Where You Goin in Such a Hurry? Luke 10:38-42 November 25, 2012 Travis Collins

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1 Where You Goin in Such a Hurry? Luke 10:38-42 November 25, 2012 Travis Collins One day Henny Penny was scratching in the farmyard looking for something good to eat when, suddenly, something hit her on the head. "My goodness me!" she said. "The sky must be falling down. I must go and tell the king." She had not gone far when she met her friend Cocky Locky. "Where are you going in such a hurry?" he called out. Of course Henny Penny was going to tell the king that the sky was falling. We could learn a lot from the story of Henny Penny. So many of us run around as if the sky is falling, acting as if saving the world depends entirely on us. Sounds a little silly, doesn t it? We re to the last topic of our study, The Good & Beautiful God. We ve come now to the topic of slowing down enough to enjoy his goodness and beauty. Oh, there might be a few lazy folks among us who need to be encouraged to work. Most of us, though, probably need to be encouraged to rest. To slow down. To unclutter our schedules. Many of us are fried, frayed and frazzled Out of gas, out of time, out of sorts Pooped out, tuckered out and petered out. Washed out, wiped out and worn out So hurried we are missing the best things of life. If the phone rings and you cringe you are too busy and too tired. If you are running just a little bit late to everything you go to you are too busy and too tired. If your child or grandchild wants some of your attention, and you don t have the time and energy you are too busy and too tired. If getting here today was stressful you are too busy and too tired. Of course there are inevitably hectic seasons of life and unavoidably demanding stretches of road. Like The husband, wife, father or mother who has gone back to school and is working, too. The accountant for whom tax season is a blur. 1

2 The student who is trying to get through finals. The team at church who is trying to finalize plans to vote on a campus! The one who has children who can t yet drive and aging parents who can no longer drive. The single parent whose kids are at an age when they demand a lot of attention. There are seasons of life when hurry is inevitable. But you can t live all of life like that. Slowing down is something I m still working on. And lately I ve been as busy as an Alabama farmer with two rattlesnakes and one hoe. But I m getting better about slowing down! Take golf, for example. I told you that I ve taken up the sport. I used to say, I don t want to play golf because it takes too long. I d have rather played a one hour game of tennis and gotten back to some kind of productive activity. Now I am sad when we come to hole 16 or 17, for golf seems not to take long enough. Not that a round of golf goes quickly for me. Golf takes me longer than it does most of you who play. John Mann brought me a bag of golf balls recently because he had heard, correctly, that I ve been spraying balls all over the place. In fact, I had a little mishap on the golf course recently. I took my three wood out of the bag lined up a shot and put the golf ball through the windshield (the plexiglass windshield) of my golf cart. The point of the story being that I m learning to slow down Back to the story of Martha and Mary. Jesus had dropped in with his friends. Martha got busy. Picking things up off the floor. Straightening the trinkets. Keeping one eye on the wood stove and another eye on the glasses of her guests, lest the roast burn or her guests run out of iced tea. 2

3 And then she looked over and saw Mary sitting there in the floor talking to Jesus. Don t you imagine that Martha signaled Mary? Rolled her eyes cleared her throat maybe gave Mary the look. But Mary refused to give in to the pressure to be busy. Martha got ticked off at Mary, and, quite candidly, was a little aggravated at Jesus. So Martha just blurted it out. Lord, are you going to just sit there and let Mary... well, just sit there? And you could have knocked Martha over with a feather duster when Jesus answered, Martha, Martha, Mary has chosen what is better. And this week I noticed a phrase in that story that I can t say I d given much thought to before. It s the last line in the story. Jesus, in his gentle reprimand of Martha, said, What Mary chose will not be taken away from her. Mary, you see, was present. Fully present. She didn t miss the moment. Martha would barely remember Jesus being there. The evening would be a blur for Martha. For she was busy. But Mary would remember it always. I can imagine Mary years later going through a hard time and then being comforted when the Holy Spirit reminding her of something Jesus said that night. I can imagine Mary sitting in the retirement home retelling stories she heard Jesus tell that night when he and his friends dropped in. I can imagine Mary lying on her death bed fearing the unknown, then remembering the look in Jesus eye and the touch of his hand that night and knowing that she could trust him even with what lay beyond her last breath. What Mary experienced that night would never be taken away from her because she wasn t in a hurry. Jesus understood how to live life not in a hurry. I want you to take a deep breath and find a comfortable position and listen to these words about Jesus. First from Mark 4: That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, Let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind Next from Mark 6: The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. Finally, from Luke 5: The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. OK. So what can we learn from Jesus about living an unhurried lifestyle? 3

4 1) Learn to leave the crowd behind, to go to quiet places for rest, and to withdraw from the frenzy. Jesus carved out rest breaks in the middle of his week, sometimes realizing that he was becoming used up. So follow Jesus example. Take a long walk. Take a power nap. Take the phone off the hook or turn it off. Take a week. Take a day. Take a break. 2) Learn to say no. I got an this week from one of our church leaders. One of our folks who is serving in multiple roles. A person about whom I ve worried, frankly, about burning out. The explained that while studying The Good and Beautiful God this person considered the lack of margins in his or her life. And has decided to cut back on a couple of the roles both in church and in community organizations. Not dropping out. Establishing balance. And while this person is really gifted and really valuable to us, I applaud that move. 3) Learn the value of so-called wasted time. Jesus spent time that those demanding his time would have considered wasted. I love Leonard Sweet s take on the empty, wasted space in Gothic cathedrals. We d never build a building like that today. Our buildings are more functional, more practical. But that s not wasted space, Sweet noted. That s God space. And so called wasted space in your life could be God space. A walk for the sake of walking. A nap for the sake of napping. A casual conversation about nothing in particular just for the sake of conversation. That s not wasted time. That might be one of the most spiritual things you do all week. 4) And here is a really specific suggestion: You re going to receive daily devotions during Advent. Stop and read them. In addition to your regular time of prayer and Bible Study, or as part of it, take time to read the Advent devotionals. You re about to get really busy. And tense. On Friday in Tallahassee, Florida, two people shot each other over a parking spot at Wal-Mart! In the middle of a busy season would you make a commitment to being still and knowing God is God for the few minutes it will take to read and meditate on the advent devotions? Being who God created us to be will inevitably require hard choices, maybe including the elimination of some things. Keri and I have been trying to get grass to grow in our back yard for a long time. We've been told that the folks who lived there before us tried to grow grass there, too. But when 4

5 we moved in the area was covered by trees, and as long as all those trees were back there, we'd never have grass. Those who know what they're talking about said the trees suck up the nutrients from the soil and keep the sun out so that the grass seeds just wouldn't "take." Then a few months ago Keri went out there one night with three little children whose parents were visiting us. She played with them behind our house but the ground was so dirty that she announced that night that our yard was not fit to play in and if we wanted our grandchildren to have a good place to play at our house we were going to have to do something about that backyard. The trees, she said, had to go! I said absolutely not. I like those trees. Grass or no grass, we keep the trees. So we had nineteen trees cut down in our back yard. We cut down the trees and we've planted seeds and blades of grass have emerged from that previously grassless place! It s thick and green and beautiful. (And it takes me fifteen minutes longer to mow the yard. Truth is, sometimes you have to decide whether you want trees or grass-you have to decide whether you want to experience the fruit of the Spirit love joy peace patience kindness faithfulness goodness gentleness and self-control. Think about it. There is not much peace in the heart of the one who is spinning too many plates. The frenzied person is not very patient with the cashier who is taking too much time or the guy in front of us driving too slow for us.. The one who is harried and hurried is not very kind or gentle even toward people we love the most. Some of us are going to have to cut down some trees. Some of us are too busy because we re trying to prove our worth. Some of us are too busy because it makes us feel important. And maybe some of us are too busy because we re trying to work our way into God s favor. Which brings us back to grace God s unconditional, undeserved, unlimited and unrelenting love. Grace means there is nothing good we can do to make God love us more, for He already loves us infinitely. Grace means we can t work our way into His favor. We don t have to. We were born into it. 5

6 Once upon a time, in a world not so unlike your own, lived a young lady and her father. She was in the spring of her life. He was in the fall of his. The young lady and her father took long walks together each morning. They would talk about life and their problems and their delights. He loved those walks. His daughter struggled with insecurity. Though he could not have been more delighted with her, she had an unfounded fear that she did not meet his expectations. Though he could not have loved her more, she had an irrational need to earn his favor. Christmas was approaching and she wanted to give him a special gift something that would say I love you like a store-bought present couldn t. So she decided to make him something a sweater. It was a big project that took a great deal of her time. So in the weeks leading up to Christmas she had to skip those walks. After all, she was busy. She was busy making a sweater. So he walked alone. And missed her. On Christmas morning she couldn t wait for her father to open his sweater. She was so proud of the fact that she had made it herself. He loved his gift, and was very gracious. He loved it and oooed and aaahed over it. That s why I couldn t walk with you, she explained. I was busy making your sweater! Later he took her aside. I really missed our walks, he said. Do you think next year you could just buy me something and walk with me? God s requirement His deep desire is not that we be busy. His desire for us is certainly not that we feel we have to work our way into His good graces. His deep desire is that things resemble the way things used to be back in Eden when He and His children simply enjoyed each other. You don t have to be busy to prove your worth. And you don t have to be busy to earn God s favor. So go and get some rest. 6