Lutheran Island Camp and the Minnesota North District gratefully acknowledge the gifts of Reverend Paul Dare of Holy Cross Lutheran, St. Cloud, Church in preparing these sermons.
A sermon series for Make a World For Christ
Lutherans on the Move: Repent. Retreat. Charge.
Sermon 2: Retreat.
Suggested text: Matthew 11:28-30
Friends in Christ,
We're going to begin today by going back to May 12, 1940. It was on this day that Adolph Hitler ordered the invasion of France. By May 14th, just 2 days later, by superior air strength, the German army opened up a 50 mile gap in the Allied front that included close to 400,000 British troops. For all intents and purposes, the battle for France was over almost as soon as it began. Upon hearing the news British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill called the defeat a “colossal military disaster” for, “the whole root, core, and brain” of the British army was stranded at the French port of Dunkirk.
While it appeared all was lost, what happened next is sometimes referred to as the “miracle of Dunkirk” or as it is known in England, “the miracle of the little ships.” Some 850 ships of all kinds were hastily assembled in England: Navy, merchants ships, citizens with yachts, and even fishing boats as small as 15 feet! If you were an Englishman with a boat and brave heart you set out on the rescue mission. Soldiers waded toward the ships sometimes waiting for hours in water at their shoulders. But over the course of 9 days in May, well over 300,000 Allied troops were rescued. Churchill then called the colossal disaster a “miracle of deliverance.” Despite the heavy losses, this retreat and evacuation preserved the core of the British Army and made it available for the immediate defense of Britain and participation in the eventual winning of WWII.
In the history of war rarely, if ever, does the cry of “retreat” receive all that much attention from writers and historians. To charge is glorious. To retreat is cowardly. But the retreat and rescue at Dunkirk serves as a reminder that retreat isnot surrender. Retreat is sometimes necessary to regroup, recharge, and renew.
Today marks the second week of our Make a World for Christ campaign. Last week we began with the premise that this campaign will only have a chance of success if Lutherans, by the power of the Spirit working through the means of grace, are on the move. Those movements are ONE: Repent. TWO: Retreat. THREE: Charge. This being week #2 and based on our opening, you may have already surmised that “retreat” is the move that is called for today. And I’ll say again that retreat is sometimes necessary to regroup, recharge, and renew.
I think we can all agree that in this world, we have all had times when we have felt the need for retreat. You can see it sometimes on the commercials. You may be able to think back a few years to the commercials that depicted a woman experiencing multiple stressful situations in her home: the kids are going crazy, the phone and doorbell ring simultaneously, something on the stove is boiling over and you hear the beleaguered woman yell, “Calgon take me away!” More recently Southwest Airlines ran a commercial that shows one person after another in embarrassing situations with the tag line, “want to get away?”
Get away - take me away - retreat, if you will. We know the feeling. It's a move that time to time we need to make. In fact, Jesus himself often “withdrew to lonely places to pray (Luke 5:26).” In another passage it even sounds like he had a special place of retreat – the garden of Gethsemane. Now we know this place primarily as the place where Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. However, we read in John 18:2 that “Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.” Jesus often met in this grove with his disciples. What happened on other nights in the garden is, in fact, guesswork. But is possible if not probable that Jesus had some needed moments of quiet, peace, and joy in communion with his Father in this place of retreat. You can picture the disciples gathered around him on a serene evening. He had an opportunity to teaching his disciples lessons he could not teach others. It was a place to renew and recharge.
And it is important for us to note that Jesus went away not for the purpose of “getting away” like a vacation but to pray, to be with Father, His disciples, to teach them the way of the Lord. You see, while vacations are good and right, only in the Lord do we find the forgiveness, peace and life that we need. For we know that we have problems that Calgon and Southwest cannot solve – we know the story of Genesis chapter 3. Satan worked his deadly woe. He deceived Adam and Eve and they sinned against God. And in that moment, all creation was cast into the darkness of sin and death. The effects are seen all around us. Gardens no longer grow perfectly, crime has become constant, worry has become an entire industry, and a happy marriage is considered a myth by many. Sin affects everything. All of these things we experience are all mere symptoms of sin that has brought guilt -- the sin that has brought death. It is rightly said that because of sin, we live in a world where people cry. We live in a world where people die. And it often translates into the need to “get away.”
So while there are necessary vacations from daily life, stress, and problems, they never last and we need more. We can't just run away to the devices of our world. We need Jesus, the “author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). And our Lord invites us week after week into His house to find sabbath, to have rest. Thesanctuary is what we call it. There, He is present with all His gifts for his people to give us peace and rest. Our retreat is found in Him for He is the One who still comes to rescue us with the gift of His very body and blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins. We have the word of absolution to give us peace and strength to “delight in His will and walk in His way to the glory of His holy name.” He is the only that has overcome this world by his cross. He is the one who has prepared a place for us in Heaven. Jesus is the one in whom we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). With all these gifts we find in the Lord, the words He spoke sum it up best, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30)."
Sometimes we do need retreat. Retreat is not surrender. It's not giving up. Its a time to regroup, recharge, and renew. But do not retreat to nothing. We retreat to Christ. When we combine getting away and the Lord, often accompanied by our Christian brothers and sisters Christ, we have something blessed by the Lord. (At this point the preacher may close with some thoughts about Lutheran Island Camp and the opportunities to “retreat” to it.) Amen.