Midweek Musings for Sunday, July 19, 2015

  

This week's reflection comes from
Rev. Gregory Tennermann, Assistant to the Bishop
Reflecting and Dwelling in the Word

GOSPEL                                                    Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

 

The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, 'Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

 

Healing the Sick in Gennesaret

 

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

 

Reflection

Mark only uses the word apostles twice in his Gospel. 
Apostle literally means one who is sent out with a message.  We might use the word courier or messenger.  At the beginning of our passage this week, the apostles (couriers) are just returning from their maiden dispatches, and they are reporting back to Jesus what they have done and what they have taught in the name of Jesus.  Mark doesn't fill us in on the details or content of those events and teachings, but that is probably just as well.  It leaves us the freedom to be apostles in our own age.  We are sent by Jesus with a message into the world, but it is our responsibility to act and teach with our hands and our voices that message in the name of Jesus.

 

What if every congregational council meeting, every Sunday School class, or every church picnic started with stories about what we were doing and teaching since we last gathered?  I serve a congregation where the worship service begins with a time for the ingathering of prayer concerns.  The congregation experiences that as important time for the community to come together for each other.  What would it be like if some Sunday we began by telling our stories of sharing Jesus in the world?

 

In fact, I know of at least one congregation in our Synod that plans all year for "God's Work, Our Hands" Sunday.  There are activities that every person in the congregation can be a part of as the congregation leaves the church building to serve in its community.  What is most significant in this congregation is, that the next Sunday everyone gathers for a liturgy (work of the people) that is designed around the returning apostles telling their stories from the week before.  Being able to articulate what we were able to do and to teach helps all of us see where God has been at work in us and then through us, in the world.

 

Jesus seeks a little rest time for himself and for the disciples, but circumstances do not allow it.  Even their travel plans get disrupted, and they find themselves in the midst of clamor and demanding needs, in a foreign place called Gennesaret.  Wherever they go, to villages, cities or farms, they are surrounded by people whose lives are broken by illness, despair, and poverty.  Compassionately, Jesus becomes a shepherd for the flock without a shepherd.  His teaching, healing, leadership, protection and feeding of the hungry brings order to the chaos and wholeness to the broken.  Signs of the kingdom begin to appear.

 

We, who follow Jesus, know that our plans are often changed by circumstances unforeseen, but we have already seen the signs of the kingdom.  We still have a message to carry from God to the world.  We still have work assignments to complete on our kingdom building projects, and we still have stories to tell so that we might be encouraged and the world will know hope. 

 


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