Tradition!

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from me;

in vain do they worship me,

teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

TRADITION!  Tradition.  Did you have a Best Man at your wedding?  Why?  Because that’s the way you do a wedding?  Okay, but WHY is that the way you do a wedding?  It turns out that the reason folks started to have a Best Man at a wedding, was so that they would have their Best SWORDS-MAN at their weddings to defend you in case the arranged, political marriage ceremony got interrupted by political rivals with swords.  Is swordplay a genuine risk these days at weddings?  Not so much.  So then, why do we still have a Best Man?  TRADITION!  

Alright, brides, your turn.  Did you have bridesmaids at your wedding?  Why?  Because that’s the way you do a wedding?  Okay, but WHY is that the way you do a wedding?  It turns out that the reason folks started to have Bridesmaids at a wedding, was so that they could act as decoys for the bride in case the arranged, political marriage ceremony got interrupted by political rivals with swords.  Is that a genuine risk these days at weddings?  Not so much.  So then, why do we still have Bridesmaids?  TRADITION!

How about those candles on the altar?  Do you know why we have candles on the altar?  Well, the reason we have candles on the altar is that when Christians first began gathering in homes and in the catacombs to worship they needed some light to read the service and the Scriptures.  There weren't any first century light switches available so they put a couple candles on the altar!  But now with electric lights we have no actual NEED need for candles on the altar, so why are they still there?  TRADITION!  

In researching the history of my first congregation for their 125th anniversary I uncovered a congregational tradition of chewing tobacco during worship and spitting on the floor of the church.  I also discovered that ending that tradition almost split the church!  TRADITION!

In today’s Gospel, Jesus was confronting TRADITION!  Jesus, you see, was living out his mother’s song… The Magnificat.  He was scattering the proud.  Bringing down the powerful.  Lifting up the lowly.  Filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty.  He wasn’t just challenging the traditional order of things, he was smashing it to bits!  Eating with sinners and tax collectors.  Having women as followers and disciples.  Challenging the occupying army of Rome and those who were their local toadies and… AND he was eating without, GASP!, doing the correct ritual washing!  

The Pharisees, on the other hand, insisted that things be done the way they had always been done but Jesus was turning over that traditional order.  BUT, Jesus wasn’t doing that just to be difficult.  Jesus was doing it because those traditions had, for the Pharisees, become more important to them than God.  “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition,” Jesus told them.  Their obsession with rituals and traditions had become more important to them than doing what God calls God’s people to do… doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. 

Now, the Pharisees make super fun and tempting punching bags, but we really should remember who the Pharisees were.  They were the regulars in worship back then.  They were the ones who pledged, served on committees, and had the keys to the building.  So when we’re tempted to dump on them we need to keep in mind that Pharisees are just as likely to show up in the mirror as they are in the Scriptures.

We need to be careful, because in every time and place, wonderful, faithful people have started beautiful and powerful traditions.  Traditions which help transport us closer to God and deeper into the love of our neighbors.  But if we are going to avoid the same trap that the Pharisees fell into all those years ago, we too will need constant reminding that even the most amazing, powerful, beautiful and long held traditions... THEY AIN’T GOD!  

That is why we constantly need to ask ourselves... Does this thing we do… does this hierarchy we defend… does this “way it’s always been done”… still help to point us toward God or has it become a god itself?  Does this way of being the church still call us to a deeper love of, and care for our neighbors?  Or has something happened somewhere along the way so that what used to help us connect with God, now ends up distracting us from God and somehow now perversely keeps us from lives of loving kindness, doing justice and walking humbly with our God?  

May God continue to give us the courage to honestly and constantly examine everything we do, and when we find traditions that are becoming gods for us, to allow them to die so that we might rise again, into the new life God has in store for us… a life focused first and foremost on loving God and loving neighbor. Amen. 

He's Behind the Drapes

John 6:56-69

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

I grew up in Northwest Florida… otherwise known as the Redneck Riviera… and… I was a Lutheran.  Northwest Florida was not the Lutheran midwest where my parents grew up.  Where THEY grew up there was a Swedish Lutheran, a Norwegian Lutheran, a Finnish Lutheran, and a German Lutheran church in each small town… often on the four corners of the same intersection.  No, where I grew up, most folks thought Lutherans were some kind of a cult.  As a result, I got asked if I had been saved… a lot.  Whenever I got asked that I’d say, “Yes” and, because in addition to being a Lutheran, I was also a smart… let’s go with “ALEC” here… smart-alec... I’d add, “Yeah, I got saved on the very first Easter 2000 years ago.”  That was NOT what they were looking for… which is why I said it… because… (pointing at self) smart-alec… but it also happens to be excellent theology.  

You see, while some folks obsess about whether you are “going up or down” are “in or out” or whether or not you’re going to “the hot place” after you die or a location with a more temperate climate, OUR theology believes that God made that decision FOR US in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection AND that decision was, “You’re ALL IN!”  So, here’s the Good News… You’re ALL IN!  

The question OUR theology asks is not IF you’re saved or not, or IF you've made a decision for Jesus or not, because like I said, those are God-level decisions which God decided on the very first Easter with, “You’re ALL In!”.  No, the question our theology asks is, “Now that you understand God has grabbed hold of you in unconditional love and promises to never let you go no matter what, how are you going to live your life on this planet going forward from here?”  

It’s the same question Joshua asked the people of Israel in the first lesson for today.  How they answered Joshua wasn’t going to get them to the Promised Land… because… well, they were already IN the Promised Land!  What Joshua was asking them was “How are you going to LIVE, now that God’s gotten you here to the Promised Land?”  

It's also the same question that Jesus asked the crowd in the Gospel lesson.  How they answered wasn’t going to bring them the Messiah or keep him from coming… because… well, he was standing right there!  What they were being asked was “How are you going to LIVE in this world now that God's given you Jesus, unconditional love, acceptance, and eternal life... up front?  Will you “drink in” the Jesus Way of living... a life that leads you to do what is in the other’s best interest rather than a life focused on what’s in it for me and what makes ME feel good?  Will you live your lives the Jesus Way, OR... the world’s way?    

In today’s Gospel, a huge number of people chose to return to living the world’s way… they chose to go back to the “me, myself, and I” way of living in the world.  For them, the Jesus Way was too radical… too hard to imagine how it could possibly work in the world they knew.  After they left, Jesus turned to the disciples and asked them the same thing.  Would they continue to follow the Jesus Way of living or not?  You see, neither Joshua nor Jesus wanted the people to “PLAY” at their faith any longer.  "Playing" at faith just doesn't lead to the abundant life... a live filled with meaning, peace, and purpose... that God created us to live.  Both Joshua and Jesus challenged the people to go ALL IN and live full-time God’s Way… the Jesus Way.  They wanted that for the people NOT because "otherwise you're going to hell" (because, remember, God's already decided you're not) but simply because the Jesus Way of living is a path to FULLY living into this incredible life we've been given!  

That continues to be the real question for us as individuals, for our country, and for our world.  Knowing that God’s love for you is unconditional and that, in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, you are eternally “IN” no matter what, the REAL question now is HOW will you try to live the rest of this life you’ve been given?  Will you try to live it the Jesus Way, living life with generosity, compassion, radical inclusion, love and grace for ALL PEOPLE so that ALL PEOPLE might experience this life overflowing with meaning, purpose, direction and joy?  Or not.  

THAT is the decision that you and I have to make... except... we all know its not just a one-and-done decision, is it?  It’s really the millions of little decisions we make in every moment, of every day, all throughout our lives.  It is in each of those particular moments, that we choose to either live the Jesus Way, OR the world’s way.  Will we welcome the stranger or send them away?  Will we feed the hungry or demonize them?  Will we stop to heal the sick or walk down the other side of the road?  Will we calm the storm or stir the pot?  Will we insist on the truth or settle for a lie?  Will we forgive the thief or seek revenge?  Will we make a friend or create an enemy?  Will we admit our faults or double down on them? Will we celebrate diversity or try to homogenize it?  Will we build up or tear down?  Will we crucify others to get our way or will we raise others up to new life?  May we all, in the light of God’s infinite and unconditional love already given, choose in each of these moments to walk the Jesus Way.  Amen.  

Discipleship is not Fast Food

John 6:51-58

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

“Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.”  Okay, GROSS!  But wait, it’s actually worse than that.  The translators softened this up, believe it or not!  Jesus didn’t actually say “eat” here.  Jesus did not say, “with one’s linen napkin in one’s lap, one is to take nice, polite, little bites.”  NOPE!  Jesus said GNAW!  He said roll up your sleeves, put your elbows on the table, grab the bone with both hands and GNAW!  Jesus said, “Get into it!  Get obsessed with it!  Get messy with it!  Get it stuck in your teeth!”  GNAW on that sucker all the way down to the bone!  Which would sound great if we were talking about baby back PORK ribs, but he’s talking about his own baby back HUMAN ribs here and that, understandably, freaked the people out back in the day! 

Most of us these days, however, have heard this “eat the flesh and drink the blood” stuff our whole lives… so much so that we just gloss over how genuinely shocking it really is!  But Jesus said “GNAW” on purpose so that the people hearing it back then would STOP and NOT gloss over it.  Jesus used this strange, cannibalistic, gnawing language to shock people then and now out of our usual habit of running on autopilot and actually THINK about what he was trying to tell them... and us.  So what was Jesus trying to shock the people then and us people now, into hearing?

I think at least a part of what Jesus was trying to tell the people then, and us people now, is that discipleship isn’t something that you can do on the fly, in between this and that.  Following Jesus can’t be done like you’re horking down a paper wrapped burger on your way from one thing to another.  This shocking imagery, at least in part, is trying to let us know that discipleship is instead, much more like a fully focused, all consuming, sit-down, get into it up to your elbows kind of culinary experience!  It needs to be a deeply intensive, completely immersive feast, requiring menu development, selecting and sourcing ingredients, prepping, cooking, serving, and savoring.  Following Jesus is… a whole-life-consuming project and that shocking imagery is calling us to tuck in full time and completely make Jesus, a down and dirty part of every single moment of our lives.  He is our “true food” and we are being called to sink EVERYTHING we’ve got... all our time, all our skills, and all our being into the Jesus Way, the Jesus Truth, and the Jesus Life so that, just like the food we eat, Jesus becomes a part of every molecule of our bodies and the fuel we need to live our lives and live them abundantly.

Like we would for an amazing feast, Jesus is asking each one of us to invest REAL time, not just our left-over time or our in-between time… but to really slow down like we would for a eight course meal and not just grab a bite of faith in a paper sack from a drive through window.  Jesus wants us to slow down and invest REAL time to SEE… deeply see the people around us… to see and then care for those who live on the margins… to study, pray, and live each day with deep care, patience and passion.  Jesus is calling us to gnaw on the gift of God’s infinite love and unconditional grace, and make that an integral part of every molecule of our being, so that the Jesus Way of living and loving ends up seeping out of our pores and out into the world… like the smell of garlic through the skin.  

Discipleship isn't drive through.  Discipleship is meant to be slow food.  Discipleship is about lovingly, miraculously, patiently, and beautifully transforming something tough… someone tough… you and me… into something… into someone amazing… into the person God created us to be.  It is setting a table for a feast that stretches long into the night around a table where everyone has a place:  family and friends… addicts and apostles… sojourners and strangers… lovers and losers… rebels and refugees… a seat and a place set for EVERYONE.  Discipleship is making the deep commitment to gnaw and to savor every morsel of life we’ve been given, in the company of the whole community… all of us saints and sinners… all of us together!

Our friend Jack, who died this week, lived that sort of full-time, gnaw at the bone, continual feasting sort of life of discipleship.  I saw a cartoon this week of a couple opening a letter from their church.  “What is it Bob?” the woman asked.  “We’ve been called up to active duty!” he replied.  Jack never had to be called to active duty.  He was always active and always on duty.  Jack the furnace man.  Jack the buildings and grounds man.  Jack the 12 step man.  Jack the Breaking Bread Man and of course… Jack the Clam Man were just a few of the names he went by during his lifelong feast of discipleship.  

May you and I answer the call to active duty discipleship.  May we treat our faith not like some drive thru burger but a slow-food feast, and may we all strive toward the sort of commitment, dedication, generosity, love, and grace that, ends up running through our blood, and saturates our lives, right down to the bone.  Amen.  

Lying at the Speed of Light

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

In today’s second lesson, the Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians saying, “Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.”  You see, back in Paul’s day, people would tell completely fabricated tales and pass them off to other people as the truth!  Can you imagine such a thing?  People back then called those stories, “LIES”.  I know!  Its almost too much to wrap our modern minds around that people would do such a thing, but they did!  

Sarcasm aside, its passages like this that remind us that the Bible isn’t actually filled with ancient, un-relatable situations at all!  There are many, many things in there that are just as much an issue today as they were all those thousands of years ago.  “There is nothing new under the sun” the Teacher would say.  Lies and their spreading were just as much an issue in the papyrus age as they are today in the internet age.  The speed they travel may be different today but at the headwaters of every lie, in every age, there is a human being.  Falsehoods, as Paul calls them, are not a technology problem, they are a human problem.  They are human brokenness, human sin.  

One of the compounding problems with living in our world, where the old, human, sin of falsehoods are uploaded at 100 Megabits per second, is that spreading those falsehoods becomes super easy and almost routine.  With each of us literally drinking from a firehose of falsehoods every day, we see it so often that, as Hannah Arendt says, “If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. ” Spreading falsehoods were indeed an Ephesians’ problem, but it turns out spreading falsehoods, is an “us” problem too.  Each of us, me included, do our fair share of passing on falsehoods.  Falsehoods about sofas are just VERY tempting!  So when it comes to telling falsehoods, we have met the Ephesians and the Ephesians is us!  

Fortunately though, we, like the Ephesians, have Paul’s advice for living in a world of falsehoods.  First, he tells us, when falsehoods fly… Be angry!  The bible is telling us it is okay to be angry!  It is understandable to be angry!  The inaccuracies, falsehoods and lies used to justify, endorse or cover up inhumanities done to our neighbors are all legitimate reasons for us to use that God given emotion… anger!   BUT, Paul advises, don’t let that anger rule your life.  Anger needs an expiration time and Paul suggests that anger should expire… at sundown.  In the New Zealand Prayer Book’s Night Prayer, there’s a prayer that goes in part: “Lord, it is night. The night is for stillness. Let us be still in the presence of God. It is night after a long day. What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; let it be.”  Paul warns us that holding on to anger past sundown leaves room for the devil to muck about. I’m not so sure what that looked like back in the camel age, but in here in the computer age I think this is Paul’s warning to us not scroll, comment, or post after sundown. 

But Paul has more for us and our Ephesian counterparts here than just telling us how we should fight AGAINST falsehoods.  When we see and hear the injustices of our world we are often quick to be angry, and like I said, anger is a God given emotion and there is a time and a place for that sort of righteous anger. But all too often we end up living our lives perpetually AGAINST.  “Against” is important and anger can be useful, BUT… because the horrors of the world are so very horrible at times, we find ourselves wanting to stay perpetually angry until the world is finally healed.  But here’s the thing St. Paul knew back in the donkey age that still holds true in the digital age:  The world ALSO needs to be shown what the love of God in Christ looks like, JUST AS CLEARLY as the world needs to be shown our anger at the things that grieve the Holy Spirit!  

It most certainly IS our task to see injustice, to be angry at it, and fight against it… AND, it is ALSO most certainly our task to model what the world will look like when God’s will is finally done, “on earth as it is in heaven.”  Paul wanted both us, and our Ephesian friends to know that the world needs us flawed but faithful people, to BOTH… speak words that build up the world around us in grace and love AND to hear us flawed and faithful people name the sins of greed, cruelty, racism, and violence.  The world needs BOTH from us in equal measure.  The world needs to see us being forgiving, being tenderhearted, and being kind to one another JUST AS OFTEN as the world needs to see us stand up for those pushed to the margins and then over the edges to be forgotten.  The world needs us not only to be imitators of Christ in turning over tables and standing up to Empires, but the world ALSO needs us JUST AS MUCH to be imitators of Christ, living in love as Christ loved us, giving all of ourselves to God and our neighbor.  

This world of ours moves fast these days.  Lies travels on fiberoptic cables at the speed of light!  But remember, just like our Ephesian friends way back then… we too have been marked with the cross of Christ in the waters of Baptism and sealed for the day of redemption… and because the love of God travels even faster than the speed of light, we are well equipped to wield... in equal measure… righteous anger at injustices and flat out lies AS WELL AS unconditional love and unlimited grace.  May we do just that for the next few months particularly but also for the rest of our days.  Amen.  

Look Beyond the Food

John 6:24-35

So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

When the crowd woke up from their post Feeding of the Five Thousand food coma, they realized that Jesus and his disciples had packed up the loaves and fishes and moved on.  Immediately the crowd shoved off to catch up with Jesus, his disciples, and most importantly, those free loaves and fishes!  Now, remember, the people had all been fed to a Thanksgiving level of fullness… for FREE… AND, as Bishop Jack reminded me after church last week, we should not forget that they were ALSO all sitting down in a place where, according to the Bible mind you, “there was a great deal of grass.”  SO, for one reason or another the crowd had completely missed Jesus and the disciples leaving.  But once the fog or haze, or maybe both had cleared, the crowd became understandably VERY eager to catch up with Jesus, the disciples, and particularly… the FOOD!  

The crowd was ready for more free loaves and fish and maybe another place with a great deal of grass!  But Jesus was hoping to move them on from the lessons of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, which were?  Anyone?  (1.  We feed people for no other reason than they are hungry.  2.  A spirit of gratitude and generosity does miraculous things.  And 3. the problems of our world are not solved by sending people off to fend for themselves as individuals, but by gathering people together and generously sharing all we have with one another.)  Good job remembering!

But now, Jesus was hoping to move the crowd on to something more, but the crowd wasn’t having it!  “You’re here for more food!” Jesus told them.  “But I want to teach you how you can have not just a full belly but eternal life!”  In other words, “I want to show you how to have a life filled with purpose, meaning, dignity, and peace.”  To which the crowd responded, “Yeah eternal life!  Sounds great!  Let’s start that eternal life by you showing us how to do that “five loaves and two fish feeding five thousand people” thing!”  Jesus replied, “If you want to know how to do God stuff, you have to WALK through life following the model of the One God sent.”  “Alright” the crowd said, “then WALK us through how to make more food!  At which point Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you.”  Which I believe you can also translate as, “Oh my God, people!  Could you stop for just a minute with the loaves and fishes obsession and maybe focus on what I am trying to tell you NOW?”  

The people then it seems, simply could not do that.  They were stuck on the food.  Maybe it was because the food was free.  Maybe it was the “great deal of grass”.  Maybe it was just the regular old, human tendency to obsess over the shiny object that happens to be in front of us at the moment.  Whatever it was, the people were not able in that moment to move their focus beyond those literal loaves and fishes and onto the person of Jesus… the ONE who said, “I… am the bread of life.”  

The crowd back then could not, for whatever reason, make that move.  The question for us today, is… can we?  Can we figure out a way to stop living life as a frantic, never ending chase after our next meal, our next thrill, our next outrage, our next obsession, our next notification, our next shiny object, our next whatever?  Can we find a way to stop living our lives like rats with ADHD racing around a never ending maze… even for just a moment?  Or perhaps the better question for folks like us gathered here together as the Body of Christ… is how can WE help ONE ANOTHER find a way to step off the treadmill the world has prescribed for us and finally see Jesus.  Who is after all the ONE trying to show us the WAY to eternal life! 

In this Gospel story, Jesus challenged the people to move their focus beyond the food and onto the One behind the miracle.  He tried to expand their vision beyond just MY mouth, MY tongue, and MY belly, NOW… so they might be able to see the ONE who is the Bread of Life for all of eternity.  That’s what Jesus wants for all of us as well.  To certainly give thanks for the fish sandwich and all the other THINGS we are given in our lives, but then Jesus would really like for all of us to look beyond that THING and begin to SEE that Jesus is not JUST the source for loaves and fishes, but that Jesus is the Bread of Life, which means Jesus is the one that gives us ALL we need, in abundance, to live a full and abundant life now and for all eternity to come!  

The world may not be oriented that way but we can help one another learn to look beyond just the food and SEE more.  It can start the same way it started in this story… with giving thanks for the fish and the loaves… for the regular day to day things we need to live.  But from there, we are being called to help one another practice seeing more deeply… first by looking beyond the thing and GENUINELY SEEING the human who has handed us that thing.  Then, after seeing the person beyond the thing, we can remember that person is someone made in the image of God… and from there we can begin to look even deeper and perhaps get a glimpse of the Divine, the Bread of Life, the One from whom all blessings flow.  Amen.