In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen
If you take an hour or so and page through the Bible, you can’t help but notice how much eating and drinking goes on. It starts right at the beginning of the biblical story when the first couple, Adam and Eve, ate the forbidden fruit of the tree.

And it seems whenever something important takes place there is eating and drinking. In the Old Testament, the elders of Israel ate and drank in God’s presence on Mt. Sinai when God made his covenant with Israel. There is the establishment of the Passover meal. There are peace offerings where part of the sacrifice went up in smoke and the rest was eaten with the priest.

The eating and drinking continues in the New Testament. Jesus ate and drank so much that his enemies called him a glutton and a drunkard. He turned water into wine at a wedding reception in Cana. Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread. He went to Zaccheus’s house for lunch. He ate the Passover meal with his disciples. He broke bread with disciples in Emmaus after rising from the dead.

The early church continued this pattern of eating and drinking. Each day the early Christians broke bread in their house churches.  So as one can see food plays a very important role throughout the biblical story and in the history of the church. Perhaps this is where we as Presbyterians draw our inspiration. For it seems like every time we get together there is food involved.

There is a story of a little Presbyterian boy who was instructed along with his classmates to bring a symbol of his faith for show and tell. The Catholic boy brought a crucifix, the Jewish boy brought a star of David.
And what did the Presbyterian boy bring as a symbol of his faith? He brought a casserole.

Now as the father of two little Presbyterians, Kate and I are mindful of what we fix for Martha and Maggie to eat and the amount that they actually eat. If Martha and Maggie were to have their way, every meal would consist of Smarties. In their view these smarties provide all the nutrition and sustenance they will ever need.

I think a lot of us are similar in our discipleship. If we think of discipleship as a banquet. We tend to exercise what is called “spiritual pickiness”. That is, we sometimes choose only certain portions of the life of discipleship which Jesus offers and ignore other portions. Here at Elmwood the portions that we are very good at choosing involve fellowship with one another and of course food. We are very good at feeding the body and feeding our relationships with one another in an effort to continue building a welcoming community.

And certainly these are good portions to choose but I wonder how good are we at choosing the portions that involve the food for the soul-I mean that part of the diet that involves taking a time to rest and be quiet in the presence of Christ-to find the still point in the midst of our lives. Letting go of our projects and plans in order to simply rest. Allowing ourselves to be in the presence of the mystery of Christ. For spiritual pickiness is not a healthy habit. It can lead to serious spiritual malnutrition.
 In turning to our gospel reading we see that Christ offers both food for the body and food for the soul. As the reading opens the apostles have returned from their mission and are reporting to Jesus all that they had done and taught. Because of the demands upon them they had not even time to eat.
And so Jesus said to them,
“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

It begins with a simple invitation from Christ to come to the quiet and yet so often we ignore this invitation in the midst of our busy lives as we juggle family responsibilities, jobs and the ministry of the church. And the invention of various pieces of modern technology have not helped matters either. They have only added to the noise and pace of modern life.

There was a cartoon which captured this need for rest. It was a picture of two people sitting on a dock in lawn chairs. And one person was complaining, “Now what am I supposed to do?...You’ve thrown my laptop, pager and cell phone in the lake” The other person responded, “If you mention work again, you’ll be next.”

Why do we find it so hard to lay everything aside and simply rest in the presence of Christ? Obviously it is not good for our physical, emotional or spiritual health to be always on the run in an effort to meet others needs or carry out the good work of the church. The Lord invites us to “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. Enjoy the food for the body and the food for the soul. But still we resist. Why?

In my experience, it is the sincere, dedicated disciples who are the worst about this matter of taking a rest, with ministers being the worst offenders. We don’t intend the ceaseless activity but our busyness gives an impression, it makes a theological point which I am sure we do not intend.

It says we believe that it is all up to us to do good or good won’t be done. It is up to us to set the world right or the world is lost. Behind our hectic busyness is the belief, the theology that we are saviours of the world. And yet to stand and proclaim, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth” we are faced with a contradiction. To say these words is to proclaim that it is not all up to us. God not only created but is creating still. Our God is the living God, active and effective. God is sovereign, whose grace is not dependent on the church, but works even outside and beyond our efforts

Therefore, we can take off and enjoy God’s good grace of doing nothing. We can take time to rest from our labors and accept Christ’s invitation to enter the quiet, the peace, the silence where God awaits.

I leave you with a story from the early church set in the desert wilderness. A hunter noticed the desert father St. Anthony playing childish games with some little boys. The hunter laughed and jeered at Anthony asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.  St. Anthony responded by telling the hunter to shoot an arrow, and then another, and another.

The hunter said, “If I keep doing this my bow will break.” Anthony then explained, “If you keep the bow always bent, it will eventually break, but if you let go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it.”

A piece of desert wisdom. That is why we all need to take time to rest. The disciples were invited to rest in the presence of Christ after a prolonged period of ministry. We should take Christ’s invitation seriously so we too will be at our best when we have taken the time to loosen the bow.
THANKS BE TO GOD, AMEN.