A sermon on Rest, from July 19th 2015

Sermon for July 19^th 2015 on Jeremiah 23. 1-6; Ephesians 2. 11-end and Mark 6. 30-34, 53-end 

May I speak in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

A couple of years ago, I was in one of those fast, rib boats heading down a Scottish loch on the way to an uninhabited island in the Inner Hebrides. Now, as Louise will tell you, this was a rather unexpected move on my part. Only the year before, I’d opted to paddle back, with my trouser legs rolled up, to the mainland on the causeway from St Michaels Mount in Cornwall, rather than face a small open boat on relatively calm seas. 

So, by contrast, I was now heading towards the Gulf of Corryvreckan, which is narrow channel between the islands of Jura and Scarba, where two tides meet over an underwater rock pinnacle to create the UK’s only natural whirlpool.

We were heading right for it when the skipper, who knew the waters well, quickly turned the boat 90 degrees left, increased the power and we sped alongside a standing wave, about three feet high, near the whirlpool for several hundred yards until he spotted a break in the motionless wave and then took another sharp turn right, crashed through the wave and suddenly we were in a relatively safe open sea.

 About twenty minutes later, as we reached a tiny island in the Garvellachs, our destination, it quickly became clear that the water was too choppy to put us ashore safely. So, to my disappointment, we turned around and headed back the way we had come. As we sped along, the seas were getting rougher and rougher while I was feeling more and more ill. Fortunately, we avoided the whirlpool this time and we were eventually dropped off on the island of Scarba, which is still uninhabited, but there was a small, sheltered jetty.

This was part of my first wilderness retreat and, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

“And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.”

The idea was to find a quiet place to rest, to think, to pray and to form a temporary community. It was challenging but also a great weekend of renewal. This was probably something like Jesus had in mind, just with a Scottish flavour, in our gospel reading today and, like the disciples, we were all busy people and like them, I certainly felt that while you could leave some of the pressures of the world behind, you still carry many of them with you and sometimes they follow you, like the crowds who followed the disciples. Often, we just need some space to process what’s going on.

The disciples certainly needed space, “For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” 

Have you ever had one of those days when there has been so much going on, that you’ve neglected yourself, perhaps missed a meal, or become dehydrated because you were too busy to stop for a drink? May be it was a time when it was difficult to know what to do next, so much so that you actually did less because you spent more time trying to work out what to do than doing whatever needed to be done? 

I’m sure it was much like that for the apostles. They had been catapulted from ordinary lives in first century Israel, to being called out by their wonderful, charismatic friend as apostles. They quickly became healers, prophets and evangelists themselves, they had been sent out by Jesus into what must have been an intense, challenging mission but also a rewarding and fulfilling vocation. Their lives had changed forever and the mission had been more successful than they could have ever imagined it would be, and this wasn’t any ordinary mission either, earlier in the same chapter Mark says that they “proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” They were curing people, healing them, as Jesus had. What an amazing, generous gift this was for them to offer.

So, they all came back from all these amazing adventures and Jesus, like a shepherd, sat gently with them and listened, 

“The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.” 

Mark is very brief here, but it’s clear that Jesus wanted to listen to his friends and understand what had happened. And we should bear in mind that Jesus had probably been busier and more active than them, just before these events we hear about the violent death of John the Baptist, Jesus’ friend and cousin who had baptised him just a year or so earlier, but Jesus’ compassion meant his concern for his friends took priority over his own needs.

Even these short sentences tell us something very special about the living and risen Jesus, then, and now. He wants to send us out to serve him, as friends, to proclaim the good news, and sometimes this may challenge us, after all, look at me standing here now! – but, the challenge will only be to serve in ways we can offer. It may not be to cast out demons or heal people, but it may be to have compassion for a friend who needs help, or collect a prescription for someone who can’t get out that day. It doesn’t mean we are evangelising to all we meet, but if we can help, serve and listen in faith, then we can truly say we are serving Jesus. 

Remember those words, ‘they told him all they had done and taught.’ They told him. And he listened. He really wanted to hear their stories and he wants to hear ours. God knows our innermost hearts as Psalm 139 tells us, but he really wants to hear directly from us. Then, they could talk to him in person, now, through prayer, we can still let him know everything that we want to give thanks for and about all the blessings we enjoy. Jesus wants to know the things that trouble us, the things that make us angry or the things we don’t understand. He wants to hear our prayers for others and ourselves and sometimes he wants to spend time with us in silence. 

Having heard their stories though, Jesus knew that they all needed to rest which explains why he said, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” Note how here its described as a deserted place, some translations call it a quiet place, a remote place or lonely place and not strictly a wilderness, but certainly a place away from all the pressures and work they had been doing.

They went to a wild place across the lake, but they weren’t alone. Jesus did often go to quiet places to pray and of course he spent 40 days alone being tempted in the wilderness by the devil. But this time he took the close circle of the twelve apostles with him and not the wider circle of disciples and followers. The apostles were together as a small community, travelling to a quiet place for rest and not for a challenge or trial.

So what is it that draws us to quiet places like churches, the countryside or even remote Scottish islands? The answer is all around us, this church may be an oasis of calm, but all around us there is busy-ness, noise, distractions. There are mobile phones, more and more people have their heads down looking at small screens, or we’re watching television, or we have the radio on – and all of these things are fine, they are part of our world, but just consider, do they make it more difficult to find time and space to truly rest? It is quite possible to find a quiet place, like the apostles did, and to listen, to rest and to just be, to just breathe. And this may seem obvious, but don’t worry, or feel guilty about what you should be doing. Total silence doesn’t really exist, there are always background noises and sometimes, the only peace we may find will be the time we spend here together this morning.

When God created the universe, this planet, our home, in six days, he was pleased with his work and then, he rested. All these structures we’ve created can get in the way of our relationships with God, if the buildings, the screens, the electronics are taken away, then, we too can get closer, return to creation, to natural, wild places and rest. We can rest, breathe and be with God, let our hearts and souls fulfil the deep longing they have to connect us to God. What is wonderful is that God is always there waiting for us to return to him, to take that step towards wilderness, towards creation, so that he can listen to us and hear our stories. 

What’s even more wonderful is that when God created the wilderness, he created us as well; we are part of creation, of this rich, diverse planet. The wilderness of creation is within us, all it needs is a little space and peace to re-emerge, so that we can rest in God, so that we can sit and talk to Jesus. We don’t even have to go to an uninhabited island. Places and times can be found right where we are and by finding those spaces, we can be refreshed, reconnected and ready to engage with the world and to be disciples with Jesus, through our words, our actions and sometimes, our silence.

Amen

Readings for July 19^th 2015

Jeremiah 23. 1-6

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. ²Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. ³Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord. ⁵The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

Ephesians 2. 11-end

¹¹So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” —a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— ¹²remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

¹⁴For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ¹⁵He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. ¹⁷So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, ²⁰built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²²in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Mark 6. 30-34, 53-end

³⁰The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. ³¹He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. ³²And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. ³³Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. ³⁴As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

⁵³When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. ⁵⁴When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, ⁵⁵and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.