Rest for the Weary
A Meditation by the Rev. Dr. Hilary J. Barrett
Preached at Pleasantville UCC, February 8, 2009
Isaiah 40:21-31 & Mark 1:29-39

“Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

(Isaiah 40:30-31) 

It is good to be back with you after my week away in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Every year, in January, I join a group of friends and colleagues at the Calvin Symposium on Worship held at Calvin College.  It’s a wonderful time of worship and learning and laughter.  This year, there were 1400 people from all over the world participating in the Symposium.  The experience of worshipping and – in particular – communing with such a multi-cultural and multi-lingual community was a blessing overwhelming for many of us.  The Body of Christ was never more diverse than in those wonderfully rich worship services.

But upon my return, it proved to be my week to get sick -- seems like that always happens whenever I take a few days off.  My body has just enough time of rest to realize how worn out I am and then – bam!  I get whatever is going around.  This week, I think I got everything that was going around, with each new symptom springing up in daily succession.  So it was not a good week to write a sermon.  It was not a good week to think deep thoughts.  It was not a good week to even come up with a sermon title - as you can see from the bulletin.  But it was a good week to reflect upon a couple of scripture passages – both of which have something to say about the spiritual fatigue and weariness common to all of us at various times in our journey.

The two scripture texts that we are invited to study this morning are a passage from the prophet Isaiah, and a story about a very busy day in the life of Jesus, from Mark’s gospel.  Let’s look at Isaiah’s words first.

Read Isaiah 40:21-31.

Our reading comes from what is called, “The Book of Comfort,” in the prophet Isaiah’s writings.  This “book” is comprised of chapters 40-55 and included in this “book” are some of the tenderest words of comfort ever spoken in the scriptures – words spoken to reassure a people who have suffered a long and painful period of exile from their homeland.  The very first words of this section of Isaiah’s prophecy sound like this, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

This text was written during what is known as the Babylonian Exile – a period of almost 60 years, when a portion of the population from the kingdom of Judah was deported to Babylon as the spoils of war.  The people lived there, separated from their homeland, immersed in a foreign culture and religious tradition, aware that their holy city Jerusalem, and their beloved Temple, had been destroyed.  From that experience we get the psalm and the song, “By the waters of Babylon, we laid down and wept and wept, for thee Zion...How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

Sixty years is a long time to be in exile.  Sixty years is a long time to wait upon the Lord.  So you can probably appreciate that the people began to feel that maybe God didn’t know of their suffering at all.  Maybe God didn’t know, or maybe God didn’t care.  To that fear, the prophet Isaiah responds with this:

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.  Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;  but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

The good news of the prophet is that nothing is hidden from God; no part of our suffering is unseen or disregarded by God.  The God who calls us “beloved” is the same God who created the heavens and the earth.  This God does not faint or grow weary, and this God will give us power to keep going even when our spirit fails us.

The second text that we are given to study comes to us from Mark’s gospel.  The story is very brief and crowded with activities.  Our passage begins right after Jesus had been teaching in the synagogue.  While there, he had also performed an exorcism on a man with an unclean spirit.  After he leaves the synagogue, he goes directly to Simon’s house where he and several of his disciples find Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever.  Jesus healed her too, and that evening at sundown, the story tells us that “the whole city was gathered around the door” so Jesus could cure “many who were sick…and cast out many demons.”

Read Mark1:29-39.

One of the most frequently occurring words in the gospel according to Mark is the word, “immediately.”  Everything happens immediately in Mark’s gospel.  Jesus is baptized and “immediately” the heavens opened; he is “immediately” driven out into the wilderness, and when he calls his disciples they all leave whatever they were doing and “immediately” follow Jesus.  Jesus travels to Capernaum and immediately enters the synagogue to teach.  He immediately heals the man with the unclean spirit, and immediately leaves the synagogue and enters Simon’s house where he is immediately told about Simon’s mother in law.  The overall effect of all these immediately’s and all this rapidly unfolding activity is that the pace of Mark’s gospel is very fast – a lot is going on and Jesus is at the center of it.

Finally, Jesus is tired, and he tries to get away for a time of restorative prayer and solitude.  The text says “in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed.”

“those who wait upon the Lord   shall renew their strength,
they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

You know how he felt.  Though the particulars are different, we’ve all had days when one important need leaves off just in time for another to take its place.  It seems the pace of life these days can be very much like that in the gospel of Mark – everything happens “immediately” – or at least it seems that way.  We get our news immediately.  We get our e-mail immediately – which is to say we get more requests for our time and attention immediately and all day long.  People are in such a hurry, they don’t have time to do the basics anymore.  In the last three weeks I’ve seen two automobile accidents right in front of me – people simply going through red lights – too busy or too distracted to notice that the light had turned.

Before e-mail and automobiles, Jesus was dealing with a world that wanted his attention – immediately.  We’ve all had plenty of times in our lives when the demands of being a parent, a grandparent, a caregiver, a worker, a spouse, a friend, a volunteer, and an involved citizen can make us feel that our personal lives have become chaotic.  I love that part in this passage where Jesus has taken the time to replenish himself in prayer early in the morning and the scriptures say that his disciples and those who were with him hunt him down in order to ask him to heal yet more people.  Now that is an experience I think many of us can recognize. 

In the midst of the many claims upon him, Jesus shows us how to run and not be weary, how to walk and not faint.”  It is the same lesson that the prophet Isaiah tried to teach his people: wait upon the Lord; wait in daily prayer and hopeful expectation that God will meet you in your weariness and give you the strength to keep moving forward.

It was a busy day around here yesterday.  The Deacons spent all afternoon working together to make themselves better leaders among us here at Pleasantville.  And the After Glow youth group worked all day with Pastor Amelie, Ben Lewis, and Cara Schollenberger to prepare and serve a delicious meal as part of their fundraising efforts, all leading towards their summer mission trip to St. Louis, Missouri coming up this July. Our Social Hall was filled with noise and people of all ages sitting across tables, eating delicious spaghetti and enjoying one another’s company.  It was a lot of work, but every one I spoke with had a wonderful time, and spirits were renewed just by being together.

Sometimes it isn’t the quiet moments alone that allow us to see God’s handiwork in the world, sometimes we are able to sense God’s presence most clearly when children’s faces are stained with spaghetti sauce and chocolate icing in equal parts.

However it is that your spirit is renewed, the scriptures remind us that even the most faithful of God’s people get weary; even Jesus got tired; even those who are dedicated to God’s work in the world feel their spirit flag from time to time.  And it is so important to remember that when those times come, the Lord who created heaven and earth can be relied upon to renew your strength. 

Have you not known?  Have you not heard?  The Lord...gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.  Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.  Wait upon the Lord.  Amen.