Title: The Power of Pull
Text: Mark 6:30-34 (53-56)
Thesis: The pulls in our lives compel us to act compassionately in behalf of others… and our selves.
Introduction
Sometimes when we think of the word “force” we are thinking in terms of power and speed.
G-Force as related to gravitational pull is a unit of force equal to the force of gravity. It is used indicate the force a body is subjected to when it is accelerated. G-Force is what you feel when you are riding in a jet as it accelerates down the runway and lifts off into a steep climb. The more rapid the pull (or thrust) away from the pull of gravity, the greater the G-Force.
Sometimes we think of “force” in terms of numbers. G- Force is a Disney story coming out on the 24th about a team of trained secret agent guinea pigs that take on a mission for the US government. Armed with the latest high-tech spy equipment three guinea pigs: Darwin, Blaster, and Juarez, along with a literal fly-on-the-wall reconnaissance expert named Mooch and a mole named Speckles (who is the computer and information specialist), are dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world with household appliances. In the case of Disney’s G-Force three super-hero guinea pigs, a fly and a mole team up as a force to defeat evil.
Often when we think of “force” we think in terms of being coerced or constrained in order to get a confession or compel us to do something we aren’t particularly excited about doing.
Years ago I was with an elderly lady who was waiting to have an angiogram procedure to check for any blockage in her arteries. While we waited the heart doctor stopped by and began to ask her a questions. He eventually asked her if she smoked. She answered, “No.” He then asked her if she had ever smoked. And she answered “Yes, but not anymore.” He asked her how long ago she had smoked. She answered, “Oh, it’s been a long time?” He asked her, “How long ago?” And she answered, “Oh, I’d say about ten o’clock this morning.”
She ‘fessed-up because she was forced to do so. There are all kinds of “forces” at work in our lives. We appreciate some of them… others, not so much.
In my reading this past week I happened upon a sentence that was a stirring reminder of a truth I have long believed and taught. Here it is, “But we must remember that God is as fully active and present in our lives when we are making an effort as when we are not.” (Diogenes Allen, Spiritual Theology, Cowley, P. 9)
It was apparently a favorite teaching of the Apostle Paul. In II Corinthians 3:18 he reminds us that “as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.” In Philippians he wrote, “And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day that Christ Jesus comes back again.” And a chapter later he wrote, “For God is working in you, giving you the desire to obey him and the power to do what pleases him.” (Philippians 1:6 and 2:13)
Most of us may be inclined to think that our lives are pretty prosaic or dull and unimaginative or everyday and ordinary. However, if it be true that God is always at work in our lives, even the most dull and unimaginative, everyday and ordinary experience takes on new meaning. God is doing something in us and / or through us, and / or in and through the lives of others.
I think that our story today is an example of the multiple layers in which we may see God at work in our own lives and in the lives of others. And in keeping the our thoughts on G-Forces, God’s activity may be thought of as something of a God-Force… not a force that uses water boarding to coerce or bully us or overpower us into submission, but tugs or pulls us to himself and to others.
I think God is at work even in the pull of weariness.
I. The pull of weariness
Jesus said, “Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest.” There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn’t even have time to eat.” Mark 6:31
Many were coming and going and Jesus and his disciples did not even have time to stop for a meal.
We Americans are workaholics. Our culture demands it. We must be busy and we must be productive. Never mind that the rest of the industrialized world seems to think and live otherwise. The average Italian worker receives 42 days of vacation per year; a worker in France receives 37 days; in Germany the average worker receives 35 days per year; in Brazil, 34 days; in the United Kingdom 28 days; the Japanese receive 25 days; and the average American worker receives 13 days. The average U.S. worker works four hundred hours more each year than the average worker in Norway. Four hundred hours is equal to fifty, eight hour work days. (Ken Park, The World Almanac and Book of Facts (2006) (World Almanac Books, 2006), p. 755 and “Numbers,” Time, 9/17/2007, p. 20)
There are people in this room today whose jobs or the demands on your lives are such that you literally do not have time to stop to eat lunch. There ought to be a “Right to Have Lunch Law.”
If time permitted, I would much prefer to travel via the back roads. Perhaps you too have read William Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways in which he relates his travels across America driving only on blue highways. Blue highways were the out-of –the-way roads through rural America that were drawn in blue in the old Rand McNally Road Atlas.
But even when we are not working we are rushing to get wherever we are going. I’ve noticed in our frequent travels on I-80 across Nebraska and Iowa that there are Rest Areas located along the way about every forty-five miles. A Rest Area is a reminder that even when we travel we need to take breaks.
There are two points I wish to make about the pull of weariness and the need to rest:
A. People generally want to gravitate away from the action when they need to rest and recuperate.
When we are weary we want to go home. When we are weary we say things like, “I need a vacation.” When we are weary we long to “get-a-way.” When we are weary we feel and often express the need for some “space.” Becoming weary is the natural result of working long and hard at anything.
Jesus was weary and when he was weary he wanted to “get away from the crowds for a while and rest.”
B. Is it possible that God uses our need for rest to draw us to himself?
I wonder if God does not intend that our weariness draw us to him. In Genesis God designated the seventh day as a holy day. In the Ten Commandments God instituted the Sabbath as a day of rest dedicated to the Lord… a day of rest set aside and blessed by God. In the gospels Jesus invites all who are weary and heavy laden to cast all their cares upon him. In the epistles God reminds us that it is in our weariness and weakness that we find strength in him.
Sometimes when I get weary I get away to the Anderson cabin where I fill the feeders for the birds and the critters and then sit in my creaky old, wired together, Adirondack chair and look out over Mosquito Gulch or whatever it is I’m looking out over and I say to God, “Lord, I’m just here to rest in your presence.”
There are places like that everywhere. Patios, park benches, sunny hillsides or grassy lawns, easy chairs, trails, lakesides, a church sanctuary and even a commute on public transportation may be places of quiet where we get away from all the coming and going. Jesus longed for such places in his life and sometimes he actually got away by himself to be renewed and refreshed by rest and to be with God. (Mark 6:46)
Now, having said all that, our need for rest often gets trumped by the pull of human need.
II. The pull of human need
They left by boat for a quieter spot. But the people saw them leaving, and people from many towns ran ahead along the shore and met them as they landed. Mark 6:32-33
The interesting thing about human need is that it often arises at inconvenient times. You have worked hard all day and just as you are about to leave work there is a crisis that requires your attention. You are all set for a date night out with your spouse or an overnight get away to a condo in Estes and your sitter calls and tells you that she can’t make it. I have a friend who would plan a vacation for months in advance and on the eve of his vacation, without fail, his mother would become ill. You who are caregivers know the drill. And what parent has not put the children to bed and crashed at the end of the day dreaming of getting some precious sleep… only to be awakened in the middle of the night when one of the kids gets sick? In those cases the pull of human need is more powerful than your need for sleep. When a sick child is calling for mommy or daddy a parent cannot ignore or deny the child necessary care.
In one of Jim Carey’s better roles he plays the part of a despondent man who has withdrawn from society. His wife had left him and he was stuck in a dead end job in a bank where as a loan officer it seemed the only thing he did was stamp “DECLINED” on loan applications. One day a friend coerced him to attend a “Say Yes to Everything” motivational seminar. He is so juiced by the challenge that he throws himself whole-heartedly into changing his life so that he literally says, “yes” to everything anyone asks him to do.
If you say “yes” to everything and everyone you will be handing over your paycheck to panhandlers and scammers. You will be the delight of telemarketers around the world. You will be over insured, over invested and over extended. You will become the most quintessential volunteer of all time. You will be the proud possessor of ten thousand boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. You will never see your tools again because they will be lent out all over the neighborhood. Your ne’er-do-well relatives will relieve you of your life savings and anything else that isn’t nailed down. And you will die exhausted, beaten down and broke.
But we can do what we can do. And sometimes what we can do is asked of us at inconvenient times. So it was with Jesus and his disciples. They did not get to go to their deserted place to rest because at that moment, in the mind of Jesus, human need trumped his own need for rest.
A. People generally gravitate to people and places where their wants and needs may be met.
If you own a pickup truck you know what I mean. People are drawn to people who own pickup trucks. If you have a pickup people ask you to haul their stuff or ask you to borrow your pickup so they can use it to haul their stuff.
Hospital emergency rooms and emerge-care clinics attract sick people after hours. People make appointments at Inter Church ARMS and Catholic Charities and visit the Arvada Food Bank because they know they can get needed assistance there. Homeless people frequent the Denver Rescue Mission or St. Francis House because there is food and shelter at those places. When a teen mom needs a place where she can have her baby and learn to be a mother and productive member of society she can call Hope House because that is what they do at Hope House.
People with real felt needs will gravitate to individuals, churches and institutions that are known to be helpful to people in need.
B. [So]Is it possible that God uses human need to draw people to himself?
In our story Jesus and his disciples were known as individuals who would help. There were times when people who were hungry for spiritual food came to Jesus and he taught them many things, as in the case of the feeding of the five thousand. But according to Mark 6:56 there were times when wherever he went in villages and cities and out on the farms, they laid the sick in the market plazas and streets. The sick begged him to let them touch the fringe of his robe, and all who touched it were healed. When people are in need they are most open to receive the love of God in Christ Jesus. So places where human needs are met are natural venues where people can encounter God and experience his love.
I think we all agree that serving God and others can be wearisome and we all agree that at times you most need a break, someone or something will likely need your help.
What do you feel when that happens?
III. The pull of compassion
A vast crowd was there as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Mark 6:34
The pull of compassion is a God-given pull that tugs at our hearts when we see someone in an unfortunate situation. The “Yes Man” learned that you cannot always say “Yes” to every demand. But we can say “yes” sometimes and especially so if the need is compelling.
If Jesus is an example for us, perhaps learning to see people as Jesus sees people is important. Jesus felt compassion for the people. And when we feel compassion our plans may change. Jesus was more committed to compassion than he was to rest…. he wanted to rest but he did compassion. He saw people as lost sheep without a shepherd to lead them or care for them or protect them. In these instances Jesus might well have asked himself, “If I do not help these people, who will?” We sometimes feel the same way. If we don’t help, who will?
A. I think God uses our sensitivities to draw us to people in need?
Most of us have expressed the feeling of feeling sorry for someone. If we see a person in a circumstance in which we feel sorry for them, that feeling is kind of an “entry-level” feeling that may lead us to a deeper feeling or emotion we call compassion, which then leads us to begin to suffer with the other person and ultimately do something to help them. Jesus felt compassion for the people in our story and acted to help them.
B. Is it possible that God uses arenas of human need as opportunities to feel and demonstrate compassion?
I think God uses our sensitivities to draw us into arenas or venues where we may serve God and others. In other words, God wires us in ways that cause us to be drawn to the people he is drawing to himself.
Conclusion
Meanwhile, the pull of weariness usually does not go away. If we are already tired and are asked to continue to exercise compassion for others, it is likely that we will become increasingly exhausted. When Jesus got a chance he headed for the high country and a little down time to get refreshed.
Immediately after this, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and head across the lake, while he sent the people home. Afterward he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Mark 6:46
Just as we cannot ignore the pull of compassion, we cannot ignore the pull of weariness. We cannot always pull away but when we can, we need to do so.
David Slagle tells the story of receiving a call from one of his staff members whose car had quit running about two miles from the office. So he drove to the location and found her leaning against her car looking all flustered.
She said, “I was driving down the road and all at once it just quit running.” He asked, “Could you be out of gas?” “Oh no,” she replied, “I just filled up the tank.” “Okay,” he said, “Did the car act funny or make any noises before it quit running?” And she said, “Well, it kind of went brump, brump, brump, BANG!”
He said he asked her when she had last changed the oil after which she got kind of a puzzled look and asked, “Oil? Am I supposed to change the oil? I’ve never changed the oil.” He said he checked the oil and there was no oil…
We can’t ignore the brump, brump, brumping in our lives. We cannot ignore the clattering and banging in our bodies, minds and spirits. We have to tend to and take care of ourselves or we will break…
So hear and heed the pull of compassion, but also hear and heed the pull of weariness to rest.
