Contagious Generosity and Loaves
Sunday Feb 18, 2024
Series: Mark Part 2 - Scripture: Mark 6:31-44 (NIV11)
Community is shaped by the conversations we share. These questions are a tool to help you meaningfully engage with the themes of this week's teaching.
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Message Summary: We’re diving back into Mark this Lent. In this first sermon of Mark Part 2, we looked at the feeding of the five thousand and reflected on what it means to participate in the kingdom of God with what we’ve got to share right now.
Habit -Jeremy thrives on routine and likes his rhythms. He can eat the same meal every day of the week for months, until he no longer can. After 217.5 days of the same breakfast burrito he can’t look at them any more, but it does warm his habitual heart that we see 5,000 people in this chapter and then 4,000 people a couple of chapters later eating the same meal of fish and bread.
Reading Between the Lines - We pick up the story of the feeding of the 5,000 in Mark 6, it follows the account of the violent death of John the Baptist. Matthew 14 takes time to describe the emotional weight that John’s death put on Jesus. Mark wants us to fill those emotional gaps ourselves. The two ways these two writers approach the same event should encourage us to slow down when we read the Bible. What is going on between the verses? What is happening here that is left unsaid? What emotions should I — or would I be feeling— if I found myself in these shoes? This is a very Jewish form of storytelling: outlining the narrative and letting our imagination to fill the gaps.
Inciting Incidents - read Mark 6:31-44. Jesus speaks only three times in the narrative: - Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. - You give them something to eat. - How many loaves do you have. And those three phrases are the instigating incidents in the story, the three acts. The first one deals with how we process grief. Often our healing starts with rest. The second phrase address the question of what we do when you need rest but life happens and your plans need to give way to compassion. Jesus has compassion on the crowds and “feels it in his gut.” And when we feel like our plans need to change and that we need to act in compassion, we need to be driven not by guilt, or pressure, or desire for praise, but by the feeling that it is the right thing to do and this is where God wants us right now.
How to Get to the Kingdom of God And the final act encourages us to start with what we’ve got in our pocket. This story is our entering place into Lent. “The reminder to rest. The call to change course when necessary. The beauty of starting with what's in your pocket and trust that something unexpected can come from it.”
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Connect: What is your relationship with routine? Do you relate to some of the habits that Jeremy described, like eating the same meal, walking the dog along the same route, wearing the same outfit for years? What do your habits do for you that you keep them?
Share: Share about your routines or habits for reading and questioning Scripture, and how they might have changed overtime. Do you enjoy “reading between the lines” or do you find it hard? Jermey mentioned that Mark uses a very Jewish way of storytelling - giving us some facts and letting us fill in the emotional and imaginative gaps ourselves. And Matthew is the opposite, he spells out for us some of the emotions that Jesus is feeling, when it comes to John the Baptist’s death. Are you comfortable with using your imagination when reading the Bible? How do you think this inquisitive and imaginative reading can deepen your experience of reading Scripture?
Reflect: Select one of the acts from the story and reflect on the question that goes with it.
1. Rest as a way of healing - “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” The spiritual discipline of rest can be very important especially during times of grief or stress. How do you currently practice rest in your own life in the midst some of the challenges you’re going through, and how might you incorporate rest more intentionally into your life this Lent?
2. Compassion as changing course for the sake of others - “You give them something to eat.” Jesus' compassion was an emotional response to the crowd's needs, literally, “he felt their need in his gut” (Mark 6:34), and that caused his to change course and put his and disciples’ rest aside. How do you navigate this tension between your own needs for rest (or prioritizing some of your plans) and the needs of others that arise and interrupt? What helps you to decide when it’s time to respond in compassion and when it’s time to follow your plan?
3. Participating in the kingdom as starting with what’s in your pocket - “How many loaves do you have.” How does this story, especially Mark 6:37-38 inspire you to respond to the needs around you, even when your resources seem inadequate.
Engage: Read the quote from the sermon below. How does it resonate with you? “Dreaming is good, and planning is important, and prayer is essential, but sometimes— before anything else—you reach in your pocket, and you see what you have, and you get to work and you trust God to meet you there. That’s how good things start. And so you give, or you volunteer, or you offer, or you invite, but you trust that the miracle is in the responding, and that sometimes that matters more than the outcome. And you see I'll be honest here, I don't think it's an accident that Mark leaves the miraculous up to interpretation. As I said before, there’s no indication of how we get from blessing the food, to handing it out, to everyone eating, and I think that's by design. Because sometimes you start something with what you've got and God responds. And sometimes you start something with what you've got and your neighbour responds. And both of them can be equally supernatural, because that's the kingdom of God - not how we get there, but that no one is left empty.” What do you think this miracle in Mark was about? What does it have to say about divine intervention and human action?
Take away: Is there something you would like to take away from today’s conversation or the message? Or, talk about how this story challenges your perspective on resources and provision, especially in the area of practical impossibility of some situations (“it’s a wild and deserted area” and the cost is more than half a year’s wage) VS Jesus’ response (directs people to sit on green grass) and communal provision?
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Pray: Our God who is always ahead of us, Both in our pain and in our celebration, Inviting us forward with courage and with hope, We ask that you would be near to us on this lenten journey In whatever fragile state we have entered this season — we trust your spirit of comfort be gentle and close — reminding us of your presence in all moments. Might we remember both our constant need for you But also the implication that brings — our dependance on each other as well. Where we can, Might we become a source of encouragement and strength for each other, Might we help to carry the burden of this season together, And in that, might even we point toward new life and resurrection, A world infused with peace that encompasses more than just the laying down of weapons, But also the healing of wounds And the space to be honest. May your peace that passes understanding Take shape not only as extraordinary calm But also as justice for all. Might our lives continue a journey toward your peace to come. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen.
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CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 146
MUSIC: Curated by Kevin Borst
Mission House - Your Eyes See Me
Hillsong Worship - O Praise The Name
Maverick City Music - God Problems
Maverick City Music - JirehREFLECTIVE PRAYER: QUESTIONS, WONDER, AFFIRMATION: Written by Bobbi Salkeld
Please join me for a prayer for the first Sunday of Lent. Let your mind jump to the places it goes. Follow your intuition, and Christ will meet you there.
Let us pray.
We begin with questions.
What sadness or heaviness do you carry with you through Lent this year?What pain do you hope will be transformed? What problem feels stubborn and immovable? In our questions, we open ourselves to the creative work of Christ, Who transforms death into new life. We contemplate this wonder.
What if divine compassion always, always outweighs all of the world’s sin? What if our resistance to injustice large and small forms the fabric of answered prayers? What if we aren’t so separate or alone, but connected through spirit and science in ways beyond what we can measure?
In our contemplation, we open ourselves to the creative work of Christ, Who transforms death into new life.
We conclude with affirmation.
We affirm that the love of God as seen in Jesus is for us all. We affirm that death and resurrection is the pattern of our sacred change. We affirm that our feasts, fasts, and rituals add mystery and meaning to the seasons of our lives.
In our affirmation, we open ourselves to the creative work of Christ, Who transforms death into new life.
Amen.
