“Reporting Back”

July 20, 2003

Mark 6:30-44

I did a bit of research last week.  I called up an Internet news search engine and typed the word “Clergy”.  In seconds I had a list of headlines from hundreds of newspapers around the world that included the word “clergy.”  In six of the first twenty headlines, the word following “clergy” was “sex”, as in, “clergy sex abuse crisis.” 

We all know of the devastation that has been visited upon individuals and families in all branches of the church in our country as a result of clergy betraying the trust placed upon them.  I want to speak this morning about what is being done within the Episcopal Church to insure that the church will always be a safe place for our children and for all who seek pastoral care in the church. And I want to speak more broadly about what the church can learn from this crisis, not only about clergy conduct, but about all of our ministries, especially in light of our reading from Mark’s gospel this morning.

The church has responded in three ways to this crisis, generally speaking.  First, the church has made changes in the way it practices its ministry.  Parishes and dioceses are now required to do background checks on all clergy and other leaders in the church, particularly those working with children.  Safe Church training is now required for all clergy and staff, and for lay leaders in parishes, as well.  This training includes clear guidelines for the conduct of pastoral care and of programs for children and youth in parishes in order to avoid any situations in which there may be a risk of sexual misbehavior or abuse. 

Beyond these changes in procedure and policy, the church has turned particular attention to two aspects of the clergy’s work –accountability and health – and it is these that I’d like to examine more closely in light of our gospel reading.  The issue of accountability has particularly been highlighted in media coverage of the crisis in our sister church, where oversight of clergy by their bishops not only failed to put a stop to abusive behavior but even played a role in perpetuating it.  It is imperative for the health of the church that clergy in their ministry should be accountable not only to their bishops but also to their ordained peers and to lay leaders in the church.

Furthermore, as our gospel reading suggests, accountability should play a crucial role for all of us in our ministries as baptized people.  Remember the setting for our reading:  in a kind of “dry run” for the great commissioning of the church at Pentecost, Jesus calls together the twelve and sends them out two by two.  (Two by two -- ministry in teams rather than in isolation – that turns out to be an important element of ministry in a safe church today.)  Two by two Jesus sends them out to proclaim the gospel’s call to repentance and to cast out evil spirits, thereby bearing witness in word and deed to the power and presence of God’s reign in our midst. 

Jesus sends them out and then, as we hear in our reading today, they return, they gather together, and they report back.  They make an account to Jesus – they are accountable to him – telling him all that they said and did.  Mark does not include the content of their report, but we can make some reasonable inferences.  In sending them forth Jesus prepared them for the fact that some people would receive their words and others would not.  We can expect that the disciples on their return would report to him both kinds of results.  They would share their joy with him in recalling those who had heard the gospel and repented.  They would also share, perhaps their sense of grief or confusion – even their sense of failure – over those who had reacted to their words with indifference or hostility.  Other gospel accounts record the consternation of the disciples over some evil spirits that they were not able to cast out.  Jesus would have heard all of this as the disciples reported back.

I believe that this kind of accountability is essential for all of us in our ministries.  We are all sent out to witness to God’s reign and to be instruments of God’s healing and reconciliation.  As we are all sent out, so se all need to return from time to time to report back.  We need someone – a spiritual friend, a companion, a small group – with whom we share our joys and griefs, our successes and failures, our enthusiasms and confusions.  My guess is that, if we do not have some such relationship of accountability, then we are not seriously engaged in our ministry – or our ministries are in danger of being distorted or subverted by our personal needs and agendas, or by our sense of shame or inadequacy.

Jesus receives the reports of his disciples – and how does he respond?  “Come away,” he says.  “Let’s take some time off.  Let’s get out of the city, go out to a deserted place all by ourselves – and rest.”

“Rest.”  When we hear this word, we must think of the sabbath.  God labored to create the cosmos in six days, and on the seventh day God rested.  God decreed that we should have a day of rest because we are not created only to work, only to do; we are created to be and to enjoy.  Part of the church’s effort to ensure a safe church has been to pay more attention to clergy’s own time of rest as part of an overall concern for clergy health – because clergy who attend to their spiritual, emotional and physical health are far less likely to behave abusively to others.  So, too, should we all attend to our overall health by attending to our rest – our Sabbath time.

I hear something more in this story from Mark’s gospel.  If the mention of rest brings sabbath to mind, then we might hear this while story in terms of the sabbath rhythm of our lives together as a Christian community.  Seven days ago we were sent out.  We ended our Sunday liturgy with the words, “send us out into the world to do the work you have given us to do.”  We have been scattered for six days wherever our lives take us – in our households, our workplaces, our neighborhoods – and there we have used the gifts we have been given to do whatever presents itself for us to do.  And now we return, we gather, and in a few moments, in our prayers, we will report back.  We will lift up in prayer those people for whom we are concerned; we will give thanks for the blessings that we have see, we will ask for forgiveness for the things that we have done wrong and the things that we have left undone.  God will receive our reports and invite us to enter into rest – to be refreshed and renewed by resting in Him.

Jesus set sail with his disciples to take them to a place of rest, but then something happened; it’s as if the story doesn’t unfold as it is supposed to.  They set sail for a deserted place, but they are spotted, and when they come ashore, they find a crowd of needy people and a chaotic scene.

I wonder whether this, too, isn’t meant to be a picture of our own sabbath life?  We all want church to be a time apart with familiar people where we can be comforted in doing what is predictable and therefore restful.  But then we arrive in church, and what do we find?  If Mark’s story is our guide, we find a chaotic crowd of needy people.  Maybe someone is sitting in “our” pew.  Maybe there are people who aren’t behaving properly, who can’t find the right page in the prayer book, perhaps even – my goodness! – someone who is troubled or hungry. 

We may react the way the disciples do – they resent it!  Their sabbath has been spoiled!  They are angry with Jesus.  “Send these people away!” they say.  “We can’t possibly meet these people’s needs.  We don’t have the budget of the staffing to handle this.  We have barely enough for ourselves!  I’m sure that there is a church down the street where they would be much more comfortable.”

But Jesus says, “No, you will feed them.”  And then what happens?  This spoiled holiday becomes an experience of grace; the fear of scarcity is transformed into a feast of abundance.  Jesus takes the bread and fish and blesses them, and then – the needy crowd is wonderfully fed by the hands of the disciples, with the little that they had on hand.

Is it possible that we could experience something similar?  We may want church to be for us a refuge, a time apart in peace, and we may be dismayed instead to find a church chaotic and needy, torn by controversy, wounded by betrayals and mistrust, with not enough resources to go around.  But by God’s blessing we may find a way to feed one another with whatever little we have on hand.  We may find that in doing so we ourselves are fed, we are revived and renewed and ready to be sent out into the world again in witness to God’s love.

The Rev. Steven Bonsey

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