“The Life You've Always Wanted!” 1 Kings 19:8-13 / Matthew 14:1-14
“AN UNHURRIED LIFE”
When we first moved here to the Peninsula 30 years ago, someone told me that one of the things they liked about living here is how life slows down as you drive over the Hood Canal Bridge. I had to agree. It was quite the shift from the frantic life of Kansas City; but have you noticed how, even here, folks seem to be driving faster than they once did, that the rush of life is picking up speed even here?
This is not only a wonderland of natural beauty but it's quickly becoming the Wonderland of which the Red Queen told Alice: “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
(Alice In Wonderland)
Rush, rush, rush – such is life in the wonderland of our making. As we strive to grow in our faith and live in step with the one we follow, we must recognize the danger of living life on the run. As John Ortber puts it: “Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life. For many of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It's that we'll become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we'll settle for a mediocre version of it. We tend to skim our lives, as if speed-reading our way through each day, instead of fully living them.” (from John Ortberg's The Life You've Always Wanted)
One of the great illusions of our day is that hurrying will buy us more time. How many times has someone passed you on the road only to wind up right in front of you at the next light? Our culture caters to and adds fuel to a hurried state of mind. As one advertising slogan puts it: “We help you move faster.” Some years ago I began supporting a certain shampoo, not because it got my hair any cleaner, but because it combined shampoo and conditioner in one bottle. I'd bought into the lie of saving time!
But time doesn't need to be saved, we do! When I was in college my roommates ordered from Domino's pizza not because they were better, or even cheaper, but because they were faster. They promised you'd get your pizza in 30 minutes or less. They rose to the top pitching their pizza with the slogan, “We don't sell pizza; we sell delivery!” Ain't dat da trut! They've since changed their approach but back then, I could never tell where the pizza stopped and the cardboard box began!
We worship at the shrine of the Golden Arches, not because they sell good food, or even cheap food, but because it's......'fast food'! Even after fast food was introduced, people still had to park their cars, go inside, order, and take their food to a table. Terrible! So we invented Drive-thru to enable families to eat their fast food in fast cars, just as the Lord intended! Nor surpising, one of the most successful movies in recent years is called, Fast and Furious, now in it's seventh sequel in the theatres.
How timely! It's a rather telling snapshot of the speed at which we move that one of the catch-all terms these days is that of multi-tasking. There was a pic in the Seattle P-I recently of a man multi-tasking at Brooks Brothers. The pic shows him looking at a tie, while talking on his cell phone, with a cup of Starbucks in his other hand, while sporting sunglasses on his head – just in case the sun should come out in the store while he's shopping, sipping and chatting. Incredible.
We suffer from hurry sickness. Meyer Friedman defines it as “a continuous struggle to accomplish or achieve more and more things, or participate in more and more events, in less and less time, frequently in the face of opposition, real or imagined, from other persons.” Hurry sickness increases stress which is the leading cause of heart disease and has spiritual ramifications as well.
-2-
Jesus was quite aware of these dynamics, even in his day. He repeatedly withdrew from crowds and activities and taught his followers to do the same. When the disciples returned, their adrenaline pumping from a busy time of ministry, Jesus told them, “Come away to a deserted place all by your-selves and rest awhile.” Mark notes that “Many were coming and going, and they had no leisure, even to eat.” (Mark 6:31) That could be the motto for some today. Some people imagine this to be a good thing that God will perhaps reward one day. 'You were even too busy to eat! Well done!'
Not likely. Jesus urged his disciples to take time out. Following Jesus cannot be done at a sprint. It's a long distance run – a marathon, as Paul painted it. We can't follow if we're racing faster than the one who's leading. It's no wonder the psalms and prophets so often urges us to slow down and wait! “Blessed are all who who (slow down) and wait on the Lord!” (Isaiah 30:18)
“We must learn to eliminate hurry from our lives!” (John Ortberg) This does not mean we will never be busy. Jesus often had much to do, but he never did it in a way that severed the life-giving connection with his Father. He never did it in a way that interfered with his ability to love those around him when love was needed. He observed a regular practice of withdrawing from activity for the sake of solitude, renewal and prayerr. Jesus was often busy, but never hurried.
Hurry is not just a disordered schedule; it is a disordered heart. So how about you? Have you felt a bit hurried lately? Quick – what's your reply?! Here's a little quiz. Keep track of your yes-es.
At a stoplight, if there are two lanes, and each contains one car, do you find yourself guessing which one will pull away faster? If you have a choice between two check-out lines at the store, do you find yourself counting how many people are in each line? Do you keep track of the person who would have been in the other line and find yourseelf elated or depreessed on whether that person gets thru before you? Do you talk to or about other drivers that go slow or hold you up?
Do you find yourself rushing even when there's no reason to? Is there an underlying tension that causes sharp words with those you live or work with? Do you sense a loss of gratitude or wonder?
If you answered yes to more than one of the previous seven questions, guess what? You suffer hurry sickness!
Hurry is one of the greatest enemies of a healthy spiritual life, largely because it kills love within us. Hurry lies behind much of the anger and frustration of modern life, evident in the growing number of cases of road rage. Hurry robs us of embracing love from the Father or giving it to his children. That's why Jesus never hurried. If we are to follow Jesus, we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives because, as noted, we can not move faster than the one we are following.
Two things we see Jesus teaching and rolemodeling in our gospel readings this evening. First, Matthew tells us that at the end of a long day, Jesus “made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.” (Matthew 14:22)
Here, as he does elsewhere in his ministry, Jesus deliberately slows things down. He did the same wheen he approached the well of Jacob. He gave his disciples a break. They slowed down for a bit. When they want to send the children away so Jesus is available to those in the crowd who are busy and watching the time, Jesus slows things down by welcoming the children, and by doing so, forcing the disciples and the other adults to slow down.
-3-
How might you likewise slow things down a bit? First, try this. Next time you drive off the Peninsula, try driving in the slow lane. Instead of trying to pass other drivers, pray for those who pass you. Put your horn under a vow of silence. Let others go first when you come to a stop sign.
When you're shopping, let others go in front of you line. Embrace interuptions in your routine or task as opportunities to uniquely bless those around you. Listen more and talk less. Find creative ways to slow down and to listen for the Lord's nudges. Take time for those around you.
Second, Jesus rolemodels the practice of silent solitude. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus went into the wilderneess for an exteded period of fasting and prayer. He also went into solitude when he heard of the death of John the Baptisit, when he was choosing his disciples, after feeding the five thousand, and again after he'd healed a leper. This pattern continued into the final days of his ministry, when he withdrew into the solitude of the Garden of Gethsamane to pray. As it turns out, he ended his ministry just as he began it – with the practice of prayer and solitude.
Jesus taught his followers to do the same. As he said to them, he says to us still: “Come away to a deserted place.” (Mark 6:31) What makes this so important? In the words of John Ortberg: “Soli-tude is the one place where we can gain freedom from the forces that otherwise relentlessly mold us.”
(John Ortberg) Or as Paul put it: “Don't let the world around you squeeze you into it's mold.”
(Romans 12:2)
In the movie Awakenings, Robert DeNiro portrays Leonard, a patient of Dr. Oliver Specks, played by Robin Williams. Leonard, along with Specks' other patients, suffers from a catatonic affliction of advanced Parkinsonism, leaving it's victims immobilized statues, some for years in said condition. Specks tests a new drug, L-Dopa, on them causing each to momentarily “awaken”.
In one poignant scene the whole ward awakens to life, going out on thee town, dancing together and listening to music. One patient exclaims, “I feel saved, resurrected, reborn, so alive with grace!” Leonard touches flowers, smiles in the breeze, savoring each moment knowing it won't last.
That's the sad ending of the movie. It doesn't last but the movie points to a great truth. None of us knows how long life will last. Heading into the proverbial wilderness facilitates extreme attention to the whispers of grace all around us. The modern day Benedictine, Joan Chittister, writes:
“We are called to hold every living thing in high regard whatever their use, to treat them with respect, gently, quietly. We become part of the holiness of God's universe by recognizing each and every element of it as a spark of the Divine. We are a part of a holy universe, not it's creators nor its rulers. God waits for us to realize the truth of that which we experience as we wait on him. The goal of contemplation is to see life as God sees it, which comes to us in quiet flashes of revelation.”
(as quoted in Phillip Yancey's Rumors Of Another World)
Baseball umpire, Durwood Merrill, tells of his rookie year of umpiring and the first time he called a game in which fastball pitcher Nolan Ryan was on the mound. The second pitch of the game was so fast, Merrill never saw it. He froze, unable to make the call. Finally he yelled, “Strike!” The batter backed out of the box, and said, “Don't feel bad, ump, I didn't see it either.”
We are vulnerable to having our hearts frozen by the speed at which we and the world around us move. We are at risk of not seeing clearly what's right before us, yet we all have to make vital calls every day. Jesus urges us to occasionally slow down and to arrange times to experience solitude.
If we're to hear God's quiet, still voice, as did Elijah long ago, we need to slip away on occasion so we, too, may respond to God's invitation: “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)