The Rhythm of Jesus
Ps 23; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
When Carter was a preschooler, he began to show a real affinity for just one of his stuffed animals. It was a sweet and soft, ivory colored sheep. He had other “loveys” but this one was starting to seem special, and I loved that because my Mom was the one who had given it to him. I thought it was sweet that Carter started calling him Lamby and taking him around with him.
One day, a babysitter had come to stay with Carter and they went for a walk… Carter in the stroller - hanging onto Lamby… All around the neighborhood… Down to the park. They played and played and then headed back home to eat lunch and get a nap. When it was time to lay down, Carter looked for Lamby. WHERE was Lamby?
They looked and looked. Carter was persuaded to take a nap with another lovey, but he wasn’t happy. The babysitter promised to look all around and try to find Lamby. He wasn’t in the stroller. He wasn’t in the house anywhere. Had they left him at the park? Had he fallen out of the stroller?
When I got home, I found out about the little lost sheep. I checked the park and kept an eye out for him everywhere along the route but didn’t find him. Poor Lamby. Even I was sad. It wasn’t until a few days later, driving home from church on a Wednesday night, that I spied something on the side of the road. It was dark and rainy. But there in the rushing water was a pale lump.
Casually, I pulled over and stopped the car, not wanting to alert Carter in the back seat what I thought I saw. “I’ll be right back! Just want to check something!” Sure enough! It was Lamby… soaking wet and dirty… lost and all alone… “A Sheep without a shepherd!” I opened the front passenger door and tossed him in the floor board but said nothing. Parents of preschoolers develop some stealthy moves… After getting Carter to bed, I ran back out to the car to retrieve the lost lamb. He got a cycle through the wash and a couple of spins around the hot dryer and presto!! Good as new!! When Carter woke up the next morning, there he was! Safe and sound back where he belonged. Lamby never got lost again. From then on, it was just like the nursery rhyme… 🎶Everywhere that Carter went, the Lamb was sure to go!🎶
That brings us to today’s scripture passages. Psalm 23, beloved text, we hear often. The words are familiar and comforting. They remind us of the role of the shepherd - to lead the sheep to restful places. Guide them to quiet waters for the purpose of restoring their soul.
Jesus is trying to shepherd the disciples in such a way in Mark 6. From the first chapter of Mark, Jesus establishes a pattern of stepping INTO ministry full force and then stepping back to re-group, re-charge.
32 That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons, and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37 When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38 He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came out to do.”
It happens like this throughout Jesus’ ministry. He models for the disciples the value of retreating from the crowds to a “deserted place” or out on a boat in the middle of the water; or up on a mountain. What happens there? Solitude, prayer, meditation, reflection.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul.
It’s good shepherding. It’s a recognition that if we don’t take a break, we get broken. It’s honoring the patterns innate to the human existence that God established at Creation! God created… x6… And saw that it was good. And on the 7th day, God rested, setting aside the sabbath day. The creation story establishes a pattern for all of creation, including the human creatures, that we are to pay attention to. Work, reflect, rest.
Immediately after the news of John the Baptist’s death, the disciples are hard at it sharing good news, healing and teaching. They regroup with Jesus to report on all they have been up to, and he says, “Come away with me to a deserted place.” Let’s get some rest, catch up and talk before we move on to the next town; before we re-engage with the peoples’ requests to heal and teach. There would be time for all of that, but there also had to be time alone, time in prayer.
Jesus was becoming so popular around this time though. Stealing away for a few days retreat was impossible. They were lucky to get a few hours. Understand that the pace of Jesus’ ministry and the crowds that were beginning to collect and follow him around everywhere were like a frenzy. The crowds were like swarms… reaching and stretching to see him, to talk to him, or just to touch the hem of his garment. The crowds are just following Jesus, they are pursuing him. [1]
Jesus saw the crowds… frenetic as they were. Begging for help, or for him to come with them, or for him to teach them… And he had compassion for them. Because they were like sheep without a shepherd (v.34). Sheep without a shepherd wander aimlessly, or carelessly. They get into danger, get in over their heads - meaning they get into things they don’t understand how to get out of, or break free from. They lack care and stability. They get lost.
The rhythm of Jesus teaches us that time apart from the frenzy that life can become sometimes, is the way to healing for ourselves and compassion for others. You may be up to all kinds of good trouble… visiting the sick, taking care of your family, doing, and going and hustling all in the name of Jesus, but if you aren’t balancing all that serving with a nap in a green pasture, or moment with God alongside a clear stream, or tending your soul through quiet prayer… Your heart won’t have the capacity for compassion.
I believe that Jesus’ compassion is an overflow of his connection with God, the Source of goodness and mercy. Because he has spent time in a solitary place reflecting on his own relationship to God and praying for those to whom he has been sent, THEN his eyes are opened and his HEART is opened so that LOVE and MERCY can’t help but pour out of him. Yes, even divine-human Jesus has the need to step back from all the doing to just BE in the presence of God. Why would we ever imagine that we could be any different? We step back to tend our own souls’ need for spiritual nourishment and rest in order to be ready to step back in when ministry calls.
In 2022, a film-maker in association with the New Yorker, made a short documentary about the simple life of Wilf Davies, a Welsh Shepherd. Davies is 77. He lives and tends sheep in Cellan, Wales. He doesn’t have any internet. He gets his news from the radio. He cooks for himself and eats the same thing for dinner EVERY night. He goes to bed at 9:00pm and rises early to see about his farm and the sheep every day of his life. “Being a ‘shepherd’ means you look after the flock no matter the weather,” he says. Routines are very important to Davies and to the health of his sheep. He has 70 head of sheep and 50 lambs that he cares for. And he deeply cares for them. “They recognize my voice,” he says. Every day, Davies leads the sheep around the pasture to graze and be exercised. He mends the fences, totes the feed, examines the sheep, and maintains his tractor. Farming is hard work, but work is what makes him happy… That and his evening walks. Without fail, no matter how hard he has worked during the day, after supper and in time for sunset, he heads up the mountain walking stick in hand. “This is my thinking time”, he says. “I never look at my watch. I can see the sheep from the top road as the sun goes down. I can see the trees. I can see the hills. Everything in the valley looks so small from here.” At this his voice cracks and he tears up. “This valley has been made into the shape of my heart
Where is your evening walk to the mountaintop? Your creekside? Your green pasture? The good shepherd will lead you there with goodness and mercy. God knows that retreating from the frenzy of the world, is where our hearts will be made in the shape of compassion. And my goodness that’s what this world needs. Tend your compassionate soul, friend, for it will be needed[3] Amen.
[1] Sinner, Matt Sermon Brainwave podcast Working Preacher 7/14/24
[2]https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/the-slow-rhythms-of-a-shepherds-life-in-heart-valley
[3] https://unfoldinglight.net/2024/07/19/guard-your-compassion/