Aug. 11, 2002

Mindekirken
11. August 2002
12 Pentecost

Pr. Jens Arne Dale

The stories about Jesus in the New Testament show us a very active person. There was always something happening around Jesus.

He was the preacher who preached so people forgot time and place.

He turned water into wine, gave food to the hungry in the wilderness,

healed the sick and cast out demons. He was cheered by thousands and suspected and counteracted by his enemies. In addition, he had 12 quite unruly disciples to teach. Did Jesus ever get tired? Yes, and that’s good,

I would say. Like us, he got tired. Today, we hear that he sent his disciples ahead of him over the sea. Then he dismissed the disciples.

And when he had done that, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Jesus sought the solitude in nature. He knew he needed rest. He had to have time alone to recharge his batteries and get new strength.

We people are different. Some need a lot of time to themselves, some like being together with others more. But everybody needs some kind of rest and relaxation – a balance between giving and receiving.

In church and Christian life, we sometimes have a tendency to value the visible activities more than the invisible.

We may be tempted to measure success according to a full calendar.

But a high level of activity isn’t necessarily the same as spiritual life.

It may even tilt closer toward stress.

Jesus teaches us that there is a connection between spiritual strength and drawing to quietness, meditation and prayer. Time for prayer doesn’t come by itself. Jesus dismissed the people. He cleared a place for being alone. This was his priority because he knew it was important.

The fact that Jesus went by himself to a quiet place for prayer has been an inspiration when they have built several retreat centers in Norway in recent decades. I have been to Lia gård in Østerdalen a couple of times in recent years. It’s a beautiful place where people may put regular prayers and Jesus meditation first on the day’s program.

Life at Lia gård is typically quiet, and to some extent it’s like a monastery. The bishop sends pastors to some days of retreat every year.

Some of us have experienced that we have problems with calming down to a life of quietness and prayer. Our thoughts fly so easily to other things we should have done. We are so focussed on activities

(maybe because we think of ourselves as valuable due to the things we do and not what we are…?)

At a retreat there are some fellowship gatherings in the chapel, but a lot of time is set apart to immerse oneself into the Biblical stories.

We may, for example, get today’s story about the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. We are told to put away the critical questions as if Peter really walked on water, etc. In the Jesus meditation, we are mentally supposed to go on board the boat together with the disciples, immerse ourselves into their thoughts and feelings, feel how it could have been to battle the waves against the wind in the dark night, in a little boat on the Sea of Galilee.

What did you feel when Jesus came walking on the water and it looked like a ghost? How was the relief when he said: "Take heart, it is I."

And Peter then, who bravely asked about permission to walk on the water towards Jesus.

How was it for him to focus on Jesus? How was it for him to notice the waves and feel the despair of sinking? How was it to cry: "Lord, save me!" and then feel the strong hand of Jesus reaching out to him?

The story ends with the disciples’ worship of Jesus. That’s the aim of the meditation: to focus on Jesus through one’s faith’s eyes, and worship him.

Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, developed the method of the Jesus meditation, which is used at many retreat centers.

Maybe it’s due time for Lutherans to discover that which was known as the Catholic reformation, also had its strong spiritual qualities.

But let’s go back to the comments that are almost like a frame around the sea journey of the disciples, the prayer life of Jesus.

We may think we are alone, striving forward on the sea of life. But Jesus prays for us. The letter to the Hebrews makes it very clear:

"He lives always to make intercession for them." Heb. 7:25.

In 1 John 2:1, it says that Jesus is our advocate with the Father.

Could we possibly have a better advocate? What he says is that your sins and mine were redeemed once forever when he died on the cross.

There is no longer any reason that you and I should be condemned.

Then we should also have confidence to think positive and good thoughts about ourselves. We are loved by God, found worthy of his grace and love. Jesus prays for us. Also, when life is difficult. Yes, maybe especially then.

We are in his care.

In the book of Job it says: "How much less when you say that you do not see him, that the case is before him, and you are waiting for him!"

Job 35:14

The disciples experienced that Jesus intervened and helped them when they were in danger at the Sea of Galilee. Maybe we experience the same?

Yes, sometimes the help of Jesus comes in a way that’s supernatural. Sometimes the help comes through people God sends our way.

And sometimes the help doesn’t come in a way we want or request. But does it mean that we are forgotten by God if we don’t get the expected answer to our prayers?

I would like to answer that question by telling about a friend.

John Steinar Jacobsen was my colleague in the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Norway for many years.

He wrote the book with the paradoxical title: "Hurry to Rest".

There he presumes the need Jesus had for quietness and prayer as today’s text says.

Then he goes through the Bible texts to show that we also as Christians need to set apart time to rest. It is a strong appeal to give priority to prayer, spiritual quietness and meditation.

Rest in a Biblical sense also means to come to heaven.

John Steinar had a study stay in Minneapolis this spring.

He and his wife were presented at church coffee at Mindekirken on Sunday at the end of April; some of you may remember.

He called me in the beginning of May. He had gotten cancer.

We spent a day in the middle of May, together at St. Joseph Hospital in

St. Paul. I don’t think I may ever forget the communion we had together at the chapel at the hospital.

John Steinar has taught so many about the importance of resting as a Christian. We got to share the meal where Jesus gives us rest.

Then we said farewell. He and his wife went back to Norway the day after. John Steinar died a week ago. The funeral was on Friday.

We ask when someone dies in his or her mid-fifties:

Why couldn’t God heal? Where was he who helped Peter and the other disciples in the storm on the Sea of Galilee? The answer isn’t always easy to give. But Jesus who reached out to the sinking Peter also reaches out to us, even in the deep waves of death. "No one shall tear them out of my hand," Jesus says in John 10:28. Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. Roman 14:8.

Maybe we want to have a strong faith without doubt. I’m sure Peter wanted the same. He stepped into the waves with a faith that looked like arrogance. But when he noticed the waves, he was scared and began to sink.

Where was his faith then? There was only a cry left "Lord, save me!"

But that was enough. Not because Peter’s faith was something to boast about, but because the saving hand of Jesus was strong enough to keep him. Faith is not a performance. It’s the helplessness that cries out to Jesus.

It’s not our hand that reaches out. It’s his hand that takes hold of us.

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