Title: the Jesus Tour Text: Mark 1:29-39 Date: February 8, 2009 Hope United Church (PCUSA)

Title: The Jesus Tour Text: Mark 1:29-39 Date: February 8, 2015 Hope United Church (PCUSA) By Rev. Dr. James R. Berger

Rays of late-afternoon sun gild the hushed sanctuary, filled with hundreds of expectant worshipers, world leaders among them. From high above, a camera pans the scene.

Holding their breath as one, the congregation watches the mitered priest walk down the aisle and slowly approach the chancel, his brightly colored vestments adding to the joyful ambiance. There is not a cough nor a whisper as he kneels on the lush carpet, seeking divine blessing for the offering. Several moments of prayerful waiting follow.

The bishop stands and grips his scepter. All eyes in the assemblage fasten themselves on this man exuding a holy calm; all ears are tuned to hear the awaited announcement.

Finally, the tap of his staff of authority is followed by a deeper silence. The flock in unison gazes at the pure chalice. Then as the chalice is filled, a grand oratorio of praise explodes, reaching the celestial realm. He raises his scepter and approaches the altar.

One voice, then another, and another exult, That's his third birdie today. --Jean Lersch, “Worship”, The Door, January-February 1998, 29.

Where does one go in our world to find silence? Or where does one seek for the experience of hushed awe, reverence, and worship? More to the point, why should we seek the silence? Jean Lersch, writing in “The Door”, used that example to dramatize how far we have fallen from God’s presence. The place one goes to encounter holy awe is a golf tournament. But do we find what we seek there?

No, we do not. For entertainment is not worship. Relaxation is not worship. Exercise is not worship. And we substitute those for worship at our own peril.

Bottom line: we need that time of awe and reverence known as worship. We need it for the same reason Jesus did. We need it to recreate us, so that we can serve God. Just like Jesus.

In one day, we find Jesus teaching in the synagogue, healing Peter’s mother-in-law, healing the sick and casting out demons. Pushing through the crowds, more healing, more casting out.

Crowds. The city. Demands. Noise.

So the next morning, while it is still dark, Jesus slips out of the city to find some solitude in a deserted place. It was what he needed to do. It is what many people do, often on a Sunday morning, when they go out with a bag of clubs and play a round of golf.

Not Jesus. When he went to a deserted place, he prayed. That’s not what most golfers do when they set up on the first tee, unless it is a prayer concerning their slice. And there is no way the experience of golf can be equated with the deeply spiritual, mystical experience. Granted, there are some lessons for our spiritual lives to be learned from both Jesus’ flight to a quiet place, and a golfer’s drive to the green. Lee Trevino, the famous golfer, once joked, “There are two things you can do with your head down—play golf and pray.” (The Golfer’s Tee Time Devotional [Tulsa, OK: Honor Books, 1997], 79).

Jesus’ example tells us to seek the solitude of prayer, and allow God to renew us in body and soul, so that we can serve him. God meets us for a purpose. God does not come just to listen to our petitions. God comes to pray with us, to refresh the relationship with us, to put himself within us, within you, again.

Sam Sifton wrote in the Travel section of the New York Times last week about bone fishing off of Acklins Island in the Bahamas. This island is extremely isolated. Only 450 people live there. He said, “All around, there is the silence of perfection: wind ruffling the leaves of the cascarilla trees, water slapping against mangrove roots on the Bight. It is difficult not to laugh aloud at this solitude, not yet a full 24 hours’ distance from New York.”

He described the shock of going from New York City to Acklins Island, and not seeing another person, a house, a car, and hearing nothing, no radio or tv, no horns or jackhammers, nothing but the sound of the sea at rest.

Jesus didn’t wait until he had a lovely vacation to the islands before he sought that healing moment of silence with God. Neither should we. Getting away to a “deserted place” can keep our lives in balance and bring us closer to God. A friend once told me that he starts his day by rising early, and sitting on his back porch, in silence, praying quietly, and then continuing with his day.

We can learn to live in the tension of life, the tension between our yearning for perfection on the one hand, and our tendency toward imperfection on the other. You see, the point of self-emptying is not to diminish ourselves, but to make room within our selves for something new and unexpected and life-enhancing and divine.

When Jesus slipped out by himself, he was exercising a humility that leads to strength. It is the attitude that St. Paul counsels us to have in Romans 12 when he says, “I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned you.” If our faith is to rise up on the wings of an eagle, it must first embrace the humility that acknowledges God as the source of our strength.

When we meet God in silence and open ourselves to his healing, and humble ourselves before him, then we find the help we need. We discover that God is already there, waiting for us in the place of silence. In Isaiah 40 the prophets tells us, “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable.” God renews us in the silence of our relationship with our Lord. A young fellow signed on with a logging crew for a summer job. He went to work clearing brush and limbing the fallen trees. However at the end of the week the crew chief could see that he was lagging far behind the other cutters.

At the end of the day the chief called him over and said, “Son, I can see that you’re a hard worker. But you are not producing nearly as well as the rest of the crew. I’m gonna have to let you go.” The boy responded, “But I'm the hardest worker you've got. I arrive first. I leave last. I even work through my coffee breaks. And no one can swing an axe more times per minute than I can.”

The chief thought a moment and asked, “Son, how often do you sharpen your axe?” The kid replied, “Sharpen my axe? I don’t have time to sharpen my axe! I’m too busy trying to keep up with everyone else!”

“In the morning, while it was still early, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he…sharpened his axe.” Now, notice why he sharpened that axe. Because he had a mission to fulfill, and he needed all his tools ready. He leads his disciples on a tour of the region, preaching in all the towns and synagogues. He tells his hearers that the Kingdom of God has come into their midst. Now is the time, to serve your God.

Can you hear Jesus saying that to you today? Christianity has never been a faith that stands still. Jesus was journeying from town to town, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and that all who hear him should repent and trust in God. After his Resurrection and the events of Pentecost, the apostles went out on the road, spreading the message of God’s love and the Lordship of Jesus to the whole world.

The church gets in trouble when it stops. God calls us to keep moving, and proclaiming the good news of salvation to the world. We do that by being a Christ-centered community of faith, led by the Holy Spirit to share God’s love with others. Our Stewardship Campaign is about getting on the Jesus Tour, following as our Lord leads us into new understandings of God’s will for us.

It is about discovering new ways to serve in the name of Jesus. It is getting excited about what God is doing here, at Hope United Church. It is about inviting your friends to church, to the Bible Study and to Fellowship. It is listening to their stories, and letting God give you the response of healing they need to hear.

At one of our Deacon’s meeting two of the Deacons described visiting with a member who was very upset. They said, “After we prayed with her, she calmed down.” Notice what they did. They prayed with her. You do not have to be a Deacon or an Elder or a Minister to do that. Every one of you can pray with the person who is upset.

Sometimes you need to sharpen their ax for them. Sometimes you need to let someone else sharpen your ax for you. Every year you include two weeks of study leave in the pastor’s terms of call. Why does the minister need two weeks of study leave? To sharpen the axe.

Why do we encourage you to attend the Great Banquet or the Walk to Emmaus retreats? To sharpen your axe.

Why does the church encourage you to serve with the teams out at Mision Peniel? Why assist with the Thursday workers? Why help out with the Flea Markets? To use your axe.

Each of these disciplines serve to keep you focused in the whole of life. They are not a substitute for worship. That is where God meets you and fills you. Our conversations with God teach us to keep our heads down in prayer, and then to lift them up in serving. All of these things lead us back to God.

So quiet down, sharpen your axe, and join your Lord on the Jesus Tour. You are not playing for a trophy; you are living like you have a crown in glory.