“A New Way Forward”
Mark 6:30-44
Jesus liked to eat.
The disciples of John the Baptist noticed this enough to ask Jesus why He didn’t fast.
Jesus’ enemies noticed this enough to ask the disciples why Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners.
They called Him a glutton and a drunk.
Jesus’ parables often include wheat, or fruit trees, or banquets or vineyards.
One scholar has written: “If [Jesus] had not traveled by foot so far and so often, it is quite possible that He would have been a little chunkier than He appears in most stained-glass windows.”
It’s been said that some of the best stuff in ministry happens over meals.
And I’d agree with that.
Happy and painful news is shared.
Creative ideas are hatched.
Relationships are formed.
People laugh and have fun together.
It’s hard to concentrate when there are rumblings in our tummies.
Jesus knew this well.
That’s one reason why Jesus, in our Scripture lesson for this morning, tells His disciples: “You give them something to eat.”
Of course, Jesus is referring to a crowd of thousands of people.
And so, from the disciples’ point of view, Jesus is asking them to do the impossible!!!
I mean, I can relate.
How about you?
Imagine being in a big, sold-out basketball arena—with no concession stands—and being asked to feed all those folks.
That’s the kind of situation we are talking about.
Sounds scary, actually.
Or…exciting!!!
It depends on how you look at it.
The feeding of the 5,000—which is actually more like 15,000 since they only counted the men—is one of the very few stories about Jesus which is recorded in all 4 Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
That means that it was a REALLY big deal!!!
It was something that a lot of people talked about for a long time.
It was major news.
No one ever forgot it.
And it makes a huge theological statement about how God can do a lot with a little.
Jesus was really starting to get popular at this point.
You know, I often think about those rock or pop bands that finally hit it big—seemingly out of nowhere--because of a song or album which has suddenly gone off the charts.
Imagine how it must be for them to go from nearly complete obscurity to international sensations in a matter of weeks or months.
Everyone wants a piece of them.
Everyone wants to be with them.
Everyone wants something from them.
This is how it was for Jesus at this point.
And it must have been exhausting.
And so, our passage for this morning starts out with a worn-out crew.
It says, “because so many people were coming and going…they did not even have a chance to eat, [so Jesus said to His disciples], ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’”
So, they took off to a solitary place, out in the middle of nowhere, but we are told that people saw them “leaving and recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.”
It sounds like those old news reels of the Beatles in their glory days, stuck in a limo, with hundreds and thousands of screaming fans running after them.
They just couldn’t escape.
But instead of getting mad or frustrated, we are told that Jesus’ response to the people was one of “compassion,” because, “they were like sheep without a shepherd.
So, he began teaching them many things.”
It’s good to know that compassion is a primary characteristic of Jesus.
Jesus forgot all about His empty stomach when He saw people in need.
Have you ever become so passionate and excited about something that you forgot to eat?
That’s how it is for Jesus when He comes across people in need.
Compassion trumps everything for Christ.
Is that the way it is for us?
I wish it were for me.
Imagine being that altruistic, that full of the love of God for others—that free from self!!!
Most of us have probably heard the term “sanctification” or “Christian Perfection.”
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, defined Christian Perfection as having a “habitual love for God and neighbor.”
This is to be our goal.
Many churches in America are in decline, most, as a matter of fact.
According to many experts: The NUMBER ONE reason for this is a lack of compassion or love for others—for those outside our doors.
Research shows that churches which grow have made the hard decision that they will love those outside their doors as much as Jesus does.
William Temple, the former Archbishop of Canterbury once said, “The Church is the only organization organized primarily for the benefit of its non-members.”
That is some pretty heavy stuff.
In Philippians we are taught to “make [our] own attitude[s] the same as that of Christ Jesus.”
And Paul goes into detail as to what that means: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
You should not only look to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
When we put others before ourselves like Jesus did and we are known for how we care about those who are “like sheep without a shepherd” our church grows.
And what better time to make an intentional commitment to begin living more and more into this call on our lives than at the beginning of a New Year?!!!
I’m not kidding when I say that I truly believe that the year 2019 will become a watershed year for Red Bank United Methodist Church and the community which surrounds us.
Years from now, we will be able to look back and say, “It was 2019 when our church made the hard decision that we will love the lost as much as Jesus does.
It was 2019 when we began to discover this community’s needs that aren’t being met.
It was 2019 when we started to learn how to be, do, and tell the gospel in ways that connect with those who currently have no interest in Christ and His Church.
It was 2019 when the immediate community around this building started to become genuinely thankful for this church.
It was 2019 when our neighbors around this building started talking behind our backs about ‘how good it is’ to have Red Bank United Methodist Church in the area because of the tangible ways we offer them God’s love.
It was 2019 when many in our city, formerly cynical and hostile toward Christianity, actually started praising God for this church and the positive contributions our members are making in Jesus’ name.”
Can you imagine the spiritual harvest that will naturally follow when this becomes reality?
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning, Jesus was teaching a multitude of desperate folks—even though He was hungry and dead tired Himself—due to His compassion for the lost.
But it started to get late in the day, and Jesus’ disciples were hungry and tired as well probably being a bit grumpy.
So, they came to Jesus and said, “This is a remote place and it’s already very late.
Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
This made perfect since to the disciples.
But to Jesus, it was madness!!!
“Send them away???”
“Send them away???”
My goodness, that would be like us telling some family or person that they couldn’t be part of our Wednesday evening dinners and activities simply because they didn’t have any money to help pay for the food.
“Send them away???!!!”
That’s not KINGDOM THINKING.
That is WORLDLY THINKING!!!
That’s not compassionate and altruistic; that is selfish and inwardly focused.
“Send them away???!!!”
Do we ever do that?
Maybe not on purpose, but because we haven’t made the hard decision that we will love the lost as much as Jesus does?
When we decide to love the lost as much as Jesus does we will never say this is my seat and I’m not about to sit somewhere else.
We will never just greet our friends and ignore the stranger or guest in our midst.
We will never be more worried about our building than our community.
And we will never look at the problems we face and then look at what we have and say, “We don’t have enough.”
When the disciples come to Jesus and suggest that He “send the people away,” Jesus answers them with the astonishing: “You give them something to eat.”
Can you imagine their shock, disbelief and possibly even anger at this suggestion???
“They said to him, ‘That would take eight months of a man’s wages!
Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?’”
Instead of giving in to their negative attitudes, Jesus simply asks them: “How many loaves do you have?
Go and see.”
And when they find out that they only have five loaves and two fish they return to Jesus confident that He will have to send the people away now.
Andrew Connors writes the following: “This seems to be the situation in which the church finds itself today.
People are hungering all around us, hungering for a deeper connection with God and each other, hungering for purpose and meaning, hungering for hope.
Many are hungering quite literally for their next meal.
And the church has been called to feed all these hungry people with fewer loaves and fishes than we have ever had before.”
And so, just like the disciples, we notice our limitations first.
We feel that we are not equipped to do what we have been called to do.
We don’t have enough.
And so, the best we can do is to send people somewhere else: to the yoga studio, the coffee shop, the movie theater, or the local bar.
Rather than lean into Jesus, we begin to drown in our own fear of insufficiency.
We don’t want to deal with the mess and the hunger.
It seems overwhelming, and the responsibility is just too much!!!
I know that feeling, do you?
I know the familiar feeling of being overwhelmed by what is expected of us.
I mean, the needs that surround us seem insurmountable.
Just pick an area of suffering and the needs far outweigh the resources we have to respond.
And so, we revert to our narrow minds, forgetting what it is like to live according to the will of God.
We can get so paralyzed by anxiety that we forget the thousands of other times that God has entered in and made a way when there seemed to be no way: from the parting of the Red Sea to stilling storms…
….from manna in the desert to feeding 1,000 people a month with next to no resources over in East Ridge or serving hundreds of children in an afterschool program called Safe House at Red Bank United Methodist Church!!!
We can live within God’s miracles all the time if we are willing to share what we have been given, trusting that it is enough.
It’s been said that “one of the hardest lessons for believers to learn is that the Lord does provide.”
It really is that simple.
We are to live by compassion and never use our “lack of resources” as an excuse not to do what God is calling us to do for those in need.
Faith tells us that the antidote for toxic doses of fear and blaring messages of insufficiency is found in taking the meager bits and pieces of what we have and inviting Jesus to bless them and use them for the sake of a lost and broken world.
“My grace is sufficient, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” God is quoted as saying in 2 Corinthians 12:9.
In today’s Scripture Lesson, God is showing us God’s Vision for a NEW WAY FORWARD in this NEW YEAR.
We have the resources to provide for the needs of this community if we offer all that we have and all that we are to God for the sake of Jesus Christ and those whom He loves.
The Church does not exist for itself.
Will we make the hard decision that we will love the lost as much as Jesus does?
I believe we will!!!
