St. Paul’s On-the-Hill Episcopal Church

The Rev. Stephen C. Holton, Rector

July 12, 2009; 6 Pentecost

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-19

Psalm 24

Mark 6:14-29

CELEBRATE ANYWAY

From Loneliness to Ministry

        David was overjoyed that the ark of the Lord was coming into his city and his household. He danced before the Lord. He celebrated. He was supposed to be a dignified king and a leader of many people, and he celebrated anyway.

        He celebrated and danced so much that his robes flew up and showed much more than his subjects were interested in, but he danced anyway; and his wife looked out the window and saw him and shook her head and said: “Oh, Tony.”

        I’m sorry. That should be, “Oh, David.” But Tony Pauline is very much on all our minds today, since he died this week, as many of you know, after what the doctor called a “catastrophic injury” in his brain last Sunday, an injury from which he could not come back.

        But while he was still with us, especially for these 10 years after his last attack, Tony was known for his overwhelming joy, his love of life, and the things he would do out of that love and joy that might embarrass the rest of us, even while it gave us secret joy and the wish that we might embrace life and love with the same abandon.

        “Oh Tony.”

        The best “Oh Tony” story I can think of has to do with that last attack, 10 years ago.

        After that last attack, he was sitting in Burke Rehab., and not all of his mind had come back, but all of his heart had come back. So he had stripped off most of his clothes, like King David. And he was sitting around in the hallway, in a great deal less than the nurses would have preferred, carrying on a conversation with whomever would stop by.

        “Oh Tony.”

        That was the level of his interest in people, and in whatever crucial piece of information he had to share with you, right here, right now, for a fairly long period of time until he was sure you got it – and until you were also a good friend, which also happened in all those conversations.

        That’s how strong his passion and desire to share was. It’s a passion and desire we all should share, a passion and desire that comes straight from God to all of us, so we can share it with the world and make other lives better.

        It has been a hard week; and if you are like me you have gone off by yourself from time to time, or off with a special friend and cried a bit or thought a bit or rested a bit; and that is what we should do.

        That is what Jesus’ disciples did constantly. They go off to a lonely place, and rest a while.

        After John the Baptist is beheaded, in today’s lesson, after he has confronted Herod with his message from God, the message that has energized him like the joy that has energized David, we switch back to the story of Jesus and his disciples, that we will read more of next week.

        They have been doing their ministry, going out two by two, driving out demons, healing people, preaching the word of God, full of energy and abandon.

        Now they’re done. They’re back with Jesus, and he doesn’t send them out again. He doesn’t tell them to get back to work. He doesn’t tell them that there’s too much to be done to quit.

        He takes them off to a lonely place to rest a while, and he teaches them again. After a while a crowd collects around them, and he teaches them too.

        After events like the past week; after sickness and death in your family; after job loss and other trauma; after great joy and accomplishment; after anything big – come away to a lonely place and rest a while, with a true friend or off by yourself.

        I go to a place in the woods near here and sit; or I go to a diner and sit at the counter; or I sit in a quiet place in my house; and rest, and fall asleep maybe, or read a book or listen to music. Then I am revived and go out again.

        Jesus is in both places. Jesus calls us to both places – places of rest and places of ministry.

        John the Baptist dies, and his disciples come and take his body and lay it in a tomb. It is tired and finished with its task. Then some of them go and follow Jesus. Others, we do not hear of again. They are probably tired of being in a crisis. It is time for them to rest and fade into the background if they choose.

        Then the disciples of Jesus take the lead, and they have rest times and ministry times, but always full of the presence of the Lord.

        A great modern theologian, Walter Brueggeman, says that “ministry happens when our greatest desire meets the world’s deepest need,” “when our greatest desire meets the world’s deepest need.”

        The disciples’ greatest desire, after the death of John, after their great adventures in ministry, is rest and peace and strength. So they retreat to a lonely place apart for a while, with Jesus. Then they have the strength, which is a ministry, to the world that needs it.

        They have renewed insight for a world that needs it.

        They have all these things for a world that needs it – a world which still lives under the oppression and corrupt values of Herod.

        Jesus’ teachings do not take on Herod directly, the way John’s did. They kind of ignore him, and talk about how people can live their lives in a good and moral and healthy way regardless of what the king and government are doing – how we can celebrate anyway, live anyway, love anyway.

        Talk about the world’s deepest need.

        In times of crisis and death, sadness in our lives or sadness in society; we have a need for a kind of aggressive normalcy, an aggressive normalcy where, in spite of what we read in the newspapers and in spite of what passes for public values and economic and political craziness; we can almost aggressively live normal lives. In spite of everything, we love our neighbors, we care for the earth, we love the stranger. We do it even if no one else does.

        Then, in doing that, we build around us a zone of health, a zone of love and caring, of joy that nothing can permeate, joy that permeates everything else, joy that embarrasses the people around us, until they catch it too.

        From our lonely places come strength – from Jesus who goes there with us. From the strength comes ministry to many others around us – with Jesus who goes there with us too.

        The ministry, the joy, the love comes out of us in whatever way most suits us, using whatever gift is most natural to us. Whatever the gift though, the end is always the same – the joy of the Lord communicated to someone else’s heart.

        We take an example from Tony, from his joy and abandon. We ask that the joy of the Lord inhabit our hearts in the same way, that it force us to abandon self-restraint as David did.

There is always time to retreat to private and lonely places when we need to. Jesus will find us there and strengthen us there, and then send us out again, ready to challenge others in ways in which they might not want to be challenged – or perhaps in ways in which they are quite ready to be challenged, and quite ready to follow, if we but lead the way.

        Come, let’s dance in the Lord, and show others the way.