For Sunday
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

Collect

Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Reading

From Mark 6:30-34,53-56

“And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.”

Reflection

There are two things that struck me about this reading. Of course, they are only related because they once again keep the theme going we’ve seen week after week: power. The true power of Jesus.

If we remember two weeks ago, Jesus made his closest followers apostles, gave them his power to fulfill his mission in the world, and sent them out to make it happen. And it works.

This week, we see them come home and debrief with Jesus. They actually take the time to reflect on what they’ve done and seen. Even as there are countless more people who want their attention, Jesus makes time for reflection.

In a practical sense, we should take special note of this. We live in a culture so full of unsatisfied. There is always better. More. We so extol the intrinsic value of hard work, that we invariably teach our kids to work harder not smarter. Against this, Jesus taking a pause for reflection as necessary to their learning feels extremely countercultural.

The other thing that struck me is how this passage calls back to the last few weeks. The apostles didn’t just get the power of Jesus, they get the crowd’s harassment like Jesus. They really do get the full Jesus experience.

Another callback is more subtle. A few weeks ago, we heard about a woman who had so much faith that she believed that if she could just touch Jesus’s clothes, she could be healed. An idea he commended as faithful, while not wanting people to really get. But now that is what everybody is doing.

Power and faith is spreading way beyond anyone’s expectations. May the same happen with us.