A
question of balance
Year B Trinity 5
Mark 6 30-34;53-56
Summary
Jesus often withdrew for times
of quiet. This is often held up to us as the Christian ideal. Here, David Funge
points out that if we think this, we only see part of the picture
This morning’s Gospel reading has two short extracts, one immediately
before and one after the ‘Feeding of the Five Thousand’.
The Apostles had been sent out by Jesus to
travel the towns and countryside in twos, preaching, teaching and healing. They have just returned and are reporting
back to Jesus on their adventures and the reception they had received…..
Trouble was, their conversation with Jesus kept
being interrupted – we hear that not only were they not free to talk, they
didn’t even have time to eat during their debriefing session!
And so Jesus said, “Let’s go somewhere
quiet”. In other words he suggested what
we in College call “An Awayday”. Getting
out of the usual working environment where you are likely to be interrupted,
and relocating to somewhere remote from the phone, email and fax. For Jesus and the disciples, the Bible says
‘they withdrew to a desert, or remote place’.
However, the people that so wanted to seek
Jesus out spotted where they were going and got there first! Such is life!
What happened then was that Jesus put the
planning meeting on hold and attended to the needs of the people. in the
occasion of the feeding of the five thousand.
But after that, Jesus obviously wanted time to
himself- so sent the disciples on by boat while he withdrew for a time of
solitude. He would catch up with them later.
And so what we have got here is an ebb and
flow….. Jesus and the disciples first surrounded by others… then withdrawing
(or trying to) to a place of quiet and solitude. Then rejoining society later.
The now dead Christian writer Wm Barclay
compares this ebb and flow to what he calls “the rhythm of the Christian Life”.
And its important to get ebb and flow right…….
If we never get – or make- a moment for
ourselves we get drained, burnt out, stale.
Worse still for us as Christians, we rely more and more on our own
limited human resources and less and less on what god can do to help us.
On the other hand, too much withdrawal from society, too much prayerful
solitude is a recipe for inaction. God
has given us free will and expects us to express that in various ways-various
forms of action or activity involving others.
Unless we love others as we love ourselves we are failing to observe God’s
commandment- echoed by Jesus….. and reiterated by Paul and other writers.
If you go on a secular course – say one like Graham’s management
course….. or it could be a course about relaxation, stress reduction and so
on….. quite often we are invited to draw
three circles representing the demands-or amount of time spent on work, family
and self. We may be told that if one is
much larger than the others, we need to take a long hard look at our priorities
and rearrange our life into a better balance.
That’s a secular course. But if
you go to a course about your Christian life, you may be invited to draw two
circles representing the importance of prayer and the importance of action and
Christian activity with others. OR, the
prayer circle may be called ‘time alone’, or’ time for reflection’, while the
action circle may be called ‘time with others’. Again, you need to compare and
balance the circles or relative importance of these in your life at the present
time (and it may change).
But there’s a bit more to it than that… in fact a lot more to it. The writer Robert Cecil (16th
century Earl) said,
“Solitude shows us what should
be – society shows us what we are”
So that ebb and flow we talked about, or the rhythm that Wm Barclay
describes is a bit like, “thinking (prayerfully) about it”….. then “doing it”….
And this is the whole point of the Letter of James in the Bible; faith
without some form of action is a dead thing.
But even that isn’t the whole story! Because this is a TWO-WAY traffic. Another
(anonymous) writer said:
“One can be instructed in society
– one is inspired only in solitude”
In other words we need to extend that idea of ebb and flow; I described
just now. As Christians, our daily rhythm should consist of
“thinking (prayerfully) about
it”…..
then “doing it”….
Then “considering or evaluating
prayerfully what we’ve done.”
Now at this point of course, Eileen would have said neither she nor most
people were able or wanted to poke themselves away in solitude somewhere.
True- the good news is that as humans we have marvellous brains that
enable us to turn things over in our minds even as we do something else- Yes,
even men can do it!
You can be active in the world; evaluating with God what you are doing;
whilst at the same time planning the next move.
Its an oversimplification- but do you get the idea?
But how are these innermost thoughts supposed to be reflected in what we
do? Is it like some sort of set of
instructions; bible in one hand calendar in the other?
No, nothing so mechanical.
Because the whole point of this should be focused on our fellow beings
in one direction, and God in the other.
Focused on our friends and those we meet through what Paul called the
fruits of the spirit:
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
So there we have it. A balanced Christian rhythm- a balanced Christian
diet, sustaining and nourishing us and keeping us spiritually alive and
active. You know, diet isn’t a bad
comparison to close with I have given you a couple of quotations today from
outside the Bible; here’s one to close with:
“The best vitamin for making friends
is ….. B1!”
10 minutes.
©David Funge July 2003.