XVI SUNDAY B
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 - "Hurry Hinders Ministry"
Ephesians 2:11-22 - "Zombie Zone or Beulah
Land?" by Leonard Sweet
An ethics professor at Princeton Seminary asked for
volunteers for an extra assignment. About half the class met him at the library
to receive their assignments. The professor divided the students into three
groups of five each. He gave the first group envelopes telling them to proceed
immediately across campus to Stewart Hall. He told them that they had 15
minutes and if they didn't arrive on time, it would affect their grade. A
minute or two later, he handed out envelopes to five others. They were also to
go over to Stewart Hall, but they had 45 minutes.
The third group had three
hours to get to Stewart Hall. The students weren't aware of it, but the
professor had arranged for three drama students to meet them along the way.
Close to the beginning of their walk, one of the drama students had his hands
on his head and was moaning aloud as if in great pain. About half way to Stewart
Hall, on the steps of the chapel, the seminary students passed a man who was
lying face down as if unconscious. Finally, on the steps of Stewart Hall, the
third drama student was acting out a seizure. In the first group of students,
those who had only 15 minutes to get across campus, no one stopped to help. In
the second group, two students stopped to help. In the last group, the one that
had three hours for their assignment, all of the students stopped to help at
least one person. The professor had clearly shown these seminarians that hurry
hinders ministry..._______________________
Ever since the dawn of movies there have been "fright
films." Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolfman were first on the silver
screen. Later on mythical monsters were replaced by urban monsters, and the
"teenage slasher" movie was born - where lonely baby-sitters and
popular football players were the special focus of crazed creatures with hockey
masks or with really long fingernails. But the most popular
"scare-bearer" these days seems to be a creature you can't even wish
were dead because it already is . . . zombies!
Wait a minute, you say. I didn't come to church to hear
about zombies. Well, you not only need to hear about them if you are to
understand the mission field God has put us in. But you need to hear about them
if you are to understand our text for this morning, a text about "aliens
and strangers"...
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There is an old story that has often been re-told in
especially the Eastern Orthodox part of the church. According to the tale, a
devout abbot from a monastery decided to take a prolonged spiritual retreat in
a small cabin located on a remote island in the middle of a large lake. He told
his fellow monks that he wanted to spend his days in prayer so as to grow
closer to God. For six months he remained on the island with no other person
seeing him or hearing from him in all that time. But then one day, as two monks
were standing near the shore soaking up some sunshine, they could see in the distance
a figure moving toward them. It was the abbot, walking on water, and coming
toward shore. After the abbot passed by the two monks and continued on to the
monastery, one of the monks turned to the other and said, "All these
months in prayer and the abbot is still as stingy as ever. After all, the ferry
costs only 25 cents!"
Humor aside, the point of the story is that it's amazing how easily we may sometimes miss the significance of something that is right in front of us. We think we know the meaning of this incident of Jesus' walking on the water, but do we really?
Humor aside, the point of the story is that it's amazing how easily we may sometimes miss the significance of something that is right in front of us. We think we know the meaning of this incident of Jesus' walking on the water, but do we really?
Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations on Mark 6:30-56.
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We Are Sheepdogs
Thirty years ago, when I was a beginning seminarian, my
pastoral supervisor in my fieldwork parish reminded me that the word
"pastor" means shepherd. But then he said, "The people already
have a Good Shepherd in Jesus." He said it was as English mystic Evelyn
Underhill had written some time before, that the best that could be said of
clergy is that we are sheepdogs. Sometimes we do a good job helping the Good
Shepherd, and sometimes we just bark a lot and cause general confusion among
the flock.
Samuel D. Zumwalt, Jesus Means Compassion
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Close the Door to Turn on the Light
One evening years ago a speaker who was visiting the United States wanted to make a telephone call. He entered a phone booth, but found it to be different from those in his own country. It was beginning to get dark, so he had difficulty finding the number in the directory. He noticed that there was a light in the ceiling, but he didn't know how to turn it on. As he tried again to find the number in the fading twilight, a passerby noted his plight and said, "Sir, if you want to turn the light on, you have to shut the door." To the visitor's amazement and satisfaction, when he closed the door, the booth was filled with light. He soon located the number and completed the call.
One evening years ago a speaker who was visiting the United States wanted to make a telephone call. He entered a phone booth, but found it to be different from those in his own country. It was beginning to get dark, so he had difficulty finding the number in the directory. He noticed that there was a light in the ceiling, but he didn't know how to turn it on. As he tried again to find the number in the fading twilight, a passerby noted his plight and said, "Sir, if you want to turn the light on, you have to shut the door." To the visitor's amazement and satisfaction, when he closed the door, the booth was filled with light. He soon located the number and completed the call.
A writer in the devotional, Our Daily Bread, commenting on this story, writes,
"In a similar way, when we draw aside in a quiet place to pray, we must
block out our busy world and open our hearts to the Father. Our darkened world
of disappointments and trials will then be illuminated. We will enter into
communion with God, we will sense His presence, and we will be assured of His
provision for us. Our Lord often went to be alone with the Heavenly Father.
Sometimes it was after a busy day of preaching and healing, as in today's
Scripture reading. At other times, it was before making a major decision."
(Luke 6:12). And so should we.
King Duncan, www.Sermons.com
King Duncan, www.Sermons.com
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Deus Interruptus
Jesus and the disciples had been headed for Bethsaida when
the evening's storm blew them to Gennesaret instead. Notice our Lord's
response. He does not tell the Apostles to set out to sea and try again.
Instead, he disembarks and begins to minister to the people around him.
Christ's response is to see the storm as God's will and to minister
appropriately wherever he lands.
How do I respond when my day is blown off course? Do I
respond to daily (or even major life-changing) "inconveniences" by
looking for God's purposes or do I become angry and frustrated at the
"interruption" of my plans and purposes?
I have found that the higher my personal agenda; the less I
am able to see God's purpose in my daily "interruptions." Yet, I have
also found that when make myself available to "Deus Interruptus,"
incredible and miraculous things frequently happen. Have you ever considered
beginning your day by "giving God permission to alter your agenda at any
moment and any time?
"Dearest God, feel free to interrupt my agenda today
with yours at anytime or in any place."
Jerry Goebel, Sheep without a Shepherd
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The Job Christ Wants Done
Writing about another time and place, Leo Tolstoy said,
"I beheld the misery, cold, hunger, humiliation of thousands of my fellow
human beings ... I feel, and can never cease to feel, myself a partaker in a
crime which is constantly being committed, so long as I have extra food while
others have none, so long as I have two coats while there exists one person
without any ... I must seek in my heart at every moment, with meekness and
humility, some opportunity for doing the job Christ wants done." The job
Christ wants done. He set the course; we are to do the rowing.
David G. Rogne, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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Compassion and Motive
Jesus renewed people with the power of his compassion. I
like the ancient legend about the monk who found a precious stone, a precious
jewel. A short time later, the monk met a traveler, who said he was hungry and
asked the monk if he would share some of his provisions. When the monk opened
his bag, the traveler saw the precious stone and, on an impulse, asked the monk
if he could have it. Amazingly, the monk gave the traveler the stone.
The traveler departed quickly, overjoyed with his new
possession. However, a few days later, he came back, searching for the monk. He
returned the stone to the monk and made a request: "Please give me
something more valuable, more precious than this stone. Please give me that
which enabled you to give me this precious stone!"
James W. Moore, Some Things Are Too Good Not To Be True,
Dimensions, p. 101
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Restlessness
In this day when we are suppose to have so many devices to
save time, I've never seen so many hurried and restless people! If the
computer, the laptop, the cellular phone, and all of these other technological
wonders are suppose to save us time, why do we have so little time for the
things that matter?
It seems that with all we've accomplished, about all we have
really added is speed and noise. We get there faster, but we don't know where
we are going. And when we get there, we're out of breath.
I read one time about a man who swallowed an egg whole. He
was afraid to move because he was afraid it would break. But he was afraid to
sit still because he was afraid it would hatch. There are a lot of people like
that today--so frenetic, so pressured they don't know which way to go. And the
place where the pressure and restless often hit home is in the home.
Adrian Rogers, Ten Secrets for a Successful Family, Crossway
Books, p. 71.
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Feeling the Suffering of Others
Flannery O'Connor, the insightful Roman Catholic writer,
lifted up the Christian dimension when she wrote: "You will have found
Christ when you are concerned with other people's sufferings and not your
own." The beginning of compassion involves becoming aware of the suffering
of others.
But it is not enough simply to see the suffering of others,
we need to feel it. It is possible to see suffering, but not to feel it. Dewitt
Jones tells about a photographer who walked down the street one day and came
upon a man who was choking. "What a picture," he thought. "This
says it all: A man, alone, in need. What a message!" He fumbled for his
camera and light meter until the poor fellow who was choking realized that help
was not forthcoming. He grabbed the photographer's arm and gasped, "I'm
turning blue!" "That's all right," said the photographer,
patting the fellow's hand, "I'm shooting color film." Just noticing
suffering isn't enough.
David G. Rogne, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing Company
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David G. Rogne, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing Company
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Unless a Man Has Pity
In his book The Human Comedy, William Saroyan noted:
"Unless a man has pity, he is inhuman and not yet truly a man, for out of
pity comes the balm which heals. Only good men weep. If a man has not yet wept
at the world's pain, he is less than the dirt he walks upon, because dirt will
nourish seed, root, stalk, leaf, and flower, but the spirit of a man without
pity is barren and will bring forth nothing...." Good people feel the pain
of others, and they weep.
David G. Rogne, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing Company
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David G. Rogne, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing Company
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Avoiding Our Pain
Henri Nouwen wrote that "our culture has become most
sophisticated in the avoidance of pain, not only our physical pain but our
emotional and mental pain as well. We not only bury our dead as if they were
still alive, but we also bury our pains as if they were not really there. We
have become so used to this state of anesthesia, that we panic when there is
nothing or nobody left to distract us...
