Sermon: Tending to needs (July 19, 2015)

Pentecost 8B

July 19, 2015

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

            Do you remember back in Lent, when we learned about various aspects of simplicity? We talked about de-cluttering our homes, and finding space for rest and prayer, and eating cleaner, healthier food, and a whole assortment of practices, all with the effort of simplifying our lives and being able to focus more on our relationship with God.

           I don’t know about you, but the topics we talked about during that six-week series have stuck with me, as I have continued to make efforts to simplify my life. Though I have wandered in and out of various aspects of simplicity, a need I always have is simply to minimize the stuff all around me so that I can feel the sense of calm and peace that I crave. Because as long as I have stuff all around me, I find myself feeling anxious, inadequate, tired, busy, and cannot find the sense of sabbath and rest with God that I need.

            Today’s Gospel lesson has gotten me thinking about this all over again. I am always so taken by this encounter, each time it comes up in the lectionary: when Jesus tells – no, invites – his disciples to “come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.” To me, this invitation speaks to a deep need that I have, and a need that clearly the disciples have as well, and so what a

comfort to hear Jesus recognize it, and tend to it.

           But if I take a step back from that one, compelling line, I also see that this whole text is about Jesus tending to needs. He is a man who embodies compassion, and I think the way that compassion is made apparent to us here is in Jesus’ willingness and ability to see and understand the deepest needs around him, and to tend to those needs.

            That sort of compassion is something seriously lacking in our lives. And I think part of the reason for it is that we don’t very often take the time to notice the true needs around us, or even the deepest needs we have ourselves. We are good at seeing physical needs – this person is hungry, that person needs a coat, I need sleep – but we’re not so good at taking the time to understand someone’s deepest heart’s desire, or even recognizing and admitting our own deepest desire. In fact, one of our default ways to deal with some feeling of lack in our lives is not to pray or learn or reflect or have a conversation, but rather to throw money or stuff at it. I’m sad, so I will buy myself a new toy. I’m scared, so I will buy a new outfit that makes me feel confident. I’m hurting, so I will pour myself a drink and numb my pain. But facing our true needs requires facing our emotions, and emotions can be so very complicated and make us feel so vulnerable and even inadequate. It is easier just to cover up the need with something else that may help in the short term, but never really addresses the need we have, the need we might not even know we have because we haven’t taken the time to consider it before putting a band-aid on it, or just dismissing it as not all that important.

            But Jesus – Jesus sees the needs of those around him, and tends to them. Jesus is compassionate. Jesus shows the disciples and the crowds what compassion looks like. And if we read this account with hearts open, we, too, can see the true needs of those in the story being met by Jesus.

            Take the disciples. They have just returned from a journey – remember, just a couple weeks ago, Jesus had sent them out to heal and cast out demons and share the good news. Now they are back, and they have had an incredible experience. Their eyes are opened, and their lives changed, and they are eager to share. In this case, their deep need is to be heard, to have someone actively listen to

their experience. Oh, I encounter this need so often, both in my pastoral visits and in my personal life. So often when we listen to someone share their feelings or their situation, we try to fix it, to make it better. But sometimes all the person needs is to know that someone cares enough to listen to their story.

When Michael and I were first married, I would tell him some struggle I was having, and he would often try to fix it for me, and though I appreciated it, for some reason I found it unsatisfying. I realized it was because that’s not what I needed. I just needed him to listen. Now, I try to tell him if this is a problem I need to be fixed; otherwise, I say, “I just need to know you are listening. Nothing else needs to be done about it, I just need to be heard.” And he will sit and listen, and resist the temptation to “make it all better.” It is this compassionate listening that heals my heart. And this is the compassion Jesus provides to his disciples: he hears their stories, he strives to understand how they are feeling – indeed he feels the same way. So he joins them where they are (he is tired, too!), and invites them to come with him to a restful place.

            Another need we see in this passage is the need of the crowd. Mark tells us that Jesus saw they were “like sheep without a shepherd.” They were wandering, restless, confused. And so Jesus had compassion on them, and in this case what it looked like was imparting knowledge. They needed guidance, and so Jesus sat down and taught them “many things.”

Education is a pretty amazing thing. As I have been trying to learn how to cook, I find I get frustrated when I come across an ingredient I’m not familiar with, or a step I don’t know how to do. It’s amazing what a quick sit down with Google or Wiki How-to can accomplish – that little bit of education can ease my fears and calm my anxiety about the unknown. But you know what would be even better? If someone who has done this before could be there with me and show me how. I find myself wishing my mom were closer, so she could just be there with me, teaching me in her gentle way, giving me her time and her knowledge. She could fulfill my need for guidance, as well as my

need for companionship through an unknown place. And that is what Jesus does for the crowd: he sits down with them and teaches them, offering his time, his knowledge, and his companionship on their journey.

            These are just two of the many needs apparent in this passage, and the many needs apparent in our own lives. The value of texts like this, is that they can help us start to reflect honestly on what our own needs are. When was the last time you really reflected deeply on your needs? I know I don’t spend enough time doing it – who has time for that, when so many quick fixes are so much more efficient? But it is so important to know our own hearts well enough to know what need we have, and how it might be fulfilled. Or if that approach is too vague for you, think about this: what would abundant life look like to you, in your particular place in life, and what do you need to have or to give up in order to claim that abundant life? As you think about that, think about it in positive, not negative ways. So not, “I need this to stop,” or, “I need you to act differently,” but rather, “I need to feel safe. I need to find peace with this. I need to find forgiveness.”

Now, we don’t have Jesus walking around with us anymore to sit with us and perceive our needs, and though we do still have him in prayer, we also understand the Church to be Christ’s agent in the world, seeking to fulfill people’s needs, whatever they are. And so the follow-up question is: what can the Church do to help you in this effort, to help you get what your heart needs? If there is something the Church can be doing, or that I, as your pastor can be doing, please share that with me, so that we might be a community that is fulfilling and satisfying for those who are a part of it.

These are such important questions to ponder, and I don’t think we spend nearly enough time doing it. So use this text to help you do it. I urge you to take some time today, or this week, to contemplate what your deepest need is right now. Perhaps articulate it to a trusted friend or spouse, or even a journal. And ask yourself how Christ – or the church in his stead – can help you to address it. Let Christ be your good shepherd, who has and who will go to any length to show his compassion and his gift of eternal, abundant life.

Let us pray… Compassionate God, you know our needs even when we don’t. Help us to be vulnerable enough to try to understand our own needs, and then willing to let you tend to them, so that we will be cared for and nurtured enough to be able to serve your world with full and generous hearts. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.