Getting Away from it All: Not!

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - Year A

August 3, 2008

Let us pray: Generous Provider, teach us to trust in the abundance of your good gifts, and open our hearts and hands to share with others. Shape our lives to model the spirit of your generosity. Amen.

One of the choices I considered for the introit this morning is a favourite for many people who are a part of the congregation of Yellowknife United Church - Come and Find the Quiet Centre in the crowded life we lead, find the room for hope to enter, find the frame where we are freed: clear the chaos and the clutter, clear our eyes, that we can see all the things that really matter, be at peace and simply be.

We can perhaps imagine Jesus humming a Jewish version of the same hymn as he felt the need to escape the crowd and find some quiet time by himself for contemplation and renewal. Perhaps Jacob was humming a Jewish version of another of our hymns today as he aroused and helped his group across the ford at the Jabbok River and then stayed on the quiet side. Perhaps he was humming Be Thou My Vision, but if he was it’s unlikely he was expecting the vision that occurred.

A common alternative message in these crowded times we lead is one which calls us to escape the frenzy and busyness of life in order to be still and be present for God who is always present for us. One could even expect such a message to be more likely in these more unhurried times of summer - when the long days and less cluttered calendars invite us to drink in the warmth and light, recharge our batteries for the onslaught of fall activities and appointments and spend time just being so that God can be a part of our lives.

I don’t want to minimise the importance of such a message. We do live in hurried times and quite often the crowded chaos is not conducive to deep reflection on our place in the world, the role we have to play as part of the body of Christ, and the call we have from God to fulfil our mission as people who proclaim God’s presence by the way we speak and live. So, if we need quiet, down time in order to refocus the priorities in our lives - then so be it. Some of us just need it because of who we are - on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator I am an INFP and that means that I need quiet alone time in order to re-energise.

I don’t know where Jesus was on the MBTI - I’m sure someone has tried to figure it out and I just haven’t read the book or article. I decided not to do a Google Search on it - maybe later! I’m sure there is a tendency to want to think that his type is exactly like our own, but given that Myers and Briggs came up with sixteen different ones, there is at most a 6% chance that his personality type was like ours!

All that aside, we know from the gospel records that Jesus did try to take time by himself. We also know there was at least one time when he was by himself but wished he wasn’t. I refer to the Garden of Gethsemane when he returned from quiet anguished prayer to scold the disciples for falling asleep and failing to be with him for comfort and support as he contemplated the fateful days that lay ahead.

Today’s gospel story however is the opposite. He was trying to slip away unnoticed, but as we heard, unsuccessfully. I’m sure we can all relate - especially me and my fellow INFPers! The crowds were getting to him - the constant pressure of the multitude and the demanding nature that such large groups of people can exert. He needed some time to once again find the quiet centre. It just wasn’t going to happen this time. There were other priorities. People needed to hear healing words, and eventually the need for food became apparent. Yes it was a primal priority, but we all know that not much can happen if we are preoccupied by the cry from our stomachs to be fed. Perhaps Jesus even knew that this was an incredible teachable moment. We all know how important meal times can be - as opportunities to build community, to seal bonds of friendship and familiarity, to lead us to think beyond ourselves to the place that God occupies in our lives. The story from Matthew says that Jesus gathered the collected bread and fish - lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples so that they could share it back with the gathered congregation. The recalling of our own community meal is no coincidence. And so on this occasion, the quiet time sought by Jesus was trumped by an opportunity to bring glory and attention to God.

Likewise, Jacob. In fact this story of nighttime wrestling is so important that it gave rise to a new name for the protagonist, one that continues to this day as the name of a nation. I guess that means that the dream took! Perhaps it was the gimpy hip that did it - perhaps sealed by Jacob’s dread at the imminent meeting with his deceived twin brother Esau. There’s nothing like a fear of reprisal and perhaps even violence to keen the senses and make vivid the imagination.

Perhaps Jacob stayed behind on the quiet side of the river for the same reason that Jesus sought to find some alone time. There was a lot going on for Jacob. Old grudges die hard, and Esau had had a lot of time to think about the way in which he had been deceived by his slightly younger twin brother. It wasn’t part of our reading today, but the verses preceding today’s passage tell us of the strategy Jacob had devised to help quell any murderous intentions that his brother might have. Jacob had arranged to spread his entourage out along the road. Each group had a number of gifts that were to be offered to Esau. We can imagine Jacob thinking that by the time his brother reached him, Esau would be well appeased by the generosity he had encountered along the way. However, as the dream reveals, this had not completely convinced him. For as much as Jacob wrestled with God or God’s messenger - we also know that he was wrestling with his own conscience, which is really pretty much the same thing as wrestling with God - or at least wrestling with his own understanding of right and wrong, and the wrong that he had done.

As we know, Jacob prevailed, or at least eked out a draw in this nighttime struggle, but not unscathed. A new reminder and a new name were there to remind him that God had things for him to do. Jacob had a higher mission in life - he would survive the encounter with his brother, but just in case he felt too satisfied about it, his limp and his name would remind him that there were other priorities.

And really that’s the message from today. Often we do need to take time away to recharge our batteries, to refocus our priorities, to strengthen our bodies and our resolve - Come and Find the Quiet Centre indeed, and Be Still and Know God, but don’t forget that sometimes the need is greater elsewhere. Sometimes the call of God is to put aside the quiet time for a moment in order to use a teachable moment or learn an important concept, or do something that will say by action that God is present in the world.

May your week ahead be one which is full of what you need to do and full of what God needs you to do - quiet and reflective maybe, but perhaps full of the risk of unprotected living - a final reference to the closing hymn we will sing today. I encourage you to consider the words of that one as well, for the interesting dialectic it offers to the quiet centre which also beckons. Amen.