intership Sermon 07/23/06

^{Mark 6: 30-34; 53-56. Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year B.}

³⁰ The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.

³¹ 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.

³² And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.

³³ Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

³⁴ 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.

Feeding of the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Jesus walking on water

⁵³ When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat.

⁵⁴ When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him,

⁵⁵ and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.

⁵⁶ And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and his son, Jesus Christ our Lord!

Have you ever just wanted to get away and find a moment of peace and quiet? Perhaps you had been hosting your grandchildren all week…lets say ages 3-12…all 5 wonderful grandkids…and you love them and want to spend time with them but you are practically on a dead run from the moment you rise to the moment you literally fall back asleep in bed…and you would love just a moments peace…other than in the bathroom, which doesn’t stay peaceful for long. Or perhaps your house is the gathering space for the entire family….your parents, your siblings, your kids, your in-laws….you get home from work and everyone is there just hanging out… and don’t get me wrong you love your family but you don’t need to see them ALL the time. Or you live or work on a farm…you would think that on a farm there would be moments of peace and quiet…but as soon as the sun is up, you get up, and you need to feed the animals and if they don’t get their food when they want it, they will let you know; the longer they wait, the louder they become…. And then hay needs to be baled, or the corn needs water, and the wagon needs to be welded and all the sudden the pto shaft snaps in two…your busy day just became crazy and you will be lucky if you have a moment to eat before the sun goes down, not to mention your constant worry as you watch your crops shrivel up before your eyes with not a rain cloud in site

I can imagine the apostles must have felt overwhelmed, tired and probably hungry. They had been out teaching and preaching and doing what Jesus told them and wanted them to do. It says in our gospel text that so many people were coming and going that they didn’t have time to eat. Jesus saw their exhaustion and felt compassion for the apostles and wanted to take them away for just a short while, so they would have a bit of time to relax and recharge so they could then continue to care for all of the people. I know if I had been one of those apostles I would be looking forward to this short period of quiet time…. I would have gotten in the boat with my colleagues and imagined the peace and quiet for a while. And when the boat got to the other side, what there to meet us? Peace and quiet? Hardly… for all of the people had seen us get in the boat and had hurried on foot to where the boat was going.

And as much as the apostles secretly hoped Jesus would send all these people away so they would get peace and quiet, they knew Jesus would not send them away for Jesus had compassion for the crowds, just like he had compassion for the apostles. Jesus went into the crowds and taught them many things. Jesus compared the crowds to lost sheep and he became their shepherd.

Now, as many of you know I grew up on a farm. We had a total of five sheep over the years…Fergie, Andrew, Rambo, Lambchop and PG. I don’t know if our sheep ever felt shepardless but they sure liked to get out of their pen and follow us around. Lambchop would constantly be found with her head inside the dog food bag munching away and PG would always come up to you and try to head butt your hip to let you know he wanted to play.

However since I grew up on a dairy farm, I have a lot more experience with cattle than sheep. And cattle much like sheep need a shepherd or herdsperson to help them along the way…perhaps to walk them into a new pasture field and show the cattle that the electric fence that had been there a day before wasn’t anymore…or to make sure the water tank had enough water in it or to herd them all into the barn if a storm was coming. The center of the cattle’s world is that herdsperson; just as the center of the crowd’s world was Jesus.

In the past two weeks; I had a chance to feel like one of those cattle being herded by people with more wisdom and knowledge then I. I, also like one of those cattle sometimes just blindly followed along the person right ahead of me. At the same time I was reminded how much Jesus is at the center of my life and the lives of all of those people around me. Jesus was and is calling me to be a sheep, his sheep, but he is also calling me and all of us at the gathering, not to mention here in Wisconsin and throughout the world to be one of his shepherds and to show compassion to those around me.

We arrived in San Antonio Tuesday afternoon and after checking into the hotel, went out to dinner. The herds around us weren’t that big then but those of us who hadn’t been in San Antonio before followed our shepherds who got direction and had maps. The collective herd we were apart of grew and grew until there were 24000 of us waiting outside the Alamo dome in 100 heat. The doors opened and like cattle in a stockyard we went pouring through the doors to the blessed coolness and the unknown that lay in front of us. We were greeted with music and song… a conga line that never quit fabulous speakers, great Bible studies and many many stories of people as sheep and shepherds. We heard stories of people from Mexico, Guatemala, the Sudan and many more…powerful stories of escape from violence and oppression, and people who had had the strength and courage to walk across their county with just one leg. People who like those crowds 2000 years ago knew Jesus was their shepherd and followed him. We were taught to pray (Orando) to God in our hurt and pain (tus penas y dolor) or when we just wanted to talk to God. (hablar con dios) by an old Mexican women who sang this song every morning when she woke up. We listened to Tony Campolo who is the founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, St. Davids, Pa., and author of 28 books tell us that we are the new generation to rise up with hope, vision and dreams and make a difference. We heard Jim Wallis editor of Sojourners magazine tell us that “Your job is to clear up the confusion about faith," Faith is the substance of what we're waiting for," he said, adding that "you are the ones we've been waiting for. A church is waiting for you. The nation, the world is waiting for you. Your generation has come," and "we have a lot invested in you." And after I got to be a very proud chaperone watching our Barronett and Augustana youth open worship as part of a marvelous procession as dove fliers and bouquet wavers, we all heard presiding bishop Mark Hanson remind us of God’s entrance into our lives when we were born and when we baptized….when our foreheads were marked with the cross of Christ and sealed with the holy spirit forever….and in that we were reminded that while we are sheep, God’s sheep, that we need to be shepherds at the same time that we need to let people know the love of God that has been shared with us through Jesus…through his death on the cross and through the meal we will share in just a short while. And that we as shepherds should proclaim this gospel of love, serve our neighbor, seek justice and to be Christ for and to others…. And in our moments of need of peace, of rest, of solace, we will find it in Jesus and the light of God that we see in each other. We will find it like the crowds at Gennesaret and where ever we meet Jesus… at a national youth gathering… in the eyes of our grandchildren… in the laughter of our family right after the work and in the grease and dirt as we fix machines or walk in a field of God’s creation. Amen