LUKE 10: 38-42
I
was sitting in a restaurant the other day and saw a guy come in and sit down at
a table near me. He was alone. But he never stopped talking on his cell phone the
entire time he was there. He apparently was a construction supervisor whose
employees couldn’t do a thing without him.
At
one point he was actually engaged in conversations on two different phones (one
in each hand) at the same time. When the waitress brought him his food he
looked at her and shrugged, as if to say, “what can you do?” (I had a few
suggestions but I do believe you should never say those things out loud!)
A
recent survey published in USA Today indicates that people are working too hard in the United States. Here’s
what 1,220 workers said about themselves:
• need more
fun: 78 percent
• need a
long vacation: 77 percent
• often feel
stressed: 86 percent
• feel time
is crunched: 80 percent
• want less
work, more play: 71 percent
• feel
pressured to succeed: 65 percent
• feel
overwhelmed: 60 percent
Everybody
needs to have some way to reduce stress on and off the job. We are fortunate to
be near a cluster of churches and faith communities that are members of the
Evangelical Association. This is due to the sheer numbers of ex-UCC churches
that exist in Pennsylvania, New York, New England, and Ohio.
Our
area is the largest but closely followed by two clusters of churches in North
Carolina where the majority of two UCC associations left the denomination and
formed their own faith community.
The
pastors of these churches try to get together on a monthly basis.
One
of the most important aspects of our meetings is the time we stop talking, take
a few moments for being quiet, and then pray for each other and our churches.
Some
pastors come to the meetings late, on edge, and begrudging the time they will
spend there. Yet that changes as we leave, slowed down and more focused on our
ministry and ourselves.
That’s
why I drive three hours roundtrip for a 2 and a half hour meeting. Each of us
needs a time to listen, to be supported, and have a change of scenery.
Let’s
hear from the Gospel of Luke (10: 38-42) what Jesus had to say about people
that are busy and stressed out:
Now as they went
on their way, they entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha
welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s
feet and listened to what he was saying.
But Martha was
distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not
care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to
help me.”
But the Lord
answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;
there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will
not be taken away from her.”
When animal trainers go into a cage of lions, they carry
whips and pistols. But they also carry a stool. According to William H. Hinson,
the stool is the most important tool.
The trainer holds the stool by the back and thrusts the
legs toward the face of the wild animal. The animal tries to focus on all four
legs at once. In the attempt to focus on all four, a kind of paralysis
overwhelms the animal. It becomes tame, weak, and disabled because its
attention is fragmented.
Likewise, the stress of having too much to do can distract
and paralyze us from realizing the important things and making us focusing on
things that don’t matter just right now.
Many of us live in a “if only…” state of mind where we
have said to ourselves,
“if only I had known he had a few days to live,” or “if
only I had done this or that then such and such…” You know what I’m talking
about.
If only Martha had realized that Jesus would be in the
house for a short time and stopped doing the laundry, the dishes, the sweeping,
and went and listened to him instead. If only Martha had learned to prioritize
her life she would have been setting there listening instead of complaining about
her sister.
Now don’t misunderstand – work still has to be done, the
piper still has to be paid.
But I think Jesus is suggesting to Martha that she
reconsider what is important and start putting her faith and trust in God
first, and then letting things get done as they get done.
Thomas
ά Kempis said it best, “Let temporal things serve thy use, but the eternal be
the object of thy desire.”
If
that’s not clear enough then hear what Robert Murray McCheyne wrote, “Live near
to God, and so all things will appear to you little in comparison to eternal
realities.”
Friends
if we can get a hold on the eternal truth of salvation in Christ many things
that cause us pain, worry, fear, and stress would become easier to deal with or
would disappear entirely. Jesus gives us the ability to do our best and to
learn to accept that that’s all we can do.
The
problem: We learn to put stress in our lives from watching others.
A
photographer was taking pictures for a grade school yearbook. He was asking the
youngsters questions to get them relaxed and more photogenic. He asked one six
year old girl, “what are you going to be when you grow up?” The girl answered,
“I’m going to be like my mother.” “What’s that?,” asked the cameraman. The
little girl looked seriously at the camera and said, “Tired.”
One
day used to be a day of rest in our society. Very few stores, restaurants, or
businesses used to be open on Sunday. No one washed clothes, mowed the lawn, or
did any work other what was essential to safety or security for men or animals.
We
have lost our sense of Sabbath in the United States over the last 35 years or
so as stores began to be open on Sundays and the day to get your house
and yard work done. And the day for youth sports and flea markets. Church
attendance declined.
I
will never forget my admiration and surprise when on my first trip to Germany
as a pastor was in finding out that Sunday’s were still family days and that
only gas station/convenience stores were open. It was a joy to go and sit by
the riverbank eating a good dessert with conversation, while the children
played.
I
remember thinking that while German society was largely secular there was still
time for family, rest, and Sabbath. Sunday’s had that different feeling to them.
We’ve
lost that feeling and the attitude that people should rest at least one day per
week. We’ve lost that sense of ever being able to get away from the phone.
Instead
it’s run, run, run, from sun-up to sun-down, constantly chasing the carrot on
the stick dangling in front of your face, while talking on your phone with one
hand and updating your Facebook status on your IPAD with the other, hoping
you’ll have time to twitter your followers later.
Jesus
calls us to quiet contemplative study, interaction, and relationship time. He
tells us we must marshal our strength and time in order to develop a balance.
Jesus calls us to let go of our worldly concerns and find peace, solace, and
rest in Him.
That’s
what the concept of Sabbath is all about.
Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A restaurants, is
a successful businessman, but many know and respect him more for how faith
guides his work. Cathy’s restaurants have been closed on Sundays since 1948.
The CEO of the nearly one thousand Chick-fil-A restaurants doesn’t mind losing
millions of dollars of business to honor the Lord’s Day.
At his first restaurant in 1948, Cathy hired Eddie J.
White, twelve, an African--American. This was an unpopular choice during a time
of segregation. Cathy also mentored an orphan, Woody Faulk, from the time Woody
was thirteen. Woody eventually became vice president of product development at
Chick-fil-A.
Cathy founded a successful foster home system called
WinShape Homes. There are now eleven homes in the United States and one in
Brazil. His daughter Trudy and son-in-law John were Southern Baptist
missionaries at the Brazil home for ten years. His Camp WinShape and the
WinShape Foundation provide scholarships for kids and college students.
Woody Faulk gives a good summary of Cathy’s character:
“He’s the personification of James 1:22: ‘Do
not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.’
I sincerely owe my life to that man.”
We need to stop, listen, and honor Jesus by doing, no
matter how busy we are. We need to sit on the stool instead of shaking it at
animals. Amen.
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