Podcasts about scripture: mark 6:30-6:56

Good Shepherd UMC

Sunday sermons from Chewelah Evangelical Free Church

David Eldridge Mark 6:30-56 When Jesus feeds the 5,000 He is declaring He is our King and shows us that He is a King who is moved with compassion When He walks on the water He is declaring He is our Messiah. He passes by us so we can see Him in the midst of our struggle. We don't want to have hearts that are hard and miss how He is revealing Himself. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see Him more fully.

David Eldridge Mark 6:30-56 When Jesus feeds the 5,000 He is declaring He is our King and shows us that He is a King who is moved with compassion When He walks on the water He is declaring He is our Messiah. He passes by us so we can see Him in the midst of our struggle. We don't want to have hearts that are hard and miss how He is revealing Himself. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see Him more fully.

David Eldridge Mark 6:30-56 When Jesus feeds the 5,000 He is declaring He is our King and shows us that He is a King who is moved with compassion When He walks on the water He is declaring He is our Messiah. He passes by us so we can see Him in the midst of our struggle. We don't want to have hearts that are hard and miss how He is revealing Himself. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see Him more fully.

David Eldridge Mark 6:30-56 When Jesus feeds the 5,000 He is declaring He is our King and shows us that He is a King who is moved with compassion When He walks on the water He is declaring He is our Messiah. He passes by us so we can see Him in the midst of our struggle. We don't want to have hearts that are hard and miss how He is revealing Himself. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see Him more fully.

David Eldridge Mark 6:30-56 When Jesus feeds the 5,000 He is declaring He is our King and shows us that He is a King who is moved with compassion When He walks on the water He is declaring He is our Messiah. He passes by us so we can see Him in the midst of our struggle. We don't want to have hearts that are hard and miss how He is revealing Himself. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see Him more fully.

David Eldridge Mark 6:30-56 When Jesus feeds the 5,000 He is declaring He is our King and shows us that He is a King who is moved with compassion When He walks on the water He is declaring He is our Messiah. He passes by us so we can see Him in the midst of our struggle. We don't want to have hearts that are hard and miss how He is revealing Himself. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see Him more fully.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan Emmanuel Episcopal Church July 18, 2021 Proper 11, B Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 “Rest, and Let Me Take Care of This for a While” Is anyone else tired? One thing people have been finding coming out of the pandemic is that they are exhausted. Part of this is that people are tired from the pandemic itself and all of the stress and extra work that has meant for so many. Another piece of this exhaustion, however, is that many folks have found that the time they spend in in rest and time they spend with family and friends is far too precious to be squandered by the endless demands of our jobs. Folks are realizing that their exhaustion has been there since before the pandemic. Some folks are finding jobs better suited to them, jobs which are more fulfilling. Some are quitting their jobs without yet having another because they are tired of doing the work that used to be done by three people without getting a corresponding raise in pay. Some jobs just aren’t being filled because at the wages being offered, the jobs aren’t worth people’s time to do. I had an uncle-ish type guy, not family, but close friend, who was arguing that minimum wage shouldn’t go up. He said he’d hired people who weren’t worth minimum wage. What I didn’t say at the time was, “That may be true, but those same people might be worth three times minimum wage,” because minimum wage isn’t worth many people’s time. People working tirelessly, still struggling to make ends meet. People working tirelessly with more than enough for ends to meet, but with little or no time for the people and things that matter in life. There is so much going on, and there is always more coming. That is the situation in which Jesus and the apostles found themselves in our Gospel story today. Jesus had been working tirelessly, and then he appointed the twelve disciples to be apostles. He sent them out to do the teaching and healing work he had been doing. I like to think Jesus took a break during that time. Then, they came back to tell Jesus about all that had done and taught, and there was so much still to do, so many people still hungry for their teaching and healing, that the couldn’t even eat, much less spend some time together resting and enjoying each other’s company. So, going away on a little vacation, they had some time off on their little boat ride, car trip, airplane flight journey, and once they landed, they found work had followed them there. Zoom calls, cell phones, meetings with leaders, questions from the team back home, fires to put out, the boss calling to say, “I need you to come back in.” The only real time off they had was the boat ride, and the people were all there waiting for more teaching and healing. One thing I noticed, however, is that once they arrived, the apostles weren’t recorded as having done much of anything at all. In the portion of the story that was cut out of our reading today, Jesus was teaching the crowds, and later, the apostles realized the huge crowd of people was hungry, and they told Jesus they didn’t have much food. Then Jesus turned their meager fare into a lot of food for over 5000 people. The apostles kinda got to sit back while Jesus did all the work. Then they went on another boat ride, a nice little nighttime pleasure cruise, and Jesus walked across the water to them. When they arrived on shore again, there were even more people coming for teaching and healing. At this point, with all of this new additional work to be done, we heard about Jesus doing a lot of healing, with the apostles doing…we don’t know what. Something? Anything? Nothing? Whatever the case for the apostles, the people just kept on coming. The needs were far too great. There was no end to the work to be done, and amidst this endless amount of work, we saw that Jesus had taken a break before our story started, asking his apostles to go and do the work he had been doing. Then, when they returned, he had his apostles take a break, one which seems to have continued even as the huge crowd was all around them. “Rest, and let me take care of this for a while,” Jesus said. Nowadays, whether people are working for a wage that isn’t really worth their time, working for a darn good salary but doing the work of three people for the salary of one, or working for a job that isn’t terrible but is relentless and rather soul crushing, many people can’t quit their jobs. Many can’t take time off, and most certainly can’t say, “I’m gonna take a couple weeks off or even a couple days off, but don’t worry, boss, Jesus’ll take care of this for a while.” Even so, we see in our story today Jesus teaching us to rest. We hear Jesus say to us, “Rest, and let me take care of this for a while.” How are we to do that in our present situation of endless work, endless need? How are we to rest and let Jesus take care of this for a while when even taking time off a job may put at risk that mighty powerful need we have to eat? Well, first off, something that won’t be particularly helpful, and that is resenting those with immeasurably more than they need. I’ve seen and heard a good amount of uproar over the head of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, taking a flight into space in his new low orbit space plane, when, as people have been saying, he has the money to end poverty. It is true that he and many others have immeasurably more than they need. It is true that with his and their wealth, they could probably be doing more than they are doing to alleviate need in the world. It is also true, however, that they are employing folks, creating jobs, and it is true that focusing on those others and shaming people with wealth and resenting those who have far more than they need isn’t going to bring about the rest that people need. How often have any of us resented someone who has more wealth or more time for rest and then felt more rested afterwards? I’m guessing never. There are societal changes that would be helpful, and striving for those is a good thing. Resenting those who can rest, however, is not going to give rest to anyone. Jesus didn’t resent the crowds who followed them. Rather, he had compassion on them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. So, rather than resentment and focusing on what others have or what anyone doesn’t have, Jesus shows us to take time to rest in ways that really give rest. He shared the load with others. He let his apostles work while he rested, and he let them rest while he worked. Are we connected enough with our friends and neighbors to let them share our loads and for us to share their loads as well? Jesus took time for quiet and prayer. He spent time outside, enjoying creation. Do we seek and keep practices of quiet, prayer, and time outside to give rest to our minds, our souls, and our bodies? For many of us, these times of rest will have to be short and often, and for those of us in Houston during the summer, times outside need to be particularly short, and these are still times we can take. Especially if we can let go of resentments, we can rest more fully even in the short times we have and let Jesus say, “Rest, and let me take care of this for a while.” Bothered and harassed by so many worries about problems throughout the world, we can let go of those worries and let Jesus say, “Rest, and let me take care of this for a while.” Seeking and keeping practices of quiet, prayer, and even time outside, we can give rest to our minds, our souls, and our bodies while Jesus says, “Rest, and let me take care of this for a while.”

Welcome to East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church!

Welcome to East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church!

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Jesus invites us to follow him in a life with more: more rest, more service, more miracles, more faith. You can’t give more than you have, but God has more than you can give.

Grace Church Bellingham

Grace Church Bellingham

Our youth group is back from their mission trip to Kenosha, WI, and they share a bit about their trip. After they share, Pastor Roger ends with a pointed message for our youth.

Blessed, Broken, Given

Jesus provided for the crowd when He was tired. He provided for His disciples and the sick.

If we are to place our faith in Jesus, we should better understand the faith of Jesus.

If we are to place our faith in Jesus, we should better understand the faith of Jesus.

Grace Fellowship Church of State College, PA

Brad Sullivan Proper 11, Year B July 19, 2015 Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX Ephesians 2:11-22 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 The people in Jesus’ day flocked to him. They went running around a lake to reach him, and thronged to him in the marketplace. He called them sheep without a shepherd, and we saw last week what their shepherds were like. Herod had an innocent man killed so he would look powerful in front of his friends. The Pharisees and other religious leaders demanded perfection regarding religious practice, but they didn’t help regular people connect to God while living their normal, everyday lives. People flocked to Jesus and fought to be near him. Why are so many not flocking to Jesus now? Folks don’t seem to be getting healed of physical infirmities like they once were. Physical healing is not needed as badly as it once was, we have doctors for much of that healing. We still need healing from Jesus, however, healing from depression, disconnection, over-stretched lives, unending pull of the next thing. Perhaps people don’t flock to Jesus nowadays because they aren’t sheep without a shepherd, but sheep with too many shepherds. For some, money and defining success and self worth through money is their shepherd. Some find leisure activities to be their shepherd, with such a strong need to unwind and relax. Self improvement can be a shepherd, “be your best self now.” There are a huge variety of activities which promise the world to those who participate. A lot of them offer good morals and to build good character. In popular Christianity the church offers a kind of one and done baptism. Once you’re baptized, you’re kinda done. You get to go to heaven, so you don’t need to worry about anything else. What else then, does the church offer in popular Christianity? It offers good morals and good character. We’ll, if folks think they can get that playing soccer, then what’s the point of church? We have too many shepherds, and we’ve ended up with a lot of people who have forgotten the point of our life together in the church. If all it is, is good morals and character, then people can get that elsewhere from all the other shepherds. These activities needn’t be in competition with the church, but it is a struggle. It is a struggle to come to Jesus. It is hard to break the hold of our other shepherds. We have commitments which we don’t want to break. We don’t want to break our word. It’s tough. We also have our baptismal covenant, the commitment we made to live together as disciples of Jesus, to raise each other up, to teach our children to follow Jesus, to live as disciples of Jesus, to raise each other up, to teach and follow the ways of Jesus, our ways as Episcopalians, to be here for worship and Eucharist. Many of the other activities and things we follow (other shepherds) are good things in and of themselves. They seem like armor protecting us from boredom, disconnection, getting into trouble, allowing us to unwind, enjoy life, etc. Many, when they end up excluding our communal faith and connection to God, however, become swords which leave us even more exhausted. Our other shepherds, the armor we carry, become swords which harm us. ARMOR AND SWORD AVAILABLE ON SNAKES & ARROWS Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson Lyrics: Neil Peart The snakes and arrows a child is heir to, Are enough to leave a thousand cuts We build our defenses, a place of safety, And leave the darker places unexplored Sometimes the fortress is too strong Or the love is too weak What should have been our armor Becomes a sharp and angry sword Our better natures seek elevation, A refuge for the coming night No one gets to their heaven without a fight We hold beliefs as a consolation, A way to take us out of ourselves Meditation, or medication, A comfort, or a promised reward Sometimes that spirit is too strong Or the flesh is too weak Sometimes the need is just too great For the solace we seek The suit of shining armor Becomes a keen and bloody sword No one gets to their heaven without a fight, A refuge for the coming night A future of eternal light. No one gets to their heaven without a fight Confused alarms of struggle and flight, Blood is drained of color By the flashes of artillery light. No one gets to their heaven without a fight The battle flags are flown At the feet of a god unknown No one gets to their heaven without a fight. Sometimes the damage is too great. Or the will is too weak What should have been our armor Becomes a sharp and burning sword If we want to keep this life we have, then we have to fight for it. Mostly, we need to fight within ourselves to not to be pulled by the voices of the many shepherds around us, and listen to the voice of Jesus, our one true shepherd. As we heard from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. (from Ephesians 2:11-22) We are the Body of Christ. We are connected to God and each other through Jesus. We have God’s very eternal life abiding among and within us. It is given as a gift, and yet we must fight to keep it. We don’t fight others. The fight is within ourselves, a war within us, as Paul says, between our spirit and our flesh, and we have many shepherds often clamoring for our attention. We want to keep our life in Jesus. We want to follow our one true shepherd, and we want to keep, strengthen, and grow our life together in Jesus, and we can’t do so without a fight. Amen.

Sermon audio from the 11 a.m. Pentecost 8 service at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Houston, TX on 7-19-15

Brad Sullivan Proper 11, Year B July 19, 2015 Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Bay City, TX Ephesians 2:11-22 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 The people in Jesus’ day flocked to him. They went running around a lake to reach him, and thronged to him in the marketplace. He called them sheep without a shepherd, and we saw last week what their shepherds were like. Herod had an innocent man killed so he would look powerful in front of his friends. The Pharisees and other religious leaders demanded perfection regarding religious practice, but they didn’t help regular people connect to God while living their normal, everyday lives. People flocked to Jesus and fought to be near him. Why are so many not flocking to Jesus now? Folks don’t seem to be getting healed of physical infirmities like they once were. Physical healing is not needed as badly as it once was, we have doctors for much of that healing. We still need healing from Jesus, however, healing from depression, disconnection, over-stretched lives, unending pull of the next thing. Perhaps people don’t flock to Jesus nowadays because they aren’t sheep without a shepherd, but sheep with too many shepherds. For some, money and defining success and self worth through money is their shepherd. Some find leisure activities to be their shepherd, with such a strong need to unwind and relax. Self improvement can be a shepherd, “be your best self now.” There are a huge variety of activities which promise the world to those who participate. A lot of them offer good morals and to build good character. In popular Christianity the church offers a kind of one and done baptism. Once you’re baptized, you’re kinda done. You get to go to heaven, so you don’t need to worry about anything else. What else then, does the church offer in popular Christianity? It offers good morals and good character. We’ll, if folks think they can get that playing soccer, then what’s the point of church? We have too many shepherds, and we’ve ended up with a lot of people who have forgotten the point of our life together in the church. If all it is, is good morals and character, then people can get that elsewhere from all the other shepherds. These activities needn’t be in competition with the church, but it is a struggle. It is a struggle to come to Jesus. It is hard to break the hold of our other shepherds. We have commitments which we don’t want to break. We don’t want to break our word. It’s tough. We also have our baptismal covenant, the commitment we made to live together as disciples of Jesus, to raise each other up, to teach our children to follow Jesus, to live as disciples of Jesus, to raise each other up, to teach and follow the ways of Jesus, our ways as Episcopalians, to be here for worship and Eucharist. Many of the other activities and things we follow (other shepherds) are good things in and of themselves. They seem like armor protecting us from boredom, disconnection, getting into trouble, allowing us to unwind, enjoy life, etc. Many, when they end up excluding our communal faith and connection to God, however, become swords which leave us even more exhausted. Our other shepherds, the armor we carry, become swords which harm us. ARMOR AND SWORD AVAILABLE ON SNAKES & ARROWS Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson Lyrics: Neil Peart The snakes and arrows a child is heir to, Are enough to leave a thousand cuts We build our defenses, a place of safety, And leave the darker places unexplored Sometimes the fortress is too strong Or the love is too weak What should have been our armor Becomes a sharp and angry sword Our better natures seek elevation, A refuge for the coming night No one gets to their heaven without a fight We hold beliefs as a consolation, A way to take us out of ourselves Meditation, or medication, A comfort, or a promised reward Sometimes that spirit is too strong Or the flesh is too weak Sometimes the need is just too great For the solace we seek The suit of shining armor Becomes a keen and bloody sword No one gets to their heaven without a fight, A refuge for the coming night A future of eternal light. No one gets to their heaven without a fight Confused alarms of struggle and flight, Blood is drained of color By the flashes of artillery light. No one gets to their heaven without a fight The battle flags are flown At the feet of a god unknown No one gets to their heaven without a fight. Sometimes the damage is too great. Or the will is too weak What should have been our armor Becomes a sharp and burning sword If we want to keep this life we have, then we have to fight for it. Mostly, we need to fight within ourselves to not to be pulled by the voices of the many shepherds around us, and listen to the voice of Jesus, our one true shepherd. As we heard from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. (from Ephesians 2:11-22) We are the Body of Christ. We are connected to God and each other through Jesus. We have God’s very eternal life abiding among and within us. It is given as a gift, and yet we must fight to keep it. We don’t fight others. The fight is within ourselves, a war within us, as Paul says, between our spirit and our flesh, and we have many shepherds often clamoring for our attention. We want to keep our life in Jesus. We want to follow our one true shepherd, and we want to keep, strengthen, and grow our life together in Jesus, and we can’t do so without a fight. Amen.

Join us as we explore the life of Christ and the global revolution he leads that is the Kingdom of God.

Jesus came into the world not to give bread, but to be bread. The crowds wanted to Jesus to satisfy their old, unchanged appetites. Jesus came to awaken in us a new appepite for His glory. Are you finding life and satisfaction in Jesus?