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In touch 

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Crowds then and now

As crowds return after lockdown, how might we emulate Jesus’ compassion for the crowd? (Mark 6.34) 

Context

Last weekend we saw close to capacity crowds watching the Wimbledon tennis finals and the Euro football final at Wembley with few wearing masks. On 19 July almost all Covid-19 legal restrictions in England come to an end and crowds may again seem normal after 15 months without them. In churches we have stayed ‘socially distanced’, worn our masks and accepted that we cannot sing. Many, perhaps most, will wish to maintain at least some precautions particularly as case numbers rise.

Minorities within the crowds forced their way into Wembley Stadium and continue to taunt England’s black footballers with racist abuse, at least on social media. Marcus Rashford wrote: ’I can take critique of my performance all day long, my penalty was not good enough, it should have gone in but I will never apologise for who I am and where I came from’. Rashford’s colleague, Tyrone Mings, has attacked the Government – and specifically the Home Secretary – for failure to condemn those who booed when the team took the knee. I recommend Joe Aldred’s Facebook post of 13 July, which includes these words ‘good people everywhere, let’s drain the racist swamp until what’s at the bottom becomes clear and identified for what it is and they are. Humanity deserves better.’

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

• People sometimes ask, ‘What would Jesus do?’ We cannot know how Jesus would have reacted to a pandemic of the sort we have faced. But we can note from today’s Gospel reading that Jesus ‘had compassion’ on the crowd who followed him. The REB says that Jesus’ ‘heart went out to them’, while NJB translates ‘compassion’ as ‘pity’; do these alternative translations offer a slightly different slant?
• The section of the chapter omitted in today’s Gospel is the familiar story of the feeding of the crowd. That was how Jesus responded to the hungry crowd. How does this relate to the action of many volunteers during lockdowns? Do the food banks supported by so many churches reflect Jesus’ compassion? Do we believe that we are also called to campaign for an end to the need for foodbanks?
• Crowds followed Jesus around. We do not know whether or not they were well-behaved crowds. Would there have been pickpockets in 1st century Palestine? Surely there would have been some in those crowds ready to cause trouble or at least looking for opportunities to do so?
• Jesus had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd’ (Mark 6.34). Do contemporary crowds also lack shepherds? What lessons are there for leadership in our society?
• How should Christians respond to the minority of trouble makers? ‘Would you stand by the other side?’ as Pamela Verrall’s hymn (Singing the Faith 257, words and music on YouTube) puts it.
• In Christ there is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female (Galatians 3.28). Against that background racist slurs are surely wrong; but how do we best combat both the use of such slurs and the ideas which underlie them?
• Ask yourself, and ask your congregation, whether you/they enjoy crowds. Football supporters and festival goers presumably do. What is it about crowds which is attractive? Are there dangers, for example, of finding yourself following the crowd?
• This weekend (18-19 July), I would normally be at the Tolpuddle Festival, organised by the TUC in the Dorset village to remember and celebrate six farm workers who formed a primitive trades union in 1834 and were sentenced to transportation to Australia. Methodists are involved in the festival to remind those present that at least four of the six were people of faith motivated by a belief that all people were equal before God (they were Wesleyan Methodists, two of them local preachers). This year the festival is mainly online but the new President and Vice President of the Methodist Conference will be in the village to lay a wreath and take part in a slimmed down parade and a festival service.

 

Questions for discussion

• How are we each reacting to the easing of restrictions after so many months, individually and as congregations? For those in England, is Monday ‘freedom day’ or too risky?
• When are crowds a positive thing and when are they dangerous? How can we avoid being influenced by the crowd?
• In the light of Galatians 3.28, how best can Christians witness in this generation to those who use racist slurs?

Dudley Coates is a local preacher in the Yeovil and Blackmore Vale Methodist Circuit and a former Vice President of the Methodist Conference.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

The week ahead is going to be a week of great changes. On Monday, the government are due to lift most of the remaining COVID restrictions in England – with changes in other parts of the UK to come soon after – and the way we’ve been living for the past year and a half will alter dramatically. For many of us, this change will coincide with the start of the school holidays and a shifting of our routines away from homework and study.

Our long summer holiday always brings about a natural break in our pattern of living, but will it be even more pronounced than usual this year? What does the summer mean to you: is it a time of excitement and rushing from one event to another? Is it boring; a time when we feel lacking in stimulation or activities? What does the lifting of restrictions mean for our summer plans? Will it make us busier and, if so, is this a good thing?

For everyone, change causes us to think about the routines and patterns by which we live. This is true of our spiritual patterns as much as anything else. What is the balance between rushing and resting in your summer plans? And in your spiritual life? As the COVID restrictions lift and as the holidays begin, we should pause to reflect and pray, bringing God into our new circumstances and seeing where our walk with Jesus fits into, and influences our changing routine.

Joel Denno is a licensed lay minister serving in the Benefice of Old Marston and Elsfield, in the Diocese of Oxford. He enjoys teaching the Bible and discussing the Sunday readings with the church youth group, Pulse.

 

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