Passage: This Week's Second Reading

"G-Force"

Jerry Bruckheimer is a household name in the entertainment world. He has produced mega-hit cash cows, from Top Gun and Pirates of the Caribbean on the silver screen to CSI and Amazing Race on the small screen. Next week, Disney unveils G-Force, Bruckheimer’s stab at a 3-D film.

He has partnered with a highly unlikely cast: three guinea pigs, a fly and a mole.

Together, they’re the G-Force: a covert government team of highly trained animal spies. The team includes a martial-arts expert, a transportation specialist, a techno geek and a literal fly-on-the-wall surveillance whiz. They’re commanded by squad leader Darwin, a rodent who probably isn’t unintentionally named, given how highly evolved he seems.

The fate of the world rests in the paws of this G-Force. They must foil the attempts of an evil billionaire to dominate the world. It’s a familiar plot line with Disney-esque superheroes.

In this film, G-Force may stand for Guinea Pig Force. But in physics, it’s a measurement of the strength of force placed on an object. Basically, it’s how many multiples of gravity we feel.

We walk the earth in 1G. If you’re living in the International Space Station, you brush your teeth in 0G. Fighter pilots regularly face 7G’s of force. When you ride the Kingda Ki roller coaster in New Jersey, 4G’s and a ton of straps and webbing keep you from flying into the wild blue yonder during those insane bends and curves. G-Force is the irresistible power of pull.

And that’s what Christianity is intended to be about. A G-Force — a God Force — enacted through people that draws insider and outsider alike toward faithfulness.

There’s a God Force at work in this week’s text. Jesus has invited his disciples to a quiet place for some much needed rest. Returning from their first road trip, the disciples gather to share stories of their experiences, and take some time to reflect on what they accomplished in God’s name.

But word was out about Jesus already. They had seen and sensed the God Force at work in him, and they swarmed to gather around him. The short respite was over before it got started. In the fast-moving action of our text, the key is Jesus’ reaction. He isn’t angry. He doesn’t claim his rights to rest. He doesn’t sit numb and ignore people’s needs.

Jesus stops to see the spiritually malnourished crowd. He has compassion on them that came from deep within his being, because they were lost and hungry, like sheep without a shepherd.

It’s like those times when parents are exhausted, but the baby still cries. When they’re at their best, parents don’t feel angry. They don’t roll over and ignore the child while claiming their need for sleep. The baby has a need that he or she can’t meet alone. So parents empathize. They provide care for the distressed baby, motivated by sacrifice, love and compassion.

This is how Jesus reacts to the needy mass of humanity crashing his sabbatical.

His compassion acted like a 10G force that nobody could resist. When Jesus has compassion on one crowd, it causes another crowd, which we’ll hear about in next weeks Gospel lesson.

Compassion is one of those ideas that we think we know, but maybe we don’t. Ask people to define compassion, and most give answers about "feeling sorry for someone" — something in the emotional realm. While partially correct, that isn’t a complete or Mark 6 understanding of compassion.

Some of you may have heard the simple but powerful etymology of compassion. The Latin cum means "with," and passio means "to suffer." Compassion is "suffering with" another. But there are even better examples in the Greek root word from which "compassion" is drawn.

The Greek word σπλαγχνίζομαι (splangchnizomai) has connections to one’s guts. From it we get the English medical term splanchnic, referring to the internal soft-tissue organs. It is also an adjective that means intestines. This is the word used for Jesus’ reaction to the crowds in Mark 6:34.

The New Testament authors saw a deep and motivating word picture here. In Mark 6, the crowd was like sheep without a shepherd. They would die unless someone guided them to nourishment. Their spiritual hunger was on display. Their inmost need was exposed. So Jesus enters into that. He has a deep internal reaction. In essence, he takes deep into himself what came from deep within them.

True compassion is to internalize someone else’s condition. It is to suffer with someone by taking on his or her burden. To experience G-Force implies being part of the action. But all of this is just Greek to us if it doesn’t translate to real life. Compassion is something we sense in the depths of our gut when we see someone in a situation of pain and brokenness. But compassion always has an active component to it. It’s a reaction, not just a feeling.

But Jesus’ disciples are not sure how to handle this crowd, or how they should react to Jesus’ instructions: "You give them something to eat." You almost have to wonder how their ministry and mission trip had been so successful when they seem so clueless here. Jesus still has much to teach them, just like he teaches the crowd.

So beyond understanding what compassion is, most of us need concrete examples of what it looks like. We need catalysts to spur our willingness to see the suffering of others and join it.

St. Francis was known to have a weak stomach. Whether psychological or physiological, he had a nauseating aversion to people with leprosy. When he smelled the decay of their flesh, he would gag.

One day, Francis was riding along on his horse when he saw a leprous man. He stopped the horse and turned it in the opposite direction. At that very moment, he sensed the conviction of God’s Spirit. He knew that following Christ and avoiding compassion for that man couldn’t coexist. He sensed the sadness the leper must have felt when he saw Francis turn his horse around.

So Francis turned back, rode to the man, dismounted and took a knee before him. He drew up the sick man’s leprous hand and kissed it as if it were the king’s royal hand.

Franciscan biographers claim this episode of compassion was the moment of Francis’ true conversion. He sensed the pain of the leper and entered into it through a personally sacrificial act.

Which leads us to the personally sacrificial act that has already been done on our behalf. Jesus saw our suffering as a result of our sin. He had compassion on us, a compassion that led him come to sacrifice his life on the cross so that our sin could be removed and we, through faith, could be reconciled to God. Because the Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep, the provisions for our spiritual needs have been provided.

And just like the people of our text, not only our physical needs, but also our spiritual needs have been covered by Jesus’ death. This text focuses mostly on the miraculous feeding of the five thousand. One point of this text that is often overlooked is that Jesus spent a good part of the day teaching them. Jesus addressed their spiritual needs as well as their physical needs.

The physical blessing we receive, we also receive because of – and only because of – the cross. Because mankind’s sin had separated us from God, we could have received no good thing from him. But Jesus’ death has removed that sin, reconciling us to God, so that now he once again showers blessings on all people, both believers and unbelievers.

Yes, being satisfied with bread and fish and every other earthly need is because Jesus satisfied God’s justice on the cross. So now, in Christ Jesus, we who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Through Jesus there is unity in the one Holy Christian Church.

Through Jesus, we are called to have compassion on people in need, being instruments that provide physical food and by the power of the Holy Spirit, spiritual food.

I know Thanksgiving is a little way off, but college football season will be here before we know it. And as fast as times seems to go by, Thanksgiving will be here before we know it too.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday in the South, because we usually celebrate it with the three "F’s" – food, fellowship, and football. In many Christian homes, the Thanksgiving celebration begins with worship – or at least a really long prayer of thanksgiving, feeding first on God’s Word and our spiritual blessings.

Then we feed, or perhaps even feast on the physical blessings, the food He provided. And just like the people in our text, we are full. We are satisfied, and there are leftovers. Our text demonstrates for us that the G-force of our Lord’s compassion moves him to provide for both our body and our soul.

May that G-force empower you to recognize, rejoice, and respond in grateful trust and in bold service to those in need. After all, there are leftovers. Amen.