Mark 6:34 "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."
Jesus had compassion for the crowd. They have been following him and his disciples around. They were headed for a place to rest and the crowd followed on the shore and beat them to landing. Now you think it might read several different ways. Jesus couldn't believe it and dismissed them so they could rest. Jesus could've said get out of our way and leave us alone. Jesus could've said this isn't your hometown get out. None of this happens.
Could this be the good news of Mark? Think about it. We start of this gospel with those very words, but Mark never lets us in on the secret of what the good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ is. Instead Mark launches right into introducing us to John the Baptist. Then Jesus heals someone, picks grain on the Sabbath, heals the women and the child, tells parables about the kingdom, and calms the storm with peace. Every single one of these stories contains a grain of compassion in them.
We skip to the end of this set of stories and he is healing all who come to him. No rest is found. Last week at this time I was at the closing worship for the Wild Goose Festival and if I had to say there was a theme to the festival it was this. We have to really be the example of Jesus. We have to actually pray for our enemies. We have to actually set a place at the table for them. We have to listen to one another. We have to believe what Jesus taught and do it.
Now this is radically counter cultural right now and it shouldn't be. Jesus showed us ways to be compassionate. Ways to reach out to everyone: women, lepers, the unclean, sinners, the wealthy, religious leader, Roman soldier, even thief on the cross. It is all wrapped up in compassion. This is how we should be living, how we should be giving, and how we should be praying.
We are not more right than anyone else, so we should listen even if it challenges us. We are to leave our gifts on the altar and ask forgiveness from those we have wronged before we do an offering. We are to remember we were once refugees from another country and came here for freedom from persecution. This is from the Old Testament, remember you were once a slave, we haven't been slaves, but we were all refugees to this land. We have to remember our history though. It is not something we can afford to overlook. Compassion is the hardest thing we will ever learn from Jesus.
In Mathew and Luke we get two different stories of compassion. In Matthew 25 it is the sheep and the goats. Remember at the judgment we will be separated into sheep and goats and the sheep are received into the kingdom because they feed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited when someone was in prison, and when a stranger came they were welcomed in, and most of all these remembered Jesus' compassion. The goats don't understand it, they think they never saw Jesus so they didn't do anything. In Luke we have the story of the prodigal son. The son who asks for his inheritance before the father is even dead, the son who squanders it all on wild living, the son who comes home and knows his father will at least make him a servant. Yet when he comes home the father does more than that, he celebrates, he hugs, he acts with impropriety and runs down the road to meet him. This is compassion.
Mark never spells it out like these stories, yet it is there all through the gospel. The good news is we try our best. The good news is we wrestle to try and do these things. The good news is someone cares and your not all alone. The good news is open arms, the good news is opening the table, the good news is compassion.
When I was writing this, this week a song kept coming into my head. You won't find it on YouTube a friend of a friend wrote it for our youth camp in Maine and we would sing it with arms around one another the chorus goes like this: "how deep is your compassion, how high is your mercy, how wide are your loving arms, that surround even me?" Let's try it. Let's try this as we go out these doors. Let's ask ourselves what is the most challenging act of compassion that is hard for me? Then try, try to act it, try to do it, try to emulate it. So we can make this world the dream God has for it, instead of the nightmare it has become (Presiding Bishop Michael Curry).
Jesus had compassion for the crowd. They have been following him and his disciples around. They were headed for a place to rest and the crowd followed on the shore and beat them to landing. Now you think it might read several different ways. Jesus couldn't believe it and dismissed them so they could rest. Jesus could've said get out of our way and leave us alone. Jesus could've said this isn't your hometown get out. None of this happens.
Could this be the good news of Mark? Think about it. We start of this gospel with those very words, but Mark never lets us in on the secret of what the good news (gospel) of Jesus Christ is. Instead Mark launches right into introducing us to John the Baptist. Then Jesus heals someone, picks grain on the Sabbath, heals the women and the child, tells parables about the kingdom, and calms the storm with peace. Every single one of these stories contains a grain of compassion in them.
We skip to the end of this set of stories and he is healing all who come to him. No rest is found. Last week at this time I was at the closing worship for the Wild Goose Festival and if I had to say there was a theme to the festival it was this. We have to really be the example of Jesus. We have to actually pray for our enemies. We have to actually set a place at the table for them. We have to listen to one another. We have to believe what Jesus taught and do it.
Now this is radically counter cultural right now and it shouldn't be. Jesus showed us ways to be compassionate. Ways to reach out to everyone: women, lepers, the unclean, sinners, the wealthy, religious leader, Roman soldier, even thief on the cross. It is all wrapped up in compassion. This is how we should be living, how we should be giving, and how we should be praying.
We are not more right than anyone else, so we should listen even if it challenges us. We are to leave our gifts on the altar and ask forgiveness from those we have wronged before we do an offering. We are to remember we were once refugees from another country and came here for freedom from persecution. This is from the Old Testament, remember you were once a slave, we haven't been slaves, but we were all refugees to this land. We have to remember our history though. It is not something we can afford to overlook. Compassion is the hardest thing we will ever learn from Jesus.
In Mathew and Luke we get two different stories of compassion. In Matthew 25 it is the sheep and the goats. Remember at the judgment we will be separated into sheep and goats and the sheep are received into the kingdom because they feed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited when someone was in prison, and when a stranger came they were welcomed in, and most of all these remembered Jesus' compassion. The goats don't understand it, they think they never saw Jesus so they didn't do anything. In Luke we have the story of the prodigal son. The son who asks for his inheritance before the father is even dead, the son who squanders it all on wild living, the son who comes home and knows his father will at least make him a servant. Yet when he comes home the father does more than that, he celebrates, he hugs, he acts with impropriety and runs down the road to meet him. This is compassion.
Mark never spells it out like these stories, yet it is there all through the gospel. The good news is we try our best. The good news is we wrestle to try and do these things. The good news is someone cares and your not all alone. The good news is open arms, the good news is opening the table, the good news is compassion.
When I was writing this, this week a song kept coming into my head. You won't find it on YouTube a friend of a friend wrote it for our youth camp in Maine and we would sing it with arms around one another the chorus goes like this: "how deep is your compassion, how high is your mercy, how wide are your loving arms, that surround even me?" Let's try it. Let's try this as we go out these doors. Let's ask ourselves what is the most challenging act of compassion that is hard for me? Then try, try to act it, try to do it, try to emulate it. So we can make this world the dream God has for it, instead of the nightmare it has become (Presiding Bishop Michael Curry).
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