Sermon for July 18, 2021, Pentecost 8B
Video is available (after the Sunday service) at the YouTube channel of the Central Presbyterian Church, Fort Smith, AR.
Audio is here.
Today I am going to do something different. Instead of reading the Gospel text first, I’m going to read it as we work our way through it, noticing how it works as a story, and what it means for us today. So, let’s begin.
At the heart of this story is an account of a difficult sea crossing. We are going to see that crossing borders is what this story is all about.
Our lives have been shaped by the moments in which we crossed over the line that separated two different worlds.
For example, we all had that moment when we left our parent’s home where everything we needed was provided for us, and moved out to make our own way in the world. We crossed over from the world of dependence to the world of independence.
Many of us crossed over from singleness to married life. Some of us have crossed over from married to divorced. Not all crossings are happy, but all are permanently significant.
Some significant crossings are the ones in which we leave behind one worldview that has become inadequate to account for the full range of our life experiences and adopt a new worldview that encompasses a larger reality.
We leave behind old paradigms, confining prejudices, tired stereotypes, and childish reasoning for new, more complex constructs. We left behind the world of Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny for the world of buying Christmas gifts and hosting Easter dinners.
As people of faith, I believe it is our calling to be people who cross over many boundaries, in the quest to be faithful to our Creator, and to Jesus’ vision.
We come by this calling honestly. Our Jewish ancestors defined themselves by the times they crossed over from one world to another. In the tradition of stories that they passed down, we read of Moses leading the Hebrew people to cross the Red Sea, from the world of slavery into freedom.
Later Joshua led them to cross the Jordan River from the Wilderness into the Promised Land. In fact, the word “Hebrew” comes from a word meaning “to cross over.” Crossings defined them. Crossings define us.
We are going to read a story from the Jesus-tradition today, about crossing over, in this case, the lake we call the Sea of Galilee.
But this story finds its largest significance as we see it as part of a larger narrative that Mark has constructed. His goal is to show us what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
So, using the disciples as characters with whom we can identify, he lays out a pattern for disciples of all times, including us.
So we will work our way through this story, noticing how each part builds up a picture of the life of discipleship. We will see that it could be called, the life of those who make it a life-quest to keep crossing over borders, from one world to another.
The story begins this way:
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.
Jesus had taught and healed people, then he had sent out his disciples to do the same, and now they have returned to report their experiences to Jesus.
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. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.
There is a pattern to the life of a disciple; there are periods of ministry, and times of rest. A life of action without time for contemplation becomes exhausting and loses joy.
We all need daily times of quiet contemplation and meditation, weekly gatherings, and seasonal periods of reflection.
Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 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.
Disciples understand that interruptions to our plans may be God-given opportunities for ministry and compassion. What is our purpose in life? Often we discover our purpose unfolding as unexpected needs present themselves to us, and we respond as God’s agents of mercy and compassion.
But notice Jesus’ response. He healed people, and then he taught them. We don’t just give a fish, we teach people how to fish. We don’t just feed, we teach. We don’t just respond to crises, we organize and advocate so that the crises don’t keep repeating.
When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
When we come together around the Lord’s Supper, we do so to remember Jesus. Remembering Jesus feeds this community.
That is what this story illustrates. Using the same four verbs that come from Jesus’ celebration of the Last Supper, we read that Jesus “took, blessed, broke and gave” the bread and fish.
That is one of the reasons that the Lord’s Supper is so important to us; these physical signs that we take, bless, break and give, help us to remember Jesus, who was willing to be broken and poured out for us. As we eat the body of Christ, we become the body of Christ. And the result is that we are filled, and have an abundant supply to share with all those who are hungry.
Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
Let us notice the odd part of this story: Jesus “made” his disciples get into the boat to cross to the other side. Now we are coming to the center of this story: having been fed and nourished at the Lord’s Supper, the next task is to get in the boat, and cross over.
Why would they have to be “made” to go? Let’s find out. In the mean time, Jesu is doing what he regularly did: spending time in prayer, in meditation, communing with the Divine.
When evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. When he saw that they were straining at the oars against an adverse wind, he came towards them early in the morning, walking on the sea.
They were straining. The crossing was difficult. They knew it would be. The wind was against them. These crossing stories often include great difficulty. Sometimes an adverse wind; sometimes a life-threatening storm. It always seems like a struggle to make the crossing.
Why? Because the crossings are not physical, but ideological. Sometimes they are ethnic crossings, from Jewish to Gentile space. Of course, that kind of crossing over is always going to be challenging. That’s why Jesus had to make them do it.
There is no true discipleship without crossing over from our safe little worlds in which everyone looks like us, thinks like us, talks like us, sings like us, sits still in church like us, and loves like us, to the other side where they do it differently.
The fresh water lake is called a “sea” purposefully. The sea was a place of danger. In ancient Canaan, the word “sea,” was the name of the god of the sea, Yam, whose chaotic waters were life-threatening.
The lake is the symbol of the chaos and danger separating “us” from “them,” but Jesus cruises on those waters without a qualm. He is the master-crosser-over.
He intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out; for they all saw him and were terrified.
To “pass by” is not to ignore them. Passing by is what God’s glorious presence did before Moses, to signal that God was with him, to protect and guide him. Jewish readers probably understand that expression, but we need to be reminded of the story.
Jesus was accompanying his people as they made the crossing from their safe world to the world in which people were different, but where they too needed God’s message of love.
But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Then he got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
Mark is hard on the disciples. He is saying: wake up; don’t miss the point. Soften your heart to receive this message. The crossing is terrifying until you get it that this is exactly what Jesus is calling us to do, repeatedly.
The boat is a symbol of the church. If you understand about the loaves, in other words, that the Lord’s Supper symbolizes our unity, then you will be safe when you do the difficult work of crossing over to the “other.”
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 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.
Once you make the crossing, once you reach out to people who are different with the message that God’s love is for them too, you get to watch the healing start to happen. Enemies become friends. Strangers become family. Reconciliation ends conflicts, hostility gives way to hospitality. Embattled communities become one single Beloved Community.
I go to two different locations nearby to have, what we call Pints with a Pastor. I hear stories of how badly people have been hurt by the church, and it grieves me. I hear the stories of people who were raised in traditions that told them that they were bad. They could not question church teaching. They were told that God was going to punish them. They were told they were going to hell. They were told, for example, that being gay was a sin. Some have children who are gay. They were told that they did not belong. Some were told that they did not need to concern themselves with climate change because Jesus would come back soon — hopefully before their town burned to the ground or was inundated with seawater. Some were told who they had to vote for on pain of exclusion.
They were sold a version of God that looks almost opposite to the God that Jesus loved, and taught us to trust. Some of them are bitter, others are deeply wounded.
So I go, to cross over into their worlds. Maybe some will want to come here to find a healing, loving community. I hope so. When that happens, they will be our opportunity to cross over to them with love, to make sure they feel not just welcome, but that they belong. Not because they are going to change to become like us, but because they, like us, will find healing through love.
That’s what Jesus, the master-crosser-over brought to us; that is what we are called to for others.
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