PROPER 11B – 2 Samuel 7:1-14a; Psalm 89:20-37; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 – 19 July 2009 – A sermon given by The Rev. Peter A. Munson for St. Ambrose Episcopal Church, Boulder, Colorado

 

Bending with the Lord

 

INTRODUCTION – Plans change

 

Have you ever had your plans change?

 

Probably the first significant time I remember my plans really changing was the summer I turned 9 years old. At the beginning of that summer, I was playing baseball out in the street (we did it all the time – we just stopped playing and moved to the shoulder of the road every time a neighborhood car came by) and the next thing I knew I was in the back of a neighbor’s station wagon, being taken to the hospital. A neighbor boy had ridden his bike over my leg just as I was bending over to field a ground ball, and I sustained a bad break of both the tibia and fibula in my right leg. And, man, did my summer plans change.

 

I spent all that summer in different casts, depending on my stage of healing and how quickly I wore them out. I went to the beach (Folly Beach in South Carolina) but couldn’t swim in the ocean. Baseball season ended before it started. I took showers with a big plastic bag over my leg, and spent much of the summer on crutches. It was a memorable summer. I didn’t want to be limited in my activities, but I was, and I had to deal with it and try to have the best summer that I could.

 

There have been some other memorable times when my plans have changed.

 

There was that time when I thought I was going to be a lawyer and didn’t have a job after law school, and ended up going into the Peace Corps instead. There was that time I thought I would be a Curate at St. John Chrysostom in Golden for two or three years, and the Vestry told me, after being there about 10 months, that they didn’t have money to keep me on for a second year, and that I better look for a different job. And there was that time, about a year ago, when Julia and I thought we would have enough money saved to pay for four years of college for Zach. But that stock market thing happened and now it looks like we might have enough for two years.

 

SITUATION – We make plans, but…

 

Different folks in the Bible had plans, too. When Abram was 75, I’m guessing he thought he would spend the rest of his life in Haran. Moses left Egypt, fled to Midian, met and married Zipporah, had a child, and had a good job tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro. Ah, at last his life had settled down. But then he stopped to look at that silly bush, and everything changed.

 

After killing Goliath and running from King Saul during his crazy years and finally becoming king and winning some battles and uniting the kingdom from north to south, David was ready to settle down. He had a plan. He was going to give the Lord his due, and build him a temple, an appropriate, splendid place in which the Lord could dwell. Only problem was, the Lord intervened, and said, “No, David. That isn’t for you to do. Your son will build me a house, not you.”

 

Paul was being zealous for the Lord on the Jewish side of things, persecuting the folks with the new religion, when he met Jesus in a rather unusual way on the road to Damascus. And then he joined the folks in the new religion, and was sent out to spread the good news to the Gentiles, whom he’d never hung out with before, either. And when they listened to what he said and converted to the new religion, he suddenly had conflicts with other leaders in the church who were Jewish Christians. Just when it seemed that everything was going well, he got called into Jerusalem to debate what to do about these new Gentile Christians.

 

And in the story we heard today, the disciples came back from being sent out 2x2 by Jesus. Jesus gave them authority over the unclean spirits and they were all excited about the people they healed, and when they came back from their mission, they gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. (Mark 6:30) And Jesus listened and probably congratulated them and realized they were probably tired, too, and said, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” (Mark 6:31) Mark tells us that the disciples were so popular that “they had no leisure even to eat.” They were probably thinking to themselves, “This is a really good plan, Jesus. A little rest sounds really good right now.” And they got in the boat to go to the deserted place. But the people on the shore saw where they were headed, and hurried and got there ahead of them. And it turned out that these folks were desperate for contact with Jesus and the disciples, too. And when they got to shore, Jesus saw the great crowd, had compassion for them, and began to teach them.

 

Wait a minute. What happened to that rest idea? The plans got changed. That’s what happened. Jesus couldn’t walk away from all those people. In fact, before it was all said and done, he was going to ask the disciples to feed 5000 men, not to mention the women and children, with five loaves of bread and two fish. So the rest got delayed, and then it got delayed some more when they headed across the lake again, and got caught in an adverse wind at night, and took all night to get to shore (and finally made it after a little walking-on-water assistance from Jesus), and then – the next morning – they were met by another crowd of people who all seemed to be in need of healing, who were all just trying to touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak.

 

We’re not told when they finally got the rest, but it doesn’t sound like they ever found that deserted place. The plans got changed.

 

COMPLICATION

 

You and I make plans, and that is not a bad thing. It’s good to have plans, to set goals, to have a vision, to be proactive. Someone has said that when we plan, God laughs. I’m not sure if that is necessarily the case. Perhaps sometimes God laughs, perhaps other times God comes along and says, “I think that plan needs some refining”, perhaps other times we get so full of ourselves and our plans that God throws us a curveball, or something bigger than a curveball, like a tornado. And the stock market plummets or we lose a job or we experience a death in the family or we ourselves get sick, and we are dropped to our knees, and while we are down there, we start thinking about how we squeezed God out of the picture, while we were making all these plans. We start realizing that we put more faith in our job or in our money or in the stock market – or in OUR PLANS - than we did in God, and perhaps we come to our senses and say, “Wow! What was I doing? I was making those things God!” And we begin to learn again about what trusting in God… what faith in God – looks like. And perhaps we start to pray, “Lord, do these plans that I have fit with your plans for me, with that you think is best for me, my family, or this church?”

 

GOOD NEWS

 

It seems to me that in our Gospel story for today, Jesus taught the disciples something about bending, about being flexible with the plans. Some would say he taught them something about “rolling with the punches”. They had done good work – good teaching and healing, through the power and authority that he gave them – and they needed a rest. But that rest was going to have to wait for a while. Because the needs were great, and the needs were represented quite plainly by all the people who were chasing them around, desperate for contact, desperate for love, desperate for a wise word, desperate for healing – either for themselves or for a loved one who was being carried on a mat, in hopes that Jesus might touch them or that they might touch Jesus.

 

The good news is that when your plans and mine are suddenly changed, we are still accompanied by a Lord who knows all about bending and being flexible with the plans.

 

He thought at one time that he was being sent only to the people of Israel, but after encounters with some other folks, especially women - the Syrophoenician woman and the woman from Samaria who had been married five times – he suddenly understood that he was called to all who were lost or hurting. His idea of what his ministry was changed, and so his plans and his itinerary changed.

 

When most of his family and his hometown ridiculed him and skeptically asked him where he had gotten all his wisdom and authority, he no longer had a home base. He became, in effect, a wandering semi-homeless man, who warned potential followers, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luke 9:58)

 

And when the inner circle, represented by his twelve disciples, betrayed him in various ways during his hour of need, and he felt very much on his own, he realized that the plans had changed once again. He had to make do, as you and I must – when the tornadoes come – by turning to the only Rock that is steadfast in love and faithfulness, no matter what.

 

This is the good news. We follow and learn from a Lord who knows how to bend when the best-laid plans get changed. We follow a Lord who promises to stay right with us – no matter what comes our way, come “hell or high water”, as my father used to say. And this Lord is going to lead us through to the other side, no matter what happens, no matter what comes up, no matter how challenging or surprising the unanticipated events might be. More than that, as He leads us through, this Lord is going to have us be a part of some miracles along the way – miracles which would have never been seen or experienced without staying by his side.

 

You must open your eyes and your ears and your heart and determine for yourself what those miracles are. Perhaps it’s your own healing, your own recovery from addiction, your overcoming of childhood messages that you were not good enough. Perhaps it’s the check that comes in the mail at just the right moment, perhaps it’s how well we’re doing as a church – all things considered – given the current economy, perhaps it’s the deep love of family and friends and fellow church members that helps you through the darkest hours.

 

NEW BEHAVIOR

 

We will still make plans, because it is good for us to have dreams and visions, to have goals, and to be proactive in life. The only difference in our awareness will be that we will know that no plans are set in stone, that only Jesus is the Rock that can be counted on, no matter what. We will make our plans, and we will anticipate that there will be detours and hurdles and huge challenges and yes – miracles – along the way. Because our Lord is with us, and our Lord has been down all these roads before, and even experienced what we think of as the ultimate end when it comes to making plans – that, of course, being death. Only it just so happens that even death didn’t hold our Lord down in the end. He rose again, and began carrying out his new plans.

 

And so, really, what is there to be afraid of? We are going to make it through, one way or another. We just need to recognize that there will undoubtedly be some bending required on our part, and some changes in the plans. And when we change the plans – not in a rebellious or in a pouty way, but in a faithful way – then our Lord certainly won’t be laughing at us and our plans. But I imagine He will be smiling.