God is a Great Foundation

 Psalm 79     Numbers 31-32     Mark 6

There is a long line of us that have felt that we are surrounded by enemies that would nothing better than to see our reputation if not our life destroyed. God’s people have always stood out because they are called to be different than the rest of the world. They are to be a reflection of God to the world; in whose image they were made. Becoming like Jesus will lead to rejection and aloneness at times and the struggle to maintain faith is real.

Today’s song reminds us that when we reflect God, Jesus, to the world we will become a reproach to our neighbors. They will scoff at what we believe, and mockery will be a normal way of life. We often find the songwriter, as we do here, crying out from their loneliness feeling they are being held responsible for the sins of those that came before them. We have a desire, if we are honest as the songwriter is here, to see those that work against us punished by God.

All that being said, the song writer calls us to be like sheep in the pasture of the Lord, giving thanks to God forever and to tell future generations to give God praise as we do.

Before Moses sends the people off into the promised land the Lord tells him to take vengeance on a people that opposed them on the journey. They are to set aside a relatively small army and go into battle. This feels like a test of trust in the Lord. First will they go where they have to trust the power of the Lord and second, will they do what God commands of them. They go to battle, succeed and return with great plunder and present it to Moses as a sign of their strength. As often happens they struggle to follow all of God’s expectations and Moses has to hold them accountable. They are instructed to divide the plunder between those that went, the leaders and the people. They not only do that but bring to Moses an offering of atonement.

Still, two of the tribes look at the land they are living in and it seems so great they can’t image anything greater ahead and want to stay and claim their inheritance without going into the promised land. After agreeing to go into battle with the people of Israel and then return Moses gives them permission to leave behind their families and possessions.

The gospel reading today from Mark is a series of stories about Jesus teaching, challenging, healing and touching the lives of people in ways that drew others to him. Those that knew him best were the first to reject him because all they could see was what he had been. Then he took those that had been closest to him as he taught them how to live out their faith, sent them into the world without a support system and told them to teach what he had been teaching them by word and example. He also warned them that some places would reject them and they should leave and shake off their feeling of responsibility for them since their actions would be a witness against them.

The disciples go out and begin to tell the story of Jesus and why people needed to turn their lives over to God’s control. They are touching peoples lives and bringing out transformation in the name of God to the point they get the kings attention.

The king remembered that he had been rash before, and it had cost him greatly and put him in conflict with God and God’s people. We are reminded when we make public promises, they are harder not to keep even when we realize we never should have made them.

As the people continued to seek him out and come to have their lives touched and changed by him he told the disciples they were like sheep on the way to slaughter and their role was to change the course of their lives that hey would have a new chance.

While the disciples were able to see the human and spiritual needs of the people, they most often wanted to meet the physical needs and ignore the spiritual needs, especially when those needs conflicted with their own desires. They come to Jesus with a physical need that the people are hungry, and they should be sent off to care for their own needs. Jesus challenges them to meet the need. They see it as an impossible task because they have such limited resources. They have a picture of scarcity and Jesus shows them that the reality was when you trust in God there is not only enough to satisfy but there is a great abundance. This would lead to even more increasing crowds wherever they went even though the disciples still didn’t gain an insight because their hearts where hardened.

Today’s readings are all a reminder that we tend to look at life through our limited human vision while God knows no bounds and when we put our trust in him the results are boundless blessings. God doesn’t fail us when we put our trust in him.