Creekside Church Sermon of April 18, 2004 "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us" Mark 6:30-34, 53-56	Rev. David Bibbee
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"The disciples returned to Jesus, and told him all that they had done, and taught" (Mark 6:30). So begins today's lesson. It was the first time the disciples had ventured on their own to preach and minister to the sick. Though minus his presence, they possessed his power. The authority Jesus was given by God was bestowed upon the twelve. Jesus sent them with Spartan provisions. All they had were Jesus' instructions, the clothes on their backs, and a staff. No food. No money. No phone card.

People responded enthusiastically to their message. It was a great confidence-builder, but they returned exhausted. They needed to rest and regroup. Jesus led them to a remote place-- away from the crowds clamoring for attention. The sheer number of people and needs was so great the disciples didn't even have time to grab a sandwich, so they set sail for much needed peace and quiet.

But when they reached shore, a throng was waiting for them. I remember something Yogi Berra said about a popular New York City restaurant: "Its so busy, nobody goes there anymore." Typically, no one inhabited this place, but the word spread that Jesus was coming and, oh well; the intended respite was a nice thought… while it lasted. Seeing all those needy people, Jesus was distressed.

His reaction was proof of his divinity. Mark says that when Jesus saw the throng, "… he had compassion upon them, for they were like sheep minus a shepherd." This wasn't the disciples' reaction. I hear them moaning-- "Ohhhhh noooooo! Look, people, we've got needs, too. Why don't you all just go home, take two aspirin every four hours, drink lots of fluids, and see how you feel in the morning?" But Jesus had compassion for the people. He became a shepherd caring for his flock.

Shepherds were not esteemed members of the community. They were hillbillies who didn't know how to socialize. No one cared to socialize with them because there was no distinguishing between the odor of the sheep and the shepherd.

The Bible paints a gracious portrait of shepherds. They were vigilant, keeping a constant eye on the flock. The shepherd guided and protected the sheep, and searched diligently until a lost sheep was found. The Bible has no difficulty mentioning God, Jesus, and shepherds in the same breath. It was to the lowly shepherds that Jesus' birth was announced. They were the first visitors to arrive at the manger.

Shepherds weren't slouches. A shepherd was tending his flock in a distant pasture when a new BMW sped out of a dust cloud. The driver was a young man wearing an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, and Ray Ban sunglasses. He rolled down the window and asked the shepherd, "If I can guess the exact number of sheep in your flock, will you give me one?" The shepherd looked him over, then his flock, and said, "Okay. Why not?"

The man got out of the car, opened his lap top computer, connected it to his cell phone, found NASA on the internet and connected to a GPS navigation satellite that scanned their area in ultra-high resolution photos. Next, he opened the digital photo in the Adobe Photoshop and exported it to an image processing facility in Germany. In seconds, he got an email on his Palm Pilot saying the image and data was stored. He then accessed a MS-SQL database through an IDBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulas. He uploaded this data via an email on his Blackberry. After receiving a response minutes later, he printed a full-color, 150 page document on his miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turned to the shepherd and said, "You have exactly 1,586 sheep."

The shepherd was amazed. "Well, he said. "Fair is fair. Go ahead. Take a sheep." The man selected an animal and stuffed it into the trunk of his Beemer. Then the shepherd asked, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?" The man thought a moment and said, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a consultant," the shepherd said. " That's incredible!" the young man replied. "You're right, but how did you guess it?" "Easy," the shepherd said. "You showed up here even though no one called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew to a question I never asked; and you don't know didly about my business. Now… give me back my dog!"

Jesus took the disciples to a "lonely" place. Some translations read, "remote" or "desolate." Desolate is the most descriptive. It was a barren, desert-like place. Mark wants us to notice this fact. The word "desolate" appears in verse 31, verse 32, and to make sure we really understand this is an inhospitable place, in verse 35 the disciples tell Jesus the obvious-- "Lord, this is a desolate place…" All right, already. We get the picture. It is dry as burnt toast, it's a desert, it's DESOLATE.

The disciples are tired, hungry, and grouchy. "Lord, we've been here a looong time. It's getting late. Shouldn't we send these people on their way so they can get some supper and we can do what we came here to do, remember?

Jesus said, "You're right. It's getting late. They're hungry. Feed them." "Feed them what? The closest grocery store is miles away. Who's going to pay for it?" Jesus asked, "How much bread to you have?" "Five loaves and two herring," the disciples replied. "Then Jesus commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass" (Mark 6:39). Wait a minute…where did green grass come from? They are in a desert-- remember? Yet Jesus feeds 5,000 people on a carpet of lush, green grass.

I heard a biblical scholar say that we can understand God's work in the Old Testament as turning brown into green. God took the brown of sin, estrangement, poverty, injustice, and war, and turned it into the green of forgiveness, reconciliation, justice, and peace. The prophets said that when the Messiah comes, the desert will break into glorious bloom.

In the 23rd Psalm, where does the shepherd lead the sheep? The flock that has been hassled by life and harassed by the world; the flock that has lost its way and can't find home; the flock that hungers for life, is deserted and left adrift; this shepherd-less flock, the flock upon whom Jesus has compassion, is the flock that he makes lie down in green pastures.

You have seen the UPS commercials that ask, "What can brown do for you?" When it comes to all the pain and brokenness which litters the landscapes of life, the question is, "What has brown done to you?" "It doesn't take much to make a desert, someone said. "A phone call in the night, a voice saying, 'I've got some bad news to tell you'-that is all that's necessary."

I don't need to tell you stories of people's pain for you to understand. You have enough of your own, and as life goes on, you'll add more. Some of the pain we bring upon ourselves because of poor decisions. People hurt us for no apparent reason. Some pain comes as a necessary price of living in this world. We know how brown life can be.

But thank God, we have a shepherd. We know his compassion. We know he has directed our paths through uncertain times. We know that he has fed our hungry hearts and mended our broken hearts. We know that if we trust his teaching and live in his love, he will lead us from brown to green.

We can't find the green oases by ourselves. Remember, we are sheep, and sheep can't read maps. Sheep are dependent upon the shepherd for guidance. He alone knows where the green grass and still waters are located. We may not even know when we are on a green spot. It may look brown and desolate to us, but the shepherd intends it for good.

The disciples resented all those hungry and sick people intruding on their vacation time. "Tell them to get lost, Jesus." We don't like it when our lives are intruded upon. A family member becomes seriously ill. An adult child moves home. You run into a roadblock on the path you chose for yourself. Now you must choose another way with all the anxiety and uncertainty that goes with change. Our church is meeting in a facility that is inadequate for our needs and we wish we could finish a new building and move into it by the end of summer. There is nothing green about the situations in which we find ourselves, but God knows better.

Notice that the 23rd Psalm says, "He makes me lie down in green pastures…" It doesn't say, "allows" or "suggests" that we lie down. God selects places for us to rest and rethink and allow God to rearrange our lives. In time, we discover that God does turn brown deserts into green pastures.

We also remember that there is more than one green pasture. 'He makes me lie down in green pastures." When we find good grazing, we want to stay put. Stop the journey, build a house, and enjoy the view for the rest of our lives. On our sojourn through life the shepherd leads us to rest stops, not residences. Erect a dwelling in a meadow, and it is no longer a meadow. Besides, green pastures don't always stay green. They turn brown from over-grazing and drought, which makes it imperative that we follow the good shepherd to new ones.

The only two times Wendy Wright saw her mother-in-law shed a single tear was during the last year of her life. She didn't cry when her husband died. She was of the generation that bore emotions privately. When she was ninety-three, she was moved from her hometown to a nursing facility close to Wendy and her son. She left all the people and places that were familiar to her. During a visit from a priest who had come to share her loss, a little tear escaped. All she could see was brown.

The second time was on her deathbed. A series of strokes took most of her mental capacity, and she could no longer speak or swallow. Her veins collapsed, making intravenous feeding impossible. Following her wishes, nothing was done to prolong her life. She withered away into a frail, bird-like figure nestled between the pillows of the hospital bed. They kept moistening her cracked lips and parched tongue, but it wasn't enough water to sustain her.

She was a dry, brittle remainder of her former self. On her last day, the second tear escaped. No one couldn't say what it meant. The day nurse saw the tear and said, "I can't imagine where it came from. She hasn't received any fluid in days." A well-intentioned chaplain assured the family the tear wasn't from pain. "It's probably from some nostalgia," he said. The brown was a darker hue.

Wendy Wright says that tear has remained with her. She doesn't think of it as a result of biological or psychological processes. The memory of it slipping onto her parched cheek silenced explanations. She said, "I have no way of knowing its meaning, or lack thereof, except that at that moment, my mother-in-law was poised on the edge of utter mystery. And at such a place, spiritual gifts might be found."

She closes with these words from the mystic, Catherine of Siena-- "I have told you how tears well up from the heart: The heart gathers them up from its burning desire and holds them out to the eyes. Just as green wood, when it is put into the fire, weeps tears of water in the heat because it is still green, so does the heart weep when it is made green again by the renewal of grace, after the utter dryness of selfishness has been drawn out of the soul.

Thus are fire and tears made one in burning desire. And because desire has no end, it cannot be satisfied in this life. Rather, the more it loves, the less it seems to itself love. So love exerts a holy longing, and with that longing, the eyes weep."

And Jesus was moved with compassion upon the people, for they were like sheep without a shepherd. And as he leads us, let's remember our responsibility to share a word, offer a shoulder, and lend a hand so that other sheep that wander without a shepherd will be drawn into the fold as well.

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