Christ Church Cathedral Fredericton, NB

A sermon by Dean Keith Joyce

³⁰ The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. ³¹ He 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. ³² And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. ³³ Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. ³⁴ As 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.

⁵³ When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. ⁵⁴ When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, ⁵⁵ and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And 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.

Before these men, these disciples of Jesus, could get away on retreat they were discovered by the people. There they were, a large crowd of people coming together in that deserted place where Jesus was taking the apostles for a time of quiet refreshment.

The disciples, here called "apostles," meaning those who have been sent out by Jesus and empowered by him, have returned from their mission and are reporting to Jesus. Their work had caught the attention of many, and so they were being pursued - many people were coming and going, demanding their time and energies - they had no time off, no time to eat.

And so Jesus calls them to a wilderness place, to go to the desert, to withdraw. But there's more to this than just getting a well deserved rest. Mark is drawing our attention to the concept of finding rest, of finding refreshment within the wilderness .

It does seem odd, does it not, that Jesus would take his disciples to the desert for a bit of "R & R"!!! This is not some spa in Arizona, with cucumber wrap and mud baths and daily massages!

Yet it's a recurring theme in the Scriptures, that God provides rest for his people within the wilderness. The presence of Jesus and the provision of God will give to this time of withdrawal the character of rest in the midst of their tiredness and in the barrenness of their location.

Many of us, at times, are confronted with a wilderness. We're "called" into this wilderness, a wilderness that usually is not of our own making. And likely it's the last thing one thinks about, that this is an opportunity for refreshment, for rest!

Yet the divine summons, in those times, is to recognise the presence of Jesus in the midst of them, and to seek one's 'rest' from him. He says, in the expanded words of the Amplified Version of the Bible, "Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls." [Matthew 11:28] And that will almost certainly not mean the instant removal of the wilderness conditions or circumstances.

So how does it work? It starts by trying to be open, by listening with new ears and looking with new eyes - new ears and new eyes that often can be formed by pain and suffering. We don't get those ears and eyes right away because that wilderness experience can be overwhelming. But as we get them we can begin to use them to perceive the presence of Jesus, in whichever way he chooses to demonstrate his presence. And even if we pick up the message of his presence ever so slightly we are reminded we are not alone. The source of life is there, in the desert.

This awareness can come through prayer, or better yet, by just talking to God; through silence; and often through tears - the One who loves us the most is right there, beside us, in us, and we can reach out and touch the hem of his garment - just a small gesture and he will respond with the fullness of his love and presence.

The people don't seem to mind - into the desert they go to receive whatever they can get from Jesus. Actually, they were there for the disciples because it was the disciples who had ministered to them earlier in their missionary journeys into the countryside. But it's Jesus' response to the crowd that we read about - he had compassion on the crowd as it gathered in front of them.

It is often in the plunging into the wildernesses that we see Christ and his ministry at work. When we have very few resources we can be more open to look to him and more willing to receive from him. Sometimes, though, it is a fine line between being open to God in traumatic times, and closing him down completely. But God is patient and he understands.

That wilderness can be a hideous place. We agonize, our faces tight with anger, our sweat pouring off us in despair or intense pain or both, our muscles rigid with fear, the groans of our bellies sharp and intense: "O God, O damn, O hell; O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner; help me!" we shout, or wail without words, all at the same time.

In these stumbling and tumbling thoughts and feelings, communion with God, let alone seeking his refreshment can be the last thing on our mind. But in such heartfelt, barren honesty, and in such truthful screaming out to whoever will listen, there is, strangely, a deep intimacy with God which in fact we may not feel at the time. We've been honest, we've hidden nothing, and he has heard our cry; his presence, his love has never faltered, ever present, closer than the very breath which fills our lungs.

Yet it's only in reflection, perhaps when a small window of insight has opened because whatever we are feeling has subsided a bit, or it has gone all together, that we look back and somehow recognize that we were not alone, that something - grace, and Someone - the Holy Spirit, saw us through that wilderness, or, even though we did not 'feel' it at the time, gave us the refreshment of God's presence, brushed us with that peace that passes all comprehension inside the struggle; and the hope we had but could not identify at the time was indeed real because a life-giving light shone before us, even if only with a flicker. The darkness could not extinguish it; the blackness was not the last word.

While it is in the struggles and the valleys of life that we learn the most about our God, and our faith is stretched and strengthened, there are things we can do to prepare us for those times, and to equip us for every day living. Jesus had compassion on the rushing crowd by teaching them. He gave them instruction - strengthening, encouraging words and ideas - truth for their souls. It's the same for us. We can receive the compassion of Jesus by learning from him, by receiving his teaching, by grappling with the Scriptural portrayal of our Lord, by allowing the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus gives us, to form Jesus more fully, more deeply in our lives.

This happens by taking the time to be quiet, to listen to him, to read of him, to speak to him, to think about anything and everything with the consciousness that Jesus is in on every thought. And we need to be intentional about it, as intentional as we are in wanting to spend time with those we love and who love us, as intentional as we are in taking our holidays. And the blessing of such intention is the companionship of the One who loves us more than anyone else can or will ever love us. Henri Nouwen puts it this way: "When we have met our Lord in the silent intimacy of our prayer, then we will also meet him in the campo, in the market, and in the town square. But when we have not met him in the center of our own hearts, we cannot expect to meet him in the busyness of our daily lives." [from Gracias! A Latin American Journal]

And yet, like those in Gennesaret, there will be the times when all we can do is reach out for the tassels, the fringe of Christ's cloak, the edge of his presence. To that act of faith he responds very simply, without a word, with no conversation but with the free flowing of his love into our lives, to touch us with his peace, his healing, his joy, his hope.

So let's take a few moments of quiet now to ponder these things. You may be in a profound desert experience now, or you sense one is on the horizon, or you are just coming out of one and are reflecting back - regardless, take the time to be honest before God about your thoughts, your feelings. And in the middle of it, regardless of how successful you feel you are being, search out our Lord Jesus Christ, listen for his voice, look into his face and receive the rest, the refreshment that he gives to those who ask. And while you may be asking with much faith, with little faith or with no faith at all - his love for you is not restricted by the degree of your faith, Jesus says: "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." [Luke 11:9-10 NRSV]