West Brooksville Congregational Church: He Went to a Deserted ...

Mark 1: 29 ? 39

He Went to a Deserted Place

A few weeks ago, we read the story of the young Samuel, whom God called, and who answered, ?Here I am!? There are other women and men in the Bible who answer God?s call with these words??Here I am!??signifying willingness to turn their wills and lives over to God as they understand God. In the gospels, it is Mary?Jesus? mother?who uses these words. Jesus does not use the very words, but his action in allowing himself to be baptized in the River Jordan by John amount to the same thing: a willingness to order his life according to his understanding of God?s purposes.

In speaking of the significant and far-reaching commitment implied by the declaration, ?Here I am!?, we noted the difference between the commitment of individuals, and the collective commitment of the church?the ?Here we are!? of the community gathered to worship God and follow Jesus. Because of the variety of ways each of us understands ?God?s purposes?, ?Here we are!? has a different flavor from ?Here I am!??even all the ?Here I am?s gathered here together. In our church life together, we go back and forth between our own personal commitments to the gospel as we understand it and our collective commitments to the gospel as a member of the United Church of Christ and of world Christianity.

We hear this difference reflected in today?s reading from the Gospel of Mark. The story switches quickly back and forth between individuals and crowds. It starts with the disciples and Jesus entering Simon Peter?s home, where Jesus heals Simon Peter?s mother-in-law of a fever. The action then goes back to the crowd: ?That evening, at sundown, [the townsfolk] brought to [Jesus] all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And [Jesus] cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons?.? Mark?s account moves from a large group of people who were ill or possessed, to a somewhat smaller group of those Jesus healed. (We could easily spend a whole sermon on this sentence, alone: if Jesus could have healed all those brought to him, why didn?t he? Why does the author of Mark give us that haunting detail, ?and [Jesus] cured many?,??not all, but many. Could this be an example of an intersection between Jesus? uncompromising ?Here I am!? and the perhaps lukewarm ?Here I am?s of some of those coming to him? Is there a relationship between a person?s full readiness to accept the good news of God?s love and her or his readiness to be healed?however we understand that healing? The author of Mark certainly thinks so. For example, in last week?s reading from Mark, it is the demon who recognizes who Jesus really is, over whom Jesus exercises power and authority. Something to think about.)

After this mass scene of Jesus healing among the crowds, Jesus goes out into the desert to pray?to reaffirm his ?Here I am!? Jesus goes out there alone, intentionally to be by himself. He doesn?t tell anyone where he is going?his disciples have to hunt high and low for him: Jesus clearly wants to be alone (this is before cell phones). Mark doesn?t tell us the content of Jesus? praying, only that he sought to be alone and pray. Eventually, the apostles find him, and Jesus is once more drawn back into the crowds.

Here we have a wonderful model of following God?s purposes: engaging with the work at hand, then withdrawing off by one?s self to renew and reaffirm one?s relationship with God, to realign one?s self with an understanding of God?s purposes. While God?s purposes may be fixed and unwaveringly steadfast, our understanding of them is continually changing?in part, because the circumstances of human life and experience constantly change; and also in part because our understanding of our circumstances changes as we grow in our relationship with God. The ?Here I am!? of an idealistic youth is different from the ?Here I am!? of a still-idealistic middle-aged woman or man?because life experience influences who we are and how we see the world, and especially how we see and react to the human circumstances immediately surrounding us.

Twelve-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Al Anon make a useful distinction between ?prayer?, which is ?talking to God?, and ?meditation?, which is ?listening to God?. In using the term ?prayer? in the gospel, the author of Mark understands prayer as a conversation with God including both talking to and listening to God. Regardless of how one conceives it, listening is as important a part of our relationship with God as talking?not more important, though: it was Martin Luther (the sixteenth century Protestant reformer) who said, ?I don?t know what I think until I?ve said it?; and it is unquestionably true that voicing our thoughts?whether to God or to another trusted person?is a necessary part of knowing ourselves deeply.

Jesus goes off by himself to have his own conversation with God, not because he has a special relationship with God that the others are not supposed to know about, but because ?Here I am!? is deeply personal. In a sense, it cannot be shared, only lived. And to live it, one has to return to one?s own relationship with God continually. It is difficult to be perfectly honest with one another or even with ourselves, especially about ourselves and our shortcomings. When we can be honest with God who loves us unconditionally, it becomes possible to be honest with ourselves.

Jesus does not go off simply to be by himself: he goes off to a ?deserted place??a place where there is nothing and no one. ?A deserted place? is reminiscent of the place that Jesus went to after his baptism?that wilderness where he wrestled with temptation. Metaphorically, it is a place where there is nothing between Jesus and God. A ?deserted place? can also be a ?forsaken place?, a place left or avoided because of its emptiness. The ?forsaken place? is perhaps the place of Jesus own doubts about what he is doing. It is the place where Jesus is not only alone?apart from other people?but also where Jesus comes face to face with all that he has done or been asked to do; all that had been demanded of him by the crowds and the people wanting to be healed of their diseases and infirmities. Had he done the right thing in each case? Had he responded to God?s presence in every woman and man presented to him out of the clamoring crowd? Where does the healer go to separate himself (or herself) from all she or he has had to do? Separating the ?human doing? from the ?human being? she or he is?

Where are our ?deserted places?? Where are the places each of us goes to wrestle with our understandings of God, of what we think God wants us to be and do?

We know about ?forsaken places??the feelings of self-doubt, of being uncertain whether something we have said or done was the right thing, or an honest thing, or a helpful thing, or a compassionate thing. In our busy world, deserted places are not easy to find: radio and television and telephones, cell phones and smart phones, and all kinds of electronic devices seldom leave us alone for very long. Spending time alone with our thoughts is something we have to do intentionally; we literally have to ?make space? for prayer in our lives; we have to make a deserted place where we can come honestly to God and to ourselves. Many of us avoid such places or spaces in our lives?it can be a pretty uncomfortable place to be. For example, I have noticed that when I am driving in my car and chewing on a difficult problem involving human relationships, I may suddenly reach over and turn on the radio: it is a signal to me that I want distraction from the problem, a signal that I am avoiding the problem and the feelings attached to it. Noticing this behavior is a useful guide for me, and I have learned to pay attention to it, even when I would prefer not to.

Being alone is not the only place we encounter God, of course: God can surprise us anywhere, any time?and often does, when we are open to it. Yet finding a deserted place?whether a physical space, or simply an attitude of receptive emptiness within our hearts and minds--is something we can do, an initiative each of us can take, to prepare our hearts for God. And although it may appear to be a spiritual paradox that we can help one another do this, our worship here is part of that preparation, part of getting ready to reaffirm ?Here I am!?. God, help us work together in this. Amen.

Allen C. Myers

Source: http://westbrooksvillechurch.blogspot.com/2012/02/he-went-to-deserted-place-sermon-for.html

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