2 Samuel 7:1-14a
                                             Psalm 23
                                             Ephesians 2:11-22
                                             Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
 

Our modern world demands multi-tasking.  A committee turns down an applicant for an administrative position, saying “he’s not the sort of person that can keep several balls in the air at once”.  Look inside the cockpit of an Air Canada 737 and see the fifty dials that must all be monitored closely to ensure our safety.  Venture into the command post of a nuclear power station and wonder at a vast room full of dials and displays, with only two or three controllers.  All of us face endless days of multi-tasking: phones ring off the hook while papers pour out of a FAX machine, urgent e-mails pop-up on our computer screens, and thick dossiers marked urgent are dumped onto our desks.  How can we snatch a few moments even to buy and cook our supper before we take the children off to the baseball diamond?

But overload is not new to this century.  The disciples faced a similar crisis as the ministry of Jesus reached its zenith.  In every village, farm or marketplace, the people brought their sick to Jesus, begging just to let them touch the hem of His clothes. Everywhere, they were hounded by thousands of people, clamouring for teaching and healing.  The harassed disciples had no time to discuss the day’s events, much less to think about what they had seen and heard.  Mark tells us that “they could not so much as eat bread” (Mark 320).  Is it any wonder that the ritual hand-washing of a Jewish meal was neglected (Mark 73), that sometimes they snapped at people and pushed children out of the way (Mark 1013)?  But Jesus was not like some politician or rock-star, with a cordon of police to keep the crowds at bay while he made a quick exit..  He took pity on the crowds that were like sheep without a shepherd (Mark 634).  To the hungry and exhausted disciples, the discouraging word was “take no thought, saying “what shall we eat? or What shall we drink?” (Matt 731).  And when they were just about ready to drop, he  said “Hey, Guys.  Let’s take a mini-vacation, somewhere in the wilderness, before our next assignment”.

Our Bible is big on the virtues of a wilderness experience!  Hagar, the mother of Ishmael (Gen 16), Moses (Ex 193) and the prophet Elijah (1 Kin 1838) all went into the wilderness to find God.  The Israelites spent 40 years in the deserts of the Sinai peninsula before they entered the Promised Land (Ex 14-34).  And John the Baptist found his inspiration in the frugal life of the Qum’ran caves, in the desolate territory to the east of the Dead Sea (Mark 13-6).

So, we read that Jesus and the disciples “departed into a desert place by ship“.  This text seems written specifically for a summer day almost anywhere in Canada.  How many people this weekend are eagerly anticipating rest and relaxation, as they head their canoe or kayak out toward the closely guarded secret of some island sanctuary?  And what will they find when they reach their retreat?  Often, the dream is of solitude and silence.  We need a desert place where we can recover from the turmoil of life in our twenty-first century- the break of a HOLY-DAY where physical and psychological health can be renewed.  Equally, our spiritual lives need a special time and a special place for their renewal.  Our bodies are designated as “an habitation of God through the spirit” (Eph. 222).  And in consequence, “our hearts are restless till they find their perfect rest in Thee.”

A period of solitude can bring new focus and meaning to our  lives. Away from the distractions of our noisy world, we can meet God.  Our hearts can make contact with the eternal ground of our being, and our complex lives can be coloured by fresh hope and new insights.  Some people enjoy the reality of a wilderness adventure- the silence of the nights and the calm majesty of the stars.  My younger daughter is a great canoe enthusiast, and she is most aggrieved if she sees other people during the course of a four week trip along the Nahani, or one of those other, endless rivers that traverse our arctic northlands.  But many of us are urban people.  All too quickly, we become tired of the wilderness experience.  After a few weeks in the wilderness, the Israelites were soon moaning to Moses that life had been much easier in downtown Alexandria, where there was a Kosher butcher right at the end of the street.  How could they expect to find the food and drink they needed in the barrens of the desert? (Ex 16).  Most of us keep a well-stocked fridge at our cottages, but we are still frightened of a power cut, and hesitate to listen to the silence that surrounds us.  No sooner have we reached our island retreat, than we want to hook up our radio, or turn on our ghetto-blaster, drowning out the message of the wilderness that could renew our spirits.

The Canadian north is vast enough that the dream of solitude can often become a reality.  But in the compact kingdom of Israel, travel is on a different scale.  Galilee is a lake with a maximum width of perhaps 13 km, and an open shore line with no fences or rocky headlands.  So, the rest and relaxation of your mini-vacation can be short-lived!  On the day of our Gospel passage, the crowd soon spotted which way the boat was going.  They raced ahead on foot, and were already waiting as the disciples came to land.  Now a milling crowd of 5000 were hungry, exhausted, and stuck with sore feet miles from home.  They needed not only teaching and healing, but also food.  The boat was beached not too far from the little town of Gennesaret, the “garden of princes”.  All too soon, helpful onlookers were rushing around the countryside, dragging in further stretcher-loads of sick people to add to to the confusion.  So, the disciples found themselves thrown into the next phase of the cycle that Jesus had found so effective in His ministry- a cycle based on Solitude, Silence, and Prayer, followed by Service.

We are usually more lucky in our quest for relaxation.  We can turn off our cell phones and our palm pilots.  Our rest and relaxation can continue uninterrupted for several weeks.  Yet we, too, never escape the claims of our world.  We carry with us into the wilderness our power over evil and an ability to point others to God.  And even if we never tire of the wilderness experience, ultimately we must follow the cycle that leads from solitude, silence, and prayer to renewed service amidst all the daily hassles of life in the city.
 Colleagues will surely notice that we have been on vacation, as much from the smile on our face and the warm glow in our hearts as from the tan on our arms.  We once had a minister in Toronto who would preach the most marvellous sermons for two or three weeks in September.  But as the fall progressed, the grind of committees, counselling and endless funerals showed itself in ever more gloomy messages from the pulpit.  I suspect he was not alone in allowing the fall to wear him down.  By the end of September, many of us will long once again for the peace and quiet of a desert place.

How can we sustain that inner peace as the days get shorter and the rains get heavier?  Perhaps the most obvious place to start is in our church.  Nathan saw this in the conversation that we have read today (2 Sam 7 1-14)- here we are, living in our beautiful sub-division, with all of the homes framed in best cedar, yet the wisdom of the Torah scrolls lies dumped out back, under an old tarpaulin.  Hadn’t we better make an equally beautiful cedar temple to worship God?  These days, many people are willing to build a place of worship.  Sometimes, they seem too eager.  I shudder to think of the speed with which half a million dollars was raised to install a new organ in one wealthy Vancouver church.  But in Squamish; it was an uplifting experience for me to see so many members of our community busy with saws and paintbrushes, keeping our temple in good physical shape.  We are perhaps less diligent in making each Sunday morning a "wilderness adventure."   The simple discipline of quiet worship and reflection can do wonders to sustain the richness of our spiritual lives.  As in the church at Ephesus (Eph 2), an hour in the sanctuary can quell our angry thoughts, break down the divisions that separate us one from one another, and make us fellow citizens with the saints of the household of God.  It can bring us into the peace of green pastures, and the quiet of still waters (Psalm 23).  It can comfort us in times of sorrow and affliction, and it can add a special joy to the high points in our lives- the weddings, the anniversaries and the baptisms.

We also need a wilderness in our home or garden, a place where we can be alone with God on a daily basis.  Children are very good at finding a secret place, somewhere to escape the frustrations of spoiled friendships and nagging parents.  Our older daughter had a beaten-up old rocking-horse in our basement, and if she felt badly treated or despondent, she would take a long, quiet journey on her silent friend.  Other children have a tree-house, or a den in the nearby woods.  But as parents, we often lack such a retreat.  We must learn from our children, and find a quiet place where we can be alone with our God.  Jesus knew the value of this discipline, and His example motivates us to set aside a time when we can step back from the busyness of our day to reflect on the deeper purpose of our being.

We can also find opportunities for a mini-vacation during the winter months. Wonderful friendships, new ideas and spiritual renewal can come from a weekend retreat at the Naramata Centre, or a short extension course at the Vancouver School of Theology.  And you can find all of the information you need about such opportunities if you follow the links on the Spiritual Resources page of our church web-site.

Some people find inner peace by curling up beside the fire with an inspiring book.  Unfortunately, there is not too much inspirational material in our local Public Library.   Maybe we should do more to influence their choice of book purchases.  But again, you can find a selection of helpful books listed on the church web-site.  We can share good reading material with one another, and throughout the year there are opportunities for group-study of thought-provoking texts.

If reading is not your thing, you can watch a challenging video, something that offers a worthwhile alternative to the standard Hollywood fare.  Again, it is difficult to sort the good from the bad, but the church web is beginning to develop a listing of worth-while videos, but I need your help to enhance this page.

An anonymous poem talks about the idea of taking time for God:

Take time to think; it is the source of power.
Take time to read; it is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to play; it is the secret of staying young.
Take time to be quiet; it is the opportunity to seek God.
Take time to be aware; it is the opportunity to help others.
Take time to love and be loved; it is God's greatest gift.
Take time to laugh; it is the music of the soul.
Take time to be friendly; it is the road to happiness.
Take time to dream; it is what the future is made of.
Take time to pray; it is the greatest power on earth.

Let us ask ourselves "What are we doing to nurture our spiritual lives?"  And if the answer is, "Nothing," then perhaps it's time for us to begin planning our wilderness adventure!

Amen.