Proper 13 (A) Time to Care
Proper 13 (A) Time to Care
As I write this sermon I am comfortably seated in our daughter and son-in-law’s back yard in Seattle. That is Martha, a school teacher, and Brian, a Boeing engineer. I can see, at about a mile distance, the traffic on I-5, and overhead the regular flight pattern of airplanes of every description either approaching or taking off from Boeing Field or SeaTac airports. I was even treated to the Navy’s Blue Angels practicing tight formation runs over Lake Washington in preparation for Seafair. They do indeed make an exciting “mighty roar.” I hope I have given you a picture you can envision of Martha and Brian’s backyard—a tiny slice of the world’s passing parade, all moving about as fast as the law allows.
To me one of life’s “amazements” is that just now, as I look at the traffic on I-5, there seems to be as many cars and trucks speeding North as there are cars and truck speeding South. All, no doubt, headed for some specific destination. You see, no matter how far or fast we travel to whatever destination, it’s the anticipated welcome that we may receive when we arrive that energizes and comforts us along the way.
One of life’s persistent anxieties is the question of whether or not anyone will miss us while we’re gone, care for us along the way (if we get lost or are in trouble), and will anyone have time for us when we get there.
Outside of this church, in our parking lot, the sign we have posted says, “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.” Let’s hope that no one, member of this church or passerby, will ever take our sign as a joke.
In today’s Gospel some of our Lord’s followers must have seen Him heading out in a boat for an isolated spot on the lake’s opposite shore. They loved Jesus; they loved His teaching, His healing, and His miracles. Thinking only of their own needs (and totally unconscious to the possibility that Jesus might from time-to-time need some rest and relaxation) they head out to walk around the lake to meet Jesus on the other side…picking up a huge crowd along the way.
Five-thousand (5,000) men…not to mention the women and children who added to that number. In New Testament times, women and children were not counted. The fact that women do count as equals in more and more Christian denominations is evidence to me that the Holy Spirit is still at work leading us to God’s truth.
We can say, based on the Gospel story, that the large crowd that was about to interrupt Jesus’s “get away” time numbered about 5,000. Certainly, one of the lessons we can glean from today’s Gospel comes from observing how Jesus took time to care for the very crowd He was trying to escape.
Books on the market today like, “The One Minute Manager,” offer techniques on how to brush off people who interrupt your schedule. One example that I remember works like this: if someone enters your office, that you do not want to see, you get up from your desk and meet them halfway across the room. This move is signaling them that you are about to leave your office and won’t have time to see them right now.
The point, of course, that the book is trying to make, has to do with the efficient use of time. In order to make his point, the author is not concerned about the drop-in visitor had what they had on their mind. The author is not concerned about what happens in the mind of the person who is seeking you out—how difficult may it be for them the next time they want to initiate a visit with you…or even consider if they would want to broach a subject with you again, at the risk of another brush off.
We all realize that living life in today’s world requires, and at times demands, that we plan our time and accomplish the tasks before us on schedule. For the preacher there is the Sunday Sermon. For the student there is the term paper. For the taxpayer there is April 15th. However, I have always been impressed by Our Lord’s ability and willingness to meet the opportunity of the moment, even when He obviously had something else on His mind.
I’m thinking of the woman with the issue of blood who intercepted Jesus while He was on His way to minister to a sick child. His spontaneous encounter with Zacchaeus, His response to stay for dinner with His disciples on the road to Emmaus. And in today’s Gospel, how he met the moment when His strategy for retreat was upset by a crowd of followers who apparently couldn’t get enough of Him. I wonder if some of us would have been tempted to get back into our boat and spend the day in the middle of the lake?
Instead, we read that He healed them, no doubt listening to their symptoms and caring about their good health.
Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
It was a wonderful day. People were healed and spiritually fed by the loving touch of the Master.
When the day was nearing its close, there was concern about food for this crowd. It was one of the disciples that asked, “How are we going to buy enough bread; why it would take eight months wages to get enough to feed everyone!”
When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Our Lord said something that I believe He would say to each of us. He said, “You feed them.” You have listened, you show compassion, you feed them. Then, as if to demonstrate God’s Yes to that direction, there was given manna from heaven, in abundance, to provide strength for our mission.
I believe anyone can listen and care. I believe anyone is capable of showing compassion, but I don’t know where we would find the strength to continue as one of God’s healing agents unless we were being sustained by the “daily bread” of God’s love.
There is a time for caring and there is a time that we need care. God’s care…God’s welcome. Jesus said, “If you love me, feed my sheep.” But then He reminded them, and us, as He instituted the Holy Eucharist, to remember. Remember the love that Jesus showed you, and remember to put yourselves in the presence of that love.
How well the Episcopal Church welcomes anyone depends a great deal on how well we remember that God welcomes us. “Come unto me all you who travail and are heavy laden and I will refresh you.”
Remember…then, feed my sheep.
Resources for further study:
Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 17: 1-7, 16
or
Isaiah 55:1-5
Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-22
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
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