Sermon: Rest in Jesus (Saying No) 1 Text: Mark 1:29-39

Transcription

1 Pastor Chris Matthis Epiphany Lutheran Church, Castle Rock, Colorado Denver Southeast Circuit Pastors Winkel Thursday, February 12 th, 2015 Sermon: Rest in Jesus (Saying No) 1 Text: Mark 1:29-39 Focus: Jesus said no to some people so he could say yes to God s mission for him. Function: That they would find rest in prayer and strength to carry out Christ s call. Structure: Story-Framed Locus: I believe the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel (SC, 3 rd Article of Creed). Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Hear again the words about Jesus: And they found him and said to him, Everyone is looking for you. And he said to them, Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out (Mark 1:37-38, ESV). 2 What do you do when everyone is looking for you? What do you do when tasks are added to your to do list faster than you are able to check them off? You need to finish your taxes, pay the bills and balance your checkbook, shovel the snow and take your kids to the dentist. Then there are the groceries, the oil change for your car, and the airport run to pick up your spouse. At church, your voic and inbox are flooded with messages you need to respond to, and everyone thinks their question, their complaint, their demand must be your top priority. You need to write your sermons, prepare your Bible studies, visit the sick and homebound, and counsel those who are in distress. Add to the that the endless list of meetings: elders, council, various boards and special committees. Then there is the unexpressed expectation (or maybe it is expressed) that pastor needs to get his numbers up, and by numbers they usually mean nickels and noses people in the pews and dollars in the plate. And always hanging over your head is 1 This is a revision of a sermon originally preached for the congregation of Epiphany Lutheran Church on February 4 th and 5 th, 2012, for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany in lectionary series B. 2 All Scripture references, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version.

2 Matthis 2 the anxiety that no matter how hard you work, no matter how good a job you do, no matter how long you have faithfully served God s people, somebody will always complain that you re not doing enough. In our consumer driven culture, many pastors are viewed by their congregations as too much of this or too little of that. And their demands and expectations keep increasing exponentially. But you are a shepherd, and you love the sheep. You want to be there for people. You want to love and serve them the best you can. But you re emotionally drained, physically exhausted, spiritually running on empty, and there s just too little of you left to give. By the time your head hits the pillow, you re too tired to pray, and by the time Sunday morning rolls around, you think, Here we go again! This is the great temptation: to believe that somehow if we just work hard enough and long enough and smart enough, we ll make miracles happen, as if by brute force of will we can bring about the kingdom of God here and now. Paul became all things to all people (1 Cor. 9:22), and so we believe that we must cave in to the conflicting demands for our time and energy and attention. We must be all things to all men all the time, and we must please everybody at once until our whole life and ministry become a great balancing act while the world watches to see if we will fall off the wire and, oh, by the way, there is no net below! So you feel guilty about all the things you wanted to do and needed to do but didn t do. You just couldn t! But that doesn t quiet the nagging voice of the Accuser. In the Divine Service we confess that we have sinned by what we have done and by what we have left undone. The things left undone kill your conscience, which is why Bonhoeffer writes, The unresolved conflict between multiple obligations will always remain an open wound for the conscience. 3 3 Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 292.

3 Matthis 3 This agitated state can destroy you, destroy your family, and destroy your ministry. Henri Nouwen, the Roman Catholic theologian, wrote an excellent little devotional book about this Gospel lesson, titled Out of Solitude. He writes: More often than not we not only desire to do meaningful things, but we often make the results of our work the criteria of our self-esteem. And then we not only have successes, we become our successes. We slowly come to the erroneous conviction that life is one large scoreboard where someone is listing the points to measure our worth. And before we are fully aware of it, we have sold our soul to the many grade-givers. We are helpful because someone says thanks. We are likeable because someone likes us. And we are important because someone considers us indispensable. In short, we are worthwhile because we have successes. In many people s lives there is a diabolical chain in which their anxieties grow according to their successes. 4 You are what you accomplish. This is the great lie of our culture, and it affects even the Church. Everyone is looking for you. And all you want to do is run and hide. Where can you find some quiet time and peace of mind? The siren call of success is powerful and seductive but deadly. In our Gospel lesson everyone was looking for Jesus (1:37). Everybody wanted a piece of the action and a piece of him! They brought to him all who were sick (v. 32). The whole city was gathered together at his door (v. 33). Everyone needed Jesus. They showed with their worries and warts, diseases and demons and expected to be served. They pounded on the door, demanding all of Jesus time, his energy, his attention, his focus. They all needed help. Jesus did the best he could. He healed many of them (v. 34). Jesus healed many but not all. When the day was done, and he d had enough, Jesus closed the door and put out the sign that says, SORRY, WE RE CLOSED. And then utterly exhausted, pining for his pillow, he got up very early in the morning, while it was still dark, and went out to a desolate place a quiet place, a lonely place and there he prayed (v. 35). Jesus sought the Father s face in 4 Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1974),

4 Matthis 4 solitude, quieting his soul in the Father s grace. The day was done, and so was our Lord Jesus. Prayer gave him required rest. But the pressing crowds were not done with Jesus. There were still sick people to heal, demons to drive out, and consciences to be comforted. Where was Jesus? What was he doing? Didn t he know that he was needed and in demand? Simon Peter and the other disciples hunted him down 5 and said, Everyone is looking for you (v. 36). You re needed, Jesus! Hop to it! There s work to be done! And what did Jesus do? Essentially, he told them, No. No! He said, Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out (1:38). People needed Jesus hurting, helpless people. And his stunning response was No, I m done here. I did what I came to do, and now it s time to move on. Other people need to repent and hear the Good News. Other people need my touch. And so he moved on, leaving the people of Capernaum to wonder why he didn t give them everything they wanted. Why did Jesus say, No? Didn t he love the people? Didn t he care? Didn t he know he was supposed to be all things to all men all the time (cp. 1 Cor. 9:22)? Not even the Son of God in human flesh could keep up with people s unrealistic expectations. But Jesus had to say no to Capernaum so he could say yes to the other towns in Galilee. The people of Capernaum weren t the only ones requiring help or needing saved. The world is full of lost, lonely, and broken people. And you cannot be Johnny on the spot to answer people s every beck and call. Even if you were to let everyone into your office to meet with you and pray today, there will still be more people tomorrow. The people of Capernaum heard the Gospel, and some of them believed. So Jesus said, Goodbye. He bid farewell to the found so he could say yes to the lost. Let us go on to the 5 Greek: katadiōkō.

5 Matthis 5 next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out (Mark 1:38). The found are safe. The lost are not. They still need to repent and believe the Good News (Mark 1:15). And so Jesus goes in search of them. Jesus made a mission of saying no to some people so he could say yes to others. Even in Nazareth, his hometown, he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them (Mark 6:5). Jesus had to say no to the home team, so he could say yes to those who still needed to believe. After the feeding of the fivethousand, the people tried to seize Jesus and make him king by force. They wanted a corn king to take care of every concern and complaint. But Jesus said, No. He walked away and withdrew again to the mountain by himself (John 6:15). Even when everyone was looking for him, even when Jesus disappointed people with unmet hopes and expectations, he slipped away to a quiet place and prayed. He needed strength for God s mission. He needed rest for the journey ahead, the ultimate purpose of his preaching the way of the cross. It is in the lonely place, Nouwen writes, where Jesus enters into intimacy with the Father, that his ministry is born. 6 So Jesus journeyed on from one town to the next, preaching the Good News, doing what he came to do, until his road finally took him all the way to the cross. Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), to ransom and redeem lost sinners like you and me (Mark 10:45). And so when the chief priests and the Romans and the criminals mocked him, saying, Save yourself, and come down from the cross! (Mark 15:30), Jesus refused. Come down! they said. But Jesus remained. Save yourself, they jeered, but Jesus didn t give into their demands. He said, No! I didn t come to save myself. I came to save you instead. Jesus said no to them, so he could say yes to you. Jesus said no to himself, so 6 Nouwen, Out of Solitude, 14.

6 Matthis 6 he could say yes to his enemies. Jesus said no so he could say yes to every single lost person who was dying and perishing without the Good News. Jesus came to preach and teach and reach those people. He came for you and me. In order to say yes to our salvation, Jesus had to say no to a great many other things. Jesus is not a genie; he doesn t grant three wishes, and sometimes he says no. But his last, final, and best answer to us is always Yes! (2 Cor. 1:19-20). Yes, you are forgiven. Yes, you are loved. Yes, you are saved And, yes, I call you to go and tell others to repent and believe the Good News (Mark 1:15). For that is why I came, and that is why you are called. There are other towns and other homes and others still who do not know me. So go into all the world, and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16:15). But you cannot do it alone. How could you speak the Gospel to everyone in the whole world, with all the competing demands on your time and energy? Not even Billy Graham could do that, no matter how many crusades he preached to filled stadiums. No one could do that alone, not even Jesus, which is why he chose twelve apostles and you and me. As God s people, we don t work alone. We work as a team. And we help carry the message of Jesus love together. No, we cannot tell everyone. We cannot visit every sick person or pray for every need. But we can tell the people we know who have not yet heard or known the everlasting God (Isa. 40:28), the loving Lord Jesus. God does not call you to evangelize the great, nameless, faceless crowds of humanity. No, he calls us to tell the person in front of us right here, right now, the person whose face we can see, the person whose name we may or may not know, but the person whom, nevertheless, Jesus loves and misses the most.

7 Matthis 7 No, you cannot be all things to all people all the time. That will only run you down and wear out your witness. It will make you angry and bitter or compassion fatigued. There will always be another problem to solve. And the poor you will have with you always (Mark 14:7). And there will always be another lost soul that needs saving. And there will always be another neighbor needing your love and good works. It s okay to say, No (Matt. 5:37). Even Jesus says to let your Yes be Yes and your No be No. Don t take on more than you can handle with him. The work is never done, not until the Lord returns, but Jesus wants to give you rest now. He bids you: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matt. 11:28-29). When you rest in Jesus, you come to the happy discovery that we are not what we can conquer, but what is given to us. 7 We are what we are by grace, not by works, when God justifies us and declares us righteous when he gives us divine favor and approval, not because of what we have done or left undone, but simply and solely because of who God is and what he has done for us in Christ Jesus. Jesus is your rest, and he speaks a Word of comfort, forgiveness, hope, and life. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength (Isa. 40:29). Right now you need rest. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, The Sabbath rest is the visible sign that human beings live by the grace of God and not by works. 8 So take your vacation and guard your day off and don t feel guilty about it! Set aside time each day in the office or your lonely place to study, meditate, and pray. You need to quiet your soul with Jesus like a weaned child content to stay in its mother s arms (cf. Ps. 131:2). I often like to say, A pastor who does 7 Nouwen, Out of Solitude, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I Want to Live These Days with You, Kindle Edition.

8 Matthis 8 not take his rest/cannot give the church his best. And while I am not always the best taker of my own advice, I am more refreshed when I do. Right now you need to listen and be still. Where can you run and hide? In prayer to your heavenly Father. Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed (Mark 1:35). Maybe your quiet place is in your bedroom closet, in your office, somewhere in the mountains, or a bench in the city park. Wherever it is, go there and pray alone with Jesus. He is your hiding place and your rest (Psalm 32:7). In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.