Early Morning Shuffle

ME (Orientation)

Have any of you ever been in love with a television show? You get hooked on the story, on the characters, on the events, and the next thing you know you have found yourself emotionally attached to a character or multiple.

Well, this once happened to me. 11 years ago a new TV show was coming out. A few men from the church that I was going to really liked to hike and backpack, so I would often tag along.

One of our favorite things to do together though was going and watching movies every once in a while. We liked the Sci-Fi stuff, so when this show was rumored to start we decided that every Sunday night we would get together at one of the guy’s houses and watch this show.

One of us would bring drinks, the other snacks, and the last would provide the main food. It became the thing that I looked forward to each and every single week. Monday through Saturday I couldn’t wait for Sunday to arrive so that I could do this same thing.

So, the four of us would gather together, grab our food, snacks, and drinks, and we would turn on… The Walking Dead!

It was a show that hooked us from the very beginning. For the first few seasons, this was our routine, and if we missed a week we would be sure to get together the hour before the show was supposed to play and watch last week’s episode that we missed.

It was great because we not only thought that the show was well put together, and we were quickly falling in love with the story and the characters, but we would spend every second of the commercial time talking about the plausibility of such an event, a zombie outbreak.

We discussed strategies, ideas, the science behind it, everything you could think of. I think I really loved the show more for the comradery that I had while watching it. I felt a great attachment to this show, to the time that I spent with my friends and the nonsense of it all.

Then, of course, as time went on and life changed, we stopped gathering together to watch it. And while the show still goes on today, I don’t think any of us watch it anymore.

But, you know, while we’re on the subject, I have to ask, have any of you ever been interested in the idea of zombies? Something so lifeless, fearless, enraged, and hungry shuffling around with no knowledge of what is happening around them. Motivated purely by a desire to consume?

While we all know that zombies aren’t real, I think many of us may have experienced a state of existence quite like that of a zombie. Unaware of what is going on around us, enraged, longing to consume…does anyone know what I’m talking about?

Right…coffee.

I’d venture to guess that there are many of us here this morning that act just like zombies in the morning. We shuffle around, unable to utter words other than “coffee,” while we crash into the bed, stumble down the stairs or down the hall, kicking toys or whatever was left on the floor, until we are finally standing in front of our next victim. That warm, soothing, wonderfully smelling first cup of coffee, or maybe tea for some of you.

We grasp onto the cup as though it can bring us to life, lift it up so gently to our lips, and sip just a wee bit of that hot goodness. And, like a light switch had been flipped, the dark clouds go away, our eyes widen, and all of a sudden little happy birds are flapping around us in our kitchens or wherever we like to go for that first cup of joe in the morning.

WE (Identification)

While all of that is wonderful, and the most like zombies we will ever be, there is something deeper going on here other than coffee or television shows. I’m afraid that there are many of us here, even including myself, who have a relationship with God that resembles more closely the early morning shuffle to the coffee pot.

Now I don’t mean it’s the part where we can’t get God off of our minds like with that first cup of coffee, nor the part where we stop at nothing to get to that delicious cup of coffee. I’m talking about that slow, stumbling, shuffling, disorienting shuffle we make.

It’s a shuffle that presumes that “maybe” God will intervene, or “maybe” this time the prayer might actually work in our favor. It’s a shuffle that says, “I know I should spend more time reading God’s Word and meditating on it, but I just don’t have the time.”

I think it is very likely that many of us in this room struggle with the early morning shuffle. We go out into the world, dealing with friends, family members, co-workers, bosses, politicians, and when something painful happens, we make our shuffle to God. Slow, mindless, head down. We present ourselves to God, if we even get before him, as if He were the very last straw of hope in our lives.

I often find myself in this place. As a matter of fact, there was a moment in my life that I did this exact thing. I saw the problem before me, did everything in my power to address it, to fix it, to be the hero…and when all else failed I had to swallow my pride and shuffle to God.

I found myself sitting in my office one day in Paint Lick. Before me was all of the school work I had to do, but what I couldn’t get off my mind was the person who has hurt me the most in my life. One day I’ll go into more detail about this part of my life, but this person was on my mind while they sat in prison.

Up to this point I had done everything in my power to fix them. I tried all of the books, I tried giving when asked, I tried helping them make better life decisions…and at the end of the day there was nothing to show for it. So, as I sat there in my office, thinking about this person, I felt myself shuffle before God.

I found myself admitting that I was powerless, that I couldn’t change anything, that I wasn’t in control. And, the pen began to write. I felt like I was in prison right there with them. So, I wrote with my pen a lengthy letter that admitted my inability to help, laying out the words of Paul to the Romans, “There is no power but of God.” I explained that the only way this person was going to get over their addiction, get through their struggle, was if they were willing to go before God.

As I sealed up the letter and sent it on its way to the prison, it hit me that I too needed to be willing to go before God.

So, this morning, I wonder, what struggles are you enduring. What events or people in your lives are you trying to control and have power over, instead of giving it to God himself?

GOD (Illumination)

This morning we read a powerful story from the Gospel of Mark. In it, we found blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sitting along the roadside near Jericho. Here he sat, unable to see, waiting for help of any kind. Praying, hoping, that people passing by would just give a little of what they had to help him.

That, maybe someone walking by would be a shaman, or a healer, somebody at all who could heal him. I wonder for how long he sat there in the dirt, waiting, hoping, praying. I wonder how long it was that he tried to heal himself through his own means.

Well, he hears a crowd of people as they leave Jericho and he overhears that in the crowd itself is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. So, what does he do? “COFFEE, COFFEE, I NEED IT NOW!” Right, he begins shouting out to Jesus. He says, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Even as the people around him, and the people in the crowd hushed him, he shouted even louder, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

At this point, we know something pretty important. Bartimaeus knows not only who Jesus is, but what Jesus is. He begs him for mercy, hoping that Jesus would but intervene in some way.

Well, Jesus hears the cries of this man. The crowd, thinking Jesus would never address such a lowly, dirty, not properly dressed or cleaned man, were surprised when he said to them, “Call him here.”

At this point, the crowd that at one time hushed Bartimaeus was now the crowd that went and said, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.”

Now, from this point, we know what happens. Bartimaeus goes before Jesus, who asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” and Bartimaeus responds, “My teacher, let me see again.” So, Jesus heals him, tells him that it was his faith that made him well, and then Bartimaeus began to follow Jesus and the crowd.

It’s such a wonderful story, but what stuck to my heart this week as I read over it was the manner in which Bartimaeus went to Jesus. Mark 10:50 says,

Mark 10:50 NRSV

So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

It reminds me of the times that my dad or mom would call to me and say, “Hey, come here.” If I didn’t want to go, do you know what I would do? I would get up oh so slowly, taking my sweet old time, and once I finally stood up I would walk oh so slowly to my father or mother. I was hoping that if I just took the right amount of time they may forget they wanted me to come before them at all.

Bartimaeus doesn’t fold up his cloak all neat and tidy and gently place it beside him, nor does he slowly rise up to be in front of Jesus. He throws off the garment that was once collecting alms from passer-byers and he doesn’t just rise slowly, he literally jumps up!

Now, we aren’t told how exactly he gets to Jesus, but my guess is that he doesn’t just do the early morning shuffle to him. Looking at how he cleared himself of the cloak, and how he stood to his feet to approach the Lord, my guess is that Bartimaeus went as quickly as he could, still blind, to where Jesus was.

Now, some try to argue that he wasn’t fully blind, or that maybe he had help from others, but when I read it I see Bartimaeus pushing through the crowd, stumbling over obstacles, bumping into things around him, until he is finally at peace in the very presence of Christ!

YOU (Application)

Brothers and sisters, how do you approach the Lord? Are you struggling with anything in your life right now and finding yourselves stumbling to God like you do your early morning coffee?

Are you shuffling every day as you make your way to God?

It can become so easy to put God at such a distance that we shuffle toward him for so long that it sometimes feels like we never actually get to Him.

It’s like when I begin to run and I say, “alright Thad, you’re going to run twice around the tack.” I start off on a good speed, a good pace, thinking “oh, two laps won’t be bad.” Then, all of a sudden, my stomach cramps, my legs hurt, my breathing labors, I begin to weeze, and I do this awkward shuffle-jog thing for the rest of the time, or at least until I give up and just start walking.

Many of us started out great. We were running to God with everything that we had. Nothing could stop us from throwing off our cloaks, jumping up, and sprinting to Christ. It could have been for the terrible things going on in our lives, or the wonderful. Either way, we ran full speed to God.

But, over time, when God didn’t answer our prayers how we wanted, or maybe life just got too busy, we began to get up slower, run a bit slower, and make half-hearted requests at the feet of Christ.

Eventually, we find ourselves tired, dejected, beat up, and done. Now, as God calls us before Him, we take our time getting up, and do the early morning shuffle to God, not really caring if we make it before Him or not.

The Good News for us this morning, brothers and sisters, is that in every instance Jesus says about us, “Call them here.” In every instance, no matter how long it takes us to get to Him, Christ says, “What do you want me to do for you?”

As we continue to grow in our grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, my prayer is that you can begin to notice yourself and see how you are approaching Jesus. Are you jumping up and eagerly running to Him, or do you do the early morning shuffle?

WE (Inspiration)

Honestly, after this last year and a half, I’m afraid I spend more time shuffling to God than I do making my desires known to Him. I’m afraid that like me, many of us in this room are stuck in this state of shuffling.

But, I want to imagine for a moment what it would be like if each and every one of us, in every moment, jumped up in eager expectation to God’s calling to us. If we jumped up and no longer allowed the things of this world to slow us down or stop us.

If, no matter how busy we were, we still made time for God. If, no matter what team was playing on TV, we spent more time reading our Bibles. If, no matter what latest scandal broke and found itself on the news, we spent more time praying for those involved.

I’ve heard from so many of you deep lasting concerns about our church, our community, our country, and our world. Imagine, just for a moment, what those things would look like if every one of us jumped up and ran to Christ, making known what we want Him to do for us.

While many of you might be thinking, “well this will be easier said than done,” I have to say that you have already made a great start. Each of you sitting here today, or even watching at home, have responded to Jesus’ call to come.

Sure, you may have done the early morning shuffle through the doors of the church, but that doesn’t have to be how we enter any longer. That doesn’t have to be how we leave the church and reenter the world each week.

Folks, when we gather together to worship, just as we are now, we are picking up our pace a bit more as we run to Christ. So, let all of us here this morning end our slow and painstaking shuffles to God, and let’s be more like Bartimaeus. No matter what hinders us, no matter what is in our way, let us each jump up and run towards Christ!

If we truly want to see the transformative powers of Jesus at work in our lives, in our church, in our community, in our country, and in our world we HAVE to be like Bartimaeus, boldly approaching the Lord with zeal and eagerness, making our requests known exactly as they are.

If all of us, together, approach Christ with what we need and want in the manner that Bartimaeus did, then I bet we would all begin to see a major change in our lives and the lives of the people around us.

Let’s break away from our spiritual zombiness, and sprint to the one who can make even the blind to see.

Amen.