Retreat To Advance

INTRODUCTION

Every year we try to take the last message of the year to reflect on what God has done in our church and anticipate what he will do in and through us in the coming year. Sometimes it’s getting a sense of God’s mission for our city, sometimes its our character, or an opportunity for service, that he wants us to pursue and develop.

But I felt God drawing me to this one particular idea that I’d like us to explore for just a bit today.

It’s the concept of wilderness. Deserted spaces. Quiet, lonely, desolate. The quiet corner or dark room or mountaintop retreat. Cut off from convenience, opportunity, civilization, and progress. Spaces like these are often derided for many reasons. And yet, God uses them for a specific reason in the Bible, and I think we would do well to familiarize ourselves with this.

Monastic communities

I’ve been dwelling on this idea that came from a reflection of monastic communities:

Mark Noll, Turing Points: Much more important for the spread of monasticism, however, was reaction to the church’s greatest success. With the rise of the Constantinian church–state establishment, the life of a Christian “professional” offered considerable potential for worldly preferment. Although intraecclesiastical strife and strenuous differences of opinions with the emperors could make life precarious for bishops and priests, service in the church after Constantine could also offer stability, access to power, and a reasonable opportunity for wealth. Monasticism was a response, often inarticulate, that reflected spiritual concern about the church’s success. The self-denial and privations of the monks, although a result now of self-imposed decisions, were a way of recovering the ideals of martyrdom.

The monks, led by a man named Benedict of Rome, sought to rekindle the flame of passion for God and love for others, but they could not do it in the monetized, power-hungry, commercialized world (anyone watch Charlie Brown Christmas this year?). In order to pursue a greater witness, in order to live out the testimony of God in and through and with us, God sometimes calls the church to retreat in order to advance. To withdraw in order to engage. To rediscover his presence in order to be present with others.

Maybe you’ve grown tired with something. Maybe it’s your job, maybe it’s your church, or THE church, maybe it’s the political conversation or the media drone. I don’t know. And something in you just wants to run. To escape from it all. That may be true, but I’m reminded of the sage’s words in Ecclesiastes 1:14:

“I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.”

Perhaps what God is calling you to is not escape, but retreat. Retreat is a missional strategy, a regrouping, an reassessment, a reformation of your priorities and purposes. The sixth century monastics did not leave for the deserted spaces to protest, or to escape. They retreated for the wilderness in order to regroup and advance in the mission of God. In the wilderness, they rediscovered Jesus. They rediscovered the simple way of following.

SACRED SPACES IN SCRIPTURE

Here’s just a snapshot of the wilderness experiences in the Bible. What do you see in them?

Genesis 1:1–3 (CSB)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Exodus 3:1–14 (CSB)

Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. So Moses thought, “I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!” “Here I am,” he answered. “Do not come closer,” he said. “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he continued, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the territory of the Canaanites, Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. So because the Israelites’ cry for help has come to me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them, therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He answered, “I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I am the one who sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship God at this mountain.” Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”

Exodus 34:1–7 CSB

The Lord said to Moses, “Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be prepared by morning. Come up Mount Sinai in the morning and stand before me on the mountaintop. No one may go up with you; in fact, no one should be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and herds are not to graze in front of that mountain.” Moses cut two stone tablets like the first ones. He got up early in the morning, and taking the two stone tablets in his hand, he climbed Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him. The Lord came down in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed his name, “the Lord.” The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

Numbers 32:6–13 (CSB)

But Moses asked the Gadites and Reubenites, “Should your brothers go to war while you stay here? Why are you discouraging the Israelites from crossing into the land the Lord has given them? That’s what your ancestors did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see the land. After they went up as far as Eshcol Valley and saw the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the Lord had given them. So the Lord’s anger burned that day, and he swore an oath: ‘Because they did not remain loyal to me, none of the men twenty years old or more who came up from Egypt will see the land I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—none except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, because they did remain loyal to the Lord.’ The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years until the whole generation that had done what was evil in the Lord’s sight was gone.

Mark 1:1–6 (CSB)

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight! John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. John wore a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

Mark 1:9–13 (CSB)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. As soon as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.” Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were serving him.

Mark 1:35–38 (CSB)

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he got up, went out, and made his way to a deserted place; and there he was praying. Simon and his companions searched for him, and when they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let’s go on to the neighboring villages so that I may preach there too. This is why I have come.”

Mark 3:13–19 (CSB)

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, to send them out to preach, and to have authority to drive out demons. He appointed the Twelve: To Simon, he gave the name Peter; and to James the son of Zebedee, and to his brother John, he gave the name “Boanerges” (that is, “Sons of Thunder”); Andrew; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Mark 9:2–10 (CSB)

After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves to be alone. He was transfigured in front of them, and his clothes became dazzling—extremely white as no launderer on earth could whiten them. Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—because he did not know what to say, since they were terrified. A cloud appeared, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him!” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept this word to themselves, questioning what “rising from the dead” meant.

REFOCUS SPACE

It’s in retreat that God gives us space to dream, to dwell in possibility, as Emily Dickinson might say (THERE’S a lesson in creativity through solitude!). Retreat can be a creative space. But it can also be a refocus space, to see what might be in God’s plans. Maybe your space is a refocusing space.

Creation story

Jesus in the wilderness

Jesus on the mountain

REFINING SPACE

Sometimes the wilderness retreat is a place to get refined by God. Sometimes doubt, frustration, bitterness, relational issues, these things hamper our ability to know and love God, and to love others. Sometimes there are major sin issues that we keep setting aside to work on because we’ve got to keep up, maintain the pace, to be “successful”. Maybe your wilderness is a refining space.

Exodus wandering

Jesus in the garden

REVEALING SPACE

Sometimes the wilderness is where God speaks direction, or shows you something about who he is. We have questions, we have doubts, we have uncertainties. But we just keep going because we don’t know what else to do. Maybe your space is a revealing space.

Moses on the mountain

The disciples on the mountain, during the transfiguration

Jesus’s teaching in Matthew: go into the closet and pray

REFILLING SPACE

Sometimes the wilderness is to be fed, provided for healed, restored by God. You may be absolutely running on empty. Maybe you’ve been burned too many times by friends, family, work, the church, whatever. You’re tired, beat up, cynical, disillusioned. You need a refilling space.

Jesus in the garden

Elijah in the desert

The woman in Revelation

CONCLUSION

I know this doesn’t always appeal to everyone. I’m an introvert myself, and so the idea of leaving everything behind and spending time on a mountain or a desert place is a recharging experience for me. But it’s not for everyone.

In your groups today, I want you to practice this. I’ve given you a few questions. But before we can pursue God’s mission in 2021, healthy, focused, and full of God’s presence in our lives, we need to be readied by him in the sacred spaces. Let’s take some time to do that today.