WHILE IT WAS STILL DARK
Isaiah 40:21-31   Mark 1:29-39
A Sermon by the Rev. Odette Lockwood-Stewart

At last month’s Board meeting of Berkeley’s Food and Housing Project we learned that the number of new homeless families, people homeless for the very first time, has increased over 150% in the last six months.

At a Suicide Hotline in New York City, there has been a 28% increase in calls in the last two years.  Alan Ross has worked at the Samaritan hotline since 1984, and has directed it since 1991. He said this week, it’s  “Like nothing I’ve ever seen.  150 calls a day … one every 10 minutes... even before the stock market went into its nose dive in September, it was a dark time.” (New York Times, February 3, 2009)

Theodore Roethke’s poem begins, “In a dark time, the eye begins to see. I see my shadow in the deepening shade...”

In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus went out to a deserted place and there he prayed.

The first chapter of the Gospel of Mark describes the first days of Jesus’ public ministry with urgency, immediacy, even hyperbole – “immediately they left their nets,... immediately he called them,...just then there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit,... as soon as they left the synagogue... That evening, at sundown, they brought him all who were sick... And the whole city was gathered around the door...

I don’t know about you but after a day like that, ending with, “And the whole city gathered around the door,” I might be tempted to sleep in.

But... in the morning, while it was still very dark...Jesus got up and went out to a solitary place, and there he prayed.

In a Middle School Sunday School class when we read this text and talked about the when and where and why of prayer, one student said,

 “I know why he prayed before anybody else got up. Once the day gets going, you get dressed, you’re dealing with parents, school, chores, the whole day is shot...”

Another said, “Sure he prayed. But he was Jesus.”

Jesus showed us the power of prayer by the times and settings he chose.  As a faithful Jew he prayed regularly in community. He prayed every day, he prayed on the Sabbath, he prayed alone.  He prayed at moments of temptation, decision, in preparation for confrontation with the powers of empire. He prayed blessing children.  Disciples asked him to teach them to pray.  Jesus taught by his life that prayer and action, miracle and message, healing and holy are one in God.

In story after story Jesus heals and frees people, just like Simon’s mother-in law, just like you and me, who immediately rise up and serve the people, forming communities that heal and free people.

While it was still very dark … Jesus got up...went to a lonely place, and there he prayed.  We do not know his prayer.  He prayed.

We are invited.    In the morning, while it is still very dark,....in our lives and in this world, to get up... to go to a solitary place, and THERE pray.   Begin every day with God.

Notice the holy... notice the whole...beneath the broken

don’t dwell in fear....don’t seek control.  Be open.

In honest prayer, dare to bring all of who you are, dare to bring all of God’s children, --family, friend, neighbor, enemy-- into the indestructible and transformational nearness of God.  Prayer can be silent...

Spoken prayer can be as simple as:

Praise God.

Blessed be.

Forgive me.

Forgive us.

Help.

Help them.

Guide us.

Thank you.

Blessed are they who know their need of God.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.

Hear this testimony,

“Prayer has saved my life.  Without it, I should have been a lunatic long ago.  I had my share of the bitterest public and private experiences. They threw me in temporary despair.  If I was able to get rid of that despair, it was because of prayer...It came out of sheer necessity...And as time went on, my faith in God increased, and more irresistible became the yearning for prayer.”  Gandhi spoke these words.

Coretta Scott King wrote, “Prayer is how we open our hearts to God, how we make that vital connection that empowers us to overcome overwhelming obstacles and become instruments of God’s will.  Despite the pain and suffering that I have experienced and that comes to all of our lives, I am more convinced than ever before that prayer gives us strength and hope, a sense of divine companionship, as we struggle for justice and righteousness.”

Prayer is immersion in a living relationship with a living God… probing, pressing, pulling, stillness, questioning, listening, daring, trusting, reaching.  Life can change our prayer.  Prayer can change us.

One of our Sunday evening groups through the season of Lent, throughout the month of March, will practice many forms of prayer together. Pastor Eun-Joo will lead this group.

In a crowded place or solitary wilderness, in noon day sun and dusky shadows, while it was still very dark, to a community of exiles, the prophet Isaiah spoke familiar words of struggle, and trust:  “Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Prayer fuels vision and sustainable action.  “Those who wait for the Lord” pay attention to those things that nourish and feed and fuel the soul.  

For the past two days, 42 members of this community participated in a Leadership Retreat facilitated by Barb Sayler.  At one point Barb asked us to open our hearts and minds to visions of who God is calling us to be as a community of faith. After an extended guided meditation and time of silent prayer those moved by the Spirit to share what they saw did so.  One person said, “I had a vision of Jesus coming in, looking around and saying, “Now, that’s what I’m talking about!”

In the darkness before day we know we fall short of our vision.  We strive and struggle, we doubt as well as dare, and sometimes we are doing well just to walk and not faint.  But from time to time, with intention or by surprise we find ourselves lifted and held and empowered by that source that is beyond and within and between us.

I close with this prayer by friend and colleague Donna Schaper:

Almighty God, Thou beyond any name or captivity by words or flesh, thou whom some call Yahweh, and others call Adonai, and others speak of only as breath; Thou whom some call Allah, whom I know in Jesus and as Christ, thou whom some call Spirit and others call Higher Power and others call Force and others know as inner fire, draw near.  Let what we do here be holy, even as you are holy and beyond any name. AMEN. (Sacred Speech, P. 47)