The Urgency of this Dream...

The Urgency of this Dream:

A Reflection on Jesus Calling His Disciples

Mark 1: 14-20

This week I’ll be preaching on Mark 1: 14-20, Jesus calling his disciples (according to Mark).  To prepare for writing sermons I have a list of web commentaries and blogs that I read; you know to get the juices flowing....  This week it has not taken much because it seems that Mark’s text is pushing at my vision.

He Qi "Call of Disciples"

In the UCC Sermon Seeds, Kathryn Matthews Huey writes about the urgency Mark’s gospel conveys.  She writes:  “The Gospel takes off, without the beautiful infancy narratives, no manger, no shepherds, no elderly prophets singing praise to God in the temple as they hold the promised One, a baby, in their arms. Instead, Mark sets the scene with compact accounts of John the Baptist preaching, and Jesus being baptized and then driven into the wilderness (Mark gives the wilderness temptations two verses, while Matthew uses fourteen). At a clipped pace, the Gospel writer simply refers to John's arrest so he can get on to his main point, the beginning of Jesus' public ministry.”

Urgency is at the heart of Mark’s gospel.  I was struck when I stopped to ponder it and read it again (It only take about 30 minutes to read Mark from beginning to end) by the number of times he uses the word “immediately.”  It feels like every other sentence contains immediately.  (I think that is a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.)

There is an urgency about Jesus’ ministry.  There is also an urgency about Jesus’ calling his disciples.  This struck me.  Jesus walks along and calls them.  They drop what they are doing and immediately follow Jesus.  No thinking about it.  No weighing the facts -- the pros and cons.  No worries about being financially secure before embarking upon this journey and invitation.  None of that.  

They went.  They followed Jesus’ invitation straight away. Somehow they were struck with a sense of urgency about this invitation.  Something deep within their being burst forth and off they went.  No second guessing either.  Just movement -- just following the energy and invitation of the Holy.

Hmmm... That speaks loudly to me.  I have been struck with a great sense of urgency for the past few weeks since receiving this vision -- this invitation to follow my dream.  A few weeks ago I sat with my acupuncturist (who is also my teacher and spiritual guide) for a session.  She asked a simple question which I hesitated to answer.  I had not shared my dream with her -- you know that dream that sits deep in your soul that you WANT to fulfill but at some level feel it will never happen -- that one.  I remember taking a deep breath and saying the words, “I want to create a Sabbath Center....”  then going on to explain what that vision detailed -- how it invites us into an exploration of the Holy through arts, through quiet, through contemplation, through pilgrimage.  My whole body must have changed because her response was, “You have to follow that dream.  I have not seen you glow like that before.”  Hmm....

Then I painted....There it was bursting out of the painting...The Sabbath Center.  And ever since that moment something has been unleashed and I have this sense of deep urgency that NOW is the time.  NOW is my opportunity.  NOW is when this dream will come to fruition.  NOW.

I feel like those disciples.  I heard a call that I ignored for years -- a decade to be precise.  This time, I heard it and something unleashed within my soul and it is burning brightly.  I feel like it is flaming, bursting out of me.  I feel like I can’t keep up with how it is cracking open my shell and inviting me into something I can not even imagine.

And so, I will follow it.  I have to.  This time, I WILL follow that energy.  I will paint it.  I will shape it with clay.  I will follow it.

And I have been following it for the past few weeks.  When I got really really sick with migraine, etc. after painting out this vision, I knew that I could not just write out the sick or work it out with clay.  I had to do that, but I had to take the steps that the Holy was inviting me to take to make this dream a reality.  The sickness was working to prevent me taking the first steps.  It was hard.  It was scary.  It made this real, like the Velveteen Rabbit real.

I made the phone call to the co-creator of the idea of the Sabbath Center and set a date to talk, to dream, to see where we both are in terms of bringing this to fruition.  I look forward to what will come from that....

I dreamed up my discernment group -- those who I want to sit with me and the Holy and discern what this dream will look like.  This brings anxiety because it means all the different worlds I belong to will collide into one.  That needs to happen.  It feels like the Sabbath Center is at the collision of all my life experiences; all my worlds. 

So, for now, I will hope that this urgency continues to build and drive me forward.  I will use its energy to keep opening that crack in my shell; keep following that dream; keep engaging with the Holy through paint, through pottery, through movement, through writing...