Mark 6:30-44
"The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 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. When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?” And he said to them, “How many loaves have you? Go and see.” When they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled; and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men."
The Mark Chapter 6 story is known as Mark’s version of “The Feeding of the 5,000.” In this type of story, the preacher focuses on the loaves and the fishes, and even your food pantry is called Loaves and Fishes, right? Yeah. Also, the disciples often gain the preacher's attention in this particular passage of scripture. Jesus sees the crowd and has compassion and he notices they are hungry to learn more, so he stops his journey and spends time with them. And then dinner and evening time comes and the hospitality of food is a critical cultural norm and the disciples know that. But the disciples want to send them away instead of providing food for them. And this is where the preacher would scold the disciples for their behavior and for their lack of compassion, because Jesus had compassion, so why don't the disciples have compassion? They're like fobbing off their responsibility and ignoring the protocol of hospitality. You might say they were callous and behaving badly. But I want to defend the disciples a bit. Perhaps their response was reasonable given the circumstances.
In the stories before this passage, which we didn't read, the disciples had been sent out in pairs. You know this is the story of the sending of the seventy. They're sent out in pairs all over the region where they cast out demons. They anointed the sick, they cured the ill, they were told to travel lightly; not to bring extra bags or, you know, sandals and so forth. And then they were to shake off the dust if they were not welcome. You kind of remember that story, right?
So that happens just before this. And also just before this story, at the beginning of the story we hear that they've just returned from their travel. And we don't know how long they have been away-- probably several weeks or more--and they were excitedly telling Jesus about their adventures and about the lives being transformed and the people being cured. So this happens just before this story. Also though, just before the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus and the disciples received word that John the Baptist had been killed. Many of the disciples of Jesus’ disciples, had been disciples of John the Baptist and he was Jesus’ cousin.
So we start the story with disciples who are very excited about the adventures they just had, but they were tired and they were exhausted. They were in grief and maybe even traumatized by John's death. It was a gruesome death! And even Jesus says to them after they tell their stories, after they reported all their adventures, He says to them come away to a deserted place and rest for a while. They were tired. Mark even notes in the story that so much was happening at the moment that they didn't even have time to eat. So Jesus is taking them to a quiet place to rest.
But they didn't get to their deserted place of rest and quiet. The crowds follow them and they're waiting for them when their boat arrives. So let's not get too hasty and scold the disciples not wanting to do one more thing. When people are tired, when they're exhausted, when they're depleted, they tend to be a little grumpy. They tend to be a little impatient or rude and overall behave badly.
Several weeks ago, when I was writing this sermon, I titled the sermon “Pandemic Enervation.” Now enervation is not a word I've ever used before. I didn't even know the word existed, but I found it while I was scrolling through a thesaurus for a word that means “more than exhausted”. Enervate and innervation means more than just simple fatigue. It is the fatigue that engulfs your mental, your physical, your spiritual and your emotional self. So after 18 months of pandemic, of lockdown and now Delta variant, we can say at some point we have experienced pandemic enervation. And I see a whole lot of heads going, “Yep, that's right.” I know I've experienced that all-encompassing exhaustion at times. So, when people are tired or fatigued or exhausted or anxious or traumatized or grieved, they can behave in ways that we consider bad or rude or inappropriate or in ways that are just out of character. Many of us have experienced someone behaving in a way that's out of character. We're like “they've never done that before”. So, let's not go too harsh on the disciples when they wanted to send the people away and not follow the cultural protocols of hospitality.
But Jesus did not scold them for their rude behavior. Instead, He asked them a question. “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” He knew they were tired and He just had compassion on the crowds that came wandering many miles probably to find them. He had compassion on the disciples. So instead of scolding or being critical, Jesus reframed the problem. Instead of arguing or focusing on the disciples’ suggestion of sending the crowds away, He asked a question. “What do we have right now?” “Let’s look at the problem from a different angle, from a different view. Look at the problem with what you presently have to address it.” He asked them to look at the problem with what they have and not from the view of what they don't have.
Now this may have baffled them for a bit. There were just a few loaves and some fishes and they knew that wasn't going to feed a crowd. But sometimes miracles or amazing things happen when we approach our work from the attitude of, or the view of, abundance; that we have an abundance not a scarcity.
Like the disciples, we are tired. We are exhausted at times. We all want this pandemic to be over and gone. And just as John (Crozier) and I were talking before, we had plans--these great plans--for an in-person Presbytery meeting in September, and now we have to adapt. The pandemic is not over. The daily positivity rate in New Jersey has doubled or maybe even tripled. I haven't checked the numbers in the last couple of days. We know in the South it has just gone crazy. In just over a month, the daily number of positive cases has gone from just under 200 to over 1600 yesterday. California has gone back to inside mask mandates. States and corporations are now mandating vaccinations for particular employees. Hospitals in Texas, Florida, Mississippi, and Arkansas are being overrun once again. One hospital has gone to using the parking garage, because they have run out of space. The pandemic is not over, as much as we want to believe, or desire it to be. So we will not be going back to normal or even where we were in March of 2020, when we emerge… and we will. I'm positive, hopeful we will emerge from the pandemic season. We will emerge in a different place than where we went in.
Now this could be distressing or exhausting, or we can listen to Jesus. What do we have? What can we be doing now for God's ministry? What is God calling us to do in this time and place? What can we be doing that furthers the kingdom of God, but does not put people and especially our children at risk? We have a choice to look at our place in the pandemic and lament what we don't have or what we can't do. Or we can look at what we have that will move God's ministry forward.
I know you know that there are people still struggling. People who are anxious, people who are grieving, who still need to know of the love of Jesus Christ. So when you find yourselves lamenting and resisting or desiring to go back, reframe the question to look at what we have and what will that do for ministry. What do we have in this pandemic time? Congregations have the faith community to support each other and the surrounding community. We have the community. There are some of you here. There are some of you on Zoom. Some of you will be watching later on YouTube. We have a community.
There's a larger community called the Presbytery. We have a community. Every congregation I've worked with has people who are going above and beyond to provide worship during the pandemic, to make sure that people don't go hungry, to support those who are grieving and are sick and are lonely. Churches are finding creative ways to continue faith formation for youth and adults. We have people who are connecting to the
culture and its issues in new and creative ways. The pandemic season has opened more doors than those that have been closed.
We only think of the few closed doors, but what are the doors that have been opened. The direction of the Church has shifted. We never thought it would shift this fast, but it did. We are still not sure what direction the shift is taking or where it will go, but what we do know is, we have what we need to do amazing things for the kingdom of God.
And last in this pandemic season, when we know exhaustion in a new way, be kind to each other. These are difficult times. We're all tired. Tempers are irritated. We push against change. We can be critical and hard on each other and I just want you to know (I'll confess), I lean towards snarky when I'm tired. I've been more snarky than I ever thought I ever would be. So be gentle with your tech people who are trying to get this online for you and the people who have set up the Sanctuary. Be gentle with your worship leaders and your church staff and your volunteers and especially your pastor. Pastors are exhausted! They are trying to be able to make worship, faith formation, mission, pastoral care accessible to all people.
We will come through this. The Church is resilient. The Church has been here for over two thousand years. We will sing loudly together again. We will hug. We will sit close together. The blue tape will disappear. It will happen. Now we will live in the moment and embrace the opportunities that God has given us to do in ministry and we will continue to be the Church, for God's love is steadfast. Amen.