Rev Dr Brian Brown

Sermons given by Rev Dr Brian Brown for the North Lake Macquarie Congregations

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“That’s where I need to go” The steep and rocky path to transformation.

presented to Warners Bay UC and Boolaroo UN on 9th July 2024

Last time I spoke here I addressed you on the topic of how Mark’s Gospel presents the challenge to follow Jesus, including making the hard decision that go with sacrificial service.

I contrasted it with the version popularised by the Crusade evangelists of the 1960s, which presented the choice in terms of what one might call The Great Escape from the eternally deadly consequences of our sin. The altar call invariably included words like “All you have to do is…”, and, by the way, the Lord loves a cheerful giver!

Well, we are still in Mark, and will be for a while longer, so there is no respite from the strident and passionate call of Jesus to his disciples, and all who heard him, to follow him all the way to Jerusalem and beyond. Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom requires no passport for entry save through the narrow door of the servant’s entrance.

At a recent ethical ministry training day we were introduced to a song by the group Indigo, entitled The Wood Song. The lyrics embrace the metaphor of Jesus and his disciples striking a storm as they cross the Sea of Galilee, which for me echoes and reinforces the gospel imperative to engage with the trials, tests and challenges of the way of Jesus:

The thin horizon of a plan is almost clear
My friends and I have had a tough time
Bruising our brains hard up against change
All the old dogs and the magician
Now I see we're in the boat in two by twos
Only the heart that we have for a tool we could use
And the very close quarters are hard to get used to
Love weighs the hull down with its weight
But the wood is tired and the wood is old
And we'll make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds we'll have missed the point
That's where I need to go.

No way construction of this tricky plan
Was built by other than a greater hand
With a love that passes all our understanding
Watching closely over the journey
Yeah but what it takes to cross the great divide
Seems more than all the courage I can muster up inside
Although we get to have some answers when we reach the other side
The prize is always worth the rocky ride
But the wood is tired and the wood is old
And we'll make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds we'll have missed the point
That's where I need to go.

Sometimes I ask to sneak a closer look
Skip to the final chapter of the book
And then maybe steer us clear from some of the pain it took
To get us where we are this far yeah
But the question drowns in its futility
And even I have got to laugh at me
No one gets to miss the storm of what will be
Just holding on for the ride
The wood is tired and the wood is old
We'll make it fine if the weather holds
But if the weather holds we'll have missed the point
That's where I need to go.

We have recently heard again the story of Jesus and his disciples encountering a savage storm as they cross the Sea of Galilee. In taking such a journey two things need to be noted:1. Turbulence can never be ruled out, and 2.Jesus is in the boat.

Nor can turbulence be ruled out when Jesus chooses to plot a course for his missionary journey that goes back through the village where he grew up. Now, given that he has already had one run in with his family as they try to prevent him from risking the ire of the Jewish authorities, one might have through that he would lead his followers directly to the villages where they were to be gladly received, and where great deeds of power could be accomplished. But no, let’s go home first, and what is more, let’s go to the synagogue! “That’s where I need to go”.

For the record, I choose to believe that the reason Jesus did this was because he needed his family’s love, affirmation and support. (Mark in particular emphasises the humanity of Jesus.) Family are the people who, when you knock on the door, have to let you in. Aren’t they? Well, clearly, not always! But they are in the area, so why not call? In fact, this time it is the “locals’ who arc up and push back at Jesus- for reasons about which we can only speculate, though I suspect that jealousy is lurking in there somewhere; or hostility because he show them up for the narrowness of their lives.

Whatever the reason, the experience is woven into the tapestry of their formation for mission. “We’ll make it fine if the weather holds, but if the weather holds we’ll have missed the point. THAT’S WHERE I NEED TO GO”

St Paul’s thorn in the flesh plays a similar part in the building of compassionate resilience in the face of the tests, trials and challenges of the missionary journey. When injury cannot be avoided, but the journey has to continue anyway, this is where we find that Jesus’ presence is real and energising. “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness”. Jesus is in the boat.

Both of today’s passages emphasise the value and necessity of the ordeal. Jesus and Paul are upfront about the cost of discipleship. As Bonhoeffer points out in his book of that name, ‘cheap grace’ is a perversion of the call to discipleship; Christianity lite, if you like.

As The lyrics of the Wood Song insist, this pathway of Jesus is not for the fainthearted:

Yeah but what it takes to cross the great divide
Seems more than all the courage I can muster up inside
Although we get to have some answers when we reach the other side
The prize is always worth the rocky ride.

And later:

Jesus does not shirk the return journey to his home town because he knows the value, even the necessity of the ordeal. In his awesome exposition of what it takes to navigate a successful life’s journey, Hero with a Thousand faces, Joseph Campbell talks about the first step being Leaving the Village.

Indeed, the home town is the place of nurturing. This is where we learn to trust in the safety of the family circle, where we get to stretch our fledgling wings in a big backyard, where we make friends to test our strength and loyalty. And then we must leave the village, either physically or metaphorically, or both, and risk wider world with its unfamiliar ways; small fish again in the big and daunting pond. Along the way there will be tests and trials, but for those who have the faith and the courage, there will be divine help when and where they need it (The Lord of the Rings saga has a similar theme). In the Gospels the helper is Jesus, asleep in the boat, but not unconscious to the fears of his friends.

Campbell also draws from myth and legend to describe the fate of those who never dare to leave the safety of the known way. Some people spend all their time, energy and resources trying to avoid suffering for as long as possible. He draws on the myths and folktales of the whole world to make clear that…”the refusal is essentially a refusal to give up what it takes to be in one’s own interest. The future is regarded not in terms of an unremitting series of deaths and births, but as though one’s present system of ideals, virtues, goals and advantages were to be made fixed and secure.”

Some people, when they retire, take to a life of incessant cruising, usually with the same company. Others again, if they are wealthy enough, actually live on the same cruise ship. If the weather holds, fine. If not, out go the stabilisers. Or it could be golf, or whatever is good for us in reasonable doses, but spiritually stultifying when consumed at the cost of life in all its fullness.

Indeed, we humans are past masters at defending the space, securing the perimeters of our restricted experience. Jesus calls us beyond the fortresses of our minds to the risks and rewards of service to the common good. Along the way, if we stay with it, we will benefit from the purifying effects of failure and disappointment; the winnowing effect of sitting quietly in the uncomfortable spaces until we face what in our incessant cruising we have been trying to avoid, the maturing influence of frustrating imperfection.

People who get out on the road and take risks and face failure will have a lot more disappointment and problems than those who stay at home and just say NO to every new challenge that confronts them. Mark’s Peter is a good example. But he is the one who has Christendom’s most noted church named in his honour.

My friends, we are right now called to face challenges we have not faced before. The gospel urges us to accept change that puts us clearly out of the comfort zone; to get into the wooden boat even though we cannot trust either the creaking timbers or the weather forecast. Why? Because that’s where we need to go. In this particular boat there are no back seats!

We all have our faults, which from time to time can become anything from mildly frustrating to downright maddening. Leaving the community, either spiritually or by emotional withdrawal is not the answer. Nor is just taking a back seat. Learning to live together in the messy middle is the right choice for those who are on the way to the promised goal, knowing that we have not yet arrived, but also, as Archie Roach puts it, that it is not too late to keep trying. As it says in the song:

Now I see we're in the boat in two by twos
Only the heart that we have for a tool we could use
And the very close quarters are hard to get used to
Love weighs the hull down with its weight.

I see a Gospel pathway forward for this community of faith. We now have a mission statement, and it’s up to us to prove that it is true. Until we choose to put it into practice, it is truly only words on a page. In so doing there are a few bullets we have to bite, a few servants’ quarters doors we still have to go through. And there is always the possibility of picking up a thorn or two when we go barefoot on holy ground.

We could just hope and pray that the weather holds, but then we will have missed the point.

Let’s not miss the point. Missing the mark (from the Greek word ‘harmartia’ which describes the archer who unintentionally misses the target) is one of the bible’s definitions of sin. Let’s not miss the boat because were too busy checking the weather app on our mobile phones. Jesus is already in this boat. Beyond that, “only the heart we have for a tool we could use” BUT “That’s where I need to go”.

the song featured is by Indigo Girls – The Wood Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0tUkepNqiA