Escape to the Desert

They came back. Imagine this gospel story with me: The disciples had just returned from a great mission; a mission in which they were to travel in pairs but to live in poverty. Do you remember the instructions Jesus gave them? Carry no money for the journey, no food, not even any extra clothes. And these disciples, who were a pretty confused bunch most of the time - they still weren't too sure who this Jesus was - they went out to spread the word around Galilee.

What Jesus had told them to do was hard. They had a controversial message that was threatening to the religious leaders of the day. They were supposed to live in the homes of the people they were preaching to! That'll do some strange things to your preaching!

It was hard work, but they did it. Even with all their doubts they managed to walk among the people and call for them to turn back to God. They weren't sure of the whole picture. They weren't quite sure of Jesus' mission. All they knew was that a man had entered their lives and suddenly nothing was the same. That is what they proclaimed. They had been in contact with a life-changing and life-giving power and that was the message they shared. And the people responded.

The disciples must have been surprised at the response. Suddenly they were at the center of profound events. Demons were cast out, sick people were healed and broken lives were miraculously made whole through the power of Jesus' message.

They were excited. They came back together with Jesus, who was sitting by the Sea of Galilee. They were tired - dog tired - because of their long days of preaching and working among the people. When they found Jesus he was in the midst of a crowd, (as he always seemed to be), and they were in such demand that they didn't even have time to eat. They had to yell above the crowd to be heard, but they did yell.

They started to tell Jesus about all the things that had happened on their mission. Jesus could see their excitement - and their fatigue. So he suggested that they take the boat across the small sea to a wilderness area where they could relax in private.

But the people on the shore were now followers and when they saw Jesus leaving with the disciples, they ran along the shore hoping to beat them to their destination, and others joined them along the way. It was a strange sight in a land where the leaders were supposed to be Jewish kings and Roman governors. These people were running to find leadership in a group that chose poverty, not wealth, and simplicity, not power.

When Jesus and the disciples arrived in the wilderness, this desert area in which they hoped to relax, the people were waiting for them. And though the disciples were probably a little disappointed, Jesus had compassion on these people who were so desperately looking for a guide. Jesus began to teach them. His heart went out to them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

The disciples were annoyed. “Look, it’s getting late, Jesus. This is the desert. Send them away so that they can get something to eat.” And other their breaths they were saying, “Send them away so that WE can get something to eat.”

“You give them something to eat,” Jesus said.

“Jesus, there are five thousand people here. Are we going to blow a year’s wages on food for them? We don’t have that kind of money!”

“Then what do you have?”

“Five loaves of bread and two fish.” That was enough. Jesus fed the five thousand and the journey continued.

When I picture all of this in my mind's eye - that group of thousands of people coming out to the wilderness to find Jesus and all that Jesus represented, I picture a scene like the one at the end of the movie Field of Dreams. In that movie Kevin Costner plays an Iowa farmer who hears a voice one day saying, "If you build it, they will come." It's a mysterious voice, but the "it" that it wants the farmer to build is a baseball diamond.

Sure enough, when he clears this valuable acreage out of his cornfields and makes a major-league quality baseball diamond, old, forgotten ball players, long-since dead, appear on the field and begin to play ball. Of course, no one can see this but the farmer and his family and the New York author he picks up along the way, but they are entranced by this magic.

The last scene shows what happens when the word gets out that there is this magical baseball diamond in the middle of nowhere - a great line of cars stretches down the road into the distance, and as the camera angle lifts higher and higher you can see that all the world really is coming to see.

Well, Iowa is heartland, but it is untraveled territory for most Americans, so I suppose it qualifies as wilderness. In that final scene I see a little bit of what was going on in Jesus' time. It's something that is still going on today. A people starved for mystery and wonder and hint of the miraculous will go out into the wilderness to find a hint of that other life we all sense is out there. There is a great hunger to find a little bit of heaven on earth. The crowds of Galilee found it in Jesus. And we find it in...what?

This is one of those days when I am preaching to myself. The message I have is one of judgment on the lifestyles we are living. I’m here as your pastor today to say that many of you are too busy. You have given yourself over to too many things that do not matter and you have forgotten the things that really do matter. You need to go to the desert. You need to find the wilderness place where stories can be told and meals can be shared and all the tangled threads of your life can be rewoven into new cloth. You need a time for healing and learning and growing. You need Sabbath.

If you think back to Lent when we were doing the dramatic reading of the gospel of Mark you might remember that we had Jesus walking all over the sanctuary. He is always on the move in this gospel. But he is also finding regular occasions to go apart and to pray and to try and reconnect with God.

Summer used to be that kind of time. Do you remember that? Remember when summer days used to last forever? Remember when some of the most significant things that could ever happen in your life happened during an unplanned time with nothing was scheduled?

I spent a week at my grandmother’s in Southampton County one year when I was a teenager. It happened to be the same week that my Uncle Bill and his children were there, too. What I remember from that week is my cousin Sherry sneaking an egg into the car when we went out for an afternoon of exploring old, abandoned houses. I remember how creepy those old houses felt and yet how real the history in them was. I remember the unairconditioned car with the windows rolled down and the back of my thighs sticking to the vinyl seats. I remember Sherry breaking the egg accidentally all over the back seat. I remember watching my Uncle Bill writing in a journal and thinking that I wanted to do that, too, and it began a love of writing. These things happen in unplanned times.

So what are you doing to fight back against the things that keep you from renewing yourself and your relationship with God? How do you nourish your soul? Anybody have any tips they’d like to share?...

Finding time in quiet with God ought to be on your daily calendar. Matthew Henry has got me on a physical training program and it is killing me. But he gave me this notebook and I’m writing down, every day, what I’m eating and what I’m doing for exercise. I know I’ve got to have time every day to do this. It ought to be the same way with God. Maybe it’s time for you to get a trainer, a partner, a friend, a small group – some people to give you some support and accountability as you give yourself over to spiritual exercises.

Finding time with family and friends. I need you to pray for us Joyners over the next two weeks. We’ll be going a lot of different directions and I’m already feeling unsettled because of it. Time we spend together is important for keeping the lines of communication open and growing in love.

Finally, being truthful about what you need to be whole is a part of going to the desert. Recognizing where you are broken and seeking out healing. Maybe that’s confronting an addiction that you can’t seem to lick. Maybe it’s dealing with a mental or emotional condition that is sapping the life out of you. Don’t let it go. Look for help. There are resources available. There is the Elijah House Prayer Ministry here at church. There are small groups and AA groups and Narcotics Anonymous groups. Don’t neglect your healing. Jesus certainly didn’t neglect the needs of the people who were coming to the desert to see him. Even though it frustrated the disciples, he had compassion. He still does and he is waiting to meet you.

There is a lot of talk these days about a post-Christian world, meaning that Christianity no longer is as dominant as it once was in this country and in the Western world. But a post-Christian world does not mean that we live in a world that has no soul and no sense of spirituality. There is a tremendous hunger for things spiritual and it is taking many different forms. Whether it is New Age music and religions or environmental solidarity or more Christian-oriented movements like Emmaus - there are many different ways that people are trying to recapture that sense of transcendence that used to be associated with the Christian Church.

But what about the God of Jesus Christ? Is there enough mystery and transcendence in the story of Jesus to cause us to run into the wilderness with no thought of where our next meal is coming just so we can touch the hem of his garment?

Jesus is a lightning rod that calls down all the power of heaven upon us, and a beacon that lures us toward something beyond ourselves.

About a decade ago I went to the desert for a retreat, only the desert was the little island of Iona. It is a place of pilgrimage for many other Christians, too. The first night on the island I was staying in a little bed and breakfast with several other Americans. There was just one bathroom for all of us, and one microwave to cook with, all the restaurants on the island being closed for the winter. So we met a few times in the hall.

I left my room about 9 o'clock that first night and headed to the door to go the abbey church on the island for evening devotions. But one of the women staying there saw me heading out and said, "Oh, there is no service tonight because it's Thursday and they don't do Thursday services in the winter."

I was a little disappointed, because the worship at the abbey is wondrous, but not too disappointed because the wind was fierce outside. It was blowing a gale and there was a lot of talk that we wouldn't be able to leave the island for several days.

At any rate, three of us decided to have our own meditation there at the B&B. We chose a spot in the hallway and sat in a circle with a candle that one of us had brought. The wind howled outside and the lights flickered. It was a wild night.

I found out that the two others in the circle with me were very interested in channeling and new age understandings of Christianity. We shared for a long time that night and it struck me that these two women were hungry for the same thing that I was hungry for - a sense of being a part of something wild and holy, something so powerful that it could lift us out of ourselves and make us part of God.

The difference was that, while I talked about this quest in traditional Christian terms, they were searching for a new language. They talked about past lives and the spirits on the island. I talked about the communion of saints and the transcendent presence of Christ.

The question that arose for me was this: Is the language of Christianity still a language that speaks to the deep needs of the human heart? Are sin and salvation and redemption still terms that speak to us? Or have we pulled all the life out of our story by only offering the world more of the same? More stuff to buy – only with a Christian label…more busy-ness…more activity.

We have a treasure that has been given to us and entrusted in us - and the treasure is the good news of Jesus Christ. It's a treasure that still speaks as powerfully today as it did those many years ago by Galilee. There are great crowds of people out there who obviously are not making it to church today - but they are hungrier than they know to hear it. While we have lived with this story for so long that it sometimes seems like only a little thing - in the hands of Jesus it can feed a multitude.

If we tell it, they will come. They will come to the wilderness and the wilderness is here. We are residents of the wilderness. But the good news is that we have not only come to the wilderness to find Jesus, but Jesus has come to find us as well. Thanks be to God.

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Then the apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and all they had taught. He said to them, "Come away to a wilderness place all by yourselves and rest awhile." For many people were coming and going and they had no time even to eat.

So they went in the boat to a wilderness place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them and they ran together by land from all the cities and arrived before them. Upon arriving he saw the great crowd and had compassion on them for they were like sheep without a shepherd, so he began to teach them many things...

Upon crossing over to the land, they came into Genessaret and weighed anchor. When they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized him an ran about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages, cities or farms, they laid the ill in the markets and called to him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment, and all who touched it were healed.