9th Sunday after Pentecost

Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

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 Jesus 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.
  ⁵³ When Jesus and the disciples 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.

. . .

The Sins of Our Shepherds

Grace to you, beloved of God, and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.   

In the silly but fun action romcom Knight and Day, June Havens, played by Cameron Diaz, travels from Boston to Wichita, Kansas, to retrieve a double douce carburetor for a 66 Pontiac GTO she is restoring as a wedding present for her sister. At the airport, she bumps into Roy Miller, an enchanting stranger played by Tom Cruise. The two end up on the same flight going back to Bostom. The two flirt a bit, but June does not know that Roy is actually a covert operative entangled in an international plot involving a mysterious device.  What follows is a globe-trotter roller coaster that finds both June and Roy dodging ferocious assassins. After some near-death experiences, June is reluctant to remain in Roy’s company, which causes the hero to firmly and hilariously explain her chances of survival. “With me,” he says, placing his hand palm down over their heads, or “without me,” lowering his hand down low. “With me,” “without me,” he repeats. Poor June, she is just a regular person called upon to do things she never thought possible even in her wildest dreams. 

This reminds me again of Jesus’ disciples. Ordinary fishermen who, by now, in the Gospel of Mark, had traveled a few times back and forth to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, even amid the storms, to ferry the light of the world to the then-most foreign land of the Gerasenes. A people in desperate need of healing and mercy, like most, if not all, territories that once were the ancestral land of God’s people. Here they are again, navigating the seas after being sent to face the ugliness of their world—a people sitting in the valley of the shadow of death for a long time. I am sure they are tired, spent, crushed. Lifting the broken is hard work. It drains the body. Their suffering and pain had been brewed by the neglect of the ones entrusted by God to feed and keep them. 

Jeremiah named the sins of leaders and their kings, their shepherds. They build their houses by unrighteousness, their upper rooms by injustice, through the enslavement of their neighbors (22:13). They practice oppression and violence; they shed innocent blood (17). They failed to extend justice and righteousness to the poor and needy as their ancestors did (15-16). Woe to them, who rob the people of their right to live, love, and laugh, of the dignity of their divine inheritance. Woe to them, who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! Says the LORD (23:1).

But happy will be those who sit in the sorrow inflicted upon them; happy will be those whose life has been drained from them; happy will be those who were abandoned or driven away; for God will gather the remnant. God will raise for them a shepherd of shepherds. A righteous branch to restore all peoples. He will execute justice and righteousness, and they will cry no more, hurt no more, fear no more.

We who long to be witnesses of better things may feel we don’t have the tools, the skills, or the spiritual energy. We may have seen too much. We may get scared sometimes. But are no longer aliens or strangers but called together into the house of God. We are the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. The body may get caught up in the roller coaster of life, in the tumult of proclaiming the truth about his good news, in the center of the storm we could not see coming. The body may hurt. However, we indeed have heard the gospel of our salvation. We know who he is. Jesus is Lord, and he has love and compassion for us.  

Without him, fear and scarcity reign, 

but with him, we are promised abundance. 

Without him, we are lost in despair, 

but with him, we are restored and renewed.

Without him, there is violence and desolation, 

but with him, we have the assurance of kindness and peace. 

Without him, we are condemned to hopelessness, 

but with him, we have the promise of justice, mercy, and life. 

Without him, we have nothing,

But with him, we have everything.

In the movie, the character of June Havens discovers she might be more capable than she thinks. That she is stronger than she thought. And so is the body of our Lord.

Christ is our shepherd, and we shall never be in want. Thanks be to God. Amen.