Rosedale United Church

‘Please Do Not Disturb‘ February 5, 2012

Rosedale United Church

(Isaiah 40 : 27-31, Mark 1 : 29-39)

Doug Norris

Click here to open an audio recording of this message.

I’ll begin with a confession. I was caught sleeping on the job this week.

Among the various odd items sitting around my office – there is a 4 foot long pencil, 2 guitars that I never use, a shovel, a bobble-head Jesus statue – there are a couple of pillows.

I tell people that these are there because occasionally while working on a sermon I’ll put myself to sleep. This is a reliable sign that it’s not going very well. In fact, the pillows are for the practice of meditation. I am partway through a course in mindfulness meditation. And part of the process is an ongoing and regular practice of meditation. 30 minutes, 15 minutes, 3 minutes, various intervals several times each day. I’m not keeping up.

This week I had 30 minutes free before a scheduled appointment was to arrive, and I had a 30 minute meditation to do, so quickly out come the pillows to see if I can squeeze this in, quickly put the CD on, quickly go still… A couple of obvious lessons were learned. A – you can’t quickly do meditation. B – you can easily fall asleep during meditation.

So sure enough at the 20 minute mark just as I dozed off, my scheduled appointment arrived ten minutes early, I jolted awake, answered the door with bed-head, a dozy look, and a pillow under my arm.

‘Those who wait for the Lord’, said Isaiah to the people of Judah, ‘will be renewed, find strength, and power to carry on…’ Part of me really wants to spend time ‘waiting for the Lord’, to go to deep inner places, to live in that centred way.

So why is this so difficult? It is perhaps the single most common personal spiritual question of our time – why can’t I get still? Why is there no time to stay whole and well, in the midst of work and children and parents and baking muffins for school… Bumper sticker : ‘Don’t just do something, sit there!’

And to flip Isaiah’s idea, perhaps if we are chronically feeling not renewed, not strong, not able to walk, perhaps we are still not ‘waiting for the Lord’, still not, as we sing in the hymn, ‘coming to find the quiet centre, in the crowded life we lead…‘ Hold onto this thought for a moment – we’ll come back to it.

The reading : Last week we were Corinth, a divided church. Today I’m going to ask you to imagine that we are Capernaum. Look for a moment at the window at the balcony.

we are standing in Capernaum. I had always thought that this lovely window was a generic scene, an artist putting Jesus into a nice backdrop, like one of those fake libraries on canvas at a portrait studio. And the first Sunday back from our trip, with some of you, to Israel a few years ago, I realized this is exactly the setting of Capernaum.

small town, a fishing port on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is about the size of Lake Joseph.

to the north, and in fact all around are the hills, the land rising up.

to the south is the Jordan River and the road to Jerusalem.

Capernaum is the site of much of the ministry of Jesus. He calls his disciples there, preaches in the synagogue there, it is the hometown of Peter, and the house of Peter became one of the first churches – the ruins are still in place.

On that trip a few years ago our guide, Leslie, spoke about Capernaum. He said that among all of the usual aspects of it – being a fishing port, and being a Roman tax and customs centre, it is also situated low, right by the shores of Galilee, and rising above it is the hill country. And he said that in the cold season it was harder for the people who lived in the hills, especially any who might be weak, or sick, and so they would come down to the town, to the warmer air by the shore. So the population of Capernaum often included a number of people who were not well, and likely the companions who had brought them.

So – here’s the reading. We are Capernaum – some of you are the hill people and some of you are the shore people and some of you are the travelers, on the road, looking for comfort and healing.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

Here in this geography is the perennial human dance, with three clear steps : there is, amid all of the beauty, trouble for us, weakness and grief. And in this we will find companions to carry us. And there will be healing. Trouble, and companionship, and healing. I have come so that you might have life…

Here is the rest of that passage :

In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you. He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Let’s picture that scene : Jesus creeps out of the house – carrying his sandals so as not to wake anybody up – slips out to the edge of town where nobody can see him – I recall it as a place of high soft grasses – and he puts his pillows down on the office floor to spend some time waiting for the Lord. And 20 minutes later he hears them – thrashing through the grass – Jesus ! Hey, Jesus ! You have appointments, man ! How can we get this movement rolling if you just lie here thinking ! Let’s go! You’re the man !

Maybe they were imagining already the words of that hymn we sing :

O Jesus, from the mountainside, make haste to heal these hearts of pain.

Among the restless throngs, abide, and tread the city streets again!

So he goes – as we do, time and again, back into the fray, with bed-head and a pillow under our arm, knowing that while we have not been long enough in the deep centre of the Holy, there is work to do.

And so very often it is precisely that return to the fray that comes in the voice of the Church – we are Simon Peter tramping through the grass looking for people who could be called on for our holy work – and the voice of the church is so often a song of demand – won’t you come to do this work with us ? To feed the hungry and to house the poor and build new ways – and this is without question holy work.

But the voice of the Church is also Jesus calling ‘Come to me, you who are weary, and I will give you rest…’

So, some invitations. If you are caring for others, your partner, your child, your parent, you are pouring yourself out and you need to be filled. There will be, next Monday, here, a gathering with Karen leading to learn about caring for those who are caring for others. This is not just duty, it is ministry.

And next Sunday evening, there will be a deeply quiet time here, our next Taize service. A place to wait upon the Lord, with no appointments knocking at the door, prayerful song, and silence. In a few minutes we’re going to sing one of the Taize songs with our prayers.

And now, we are coming to the Table of Jesus. Jesus who went to the door of the house in Capernaum and saw a sea of faces, saw the vast quiet swaying dance going on, and understood : there is beauty and there is trouble, and the people with trouble have companions who have brought them, and God has in mind that there be healing, and life…

To be a companion is to be ‘bread-with’ – so to this we turn now – to be ‘bread-with’ one another.