The Compassion of Jesus Mark 6:30-34, Sunday, July 22, 2012 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching

Transcription

1 The Compassion of Jesus Mark 6:30-34, Sunday, July 22, 2012 The Rev. Sharon Snapp-Kolas, preaching Scripture. Prayer. Opening. We need the compassion of Jesus for ourselves and for others. It must be in the air these days; I have heard it from so many people recently, both young and old: I want to know that I am OK. They go on to say that they feel so un-ok most of the time; they suffer from self-doubt and self-criticism. They question every move they make, or feel judged by others because they are too much or not enough. They are so busy with the demands of modern life that they don t know what to do. Keith Wagner, in his book, Life without Fast Food, tells the story of a very busy man named Joe. [His] young family was moving to a new house. On moving day, Joe announced that an important meeting had been called at his new job, and he would be unable to help. Consequently, Jean had to handle the move by herself. After the moving van came and left, Jean found herself standing in the living room surrounded by boxes to be unpacked, appliances to be hooked up, a screaming baby and a five-year-old who decided to throw a metal toy truck through the picture window. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but jagged glass fell everywhere and a galeforce wind blew through the house. Jean felt that she had to call Joe and tell him what had happened. Joe s secretary informed her that he was in a meeting and couldn t be disturbed. May I take a message? the secretary asked. No, that s okay, Jean said, knowing Joe was notoriously lax about returning her phone calls. Wait, Jean said, Just tell him the insurance will cover everything. The instant Joe got the message he called home. 1

2 It s wonderful to know God s forgiving love restores us, just as insurance restored the broken window. God never says, I can t be disturbed when we need God. God, is always on call, ready to refresh our spirits. At the same time God wants us to give others the same consideration. The compassion we so desperately need, God provides. I. Come Away and Rest Take today s scripture reading, for example. The disciples are tired and overworked from their recent mission work. Jesus sent them out two by two to preach, teach, heal and cast out demons. Now Jesus says to his exhausted followers, Come away to the wilderness and rest a while. Like Joe, we can often get so busy with work that we don t take time to rest. This includes church work. We can get so busy doing the Lord s work that we don t take time to just be with the Lord. Jesus invites his disciples to pause with him, to take time to eat together, to take time to share more about their journeys and their work, to take time to pray together and to reflect on the scriptures together. Jesus invites his disciples to bible study, prayer and communion. Yes, he sends them out to do his work, to share his message with the world. He also expects them to stop for a moment now and then, to spend time with him. As Jesus had compassion for his disciples, so he has compassion for you and for me. He tells us to come away with him for a time. If we respond to his invitation, he helps us to know that we are OK. He helps us to know that we do not have to be anything other than who we are. He loves us just as we are, mixed up and scared and crazy though we may be. So what does it mean to come away with Jesus? It can be as simple as pausing in our daily life to say a brief prayer. Jesus, are you there? or I give this day to you, Lord. In our 2

3 busy lives, this may be all we think we have time for. And Jesus meets us in those brief moments of spiritual awareness. Such a small prayer can change a person s day in big ways. If we can make the space to extend our prayer time, so much the better. To come away with Jesus can also mean coming to church. Your decision to come to worship this morning is an answer to Jesus call. He calls you to come away. And today, you have answered the call. Jesus blesses you in that choice to participate in worshipping with your church family. The rewards can be subtle, but over time, regular church attendance changes a person s life. If you want to go deeper, you can come away with Jesus by joining a Sunday School class or a bible study group or other committed spiritual group within the church. Taking time to rest in Jesus is crucial to our spiritual health and wholeness. And it is crucial to our responsibilities as followers of Christ. Otherwise, as Karen Marie Yust writes: We may become so caught up in the busyness of ministry that we forget to spend time with the One who would direct our preaching, teaching, healing, and justice-seeking endeavors. II. Have Compassion Always Still, when the disciples try to go off alone with Jesus, the crowds are so desperate that they run ahead to where the boat is heading. They arrive at the destination before Jesus and the disciples do. The crowds are there on the shore, ready to meet them. There is, it seems, no rest for the weary. Our text says that, [Jesus] had compassion for them. I suspect the disciples are too tired and overworked to feel much compassion for anything except their own tired feet. You and I can feel that way from time to time. Maybe more often than not. Modern life places so many demands on us. Electronic gadgets were supposed to save us time. But, instead, and texting and instant messaging and computers and ipads and 3

4 smartphones and God only knows what else has appeared on the scene since I started talking this morning Whew. I get tired just thinking about it! All these time-savers, in fact, seem to require us to do more, faster. We travel in cars and airplanes and get there faster, but we seem to have no time for each other. Human contact happens less and less. Here in Southern California, much of our supposed free time is spent on the freeway, trapped in rush hour traffic. We haven t a shred of compassion left for anyone. We, like the disciples, are too tired and overworked. Or, if our work years are behind us, we are often too lonely, feeling ignored and forgotten and the busy workaday world rushes past us. I will never forget a woman I heard preach years ago. I do not remember her name, or where we were, or even what year it was. But I remember her. I remember her British accent and her enthusiasm for her topic. She was speaking on that great passage from Isaiah, In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1). I remember vividly what she said: If you don t feel compassion for others, get down on your knees before the throne of God and do not get up until you do! She understood that we are called to care for others, but that sometimes we don t. And so we pray until the compassion of Christ becomes our compassion, too. People in the helping professions have a name for that overworked, too tired place in which they sometimes find themselves. That place in which they can t seem to find the energy to care about anyone anymore. They call this place compassion fatigue. It s a place where people have been called on too often to care for others at the expense of their own need for a little rest and compassion themselves. 4

5 No matter how we earn our paychecks, Christians are in the helping business. We, too, often suffer from compassion fatigue. Writes Martin B. Copenhaver: Ministry in the name of Christ is an exhausting business. It seems to demand a constancy that is not in us When a friend of mine resigned from his pastorate he told his parish, I can no longer meet all the needs of this parish, any more than I can chase down all the crickets on an August night. Which made me wonder: Who had told him that he could meet all the needs of his parish? John Westerhoff has remarked that atheism in the modern world is characterized by this affirmation: If I don't do it, it won't happen. The apostles -- even after their newfound success as teachers, preachers and healers -- knew better. They waited in the boat. ( Watching from the Boat, article in The Christian Century, June 29, 1994). Jesus shows compassion for the people while the disciples wait in the boat. Sometimes we, too, are best advised to wait in the boat, and trust that God in Christ Jesus is in charge. At the same time, we are also to follow Jesus. We are to learn from his compassion. He shows us compassion; we are to show compassion to others. III. Let the Great Shepherd be Your Guide Jesus calls us out of our busyness, to come away with him and rest. Jesus, by his example, calls us to have compassion when our rest is interrupted or when our agenda is disrupted. How do we find balance amidst the demands of the world and the demands of the spiritual life? In his book, The Making of a Man, Richard Exley writes: Somewhere in his hectic schedule [today s man] must find time to build lasting 5

6 friendships, time to maintain a quality devotional life, time to read for personal and spiritual development, and time to exercise. No wonder he's tempted to throw up his hands in despair! Is there a solution, a way out? I think so, but it won't be easy. Busyness is addictive and it s hard to regain command of our life once we've yielded it to the expectations of others. The key is control. Are we going to be governed by external pressures -- the desires of others -- or will we allow the internal witness of the Holy Spirit to set our agendas? Jerry Goebel adds to this line of thinking, I have found that the higher my personal agenda; the less I am able to see God s purpose in my daily interruptions. Yet, I have also found that when make myself available to Deus Interruptus, incredible and miraculous things frequently happen. Have you ever considered beginning your day by giving God permission to alter your agenda at any moment and any time? Goebel offers this prayer, Dearest God, feel free to interrupt my agenda today with yours at anytime or in any place. In v. 34 the gospel writer, Mark, says that the crowds were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus, the Great Shepherd, set aside his need for rest. He turned his attention from the needs of the disciples to the needs of the crowds. Because of his compassion, he altered his agenda. Many of us in the modern world are seeking balance in our lives. It s one of our deepest desires. We can find this balance by allowing the Great Shepherd to guide us. I love Frederick Buechner. He has such a simple, poetic language for communicating deep truths of the faith. In his book, Listening to Your Life, he writes about God, who is like a shepherd. Here he is referring to the psalms, but his comments apply just as well to our text 6

7 from Mark: I ve stood [here in Rupert] with [a man who keeps sheep,] in their shed with a forty watt bulb hanging down from the low ceiling to light up their timid, greedy, foolish, half holy faces as they pushed and butted each other to get at [the hay he waded through deep snow to bring for them] because if God is like a shepherd, there are more than just a few ways, needless to say, that people like you and me are like sheep. Being timid, greedy, foolish, and half holy is only part of it. Like sheep we get hungry, and hungry for more than just food. We get thirsty for more than just drink. Our souls get hungry and thirsty; in fact it is often that sense of inner emptiness that makes us know we have souls in the first place. There is nothing that the world has to give us, there is nothing that we have to give to each other even, that ever quite fills them. But once in a while that inner emptiness is filled even so. That is part of what the psalm means by saying that God is like a shepherd, I think. It means that, like a shepherd, he feeds us. He feeds that part of us which is hungriest and most in need of feeding. The compassion of Jesus is like the compassion of a shepherd for his sheep. Closing. Jean-Pierre de Caussade writes, in his book, The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Everything turns to bread to nourish me, soap to wash me, fire to purify me, and a chisel to fashion me in the image of God. Grace supplies all my needs. Whether we are coming away with him to rest, or busying ourselves about the work of his kingdom, God leads us and guides us and provides for all our needs in every situation. Like a good shepherd, he cares for us. May you allow the good, the compassionate, the great and loving Shepherd to guide you, today and always. Amen. 7