Pentecost 9B
When I begin to work on a sermon, the first thing I do is go to stmarksmonte.com, click on ‘recent sermons’ then go through them, back to 2009, hoping to find an older sermon that I can use. The interesting thing I find is how often these sermons point out that these are really difficult times, clear back to 2009!
It comforts me to remember that we’ve survived a lot of tough times and this past week, I’ve needed comfort! Realizing how often things have seemed to be ‘the worst of times’ forces me to put current reality in perspective. I remember my dad telling me of a conversation he had with his mother, when the world was building up to WWII and he would soon be of draft age. He shared that he felt that this had to be the worst time in history. My grandmother, Julia, told him that it only seemed as if it was the worst possible time. She had lived through WWI and then the Great Depression while she was raising 5 children in extreme poverty. Her worrisome times would continue when my dad was called up to serve in WWII. Grandma Julia was a Norwegian woman of strong Lutheran faith. My primary memory of her was her sitting in a rocking chair, reading her well-worn bible. I’ve always envied the serenity she showed through her life.
Back to today’s lectionary. Please note the readings: Mark 6:30-34, 53-56. There’s a gap of almost 20 verses. So we skip over the feeding of 5000 and then walking on water miracles. Instead, let’s just talk about tired apostles and a whole bunch of needy people!
Jesus tells his friends, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” Oh, doesn’t that sound so peaceful? Throw in a good book and that’s a perfect holiday to me. I love that even Jesus, a GOD, needs rest. But no matter where they went, there was no rest for Jesus and his friends. Why? Because they had compassion for the needy that sought them out, wherever they went. They had compassion because the people were like sheep without a shepherd.
This phrase, “sheep without a shepherd” is used 6 times throughout the bible, in Numbers, 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Isaiah, Matthew and Mark. That people need leaders is a universal truth in the bible, as is the need for good shepherds, good leaders.
You know, Kevin and I recently talked about the guiding principles behind our political beliefs. I think we were both surprised to find out how deeply we are influenced by our Christian creed in how we vote. We try to vote for the candidate who prioritizes care for the needy, not the wealthy; acknowledges the need to care for this beautiful world God gave us; welcomes immigrants and works for peace and equality. These are basic biblical teachings which we embrace as followers of Jesus.
Our national elections feel like we’re trying to choose a shepherd. We need a good shepherd. At the same time, perhaps we need to remember that we do have a shepherd. We have the best, biggest, shepherdiest shepherd in Jesus. We mustn’t rely on Biden or Trump to lead us – we’ve got God.
But political leaders eventually make policy and we’ve seen some policy that feels very distant from our Christian teachings. It’s hard to not feel quite crazy and helpless when dealing with current politics, both national and local. We have the ability, between TV, the internet and social media, to be completely riled up all the time. And what does that accomplish???? Not a damned thing. Trying to keep sane, my coping mechanism lately has been the serenity prayer, focusing on what I can and cannot change and knowing the difference.
This prayer was written by Reinhold Niebuhr. The beginning of it is well known but let’s hear the whole thing: ”God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next, Amen.”
In a nutshell: Identify what is in your immediate control (then try to fix it). Recognize God’s hand in your life (count your blessings every day). Get busy after you pray (go do God’s work in the world). This plan: fix what you can, count your blessings and do God’s work? Now that’s a good plan. Maybe it’s one way to survive an election year without losing one’s mind!
The lectionary leaves out the verses where Jesus walks on water. But let me talk about that for a second: There were two cranky old men who were VERY put out when they learned that their next pastor was going to be a woman. Hmph - a Woman! Finally, they decided to try to be good sports, so they did what they always did with new pastors; they took her out fishing on the lake. Things were going quite well and oh boy, the fish were really biting.
After hours of this, the new pastor said that she needed to be brought back to shore as she had a meeting at church. The fishermen looked at her in disbelief. “Are you kidding? We can’t leave while the fish are biting like this! You’ll just have to swim back!”
The pastor admitted that she didn’t know how to swim. The old boys just didn’t care. They were not moving. So, she shrugged, stood up and walked off the boat toward shore. The fishermen paused in their fishing long enough to watch her walk on water. One old guy turned to the other and smirked, “Imagine that! They not only send us a woman to be pastor, but she can’t even swim!”
Amen.