This is the final week of our three-week worship series called Flourishing: God’s Vision for Creation. Each week we are holding readings from scripture alongside ways in which God’s vision for creation is flourishing within us and also all around us.
Rev. Dr. Matt Skinner writes, “This passage offers…an opportunity to reflect on the gospel’s relationship to health and wholeness. When Jesus heals people of their ailments, his acts are not symbolic of the salvation he provides. They are a piece of that salvation. We miss that when we make ‘salvation’ into an otherworldly concept or a primarily spiritual condition. Jesus devotes himself to ensuring human flourishing in body, mind, spirit, and community….At the same time, Jesus’ ministry does not totally eliminate the things that assail our well-being. The people Jesus heals, we presume, get sick again and die. Jesus is a healer, yes, but his purpose entails more than spreading temporary wellness…Giving support to harassed people, feeding hungry people (6:35–44), and healing sick people have consequences. Those actions alter economies in households and neighborhoods. They transform relationships. They urge people to reconsider old allegiances. They give people hope. In a world where cynicism and fear are effective means of controlling people and stifling widespread human flourishing, too many hopeful people become threatening. Yet hope cannot remain hidden. It doesn’t work that way.”
Read Mark 6.30-34, 53-56.
How are cynicism and fear stifling your own flourishing? Where do you see signs of hopeful people becoming a critical mass for the flourishing of creation?
Worship online with thetable.live. CCLI #805699 / CCLI Streaming #094804