Call on Jesus continually

By John Pearring

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020621.cfm
Hebrews 13:15-17, 20-21
Mark 6:30-34

Two things stood out for me in the first reading from Hebrew on this Saturday. First, the author of Hebrews urged believers to confess Jesus’ name continuously (Hebrews 13:15). Second, the author of Mark reports that Jesus, though exhausted and attempting to step away for rest, has pity on the people who ran a great distance to meet up with him (Mark 6:34).

Both of these stand out verses where we’re inspired to bother God. Call on him incessantly. Run across the countryside to catch up to an opportunity to learn from him.

Billions of people today identify as Christians. Many of us speak his name on a continual basis. Quite a few of us will even say Jesus’ name as an outward confession, claiming his rightful place not just in our lives but in all of creation. Some folks accept our outbursts. Others find them annoying. God wants us, though, to speak his name without fear, reprisal, or worry. 

Brothers and sisters:
Through Jesus, let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise,
that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.
(Hebrews 13:15)

The hundreds of people who beat a path to where Jesus intended to rest barely scratch the surface of today’s incredible numbers reaching out to him every day. Folks go to church when it’s available. Billions of believers praise and worship God en masse many times a week. They thirst for the loving, communal relationship with the full Trinity, and God pleads for us to do it.

These two activities — speaking Jesus’ name, and beating a path to Church or any holy encounter with God — mount up to an unimaginable calculation of earthen encounters for God to deal with. How is even a portion of this reaching out possible for God? Aren’t we just yammering away, bothering the heck out of the worn out divinity?

Nope.

I remember hearing on the radio a few years ago that a sports analyst couldn’t imagine that quarterback Russell Wilson had the audacity to believe God had any interest in his faith life on the football field. “Who does Wilson think he is?” the analyst said. “Does he really believe God has time, or even cares, to assist him in being a good sportsman?”

I was stunned. Not because he was picking on Wilson. Christians get used to that in the media. No, because he imagined that God had a tight schedule. The priority of problems in the world, amid all the crisis requests, and here’s a selfish quarterback trying to get God’s attention. 

Yes. Children, old people, salesmen on the road, women struggling with too many tasks, teenagers lost in the world of cliques, and babies in the womb squirming around for room to spread out. These common issues don’t get organized on a daily planner by God. That’s not who God is. He’s got skills, capabilities, and a cosmic interplay with time and space that’s beyond our comprehension. 

I’ve even heard that holding back on calling out to God because we don’t want to bother him — whether in Jesus’ name, pleading for the presence of the Holy Spirit, or worshipping the Father — is one of our biggest mistakes. We might imagine that God has much better things to do than bother with our rather common and often petty problems. That imagination, though, reveals our lack of knowledge about who God is and who we are to God.

When Jesus disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
(Mark 6:34)

Even in God’s incarnated state, a frail body doomed to die and easily worn down over time, he stretched himself to continue ministering to the eager crowds. How much different is Jesus now than he was as a human wandering around on our planet? In truth, there is no difference at all. In his resurrected state, I do believe his stamina no longer is a factor, though. 

We all say this short prayer that assures us of God’s continuity over the vast expanses of the universe and through all of time. God is fully engaged, and all in on teaching us, healing us, catching us as we fall and eventually die, all toward restoring our creation to be resurrected like Jesus.

Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will ever be, world without end. Amen.