Sermon Proper 11, 8 Pentecost, Jul 22, 2012

No rest for the weary, these are the kind of sentiments that come with today’s Gospel, these ideas that ministry is never done, and we have to always be on our toes, constantly running around, looking for that homeless person, or that other person in need, or that one widow, or orphan that needs our help. It’s right there in the Gospel, “For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” We are constantly bombarded by this message that we have to always be doing good, we have to always be aware and always be ready to give our last dollar to someone who is in need.

Our brains seem to be wired to think this way, to put the successful completion of ministry well beyond our grasp, beyond our hope for fulfillment. I hear it all the time from people here at Gethsemane. Particularly from folks who work the Shelf of Hope. How can we possibly accept one more person? How will we ever get enough food? I hear it from the Bishop’s Committee, how do we start the next great program that will allow justice to roll down like water? What will be the next ministry that will put us on the map? We are trained to always be looking for the next best thing, to always be ready for that golden opportunity that might just pass us by if we aren’t closely watching, but we watch, and we stay awake because it is a good thing to do. Watching, it seems, becomes our ministry.

Jesus never took a break, well, there was that time in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed, but he never really took a break, he never really was free of ministry. My professor in seminary used to throw us all a curve ball when he would say that Jesus was clearly a woman. Jesus was clearly a woman, he said, because no man could ever, ever do what Jesus did, according to the Gospels. And you know, my professor was probably quite right, Jesus might truly have been a woman.

My Spiritual Director threw me a curveball once, and it changed my life. I pray, sometimes in this odd way. I get up, go out of my office and walk the skyways of downtown Minneapolis. I am an active person, I like to run with a soccer ball at my feet, I like to ski, I am an active person, so why wouldn’t, my Spiritual Director told me one day a while back, why wouldn’t your method of prayer be active as well? He pressed me a little more, asking, “Why isn’t walking, centered on a Gospel, or Scripture, or particular petition or thought that is on your heart, why isn’t walking around with those things in your mind and heart prayer?” I looked dumbfounded at my Spiritual Director, and I said, “I don’t know, why?” And he said, a little frustrated with me, “That IS prayer, you are doing prayer when you wander the skyways, you are praying and holding in your heart the prayers you have, you just need to recognize that this is how you pray.”

We just need to recognize how we pray, how we do ministry, how we love one another. And so, I found myself, as I was saying, wandering the skyways and thinking about this passage, and thinking about all of you and right about Macy’s or so, it occurred to me. I am not Jesus! We are not Jesus; none of us is actually Jesus! What relief flooded my mind and my heart. I am not Jesus. And I don’t mean that I recognized that I wasn’t a woman, I mean, I recognized, I wasn’t Jesus.

Maggie Brickson asked the question at the Bishop’s Committee on Tuesday evening, “What would make people flock?” Great question, what would make people flock? As I walked through the skyways, as I wandered about in prayer, I realized not a single soul flocked to me. Not a single soul came and asked me for prayers, and yes, I was wearing my collar. Everyone gave me a wide berth. But no one flocked to me. So what would make people flock? Well, Jesus made people flock, Jesus would bring people to him, Jesus would be followed everywhere he went, and I am not Jesus. So what does that make me?

A sheep! If I am not Jesus, that must make me a sheep! We often like think of ourselves as the shepherd, as the one who is tasked with leading and directing a flock. We often are the ones who are the Martha’s, always busy with things to do that we think will make the world a better place, that will somehow bring justice into the world. But I wonder what would happen if we saw ourselves as sheep, as the people being led, the people being tended and cared for? What would it be like to give up our busy-ness, our anxiety and simply let God lead us, let God care for us?

I have had numerous opportunities in the past several months to feel this helplessness, and that is what it is, helplessness, moments where I cannot help myself, where I cannot help another person. Where I have to be the one to receive the love that God can provide me, and that is scary, because I can’t see God, like I can see you all. I can’t feel God as I feel you all. I never know if God is listening, but I always feel God’s presence when I pray, God desires to tend us, to care for us to love us, it is simply a matter of letting God do that, letting Jesus feed us and fill us with the love we need to live our lives as God desires us to live.

What keeps us from being tended? What are the idols, the psychological and intangible idols that we place in front our willingness to be tended, to be fed? How do we keep ourselves from seeing God in the hands of those who reach out to us? How do the idols we possess prevent us from seeing the spark of divinity within the face that longs to help us? How do we recognize God in this community, this faith community that strives to serve God above all else?

My challenge for you in this next week is to look closely at the idols that stand in our way of receiving love. To examine those things that prevent us from allowing God to tend us carefully and lovingly. Individuality is dangerous, to place our own self, our own being as an idol, as the only thing that we can depend on is the beginning of a foundational crack in the community of faith that we belong to. When we place more value on our individuality, we lose sight of the importance of the community. Jeremiah’s words are to be heeded when we decide our way is the right way. Our path is the one all must follow. In our call to ministry, in our desire to follow Jesus, how do we make our own selves into idols, idols that block the life love of God that flows to the world? There may be no rest for the weary, so let us all rest, so that we will no longer be weary of the ministry that God is already doing in us.