Gospel In Reverse

Mark 9:30-37

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Today we’re throwing this Gospel lesson into reverse and backing into this sermon.  Backing in, you first get Jesus telling the disciples that when they welcome “one such child” they welcome both Jesus and the One who sent him.  In Jesus’ day, children had no status.  They were property at best.  They could be bought, sold and traded… and were.  But here, in this lesson, Jesus wasn’t pointing only to people below the age of adulthood… Jesus was pointing to anyone who was thought of, or treated by those in power as, less than legal, less than important, less than human. 

 

Backing into this lesson challenges us to ask, who in our day, is considered to be, or is treated as, less than legal, as if their life didn’t matter, as if they were less than human?  Who are the weak, vulnerable, and desperate today who are being demonized, terrorized and brutalized by those in power?  We know who they are.  They’re the ones who don’t make a living wage.  The ones used as political footballs. The ones displaced by the consequences of climate change.  The ones desperate to escape our perpetual wars but are told they aren’t wanted here.  Jesus says,“Whoever welcomes one of THESE in my name, welcomes me.”  In them, Jesus tells us, we welcome Jesus himself.

Now, if you keep backing into this lesson, you’ll back right into Jesus asking the disciples, “WHAT were you arguing about on the way?”  Jesus asked like he didn’t know. Jesus knew.  My mom always asked, “whose shoes are these in the middle of the floor?”  They were size 13!  Mom knew!  Jesus knew too.  Jesus KNEW they were arguing about who was first and who was last… who was a winner and who was a looser.  Jesus KNEW.  And THAT’S why he lifted up that child to make his point.  It’s about welcoming the least, the lost and the last… not the full, the found and the first, that is welcoming Christ.  

But WHY were they were arguing about that?  To figure that out you’ve got to keep backing up and eventually you back right into the heart of it… They were arguing because they were afraid.  When people puff themselves up and argue about who is greater and who is not, you can bet THAT is a person living deeply in fear.  Jesus told the disciples what was going to happen but they didn’t understand… they couldn’t understand… they were AFRAID!

Afraid they were loosing control.  Afraid they'd been wrong about Jesus.  Afraid he wouldn’t raise an army, kick out the Romans and become their king.  Afraid that with every step toward Jerusalem they were becoming more like that child… not in control, not on top, and not someone who mattered.  They were afraid that everything Jesus was saying was true!  That the Jesus way of living WASN’T living on the top of the world looking down, but from the very bottom.

What Jesus was saying then WAS true… and it’s still true now… the path to a fulfilling, purpose-filled life begins at the bottom.  It begins by nailing our preferences, privileges and priorities to the cross and letting them die.  The truth is that the tighter we hold on to the things the world says are important, the less able we are to open our hands enough to receive the gift of abundant life God is giving us.  The one prerequisite for resurrection is death.  Easter only happens after Good Friday.  Really living means loosening our grip, our need to control, our need to hold on to what is known and what’s safe… It means letting go of everything the world tells us is important… allowing all that we have, all that we know, all that we are, to fall through our fingers so that all that we are can finally fall into the hands of God to be remolded, reshaped and reformed into the new creation God is calling us to be. 

But HOW?  How do we do that?  The answer is that we do it like a child.  Children don’t study and philosophize about walking… they just take a step, fall down, get up and try again until one day... they’re walking!  They start with nothing other than a parent’s outstretched arms and are transformed into walkers along the way.  Jesus is telling us that’s how it goes with life as well.  We take just one small step toward our Divine Parent’s outstretched arms… letting one bit of the world's way of being fall through our fingers and into God's care and then another.  These aren't just mental steps, but physical steps too and yes, every step we take is certain to be just as uncoordinated and uncertain as a child’s first steps.  But like a child they need to be steps away from a crawling life... away from fear, selfishness and greed and toward toward a walking life of compassion, love, and generosity.

  

We all really are CHILDREN of God, as shaky and unsure as any child learning to walk.  But we are also children of GOD. Children of a Divinely loving Parent whose outstretched arms are ALWAYS reaching out to us with the biggest possible smile, encouraging us each day to take one more step toward becoming the abundantly living creation our Divinely loving Parent KNOWS we are each meant to be.   Amen.

God's Preferences

 Isaiah 35:4-7a

Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. 

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

When we see wars and Covid and hurricanes and wildfires and along with all of that, so much pointless, unnecessary pain and death, it’s easy to read this bit from Isaiah and focus only on the fear, the blindness, the broken bodies and the burning landscapes.  In doing that we can easily forget that is not God’s preference for creation.   

But God’s preference is NOT that people be afraid.  God’s preference is NOT for wilderness and dry land, whether that’s literal as it was for the people of Israel, or a figurative wilderness of hope in a pandemic, a desert of food and shelter, or the burning of injustice.  God’s preference is NOT that fear, scarcity, anxiety, worry, and dread be how we live these lives we’ve been given.    

God also has a preference for our wellbeing and that is for wholeness in body, mind, and spirit.  God’s preference is for us to leap like deer, have unstopped ears, be able to express ourselves freely… to be able to sing!  And not only to  sing the blues, but to sing for joy as well!  

God’s preference for us is that we NOT struggle with the burning sands of life either.  Those deserts of endless, irritating sand that grind away in our human gears… never quite grinding us to a stop but never letting our mental or physical or spiritual well being run completely smoothly either.  God’s preference is for justice to flow like cool streams washing away that sand.  God’s preference is for pools of still waters… refreshing us, healing us, giving us peace.  

God’s preference is also NOT for people to go without really living in this life… just “getting-by” isn’t it!  God’s preference is for abundant life… not excessive life, but an abundant, eternal life NOW.  NOT just suffering through this life with only the promise of “eternal life” in the sweet by and by!  That’s not Good News!

“But Father O’Karas” you say, “this preference of God’s can’t be for everyone can it?  Surely Not for THOSE people!” And to that I’d say, it not only CAN be for everyone… it IS for everyone, and don’t call me Shirley!  From the daughters of Syrophoenician Gentile women clear over to grown up Jewish men.  And that, my friends, is literally everyone!  

Now you may have noticed that the world does not currently seem to be operating fully according to God’s preferences and THAT, I would say, is excellent noticing!  It most certainly is not!  But if God is God and the world isn’t working as God prefers, God will certainly get God’s way, right?  Absolutely!  But how… and when?  The “how”, both in Isaiah and in the Gospels, happens with the presence of the Divine.  In Isaiah, it happens when “God comes… when God is here”!  In the Gospels it happens in the presence of Jesus, no matter where he goes or who is around him.  In every case it is the presence of the Divine that changes the world from what it is, into what God prefers it to be.  The “when” part is harder.  The “when” is like a train pulling into the station.  God, the engine, is here but the world in tow has not yet come to a full and complete stop so all of creation has clearly not yet gotten  onboard.  

So if it’s God’s presence that creates God’s preferences for creation and not our work, what is our part in all this?  I think our part in all this is first to constantly remind one another of of God’s preferences for creation.  The desert, wilderness, the jackals, the sand, and the world as it currently is, is very loud, and that noise makes those promises hard to remember.  So we need to hear God’s preferences over and over so they aren’t forever drown out by all that noise.  And I think we’re called to do THIS… to come together… physically when it’s possible… because when we are together we ARE the Body of Christ… and somehow, mystically, our presence as the Body of Christ can and does change the world. 

Now I know, and the Apostle Paul knew, and Jesus knew and I’m certain God knows, that while we are fully the Body of Christ, we are also fully human and we will certainly fall short of the glory of God in what we do.  And yet, the Holy Spirit keeps calling us to remind each other of God’s preferences and to do all we can for our neighbors and the world.  And as we do that, the angels will be rooting for us, shouting, “Be strong!  Do not fear!” and reminding us always that our God will come, our God’s will, will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.  

Which Way to the Heart of God?

 James 1:17-27

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Martin Luther and I both have trouble with the book of James.  Luther’s problem was that James is the “faith without works is dead” guy, while Luther, on the other hand, was the “justification by faith APART from works of the Law” guy.  For Luther, Justification by faith apart from works clashed with James and his “pure religion is to do works” stuff.

Now I wouldn't tell Luther this to his face, but maybe James was just saying that doing good things for our neighbors is a part of our faith in the same way that Jesus does in the parable of the sheep and the goats?  With that Lutheran heresy out of the way, I do continue to completely agree with Luther that the way we live in the world doesn’t MAKE God love us or FORCE God into “saving” us, BUT, I have to say I think James has a point as well.  When we live into the free gift of faith… a gift we’ve been given without condition by the Holy Spirit… we simply won’t be able to help ourselves but to care for our neighbors with real, tangible works out there in the real, tangible world.  

I just don't think the way to go deeper into our faith is an “either/or” sort of thing.  I think it's a “both/and” sort of thing.  It is not the toxic extreme that some proclaim, where by living a certain lifestyle, praying a particular prayer, or belonging to the “right” church gives makes God do whatever you want.  But neither is it the equally toxic extreme of being so fearful of ever doing even the smallest sort of “good work” that you refuse to volunteer to mow the church lawn!  You laugh but I’ve seen both!  

The reality is that our faith IS a completely free, no strings attached gift from God.  It’s been loved into us with the same powerful love that created the universe and raises the dead!  AND with the gift of a love that powerful, we will just not be able to help ourselves but to act like Christ and love our neighbors.  Sure, we never perfectly live into the gift of faith and sometimes we fight the idea of caring for our neighbors.  But the balance of those two things is one that Luther himself proposed!  That as we more deeply embrace the gift of faith, we become completely free lord of all, subject to none, AND at the same time, we a completely dutiful servant of all, subject to all!    

MY issue with James is that when James lays out all the good things we’re supposed to do… “be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness” he never tells us HOW TO DO THAT STUFF!  You tell me what to do, James, ol’ buddy, but I don’t seem to be able to get it to just magically come out!  I find myself more like Paul.  I do the things I don’t want to do and don’t do the things I want to do!  I’m a mess James, and just telling me to do better, frankly James… it’s not helping!  

The other option of course is that like Luther, perhaps I've gotten James wrong as well.  Maybe for James it was in the taking care of the widows and orphans… in the living day to day as Jesus lived… in the trying to listen more and speak less… Maybe for James, he found that it was in the doing those things out here in the real world, that he was finally able to more fully grasp the gift of faith which God has already planted within us?

Could it be then, that this too is yet another one of those both/and things which God seems to love so much?  Maybe God knows that some of us find our way deeper into the gift of faith when we start in our heads with the proclaimed Word which then transforms our hearts and leads to doing good things with our hands out in the world.  AND, maybe it’s also true that others find their way deeper into the gift of faith when they start with their hands and do the work of Christ in the world which transforms their hearts and leads to being able to work out ways in their heads to help others hear the Good News?  

Front ways or Back ways, right ways or wrong ways, that’s where I’ve landed this week.  Whether we start in our heads OR start with our hands… The truth seems to be that either way we will inevitably find the immeasurable power of God’s love at the center of it all!  So head to hands or hands to head.  Start at whatever end you find yourself at today and then move deeper from there.  If James and Luther are both right, I suspect from either end, you will inevitably end up, right in the heart of God.  Amen.  

Fertility god or Moses' God?

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18

Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Long ago your ancestors—Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor—lived beyond the Euphrates and served other gods. “Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.

Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our ancestors up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight. He protected us along all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; and the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

Joshua asks the people of Israel “What G/god are you going to follow?”  The people wanted this to be a religion only question but what Joshua was REALLY asking, as the people stood ready to enter this new land with more readily available resources than they had ever even IMAGINED before, was “Which way of living with each other will you choose as you move into this new, incredible land?”

Each deity choice, you see, comes with particular requirements for how the people were to live in the world.  So this wasn’t just a decision about how they would spend just one hour, once a week.  This was a decision about how they would live together 24/7 and it affected literally EVERY aspect of their lives… social, political, economic and religious!  

The God behind curtain number one was the God of Moses.  This God had provided them food and protection for decades as they wondered the wilderness.  Out there, manna, quail, and water had been OBVIOUSLY worth the price of living the way THIS God had required.  It was a way of living that required an “All In” commitment to justice… making sure everyone had enough… food, shelter, dignity, purpose AND it also required an economy that FAVORS the weak and vulnerable… not just throws them a bone every now and then, but FAVORS them!  But now they weren't in the wilderness any more.  Now they were looking into the land of milk and honey so Joshua knew that in THIS place, they had another choice. 

That other choice was behind curtain number two.  These were the local fertility gods.  The gods of self-made wealth and power and they actually blessed people who got rich and powerful and didn't worry about their neighbor and here, unlike out in the desert, these fertility gods made sense.  Here it was easy to believe, “I don’t need that wilderness God with His boring manna and His sissy, “take care of others” ways.  HERE I can scoop up MORE than I could ever need all by myself and these local gods actually BLESS that way of living!"      

Joshua's people were actually hoping they could pick a little from curtain one and the rest from curtain two.  They hadn't fully forgotten the God that took care of them out in the desert so they were hoping they could make that one their "official" God.  Do a little something for that One for maybe an hour each week, but then follow the ways of the local gods for the rest and get RICH!  Because, hey, these local gods didn’t just let greed slide, these local gods proclaimed greed was a blessing!  Bigger wealth, bigger power, bigger fertility symbols… ALL of it was a blessing!  When I get rich taking advantage of you, that just means the local gods are using me to punish you for who knows what and, honestly, that’s between the gods and them and not my problem.  

Joshua knew his people wanted it both ways and let them know THAT was NOT an option.  Following the God of Moses meant following that God’s way of living full time, NO MATTER what the surrounding landscape happened to look like from one day to the next.  Joshua also knew God required this way of living not to make life hard, but because THIS way, was THE way that led to lasting LIFE for individuals and the community as a whole!  Joshua knew that following the local gods' ways of living would inevitably lead to the exploitation of the poor and the weak and the accumulation of wealth at the expense of their neighbors.  That sort of “religion”… that way of living in the world… living without a commitment to social justice… living without self-giving care for your neighbors… living without an intentional preference for the poor and weak... living that way always, always, ALWAYS leads to the eventual downfall of the community.

This is clearly not JUST an old story about a long ago decision made by an ancient people.  This is our choice too, and one we are asked to make every day.  We too, as Walter Bruggemann points out, are confronted with this decision every day in every aspect of our lives.  It's even right in the middle of our Pledge of Allegiance as it promises “justice for all” and “liberty for all”  both at the same time.  If Joshua heard this pledge I think he would press us now as he pressed his people then, reminding us we can not pick both.  He would remind us that justice for all is in conflict with the idea of a personal sort of liberty and we must choose either one or the other as the way we will live in this world and with that choice for living, the G/god we will follow as well.  

Like the people of Israel, none of us will really make that decision with the confessions we say or the words we pledge.  We will make that decision, every single day in how we choose to live together.  Will the ways we live this day be the ways of the God of Moses… the God of social, economic, and political justice with a bias toward the poor and weak?  Or will the ways we choose to live this day be the ways of the fertility gods who insist there is no amount of wealth and power that is too much for me, myself, and I alone? Every day, it is the way we live that particular day and the way we plan that day for the next proclaims which G/god we will follow.  Each day we must choose.  May we all choose well.  Amen.  

Lady Wisdom and Four Horsemen

Proverbs 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house,
she has hewn her seven pillars.

She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table.

She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town,

“You that are simple, turn in here!”

To those without sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Lay aside immaturity, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”

In Proverbs, God, personified as Lady Wisdom, pulls out all the stops in a desperate effort to get the“willfully ignorant” to turn in to the feast of wisdom and live.  This past week I was in a high transmission part of the country, but one where almost everyone… even families with little kids… wandered the grocery store without masks.  I wanted to tell Lady Wisdom to yell louder!  It actually felt even more ominous to me than that, like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were pushing their carts down the aisles beside them and they were completely oblivious!  Times like these tend to stir up those cryptic and sometimes creepy sorts of biblical imagery.

 

I looked and saw a giant white horse blazing into the sky. Its rider carried immeasurable wealth and was given a victory garland. He rode off victorious, conquering right and left. Then another horse, this one red. The rider bringing violence to the earth, a 13 year old shooting another on their first day back to school.  The rider carried more guns than there are people to carry them.  Then I looked and saw a black horse this time.  Its rider carried a globe of the earth, engulfed in wild fire, heat, and cyclones.  And finally a colorless horse, sickly pale. Its rider was Covid, and the Anti-vaxers were close on its heels. Together the four were given power to destroy a fourth of the earth by way of gun violence, climate change, pandemic, and the wealthy devouring the poor.

The fact that both Proverbs and Revelation don’t seem too far off from our current news cycle doesn’t mean THE END IS NEAR.  What it means that we humans continue to make the same mistakes that humans made back in the time of Proverbs and in the time of Revelation.  We remain stuck as a species in a terrible, reoccurring cycle of self inflicted abuse.  The imagery, the language, and the costumes change over time but the plot to this same old story just seem to go on forever in reruns.  

All of which likely leaves you thinking:  Thanks for the uplifting, return-from-vacation-happy and refreshed sermon, pastor!  And you’d be right… if I stopped there.  But that’s not where the author of Proverbs left it, nor where John of Patmos left Revelation, and it can’t be where Erik of Sheffield leaves it either.  You see, people then and now write this way desperately longing for humanity to finally SEE what they are doing to themselves so that they can break out of it once and for all.  Freed from this horrible merry go round, people who write this way know that the world can be what we pray for it to be each week, “God’s Kingdom come, God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” … a world where everyone has enough.  Not some having too much and others having too little, but everyone, without exception, having enough.  Enough food, shelter, clothing, health, love, dignity, respect, and purpose.  

Which is why John of Patmos didn’t end his Revelation with the creepy horsemen and Lady Wisdom didn’t stop calling for the people to turn in and live!  Instead, both offered a path forward into a new way of living.  Lady Wisdom called that path following the Law… the Law which Jesus later summed up as Loving God and Loving Neighbor. “Walking in the way of insight” as Proverbs says, is just another way of saying DO what Jesus did!  John of Patmos called that path the Way of the Lamb.  A path of relentlessly living our lives as Jesus lived his.  In both cases, it is a life of self giving love for our neighbor… with compassion and an active hands-on, all-in sort of kindness and compassion for the least, the lost and the last of our world.  

  

So it is true.  There are indeed people“without sense” as Proverbs put it.  It is true.  The news does often look as menacing as four scary horsemen… AND there is HOPE.   Now, will OUR time be THE time humanity finally stops punching itself in the face?  No idea.  But there is something we can do while we watch and see.  We can walk the path that Proverbs and John remind us is our hope.  Live each day as if God’s Kingdom is already fully here.  Live each day walking in Wisdom.  Loving God.  Loving neighbor, putting the needs of others before our own.  That way of living does not deny the reality of our present, but it does defiantly proclaim that this present reality is not where the story ends!  Because whether “those without sense” choose to “Lay aside immaturity, and live” and finally choose to “walk in the way of insight” this time or not, God WILL get God’s way in the end.  God’s Kingdom WILL come.  God’s will, WILL be done, on earth as it is in heaven. God WILL get God’s way with this creation.  Our job is just to keep walking in that direction until God gets us there!

I don’t know about you, but I will need some help with that from time to time.  Sometimes I’ll need to be taken by the hand and coaxed into taking just one next step.  Sometimes I’ll have enough to fake it until I become it, and sometimes, in a glorious and inexplicable gift of the Holy Spirit I will be mystically certain that everything’s gonna be alright.  

You're probably better at walking that way than I am but then maybe you have those less than mystically certain days as well from time to time.  Either way, let’s pray for more days for all of us filled with the Spirit’s mystical clarity.  Let us celebrate together when we’re able to at least do a decent job faking it, and let us gently take each other by the hand when that next step is anything but clear.  And remember the REAL end of the story… God’s gonna get God’s way!  Amen. 

The Second Bread Sunday

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.

There’s white, wheat, rye and corn.  There’s pumpernickel, sour dough, French and Italian.  There’s raisin, banana, cranberry, and zucchini… and then there’s Jesus, the bread of life.  Bread’s a thing that ranges all the way from Big Y brand white, all the way to the Son of the Living God.  From a solely practical vehicle for moving peanut butter and jelly into a kid’s mouth hole, to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ come to save the world as a whole.  

Bread is a thing that feeds us.  Sometimes that’s just as a part of a quick sandwich grabbed with a busy hand in the middle of the day.  But sometimes it’s a thing that draws out deep memories from long ago with that special recipe written in cursive on a card, mixed together in a passed-down bowl and kneaded by hand to create an essential element for a holiday meal.  Both feed us: the factory made product mixed in 100 pound batches and the thing of deep love kneaded with hands guided by generations… hands that show every year with each practiced turn of the dough.  

The same can be said of Jesus, the bread of life.  He feeds us.  Feeds us with the model of his life showing us how to live in this world.  Feeds us with a love so powerful that we now can love the other as we have first been loved.  An unlimited love, given without condition, given whether the one receiving it recognized it or not us, given whether the one receiving it wants it or not!  Jesus feeds us.

 

Sometimes life is such that Jesus, the bread of life, is Big Y white.  Sometimes Jesus is that kind of bread because that is simply the bread we need in that moment to get us through to the next moment or maybe even all the way to the next day!  We all go through times when that's all we can manage and that goes both for bread-bread and for the Bread of life.  Sometimes we can do an artisan rye  and sometimes all we can do is peanut butter and jelly on white… straight up… no frills.  

But the hope of gathering here is that together we can help each other remember there is more to Jesus, the bread of life, than just getting us through one damn life and into the next.  The hope is we can help each other remember that Jesus, the bread of life, is ALSO, at the very same time, that special, hand made food of infinite love as well.  The hope of coming together is that this might be a chance for us to help one another stop, and fill our lungs with air that is thick with the perfume of baking bread.  Stop and receive a piece from the loaf that is Jesus, the bread of life, and savor the gift of divinity that abundantly, far more than we could ever ask or imagine, makes this thing called “life” a gift worth living!  

The Good News is that in infinite love, God has given us Jesus, the Bread of Life, who is able to be both for us:  The Big Y brand white bread of life to keep us slogging our way out of whatever darkness we find ourselves AND ALSO that specialty artisan bread of life given with a love that spans all of time… a gift to savor like the smell of rising and baking bread… a gift to take in with our eyes, admiring the perfect shade of brown… a gift that we love with our ears as the crust crackles… a gift to melt our hearts as bread melts in our mouths… ALL of it given as a gift to remind us that we were created to do more than just slog through this life.  We were created to live!  That is the bread of life we have in Jesus and that is the bread of life we are called to share with everyone we meet.  

Some will need the bread of life that just feeds them and gets them to another day.  We’ve all been there.  Some of us are there right now.  There is no shame in being there, it is part of being human.  So when you look around and that’s the bread your neighbor needs, then that’s the bread of life to give them!  Then one day, perhaps, they will be in a place where you can invite them to gather here and share with them that artisan version of the bread of life that will fill their lungs with the yeasty toasty notes of the Bread of Life which helps us all remember that God meant for each of us to live beyond just getting by and instead live deeply into a life filled with an abundance of love, dignity, purpose, meaning, and self worth… filled with enough to go all around the world and back again.  

So come to the Table today and receive the Bread of Life.  Come and receive the kind you need, whichever kind that is.  Let it live and work in you this week and then share it with the people you encounter in whatever form they need it to be so they too are fed… so that they too may have life and have it abundantly.  Amen. 

Tom Mix Pocket Knife

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.

“Houston, we’ve had a problem.”  Two of the three onboard fuel cells were inoperable.  The crew of Apollo 13 moved to the lunar module to save electricity but the big problem was the buildup on carbon dioxide.  Without a way to filter it out the crew would die. 

Feeling useless at the 4077th, Father Mulcahy took Igor’s place in the litter jeep with Radar and headed to the front to transport a badly wounded soldier back to the MASH unit.  On the way back the soldier couldn’t breath and they stopped to help.  Panicked, Radar calls back to the 4077 but when they get out the first aid kit there is nothing inside that will help save this soldier’s life.  

The crowd continued to grow as Jesus made his way through he countryside.  As he did signs and healed the sick the crowds grew even bigger.  Turning around Jesus saw 5000 people and asked Phillip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”

In each of these desperate situations the available resources seemed to be somewhere between underwhelming and non existent.  Orbiting the earth, under enemy fire and on a hillside in ancient Palestine… these are not the situations where what was needed was anywhere within easy reach!  But in each of these situations a miracle happened, but NOT the miracle most folks point to as THE miracle.  Most people, if asked to describe the miracle, would point to the crew of Apollo 13 splashing down safely back on earth… the soldier surviving… and 5000 people being fed.  But in each of these situations, I think the REAL miracle happened BEFORE those things occurred.  

In Apollo 13, the REAL miracle happened when the crew noticed that they had several spare containers of lithium hydroxide onboard.  These containers could filter out the excess carbon dioxide!  But they were square, and the vents they needed to be connected to were round.  But noticing the lithium hydroxide led to more noticing, both in orbit and back on earth.  Soon the noticing grew and with plastic from a garment bag, the cardboard cover of an instruction manual, a tube sock and some duct tape, a make-shift carbon dioxide scrubber had been created which kept the crew alive until they returned to earth a few days later.  

In the battlefield, surrounded by snipers and a panicked Radar O’Reily, the REAL miracle happened when Father Mulcahy stopped focusing on the dull scissors in the first aid kit, “like you got in kinde-garden” that would NEVER work and was able to notice the Tom Mix pocket knife he DID have.  That noticing lead to more noticing and soon the barrel of a fountain pen became a tube and in spite of Radar’s drama,  Father Mulcahy soon had performed a tracheostomy under fire in the back of a jeep and saved the soldier’s life.  

On the hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Philip only saw what he did not have… enough to feed 5000.  Andrew noticed only slightly more… it was just some kid with five fish and three loaves.  But in that tiny bit of noticing a miracle had its start.  It was infinitely less that enough to feed everyone, but it was more than enough for Jesus to start passing out food.  In the end the disciples gathered up 12 baskets of leftovers after everyone had eaten their fill. 

In each of these stories the REAL miracle happened when they stopped focusing on what they DID NOT have and instead began to look around, notice, and put to use what they DID have.  When THAT happened, the situations began to immediately turn from scarcity to abundance, from despair to hope, from darkness to light, and from death to life.  

The story in today’s Gospel reading is an absolutely amazing and wonderful miracle story!  But it is not JUST a miracle that could only be performed 2000 years ago on a hill by the sea by the Son of God.  The miracle in today’s Gospel story is a miracle WELL within the grasp of each and every one of us… you and me… us mere mortals, right here in little ol’ Sheffield!  It is a miracle that begins the moment we stop obsessing about what we DON’T have and instead look around us and see what we DO have and begin to put that, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it might seem, to work in the world.  And here’s the REAL kicker… NOT ONLY is this sort of miracle we CAN DO… This is the EXACT SORT OF MIRACLE we’ve already DONE!  Bishop Doug noticed hikers on the Appalachian Trail.  That helped us notice a ministry development grant, that helped others notice other churches wanting to help and now how many hamburgers and hotdogs have been served?  I don’t know… maybe 500 or so?  But not 5000 you say… well… 

When the pandemic hit and the schools closed, school families who relied on school meals were going without but all the NORMAL ways we help hungry people couldn’t be done!  No teams could gather to cook, no cafeterias packed with people for spaghetti suppers!  People wanted to help but there was NO way to help!  But then we noticed the school was sending food home.  That led to noticing The Marketplace still doing takeout dinners.  Then that led to community members sponsoring meals and then before we even knew what was happening over 8350 people had been fed… a number greater than 5000, I might add!  The fact is…  We do miracles here my friends!  We really, really DO and they all begin when together we help each other to look past scarcity and notice the abundance God has given us lying all around us.  Then we look up from despair and see hope staring us right in the face.  Then we walk step by step toward that tiny pinprick of light even while we are surrounded by darkness.  Then miracles happen and the world is moved from death toward life.  Amen.