The biggest fear of all is the fear of being abandoned. And one strategy for avoiding abandonment is to avoid connecting in any deep or significant way. One of my seminary professors used to say that we would be tempted to immerse ourselves in that which is manageable in order to avoid that which is mysterious. For seminary students, that was meant to warn us against getting overlying involved in the mechanical chores that need to be done around a church until we didn't have time to connect with people in a deep or significant way. Things are manageable.
People are mysterious.
So is God. We are supposed to be doing this work in order to encounter the mysterious. That can be a little scary. It can also change your life. In our Gospel lesson for today, we see that Jesus is very busy in the first days of his ministry.