I’ve spoken a number of times now about discipleship. I’ve talked about how we are called
together. I’ve talked about how Jesus
shares his power with us. I’ve talked
about how we are sent out to do God’s will.
I’ve talked about faith, understanding (or lack of it) and mystery. I’ve talked about how we are supposed to
listen for God’s word in our lives and how we are supposed to spread the word
of God to others.
Our Gospel today speaks about discipleship too, but in
a different way.
The world Jesus lived in was a busy, noisy, crazy
world. Wherever Jesus or his apostles went,
they were constantly called upon to teach and do deeds of power. “For many were coming and going, and they had
no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6:32, NRSV)
The only place that Jesus and his apostles were able to be alone, was
when they were out in their boat. As
soon as they came ashore, the crowds gathered and brought the sick to be
healed. Have any of you ever felt like
that? Where you just can’t get a quiet
moment to yourself, no matter where you try to hide? Me too!
Last week I got myself so would up and excited about
making a noise before the Lord that I completely forgot to talk about another
reason that we gather together.
“The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all
that they had done and taught. He said
to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”” (Mark
6:30-31, NRSV)
Even Jesus needed to take time to rest and rejuvenate his
spirit. He took that time alone or in
the company of his disciples in the wilderness, out on a boat, or in the
company of foreigners. And even then his
quiet time was often interrupted.
One of the reasons that we gather on Sundays is to get
away from our own crazy worlds and spend time resting in the peace of God. Just like Jesus, we need to find rest for our
souls. In my excitement last week, I
forgot to mention this as something that we do really well, and I’m sorry for
that. I believe that finding time for
peace and rest in our busy lives is essential.
This is what we are commanded to do in the fourth commandment: keep the Sabbath. Sabbath time is a time when we do no work,
when we spend time with those we love as they do no work. It is a time of rest for the body and the
spirit. This time of rest is as
important to us as food and shelter. And
sometimes, here in church is the only place we can find it.
But just as Jesus could not get away from the crowds,
we will not always be able to get our own version of Sabbath time by coming to
church. Unfortunately, churches that are
growing do not look like ours. The style
of worship which is drawing young people to the church today is loud and
energetic. It is a style of worship
which does not serve the needs of those who are worshiping here today. For many younger people, the kind of peace
which we do so well is not peace for them, it is work.
And so we are left in a difficult place. We need to continue to worship God in our
traditional way because that is what feeds our souls. As we do this, our numbers will continue to
go down. We will find it harder and
harder to support the ministry of this church both financially and through
gifts of time serving on the councils of the church.
Drastically changing the way we worship won’t help us
either. Our numbers will dwindle even
faster as many of us find that we are not being fed. We would be gone long before we could attract
enough people to the church to replace that support and we would not have lived
up to our commitment to God of serving the needs of this congregation.
I don’t know what the future holds for us in this
parish, but I do know this. What we are
doing today matters. We are doing God’s
work here in this community. We are
serving as we have been called to serve, and with God’s help, we will figure it
out.
And with God’s help, we can build a future on the
peace and companionship which is so strong in this place. Amen.
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