Does God take a Vacation

Does God Take a Vacation September 6, 2015 Mark 7:24-37 Year B It’s Labor Day weekend. The last holiday of the summer, time to get back to the routine. Labor day is one of our most misunderstood holidays of the year. No one knows really why we celebrate it, we just take it off, But know nothing about it. I am talking about it, but still don’t know why it is a holiday. My point is that it is a vacation. We all know that we love our holidays. As humans, we love our vacation days. We actually need them in order to keep functioning. But let me ask you this question – does God ever take a vacation? Does God ever just get tired of all of the prayer request and just stop answering us. In our greatest time of need, especially on the weekends or on a holiday – does God ever respond and say I am out of the office right now, I will return your call during normal business hours. Our response to that would be of course God does not take vacations. God is available always to answer our calls. But I would say that perhaps you have not really read the gospel for today – Mark 7. The scripture clearly says that Jesus got tired of healing and helping people and he needed a retreat. He needed a vacation so bad, that he was headed south to Jerusalem – cause that was where all of the action was, on his journey, and he decided to head North, far away from the action, far away from jews, far away from anyone that might want anything from him. He is on vacation, and a woman comes up to him asking for healing. When she asks him to heal her daughter, he very politely tries to explain to her that he is on vacation and not in the healing business today – and yet she persist. He came up north to get away from jews, and this lady is not even a jew. But did Jesus just call this lady a dog? Most modern day versions of the bible try to clean the story up and say the Jesus endearingly called her a puppy. But a puppy is still a dog. As a matter of fact, as the story goes on, she acknowledged being a dog – but even the dogs are able to eat the crumbs from the children’s table. Jesus grants her wish, and calls her persistence to ask faith. And it is her faith that makes her whole? Does God ever get tired of our prayers, apparently sometimes he does. But what I find interesting about the story of Jesus, is that the gospel is full of stories of Jesus getting tired and needing a break. Jesus getting worn out from helping people and needing a break. I can attest to that, because Sunday after church is always the lowest time of the week. Being in this position and bringing the word, and leading worship drains all of my human energy. Most Sundays I spend the rest of the day staring at the tv, or letting the tv stare at me, until Monday morning comes and I am in charge of my spirit again. But what I have noticed is that in each of these stories, where Jesus is tired and ready to rest – that seems to be the time when someone needs him the most. We gloss right over the parts of the story that say that Jesus is tired and taking a retreat, because in each instance – it leads to a story of how he helped someone in their greatest hour of need. In each story he tells the person that he is tired, but he gives them what they need anyway. In this story not only does he heal the woman’s daughter, but a deaf man is bought to him and he heals that man also. He makes him hear, but he also makes sure that he speaks. Being able to hear, and being able to speak is not just important for his physical health, but also for his spiritual health. If you read Isaiah chapter 6 it tells us all about why it is so important to hear and to speak. In Isaiah chapter 6 God touches the lips of Isaiah so that he can speak the word of God. In verse 9 God says be ever hearing, but never understanding, be ever seeing, but never perceiving, make the heart of this people calloused, make their ears dull, and close their eyes, otherwise, they might see with their eyes hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. Let me ask you a second question. If we know that God never takes a vacation from us, do we take a vacation from God? Now we have heard the story of Jesus getting tired of being Jesus and needing to take a break. Do you ever get tired of being a Christian – and wake up and say I am going to go out in the world and be around people and deal with situations – and decided that you are going to let your Christianity sleep in? You are going to take a vacation from being a Christian and just be a normal person for the day? The reality is a lot of us do – we have to be in a really good mood to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. The Buzzard, the Bat, and the Bumblebee If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top. The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash. A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself. In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that all we have to do is look up! That's the answer, the escape route and the solution to any problem! Just look up. Source Unknown There are times in our lives when our souls are closed for business – for various reasons. If you read today’s scripture – Jesus has one word for us -Ephphatha. They did not even bother to translate the word into English – it is a direct quote from Jesus. Ephphatha is a aramic word which means open up. When Jesus sees that the man ears and mouth are closed up – he speaks directly to the ears and the mouth and tells them to open up. And it is time for our spirits to open up- and to be present in life. Have you ever noticed that using your Christianity is not about you, it is a reaction to the people around you. Sometimes you may truly wake up and not feel like being a Christian. But it is the people around you that force the Christianity out of you. People will try you and you have to be intentional that your response to them is a Christian response. Just like Jesus was ready for a retreat and the syrophenecian woman came up to him demanding healing. Do the next time someone gets on your nerves, you can respond to them – it is your faith that has made you whole. Because I am a Christian, I am going to respond to you in the right way – and not in the way that I really feel. But remember Jesus’ words to you – open up- open up your spirit to the spirit of God in that situation. Our minds and our bodies get to take a vacation. But our soul doesn’t. It is when we are the most tired that the world needs us the most. And when we give them our Christianity, we are giving them God not ourselves. I love the ending of this scripture. It says that people were overcome with wonder. Saying he does everything well. He even makes the deaf to hear and gives speech to those who cannot speak. Some years ago Winston Lloyd, who later became one of our top foreign policy experts, was an aide to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. One day he brought to Kissinger a longawaited report on conflicts in South America. Without even glancing at the report, Kissinger asked, "Is this the very best you can do?" Lloyd stammered for a few moments and said, "There were a few informational gaps." "Take it back," Kissinger said and dismissed him. Two weeks later, after working night and day, Lloyd again entered Kissinger's office and held out the report. "Is this the very best you can do?" Kissinger asked, without looking at the document. Lloyd hesitated and admitted that there were some parts of the report that were incomplete. Kissinger told him to take it back. Three weeks later Lloyd asked for another meeting. For the third time Kissinger asked, "Is this the very best you can do?" Lloyd replied, "Mr. Secretary, this is my very best effort." Kissinger smiled and said, "That's all I ever ask. I'll be happy to read your report." You and I are not saved by works, I want to make that clear. We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. Still I wonder if we will not someday stand before the throne of God and be asked that most terrifying of all questions, "Did you do your best?" I realize that we are only human. We are not Jesus. None of us are going to do "all things well." Having said that, though, I believe that it behooves us not to live as Tacitus once described Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Tacitus said about Tiberius, "He feared the best, was ashamed of the worst, and chose the innocuous middle." Do you live in the innocuous middle? The angel said to the church at Laodicea, "Would that you were hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm because you have chosen the innocuous middleI will spew you out of my mouth." That is all that Jesus asks of us to give our best. Even when we are tired and ready to take a vacation – we can still give our best to God. God does not take a break from you – so when you need to take a break from everything else – don’t take a break from God. Amen…. Children’s Sermon PREPARATION: None OR be prepared with the song and actions, "Deep and Wide." LESSON: Have you ever played the game, "I love you more?" I know some children who would say "I love you more" when their parents told them they loved them. Or sometimes they would say, "I love you double!" And the battle would be on as to who loved the other the most! It's hard to say how much we love, isn't it? One of the things that impresses me is how much Jesus loved people who had a disability-the blind people, the people who could not hear or who were sick. Jesus healed them every one. Jesus loves everybody, doesn't he? His love is wide (motion with your hands for each descriptive word), long, high and deep. We can experience God's love but we can never really understand it because God's love is so awesome. (Option: Sing the song Extra illustrations Setting Lofty Goals Richard Wilkie wrote a book on the Lord's Prayer. In it, he described how Dr. Albert Schweitzer loved to play Bach on the organ. In fact, even while he was serving as a surgeon in the steamy jungles of Africa, he was still known throughout the world for his musicianship. He loved music, but he loved people more. One evening, as one of the nurses was preparing to leave, he stood at the gang plank preparing to bid her goodbye. As he took her hand he said, "Before you go, I want to recall an incident that happened several months ago. One night, you took a sick baby into your own bedroom so that you could care for it even as you slept. All through the night I heard cries coming from your room. Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, the tone in the baby's cry changed. Immediately I knew that the fever had broken and that the child would get better. I'm supposed to be something of a musician but I want you to know that was the most beautiful music I've ever heard." Schweitzer sought for excellence as a musician but he also sought for excellence in loving human beings. That would be a lofty goal, wouldn't it - to be the most loving human being in our community? To be the most trustworthy? To be the most generous? The call to follow Christ is the call to set lofty goals. King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com She Could Not Speak Because She Could Not Hear There is a beautiful hearing-impaired actress named Marlee Matlin who won an Oscar for the poignant movie Children of a Lesser God. In the movie she consistently communicated via sign language, though her leading man knew she could speak. In a riveting scene near the film's conclusion, she finally verbalized in his presence. Her words were intelligible but not articulate, slowly formed just well enough to be understood, but not clearly. The character could not speak well because she could not hear. Apparently such was the case for the man in Mark's story. Before Jesus unlocked his tongue, first he had to open his ears. Only when he had heard a message did he have anything to say. So it is for most of us. We cannot share with others what we have not found ourselves. We cannot teach what we have not heard. We cannot articulate a truth to others that we have not appropriated in our own lives. Michael B. Brown, Be All That You Can Be, CSS Publishing. "Deep and Wide" and do the actions.) PRAYER: Thank you that you love us wide, high, long and deep. AMEN