Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
“No Wi-Fi…no cell service…no problem.”
- That could be the motto for a growing vacation trend known as digital detox.
- There are those who are growing weary of the always-on…always connected madness of contemporary life.
Well…perched atop an Alaskan glacier six thousand feet above Denali National Park is a five-bedroom house accessible only by airplane or helicopter.
- Better remember all your groceries when you book the place.
- The nearest town is 50 miles away.
In the middle of Africa’s Kalahari Desert…in the nation of Botswana…is Jack’s Camp.
- In between wildlife-spotting safari excursions…guests sleep in tents.
- But it’s really a glamping experience.
- The roomy…Moroccan-style tents offer elegant furniture…
- With Persian rugs on the hardwood floorboards.
- The camp is located smack-dab in the middle of a wilderness area the size of Switzerland.
- But there is electricity from solar panels…
- But no air conditioning…no TV…no wi-fi…only electric fans.
Turn off a state highway in northern New Mexico and drive 14 miles down a rutted dirt road…
- And you will find yourself at Christ in the Desert Benedictine Monastery.
- Water comes from a well…and solar panels provide electricity for lighting.
- If you crave a break from your silent retreat…connecting to Spotify is a non-starter.
- But a short walk from the guest house is the chapel where you can listen to live Gregorian Chant to your heart’s content.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
In today’s reading Jesus invites his disciples to “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”
- He and his disciples have been busy.
- Their little movement has been growing like crazy.
- Streams of would-be followers and curiosity-seekers are crowding in on them.
- The Greek word for “deserted place” here is
- A modern-day descendant of that word is “hermit.”
- Jesus’ disciples are craving their own off-the-grid hermit experience.
- The “grid” for them…on which they feel trapped…is not electronic…though.
- It is a rigid framework of responsibilities that threatens to overwhelm them.
- They feel they need some Sabbath time.
- And what better place to go than into the wilderness.
The wilderness is…in the Jewish tradition…the place where the deepest of spiritual encounters happen.
- Where does Moses discover the bush that is burning and receives God’s call? The wilderness.
- Where is Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai…the summit where God gives Moses the Ten Commandments? The wilderness.
- Where does Jonah flee…to argue with God about his call to preach in Nineveh? The wilderness.
- Where does Elijah flee Jezebel’s minions who are out to murder him? The wilderness.
- Where does John the Baptist dwell…clothing himself in animal skins and subsisting on locusts and wild honey? The wilderness.
Jewish spirituality is a desert spirituality.
- The people who walk away from the fleshpots of Egypt…straight through the Red Sea waters…
- Are led by God straight into the wilderness.
- Into a daily struggle for survival…where they learn the skills they need to live.
- And so…it is no surprise when Jesus invites his closest friends to go on retreat with him…it is to a deserted place…the wilderness.
When Jewish men wanted to get serious about their faith…they often left home and family behind.
- And went to live for a time in a cave…or a crude hut…living off the land as John the Baptist did.
- Day follows day…the struggle is to find something to eat or go hungry.
- Through such an experience you learn self-reliance and the mastery of your emotions.
- Deep in the wilderness…at last…you encounter the desert God.
- The one who speaks out of burning bushes and says: “I am who I am.”
Jesus began his ministry being tempted by the devil. In The wilderness.
- The wilderness is Jesus’ experience of testing…of trial.
- It is Messiah boot camp.
- Mark tells us the angels are there to serve him…
- And their role is that of drill instructor.
- It is that very sort of experience Jesus is offering his disciples…with his invitation to a deserted place.
Well…how does this all translate into today?
- OK…you do not need to be in the wilderness to have a wilderness experience.
- A wilderness experience can be any challenge or testing that takes us out of our comfort zone.
- A challenge or testing that causes us to wonder whether we have got what it takes to live through it.
- Live long enough…and we discover that life itself serves up wilderness experiences…whether we ask for them or not.
In his poem… “Choruses from the Rock” T.S. Eliot says this:
- You neglect and belittle the desert…
- The desert is not remote in southern tropics…
- The desert is not only around the corner…
- The desert is squeezed in the tube-train next to you…
- The desert is in the heart of your brother.
There’s something about the life of a believer that is…at its very best…
- To use the words of Henry David Thoreau from his book Walden…
- A matter of living deliberately.
- A matter of living deep and sucking out all the marrow of life.”
An ideal believer’s life is incongruent with that of our consumer culture.
- Which is to live a life of opulent ease…surrounded by material blessings.
- The quintessential disciple is one who has taken to heart the teachings of Jesus.
- Is one who knows how to live simply.
- Is one who lives close to the earth and strives to be satisfied with whatever life may bring.
- It is a person who values simplicity…rather than luxury.
- Who knows the joy that comes from sharing with others.
- Who knows the glory of a sunset is superior to the light show of Times Square.
Is life hard for us right now?
- Are our days filled with struggles?
- We all have times like this.
- Likely…the deserted place…the wilderness…where we find ourselves…is not a place of meaninglessness.
- It just may be the sort of deserted place where God is melting us and molding us…
- So that he may fill us and use us for his glorious work in the kingdom.
- We may feel…in such a time as this…we are off the grid.
- But…for sure…we are not off God’s grid…and never could be.