During this season of Lent, we have been spending time with Jesus in the wilderness and facing various challenges that can help us to have an even stronger faith. So far, we have faced the challenge of our identity, our trust, our passion and this week’s challenge is related to our focus.
Staying focused is not an thing easy thing to do in our day to day living. When was the last time you had a conversation with someone without somebody’s phone sending either a text message or some news alert? Our family loves to send group text messages so it’s not uncommon for me to receive 15 to 20 text messages in a span of less than ten minutes.
Usually, I like receiving these texts except when I’m trying to record a sermon or lead a bible study or set up for a golf shot. Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding, duhding . These messages are sent at a furious pace.
Sometimes, I have to politely say to please remove me from the group text thread. Most of the time, these are fun to receive but they can also be very distracting when you’re trying to focus.
One of the reasons that we are invited to spend these forty days in the wilderness is so that we can give more focus to our faith and our relationship with God. Maybe this is why Jesus was sent into the wilderness to prepare for his ministry rather than to the hustle and bustle of the city of Jerusalem.
Cell phones are useless in the wilderness. And there’s no Netflix. But there’s lots of hiking. Lots of gazing at the stars. And a lot of time to… well to just think and pray.
Our Gospel reading today offers us a wonderful request that was made by some Greek speaking people who wanted to meet Jesus. They went to one of Jesus’ disciples and said, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”
This one short request has made it’s way into several pulpits. You’ll fine it engraved on a plate attached to the pulpit to remind the preacher who is about to speak that his or her main focus as a preacher should always be to help people meet Jesus. That’s it. That’s the purpose of preaching.
“Sir, we would see Jesus.”
I want to offer some important ways that can help us keep our focus on spending time with Jesus in a world that bombards us with of lots of ding-ding sounds.
How can we stay focused on Jesus?
Bishop Bruce Ough was the bishop of our West Ohio Conference prior to Bishop Palmer who is our current Bishop. When Bishop Ough first came to our conference, he encouraged the pastors and laity to actually schedule times to meet with Jesus. Yes, that’s right. Schedule times with Jesus.
He uses a plan that he encouraged us to use as well. He calls it the 1-1-1 Plan. It’s pretty simple. He schedules time with Jesus by spending one hour each day in prayer and scripture reading. He also spends one weekend a month with Jesus. And then he spends one week a year with Jesus.
This 1-1-1 Plan helps him to keep his focus on Jesus. It’s an intentional way of blocking out the distractions so that he can keep his focus on God.
My plan is a little different. I do spend each day and specifically each morning with Jesus through prayer and the reading of scripture.
I don’t schedule a weekend each month like Bishop Ough, but on a weekly basis, my Mondays are my sabbath day where I spend the day in prayer and preparing my sermon. Mondays are my “Jesus and me” days. You’ve heard of the best selling book from several years ago, “Tuesdays with Morrie?” Well, if I wrote a book, it would be “Mondays with Jesus.”
That’s why you don’t see me a lot on Mondays unless there is a particular event that falls on a Monday. I need all of Monday to develop a sermon. Mondays are what helps me to focus on how I have experienced the presence of God in my life because often it’s those holy moments that make it into my sermon.
I have been doing this same practice of Monday sermon work for years. When I can’t do it for some reason, I feel like I missed my appointment with Jesus.
It’s not the day of the week that’s important. The important thing is to find that day where you can be especially focused on your relationship with God. That’s the thinking behind having a weekly Sabbath. What day each week can you set aside to intentionally meet with Jesus and keep your focus on him? Maybe for you, it’s a Sunday or another day.
And the last part of the plan for me is to spend a week away each year with Jesus. I’ve been doing this for the past ten years although I missed it last summer due to COVID-19 traveling concerns.
A pastor friend of mine and I spend time at his summer lake house to reflect on sermons for the next year. We share in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, read scripture, pray, and do a lot of sermon planning. We also pick a fun place to visit within an hour radius which is usually a historic site. These day visits often lead to future sermon illustrations.
These are just a couple of different plans that can be used to help us schedule time with Jesus. You might think of a different variation of the plan that is more suited to your unique schedule and needs.
In describing the importance in having his 1-1-1 Plan, Bishop Ough tells the story of just after he was elected to be a Bishop. He and his wife Char were driving home to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he was serving as pastor at the time, and during that long drive, Char said, “So, what are we going to do to keep you alive and to keep our marriage alive now that you will be a Bishop?”
And that’s when they thought of the idea of spending one weekend a month together as a couple. That has worked well for them all these years.
“Sir, we would see Jesus.”
In the Anglican and Episcopal denominations, they have a wonderful appointment system with Jesus called, “The Liturgy of the Hours.” It’s based on Psalm 119 where the Psalmist says, “Seven times a day I praise you.”
The Liturgy of the Hours offers specific hours during the day and night to pause and spend time with Jesus. These include 6 am, 9 am, noon, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm, and midnight. Our own United Methodist Hymnal offers two brief services that can be used in a group setting or individually for the morning and another one in the evening.
One of my favorite prayers is a prayer that was written for the morning service. Here it is:
“New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in the world. Stir up I us desire to to serve you, to live peacefully with our neighbors, and to devote each day to your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen.”
For the evening Vespers service, this prayer is often used.
“O gracious Light, pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven, O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed! Now as we come to the setting of the sun, and our eyes behold the vesper light, we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices, O Son of God, O Giver of life, and to be glorified through all the worlds. Amen.”
The idea is that we have a scheduled time to be with Jesus each day and these daily services and prayers can help us do just that. These times also help to remind us that other people around the world are praying these common prayers as well.
Now, this might not be practical to use a scheduled time like this each day, but what’s important is that we find a way where we intentionally spend time with Jesus.
In what ways can we join those Greek speaking people from our Gospel reading today who said, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”
During my first pastoral appointment, I served as an associate pastor at a large church up in northwest Ohio. I had the privilege of serving with a Senior Pastor who was an incredible role model for me in how he provided loving and caring pastoral leadership in the church. I wish more new pastors who are just beginning the ministry could work with seasoned pastors like I was able to have early in my pastoral ministry.
Probably the most memorable thing that he would say to me again and again and again was, “Robert, just stay focused on Jesus.” “Just stay focused on Jesus.” He told me this so many times that I can hear him telling me this now. “Robert, stay focused on Jesus.”
Even after he retired back in the 1990s, we would meet once a month for breakfast or lunch. And he would remind me again, “Robert, just stay focused on Jesus.” Even when I moved here to be pastor, he called me on the phone and before the call ended he said, “Robert, just stay focused on Jesus.”
Later that same year, I received the news that he passed away. I was thinking of him as I was working on this sermon because his birthday anniversary was just a couple of weeks ago. I realized that it’s now been five years that I haven’t heard his voice, but I will never forget those words he would say to me. “Robert, just stay focused on Jesus.”
Our wilderness challenge this week is to find ways to stay focused in our faith. And may this challenge lead us to say, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”
Wilderness Challenges - Our Focus
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