Today's Gospel

Your Rescue Mission

What does home mean to you? I grew up in Sydney, Australia. And I've lived here in the States now for more than 25 years. But there's something about flying into Sydney, there's something about flying into Sydney, and seeing that Opera House, and the harbor, and the harbor bridge. There's just something about home. And that is true for us all. Home has a powerful, powerful effect on us. Very often, we grow up, we live in our parents' homes, and then we maybe rent a place with some friends, or go to college, and really have a home. But there comes a time in our lives where we have a place, and we feel like, "Okay, this is home. This is my place." And it's not about the place, or how big it is, or small it is, or where it is. It's more psychological.

Today's reading, Jesus comes home. Reading's from the third chapter of Mark's gospel, Verse 20-21. Short reading. And Jesus went home. And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. And when his friends heard it, they went out to seize him. Well, they said, "He must be beside Himself." So, firstly, great friends, right? Great friends, they're thinking about Jesus, they care about Jesus. But Jesus came home; he couldn't even get peace at home. And he's now one of the things that we look for in our home. One of the things that we consider to be sacred about our space. That it is our space. That we can find peace there. And quiet there. So Jesus has come home, and it's still mayhem, people everywhere. Trying to get to him, trying to get near him. They want something from him; they're pulling at him. You know? Doesn't even have time to eat. Come here to find peace, and quiet, and space to eat.

And so his friends, his friends heard about this. They didn't say, "Oh well, you know? You're God, so he'll be fine." No. Friends, they heard about this, they were concerned for him. Went out to seize him, an interesting word, right? Seize him. And maybe you need to be seized. Maybe you need friends to come and seize you right now. Maybe something's going on in your life, you got yourself all caught up in something. And maybe you can't get yourself out of it. Maybe you need to be rescued, maybe you need friends like that to come and seize you, and pull you away from it, because maybe you're beside yourself. What is it, this time in your life, that you need to be rescued from? What is it you need your friends, or you need God? Need the angels and the saints? To come seize you, rescue you from, to save you from? Think about that today. Don't gloss over it; it's easy to gloss over these things. They're difficult, they're challenging to think about ourselves in this way. Think about that. What is it that you need to be seized away from at this time in your life? God bless you, have a great day. Don't just be yourself, be the-very-best-version-of-yourself. All that God created you to be.