Work [Proper 11B]

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 

Work

The disciples have just returned from their mission.  Jesus sent out the Twelve in twos.  Six pairs on the road, casting out demons, anointing the sick, and crashing on couches.  Six couples, pounding the pavement in 1st century sandals, carrying with them nothing but walking sticks and the good news.   

It was work.  It wasn't a hobby or something they did on Sundays.  It was important and it was demanding.  It was the reason they gave up the fishing nets and left their families.  They were out and about the work of Jesus.  They were saying Jesus things, doing Jesus things.  Where we join Mark's Gospel today, the disciples mission is now complete and, boy, are they tired.  And Jesus can just see it all over their faces – unless he's just one of those guys who always tells everyone they look tired; you know the ones.  The disciples need a break, a rest, a deserted place.  They need to be refreshed.  They need to be renewed. 

Our Gospel text is explicit concerning their need, but never really follows up.  If they get a rest, it is an abbreviated one.  They don't take a vacation.  They don't go on leave.  They don't summer on the coast.  They do take a boat ride, but only because that is their preferred mode of transportation.  It's not a party cruise; they are not laying out on a pontoon boat.  When they hit the shore, the crowds are there waiting and wanting.

Like with any good work worth doing, the disciples return from their mission exhausted and energized by their work.  It's hard work but also they are changing the world.  They are spent but have good stories to share with Jesus.  So they return to him.  They gather around him.  They get in close.  The Jesus who sent them out, now gathers them back in.  At least for a moment.

But in that moment of exhaustion, it must have felt like a drop in the ocean, all of their work.  The demons cast out, the healings they witnessed, the sermons they preached: like a drop in the ocean.  Before them a sea of people stretched into eternity – longing to be healed, longing to be set free, longing to hear some good news.  There was no end to the need.  This would be their life.  When they said “yes” to Jesus, they said “yes” to these crowds, to this needy humanity.

Town after town, village after village, city after city: people were desperate.  And they were lost.  And they were beat down by life.  The need was so complete.  The followers of Jesus would never run out of work.  The ministers of the Gospel would always be tired.

And the crowds, they were tired too.  Jesus could see that.  He could see it in their faces.  It was in the faces of the hungry.  It was in the faces of the poor.  It was in the faces of the diseased.  It was in the faces of the desperate.  Wearied sheep looking for someone to care for them. 

They came to gather around Jesus.  They came to get close, close enough to be made new.  Like earnest evangelists, they carried dying bodies on mats – to lay them at the feet of Jesus.  Because they heard there was a chance – a chance their love could be rewarded and they might, at long last, see the brokenness they carried be restored, be renewed. 

They mobbed the marketplaces – that place where items were bought and items were sold.  Where politics were debated, where voters voted, where legal matters were heard.  Only they came this time not as consumers.  They came as beggars.  They came to fall at Jesus' feet.  They came to be brushed by the fringe of his cloak.  They came to touch the hem of God's robe. 

They came in need.  Every person in today's Gospel was in need of something from Jesus – in need of rest or in need of renewal or in need of healing or in need of a shepherd.  They were in need because they were human.  The need is there.  Always.  The followers of Jesus will never run out of work.

The disciples were sent out to proclaim the Good News of Jesus, in word and deed.  And they did.  They did because Jesus sent them.  They did because that is exactly what people need – they need Jesus. 

Jesus sends us out to do the same work.  We are sent out of this place in the name of Christ.  To do Jesus things; to say Jesus things.  “Send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.”  We pray that so we can do that.  We are fed the Bread of Heaven; we drink from the Cup of Salvation so we can do that, so we can go, so we can love, so we can serve.  This food and drink, the Body and Blood of Christ, gives us the energy and strength to do our work.

And then after a week in the world, we come back here.  To gather around Jesus again.  To eat and drink again.  To be sent out again.  We are breathed in and breathed out.  We come in tired on Sunday.  But we find renewal in this community, around the Word and the Table.  And then we go out to give ourselves away again.

The work is never done because the need is always great.  It was then; it still is.  It is hard work; love is hard work.  But it is that good kind of work – the kind that is exhausting but equally energizing.  It is Jesus' work.  It is the hard work of changing the world.  When we said “yes” to Jesus, we said “yes” to this work; we said “yes” to all the people Jesus loves: the hungry, and the poor, and the desperate, and the beat-down.  Jesus' people are our people.  Jesus' mission is our mission.  He gave his life to this work – to meet our greatest, deepest need. 

You leave here today in the name of Christ.  You leave here today to do Jesus' work – to say Jesus things and do Jesus things, to love with all your heart and to serve with all your strength.  To wear yourself out in Jesus' name.  You are fed here today for a reason. 

Where is the need?  Look at the people; look at the crowds; look at your city; look at your neighborhood.  Where is the need?  Jesus is going to send you out of this place today.  Jesus is going to send you out of here and into a needy world.  Because you have the Good News – Good News to share with a world that needs to hear it and see it.  So grab your walking stick.  We've got work to do.