MK 6: 30-34 & 53-56 

Marginally Mark…Pentecost +9…Revised 2018 

There are at least three thrusts in today’s passage. All of them Gospel to take on board. Personally, in our Christian community, &, in the wider community in which we’re embedded.

The first thrust I see is that we all need time apart. Not just for personal leisure or respite; for God. We need to let God make ‘God-Space’ in us for God-self & for ourselves. And, we are called to help others let God make God-Space in themselves, too. God-Space is space in which God can centre in us, & we can centre on God & in God. At the opposite end of the scale, workaholism isn’t a saintly quality anymore than it’s a gift of the Spirit! 

Secondly, there will be times, as Jesus & His disciples find in today’s passage, when genuine urgency needs to usurp even our God-Space. Genuine urgency takes priority, at least temporarily, over even our personal need for God-Space; as well as & any other needs we’re experiencing. How are we to discern when urgent really means urgent? Not only for us, but for that other person too?

Thirdly, the ‘hinge’ that opens our God-Space up to human need is that compassion Jesus shows when He ‘switches off’ His own needs, including His personal need for God-Space. Yes, He does have that need! Or He wouldn’t be fully human, would He? If meeting the urgent & pressing needs of others takes precedence even in Jesus’ eyes, here is an object lesson for us. A lesson in avoiding the old accusation of ‘being so heavenly-minded we’re no earthly use’! 

I can’t remember the source of this old story from long ago that seems appropriate here, but it runs like this: ‘One day God decides He wants to know what people all over the world think of Him. So God says to everyone,  “I know you call me by & worship me by many different names, but I want you each to tell me how you think of me in just one word!” One says, ‘Light’, another ‘Warmth’ & so on…’Power, Peace, Law, Joy, Judgment, Wisdom…’ The one who says Light feels a brightness, Peace feels peaceful, Judgment feels judgmental. . Until at last someone says ‘Compassion’, & God begins to weep! 

If people were to use just one word to describe us, what might that word be? It’s a question worth taking our time in discerning. Would it be ‘Compassion’? How much of God’s own 'wholeness' are people receiving at our compassionate, ministering hands? How much are we ourselves ministered to by the hands of others? 'Hands' being those of the Body of the Christ who has no hands but ours. Or, are we so busy responding to demands we have no hands to spare for the real need, wherever it lies? If so, is that God we can still hear weeping? For another reason this time?

Brian