7th Sunday after Pentecost (Pr. 11) July 23, 2006 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, you sent your Son to reveal your will and grace, and to restore us to a meaningful relationship with you. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to receive his word, to focus our lives around his redeeming grace, and empower us for witness. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Our Gospel lesson for this morning begins with the twelve returning from their missionary journey on which Jesus had sent them, in which, Mark tells us, they told Jesus all that they had done and taught. Jesus then invites the twelve to come away with him to a deserted place so that they might enjoy some well-deserved rest.
So they got into a boat and headed to a place where they might be alone. But when they neared the shore, they discovered that a great crowd had anticipated where they were headed, and had arrived at their destination before they did. But instead of turning the boat around and heading off to another place of retreat, Mark tells us that when Jesus saw the crowd, he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
The image of Jesus as a shepherd is one that has been captured by artists and poets throughout the years. The picture of Jesus sitting in the midst of a flock of sheep with a lamb on his shoulder, captured in stained glass, has adorned many a church building. But what does that image of Jesus mean?
One of the commentaries that I read made an interesting point. “In the Candid Camera series [several years ago], some boys were chosen to receive what they were told was a big prize. They were paraded before their classmates and the master of ceremonies went through an elaborate buildup about their selection for the award. At the climax came the words: ‘You have been chosen…shepherds of the month!’
The looks of disappointment on the boy’s faces filled the screen. Being a shepherd of the month is not very exciting to the contemporary imagination. However, if we think of the shepherd as the person who cares for a bunch of noisy, straggling creatures, then we realize how essential that task is.”
The commentary continued, “John Updike has a story called ‘Lifeguard’ in which he describes the attentions which the guard on the beach gives to those struggling in the waters. That image of the lifeguard may be more appropriate for our time and culture than that of shepherd.” End quote. [Proclamation: Aids for Interpreting the Lessons of the Church Year; Fortress Press, 1975]
This morning I would like to pursue this image of Jesus as our lifeguard.
Several years ago, when Josie and I had taken a vacation to Myrtle Beach, she had this routine of getting up earlier than I would, grab a cup of coffee, and head to the beach. In order to facilitate me joining her, she would always stake out her spot close to this particular lifeguard stand. An hour or so later, I would join her, with my inflatable raft. After soaking up some rays, I would then head into the ocean just deep enough to bob up and down in a weightless-like state, drifting with the current.
But while I enjoyed this experience, I also kept my eye on the shore, and in particular, on that particular lifeguard stand, which reminded me of where my spot on the beach was located. For the current of the ocean is such that it tends to carry one along the shoreline, away from your point of entry.
During that week, I not only paid a lot of attention to the lifeguard stand, but also to the person who sat on it. I noticed that he was not what the beach movies pictured the lifeguard to be. He did not spend his time fighting off the best-looking, least clad girls on the beach. He was not in his late teens or early twenties. He was at least in his mid-thirties, and was intent in his watchfulness of the beach and especially those in the water.
Several times a day, I saw him stand, heard him blow his whistle, and motion with his arm for someone who was a little too venturous, to come closer to shore. Several times I saw him blow his whistle, jump off of his stand with a special buoy in hand, motioning to a person with an illegal, unsafe raft to exit the water. On other occasions, he would politely remind a beacher of the rules against having certain beverages or certain types of containers on the beach.
I began to appreciate this man, this lifeguard whose name I never asked. I began to see him as the shepherd of this vacationing community that gathered on the shore, in need of his compassionate concern for their well being. He was there to protect them and save them from the destructive forces of the ocean’s current, and to teach them to responsibly live in community with nature and each other.
Although Mark does not tell us what Jesus taught the crowd that had gathered on the shore that day, I think we can assume that his teaching centered on respecting our relationship with God, taking seriously the destructive currents that endanger our enjoyment of our relationship with God and each other.
And when I surveyed the congregation of people who comprised the beach community, I could not help but realize that the lifeguard’s concern extended to rich and poor, young and old, the intelligent and the not so intelligent, male and female, strong and weak, regardless of their color or their nationality. All who gathered on that shore came under his concern and protection, just as all people of God’s creation come under our Lord’s compassionate concern.
Another thing that I noticed was that when people exercised their freedom in the restless ocean, the lifeguard’s stand became a point of reference. When the tide began to gently carry one unknowingly up the shoreline, his stand reminded you of where your “home” remained.
How easy it is for us to allow the waves of life to carry us away from the values of home and community, of living our life in relationship with God and others, which God has ordained for our benefit. Yet, by keeping our eyes, and our minds, and our hearts focused on Jesus, and his revelation of God’s redeeming grace, we can always find our way back to the joy of sustaining our relationship with God and family.
And I also noticed that if a persons exercised their individual freedom without responsibility, if they ventured too far from shore, or trusted their life to an unsafe floating device, the lifeguard’s vigilant concern called out the danger. Some may have experienced the guard’s whistle and call to come back to shore as an exercise of power and restriction of their freedom.
I experienced this lifeguard in a different light. I believe he was a person who exercised his authority in caring for those under his jurisdiction in genuine concern for their well being, wishing only to protect those in his community. This lifeguard may have enforced the law of the beach, but he was not doing so to prevent people from enjoying life, but rather to enable the people to avoid the snares that would endanger their life.
I believe that Jesus also taught with authority, and encouraged people to admit their mistakes. In fact the first words that Mark records Jesus saying in his Gospel, are “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news. Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom of God, to call us to turn from those things that deter our relationship with God and each other, and through the power of his redeeming grace, to live a new and more abundant life.
It is not a bad image of the Christ, this lifeguard, this shepherd of the crowd, who in compassion cared for those who gathered at the beach. May we keep our eye upon our Lord, and listen to his teachings, for he truly cares for our wellbeing.
Amen.
