Mark 6:30-44

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. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

Let us Pray

Creator God

you have made us not in one mould, but in many;

so deepen our unity in Christ that we may rejoice in our diversity.  Amen.

As I read the lessons for this Sunday early in the week I realized that I had preached on this Sunday three years ago.  I also realized that I did not get to write the Sermon that I had planned three years ago because of events that forced me into writing another sermon on the sin of exclusion.  So it was with some trepidation that I tried to explain to the Holy Spirit that this time I wanted to try and write the sermon I had planned.  Of course it is probably folly to try and tell God what I am planning for the spirit often has other things in mind for me.  So here I go…

This Sunday’s readings contain many roads that we could explore.  In the Old Testament reading from Isaiah we have God promising Peace to the people.  He tells us that he cannot stay angry with his creation even when they keep turning away and doing what is wrong.  God will keep trying to lead this rebellious people into a place of peace. He does tell us that there will be no peace for the wicked.  In this passage it seems to me that God is making a distinction between just going down the wrong road without ill intentions and being purposefully wicked.  If we make errors in judgment we can still have peace but if we plot wickedness we shall not have peace.  I find this comforting.  I know that I do not always go down the right road.  I know that sometimes, when I approach a fork in the road of life I may take a detour that is not good for me.  But, I know when this happens, IF I listen and look I will be led back to the right road of peace.

In the lesson from Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus we have Paul celebrating the diverse new community that is brought about through Jesus.  He uses the Old Testament requirement that the faithful of Israelbe circumcised to emphasize that with Christ we do not need this physical separation.  With Christ we are all one people, though diverse, we are all called to one mission.  We are called to go out and preach the radical good news that everyone is loved by God.  It is not about how we dress, or how we worship.  It is the power of the many and diverse Christians to go out and proclaim salvation through Christ.  As the Hymn says so well “They will know we are Christians by our Love”.  It is not by physical attributes.  It is not by our heritage or even by being Episcopalians, though as Episcopalians we can always claim to know the correct fork to use at dinner and the correct social setting for showing our love!  No.  Paul tells us through his letter that former strangers have found peace and become fellow citizens who share in the Lord’s spiritual temple.  I believe that the power we have to show Christ’s love for us grows out of our diversity. 

In our Gospel reading we hear about the disciples coming back from their missionary work.  They are excited to tell Jesus all about what they did.  It reminds me of coming back from my first trip to Europe, or to Washington DC.  All I wanted to do is tell my parents, and anyone else who would listen, about everything I had seen and done.  I was excited and at the same time exhausted.  I can just imagine the twelve.  Boiling over with the excitement of having gone out, with some trepidations, and finding that they could teach and heal.  Again, we don’t get any of the specifics of what they did on their missions. Perhaps it is better that the specifics are not stated. We, who continue the apostolic mission, need to determine what we need to do and teach in our time and places. That is, how do we make use of the authority Jesus has given us "over unclean spirits" (Mk 6:7)? We can't simply repeat what the original disciples said and did. We need to discover how we can best spread the gospel in our time and place with our words and deeds.

When I have come back from an exciting adventure some kind person has gently led me away to a place that I can rest.  So Jesus recognizes that with all the comings and going the disciples need to rest.  He invites them to go to a deserted place to recharge.  During our summers many of us take time to go on vacation.  Many of our churches stop having Sunday school and we scale back our other programs because we all need a time to rest and recreate. But our plans to rest and recreate don’t always work out.  In the Gospel it did not work out for the disciples and even Jesus’ plans were thwarted by life.  The people saw them trying to get away.  I can vividly picture Jesus telling the disciples to get the boat for a leisurely cruise to a deserted place away from the crowds.  Unfortunately the crowds saw them go and took the quicker road by foot.  Jesus had compassion on those who were hungry for his teaching and, sensing that the crowd needed a leader he stopped and taught. We aren't told anything about the crowd's motives; but we are told about Jesus'. He has compassion on them. (I'm not sure that I would be so compassionate if a group of people had ruined my vacation plans or my time of rest.) The next thing the disciples know they are serving dinner to a crowd of 5000 men. Not exactly getting away to rest!

I know that this has happened to me.  Not in such a dramatic setting of having to teach the crowds.  But I have planned to have a restful time only to have the world interfere.  There have been times that I have come down to the Church thinking I could quietly pray and play.  I like to come down sometimes to play the organ.  Now I’m not comfortable playing the organ for people.  I’m not an organist but I do play and find it relaxing.  Well, there have been times that I have planned to just ‘recharge’ my batteries by coming down  and playing only to find myself doing other things.  To find myself talking to someone who needs to talk.  To provide a lunch to someone who is hungry, or a cold water to someone who is thirsty.  I think that it is how we react when God has different plans for us then we do that shows we are Christians.  It is when we are able to show love even when our plans were to only take care of ourselves.

We do need to take care of ourselves.  Jesus certainly saw the need to provide the disciples time to rest and relax.  God, through his command to rest on the Sabbath shows us the need take time out.  The problem is that sometime the world intrudes in our plans.  And there are times that God has different plans than we do.  It is our reaction when life intrudes on our carefully laid plans that will show that we are Christians.  It is when we react with love and feed the people that come to us that we are being Christian.  I have to admit that there are times I think the people of St. Paul’s perform the miracle of the feeding of the 5000!  I have witnessed it on Sundays during coffee hour.  It is not as dramatic but somehow we always manage to feed the people.  It might not be fancy but our little angles make sure we have something to offer.

As we make our plans to recreate and recharge our batteries this summer, to prepare for a renewed and exciting fall, remember how Jesus reacted when the crowds needs feeding.  He had compassion on them for they were like sheep with out a Shepard.  When the world interferes with our plans remember the words of the hymn “They will know we are Christians by our love” and react accordingly, for God will give you time to relax and recharge, it just may not be at the time and place that you planned.  Amen.