Just One Step

John 6:1-21

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand

in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Today, Jesus takes the disciples to school.  Yeah, he also happens to feed 5000 people with divinely delicious fish sandwiches, but really, that’s NOT the point, not the main point anyway.  Feeding the 5000 is simply Jesus’ teaching tool du jour.  You see, Jesus didn’t JUST have his sights set on satisfying the bellies of those particular 5000 folks, just that one time, on top of that one hill in the middle of nowhere.  Jesus had his sights on the transformation and salvation of all of creation!  He fed 5000 people, sure, and free fish sandwiches are, without any doubt, really, really awesome, BUT he mostly fed 5000 people in order to teach the disciples then, and teach us disciples now, how we are to join in as God changes the world!  It turns out that the way you change the whole world is the EXACT same way you feed 5000 people… you see the need, you sit down, you say a prayer and then… you take one step. 

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” That’s an English adaptation of a quote from the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu.  It means that even the most impossible seeming distances are crossed by beginning the journey with one step and then another and then another.  We’ve been seeing that Chinese proverb literally lived out as we sit on the edge of the field inviting hikers from the Appalachian Trail to come over for snacks, water, conversation, a chair and a little shade.  By the time those hikers get to our little corner of the hay field on West Sheffield Road, they’ve walked, one step after another for over 1500 miles!  Every single one of them began that 1500 mile journey with just one step.  Just one!  

For those hikers their journey began first by becoming aware of the Appalachian Trail.  For some they have known about it their whole lives.  One guy from Maine has intentionally NOT hiked to the top of Mt. Kathadin before because he’s been saving it for when he finishes the whole trail.  Others learned about it in the middle of their lives.  One couple started thinking about it only five years ago and then thought, “Maybe we should see if we even like hiking and camping before we start.”  They had never hiked or camped before!  

For Jesus, the feeding of the 5000 began with seeing the crowd.  How could you miss a trail that goes up the whole East Coast?  How could you miss a crowd of 5000 people?  How could I miss a business between here and Great Barrington someone told me about the other day.  How did 80% of another church miss the homeless guy camping in the woods beside their church?  How did Phillip miss the kid with the bread and fish?  Jesus’s first lesson he taught was that the disciples needed to look up and NOTICE!  To see the people around them, to see the need around them, AND to see the blessings around them. 

Phillip couldn’t even see the kid with the bread and fish, and while Andrew saw it, he immediately dismissed it.  “What’s a couple fish and some bread among so many people?”  What that was, Jesus taught them, was a GIFT!  We so often focus not on what we have but on what we don’t have.  This is perhaps one of my greatest personal difficulties.  I’m constantly fighting that voice that says there’s not enough!  But, Jesus taught the disciples then and is trying to teach us disciples now, not to underestimate the power of some small gift just sitting there right in front of you!  

Jesus then modeled for the disciples the next critical lesson.  Sit down, give thanks and begin.  Jesus had the people sit down, he took the loaves and fish and gave thanks and then began to hand out fish sandwiches.  Did they have enough for the whole crowd?  Nope.  But Jesus was teaching them that amazing things happen as you walk the Jesus Way, or as Bishop Curry calls it, The Way of Love.  Amazing things come up all along the Way.  On the Appalachian Trail it’s called “Trail Magic” and many of the people who have stopped by our little spot have said that the “Trail Magic” they’ve encountered along the way has inspired them to begin to think differently… to think of ways they too could add a little spot of kindness to the world.  Our little corner of kindness in a manure strewn hay field is doing nothing less than changing the world!  Not all of it at once, but our little corner of kindness is appreciated and it will be remembered and brought back with hikers to New Zealand, Austrailia, Ireland, Germany, Japan, and countless other places.  Five loaves and two fish did more than the disciples could imagine.  Five watermelons and two canopies have already done more than us disciples could have imagined.  All sorts of things are possible from what seems like nothing.  There’s even this local nutter who looked around and started making bird houses out of an old fence!  He's selling them for our capital campaign!  It won't top off the capital campaign, but it's a step and who knows what will happen along the way!  

So the word for today is DARE!  Dare to look up from this heads-down, push through, no eye contact life… look up and SEE… really SEE the people around you and dare to look into their eyes and see their needs, their hopes and their dreams.  And when the problem you see there seems overwhelming and when the temptation hits to look away… to look back down… to not see it, because it's just too much to bear, try to resist looking down, and instead look around.  Look around and you’ll inevitably find a little basket of five loaves and two fish, or a fence that can be turned into bird houses, or a little grant or a neighboring church, or a friend to help… because it’s there… that little thing you need to begin is right there at your feet… and then, even though it’s not any where near enough to change the world in one fail swoop, pick it up anyway... then sit down, say a prayer of thanks and then… take a step.  As the Talmud says, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief.  Do justly, now.  Love mercy, now.  Walk humbly, now.  You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”  See the need, find the gift, sit down, say a prayer of thanks and then… take a step.  Amen.   

Tapping on a Single Pane

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;

he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

It’s been… a week.  On Monday when I didn’t know where I’d go with this sermon, Jean suggested I go with, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord.”  And as that day developed and then moved on into the rest of the week, it seemed like she had been just as prophetic with that suggestion as Jeremiah had been when he first passed on those words from the Lord!  It has been QUITE the week.

It’s been a VERY challenging week for many people I think.  For me, who grew up during the Cold War with a dad who was a career Air Force officer it was a very challenging week.  My dad spent his entire career going places and working on projects we still know virtually nothing about.  Working to counter Cold War threats, he spent quite a bit of time away from home.  I have always felt that, in a way, I had proudly given up a part of my childhood for our country’s safety.  Because of that, I felt this week in a personal way. 

But as I stormed and stewed and went out to build another birdhouse to get away from the computer screen and the news… News about political shepherds destroying their sheep, a song came into my head.  It started very quietly.  Way back in the deep recesses of my continually graying, gray matter… The song just kept tapping, like a little bird, gentle tapping at a distant single-pane of window glass.  It seemed to be saying, “You’re in quite a lather today Erik."  It seemed to be asking, "Are you having trouble remembering the name of your Shepherd today?”  And slowly the song grew so I could just begin to hear it…

In the morning when I rise, In the morning when I rise,

In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus

You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.

It seems that the Lord had compassion on me because I was acting like a sheep without a Shepherd.  I had a Shepherd.  A Good Shepherd for that matter, but I was acting like I had forgotten that… mostly because I had.  So with a song, begun faintly, far back, in the deepest recesses of my mind, God slowly turned my attention away from the news on the screens, Facebook and Twitter feeds… and like a loving mother gently turns their screaming toddler’s head so she can look into their eyes and reassure them after a bad dream, I slowly came back from the dark-as-midnight place I had been. 

Dark midnight was my cry, Dark midnight was my cry, 

Dark midnight was my cry, Give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus

You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.

It turns out that the LORD is my Shepherd and no one else.  The LORD is our righteousness and no one else.  It is the LORD that leads me beside still waters.  It is the LORD that protects me with rod and staff.  It’s the LORD who is the true giver of justice and righteousness.  And so the disappointing actions of other would-be-shepherds were put back into perspective.  Jesus is Lord.  Caesar is not.  

As that song grew in my head, the darkness of the day and of this week began to break a little.  The song became louder… more insistent in my head, and then eventually it got to the point where the song, which began as an almost imperceptible tapping at the window glass, then drew my attention to that pre-dawn sort of light… that light that is always covered a bit with morning fog… and then the song just broke through like the dawn!

Just about the break of dawn, Just about the break of dawn,

Just about the break of dawn, Give me Jesus!

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus

You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.

So what now?  To be honest, I have no idea where the paths that lie ahead of us as individuals, as a nation and a world might go.  I’ve not lived as long as many but I think I’ve lived long enough to know that there is no permanent, magic solution on the horizon.  There are always dark valleys and unknown sorts of evil ahead.  We seem to be a species that learns lessons the hard way and forgets those lessons all too quickly.  What will next week bring?  There is no way to know.  What will happen with special councils, prosecutors, defendants and spies?  I don’t know.  What will happen with future elections, fear-filled followers, and the worst that we have yet to imagine, even while we’ve been forced to witness one “worst” we never thought we would see?  I have no idea what will happen next.  But I know now, what I hope I will remember to say then… even when the thing I face is death itself…

Oh when I come to die, Oh, when I come to die,

Oh, when I come to die, Give me Jesus.

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus

You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.

So my prayer for us as the world rages around us.  My prayer as we speak out against hatred, betrayal and injustice, as we must.  As we write our representatives and tell them of our Christian desire for a world of compassion, mercy, justice and peace, as we must.  As we vote for candidates that we believe will guide our world into a hope filled future, where everyone has enough, as we must… My prayer is that EVERY SINGLE WEEK, regardless of what is happening in the world, we will come to THAT TABLE… to the place where we are given Jesus!  Given Jesus as a free and gracious gift!  My prayer is that we will come to be fed and healed, simply by the touch of it!  And that we will be reminded that the LORD is our Shepherd… that the LORD is our righteousness and that fed with that spiritual food we will be able to return to that world outside… to that world that has seemingly gone stark-raving, loony-tunes mad and NOT despair!  My prayer is that returning from the Table we will instead be compelled to sing!  

And when I want to sing, and when I want to sing,

And, when I want to sing, give me Jesus,

Give me Jesus, give me Jesus

You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.

TURN THE PAGE!

Mark 6:14-29

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.” And he solemnly swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.

This story of John the Baptist… I have to say… it’s dark. It’s a story about a powerful man who, without much in the way of smartitude, unwittingly got himself steered down a dark, back alley in the middle of a moonless night only to find out much, much too late that this was a dead end road. This story is dark. As dark as it gets for a political family manipulating life or death things for their own twisted desires two thousand years ago. This story is dark. Dark like a depression you’ve been fighting for weeks and months that’s left your finger tips bloody from just trying to hold on to the edge of the pit for far too long. This story is dark. Dark like a windowless immigration bus driving your child away from you to a place you don’t know, by drivers who will soon forget your child’s name or where they dropped them off. This story is dark. Dark like the night the one you love is driven away under flashing lights. This story is dark. And what makes this story even harder… even darker… as if that was needed… is that we’ve all been told we must, we have to, we have no choice but to sit in the dark and DON’T TURN THE PAGE!

The story from Amos is dark too. It’s the sort of darkness that comes when the one who put the sun in the sky and breathed life into clay that became YOU… asks YOU to look at the world with honesty… with honesty, mind you… and tell that One if it’s still straight up and down like God made it. It’s the darkness that comes when the biopsy comes back as malignant. It’s the darkness that falls when the phone rings at 2 a.m. and you know a horror awaits you on the other end of the phone. It’s the darkness that comes when you deny God’s grace to yourself. It’s the darkness of letting go of the rope tied to someone you love. It’s the darkness of hitting rock bottom. It’s the darkness of a message unheard and a warning dismissed and a cliff approaching and being just out of reach. And what makes that darkness worse… as if it needed any help with that… is that the rule is: DON’T TURN THE PAGE!

In committees and synods and houses of primates.

Ideas for change make the nervous ones gyrate.

With Trolls and with ICE, and the GRU too,

Frightened white men mess with red, white and blue.

The POTUS and FLOTUS and SCOTUS as well,

Have something to say about what makes up hell.

In vast numbered lines of legislation galore.

In bills and amendments proposed on the floor.

In decades and eons of unbendable rules.

Followed religiously by scholars and fools.

In spread sheets with schedules all nailed to the wall.

With voices that speak like an unthinking doll.

In warnings from Presidents, Pundits and Sages

We’re constantly told: DON’T TURN THE PAGES!

But here’s the thing… what they don’t know and what they can’t ever seem to hear clearly, is what God has been whispering since the Wind of God swept over the waters in the very first sentence of the whole Bible… God’s been whispering to us through prophets and poets, to turn away from the dark and formless void that too often masquerades as the brains in charge of supposedly logical “thought” in this world. God is whispering for us to break the rules! Pick grain on the Sabbath, heal the sick, and raise the dead! And for God’s sake… God is whispering for us to absolutely, without delay… TURN THE PAGE! DO IT! DO…. IT!!!!! TURN THE PAGE!

Because what the rule following, all-change-is-bad world won’t tell you is that there’s Good News coming on that next page! On that page… the one after the horrors of John the Baptist’s beheading… the lost sheep find their shepherd! On that next page, five loaves and two fish multiply to feed five thousand! On that next page scarcity becomes abundance, the empty become full, the lost are found and in the end there was a left-over perfectly poetic pantry packed with panettone and perch!

And I’m here to tell you something that Ethyl (God love her), who has led the altar guild at St. Christina the Astonishing Church for the last 93 years won’t tell you. Something the accountants, synod lawyers and episcopal chancellors won’t tell you. Something the lectionary, liturgy and the library police won’t tell you either! I’m here to tell you something only poets, musicians and song writers will tell you. Only the bakers, barbecuers, fly fishers and fiddlers will tell you… something only the ones who color outside the lines with gleeful abandon will tell you! Something only the ones who put silly rhymes in the middle of sermons written on a desk with a solar powered waving pope will tell you… and THIS is what they’ll tell you:

TURN THE PAGE! Because when you turn the page from that darkness in Amos, God says “EXCEPT!” The sinful kingdom will be destroyed from the face of the earth… EXCEPT… not utterly destroyed. Things are bad… EXCEPT… the ruins will be rebuilt. The world is a mess and a mess of the people’s own making and there are consequences for that… EXCEPT... the day will come when food will grow so fast you’ll have to plow and harvest at the same time! The grapes will grow so thick that the mountains will drip with sweet wine. The day WILL COME, WILL COME, WILL… COME! Simply because the LORD WANTS IT TO COME, when what has been ruined will be rebuilt and everyone will have enough. Everyone… everyone… EVERY… SINGLE… ONE will have enough.

Now, out there, the world will continue to tell you in a strikingly, serious, series, of stories, and segments that the world is dark, deadly and desperate and we all must live in fear, frustration and forever foment! The people who have not taken time to address their demons, have not stopped running from the horrors of their past, have not dared to open their eyes to see the wonders that fall on them like rain and flow through them like breath… those folks will continue to tell you that whatever we do… we mustn’t… we shan’t… we positively, absolutely, unequivocally, it’s not in any way legal and we are a nation of laws for crying out loud so we CAN NOT under any circumstances EVER… TURN THE PAGE.

What I’m here to tell you… is that God says…

TURN IT!

Amen.

Leave the Bag

The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark, the 6th Chapter

Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.

Then he went about among the villages teaching. He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Years ago, Kelly’s mom, got very sick.  They sent her to the University hospital in Birmingham.  We flew in and when we got there we found out she was dying.  I had been a pastor for about five years by this time, so I knew a few things about hospitals, cancer, death, dying and funerals.  The new thing I learned is that in the crisis, as the spouse of the baby sister, the other siblings couldn’t hear anything I had to say.  

In difficult times, families revert to the old ways.  The old way was ignoring the baby sister… and with her, her husband too it seems!  Kelly just rolled her eyes.  She’d literally grown up with it!  But as the oldest sibling in my family it was a challenging revelation to discover that, as the Gospel says it, “I could do no deed of power there!”  I could have been genuinely helpful.  But they just couldn’t receive it.  I did have some very relevant experience.  They just couldn’t hear it. 

I think the first part of this Gospel story is in here to let all of us know that even JESUS himself had days just like that!  Even Jesus encountered situations and people who, at that moment, just weren’t in a place to receive what he had to give, regardless of how much they needed it and regardless of how wonderful the gift might be.  So if that happened to Jesus himself, when it happens to us, it should help us to remember, it’s not personal.  Jesus models how to handle those days and those folks.  While the people took offense at Jesus, seeing him acting above his pay-grade… Jesus didn’t take it personally.  He noticed it for sure…  how could he not!  He was “amazed” at their unbelief, for sure, and with that little jab about the prophets not being welcomed in their homes, it looks like he was a bit frustrated too!  But he didn’t lash out, bad mouth them or make personal attacks.  He also didn’t keep pounding his head against that brick wall.  He did what little good he could do there and then hit the road.  

In the second part of this lesson, Jesus sends out the disciples, teaching them to work that same way.  He told them “If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust.”  Let it go.  I think if Jesus had lived in the age of social media, he would have said, “If any thread will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, shake off the dust on your mouse and click away!”  

There’s another piece to this lesson that I think is just as important but a lot harder to see.  When Jesus sends out the disciples, he sends them out with “no bread, no bag, and no money in their belts.  Sandals only and no coat.”  This certainly helps the disciples see that it’s not just them or what they bring with them that does the work.  God’s working too!  And THAT’S Good News!  It’s not all on us!  But there’s something deeper going on here as well.  Jesus set the disciples up to be interdependent with the communities they would visit.  As places welcomed them, put them up for the night, fed and cared for them… those were the places where amazing things happened!  Jesus was teaching them through their experiences on the road, that amazing things happen in interdependent, welcoming, hospitable communities of people!  In communities that put up walls and insist that everyone make it on their own, healing and wholeness often just keep walking down the road and into the sunset. 

The piece about not taking a “bag” with them turns out to be something the people of Jesus’ day would have clued into right away, but it’s something that isn’t as obvious to us today.  In those days, there were a group of philosophers known as the Cynics.  They believed in living an austere life, but also living a completely self-reliant life.  Disciples of that school of thought wandered around carrying “a bag” so they wouldn’t have to rely on anyone as they preached a message of living in the middle of everyone, but not depending on anyone.  

When Jesus sent out his disciples without a bag, Jesus was preaching without words that the TRUTH is, God created human beings to support and care for one another… that together, in community, amazing and powerful things happen.  By welcoming the stranger… by living a life of hospitality… by caring for people along the Way… you end up becoming a community of healing and wholeness.  He was showing them that the solution for the demons of the world is for us to come together, feed, shelter, and welcome one another.  The cynical solution was that we should all make our own way… follow nature’s example of the survival of the fittest, but Jesus was proclaiming that’s not how God made humans!  Humans were made to walk and live an interdependent existence with one another… THAT is the path that leads to healing, wholeness, light and life.  

Jesus shows the disciples what the dust is that needs to be shaken off humanity’s feet.  We need to shake off the dust of unwelcoming communities, entrenched, tribal and fear-filled lives.  We need to shake off the dust of the cynical idea of survival of the fittest and everyone for themselves.  But Jesus ALSO shows us what we need to move TOWARD in our lives as well… we need to always work to become more and more, communities of welcome and hospitality.  Move toward embracing the gifts of those who are new to town.  Move toward a knowledge that God is working… doing deeds of power through us and through our neighbors and remember always that God is working even while we sleep.  May we at Christ Trinity continue to model an interdependent community of welcome and hospitality.  May we not get stuck covered with dust, pounding our head against walls that are not yet ready to hear and may we keep watch for God’s deeds of power which, even in these very difficult times, are still happening all around us and even now, changing the world!  Amen.