16 OTB
July 21, 2024
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm 23
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Did you notice…Mark 6:30-34…53-56
What’s missing…FEEDING OF THE 5K and Jesus Walking on the WATER
But what we have points us in a particular direction.
The first scene…Return from their 1st mission…success stories
And Jesus thinks…regroup---not necessarily a vacation…a working retreat!
But situation is a bit frenzied …“They had no leisure even to eat”
So they take off by boat …for another shore.
The funny …the crowds…on foot…somehow beat them there.
and then the key phrase:
“He had great compassion for them,
because they were like sheep without a shepherd
The root of the Greek word translated Compassion
inner part of the body…We might say “guts”
Jesus… physically affected…he was churning in his body…with this compassion.
Sheep and Shepherds in the biblical world, always symbolize
the King/the Leader/the Leadership
So when Jesus sees “Sheep without a Shepherd” it isn’t a bunch of individuals.
He is seeing a whole population…deprived of attention and justice…
In the second segment…crowds continue…villages, cities and farms…hoping for healing and restoration.
There will be no deserted place…no retreat;)
What we have is an overwhelming picture of human suffering that follows Jesus.
The question for us is
What does this say to me…to us…
You probably noticed that we prayed Psalm 23 this morning
“The Lord is my shepherd…”
so the connection is this shepherd and shepherding business
There are 2 promises or attributes of God that the Psalmist is singing to…
praising…giving thanks for
The first is the promise of Comfort
God, according to the Psalmist…provides for what I most need
When I am in the presence of God
I feel as if I’m lying down in cool refreshing grass…
And God knows when I’m weary of getting it wrong
It’s then that God gently nudges me in a better direction…right pathways
That’s the first promise…comfort and guidance
And the second promise is about nourishment and sustenance
This God holds nothing back…there is a spread laid before me
Sounds like a 6-course meal…God won’t let me wither
The Psalm starts politely
THE LORD this, THE LORD that…The Lord is my shepherd
but half way through…It gets intimate
Not ‘The Lord’ anymore…
But YOU…YOU are with me…YOU comfort me…YOU spread a table
Some of you know that I spent several years as a hospital Chaplain.
And Psalm 23 was one of those pious “must have’s in your back pocket”.
just reading psalm 23 to a patient
Or handing out a prayer card printed with the verses!
…that doesn’t do justice to the psalmist or her words.
The question for me…for us…is…how can I BE Psalm 23.
So over this past liturgical year
We celebrated God becoming human
The incarnation…At Christmas…And Christ overcoming death at Easter
And at Pentecost we celebrated the church-making move from
Jesus alive and at work in the world
…confronting peoples’ brokenness and suffering
To his followers…his Body…the Church
alive and at work, in the world…in his name
So there is no room for arrogance
I am one with every other person
all any of us has is our compassion…the kind that sees and feels and makes our insides churn…
I think we know some of the truth of this
When we approach suffering with our own notions of remedy and healing
We can get into real trouble quick
book titled “What NOT TO SAY to a friend with cancer”
I only wish I had read it years earlier!
WHEN we meet suffering with our presence and companionship
somehow we share in it.
And this is when we ARE Psalm 23
And I think most of us know the truth of this from the receiving side as well
we know the comfort of leaning on someone
and having it feel like cool refreshing grass.
That someone who comes alongside us and doesn’t jump to trying to fix things
But it’s hard! We get uncomfortable! We like fixing things!
Which is why we need all the help we can get. And we get help here…from scripture, and sacrament, and our simple gathering and sharing a meal…or a piece of cake;)
And sometimes we get it from our parents…
Ken and Peggy, I’m sure that’s why your beautiful family has made the trek to this deserted place!
Your married life together, your commitment as parents, and the life you share here and in the community you call home,
Isn’t that a testimony to embodying Psalm 23 as a way of life?
This isn’t just ‘Go and do Good works’
It’s more mysterious
like the prayer of St Teresa of Avila
“Christ has no body but ours” plural…all of us.
“no hands no feet on earth but ours.
“Ours are the eyes with which Christ looks compassion on this world…
That’s a commitment…and a challenge…But it is who we say we are.
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