A SUNDAY REFLECTION (Mark 6:14-29)

In Mark’s Gospel, hearing news of John’s death, Jesus turned his face towards Jerusalem. It was a turning point in his life. He first withdrew (by boat) to a deserted place to be by himself. But he couldn’t get away from the crowds or his disciples for long. He came back ashore, fed the crowds, “walked on the water”, etc. There’s a somberness that draws a dark curtain over Jesus’ ministry from the time he hears of his good friends’ death. Doing the God stuff, and telling the Good Stuff about God is no Sunday School picnic!

Seriously, there should be music out there that expresses the grief that one feels when a good friend (or relative) dies. Or when tragic things happen to good people.

One song that comes to my mind in reading Mark 6:14-29 is “I Believe in the Sun” by Carey Landry. It’s one of my favourites, and I’ve used it with children and young people (as well as adults) to help them through times of grief and hopelessness:

I believe in the sun, even when it isn’t shining. I believe in love, even when there’s no one there. I believe in God, yes, I believe in God, even when He is silent

[from “I Believe in the Sun ” in HI GOD! by Carey Landry, taken from an anonymous poem, said to have been written on the wall of a bunker in Cologne, Germany during World War II].

Another one that comes to my mind is:

“NOBODY KNOWS THE TROUBLE I’VE SEEN”

Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, Nobody knows but Jesus, Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen, Glory Hallelujah!

And still another:

“WE CANNOT MEASURE HOW YOU HEAL” [Tune: Ye banks and braes] (Scottish Traditional)

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/song-midis/Ye_Banks_and_Braes.htm

1. We cannot measure how you heal or answer every sufferer’s prayer, yet we believe your grace responds where faith and doubt unite to care. Your hands, though bloodied on the cross, survive to hold and heal and warn, to carry all through death to life and cradle children yet unborn.

2. The pain that will not go away, the guilt that clings from things long past, the fear of what the future holds, are present as if meant to last. But present too is love which tends the hurt we never hoped to find, the private agonies inside, the memories that haunt the mind.

3. So some have come who need your help and some have come to make amends, as hands which shaped and saved the world are present in the touch of friends. Lord, let your Spirit meet us here to mend the body, mind and soul, to disentangle peace from pain, and make your broken people whole.

(Copyright 1989. Wild Goose Resource Group <http://www.wgrg .co.uk/>, Iona Community, Govan, Glasgow G51 3UU, Scotland

[See Also: “Singing Through the Hard Times” (Reformed Worship)

http://www.reformedworship.org/magazine/article.cfm?article_id=442

It is indeed hard to sing about John the Baptist’s beheading! ~ As it is also difficult to sing (or pray) when things go terribly wrong, or when someone near and dear to us dies. And yet, sing and pray we do, if not out of faith, then out of necessity.

Why do bad things happen to good people? – It’s a question that cannot be answered or addressed so easily, even though many books have been written on the subject. What we do know, however, is that the One in whom we believe in Jesus Christ is the God who loves us, cares for us, and stays with us … even through heart-breaking hard-testing times.

John R. Maynard