8th Sunday after Pentecost
Notes
Transcript
The Good Shepherd
The Good Shepherd
And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
Have you ever sat outside of a fast food restaurant or grocery deli during the lunch hour?
When I lived in St. Louis I used to ride the metro train to South County where we lived, about an hour south of school for me. The second metro stop on my ride- the Brentwood, I-64 stop was adjacent to a Dierbergs grocery. It had a smoker outside and you could smell that sweet aroma for several stops… it worked. I’d get off the train with a TON of other people and we’d flock into the store and swarm the deli and grocery sushi like locusts.
You know John muir- the famed conservationist used to call sheep, hooved locusts. This is the picture I get of Jesus and the 5000. TheMetro station had these little green grass patches in the parking lot that would just get trampled by business people in loafers and students of hip hop in their adidas gazelles. All looking for a spot to quickly slam a meal while standing- usually checking scores, emails, or stocks on their phones.
There’s a lot of miracles in the gospel of Mark, the feeding of 5k from 5 loaves and 2 fish is one of them. I think the hidden miracle in this story is twofold.
So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties.
1. They sat down.
2. They sat down together.
A need to sit
A need to sit
A relatively recent study- pre pandemic, found that only 48% of people dinner eat at the dining room table. 22% of people say that they have a set dinner time.
Now- let’s briefly consider what we’re so busy with that we cannot establish a pattern even to sit together.
Journalist and author Guido Mingels put this out recently:
In 1750 BC it took roughly… 400 hours to generate 1 hour of light, around 1800 AD it took… 50 hours, around 1880 it took..3 hours and today- it takes about 1 second of work to generate 1 hour of light.
What this means is that as Americans in today’s world we are no longer limited to sunlight hours to get our lives together.
With the advent of this (hold up light bulb) we can now distort our schedules to serve and do whatever we want.
Fundamentally, we have re-ordered creation to serve our own desires.
We’re not working just to keep the lights on. What are we doing?
According to a 2019 Bureau of Labor Statistics survey. The average worker earning above $84k and worked a M-F job worked, guess how many hours a day… on average. 8.75 hours a day.
That same wage group spent an average of 1.9 hours a day watching TV and about 12 minutes a day reading for leisure.
What this tells us is that we act like sheep, looking for anything green. Sheep are inherently undisciplined. We are called to be disciples.
The Gospel according to Mark Feeding the Five Thousand (6:31–44)
The life of the disciple is not only mission for Jesus but also mission with Jesus.
In today’s gospel lesson we hear a renewed call for us to sit, to be with Jesus. Doesn’t that sound nice?
They sat down together
They sat down together
Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass.
When you think of the commands of God what do you think of? What has God told you to do?
Here he simply says sit down. In groups.
This may be the simplest command of God to follow- and yet it’s something we have missed.
Did you know that historically there were no chairs in the sanctuary? No pews? Empty space. One of the things I regularly hear from you guys that you like about our church is that it has padded pews.
Here you are to sit. To rest. To be renewed in the presence of God and His people.
To sit requires that you be served and trust that everything else will be taken care of. Isn’t this exactly what Jesus mean’t when He said ‘it is finished’?
Sitting together is a communal rest- the opposite of the desolation and isolation of our every day existence.
I often think of what we do here at Concordia as a microcosm of what everyday life should look like. Seasonally, we walk through times of rest and renewal. Then times of intentional work and effort.
Even small things like communion- waiting until everyone is at the table matters. We wait until everyone is served before we hurry off to the next thing. These things take time.
If COVID taught us one thing, it is that being together takes time, and is worth spending the time on.
When we skip church we rob our neighbor of community- we violate the 7th commandment (theft) by not helping to improve our community with our mere presence.
When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.
Friends, the good news of Christ is that He has come to lavishly give His attention to His people. He has splagizo towards you! Literally- his inward parts felt for all of the world- he had compassion on you.
Eating together is an act of compassion. It tells someone that they are worth spending even a small amount of time on.
This last week we spent two nights at the Fairfield inn in Beaverton OR. We ate breakfast in our room both days. No amount of hotel points can redeem how much cinnamon toast crunch is now in that carpet, bedding, flooring and probably ceiling. But it is a memory I will forever cherish. Eating together.
What if the one of the hallmark traits of being a Christian is not just the fruits of the spirit but also something much more tangible. Sitting together?
This week, I’d invite you to try dining together and bringing someone into your home. Further- this fall, this text challenges us to make eating together a priority even in the midst of the desolation of life.
Invite a student into your home. It’ll change the world. Literally.
We’re faced with innumerable existential crisis- racism, environmental concerns, economic concerns. Often we don’t know what to do about them so we do nothing.
Here today- Christ has changed the world- by sitting down with us.
Christ has come to dwell with you- to feed you mind, body and soul.
May you go and do likewise. Amen.