Oh, God, open my lips and my mouth shall declare your praise. Ps 51:15

 

The end is finally in sight. The project was a big one and you've worked long an hard to get it completed. When it started you still had a lot to learn. That didn't mean you couldn't work on it. You had to - it was expected. In the process you learned a whole bunch of new things, but it definitely wasn't easy. Now it's nearly over.

 

It has been a long time since you truly have rested. You've been way too busy to even think about slowing down. No rest for the weary. Most of us have known times like that when something critical, whether a project at work, home or in some other facet of our lives, becomes all-consuming and demanding. We wade in and set about doing our best to make the project successful even if we have some learning to do along the way. Maybe especially if we have some learning to do along the way.

 

But then, if we're lucky,  the idea of getting away with the team you've been working with so long and hard for a few days debriefing , rest, and maybe a bit of celebrating are upon you. It sounds good. It will be the right thing to do before you re-enter the fray and tackle more projects. But can you actually do it?

 

The idea of Shabbat, the day set aside for rest and recreation/re-creation, has been with us since the very beginning. God rested on the 7^th day and commanded that his people do the same. Time set aside to rest and contemplate things bigger than ourselves and our own world - the world we tend to get so wrapped up in. Time to remember that there are other people, other ideas, and other sides of our own lives that need to be attended to and nourished.

 

There was a time when we, as a people, paid more attention to Shabbat/Sabbath. Now, for many people, that seems to be as antiquated a concept as the horse and buggy. No longer in fashion and even questionable as a human need. It's a 24/7 world out there. We all know people who can't turn off their cell phone or be away from an internet connection for any length of time. Heaven forbid they lose that precious blackberry. Their world is nearly at an end for them if any of those things happen.

 

We see Jesus offering the 12 disciples the opportunity to retreat from the fray in our text today. They've just come back from their first mission without him. They're road weary, full of stories, needing to be together again as a group with their teacher. They've got questions and situations to process. They haven't yet earned the title of Apostle from Mark's perspective because they don't yet truly "get it". They are all still in training and they are all drained.

 

The problem with this is that for Jesus, it's a 24/7 world already. There is no place he can go that people don't follow - or even arrive ahead of him in anticipation of his arrival. There truly is no rest for the weary. The demands of the world through the people who surround him wherever he goes, are impossible for Jesus to escape. More importantly, they are impossible for him to ignore.

 

Most of us have had that kind of an experience, too. We just got the child to sleep and are headed off for some much needed rest our self when- the phone rings, the child wakes up, the dog knocks over the trash can or whatever it is. Or at work, an unexpected event occurs and we can't get away for the vacation or retreat or whatever break time we were expecting. The world is once again pressing in on us.

 

What do we do when that happens? Most of us sigh and then set about taking care of whatever it is that has presented itself. If we're lucky, we find a little bit of time to rest and regroup, but even that isn't always possible. There isn't always another person to lend a hand, another hour to prepare the new presentation, someone else with the same kind of knowledge and experience to step in and finish the project. While none of us is completely irreplaceable, it can certainly be darned inconvenient at times for both us and those looking to us if we aren't available.

 

What Jesus does when confronted with the crowd - the people who are described as being like lost sheep in need of a shepherd - is to tend to their needs with compassion and grace. While it may seem that he is ignoring the disciples, he is actually continuing to teach them. This time he's doing it by example rather than through parables and conversation. They get a lesson in recognizing the needs of people and in how they should respond. Their lives are no longer their own any more than Jesus' life has been his own. He has a mission and ministry to attend to and he's doing what has always been his to do - tending God's people who have been scattered like sheep.

 

Most of us know what it is to be lost. I was about 4 or 5 and out at the grocery store with my father when I first remember the feeling of being lost. I looked around and realized that I was somehow alone in this seemingly huge store. Lots of adults were walking past and ignoring me. Not a one of them looked familiar. I must have been in the back of the store because I remember backing up to a refrigerated display case and standing there wondering what to do next. I was bewildered and scared, but it didn't take long before my father appeared looking for me and my world was safe and secure once again.

 

A much more recent experience of the sense of being lost happened over 10 years ago for me. This time I wasn't lost in the physical sense. I found myself spiritually lost. I was working in a large parish and was very busy doing the work of the church. However, as I told the woman I sought out as a spiritual director, I was so busy doing church that I didn't know how to be church. I knew who and what the center was, but I was exhausted, lost and didn't know how to find my way back. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I said it, and when I think about it my eyes still tear up even if they don't overflow.

 

At that point, Marian became my shepherd. She gathered me in, both physically and figuratively, and helped me to find my own path back to healing and wholeness. That's what being a shepherd is really about. You tend to those in need, whether you know them or not, in the ways God has gifted you. Whether you're freshly back from a great vacation or harried and over-worked, you reach out and extend a compassionate, helping hand to address the needs of the lost ones around and before you.

 

For some of us, that might mean handing food or drink to someone in need, either directly or through gifts to food banks and pantries. For others, we might be volunteer tutors for children or adults who need assistance. It might mean a late night of little sleep as a child or aging parent struggles with illness. It might mean we stand as silent witnesses for those who have been abused or mistreated by people or institutions. The ways we are shepherds to the lost sheep of God's creation are as many and varied as all of us and all of the needs are.

 

The lost and scattered sheep mentioned in Jeremiah found their shepherd in Jesus. Since Jesus couldn't remain with us in the physical sense because of the greater work he had yet to complete, he taught disciples to take his place in the world. The tradition of teaching disciples continues to this day. Each of us, according to the gifts we've been given and the situations we are confronted with, have both the responsibility and the privilege to be shepherds for the lost sheep in God's creation.  We've been taught  the appropriate lessons already.

 

I haven't always been a successful shepherd, and I doubt that everyone here can claim to always be successful either. We do the best we can in the circumstances. Often, when we feel we've fallen far short of the mark, we'll later find out that somehow what we did made a significant difference for the person we've tried to help. That's when I realize that I wasn't alone in the effort. A little bit of divine intervention somehow managed to make what I did enough. The little miracles that happen all around us each and every day.

 

The ministry we can all carry out is a critical part of our life in community. It becomes the outward sign to the rest of the world that we do 'get it'. We do understand what it is to know God's grace and our responsibility to share it by reaching out to the lost, lonely, hurting and scared people we encounter in the world. We may not make them converts to our faith, but we will have been a good representative of it. The likelihood that Christianity will be thought of favorably will be increased, and that's a good thing. The more important part is that we are being faithful to God's wishes for us by following the example of our teacher, Jesus.

 

Is it easy? Usually not. In fact, it can be darned inconvenient at times. But it is what we are called to do. We gather together to worship and draw strength from one another inside our community of faith. Then we go back out into the world to serve as disciples to the lost sheep. We all have a ministry to help re-create the world anew every day. Some days it is the most daunting of tasks. Some days it is as easy as sharing a smile and word of greeting. Some days it seems totally impossible to do. Maybe those are our own lost sheep days.

 

However it is for you each day; just remember that you aren't in it alone. There are lots of others all around you and of course, none of us ever walks alone. God is always at our side.  Amen.

 

 Anna Livingston