Pentecost 9- 2018
Mark 6:30-34, 50-56
Marian Free
(Notes while on leave)
In the name of God before whom we must all some day give an account. Amen.
“When the apostles returned they gathered around Jesus and told him all they had done and taught.” This sentence can seem out of context and it can very easily be overlooked. Jesus’ empowering and sending out of the disciples (with which the chapter began) has been interrupted by the account of the death of John the Baptist. Then as if there had been no interruption, the disciples are back and they are bursting to tell Jesus all about their experiences.
I am reminded of my own youth – bursting in to the family home after school and spilling out all the events of the day while my mother listened and prepared afternoon tea. When, in later years, my mother was not home after school it took a while to get used to not having anyone with whom to share the day. By the time she did get home (even if it was shortly after my siblings and I) the excitement of the day would have waned and the news by then would seem dull and old (no longer ‘news’). We would all go about our business, perhaps sharing the bare details or something that was really out of the ordinary. By dinner time my siblings and I had filled in three hours doing other things – homework, play. Our father had to use persuasion to extract some details of the day from us. So that he could be part of our daily experiences he would insist that we share an “educational adventure”. It was often a struggle to come up with anything interesting that happened during the day because it all seemed so long ago and any gloss had long worn off.
As a parent I was on the receiving end of such excited recounting of the days events. I well remember driving a child home from an excursion with a grandparent. During the course of the 20 minute drive I think I heard the entire script for ‘The Little Mermaid’. For my daughter the experience had been so wonderful that she was compelled to share it in minute detail. (I’m sure that had her father been the driver I would have been told only the barest outline.)
“When the apostles returned they gathered around Jesus and told him all they had done and taught.” These words that often slip past me as I move on to the next part of the gospel struck me with some force on this occasion. I found myself thinking: “Will I have so much to tell?” I wondered what it would be like to ‘come home’ to Jesus. What would be the high points that I would want to share with him? Would I figuratively burst through the door so full of news about how God has worked in my life, the changes in others that Spirit has brought about through me.
This line of text has given me pause for thought.
In the end it doesn’t really matter how we think of judgement. We all believe that we will have to face God one day. How will we report on the life we have been given? Will our excitement and joy match that of the disciples? Will we be satisfied with what we have done with the gifts God has given us or filled with fear and trepidation when we realize how much we have squandered?
“When the apostles returned they gathered around Jesus and told him all they had done and taught.” When Jesus returns what will we have to say?
Swallowsrest 