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[Jesus] said, “Take heart; it is I. Don’t be afraid.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
You have heard me say before that we live in an age of anxiety. Some of it is because we live in an increasingly chaotic and uncertain time. Certainly the 2020 pandemic and the rise of crime in our major cities has deepened this sense of anxiety we feel. Another fact is the rise of social media and its impact on our mental processes. Yet another contributing factor is the rise of unbelief in Western culture and society. Our cultural knowledge of God and of the Scriptures is so diminished from what it was a mere 50 years ago. Whereas we once lived in the culture that was familiar with Bible stories and was aware of the presence of God in our midst, today that is no longer true. People are ignorant of the Bible, and they don’t have an awareness of the transcendent presence of God. The great irony in all of this is that we feel this anxiety despite the great technological advances we have made in the last 50 years. On the one hand, we think our technology gives us greater control over the world around us, yet we feel less secure than ever. Today’s Gospel lesson underscores the ultimate answer to anxiety. The power and presence of Jesus Christ. As St. Mark continues his account of Jesus in his Gospel, we see that right after Jesus feeds the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes, that He orders them to get back into the boat again and go to Bethsaida on the other side of the lake. Once there, the disciples would finally get their opportunity for prayer and rest. In the meantime, Jesus goes off by Himself to have His own time of prayer and refreshment with the Father. Mark shows us a familiar pattern with Jesus: Before and after times of ministry, Jesus is spending time in prayer with the Father. While Jesus is off by Himself praying, the disciples are in the boat trying to get to Bethsaida. But the wind comes up and begins to greatly hinder their progress. Mark tells us that Jesus sees them out on the lake having difficulty. But Jesus waits until the fourth watch of the night (between 3am and 6am) to go out on to the lake towards them. When Jesus reaches the place where the disciples were, the text tells us that Jesus was walking on the water, and that He meant to pass by them. Now, Jesus walking on the water is amazing and supernatural, yet another sign to us of His identity as Messiah and Lord. But what is Mark talking about when he writes that Jesus “meant to pass by them?” Jesus doesn’t intend for the disciples to not see Him. He gets close enough so that they can see Him. Jesus wants to “pass by” the disciples in the boat, so that they can see Him and be encouraged and strengthened by His presence, and underscore the truth that Jesus truly is God. Jesus’ desire to “pass by” the disciples take us back to the encounter Moses has with God on Mt. Sinai, when God passes by Moses, so that Moses will get a glimpse of God’s glory and be encouraged and strengthened by His presence. But that doesn’t happen, because when the disciples see Jesus out on the water, they aren’t strengthened and encouraged, but they are terrified, thinking that Jesus is a ghost or evil spirit out on the water. They cry out in fear. Jesus responds with love and compassion to the disciples’ cries of fear, saying to them, “Take heart; it is I. Don’t be afraid.” And He gets into the boat with them, and the wind ceases. Jesus’ presence and power serve to bring peace and calm to a very terrifying and stressful situation. There is a clear lesson here for all of us. Whatever situation you find yourself in, invite Jesus to come and be with you in that situation. Don’t try to handle it by yourself. Remember that Jesus loves you and wants to bring His power and presence into the storm of your life. Where there is confusion, fear, and anger, Jesus brings His understanding, comfort, and peace. I want to suggest to you that if you want to find relief from your anxiety, there are spiritual exercises that you can do, things that will help you stay spiritually healthy amid this age of anxiety we live in. In that vein, I would like to recommend two books written by John Eldredge. Eldredge is an evangelical, but he understands the concept of a spiritual rule of life, or daily spiritual practices that can help you stay spiritually healthy. The two books are Get Your Life Back and Resilient. The first was written during the pandemic, and he wrote it to help people cope with the fear and the social isolation that were a consequence of the lockdowns. The second book was written as a follow up to the first, to elaborate more fully on the exercises he established in the first book. John Eldredge recommends that we adopt the following practices in order to stay spiritually and emotionally healthy when dealing with stressful times and situations, to help us keep our peace even during tough times. First, he recommends daily times of prayer. This prayer includes the practice of offering back to Jesus all the people and situations that are on our minds and hearts. “Lord Jesus, I give everyone and everything to you.” This also includes prayers of faith and adoration of God. “Lord Jesus, I love you, I believe in You, I worship You.” Second, he recommends that we spend less time in front of screens and more time outdoors. Instead of looking at your smartphone immediately when you wake up, spend time in prayer first. Instead of watching screens until you go to bed, turn off the screens an hour before bedtime. Take walks and have conversations with friends. Read books. These practices can help keep anxiety from overwhelming us and driving us to unhealthy behaviors. “And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but hearts were hardened.” One familiar theme we see in the Gospels is that Jesus’ disciples, despite being with Jesus and witnessing His miracles, had a difficult time accepting that He was the Son of God. Despite the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, despite Jesus walking on the water and calming the storm, the disciples still struggled to believe. We have the same struggle. We believe in Jesus, but when the crisis comes, when anxiety hits, we falter. We fall into fear. We turn to other ways of dealing with our anxiety: food, alcohol, and busyness. We refuse to give our problems and our fears to Jesus. When we find ourselves falling into this trap, the best thing to do in that moment is stop and remember that Jesus is with us. “Take heart; it is I. Don’t be afraid.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Last week we read about how Jesus sent the Twelve on their first mission without Him being with them. We examined how Jesus gave them instructions for their work that serve as principles for us today as we go out in Jesus’ name to carry out the Great Commission. In today’s passage from St. Mark, he picks up the story where we left off last week. And what we see is Jesus being the Good Shepherd of the sheep, who cares for His people, and we can also find more wisdom and guidance for living the Christian life in today’s world. St. Mark tells us that the Twelve return from their mission trip. They report back to Jesus all that they saw and did on their mission. After hearing their report, the first thing Jesus invites them to do is go find a quiet place to rest. Mark tells us that the disciples are with Jesus in a busy place, as “many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” As you know, life, especially ministry, is exhausting. Often it seems that there is no time even to take a break. Nevertheless, time to rest and refresh is essential. Time away from the hustle and bustle is essential. Jesus, because He knows and understands the needs of His disciples, invites them to go away and rest for a while. Jesus’s invitation underscores a basic need that we all have in our spiritual lives. There is a time to work, to minister. And then there is a time to rest and pray. If you don’t do both, then your Christian life and your ministry will not bear fruit. Work without prayer and rest will lead to burnout and a lack of impact for the Kingdom of God. Prayer and rest are important, but they are meant to serve as fuel to empower and strengthen us and we go out in Jesus’ name to do the work and the ministry He has called us to do. One of the great things about our Anglican tradition is that it incorporates the balance that is to be characteristic of the Christian life. Drawn from the tradition of Benedictine spirituality, it encourages a daily balance in life of work, study, and prayer. The focus is on a balanced life, not falling into the extremes of too much work or too much asceticism. Unfortunately, when Jesus and the disciples had gotten in a boat and gone over to the other side of the lake to rest and pray, the crowd noticed what they were doing, and they all followed Jesus and the disciples and found where they were staying. But when Jesus sees the crowd, He calls off the rest time. St. Mark tells us that Jesus’ first concern was for the crowd: “He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” As the Good Shepherd, Jesus sees their need, and He moves to respond. Jesus understood that sheep without a shepherd are vulnerable and need help. Lost sheep need guidance because they get lost easily. Lost sheep cannot feed themselves and need to be led to pasture. And lost sheep are vulnerable to outside attacks and need protection. What is also noteworthy is the reaction of the disciples. They were tired from their ministry work and looking forward to some down time. But (like Jesus) their rest time is interrupted by the crowd. Whereas Jesus has compassion on them and wanted to help, the disciples were cranky and put out. They tell Jesus, “Send them away to go into the surrounding villages and buy themselves something to eat.” Whenever we are faced with someone in need, we have two responses: one, we can put the responsibility for meeting that person’s need on to someone else, second, we can respond to that need ourselves. Here Jesus prods the disciples to do the latter. He says to them, “You give them something to eat.” And their response is to tell Jesus, whatever we’ve got, its not enough. This is a very natural and human reaction to all the need and suffering in the world, to the demands of ministry. We say to God, “Lord, I’m not the one to do this. I don’t have what it takes. I don’t have the skill. I don’t have the resources. And here is another great response from Jesus. He doesn’t chide them for their unbelief, He simply asks them, “what do you have?” They tell Him: “Five loaves and two fishes.” It’s a ridiculous notion that they could feed five thousand people with so little. The disciples’ feelings of inadequacy are very appropriate, given the circumstances. From a worldly perspective that is. But Jesus is here, and He takes charge of the situation. Jesus feeds the five thousand from five small loaves of bread and two fishes. There is so much left over that 12 baskets are filled. As we reflect on these events described by St. Mark, we can come to three conclusions: First, Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He cares for us and will take care of us and give us what we need. Second, balance in the spiritual life is essential. We need time to rest and pray and time to work. Each one balances out the other. After we work, we need to rest and pray and that then leads us out to do more work. Third, it’s normal that we feel inadequate to the things that Jesus calls us to do. The proper response to those feelings of inadequacy is not to throw up our hands and walk away, but to ask God for what we need and to trust Him to provide it. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. “And [Jesus] called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In today’s Gospel lesson from St. Mark, we Jesus sending His apostles out for the first time on their own: He gives them specific instructions on what to do and not do, what to take and what to leave behind. This is a preview of the Great Commission that Jesus Christ has given to the Church: to go out into the world with Jesus’ power and authority, and proclaiming the Gospel, healing the sick, and casting out evil spirits. What we see here in Jesus’ instructions to His apostles is not a detailed blueprint for the Church as it does ministry, but an outline of principles that we are to keep in mind as we work to carry out Jesus’s Great Commission. First, Jesus sends them out two by two. Jesus takes the twelve and splits them up into smaller groups. This allows the twelve to cover more ground and minister to more people. Although Jesus is Lord and God, during His earthly ministry He is limited by time and space. He can only go where His two feet can take Him. But through the ministry of His Church, Jesus’ ministry is multiplied. He can go wherever His followers go, and the more followers He gets, the more He can spread the message and the ministry. But note that Jesus does not send the disciples out individually. He sends them out in pairs. In this way, Jesus demonstrates that none of us as His followers operate on our own. We are part of a community. We do ministry alongside others. We support and encourage one another. Jesus underscores here that our ministry is not our own individually, but it is the Church’s ministry, done under the authority and commissioning of Jesus Himself. Second, Jesus gives them authority over unclean spirits. One of the things we constantly see Jesus doing in the Gospels is performing signs to accompany His message. The signs remind us of Jesus’ power and authority as the Son of God, and they serve as a visible reminder that the work of evangelism, the work of ministry, is not principally intellectual, but spiritual. Furthermore, by giving the disciples authority over unclean spirits, He is showing the disciples that they are to act in the name and power of Jesus Christ Himself. They are not simply random people trying to copy Jesus’ ministry. They are ambassadors, acting in Jesus’ name and with His authority. Third, Jesus charges the apostles to travel light, and accept the hospitality of those to whom they minister. Here Jesus emphasizes that it is God who provides for the ministry. They are to take only what they need immediately and rely on God to provide for the rest. Here, Jesus is underscoring the need to get on with the ministry, and not get bogged down in logistics. Do what you need to do to get launched, and then let God fill in the rest. And by accepting hospitality, Jesus is telling the disciples that a key part of ministry is relationship—building relationships with those to whom you minister. It is also an encouragement by Jesus that God will use the people to whom you minister to help provide for your needs as you work in Jesus’ name. Fourth, Jesus admonishes the apostles, “And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” Here, Jesus is instructing the apostles to remember that since they are going out in the name and the power of Jesus Christ to proclaim Christ’s message, then they don’t need to fret when the message is not received. Rather than feel rejected, that they have somehow done it wrong, they are to remember that the responsibility for rejecting the Gospel is on those who reject it. They are not to water down or alter the message simply because people reject it. Remember that ministry is spiritual and supernatural, not intellectual. If there is resistance to the message, it may be that this is not the place nor the people to whom the message and the ministry is to be given. It might be a sign that it is time to move on. That’s what St. Paul did on his missionary journeys. Wherever the message was rejected, he would move on to a different place and people. On the other hand, it may mean simply that more prayer and fasting needs to take place before the message and the ministry will be received. Only spiritual discernment can tell one way or the other. One of the greatest errors that the modern Church in the West has made over the past 60 years is to think that if the world is rejecting its message, then the message is wrong and must be changed or watered down. The result has been that the Church has abdicated the power and authority that Jesus has given it. Rather than please God by proclaiming the message with power and clarity, the Church has tried to pander to the sensibilities of the modern world and has abandoned the message. One of the most encouraging things I am seeing from younger people is the desire for a Christian faith and message that is not watered down, but pure and powerful. If the Church is to recover its confidence both in its ministry and its message, then we must remember the words of St. Paul in his letter to the church in Ephesus. In his magnificent introduction Paul reminds us of the great spiritual blessings we have in Christ: God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, in love He has predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, and are the recipients of God’s lavish grace. St. Paul reminds us that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God. We need not be ashamed of anything; not our past, because it has been healed and forgiven through Jesus Christ, nor of the message, for it comes from God Himself and is the source of life and truth for all who believe. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. |
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