Our nation has experienced in the last three weeks
tremendous shifts in our understanding of ourselves. One horrific event showed us the divisions that pull us apart as witnessed in the racial violence that took the
lives of nine people studying the Bible together. The other showed a new form of unity among us evidenced by the decisions
of the nine Justices on the Supreme Court; we have agreed to abide by their rulings rather than the mere impulses of our habituated vision.
In these stark events, we heard – even from people with differing
perspectives – a call for calm and reconciliation, for forgiveness and new
pathways to follow toward greater understanding and more enduring peace. These
recent crucial moments have made clear both how hard it is to root out old
prejudices and how possible it is to take the promise of unity to heart, changing our ways.
Jesus looked at the people who brought him their needs as
“sheep without a shepherd.” We, too, are in need of the shepherd who can pull
us out of our entrenchments, out of our self-importance, out of our
complacencies, because we are unable to heal ourselves without the one who protects us by breaking down dividing walls.
Mark 6:30-34,
53-56
Anticipating the very full
treatment the Great Multiplication (vv 35–44) and Jesus' walking on water (vv
45–52) will receive during the next five weeks of lectionary readings from John
6, this week's Gospel lection skips over the telling of these two stories in
Mark 6. We do, however, set the stage by hearing what happened immediately
before (vv 30–34), and we receive a brief report about how people responded to
Jesus' power to heal (vv 53–56…).
As the apostles return from
their mission (6:6b–13), Jesus offers to take them to a deserted place for a
rest. However, there is one situation from which Jesus, in his compassion, will
not withdraw: when he is confronted with people who are “like sheep without a
shepherd.” In contrast to the leaders who fail to provide their people with
leadership, guidance, and sustenance (cf. Jeremiah 23:1–2), Jesus is the Good
Shepherd who never abandons his sheep…. Jesus is presented as the source of
wisdom, and this wisdom is so vital and necessary to human life that Jesus was
willing to forego his time of rest to provide this wisdom to the directionless
people. – Steven H. Fazenbaker
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Following a chapter of oracles against the rulers of
Israel, who have failed to execute justice, Jeremiah employs shepherd imagery
to foretell the fate that awaits these rulers. Jeremiah accuses the “shepherds
who shepherd my people” of “scatter[ing] my flock, and [driving] them away, and
… not attend[ing] to them” (v 2). God, through Jeremiah, promises to drive out
the “evil” shepherds, gather the scattered sheep and “raise up shepherds over
them who will shepherd them” (v 4). – Steven H. Fazenbaker
Ephesians 2:11-22
If we understand this letter as
addressed to several different churches, we can see the very Pauline message of
“unity in Christ made manifest through a diversity of gifts” (cf. 1 Corinthians
12–14) expressed through this letter. In this week's lection, the author begins
by emphasizing two very distinct and mutually exclusive groups: the
“uncircumcision” (Gentiles) and the “circumcision” (Jews).
Indeed, before Christ, there was
“no hope” that the divided creation of Jews and Gentiles could ever be
reconciled. But, in and through Christ, “you who were once far off have been
brought near,” and “he has made both groups into one.”
As a circular letter to a number of
different churches, the invitation is for each individual faith community to
grow beyond thinking of itself as separate from each another, and to realize
that each local church is part of one universal act of salvation in Christ
Jesus….
Each church is not an
individual household of God; there is one universal household in which God
dwells, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone of this universal household
(v 20). And, in and through Christ Jesus, each local church is “built together
spiritually into [one] dwelling place for God” (v 22). – Steven H. Fazenbaker
God’s Word shows us the possibility for healing divisions.
It is the great work of the Church to use the power of the Holy Spirit and the
hope that we have in Christ Jesus to lead us into the truly green pastures where
God has set the table for feasting with all people.
Steven H.
Fazenbaker is director of the Wesley Foundation at the Georgia Institute of
Technology.
Homily Service 42, no. 3 (2009): 79-87.
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