PROPER 11 (16) – Year B
9th Sunday after Pentecost — July 21, 2024
Gospel Lectionary Text
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
6:30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.
6:31 He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
6:32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.
6:33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.
6:34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
6:53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat.
6:54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him,
6:55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.
6:56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
CONTEXT
Welcome to the ninth Sunday after Pentecost. In our Gospel, we find Jesus inviting his tired, hungry disciples to come away and rest with him after a long mission. Yet the crowds pursued them, swelling in size. This evokes compassion from Jesus, who sees the growing crowd as "sheep without a shepherd."
The word for compassion in this week’s text is rich (splagchnizomai). It means to be moved by love from the pit of one’s stomach. In the ancient world, love was believed to originate not from the heart, as in modern society, but from the bowels. It is from this place that Jesus teaches, preaches, and heals those who are vulnerable and exposed to danger.
Question
In an age where ambition, anger, and a highly cultivated form of resentment have largely erased the gift of compassion, how can this week’s text inspire us to explore what truly moves us to act from the deepest parts of our being — viscerally, emotionally, and physically?
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, wild and free. Do as you please. Shine your light on me that I might see things as they are, not as I am. Free me to act in your name with courage, creativity, and compassion. See the complete prayer
Word from Below Reflections
Shepherding Compassion
By Joel Aguilar |
How are you? Good. Busy. How about you? Oh, you know, busy, busy! But good! This may be the most frequent exchange I hear before and after worship each week. We know we’re too busy to breathe. We know this way of life is killing us and the earth. But we don’t know how to...
Get Some Rest
By Pat Thompson |
So did He ignore rest or is there something I am missing? I’m beginning to think that my own concept of rest must be sorely lacking as clearly, Jesus is modeling something that does not come naturally to me.
Come Away
By Kris Rocke |
This week our globally dispersed Street Psalms staff gathers to work and to rest through a retreat in the far upper left of the United States (that is, Hood Canal, WA). As Jesus shows us in this week’s lectionary, even the most devoted disciples need to set boundaries for self-care.
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Weekly Homily by James Alison