Nagoya Mission

February 22, 2009

Mark 9: 2-9

         Most of you are probably familiar with the expression: “a sinking feeling?”  This expression speaks of a sensation caused by uneasiness or apprehension for example “I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.”  
         That idiom is both literal and figurative for 97,000 Pacific islanders because the ocean is rising and their islands are sinking.  The Republic of Kiribati, also known as the Gilbert Islands, is an island nation near New Zealand.  The nation is comprised of 32 coral atolls, many of which are inhabited by the nation’s citizens.  So, why that sinking feeling… because Kiribati is slowly being swallowed by the ocean.
         The highest point of elevation in Kiribati is less than 2 meters above sea level.  Over the last 10 years, oceanographers have measured an almost 50-cm rise in ocean level and two uninhabited islands have already gone under the ocean.  That means that 25 percent of K the nation’s elevation is under the sea, and the outlook is grim for the land mass that remains. 
         The island nation’s President recently pleaded for help from the international community during a United Nations’ press conference.  “We may already be at the point of no return,” he claimed.  He believes that his nation’s population will need to find someplace else to live by 2100.1
         I bring this up because in our lesson from 2 Corinthians a small part of an extended discourse, the apostle Paul is responding to the sinking feeling of the Christians in Corinth.  It is not an island that’s disappearing from view, rather it is the gospel.  Paul responds to the fears the gospel is being hidden, veiled, from those who would otherwise believe.  Christ’s glory is unseen.  Looking at the situation in Corinth Paul says one may feel like the gospel is sinking out of sight.
         What about in our lives, do we sometimes feel that the gospel is sinking?  Is it disappearing from view?  Or do we wonder why the Christ is veiled for others.  Why can’t they see?
         Let us talk about veils and their symbolism.  Many of us have an image of an Islamic woman in a strict Muslim nation hidden behind a blowing tent like black canopy with eyes peering out.  That is one contemporary understanding.  Or our other image is one we may occasionally still see in a wedding.  The groom stands next to his veiled bride throughout the ceremony.  At some point, after the exchanging of vows, the new couple will kiss.  Now, for the first time, her veil is lifted, and their kiss seals the life that lies ahead of them ? the lifting of the veil is a physical ratification of the covenant just created.
         I do not know about Japan or other places in the world, but in the US for all but the most formal of weddings, the bridal veil has fallen out of style.  It’s considered old-school fashion and an expense that is not necessary.  Thus because of the contemporary mental picture of a veiled Muslim women and the disappearance of veiled brides, most of us do not realize the symbolic meaning and role of the veil in Scripture.
         In Scripture a veil separates those on either side of it.  On one side is that which is understood to be pure, glorious and divinely appointed.  On the other side is that which has not yet beheld it.  For example, in Genesis 24, Rebekah is fresh off of her camel as Isaac’s fianc?.  Before she meets him, she slips on a veil to cover her face.  In that movement, she’s telling Isaac that she’s a virgin.  As a follower of the God of Abraham, she has remained pure.
         Veils are not just for women.  In Exodus 34, Moses has met with God and now his face beams with “Shekinah” or translated into English, “radiance.”  Aaron and the Israelites are literally afraid to approach him, so when Moses is in their presence, he covers his face with a veil to hide its radiance.  
         We also see veils used symbolically, even dramatically, as in Matthew 27.  At the moment of Jesus’ death, the 1/3 of a meter thick curtain, veiling the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem is torn apart.  The tearing of this curtain symbolizes that because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, all may come to know God’s presence; it is no longer veiled.  Matthew continues by saying that the tombs break open and dead saints spill out among the living.  A new spiritual reality has just been unveiled.
         With all that in mind, let us return to our lesson.  If Jesus represents God’s unleashing of another dimension to human existence, why don’t more people see and respond to it?  Why does the Light of Jesus Christ sometimes seem so low in wattage, in those around us or even in our own lives?  Why is the Christian faith viewed as only one entr?e among other dishes at a food line?  These questions are ones the followers of Jesus Christ in Corinth, Greece were asking.  Paul responds using the biblical image of a veil.
         Paul answers that “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”2  Evil does not want us to see or know clearly because it is to evil’s benefit that we do not.  It is better for evil if we are confused and in the dark.
        We also sense from Paul, although it is not clearly stated here that the gospel might be veiled in the ruts and routine of daily life which make it hard for faith to stay alive.  For example, for many Christians in the time of Paul a real question was whether to eat food that had been blessed at local temples.  Paul writes that our faith will not be veiled by what we eat and the manner that is was handled. 
         What about us?  How is the Gospel sometimes veiled?  Perhaps the gospel might be sinking in our lives because it is simply not cool to be a believer.  Or it may be sinking because we are afraid of the misunderstanding and cultural ostracism we might face if we really embraced the claims of the gospel.  Or because we have intellectual difficulties with some Christian claims.
         Paul does not answer all those points but we get a glimpse of his response today; “For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.”3  In other words, the tension that we may feel regarding the gospel, seeing and living it out … is the tension of “already-not yet.”  When a person knows God through Jesus, the light of the gospel is obvious; it’s already been seen.  Those of us with unveiled faces see the glory of God as plainly as our reflection in a mirror.4 
         But, for those whose eyes are still veiled, the gospel is an issue of “not yet.”  For those who are not Christian it is not that may never believe in Jesus Christ, Paul is saying rather “it is not yet….”5  Furthermore, that tension of “already-not yet” we may see played out in our lives as we go back and forth, rocking between the those points, as new issues, concerns and questions arise in our lives.  
         Paul is reminding those believers in Corinth to rise and shine, trust in what is known from the inside and not to sink into the darkness.  The truth of God has been unveiled in Jesus Christ. 
         In many churches, today is called Transfiguration Sunday, because Jesus Christ is fully unveiled before the disciples.  Before they climbed the mountain, Peter, James and John had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but now during this event they saw his divinity fully.  Their eyes were unveiled to a new reality.  Peter however was afraid to let go of that moment, when Jesus Christ was revealed, and instead tried to figure out a way to keep it.
         The gospel of Jesus is, in essence, for Paul, an unveiling as well.  A barrier between God and humanity is removed because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We too may feel like Peter, a fear that what was unveiled to us may somehow sink out of view, afraid that the little we have may go away.  But God says and Paul reminds us that we do not have to be afraid.  Though we may have a sinking feeling, as new questions and concerns flood over us, we can trust and hope in what has been unveiled, and share that light with others.  Amen.

1 nature.com/news/2008/080606/fullnews.2008.880.html. Also “On Kiribati: Too late to save Pacific island nation from submersion.” Nature. June 6, 2008.  Also see: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati.
2 Vs. 4
3 Vs. 5
4 2 Corinthians 3:18
5 2 Corinthians 3:16

February 15, 2009

Mark 2: 13-17 (Reminder that I am following the Japanese Ev. Lutheran Church lectionary; It sometimes differs from the lectionary calendar used by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America)

        At first, Tuesday, February 17th in the USA was to have been the deadline for a conversion, but because of the public outcry, it is now a “rolling” event with the final date to be June 12th.1  In Japan the conversion will be during the month of July 2011.  In the UK and parts of Western Europe, conversion will come region by region until 2012.  It has already occurred in the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.  
       What conversion am I speaking about?  It is the end of analog television broadcast and the end of analog TV sets.  From Feb. 17th until June 12th 2009, TV programs across the US will eventually all be broadcast digitally.
       Now, for those of us who are young and have grown up in a digital age we may not have known that TV was not already digital and wondering why the fuss, (because we watch TV on the internet anyway).  But those of us who are older may grasp that there is a sea change taking place.  That conversion does not mean simply having to buy a new TV or a converter, rather, since the very beginning of radio and TV and the first magnetic recordings, audio and video transmission has been analog, broadcast at different spectrums across the skies.
      The switch from analog to digital television broadcasting is referred to as the digital TV (DTV) transition.  Why is this conversion happening?  Among many reasons, it allows broadcasters to transmit more channels with higher-quality image and sound.  Moving to digital also frees up the existing analog spectrum for other uses such as cell phones.  And the transition has to do with money.  The older, analog spectrum that was used for TV was auctioned off in the US in 2006 for nearly $20 billion or 1 trillion, 800 billion yen.2  Whatever you may think of this transition it does not alter the fact that the digital format is progress.
      What does this technological transition have to do with our lives as followers of Jesus Christ?  Today’s reading from Mark, the calling of Levi, the toll collector, to follow Jesus, gives us an opportunity to think about --- transition, conversion, the call --- in our lives.  Jesus called out to Levi, one of the “sick,” and everything in that man’s life changed.
 Yet we know so little.  We hear nothing about where Levi sat, how much money Levi made or more importantly why he followed Jesus.  And one can argue that we know nothing of his identity or subsequent importance.  But the point is, this Levi, whatever his personal details, was separated from his community and temple, unable to follow Jewish law, and thus considered not part of God’s kingdom because of his occupation and life-style.  How did it happen that this Levi responded to the call, “Follow me” and followed Jesus; Levi converted, was made whole and went from outcast to cast in, from unclean to clean, from brokenness to wholeness; a changed life and a follower of Jesus Christ.
       Let’s review some of what we know.  Levi, son of Alphaeus is a toll collector, meaning that he was at a location where people had to pay a toll.  As a toll collector and thus an employee of Herod Antipas the king, and from what we know from other historical records, he was suspected of financial dishonesty, perhaps supplementing his salary by taking a cut of the toll and/or accepting bribes.  Furthermore, as an employee of the king, a collaborator with the Romans, this occupation was considered as disloyal to the Jewish cause.3
       Next we hear there is a banquet where the guests are people who are considered “sinners” including other toll collectors.  We need to be clear that we do not know if that means those gathered around Jesus were notoriously immoral.  This designation as sinner rather was a social characterization meaning society considered them as outcasts.
      Jesus responds to the question of why he associates with these people “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”4
      What is Jesus saying?  In the Bible, the Hebrew word for conversion is shub, which means “to turn” or “to return,” and the Greek word is metanoia, which means “to turn around.”  In the case of this Levi whom Jesus called, there was clearly a transition.  Levi stepped away from the toll booth, and followed Jesus.
      Now, the conversions, the ones we usually hear about, are often accompanied, at least initially, by excitement, zest, intensity, an eagerness to tell others about it and efforts to make significant changes in one’s life.  And often, the converted person looks back at the time of the conversion as a significant turning point.
      For example, consider how the US folk singer Judy Collins describes her turn from classical music performance to folk music performance.  She was 14 years old when this happened, had been playing piano for 11 years and loved classical music.  Her piano teacher was a famed pianist and she told Collins that she had a bright future in classical music performance.
      But then one day, while Collins was preparing to perform with a local orchestra, she happened to hear the 17th-century English ballad “Barbara Allen” on the radio, sung by Jo Stafford.  It was the first folk song Collins had ever heard, but it captured her.  Here’s how she describes the moment: “... the poignancy of Stafford’s music about a woman’s remorse over her lover’s death changed everything.  Its message was so potent; it tapped into my adolescent yearnings of love and loss.  Hearing its poetic, antique lyrics made me sit up and say, ‘That’s what I want to do: tell stories with my music.’  It was like hitting a vein of gold.”
         She goes on to say that the full switch took about a year.  She continued studying piano while immersing herself in folk music.  She taught herself to play a guitar.  Her parents and her piano teacher opposed the change, but Collins had become convinced that her future was in folk music.  And once she made the change, she says, she “felt ecstasy, as if a burden had been lifted.”  That sounds like conversion to me, for it was a life-changing turning point.  It was marked by deep feelings, a sense of calling and other characteristics that often accompany conversion.5
        Yet, these two conversions --- Levi’s and Collins’ --- are to some degree models of what any conversion can look like.  We say “can” because God deals uniquely with each person.  For example, anyone one of us may have cancer, but how that cancer is treated will be different with each of us.  Certainly there are some standard procedures and medications, yet treatment is unique.  Jesus came for the sick, the unhealthy and called for a transition, a conversion, repentance in preparation for God’s kingdom; however, this “turning around” is unique to each one of us.
       Some of us may have had something similar to Judy Collins occur, perhaps a dramatic opening of ourselves at church camp or a youth rally or a revival service where we committed ourselves to follow Jesus.  And that may have been a real milestone experience that we can look back on and say, “Right there. That’s when I became a Christian.  And my life has been different because of the turn I made at that point.”
       But others of us cannot point to a moment of conversion.  We may have a “rolling” transition, attended church since childhood and grew in the faith as it was presented to us.  We may have accepted Jesus along the way without ever wandering deeply into sin or recognizing a moment of turning from it.  Or we may have entered the church as a teen or an adult and rationally opened our mind to the faith and recognized that we agreed with it.  Or we may have had a combination of all those examples.  There may have been no precise moment when that happened, but we know today that we are disciples of Jesus Christ.  
       Yet, we sometimes forget, that a lack of a detailed conversion story, like Levi, is no shortcoming in terms of our acceptance by God in Jesus Christ.
       Instead, whether we’ve had a turning-point experience or not, as this lesson reminds us, Jesus Christ came to the sick, which is what we acknowledge about ourselves.  We recognize that we are sick and we need the treatment of God through Jesus Christ.  That is the crucial point about conversion in today’s lesson.  Our transition, our turning around, is both unique and important for each one of us.  It is an event but it is also a process of becoming well.  We have been invited, “follow me.”  Also like this lesson, we also have been invited to the table of the Lord.  We have been invited to health.  Amen.        

1 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/digital_television_transition/index.html?scp=1-spot&sq=digital%20TV%20transition&st=cse
2 Ibid.
3 The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall: New Jersey, Pg. 602.
4 Mark 2: 17.
5 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1006077,00.html

February 8, 2009

Mark 2: 1-12

    The basic definition of a “question” according to the dictionary I used first said this: “a sentence in an interrogative form, addressed to someone in order to get information in reply.”1  For example, an interrogative question could be: “What time is it?”  That however is not the only definition of the word “question.”  It includes: “the act of asking or inquiring; interrogation; query” like we see in this statement: “Pastor C questioned the students.”2
     Another definition of the word “question” is: “a problem for discussion or under discussion, a matter for investigation.”3  For example, three friends die in a car crash, and they find themselves at the gates of heaven.  Before entering, they are each asked a question by St. Peter, “When you are in your casket and friends and family are mourning your death, what would you like to hear them say about you?”  The first person says, “I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor and a great family man.”  The second person says, “I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and schoolteacher who made a huge difference in our children.”  The last person replies, “I would like to hear them say ... LOOK!!! HE’S MOVING!!!”4
     With the variety of descriptions for “question” available, we have to wonder what Jesus is asking, what answer is he seeking, in his question today, and what is the answer Jesus gives.
     In today's passage from Mark the center of the lesson revolves around a very difficult question, “Why are you thinking these things?  Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’”5  That's not easy to answer; moreover one has to wonder what definition of “question” Jesus has in mind.  Was it an interrogative question seeking information, or is Jesus suggesting this as a topic of investigation or is simply a question with an unknown answer?
     This query by Jesus comes after we heard Jesus described in the first chapter of Mark; which have been our lessons for the past few weeks.  We began with Jesus gathering his early disciples at the lake shore, and then we are at the synagogue in Capernaum for a dramatic exorcism.  Later that same day we are at the home of several of the disciples which begins with a healing of a relative and then others who come to the door.  After that busy day, and a short night, Jesus suggests that he and the disciples move on to other nearby communities.  We come to our lesson today, a couple of days after those earlier events.  Mark begins by saying that Jesus had “come home" to Capernaum.? At whose home, we are not told.? But we are informed that the crowds packed into the house so tightly that no one else could squeeze through the door.
     Then we hear the dramatic account of four people who could not get a paralytic friend through the front door.  Instead, they rip a hole through the flat roof of this house, no mean feat considering it was probably several layers of dried stucco, wood and thatch.  Then when the dust is clear the paralytic, who Jesus calls “son,” makes it inside and is placed on the floor.  Jesus surprises everyone not with an interrogative question like “Who is going to pay for that?”  Instead, Jesus offers a word of forgiveness.  After seeing their faith, Jesus says, "Your sins are forgiven," even though the paralytic and his friends never ask for that.
     Now Jesus reads the minds of the religious types present.  Rather than saying out loud what is on their minds, these religious leaders are all thinking the same thing: only God can forgive sins!
     Jesus asks a question: “Why are you thinking these things?  Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk?’”  When Jesus asked that question, all believed that only God could forgive sins and as God was in heaven how can this plain, simple man forgive sins?  Jesus goes on to do another amazing act, a miracle … a healing.  If that was not enough, the crux of that question revolves around the fact that all the people in the room, except for Jesus, believed that one’s health was related to sin, either one’s own or from previous generations.
     Well, that question is not just for them for we struggle with; the relationship between sin and sickness.  Although science has blessed us with many answers, reminding us that our lifestyles, the environment, the evolving of germs, genes, and a host of other causes may eventually cause illness and death, the fact remains that good people, for seemingly no reason, get ill.
     Today’s events retold to us by Mark suggest that healing is part of salvation; forgiveness of sins is a prerequisite to healing.  The two certainly appear to be linked in our text; faith brings forgiveness of sins which leads to physical healing.  But this lesson also suggests that if were not for the anger of the people, particularly the religious leaders around him, Jesus would have been done after he forgave the paralytic’s sins.  Surprisingly Jesus brings healing to this “son” not because physical healing is harder to do, rather because of the scandal about “forgiveness of sins.”
     So the questions remains, what was that healing?  Was it the forgiveness of sins, the physical healing, or both?  And are they linked?
     It is like Jesus knows we are sitting on the cold floor of a small house, staring up at a God who knows us more deeply than we can imagined --- so deeply in fact that he sees right past what we thought to be our deepest desires. It doesn’t matter whether we approached Jesus ourselves, or because our legs failed us or so that someone else had to drop us down next to him.  
     A number of years ago, a woman went to a church conference. During the week she found herself chatting with a pastor from another denomination than the one to which she belonged.  In the course of the conversation, the pastor mentioned that on an average Sunday morning, he rarely preached for less than an hour.  “I don't mean to be disrespectful,” this woman said, “but why do you go on for so long?”  He smiled and said, “What do you mean?”  “In my church,” she said, “people squirm if worship goes on any longer than 59 minutes.”  He said, “I preach to people who have been told all week that they don't amount to anything.  The world tells them they have no value, that they're worthless.  It takes me a good long while to get it through to them that the world is telling them a lie.  The world says to them, ‘You're a nobody,’ but I stand up in my pulpit and say, ‘That's not true. In Jesus Christ, you're somebody. You are loved with an infinite love.’”  The pastor continued “All week the world tries to take something away from people but when Sunday comes, I'm going to take as much time as I need to speak the gospel and to let God give something back to them.”6
     When Jesus asked his question, what kind of question was he asking?  Was he asking for a definition of the relationship between sin and healing?  Was he suggesting that one followed the other?  Was it simply a rhetorical question?  Is answer that needs an hour versus 20 minutes?  We don’t hear much about the religious leaders’ response but in Mark, the plotting of the death of Jesus comes very quickly.
     As Christians who have not yet reached perfection, we find ourselves having received some measure of forgiveness --- possibly healing for a sickness we did not know we had at first --- yet still wanting more and sometimes doubting if Jesus can do what he did in the first place.
     The point in the question of Jesus is we are forgiven; we are healed.  Whether Jesus will grant us or anyone else physical healing, I cannot say.  And forgiveness of sins and physically healing are linked.  But if we or the people we love are physical healed or not, the fact remains that we cannot say “yes” without saying “no.”  We cannot have it both ways.  When we say “Yes” to God we have to say “No” to whatever it is that keeps us from trusting, from faith.  We say yes, so that God might say yes to us in Jesus Christ.  Jesus was spreading the good news of the kingdom of heaven, and he healed all that was keeping the paralytic from wholeness.  “This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’”  What is “this” for you and for me?  Amen.
 

Prayer: Gracious God, receive us and restore us this day.  Set us free from our sin and replenish our hope.  Amen. 

1 http://dictionary.reference.com/search?db=dictionary&q=question
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Illustration from www.homiletics.com
5 Vs.9-10
6 Sermon: So What Did You Get Out of Worship This Morning? , By Rev. William Carter, February 20, 2000. www.Day1.org

February 1, 2009

Mark 1:29-39

    The American architect Frank Lloyd Wright was fond of repeating a story that he said had a profound influence on the rest of his life.  When he was about nine years old, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved and no nonsense uncle.  As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him.  The uncle pointed out his own tracks in the snow that were straight and true, and then the uncle pointed to young Frank's tracks meandering all over the field.  "Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again," his uncle said.  "And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal.  There is an important lesson in that."
     Years later the world-famous architect liked to tell how the experience had contributed to his philosophy in life. "I determined right then not to miss the things in life that my uncle had missed."1  Frank Lloyd Wright saw those tracks in a completely different way than that of his uncle.  His uncle believed the meandering was aimless whereas Frank Lloyd Wright saw it as the purpose of the walk.  Said another way, it is easy to let the demands of life keep us from seeing the joys of living.
     Although we all may appreciate Wright’s point of view, it is easier said than done, as balancing the meander with the demands of life are not always simple and can be bewildering.
     Yet, Wright’s observation is one with which we all live, basically that life itself is but a journey and at times we are intent on a purpose and other times life can be less intent and more a meander.  Furthermore, that mantra, life is but a journey, expressed and discussed in many cultures, is lived out for many of us as Christians.  Today’s gospel has some insights for us on what Jesus Christ means for us as he teaches us about our lives.
     Today, we find Jesus in his work of healing.  Today’s lesson continues where last week’s left off.  It is the Sabbath, the Jewish holy day and a day of rest.  Nevertheless Jesus has had little rest, for early in the day Jesus had taught in the synagogue in Capernaum, and if you remember, while he was teaching, “with authority” Jesus was interrupted by a demon.  Jesus proceeded to cast out that demon.  After this dramatic exorcism, witnessed by an astonished assembly, Mark says that Jesus retreats to the home of Simon and Andrew with James and John, all who just recently had become disciples.2  In that culture, when Jesus arrived, normally they would have been met and served by Simon’s mother-in-law, considered the senior woman of the house.  It was considered a privilege for the senior woman to initiate and be the primary source of hospitality to a visitor.
     But Mark tells us that the woman was lying in bed with a fever.3  Having heard his teaching and witnessed the exorcism of the demon, the disciples had suddenly found that Jesus has amazing powers, so they tell him of her illness.  Mark continues “So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up.  The fever left her and she began to wait on them.”4
     The events in the synagogue and later that day of course spread throughout the community to the point that Mark notes that many had gathered around the door, pressing in to see Jesus.  It was as you can imagine a full day.  Early the next morning, Jesus woke up early and left for a “solitary” place.  In Greek the word that is translated as solitary or deserted is the same used for “wilderness” meaning a place without homes or farms.
      Clearly, the demands on Jesus were already piling up.  We see already that he cured many, cast out demons, and taught constantly.  And we get the sense that his disciples didn’t help matters, not only because they were new to following Jesus and probably did not realize that he needed time for prayer, but also because we can summarize, Jesus was an event.  For these disciples went searching for Jesus after they had woke up and realized that he was not there.  When they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you!”  Not, “How are you?  Or even “Would you like some breakfast?”  Rather it seems their focus is “What are you doing?”  Don’t you know you that people need you?”
 How did Jesus respond? “Oh, sorry, Simon, time just slipped away from me.  We’ve got to get back. I can’t let those people down. Capernaum needs me.  I’m the only one who can save them.” 
     Jesus did not say that.  He said instead, “Let us go somewhere else ---to the nearby villages --- so I can preach there also.  That is why I have come.”  That doesn’t sound very Jesus-like, does it?  How could Jesus say that?  How could he seemingly turn his back on requests for help?
     I think we need to consider the life and ministry of Jesus not as if everything is to be somehow a success story or the consummate teaching; rather Jesus is on a journey to the cross and his resurrection, bringing the disciples --- and us --- along.  Jesus modeled that journey of being a child of God over simply “doing” like miracles for the disciples and us.  He knew the scope of his mission: that he was not sent to only one person or community, but to the world.  Also, as a human being, Jesus knew his limits: he could begin God’s work of healing, even lift up the sick to new life.  But he was human.  He got tired.  He could be in only one place at a given time.  Eventually, others like the disciples and his followers through to our generation would need to pick up the ball and carry it.  In essence, we see Jesus on his journey taking time to answer the demands of life; in this case this meant compassion toward those who are sick.  But we also see Jesus taking time to meander, to be nourished in prayer, and to find the place to do so.
     Certainly, we could not live if we did not set goals and work to fulfill them.  No sane person would argue otherwise.  But here is what Jesus followed; the objective of the cross and resurrection although a “goal,” is also the journey on the way to the goal.
     How do we keep our focus on “being” rather than “doing” when everyone and everything is searching for us, wanting a piece of us, and demanding our time?  How do we benefit from the journey when the demands seem so much more pressing?  As I said, from what we see Jesus doing, hard work is required.  Yet, Jesus did not let others define his goals.  And as a starting point he took time to pray.
     In the United States there was a cartoonist by the name of Thomas Nast, famous for his editorial cartoons.  A less well known skill was one that he would usually perform on stage.  He would take a canvas about 1.8 meters wide by 1/2 a meter long, which he would place horizontal upon an easel and began to rapidly paint a landscape. In quick succession there would appear a green meadow with cattle, fields of grain, a farmhouse and surrounding buildings with an orchard nearby, while over all was a bright sky with clouds.
     After it was done, Nast would step back to the canvas as if he had not quite completed the picture.  Then he would take darker colors, which he would apply recklessly to the canvas.  He covered up the meadows, fields, orchards and buildings.  Out went the bright sky.  Up, down and across, he passed his brush until the landscape was totally obliterated, and nothing but a smear remained of the landscape. 
     After this performance on the stage he would take a satisfied look as he stepped aside, whereby he would lay down his brush.  Usually his audience would be stunned at this point, whereby Nast would then order the stage attendants to place a frame around the ruined work of art and to turn it to a vertical position.  The mystery was revealed, for before the audience stood a panel picture of a beautiful waterfall, the water plunging over a cliff of dark rock, around which stood trees.5
     May we open our hearts and lives, so we can be open to and trust God’s revelation all around us as we work hard, as we pray and as we live out God’s plan as disciples in Jesus Christ.  Amen.

1 Illustration from www.sermons.com. Sermon for Mark 1:29-39 “Everyone is searching for you.
2 Vs: 29
3 Vs: 30
4 Vs: 31
5 Illustration from www.homiletics.com