Ephesians 2:11-14; Mark 6:30-34; 53-56

I'm in regular email contact with my two brothers: Rich and Jack; as we get older, we're a lot better, more intentional about keeping in contact on a regular basis now.

My older brother, Jack, has been gearing himself up for a visit from his daughter, Kris, and her four little ones. Kris' family is on vacation. Jack and my sister-in-law have been preparing themselves – childproofing the house, fixing the deck so it's gated, checking out the tree house in the back yard, and gathering their stamina together to prepare for four energetic little ones.

Kris and crew have just arrived after spending two weeks visiting in England where her husband's family lives; now they will spend about a month here in the US with my brother and sister in law and then Canada at their camp in Quebec . Kris & Richard and the children have been planning this time away for months. It's a real getaway from the hectic lives they lead. They visit with family and get away to the lake. Can you understand the desire for vacation?

My younger brother, Rich, and his wife, Mare, are holding off on their vacation time until this September. They too will be traveling and are planning with great anticipation for this time of relaxation and getting away from the routine of daily living. For them, they'll have a chance to be away from different kinds of stresses that go with consulting and with a small business of one's own. Vacations are good, and make for healthy times and lives.

Closer to home many of us have been away, are about to go away, or are just not here today because of vacations.

Jen Bailey is planning for and working on a different kind of vacation for children: Sunday School in a totally different format: that is, Vacation Bible School . This place is transformed into rooms of fun and learning (I see evidence of spaces about to change). This place is transformed with lots of energy packed into many, many three-foot-high folks.

Vacation time - whether it be a change of focus or routine; here or away or even abroad - is important to our well-being. Even - and some say, especially - in this time of recession of unnamed and named economic anxiety, it is important to find a way to de-stress ourselves, to renew ourselves.

I, too, am looking forward to some vacation time in August.

Jesus knew how important it was to get away. We hear in the reading from the gospel of Mark how Jesus calls his disciples who had been busy ministering in the name of Jesus. They had been healing the sick, going from town to town, sharing the good news of the love of God along dusty roads; they had been rejected by some. Jesus calls them away to the wilderness to rest awhile. They had been busy for many were coming and going – the scripture tells us that; they had no leisure. So Jesus and the twelve go away by boat. They were looking forward to a vacation.

I will be going away on a couple of overnight working retreats the end of next week. But those aren't vacations. Even though I'll be away, it won't be vacation time: we'll be visioning on one about how the new Conference Board of Ordained Ministry for will look and function. On a second overnight retreat, we'll be Living Acts. I mentioned that a couple of weeks ago and invited anyone who would like to join me to come. Well I am going the end of this week. We'll be visioning and living into how we might be the church of today using the early church and its practices. It's almost as if the gospel where Jesus pulls his disciples away by boat, and even still, they are confronted by the people waiting for them as they arrive on the other shore. The disciples did not get a vacation.

But for me, I know that I am going on working retreats later this week. The change in pace even with the associated work will prepare me for another retreat: A real retreat where I will have time and space and quiet and no agenda except to be and listen. I think that's what Jesus was really inviting his disciples to. Jesus was inviting them to retreat – to step back, to step away – a vacation of sorts. But, instead, what they found when the crossed the waters was the continuous cries and the needs of the people.

A little later in the reading from Mark we hear again how Jesus and his disciples once again cross the waters of the Sea of Galilee; they are greeted by a flock of folk who recognize Jesus. They just cannot get away.

For me, I am hoping in this five day retreat the last week of July to be away – to really rest but to rest in a very particular way – to rest in God. I think that's what Jesus was pulling his disciples toward. I am being very intentional that my time away will be a prayerful one. I have no agenda except to be open to God's presence. Yikes. Nothing to do! I wonder how I'll meet that space. I wonder how you might meet that kind of space. The five days will be a time of listening prayer. It will be a guided silent retreat where I will be considering the gifts of God in this summertime.

Time and again Jesus calls his disciples or he himself goes off alone, to be with God, to rest with God. He looked for that in a garden; he looked for that as he walked into the wilderness after his baptism. We hear of that great desire to be in communion with God in the psalms; my soul yearns for God as the deer yearns for flowing streams. I believe seeking after God is important for all of us. It's a kind of vacation from the demands we put on ourselves so we can refocus ourselves, refocus our spiritual lives, and refocus the busy-ness of our lives. It's a time where we can refresh ourselves and our souls. God waits for us to seek that presence of holiness and meets us when we take the time.

In these economic times and in this busy-ness we find ourselves in, it is good to hear that meeting God, finding some rest in God doesn't take a lot of money; it doesn't take any kind of transportation. All it takes is the desire and the will to set aside time, to set aside space in our lives. I'm going to be spending five days; that's a good thing to consider each year – a week to sit in God's presence. You say that might be a bit too much! I say then: try to spend a day apart perhaps each month. Impossible, with the kids! I'd say then try fifteen/twenty minutes in the morning or in the evening before the day winds up or after things wind down. Can't spare that? I'd try a breath prayer as you walk to and from you car, walk along to your office – find a phrase, just repeat that phrase over and over to your self, as you breath in and out. The phrase might be, Lord, forgive us. The phrase might be, Jesus, love us. You'll be amazed at how your outlook changes.

All of these are a way of maintaining our relationship with God. Just as I counsel couples who are about to become married, it takes energy and effort to develop a relationship. Having found each other and establishing a bond does not mean that you're home free. It's only the beginning. There's maintenance work in order to build a deeper relationship. I speak to couples about setting aside a time each week where the two are together to be with each other, to hear each other, not to talk about problems of everyday stuff or to speak of the children but to let each other how each is on the inside. To speak but most of all to listen to each other. That's the way it is with God, resting in God. We need to spend time with God in order to be able to rest in God.

When I first read the scripture reading from Mark this morning that the common lectionary presents us, I wondered: what's the point, why do we have these two sections of readings separated as they are by many verses? They are separated by the meaty stuff, the real message: the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus' walking on water. Daniel Harrell in the Christian Century helped put some perspective on this reading for today. He suggests that Jesus' pulling bread out of thin air to feed the thousands reminds us that Mark throughout his gospel sandwiches one story within another in order to amplify the meaning of each. Harrell suggests that we have the making of a sandwich here. The first slice of bread is the first few verses we heard: Jesus is leading his disciples to rest, to vacation. In that wilderness, where often things happen that are not planned, Jesus sees those who are without a shepherd and he raises a prayer. In the second slice of bread, the last few verses we heard in Mark, when the disciples are led to the other shore for rest away from the crowd, the people on the shore now recognize Jesus as the shepherd.

Do you hear what Daniel Harrell is suggesting? Taking time to rest in God – retreating, even vacationing – you can enter a space where things may just happen that you did not plan. God may unfold in ways you have not experienced. Jesus may come into your life in ways you cannot script. God may gift you beyond your wildest imaginations.

So go on vacation. Relax. Most importantly, rest in God.