January 25, 2009
Third Sunday after Epiphany
Rev. Wendy Miller Olapade
Text: Mark 1: 14-20

CALLED AS PARTNERS

Prayer: Would you pray with me? Holy Redeemer, call us as you called the first disciples with your voice of command and promise. Invite us to follow. Invite us to leave our labor for your greater work. Invite us to leave our own leisure to dance with you. Invite us to renounce our apathy and to perform deeds of justice and mercy. Challenge us to renounce our self-absorption for attentive love. Call, Holy Redeemer, and grant us the courage to listen to your word and respond. Amen.

I want to talk for a minute about Sleeping. People do it every day. On couches. In chairs. On the floor. Park Benches and T Stations. If you listen to their advertisements, in the right bed prescribed by a sleep doctor at Jordan’s Furniture. Some of you will be doing it right here in just a few minutes. Entire congregations have been known to contract narcolepsy under the preaching ministry of some of God’s most devoted servants!

But it is not as easy as it sounds. To have trouble falling asleep is a common problem. About half of Americans report that they have difficulty sleeping, at least occasionally, according to National Sleep Foundation surveys. These problems with falling or staying asleep - commonly called insomnia - have far-reaching effects, including a negative impact on concentration, productivity and mood.

Fortunately, help is on the way, courtesy of a number of luxury hotel chains. These establishments are now pushing a growing list of amenities - some free, some quite expensive - to help you get a good night’s sleep.

The Wall Street Journal reports that at the Renaissance Resort and Spa in Miami Beach, sleep amenities include lavender aromatherapy in-room massage with a lavender-scented eye pillow designed to treat pressure points around the eyes. Followed with a choice of tea. The Ritz-Carlton has upgraded its sleep experience, nationwide with the Comfort Essentials collection, new bed linens by Frette, feather beds and Elegant Essentials mattresses.

The Benjamin Hotel in New York, guarantees a good night’s sleep or your full money back, and has taken extra steps to back it up. The hotel added a new sleep concierge to the staff, who makes sure that guests get everything they need to sleep peacefully. The Hotel Burnham in Chicago has a pillow library. One that includes a body pillow, a buckwheat hull pillow, or an “eye delight” pillow made with flaxseed. “Dream sachets” can be placed inside the pillow to elicit a particular dream, including a sachet to help you remember the content of your dream.

Wyndham Hotel & Resorts recently started welcoming repeat guests with cooling eye pads in the shape of cucumber slices. And the chic W Hotel chain offers eye gels in the minibar and CDs that include selections of wind breezes and rain.

Now I don’t know about you—but every time I have trouble sleeping it isn’t because of my pillow or the smell in the room. When I have trouble sleeping it is because things are not well with my soul.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his Spiritual Exercises said that “It is characteristic of the evil spirit to harass with anxiety, to afflict with sadness, to raise obstacles backed by fallacious reasonings that disturb the soul. It is characteristic of the good spirit, however, to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and peace.”

Jesus has concerns about our not being able to sleep at night, but his solution does not involve eye gel in the minibar. From his perspective, the root cause of insomnia is a lack of meaning and purpose and direction in life, not a shortage of lavender-scented eye pillows. The key to a good night’s rest is a well-spent day, according to Jesus. And so--he hits the road and calls people to follow him.

He passes along the Sea of Galilee and spots a couple of fishermen, Simon Peter and Andrew, casting a net into the sea. Jesus says to them, “Come with me—Follow me and I will make you fish for people,” and immediately they drop their nets and follow him. Moving a little farther down the shoreline, Jesus spots another pair of brothers, James and John, and calls to them as well. They, too, leave their work and follow Jesus (1:16-20).

This break with family and occupation is extraordinary, but it illustrates how desperately these men crave new meaning and direction and purpose in life. These fishermen are not in bad shape financially; it’s not like they’re waiting around in a Galilean version of a day-labor work program. In fact, they are pictured as being prosperous enough to own houses and employ hired hands to assist in the fishing enterprise. They are established members of local society, doing quite well by the standards of the day, and are making an important contribution to the welfare of their extended families by participating in the fishing industry. But still they drop their nets, leave behind their hired hands and follow when Jesus beckons.

Clearly, they sense that the call of Jesus comes from God. They sense that if they don’t respond to this invitation, they won’t be able to sleep at night.

So how about us? How is God calling us to drop of nets, to follow a new path, a path of deeper meaning and purpose? Are we still tossing and turning? Have we restless souls yet to find, as Augustine puts it, “our rest until we rest in God?”

Dear Ones, the key to serene slumber is always going to be a day in God’s way. And that involves taking the time to figure out just what it is that the Lord is calling us to do.

Yes, here it is again, that pesky “Calling” topic. We talked about it last week as well. It seems to come up at the most challenging times – when we’re just too busy, when the economy is thanks, when we’re too old to do something new, or too young or too middle aged.

Here she is, on this day when we have to look at our church’s finances and future… talking about being Called – “Called as Partners”, no less. Here she is, on this day when we are having an annual meeting and most of us are scared to death of what that will feel like, what it will be like. A year ago you had a meeting and it was awful. And many of you were hurt. And some of you left over the experience. And here is Jesus, calling us to follow. “A day in God’s way”… so what do you think God is calling us to do?

Perhaps we’re being asked to leave our current job and enter some form of professional ministry. Or accept a new volunteer position with the church. Perhaps we’re being called to move to another state for a challenging job opportunity. Or take on a mission or social justice project. Or change our college major. Or enter the Peace Corps. Or get married. Or remain single. Or have a child. Or change our life style. Or get clean and sober. Or come out. Or do some form of discernment about the next right thing.

When Jesus says, “Follow me,” the paths can take many forms. The best road for one person is not going to be the right route for another. So how can you figure out which way to go? How do we hear what God’s will is for us?

According to Ignatius of Loyola, the Spanish founder of the Society of Jesus, the process of discernment always aims at enhancing your participation in the work of God, and it is always performed for the glory of God and for the healing of the world. Let me say that again….

Now it’s true that most of us cannot leave behind our families and hired hands and fishing boats, or even break out of our routines and go off on a 30-day retreat, as Ignatius would recommend, but this does not mean that we cannot do the work of discernment - the work of seeking the mind of God on a particular question. Where is it, what is it that God wants me to do? How can I glorify God and heal the world? How can I glorify God and love my neighbor as myself?

Discerning the will of God, or the call of Jesus to “follow me,” involves at least two things: first, a sense of individual call, and second, the affirmation of the Christ Body concerning your call.

Sensing the call may involve reflection, prayer and paying attention to feelings of “consolation” and “desolation” - feelings that are either harmonious with the Spirit of God or out of tune with the Spirit of God. I actually think of this as either a feeling of ease – being right with God or dis-ease – being out of step with what God wants for me.

One author suggests that the process requires a passionate commitment to follow God, a growing indifference toward all other drives and desires and a deepening sensitivity to the ways of God. What it leads to is the discovery of the right direction for your life and a deeply peaceful feeling that you have done the best you can to follow the way of the Lord.

The process begins when you begin it--right here, and right now. It might last for days, or weeks, or the rest of this year. As you ponder who Jesus is calling you to be in 2009, you’ll try to become aware of the diverse dimensions of what lies before you. You’ll look at many alternatives, positive and negative, and bring these alternatives before God in prayer. You’ll pay attention to your feelings - feelings of consolation that give rise to life, love, peace, joy, creativity and communion. You’ll also note feelings of desolation, emotions that give rise to despair, confusion, alienation, destructiveness, and discord. You’ll rely on both your heart and your head to lead you, lead you to the choice that gives you the deepest feelings of consolation. This will most likely be the choice that you should act on, the choice that brings you closer to the kingdom of God.

AND – this is really important. It is not enough to think about it and pray about it. It is also imperative that you act; to be like the first followers of Jesus and make a decisive determination to walk in God’s way. There was simply no hesitation among those fishermen when they received Christ’s invitation -“immediately,” reports Mark, “they left their nets and followed him” (v. 18).

And in the end, their radical decision to head in a new direction did not destroy their family relationships, as some might have feared. Simon Peter’s family home ended up becoming a center from which Jesus and his followers performed their ministry. They stepped out in faith, and God blessed their boldness.

Will the same be true for us?

On this day, when we consider the business and the future of this congregation, and in the future, when we do the work of developing a church profile for our search process or when we begin to meet as new ministries teams that are needed for the future of Hope…will we allow this same process to be ours as we discern our call to act as Hope Church, United Church of Christ/Christian Church Disciples of Christ?

What does it mean for a community, a church, to conduct business via group spiritual direction? A Quaker Group Leadership expert says: “It means that instead of skipping stones across the surface of the water, we take the time to let them sink. Most business meetings are so intent upon achieving the decision, or on presenting or avoiding a personal agenda, that our collective spirit skips across the surface of the Spirit, only occasionally stirring the waters and getting wet. But when a group decides that they will be content only with the leading of the Spirit, it requires them to sink below the surface, to settle for a time on the sandy bottom and to be completely encompassed in the presence of the living Christ. The church is the body of Christ, and Jesus Christ didn’t “do business.” He moved and acted out of his times of prayer.”

Will we take the time and pray the prayers so that we might feel the way, the direction that God wants us to follow as a church? Will our church choices today and the next day and the next day--bring us closer to the kingdom of God? Will our church planning give rise to life, love, peace, joy, creativity and communion?

Will we act decisively, with determination, stepping out in faith so that we might glorify God and bring about healing in the world? Will we sink below the surface and settle in and be encompassed by the leading of the Spirit?

We all know that a good night’s sleep often follows a day of walking. There’s nothing better than a strenuous workout to guarantee serene slumber. Eye gels in the minibar do not provide the ultimate answer. If our walk is a hike behind Jesus, then we have the added benefit of feeling that our energy has been exerted along the right path, toward deeper meaning and purpose in life. No personal lullabies or pillow libraries can give this kind of peace.

I pray that as we move through these next few hours, and weeks and months and years – that we might allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit so that all of what we do, as Partners in Christ’s service, we do for the glory of God and the healing of the world. May it be so.

Sources:

• Homiletics Magazine, 2003
• Harris, Nicole. “Can’t sleep? Try the eye gel in the minibar.” The Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2002, D1-D6.
• Perkins, Pheme. “The gospel of Mark.” The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995), 539, for the information about the disciples’ financial status.
• Rogers, Frank Jr., “Discernment.” Practicing Our Faith (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997), 107-110.