February 7, 2021
“On the Road”
Isaiah 40:21-31
Mark 1:29-39
Today, Jesus and his followers are taking to the road. I rather like that we follow, Jesus along the road. Here is a Holy Man who was not one to only sit on a mountain top retreat but He traveled. His feet became dusty and he experienced the territory and the people. I think it’s good to have a God who has experienced the life which we live.
Jesus is on the move in Mark 1:35. He goes to a deserted place to pray. He is discovered by the local populace and they say, “Everyone is searching for you.” Does THAT sound familiar to young mothers and fathers? Not a moments rest. But rather than saying, “I just can’t take all this commotion, I need my down time.” For Jesus, this just emphasizes that the message of the Gospel and the work of Jesus is constant. Then Jesus says, “Let’s go to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.”
THAT is the time which Jesus sought when the Gospel of Mark says that Jesus went out to a deserted place and there he prayed. It was those moments when alone, in prayer that strengthened Him for the journey ahead.
Very little keeps me awake at night. I am not a big worrier and when it is time to sleep, I can usually do so. But permit me to let you in on the constant concern which I ask myself a dozen times a day….and it is this: “Is what we are doing at DCC what the Gospel would have us do?”
Does hosting AA groups and housing a Food Pantry and renting Preschool Space and giving space to a Scout Troop and making us a drop off place for Meals on Wheels and giving rooms for an Indian Dance Troop and hosting music lessons for kids…is all of this ALSO what we are required to do? I ask myself this a dozen times a day.
It seems to me that within these 10 verses in the Gospel of Mark we see the two things that balance Jesus, in order to spread the Gospel message of God, Jesus must be on the road and in order to have the strength to be on the road he must take time alone to be with God.
This worship, this hour is our time with God. Our children have time in Church School, Middle and High schoolers have Fellowship. And it is from those times together that we ready ourselves to be about the joyful task of Scouts, Meals on Wheels, AA and opening our space to others.
I did not grow up in the Scouting Movement but I will tell you of the first time I had an experience with the Scouts. It was in Zambia, when my wife and I were teaching at a Boys Boarding School. The Zambian students had studies and work projects and clubs and Scripture Union. One of the clubs was the Boy Scouts. A Canadian fellow was the Troop Leader but he was not available for the Scouts Annual Camp out. So, for some reason they asked Marty and me to chaperone their overnight camp out.
I know that many, or most of you campers have done wilderness camping. I was talking with Brendan a week ago and he told of camping in the Boundary Waters and out in New Mexico. So, my very first experience of Scouting was in wilderness camping, in Africa. This was in 1975 and the scout troop at the boarding school had all the latest scouting supplies…from about 1935. A couple tents that looked like they had been used in WWI. Some shovels they commandeered from the dorms. Some old blankets which looked and smelled like they too had come from WWI.
I wonder what food you take with you on your camping experiences. I imagine you all stuff some power bars in your bags and extra protein drinks for energy. We went to the school dining hall and the cook, Mr. Banda gave the scouts three fish. They looked like huge carp. He tossed three dead fish in a metal bucket and one of the student Scout leaders, Harry Mulilanduba carried the fish in the bucket, in the heat as we walked about five miles thru the forest, across the river and down the road and back in along an isolated stretch of river bank. It was not a camp ground, but it became our campground for the two days.
Life at the boarding school was regimented, like the military. Studies, dorm life, work projects, sports and clubs. It was exhausting and exhilarating. And it has occurred to me, that those years living and working in Zambia were like an extended time away for me and gave me a foundation unlike anything else in my life. College will do that, so will the military, so will Scouting. Time away, not necessarily time alone or at rest, but time to explore what life is all about and time to secure the foundations of your life.
There is work to be done. Jesus was always on the road, but today’s passage says quite clearly that He took time away. I encourage you Scouts, like I would encourage those in this congregation. Time alone and with God is time preparing for the journey.
And as for our dinner while camping: I don’t recall what we drank, as no one in those days had bottled water. I think we had vintage metal canteens of water from the school water source. But, I do recall having Nshima, which is rough corn meal and I recall Harry Mulilanduba cooking those three very dead fish. And I lived to tell about it. Amen