Mark 6:30-44 Sermon by the Revd Karl Przywala Part 2 I’ve come across what I think is a false dichotomy between being pastoral and teaching. The way that Jesus shepherds is by “teaching them many things.” Teaching is at the heart of pastoral ministry. We don’t know for how long Jesus taught. I recall the Dean of Durham telling me that the cathedral’s congregation could only manage ten minute sermons. I suspect that Jesus went on for longer than that – he taught them “many things” and, verse 35, “By this time it was late in the day.” The disciples, earlier referred to as apostles, came to Jesus and said, verse 36, “Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” You can see the way the disciples were thinking: “so they can go...and buy themselves something to eat” – an emphasis on ‘they’ and ‘them’. Jesus bats back, verse 37, with an emphasis on ‘you’: “You give them something to eat.” The obvious way of doing this would be from what the disciples already had, which we discover was five loaves and two fish. But the disciples assume that this can’t be what Jesus means – first, they want the supper for themselves and second, it wouldn’t go very far among 5,000, or so they assume. But you know what assuming does – it makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’. They’ve heard what God, in Jesus, has said to them, and they turn it into something rational that makes sense to them and serve it back with a dose of sarcasm: “are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it them to eat?” If God tells us to jump, what should our response be? To do so. But, if you’re minded to talk back, “How high?” would be OK. You know what happened. You’ve heard the account read, as I suspect you’ve heard it before, perhaps as far back as Sunday School. The details add to the authenticity of the miracle. The green grass, groups of hundreds and fifties – there really were that many people there, just as there had been when Moses divided up the Israelites in the wilderness where God provided manna to eat. Jesus presides over the meal, as Herod had over his banquet, but Jesus isn’t Herod, he’s something far better. He looked up to heaven, gave thanks, broke the loaves and divided the fish. Verse 42, “They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.” Jesus is Lord of all creation. Obey him and nothing is impossible. And his gracious provision overflows; in this case to the tune of twelve basketfuls. For whose benefit was this miracle performed? Yes, all who were there benefitted as they got what they needed: “They all ate and were satisfied”. But I’m surmising that the people didn’t know what had happened, beyond the fact that they were fed. They had no reason to know that the disciples only had five loaves and two fish to begin with. But the disciples knew. And we know. What were they and we to take away from the passage we’ve looked at? The apostles/disciples, at the beginning of our passage, were weary, not to mention hungry. And we too can grow weary, perhaps it’s fair to say, are weary. I detect this. Last Wednesday, I was at an excellent event regarding evangelism in the 21st century. It came across how wearing ministry can be, just keeping the existing church going, yet alone reaching out to others. Diocesan clergy gathered on Thursday and the same story, as it has been on other occasions. Jesus understands. But he doesn’t let that deflect him from looking outwards. His compassion is directed toward those outside: the sheep without a shepherd. One of the ironies, I felt, of the evangelism day, was that those responsible for the venue, concerned about the outside door banging, put up a notice asking for it to be closed quietly because, quote, “a retreat was in progress.” It reminds me of a version of the parable of the Good Samaritan, which we looked at recently in our Thursday Bible study, where the priest hurries by on the other side, ignoring the man in distress, because he’s on his way to a conference on Christian outreach. Friends, we’re not called to retreat, but to advance and engage. The disciples found themselves in a “remote place”. This had been intentional. What hadn’t been planned was that all these needy people be present. As the immediate need was food, this may be considered about as bad a place to exercise ministry as possible. Vancouver, likewise, I’ve heard it said many times, can be considered a hard place to minister. The most secular city in North America. But it is where God has placed us, here at Holy Trinity. “The church is in crisis. There are difficulties, limitations, insolvable problems, lack of people and money, a menacing outlook, endless misunderstandings and misrepresentations.” No, these words aren’t taken from the Rector of Holy Trinity’s report! The actual quotation, which is from an old commentary on 2nd Corinthians, is “The church is always in a crisis and always will be. There will be difficulties etc”. And it continues, “We are not only to do our work despite these things; they are precisely the conditions requisite for the doing of it.” “It is not God’s intention that we should in ourselves be adequate for our tasks, rather He wants that we should be inadequate” in order that his grace and power may be displayed through us. God says to each one of us, individually and as his church here at Holy Trinity, as he did to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”, 2nd Corinthians 12:9. The disciples learnt through the feeding of the five thousand that nothing is impossible to God. It’s good for us spiritually to be up against it in human terms because it’s precisely then as we turn to God in prayer, as we admit our need of him, that he can be at work. Not to rationalise, to find a human way out. Rather, we are called to listen to God’s word to us, to trust it and obey. Last Tuesday, we had the first session of our Christianity Explored course. I was heartened by those among us who desired to engage further with Mark’s gospel account in this way. But the true value of the course is if it builds us up, empowers us, to be able to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others. This can happen in many ways. And I hope it does. Perhaps you might feel encouraged to join the course – it’s not too late to do so. But also to think of someone currently outside the church whom you could invite. That could be a part in sharing Jesus’ compassion toward those outside – engaging in God’s mission. Amen.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 02:14:02 +0000
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