7th Sunday after Pentecost
July 23-24, 2006
Vicar Michael Monterastelli
Mark 6:30-44 (Jer. 23:1-6, Eph. 2:11-22)
Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while (Mark 6:31).
Grace, Mercy, and Peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Today’s text reveals our Lord and Savior who comes to give us rest through His teaching and feeding.
Jesus sent His Apostles to engage His three persistent enemies: the devil, the fallen world, and our own sinful flesh. His Apostles proclaimed that people must repent. They cast out many demons, anointed the many sick with oil, and healed them. When they returned and told Jesus all they had done and taught, He planned to bring them somewhere quiet, so it seemed, to someplace desolate to rest and eat. Instead, what happened next seems less restful and more like exhausting work. [But was it?]
Like the apostles who had just come from working in the fields, we need time to rest. That’s why God made the Sabbath. That’s why God gives us Jesus. That’s why Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit. That’s why the Holy Spirit reveals the Truth. And that’s why we preach Christ crucified and risen.
Today’s Gospel tells us how Jesus finds and gives us rest in the midst of the chaos of this world.
What Jesus did after leading His apostles across the quiet water in a boat, did not necessarily involve His disciples doing any work. Instead, and here’s how Jesus provided their rest, Jesus went ashore. He had compassion on the great crowd who were like sheep without a shepherd. He began to teach the great crowd and His disciples many things. By His command, His disciples were on vacation. For a relatively short time, they sat back, listened, and watched Jesus work.
Eventually the apostles and the great crowd grew hungry as the hour grew late. The time had come to nourish their bodies as His abundant teachings nourished their souls. With what seemed to be a deficiency of food, Jesus fed them until they were all abundantly satisfied.
For some of us, the concept of going away with close friends or family to rest a while is not a strange or new idea. But some vacations (with all their preparation and tight schedules) leave us exhausted rather than well rested. Even though we keep trying to find it in the things of this world, (like television, drugs, and food) true rest is found in only one person. But even that gets wearisome to us. That’s because sinners like you and me see what God does for us and consider it just one more demand on our precious time. But He is our only true source of rest. And His gift to you is a rest that endures forever.
As the prophet warns, there are shepherds who scatter God’s flock with false promises of rest. They promise rest through compromise, by agreeing to disagree about God’s Truth. There is no real rest apart from God’s Truth. There is no real rest in forsaking your daily duties. There is no real rest in giving in to temptation even once. The false promises that seem to give some temporary relief and rest often bring permanent struggle, ultimate exhaustion, and eternal pain. Just because things may seem easy now, that’s no guarantee of God’s gift of rest.
Jesus planned to bring His disciples to rest a while in a desolate place. But how often do things ever go exactly according to our plans? Unconcerned with Jesus’ plans, men from all the towns ran on foot to be near Jesus. 5000 men crashed the apostles’ vacation with Jesus.
But Jesus had compassion on these 5000 men. They were like sheep without a shepherd. So He became their loving shepherd. After they had run to meet Him, (like a good shepherd) He gave them rest. He led them beside the quiet waters by teaching them many things. Not just for 60-minutes-or-so, but until the hour grew late in the day. Then, He made them sit down on the green [pastures] in groups by hundreds and by fifties. He fed their bellies which ached with hunger.
This is the pattern He used then. It is the same pattern He uses now. In the Divine Service, the Service of the Word precedes the Service of the Sacrament. This is no accident. This is the divine order practiced by God Himself.
After Jesus leads you, teaches you and gives you an abundance of spiritual gifts through the liturgy, scripture readings, hymns, sermon, and prayers, believers who confess that they are made worthy by the blood of Jesus are given an abundant feast with plenty to spare. This is how God gives and guarantees real rest with Him.
The same thing which allowed Jesus to sleep through a storm (while everyone else panicked) is the same thing which kept Him from worrying about feeding the 5000 men. He knows His heavenly Father will provide what we need in this world and the next. He rested when He observed the Sabbath and attended synagogues to hear the Word of the Lord read.
Here for you today, through His Word, God has prepared the table in the presence of your enemies. So relax, take a deep breath, and rest knowing the truth of God gives you everything you need both now and forever.
By not resting until the end of His Passion, our Lord gave all He had. He set His face toward Jerusalem to do the work no one else could — to drink the cup only He could drink. After a restless Thursday night in the city of peace, He went to the cross and made it our source of eternal rest. It is the place from which He gives Himself to everyone for all time. It is the place to which the flock gathers to receive the care God gives through the shepherds He has set over them. It is the place where there is no more fear or dismay. It is the place where He makes His people become fruitful and multiply.
After laying down His life and resting in the tomb, our Lord did what no one else could, He took it up again. Then He did what He sends His Church to continue doing in, with, and under Him. He got up. He spoke. He taught. And He fed His disciples.
With His body on the cross, He has broken down the dividing wall of hostility that separates you from His Heavenly Father. With His own flesh, He abolishes the law of commandments and ordinances. In the Truth He delivers with His blood, God grants you true, eternal rest.
If you are young and restless, uncertain about the future, afraid the world has something you’re missing, unable to quiet your mind… Jesus is here to give you rest.
If you are wearied by the demands of keeping a household, keeping a job, educating and feeding a family, or of persevering in the middle of so many obligations… Jesus is here to give you rest.
If you are tired of the constant violence in the world, or of the effects of aging, illness, and so many side effects of prescription medications… Jesus is here to give you rest.
On your last day on earth, when you face death, as each of us probably will, when our bodies are worn to the point of shutting down, when our hearts stop pumping, then Jesus’ invitation is more appealing than ever. “Come away by yourselves…and rest a while.” He will walk us through death’s dark valley. He will usher us into the splendor of God’s eternal presence. He will give you the rest He made on the Sabbath and peace at the last.
In the Name of Jesus. AMEN
Vicar Michael Monterastelli
Mark 6:30-44 (Jer. 23:1-6, Eph. 2:11-22)
Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while (Mark 6:31).
Grace, Mercy, and Peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Today’s text reveals our Lord and Savior who comes to give us rest through His teaching and feeding.
Jesus sent His Apostles to engage His three persistent enemies: the devil, the fallen world, and our own sinful flesh. His Apostles proclaimed that people must repent. They cast out many demons, anointed the many sick with oil, and healed them. When they returned and told Jesus all they had done and taught, He planned to bring them somewhere quiet, so it seemed, to someplace desolate to rest and eat. Instead, what happened next seems less restful and more like exhausting work. [But was it?]
Like the apostles who had just come from working in the fields, we need time to rest. That’s why God made the Sabbath. That’s why God gives us Jesus. That’s why Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit. That’s why the Holy Spirit reveals the Truth. And that’s why we preach Christ crucified and risen.
Today’s Gospel tells us how Jesus finds and gives us rest in the midst of the chaos of this world.
What Jesus did after leading His apostles across the quiet water in a boat, did not necessarily involve His disciples doing any work. Instead, and here’s how Jesus provided their rest, Jesus went ashore. He had compassion on the great crowd who were like sheep without a shepherd. He began to teach the great crowd and His disciples many things. By His command, His disciples were on vacation. For a relatively short time, they sat back, listened, and watched Jesus work.
Eventually the apostles and the great crowd grew hungry as the hour grew late. The time had come to nourish their bodies as His abundant teachings nourished their souls. With what seemed to be a deficiency of food, Jesus fed them until they were all abundantly satisfied.
For some of us, the concept of going away with close friends or family to rest a while is not a strange or new idea. But some vacations (with all their preparation and tight schedules) leave us exhausted rather than well rested. Even though we keep trying to find it in the things of this world, (like television, drugs, and food) true rest is found in only one person. But even that gets wearisome to us. That’s because sinners like you and me see what God does for us and consider it just one more demand on our precious time. But He is our only true source of rest. And His gift to you is a rest that endures forever.
As the prophet warns, there are shepherds who scatter God’s flock with false promises of rest. They promise rest through compromise, by agreeing to disagree about God’s Truth. There is no real rest apart from God’s Truth. There is no real rest in forsaking your daily duties. There is no real rest in giving in to temptation even once. The false promises that seem to give some temporary relief and rest often bring permanent struggle, ultimate exhaustion, and eternal pain. Just because things may seem easy now, that’s no guarantee of God’s gift of rest.
Jesus planned to bring His disciples to rest a while in a desolate place. But how often do things ever go exactly according to our plans? Unconcerned with Jesus’ plans, men from all the towns ran on foot to be near Jesus. 5000 men crashed the apostles’ vacation with Jesus.
But Jesus had compassion on these 5000 men. They were like sheep without a shepherd. So He became their loving shepherd. After they had run to meet Him, (like a good shepherd) He gave them rest. He led them beside the quiet waters by teaching them many things. Not just for 60-minutes-or-so, but until the hour grew late in the day. Then, He made them sit down on the green [pastures] in groups by hundreds and by fifties. He fed their bellies which ached with hunger.
This is the pattern He used then. It is the same pattern He uses now. In the Divine Service, the Service of the Word precedes the Service of the Sacrament. This is no accident. This is the divine order practiced by God Himself.
After Jesus leads you, teaches you and gives you an abundance of spiritual gifts through the liturgy, scripture readings, hymns, sermon, and prayers, believers who confess that they are made worthy by the blood of Jesus are given an abundant feast with plenty to spare. This is how God gives and guarantees real rest with Him.
The same thing which allowed Jesus to sleep through a storm (while everyone else panicked) is the same thing which kept Him from worrying about feeding the 5000 men. He knows His heavenly Father will provide what we need in this world and the next. He rested when He observed the Sabbath and attended synagogues to hear the Word of the Lord read.
Here for you today, through His Word, God has prepared the table in the presence of your enemies. So relax, take a deep breath, and rest knowing the truth of God gives you everything you need both now and forever.
By not resting until the end of His Passion, our Lord gave all He had. He set His face toward Jerusalem to do the work no one else could — to drink the cup only He could drink. After a restless Thursday night in the city of peace, He went to the cross and made it our source of eternal rest. It is the place from which He gives Himself to everyone for all time. It is the place to which the flock gathers to receive the care God gives through the shepherds He has set over them. It is the place where there is no more fear or dismay. It is the place where He makes His people become fruitful and multiply.
After laying down His life and resting in the tomb, our Lord did what no one else could, He took it up again. Then He did what He sends His Church to continue doing in, with, and under Him. He got up. He spoke. He taught. And He fed His disciples.
With His body on the cross, He has broken down the dividing wall of hostility that separates you from His Heavenly Father. With His own flesh, He abolishes the law of commandments and ordinances. In the Truth He delivers with His blood, God grants you true, eternal rest.
If you are young and restless, uncertain about the future, afraid the world has something you’re missing, unable to quiet your mind… Jesus is here to give you rest.
If you are wearied by the demands of keeping a household, keeping a job, educating and feeding a family, or of persevering in the middle of so many obligations… Jesus is here to give you rest.
If you are tired of the constant violence in the world, or of the effects of aging, illness, and so many side effects of prescription medications… Jesus is here to give you rest.
On your last day on earth, when you face death, as each of us probably will, when our bodies are worn to the point of shutting down, when our hearts stop pumping, then Jesus’ invitation is more appealing than ever. “Come away by yourselves…and rest a while.” He will walk us through death’s dark valley. He will usher us into the splendor of God’s eternal presence. He will give you the rest He made on the Sabbath and peace at the last.
In the Name of Jesus. AMEN
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
7/25/2006
