A sermon preached by: E. Scott Winnette, July 19, 2009
Blackberry Disciples
Mark 6:30-34; 53-56

 At least there were two helping feed them.   I watched the frenetic activity all day long. They hunted and gathered and gathered and fed and fed. They fed the children all day long. I was amazed with their energy and cooperation.   At least there were two of them gathering and feeding. One could not have done it alone.   Two weeks ago we were guided by the text of Jesus sending the disciples to restore health and peace as God’s ambassadors.   Jesus did not send them out to the ministries of healing alone; he sent them in pairs.  

Our periscope today continues the story. It is like the two pieces of bread that flank a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  We only get the bread today – Jesus sending the disciples on retreat (one piece) and Jesus being met on the coast by the hopeful ill (the other piece). The peanut butter and jelly are for other days. The peanut butter is the story of how Jesus fed the 5000+ people who had gathered to hear his teaching. The disciples brought to Jesus’ attention the hunger of the crowd. You recall the story. Jesus told the disciples to feed them. They balked. Notice that Jesus told the disciples to feed the people first. They didn’t believe they could.   So he showed them what to do, he performed the miracle of loaves and fish.  You will be blessed with more on this as Marty Albershardt preaches next week.    The jelly is a story about how Jesus calms a storm.  Jesus sent the disciples across the water to Bethsaida while he retreated to pray.    Again we have Jesus sending them off. I believe he was very intentionally de-segregating God’s compassionate power and authority by separating himself from the disciples and sending them off again to be ministers of health and justice.   They were encumbered by great winds that slowed their travel to a floating crawl. And Jesus walked across the water, frightened the bajeebies out of them, and calmed the waters. 

Sojourners is a progressive Christian magazine edited by Jim Wallis the author of God’s Politics. It focuses on our Christian responsibility to change the societies of the world pursuing justice. Its June 19 article, “What Sustains Me” shares the disciplines that nurture 17 Christian social activists.[1]   Christ has called us all to be social activists of one sort or another and unfortunately we can too easily succumb to weary despair and apathy as we are confronted by the mind-boggling needs of the world.   So we all need disciplines that invite God’s wisdom, God’s perspective, God’s patience and God’s power into our lives. Political activist, Angela Glover Blackwell, looks for the goodness in others to keep her grounded. Professor of social transformation, Vincent Harding, seeks out quiet whenever he can and practices being grateful. He writes, “I spend a lot of time saying thank you, because my life has been so rich and I know that the richness has been a gift, most often a divine gift through very human beings.” 

Back to the sandwich, the bread starts with the disciples’ great excitement. They had been sent out in pairs and were reunited.   Imagine the buzz of all of the disciples surrounding Jesus talking over each other with, “Jesus you were right, we could do it. We helped them.” Their incredulity was pushed aside for they had performed miracles. “She was oppressed by fear and God worked through me to bring her peace.” “We shared your parable with the poor family and they were comforted.” “I could not believe it; but the blind man could see.” “She had never heard the Torah from your perspective Jesus.” Imagine their excitement sharing their stories of healing and teaching?  But they were good and tired too, you know that good, good tired of having spent all your energy, every bit of it on good labor.   They were tired and they needed God’s refreshment. Christian songwriter, Vicky Beeching writes, “It’s quite hard when you’re on the road a lot to keep that fire burning, but I think God’s made it very clear to me that unless I’m in that secret place with God, knowing God privately, what I do publically will not be worth anything. So for me it’s just a matter of making the time in my schedule.”

I watched the two parents gathering food all day.   From my balcony I could see the robins’ nest in my peach tree. The mom and dad gathered hundreds maybe thousands of worms, insects, and berries for their four freshly hatched chicks.   The little babes’ mouths were perpetually skyward, open, waiting for food. It was like the mom and dad had tiny Blackberries and the chicks just kept sending them text messages of hunger. It was a full-time job. What if they had ten chicks, twenty chicks, one hundred or 5000; any more than four would have been too many for the dedicated robins to feed.  The poor parents kept at it all day, gathering and feeding as a team.   All of a sudden they stopped; they stopped on two different branches and sat still. It seemed like ten minutes of stillness. The children kept up their hungry crying but the adult birds rested.   God must give robins an instinct for Sabbath.   Preacher and Professor Tony Campolo shared, “I try to start out each day by setting aside about 20 minutes for centering prayer. I empty my mind of the 101 things that are apt to start spinning in my head the moment I was up. Then, focusing on Jesus, I let him love me.”

The disciples went out in pairs and then came back with their great stories.   Behind them gathered the thankful people from all the villages who welcomed them. And with the thankful ones came their friends who were hungry for the healing from Jesus and now from the disciples. Jesus’ crowd was multiplied with the crowds of those who were touched by the disciples.   5000+ people gathered with their hope and hunger. Imagine the lively noise of 5000+ hungry robin chicks; now imagine the noise of 5000+ children of God gathered hungry for God’s compassionate word.   

It is easy for us to imagine. Those with a Blackberry can tap the satellite-fed news of the world 24/7/365. The rest of us can turn on the radio, or TV to hear the world’s perpetual hunger and need.   There are literally hungry people close to us on the streets of Bethesda, in DC and around the world.   People cry for lack of adequate health care.  Too many of our friends and family struggle to re-gain health. Did you see the photograph in the Post on Friday of the thousands who attended the federal job fair? People cry for jobs and meaningful work.   People cry for peace and with grief. Iraq totters towards more violence.   Fear stalks Pakistan and Palestine.   We worry about Metro safety. The NAACP continues with a desperate purpose.  The needs are endless and we need a strategy to handle them.   Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision shares, “One of the things I try to do with regularity is to just stick my face in the Bible and read it…The scriptures energize me and help me recommit to the work that I do on behalf of the poor.” 

When we meditate on Scripture our God teaches us what do to. The needs of the world are legion.   But praise God, Jesus cast out the multitude of demons named Legion that infested a man. Jesus showed his disciples how to do it. He brought a young girl to life and demanded she be fed. He showed the disciples how to do it. He showed them how to teach God’s compassion and mercy. He showed them how to teach God’s love and through loving to heal and bring peace. And they did it. They went out two by two leaving the Ark, leaving the nest with Jesus into the world to heal. And they did it.   That is Jesus’ plan – to create disciples who will heal others and create more disciples who make justice until the passing of the peace revolutionizes the world and diminishes its hunger.  God’s plan is to infect our world through partners and communities of courageous disciples of love. The plan is a corporate one, not an individual one. Jesus does not call us to be Blackberry disciples who deplete ourselves running or flying solo 24/7/365 to feed and heal every need.  We are called to be a community of healers. Mark Hanson, the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America wrote, “Because it’s so easy to get isolated in this role and take on the illusion that it all depends upon me, my spiritual practices are most renewing when they are done in community.”

Jesus, truly God, saw an exhausted group of disciples too harried by those who followed to even sit down to eat.   Jesus, truly God, pulled out the ten commandments with the great command to Sabbath and called for them to rest.   “Hop into your boats. I will take to you one of my private places of prayer and rest.”   Jesus valued rest; Jesus valued quiet places. He started his ministry with a silent retreat of 40 days in the desert. He regularly escaped and went to quiet mountain places.   The disciples had succeeded in miracles and Jesus let them in on his sustaining secret of balance. 

Jesus commands his disciples to rest yet the story ends with a twist. Compassion takes precedence over rest.   As they were making their way across the sea the hope-filled people saw them, guessed where they must be going and chased them around the coast.   They were waiting as they came ashore. Rather than become terse, Jesus allowed his compassion for them to trump the planned retreat. They would find another time.   This is Good News for us. While God respects rest, God prioritizes compassion.   Be ready to always advocate on behalf of God, always pray for peace, always work for justice and also always weave throughout the good works worshipful rest.  

I close with a great story of love.

One day an old man living on the street became very ill and was taken to the hospital. The doctors realized that he could not live very long. They tried to find the old man's name, but all the old man would say is, "Son! Son!" In looking through this clothing for identification, they could only find a news clipping about a marine stationed in Korea. The Red Cross located this marine and flew him back to the United States and this hospital.   As the young man walked into the hospital room, the old man smiled broadly and exclaimed, "Son!! Son!!!" For several hours the young man held the old man's hand until he died peacefully. After that the nurse said to the marine, "We need to know your father's full name."

The Marine replied, "He wasn't my father. I never saw the man before in my life." Amazed the nurse asked, "Then why did you stay?" The Marine answered simply, "Because he needed me."[2]

May it be so for you and for me. Amen.