Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

Today's Link
Hit the Back Button to Move Forward

Today's Saying
Mark 6:34When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Today's Picture

In the liturgical churches we have reached the seventh Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel is Mark 6:30-34; 53-56
The story begins with Jesus and his disciples tired and so busy they have no time to eat. Finally Jesus says to them let us go to solitary place. Let us rest. Let us gain strength. And they got into the boat and headed toward a quiet place.
All human beings need a time to refresh . That why we have vacations and days off from work. We get a chance to renew ourselves. The Christian sometimes goes on a Retreat to allow God to be part of that making new.
The only problem for Jesus is that it is a clear day and the people can see the boat way out on the lake. They figure out where he is going. Thus when he arrives there is a crowd waiting to meet him.
This is where the difference between Jesus and most of us becomes apparent.
I would have looked at the crowd and in disgust told the disciples to sail on. Perhaps, since the lake was quiet even just sat in the boat out on the lake and rested. If I had gotten out of the boat I would have told the people to go away. Come back tomorrow.
But Jesus has compassion for them. He sees their needs and feels their pain.
So he sets about healing them.
You can’t blame the people. They don’t have Doctors or hospitals like we do today. It was Jesus or nothing. So they carried, dragged , or rode their loved ones to him.
And over and over and over he healed them.
Then they would tell people who would go to neighboring towns and tell people and so wherever Jesus went mobs of sick people met him.
And he healed them over and ver and over.
There was no rest.
But this was not the mission of Jesus. He was not sent to heal. He was sent to announce a breaking in of the Kingdom of God. He was sent to tell people things were about to change.
But his love for people kept getting in the way.
And yet those actions were also proclamation.
They prepared the way for the coming kingdom.
People who had been healed were ready to believe he had risen from the dead.
They were ready to believe in a new covenant based on grace instead of law.
They were ready to sing Jesus loves me.
They could because he had.
I can because he does.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal
Over at Last Lutheran Pastor Joan is getting ready to preach. Here is part of her sermon:
In the last month we had a lot of problems here in Pigeon Falls. We saw strange creatures that came out of the trench behind the Town Hall. We had no idea of what they might do. Them some came that seemed to be carrying weapons and we really got frightened.
At the point some words from today’s gospel came back to me .” They were like sheep without a shepherd”.
So we went looking for a shepherd.
People stopped in to Nancy’s looking for direction and information. Some stopped and talked to Eino who is very shepherd like. Other looked for Tommy UK who was missing for a bit. There were even those who came to Herman here at Last Lutheran.
What Herman told them was that the Good Shepherd was always there for them. God never forsakes us. He called on them to trust no matter what.
Well the crisis is over.
But we still need the Shepherd .
We still need to learn to trust Jesus.
We do!

Wrap UP

It was a good day today. My oxygen was up. I got to Church. The sermon was great. WE had a service of sending for our youth who are going to a big conference in New Orleans. I reworked the church website. I visited all the blogs that left comments yesterday. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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