Where the Need Is Greatest: A Sermon for the Eighth Sunday After Pentecost

 

A Sermon for the Eighth Sunday After Pentecost, 18 July, 2021. Preached at All Saints, King City, Anglican Diocese of Toronto.  Readings for Proper 16 (B):

2 Sam 7.1-14a; Ps. 89:20-37; Eph 2.11-22; Mk 6.30-34,53-56.

. ³⁴As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; (Mk 6.34).

I’ve mentioned before that I am profoundly grateful for the prayer time we hold every Friday morning, and how I attend because of my own needs and not because I’m a priest.  This last Friday during our prayer time I was struck by the extent of the needs that we brought before God.  There seemed to be more than the usual people undergoing medical procedures and with a whole raft of personal issues, as well as a seemingly unending torrent of disasters in Canada and around the world to pray for – tornadoes, wildfires, floods, refugees, wars, whole governments and countries in collapse, and of course the ongoing ravages of Covid in various places.  That’s a lot of human need happening all at once.   As Leah wisely said, in the storms of life, what can we do but face them and trust in God?

Likewise there is an overwhelming amount of human need in today’s gospel story.    By this point in Mark’s gospel, Jesus has become so well known for his teaching and miracles that it is impossible for him to find a deserted place to pray and rest.  By the time that their boat gets to their intended refuge, the spot is overrun with crowds.  Presumably these people have come for the same reason that Mark describes a few verses later, to bring their sickened loved ones in the hopes that Jesus will heal them.  Jesus isn’t fazed or petulant that the spiritual retreat he has planned has been ruined by all these needy people.  Instead, Mark tells us in an absolutely lovely line,  “he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mk 6.34).

This verse says a lot.   It underscores Jesus’ role as the good shepherd, and which evokes a long tradition in Hebrew scripture of depicting the leader of God’s people as a shepherd.  In Numbers, for example, Joshua is appointed as a leader after Moses asks God to “appoint someone … so that the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep without a shepherd” (Nu 27:15-17).   King David, who began his career as a shepherd­­_, came the closest to this ideal of Israel’s ruler.  Marks touching on this theme of the royal shepherd is all the more interesting in light of where we see kings in this part of Mark’s gospel, because we don’t see them here, where the people have need of one.

We did see a king just a bit earlier, Herod Antipas, the Roman puppet ruler of Galilee.  We met him earlier in Mark chapter 6, and were told of how he had arrested John the Baptist.   Herod was feasting in his palace, giving a banquet for his “courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee”, at the birthday where John’s head became a party favour.   Jesus’ comment about “sheep without a shepherd” tells us a lot about the difference between earthly kingdoms and the kingdom of heaven. 

While Herod is feasting with his henchmen and murdering God’s prophet John, Jesus goes to meet and serve God’s leaderless people in the wilderness.   Jesus’ feeding of the crowds (Mk 6.35-44), which is skipped over in the lectionary’s arrangement of our gospel reading today, also reminds us of the many references in the Exodus story of how God sustains his people in the wilderness (Ex 16.13-35, Nu 11.1-35).  Jesus is thus exactly where a proper king and shepherd of God’s people should be, caring for the many and not in a palace with an elite few.

In fact, everywhere Jesus goes in this gospel reading, he is met, even besieged, by human need.  You might recall that three Sundays ago we heard of how one sick woman dared to touch Jesus’ cloak in the hope of healing (Mk 5.27-34).   Now it seems that everywhere Jesus goes, everyone wants to touch his cloak, and Mark tells us that “all who touched it were healed” (Mk 6.56).  Once again, I think, Mark is telling us something vital about the kingdom of God, that it is seen wherever the needs of God’s people meet the love and care of God and of God’s representatives, because it is not just Jesus that shows this love and care.  Remember that at the beginning of our gospel reading, we heard of how “the apostles gathered around Jesus” (Mk 6.30).   Just a little earlier we heard about how Jesus sent his disciples out into the world, and how they preached “and annointed with oil many who were sick and cured them” (Mk 6.13).

Thus, we shouldn’t be dismayed or lose heart at the enormity of the needs we are faced when our prayer group meets, or during our Sunday prayers of the people.   Until the kingdom of heaven is fully restored in this world, as we say in our creeds, there will always be an enormity of human need for the church as God’s modern apostles to pray for and to serve.   We should not be discouraged by the vast needs we see around us.  Rather, we should be encouraged in our prayers, in our ministries, and in our outreach, that where the need is greatest, there we already find Jesus, present in the hungry and desperate places, waiting for us to join our love and our prayers and our service to his.

Let’s pray:

Gracious and loving God, the headlines, the many stories of sickness and need that we hear of even in our own congregation and families, threaten at times to overwhelm us.  Give us the grace to remember that you, Jesus, are there already, as you always have been.   Give us the hope and strength to remember that where human need is greatest, there your kingdom, and our vocations, can be seen most clearly.  Amen.