Evocative Seeing

Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Proper 12, the week of the ninth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Phrase for reflection from today’s reading:

34As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

Today we celebrate the Feast of William Reed Huntington. (See below.)

Daily Office Lectionary readings

AM Psalm 61, 62; PM Psalm 68:1-20(21-23) 24-36

2 Samuel 3:6-21; Acts 16:6-15; Mark 6:30-46

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Office Gospel, Mark 6:30-46

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; 36send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ 37But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’ 38And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ 39Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. 41Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. 42And all ate and were filled; 43and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.

45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

David's Reflections

Jesus had compassion on a crowd in the wilderness. He and his disciples were attempting to retreat from the demands of the throngs into an isolated region, but the crowds followed them and met them there. Rather than retreat farther or send the crowd away, Jesus responded out of compassion.

The word compassion derives from a combination of two Latin roots meaning "to suffer with." Nouwen, McNeill, and Morrison, sketch the demands of compassion. "Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human." *

In a moment of fatigue, Jesus worked the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels, the feeding of the 5,000. (Matthew and Mark have versions of the feeding miracle, which means this miracle gets reported six times.) He saw the crowd as vulnerable and powerless, like sheep lacking a shepherd, and he assumed the shepherd role and fed them. The key verb early in this story is "saw." Jesus saw a great crowd. But, he did not see them as interrupters, as nuisances, as a bother, as sensation seekers. Rather, he saw them as people desperate for God's loving care. That seeing evoked his compassion.

What do we see in others? What do we see when we experience an act of rudeness? What do we see when we are interrupted? What do we see when we confront profound brokenness in another? What do we see when we see another ill or depressed? What do we see when we encounter those with little or no spiritual interest? What do we see when we experience those with substance addictions. If we can look beneath the surface of their behaviors, their unloveliness, their desperate need, perhaps we can see a soul lonely, powerless, fearful, ravaged, vulnerable, a soul starving for lack of God's saving love. True seeing evokes compassion.

Perhaps my prayer today should be, "Jesus, grant me vision to see what you see that I may partake of your compassion."

* Donald P. McNeill, Douglas A. Morrison, and Henri J. M. Nouwen, Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982).

Collect of the Day, Proper 12, The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

O god, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 231)

Today we celebrate the Feast of William Reed Huntington, priest (died 26 July 1909 CE)

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/WRHuntington.htm

Collect of the Feast of William James Huntington

O Lord our God, we thank you for instilling in the heart of your servant William Reed Huntington a fervent love for your Church and its mission in the world; and we pray that, with unflagging faith in your promises, we may make known to all people your blessed gift of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Peace

Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen. (BCP, 123)

For those in the Armed Forces of our Country

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 823)

In the Order of Worship for Evening

Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)

A Collect for Mission

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 100)