July 13, 2025
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Introduction
Have you ever made plans for your life and then had those plans interrupted?
Undoubtedly our answer to this questions is an unequivocal “Yes!” We’ve all made plans—maybe for an hour, a day, a weekend, a vacation, our work, our finances, our family, our future— and we’ve all experienced those plans get interrupted—go awry— by circumstances that changed or the unexpected happening.
And there is a tension within plans being interrupted, within plans going awry— and sometimes its the tension of a plan, a process, a vision of the future, not just being interrupted or even just going awry, but of blowing up right in front of us leaving us unable to see where God is in any of it. This is exactly the same tension Jesus and his Disciples lived every day.
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The setting for our text is the Disciples returning to Jesus from teaching, casting out demons, and anointing and healing the sick. Jesus says to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” Jesus has made plans for him and his Disciples—plans to get away for a while for the same reasons we take vacations— to rest, put their feet up, relax, enjoy some down time, decompress, get away from the hustle and bustle of preaching, teaching, healing, casting out demons, and subverting the oppressive Romans. (Well, you get what I mean.) And this all sounds great to the Disciples, and they’re excited and looking forward to a well-deserved and well-earned respite. They climb aboard their boat, cruise across the lake to a nice quiet place where they’ll rest, eat, stay up late, sleep in, and embody the immortal words of Jimmy Buffet, “Take it all in, it’s as big as it seems, count all your blessings, remember your dreams.”
But those plans, those hopes are quickly interrupted. Interrupted by crowds of people who run to meet Jesus and the Disciples as soon as their boat hits the shore. Jesus’, and the Disciples, expectations are unmet. Their plans interrupted by a great crowd of people, lost like sheep without a shepherd, interrupting everything, causing their best laid plans to go awry.
Move 1
The circumstances may be different, but we all know what it’s like to have life interrupted as the saying goes, “The best-laid plans of mice and men.” Which is only part of the line from the 1785 poem by Robert Burns “To a Mouse.” The full quote is, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
And we all understand this poetic idiom because we all live in the tension between our plans and interruptions; our expectations and the unexpected; life as we want it to be and life as it happens. Every one of us could tell a story about such. It happens in small ways and in much, much larger ways. It’s the baby waking up early from what was thought would be a quiet hour. Or a day with nothing on the calendar that turns into a day of one thing after another. It’s taking a new job and finding you are instead doing what you never expected. It’s the diagnosis that interrupts retirement plans. It’s a shattered dream, a divorce, a death. Our life plans get interrupted in a thousand different ways by the unplanned and unexpected.
I wonder what that looks like for you today. What were the plans— the expectations—you have for your life? What were the interruptions? What are the unexpected happenings you now have to navigate? Questions we can probably answer with ease. But the more important question is harder… Where is God in all of it?
Move 2
When our life plans are interrupted it’s easy—and tempting I might add— to work harder to make our plans happen, or blame others, or rage about things not working out, or even pray God will make the unexpected all go away. These are normal and typical responses to best laid plans going awry. But how has that ever worked out for any of us?
Which is why when we relate to today’s Gospel story, we need to pay close attention to what Jesus does—because Jesus doesn’t do any of those normal and typical responses. He doesn’t turn the boat around when he sees the crowd. He doesn’t get angry or resentful. He doesn’t blame or complain. And he doesn’t ignore or deny the interruption. He is simply present to what is.
We often hold our plans and the interruptions in opposition, as if it is one or the other. But what if our plans and the interruptions are both? What if one is not necessarily better or more important than the other? What if we could be equally present to the plans and the interruptions? What if we trusted that God’s spirit was present and moving in both?
I don’t mean that God picks or causes one over the other—but rather within both the plans and the interruptions God is present and calling; God is comforting and equipping; God is protecting and urging us forward.
I am not suggesting giving up planning, or we just give up. I’m not even suggesting expecting the unexpected is a bad idea. What I am suggesting is that we embrace everyday life, with all its plans and interruptions, as our most important spiritual practice.
Everyday life is where God shows up. It’s where we learn about ourselves. It’s a school of love. It teaches patience and offers opportunities to soften our hearts and act with compassion. It invites us into the mystery of creation. It reveals that how we relate to another mirrors our relationship to God. We learn to forgive. We practice faithfulness and hope amidst the uncertainty of life. That’s not to take anything away from prayer, study, outreach, charitable giving, going to church, or any of the other practices we might think of as spiritual. Faithfulness and hope amidst the uncertainty of life guides us to recognize that being in relationship, and living everyday life, means we must learn to see more deeply and be more present to whatever is, whether planned or unexpected.
Move 3
Faithfulness and hope amidst the uncertainty of life is about being intentional and caring toward the interruptions as we are to our best laid plans. That is how Jesus lived out his entire life and ministry.
Read the Gospel stories before, during, and after our texts for today… Jesus and the Disciples get in a boat, sailing away, when a storm arises. While Jesus is asleep. The Disciples interrupt his nap because the storm is raging. To which Jesus simply calms the sea and the wind (Mark 4:35-39).
Then, as soon as they get across the sea and Jesus steps out of the boat, he’s immediately met by a man with an unclean spirit. Jesus calls the spirit out of the man and heals him. (Mark 5:1-13)
They go back across the sea, and Jesus is again surrounded by a crowd, but a man named Jairus begs Jesus to help his dying daughter. Jesus goes with him but then gets interrupted by the touch of the hemorrhaging women. She’s healed, and Jesus has one of the most important conversations in the entire Gospel, before simply continuing on with Jairus. Except now it’s too late, messengers tell Jarius not to bother the rabbi because his daughter has died. But Jesus says, “Let’s step further into what you think is happening and see what God can make happen.” And when they do, new and renewed life springs forth. (Mark 5:21-43)
And then we come to today’s Gospel, with plans to take a break, only to be interrupted again.
All along the way Jesus is present, faithful, and sharing hope to whatever and whoever, whether planned or unexpected. That’s not just about tending to the lives of others. That’s also how we tend to our own lives. That’s how Jesus tended to his life. He knows the Spirit of God “blows where it chooses.” (John 3:8) which means we are always to be discerning the movement of the Spirit— discerning the movement of the Spirit in best laid plans and discerning the movement of the Spirit when plans go awry, and maybe even especially when they blow up in our face.
Move 4
What is that movement in the plans and interruptions of your life today? In what way is God present and calling in the midst of that movement? What do you see? What can’t you see, but might be hidden at the intersection of your plans and the unexpected?
God is always at work and God’s work is always for good, and always there is something of God at work at the intersection of your plans and the unexpected. The feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:35-44) and Jesus walking on the water (Mark 6:45-52) are hidden at the intersection of Jesus’ planned get away and the interruption by the crowd. The crowd that interrupted Jesus’ plans is the five thousand, “and all ate and were filled.” (Mark 6:42) Those two stories, however, are not part of the lectionary reading. They fall between the first half of today’s Gospel, Mark 6:30-34, and the second half, Mark 6:53-56.
But what if these stories were not excluded from today’s reading but were intended to be understood as God using interruptions for good? What if abundance and nourishment, presence and reassurance, are somehow hidden at the intersection of our plans and their interruptions? What if the fringe of Jesus’ cloak (Mark 6:56) is always being made available to us? What if Jesus is saying, “Let’s step further into what you think is happening and see what God can make happen.”
Conclusion
It is good to make plans. It’s not a bad idea to expect the unexpected. And as Jimmy Buffet would also say, “We got to roll with the punches, play all our hunches, make the best of whatever comes our way.” But also, within all our plans, and within whatever does come our way, we can hold fast to the promise that faithfulness and hope amidst the uncertainty of life guides us to recognize that being in relationship and living everyday life means with God we are guided to see more deeply and be more present to whatever is, whether planned or whether our plans go awry. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, July 13, 2025
Gracious and loving God, the life of ministry of Jesus was not only to bring us hope and grace but also to be a guide and example for how you call us to live— and that is to live as those who are called to be loving and compassionate, forgiving and filled with grace, as those who share the Good News of hope, peace, and joy. And yet it is also an example and a guide that shows us not our will, and certainly not our plans or expectations, but your will, and your guidance and fortitude to make it through all the interruptions and even all that we could never expect or imagine.
Holy God, we admit that when our plans go awry, when life is interrupted with the unexpected, or especially the unimaginable, we find ourselves lost, like sheep without a shepherd, unsure of where to turn or what to do next. It is in those times of life, when we don’t know what to do, that we must lean so deeply into our faith and be reminded that even within life‘s varied circumstances, even in the midst of the unthinkable and unimaginable, you are indeed still at work and your work is always for good.
So we pray you remind us that while you only want what is best for your children, the unthinkable and unimaginable will still happen. But nevertheless, you and your Holy Spirit are fully present to not only embrace us, wipe away our tears, and assure us nothing can separate us from your love—that you also show us there is a way through interrupted plans, the unthinkable and the unimaginable. There is a path we can walk, filled with promises of new life, a path Jesus has already shown us and a path Jesus will always guide us along that will always lead to better days and new life.
Hear now, we ask, the prayers from the depths of our hearts, lifted to you in this time of Holy Silence.
All of this, we pray in the name of our divine Shepherd, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…”