A Disciple's Path: Walk Together

from my message on Nov. 3, All Saints' Sunday, from I Cor. 11:23-26

Loneliness.  I think loneliness is the number disease in America.  I once went to a workshop where the presenter said that some incredible number of people who come into the emergency room, way over 50%, maybe 80%, come with the root cause of loneliness.

He reaches over to her side of the bed.  She is not there.  His wife of 46 years has died.  He says, "I am no good without her."  He stops eating right.  Stops exercising.  Stops going out.  Stops living.

She is standing there with the papers in her hands.  The divorce papers.  She feels that she has been traded in for a younger model, a trophy wife.  She feels rejected.  Used.  Discarded.  Discounted.  She stops taking care of herself.

Around here, we try to fill up on many things.  How many people did I greet this morning with "how's it going" and they replied, "Busy" ?   Busy is our symptom of loneliness.  We try to do too much.  We don't know how to say, "No."

If it is not busyness, it is alcohol, or pornography, or work.  We are never satisfied.  Underneath it all is our loneliness.

I have good news for you.  You were not meant for loneliness.  You were meant for relationship with God and one another.

We are in this series, A Disciple's Path.  Today, we are walking together.  We acknowledge that we can't do it alone.  We don't have to do alone. Thank goodness,  Thank God, we don't have to do it alone.

I need to pause and put on my hiking shoes.  You may remember that Cathy and I had 10 weeks of renewal leave this summer, where we did a lot of hiking.  The first 3 weeks I did some 150 of the Appalachian Trail from the James River to Front Royal in Virginia.

The first hike we did was from Punchbowl Mountain to the James River, about 11 miles.  It was hard.  Uphill at first.  We were carrying too much stuff.  Cathy was struggling with the binoculars and the camera.  I volunteered to carry her very nice, expensive Canon camera in my backpack.  When she wanted to take a picture, I would simply turn around so she could reach in and grab the camera.  About noon at the peak of the climb, we stopped for lunch (graham crackers with peanut butter, bananas, granola bars, apples).  I went to get out the lunch.  No camera!  Where did it fall out?  How long ago?  Cathy said, "I am not going back down that mountain."  We were resolved to have lost it.  We were heartsick.

We meet some hikers going north while we were traveling south.  We would say, "If you find a Canon camera, we are the Barton's, we are staying at the Dutch Haus B & B in Montebello."  We thought it was gone forever, but it didn't hurt to ask.

We finished our hike about 3 p.m. in 93 degree heat.  Depressed. Down.  It was so bad that Cathy drove.  That's a bad sign.  I usually drive.  We pulled into the B & B.  A woman named Sandy came out.  "Are you the Barton's?"  "Yes."  "Zach has your camera.  He'll meet you at the Rte. 60 wayside at 9 tomorrow morning."

We were at the wayside at 8:45.  Hikers came through.  No Zach.  They kept saying, "there were lots of people at the shelter last night.  I think I heard about some camera."  Nine came and went.  Nine thirty.  We began to think that Zach had done a runner, made car payment with our camera.  But we started hiking down to where Zach was supposed to be coming from.  After about 20 minutes, 2 guys were walking together.  "Are you Zach?"  "Yes.  Here's your camera."  We gave him a breakfast plate I had been carrying and $20.  It was a small price to pay for keeping my marriage!

Here's the point.  There are people looking out for you.  People you might not even be aware of.  Saints.  Yes, we can call them saints. Pause and give thanks for the saints around you.  People who have been looking out for you.  You can't do this path by yourself.  You don't have to do it by yourself.  You were not made for loneliness.

The Appalachian Trail is a community.  We in the church are too. We gather for communion today.  We come to this table, realizing it is a very large table.  So many have walked the path ahead of us, looking out for us, taking care of us.  This is not a private meal today.  It is a crowded table.

Then flip it around.  For whom are you walking?  Who are the ones you are looking out for?  Could you see yourself as a saint?

There is a young woman who visited this church 2 weeks ago.  She had been praying to find a church community.  She wanted it not just for herself , but for others.  God had placed it upon her heart to reach out to young moms, to try to connect them.  She knew that sometimes young moms felt if not trapped, at least limited.  Loss of sleep.  Maybe loss of contact with others.  She wants to connect them, so they will know they don't have to do this path alone.

I have a story from last year, from our District Superintendent in the Valley.  A D. S. is like a regional manager in the church.  She was conducting a charge conference, a church business meeting.  As Laura, the D. S., was leaving the church, she met a woman who wanted to tell her how much her church meant to her. This woman had found herself recently divorced, living in a broken down trailer, with broken windows, cold and depressed.  Some Methodists came by, snowbirds, retired.  They fixed up her trailer, new windows, carpet, everything.  She was not alone.  This woman started attending the local Methodist church because of their help. She wanted to give back. She offered to be the church janitor, no pay.  The pastor gave her a key, and more than that trust. She liked to sweep the sidewalk, because Jesus might be coming that way.

We don't have to do it alone.  In fact, the only way we can do this path is to walk together.

We are all walking, and when we can look beyond our loneliness to see others walking too, we find that we are all walking together, towards home.

That's the good news I have to share today.