Sermon for the 8th Sunday after Trinity

Sunday 17th July 2005

Preached by Rev Brian Parker

Rhythm

I went with my wife to County Cavan for an overnight stay last week. The weather was super and our hosts made us very welcome. Their home is set in the heart of the countryside just outside Arvagh town.

A lovely place for a bit of peace and quiet. But just when you think you’ve arrived things can get frustrating. On the way up a narrow rocky lane the car hit a rock, so big we had to jack the car up and prise the rock away. Hopefully there is not much damage but its still to be given a thorough check. Here’s hoping.

Then just as we crossed the threshold I discovered that my Visa card was missing. Lost. Left behind in a restaurant most likely but too late to check. So it was into all the rigmarole of cancelling the card, blocking it and whatever else you do.

Hard rocks on the road, lost visa cards. Such things tend to disrupt the best-laid plans for a relaxing break. Anyway it was good to meet old friends and we did enjoy visiting haunts that have strong family connections.
When the disciples reported back to Jesus after their mission they were followed by crowds clamouring to find out more about their message and healing ministry.

But Jesus decided it was time for them all to have a rest and to take a break on the other side of the lake. They all got into a boat and set off for the shore some four miles way. Their intention was to leave the crowd behind and get away from it all for a time of peace and rest.

However they were frustrated. The wind was light, the crossing was slow and the crowd set off on a ten-mile trek around the lake to meet them at the other side.

Jesus could have been excused for being impatient or irritated at this intrusion into his privacy. But he wasn’t and on the contrary St Mark tells us he looked on the crowd with compassion. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd.

The story tells us how important it was for Jesus and the disciples to get away for a time, to be quiet and to reflect on their work and ministry.

It’s a truism that we can’t work without a time of rest. All work and no relaxation is a bad lifestyle.

In the Christian life there is always the danger of being so active and committed and ‘gung ho’ about our faith that we miss the mark. We become so dynamic and so busy we become a self-generating mission that can express itself in a stream of jargon and repetitive ego trips. The problem is we can be so active that we lose the art of being still. Indeed we may get to the stage when the idea of being still is a bore.

We wake up one day and realise that we really don’t know how to be still.

Jesus made a point of being still with God, of finding the place and the time to reflect and to listen to God. This “quality time” we call prayer, a time to renew our vision and hope in God as our source of strength and guidance.

Of course there is always the danger of too much withdrawal. Devotion needs to issue in actions if it is to mean anything. Prayer is not real prayer if it does not stir us to seek and to find the will of God and inspire us to all good works.

It was in the quiet times together with Jesus that the disciples found strength and inspiration to go into the world.

Billy Graham used to say: “Pray as if everything depends on God, work as if everything depends on you.”

William Barclay said: “Meeting with God in the quiet place is the only way to find the strength to serve mankind in the market place”.

The sheep need to stay close to the shepherd. We need to stay close to the Shepherd of our souls.

“Be still my soul” and tune in to the rhythm of the Christian life with its times of quiet and its grand crescendos of service.

Be still under the direction of the Lord as we come to crossroads in our lives.

Be still and take and eat ‘The Living Bread”, food and nourishment for our souls.

Be still in the confidence that the Lord is our defence in all the changes and chances of this mortal life.

In the rhythm of Christian living, in its quietness and stillness and in its costly service, we find fulfilment and direction. It is a pattern Jesus set and invites us to follow.

So learn to let go of the frustrations and the ‘other things’ that crowd around us.

Learn to “be still and know that I am God, an ever present help.”

So we pray.

Lord, “ take from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace.”