Time Out Mark 1:29-39 We live in a time of high speed with expectations on us to do a lot of things as speedily as we can. In fact, being able to get a multiple of things done in short order is seen as one of the marks of success.  So, although we complain o lot about having so much to do, we harbour some pride in meeting such demands. Also, technology opens up so many opportunities to get involved with numerous people and activities. Some of us spend endless hours on the computer almost like an addictive behaviour.  We check our e-mails endlessly. Many of us carry our cell phones around at all times, listening to messages and texting continually.  I notice that even at spots events like a hockey game, people are trying to watch the game and text someone at the same time. We cant seem to get away from having to communicate with others, and facing other people's needs and wants.  There are so many demands made on us throughout the day. Some mothers even refer to the time just before supper as the "piranha hour". That is when every one demands a piece of mom. We think that a way to relax might be watching TV but even there we are bombarded with advertisements for certain things  that we may feel we have to have in order to make our lives better or to fill our days with more things to do. We are also bombarded with news stories of  tragedies, sickness, death, war and problems affecting our lives and the world as a whole. It seems like all these things come at us in waves that almost smother us, sapping our strength and making us weary of life. * It must have been a like the situation that confronted Jesus in the story in the Gospel today.  Everywhere that Jesus went there were demands placed on him. After leaving the synagogue where he dealt with a man with an unclean spirit, he went to Simon's house and was met with Simon's sick mother-in-law.  After he was able to raise her up from her sick bed,  story goes on to say that the whole city gathered at the door with all their needs to be met.  He dealt with all these people late into the night. Then, in the early morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place and prayed. We read in other passages of scripture that Jesus would "get away" to some deserted place to pray. In the midst of all his activity facing the great needs of people trying to cope with life as it is, he needed that time to contemplate the meaning of his life in the midst of all this activity, to get a clear picture of where he was going, what he needed to do, and to connect with the inner source of his power. Then to rise up and go to show the people of this world that there was another reality other than the reality of conflict and disease where our bodies ail and die, our souls are restless and our world is a battlefield of individuals and groups. There is another reality that exist side by side with the old reality.  It is one where Love heals, reconciles, moves us toward wholeness and show us life which is fully human and fully alive.  The new reality is what Jesus referred to as The Kingdom of God - not something in the future but here and now around us and within us. * I believe that we all need to take time away from the hustle and bustle of the world around us in order to reflect on the meaning of our lives, to review our present situation to reconnect with the source of our strength, and to renew our inner life through prayer. Prayer is more than "saying prayers"  and asking for things.  For me, prayer is awakening to the presence of God.  We do it in our quiet times and this makes us aware the presence of God at all times no matter where we are or what we are doing.  We become fully alert to whatever or whoever is right in front of us, we are aware at all times of the gift of being alive and we find ourselves able to give ourselves wholly to the moment. As an example of how important it is to take time out, there is a story by Dr. Mary G. Durkin as told on one of Andrew Greeley's Homily pages on the Internet. She was a woman he did a lot of volunteer work in the parish ....Her children were grown and she felt that she had the time to give to the parish community. As is usually the case, there were many things for her to do and as the parishioners became more familiar with her, they often turned to her for help. She was a deeply spiritual person and people sought her advice. Since she was the type of woman who tried to do everything well, before long she was working the equivalent of time and a half. She loved her work but as time went on, and there was more and more work, she found she had less and less time for her own spiritual reflection. She also began to feel like she was not doing her best work in the parish. Her husband suggested that she needed a break, a time to connect again with the spiritual vision that motivated her in her work. She went on a retreat where the director suggested to her that she would do well to set aside an hour a day and a day a month and a week a year as a special prayer time, a time to get in touch with the God in whose name she was working. She followed the director's advice and now finds she reaches more people while still having time for her family and her prayer life. (Dr. Mary G. Durkin on Andrew Greeley Homily page  www.agreeley.com/homilies00/jul23.htm) * I like the motto for our rest as taking "time every year, time every week, and time every day" I think that is important to take a vacation ever year to change our gears and get in touch with ourselves and the people that our close to us again. I think that we need at least one day off every week, a weekly sabbatical, reserved for life's most important, and often neglected pursuits - to do things that revitalize you. You need to consciously make time for it. I believe that we also need those brief moments of retreat every day. There has to be a time that we can just hold everything - a quiet time in the midst of the day - sit quietly, listen to music, read something even a few sentences from one of your favourite writers, contemplate on some energizing event in your life or a place that brought you great personal power and draw upon that energy again, so you are ready for the rest of your day. It is at these times that we can become aware of that new reality breaking into our lives, transforming us and moving us toward wholeness. This spiritual growth is like a seed within.  It is basically a growth from egocentricity, where the whole world centers around ourselves and we strive to control and manipulate everything and everyone around us, to a maturity in which we have a breath of vision, spiritual awareness and a capability of committing ourselves to a cause beyond ourselves.  When you look at the spiritual growth of some people in the Bible, we see that kind of growth coming through three basic types of experience: suffering, the realization of a power greater than them operating in their lives, and loving and caring for someone other than themselves. We are all in this struggle.  We all have the seeds of the Kingdom within us. The kind of cultivation that we need is to be always open to God's activity in the experiences that we encounter each day, and then let the seed do the rest.  It is up to us to trust the process, and to be faithful in the pursuit of our true self.  Then, God who has started a good thing within us, will surely bring it to completion. * I enjoy going to Junior Hockey games.  I have had season tickets for a number of years to our local team that plays in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League.  Through the years each team  had the ability to call a "time out" in order to stop play and spend a short time examining their play, perhaps looking at  the mistakes that have been made, what could been done  better and develop a strategy that could give the team an advantage for the remainder of the game. This year the rules governing "time-outs" have changed somewhat. Now each team has the capability call a "time out" in each of the three periods of hockey.  You could have as many as six "time outs" for a team to review their play for 30 seconds and after the whistle blows to end the time out the players can return to play with a renewed sense of purpose . In the midst of our lives take a time-out and then rise up within renewed strength to face whatever life brings to us. There is some interesting prayers in a publication called Gates of Prayer. One is particular striking about observing the Sabbath, called "Welcoming the Sabbath".  I think that it can be applied to any situation where we take time out not to do but to be. Our noisy day has now descended with the sun beyond our sight In the silence of our praying place we close the door upon the hectic joys and fears, the accomplishments and anguish of the week we have left behind What was but moments ago the substance of our life has become memory; what we did must now be woven into what we are On this day we shall not do but be we are to walk the path of our humanity no longer ride unseeing through a world we do not touch and only vaguely sense No longer can be tear the world apart to make our fire On this day, heat and warmth and light must come from deep within ourselves from Gates of Prayer ed. Chaim Stern (New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1975 p. 245) Barbara Broiwn Taylor comments about this prayer in her book An Altar in the World. She says that if you can hear the welcome in the prayer, you can probably also hear the dis-ease that it portrays as well and she then asks: How is your own deep fire doing, by the way?.Are you pretty confident that you have enough heat and warmth and light within yourself to get you through the night?  Once you have turned off the computer and hung up the car keys, once you have decided to take a whole day off from earning your own salvation, are you ready to wrestle with the brawny angels who show up? (Barbara Brown Taylor An Altar in the World, A Geography of Faith, Harper Collins, N.Y., N.Y. 2009 p. 114-115 )   You are visitor number UK Online Casinos This free counter  is supplied by Visible Counter   Connect with Deacon Sils Homelical resource   Also for more sermon and lectionary resources connect to SERMON AND SERMON LECTIONARY RESOURCES Check Out my daughter's web site CARLY'S STRENGTH THE GODDESS WITHIN MUSIC PROJECT Each year, thousands of women and children become homeless as a result of domestic violence.  "The Goddess Within" music project is designed to empower those whose lives have been affected by domestic abuse and to raise awareness of this issue. "The Goddess Within" compilation album will showcase artists and their songs, written for or relating to those escaping the cycle of violence.  The C.D. will be distributed throughout North America and proceeds from the sale of the C.D. will be donated to women's shelters. More information on the CD is available at ARTISTS FOR CHANGE My daughter Carly is featured on the album with her song The Mask.  The art for cover for the CD album is the creation of another daughter, Mary Anne Molcan. Another site to access is Ending Domestic Abuse * Mary Anne is a very talented artist.  She has a new web site called Faerie Artist where she displays her Art.   You can access her site at: Faerie Artist   Megan's Blog You can check out some of Megan's recipes and meal planning on her Blog  Food and Whine, Adventures in making food for my toughest critics, my family.