One Particular Harbor

Text:  Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Theme:  "One Particular Harbor"

8th Sunday after Pentecost

July 22, 2012

First Presbyterian Church

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

³⁰ The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. ³¹ Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

³² So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. ³³ But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

⁵³ When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴ As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵ They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

It says that the "apostles gathered around Jesus... ."  It must have been like a cabinet meeting.  On this occasion, Jesus isn't doing the talking, but the apostles are and they give Jesus a first-hand report of all they had done and taught. The word "apostle" means "one who is sent."  The One doing the sending was Jesus. 

They weren't out advertising or marketing or taking a poll.  They were sent with an invitation for people to repent -- that is, to change their mind, to take a different tack, put themselves on a new trajectory, and to go in a completely different direction with their lives.  The old, familiar direction of self-righteousness and self-fulfillment had reached, as it always does, a dead-end.  Just going through the motions of religion only served to cement the status quo.  Thus, minds were closed -- and closed-minded people are powerfully resistant to change, to repentance.  Changed minds or not, people did get sick -- and the apostles were equipped with Jesus-power to bring healing.  Thus, the message of repentance was backed up with gifts of love.



Still, Jesus knew that not everyone would welcome His invitation to repent.  He said, "If any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave."   It seems that some folks had what we today might call the "Stockholm Syndrome."  That is, victims become friends with their captors.  They are so used to being trapped that they just roll with it, accept it, surrender to it.  I read this week about the Hostage Barricade Data system of the FBI.  27% of those captured against their will come to sympathize with if not support their captors.  They just give up and give in. 

The invitation to repent was radical;  it sought to "flip" people, to burst them out of the self-centered bubble they had become all-too familiar with.  Freedom, true freedom of the kind that Jesus brought, begins with a changed mind and not an act of congress or an executive order.

Thus, the apostles had a sit-down with Jesus and they gave their report.  After the briefing, they didn't shuffle off into break-out sessions where they could further discuss what to do next or how to make their message more palatable to current tastes.  I've seen churches do that, and then -- later on -- you discover that nothing comes of it.  Christians can be long on ideas and short on implementation. Other Christians can be short on ideas and long on implementation -- in other words, we keep doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result. That, according to some, is the definition of insanity.  Another definition of insanity is doing the right thing and then stopping.   Perhaps we need to do something else.  Perhaps we need to do nothing at all.  But what does Jesus say?

Jesus says:  "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." 

For a lot of folks around here, that sounds pretty doggone good.  Y'all have worked pretty hard of late.  You've supported and participated in a magnificent Vacation Bible  School -- and we got our own briefing on that just a few minutes ago. In addition, you've gone all out for the sake of the Denton Christian Preschool with the garage sale. You've earned some rest; you've earned some Sabbath time.  Prompted by the love of God, you did some hard work -- and some of it amid the soaring heat and humidity.  Remember that Christ the Lord was human just as we are human, and humans get tired.  Jesus knew this.  He and His apostles worked hard, but they were not workaholics.  They enjoyed some down time.  Sometimes we, who know a thing or two about the Protestant work ethic, forget that.

Where do you go for some downtime?  Where is your quiet place where you can get some rest?  Where is your place -- and actual, physical place -- that you go to be alone and/or to meditate upon the Word of God and to pray?  I'm not asking you to tell anybody about it; I am asking you to think about it. 

Did they take Jesus up on His invitation?  Yes, indeed, they did!  Our text says that "They went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place." 

A little over a half mile west of Capernaum on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, there's a little cove that is called "The Sower's Cove."  There are pictures of it that you can pull up on Google.  Some think that this cove, this tiny little harbor if you will, is where Jesus preached to the crowds while sitting on a boat.  I wonder if this little cove is where Jesus went with the disciples to get some rest.  It all calls to mind the soothing words penned by Jimmy Buffett:

There's this one particular harbour
So far but yet so near
Where I see the days as they fade away
And finally disappear

There's that one particular harbour
Sheltered from the wind
Where the children play on the shore each day
And all are safe within

A most mysterious calling harbour
So far but yet so near
I can see the day when my hair's full gray
And I finally disappear

Better than Buffett are the words of Ralph Carmichael sung, today, so magnificently by Beverly Hoch:

There is a quiet place, far from the rapid pace,

Where God can soothe my troubled mind.

Sheltered by tree and flow'r, there in my quiet hour with Him,

my cares are left behind.

Whether a garden small, or on a mountain tall,

New strength and courage there I find.

Then from this quiet place I go prepared to face a new day,

With love for all mankind.

New days will come soon enough.  They did for Jesus and the apostles; they will for us.  Some new days will begin on your back porch with a cup of coffee.  It is not yet 100 degrees outside.  In fact, it's comfortable.  The birds are chirping; there is dew on the grass.  But then you open your iPad, and the first drop-down item is breaking news of a shooting in a movie theatre.  Later reports detail how the gunman booby-trapped his apartment.  There are those, today, facing a new day and having to plan for funerals.  Flags are at half-mast.

Even Jesus could not stay in safe harbor for too long.  All too quickly, a new day arrived and the quietness and rest would give way to greater crowds of people moving in on him.  Jesus would not escape them. He took his rest and enjoyed it, but he wasn't an escapist.   Rather, it says He had compassion on them.  There is a depth of theology in the Greek word for compassion that is almost impossible to explain.  The feeling was so strong it was as if His insides were being torn.  He saw them as sheep without a shepherd.  Then He was at it again; we are told He began to teach them many things.

There are sheep without a shepherd today.  And some can no longer stand the strain.  A closed mind snaps, and survivors are left with pain, suffering, and grief that is unimaginable.  Jesus, the One who would open our minds, suffered too.  On the cross, He suffered once -- the just for the unjust -- to bring us to God.  And we, too, take up our cross daily and follow Him--not around suffering but through it. 

Finally, since He is risen from the grave and lives and reigns to all eternity, we know what remains at the end:  There remains, says the writer to the Hebrews, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  There's that one particular harbor, sheltered from the wind, where the children play on the shore each day and all is safe within -- forever and ever.  Amen.