May 3 2020 Mark 6:30-44

He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’

Jesus is urging his disciples to rest, as they’d been busy. So busy, Jesus says, that they didn’t have time to eat. And so they went away to rest. Unfortunately, the hoards saw them leaving by boat, and rushed ahead and met the boat, so when they landed at their deserted place to rest, it wasn’t deserted, and they couldn’t rest. Instead, they had to feed 5000. 

Here we are, in the midst of this pandemic. Parts of the country are beginning to open up, while other parts of the country and world are still seeing increases in cases.

For the most part, we are living in a deserted place. I’m not suggesting that this is the same as a relaxing day at the beach or spa. There are still demands on our lives, and the economy is struggling. But I’m wondering if we’re taking advantage of this forced deserted place. Or, are we setting ourselves up to be met on the other side of the lake by all of our previous demands and expectations.

Maybe we’re only like the disciples on the boat ride over to our not-really-deserted-place. Maybe when our economy opens back up, and we return to something that looks somewhat like January, we’ll be inundated by everything we left. Maybe the people will be there to meet our boat, and we won’t any rest, and instead have to feed 5000 ourselves.

So like the disciples, we are told to go rest. Maybe like the disciples we won’t get a chance when this is over. Maybe we don’t really even have a chance now, with finances, or work demands so weird that rest is unthinkable.

But maybe, like the disciples, we are in the boat. We left something crazy and busy, and are heading across to something we’d like to think is less busy. But we don’t know for sure what awaits us.

This morning, I’m thinking about the disciples on their way to their deserted place. I’m wondering if they realized that while they were in the boat, the were already in their deserted place. No one around, the work behind them, and yet to come. For those moments, they were in a deserted place, and there was no work to be done. They could rest. I wonder if they realized it? Or did the spend the boat ride thinking about how tired they were, or even dreaming about how wonderful their rest was going to be. In either case, they weren’t enjoying the ride, and the peace they had during the journey.

Today, I’m going to think about being in the boat, in the moment, in peace. However fleeting, this pandemic is causing moments where I can choose to rest and revive, or I can choose to worry about what was, or what will be. I want to find those moments in the boat, and rest.