to me, and I will give you rest.

Our Gospel story and Jesus’ instructions about rest reminds me of the work of Tricia Hersey.  Tricia Hersey is an artist, poet, theologian, and community organizer and she wrote this fabulous book called Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto.  She also founded The Nap Ministry—an organization that “examines rest as a form of resistance by curating sacred spaces for the community to rest via Collective Napping Experiences, immersive workshops, performance art installations, and social media.”[5]  In her work, she challenges the idea of Grind Culture and our American obsession with work and the pervasive belief that our worth is tied up with what we can produce.  Her work is rooted in the Black Liberation movement as she challenges aspects of capitalism and white supremacy.  Hersey writes, “The ‘success’ grind culture props up [and] centers constant labor, material wealth, and overworking as a badge of honor.  Resting is about the beginning process of undoing trauma so that we can thrive and evolve back to our natural state: a state of ease and rest.  We are meant to survive, and ultimately thrive, because we are divine.”[6]

Our culture often views rest as a luxury.  Or at the very least rest as something to be earned.  If we’re honest, we sometimes feel important when we list all the things we are doing because we are just so busy.  What would people do without our labor, everything would fall apart!  Hersey writes, ‘You are worthy of rest.  We don’t have to earn rest.  Rest is not a luxury, a privilege, or a bonus we must wait for once we are burned out . . . Rest is not a privilege because our bodies are still our own, no matter what the current systems teach us.”[7]  Sometimes we treat our bodies as if they are machines.  We are just on the go, on the move.  Some of these Gospel verses have been read as I’ve been on retreats with fellow clergy.  And would it surprise you to know that as you look around the room after hearing somebody read about how Jesus told people to come by themselves to a secluded place to rest people begin to cry?  Because we all sometimes buy into these ideas that rest is a luxury, rest is a privilege, rest is a bonus we must wait for once we are already in a state of utter exhaustion and burn-out. 

Jesus is showing us a different way.  The work of teaching and healing, helping people to change their hearts and lives would be there to come back to—no question about that.  The disciples had just come from a long journey, a journey where people did probably reject them and they had to shake the dust off their feet and move on.  Still, the disciples were worthy of rest not just because of all they had done and taught, but because God loved them.  “The apostles returned to Jesus and told him everything they had done and taught.  Many people were coming and going, so there was no time to eat.  He said to the apostles, ‘Come by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while.’”[8]  We are also worthy of rest.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] Mark 6:30, CEB.
[2] Mark 6:10-11.
[3] Mark 6:31.
[4] Mark 6:31.
[5] Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, author description on book jacket.
[6] Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance, pg. 24.
[7] Hersey, Rest Is Resistance, pg. 28.
[8] Mark 6:30-31.

Photo by Jordan McGee on Unsplash