All In

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.”

“Have you been saved?”  When I’m asked that I say “YES”... because I am... and, well... because I like to mess with people who ask that question.  Then, when I’m inevitably asked next, WHEN was I saved?  I say “On the first Easter, about 2000 years ago!”  Now, I know THAT'S not the answer they’re looking for, but it’s TRUE... and I like to mess with people.     

You see, God’s done all the saving in Christ’s life, death and resurrection.  Like the hymn says, “The strife is O’er, the Battle Won!”  On that first Easter, God made the salvation decision for all of creation and God’s decision was, “You’re ALL IN!”  Our tradition is pretty good at remembering that, but sometimes we forget there actually are SOME decisions that ARE for us to make... NOT decisions that make or break salvation... but decisions about how we choose to live in RESPONSE to that gift we’ve been given.  

It’s like the decision Joshua asked the people of Israel to make.  The people were IN the Promised Land.  They were there, so their decision would not determine if they got there or not…'cause...they were there!  Their decision was how they would now RESPOND.  The crowds in the Gospel lesson faced a similar decision.  How would they RESPOND to the gift which God had given them in Jesus?  Jesus was there.  The gift was given.  A decision to not follow Jesus wouldn’t cause God to vacuum Jesus back up to heaven and take salvation away!  But the crowds and the disciples DID have a decision to make.  Would they drink in the Jesus life... a life where they wouldn’t be in complete control... a life filled with mystery and an uncertain future... a life that led them to do what was in the other’s best interest instead of a life focused on what’s in it for me and what makes ME feel good, OR... would they go a different way?    

In today’s Gospel, a huge number of people chose to go a different way.  The mystery of the flesh and blood was just too much.  The lack of control was too much.  So they decided to take a different path.  To stop following the Jesus Way of living.  After they left, Jesus turned to the disciples and asked them to decide as well.  Would they continue to follow or not?  You see, neither Joshua nor Jesus wanted the people to “PLAY” at their faith any longer.  Both challenged the people... to EITHER go ALL IN and BE God’s people ALL THE WAY or don’t.  A wishy washy fence sitting faith, wasn’t an option any more. 

I think that’s where we are in the church these days.  These days we wring our hands about declining church membership and some look fondly back to the days when our culture and grandma successfully guilted folks into church membership.  But I think this new world we live in might just be a gift because… well… you’re here!  And you’re here not because it makes you look like a good American to your neighbors and not because it makes grandma happy and not because you need a church membership to advance in your career.  You’re here... at least I hope you’re here... because you have come to the decision that Jesus REALLY DOES have the words of eternal life.  You’re here because you’ve decided that drinking in the Jesus life... a life filled with generosity, compassion, radical inclusion, love and grace... brings your life and this world a tiny bit closer to the Kingdom of God every day…  Because living the Jesus Way leads you bit by bit toward a life overflowing with meaning, purpose, direction and joy!  You’re here because you’d rather be part of a smaller group of dedicated, passionate, authentic, self declared saints and sinners, than part of a huge group of fake, plastic, superficial people trying to satisfy their deepest longings with things like power, wealth and fame which, God knows, will never come close to filling anybody up.  

The people answered Joshua, saying “We have decided to follow the LORD, for he is our God.”  Simon Peter answered for the group, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  You and I have the same decision to make... but it’s really not just one decision.  It's about a million little decisions… those tiny decisions we make in every moment of every day of our lives.  In each of those particular moments, will we choose to live that moment 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 tell the truth or tell 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 say words that build up or words that tear down?  Will we crucify others to get our way or will we raise others up to new life? 

We all have a million decisions just like that to make every day, in every seemingly insignificant interaction with every person we meet.  The Good News is that no matter if we choose the Jesus Way in one particular moment, OR fall short of the Glory of God and make a choice out of our fearfulness and brokeness, God’s decision FOR US… God’s love for us... remains unshakable and true.  

This next week, may God give each of us the power and the courage in each moment of our lives to choose to live our faith “ALL IN”... to fully drink in the Way, the Truth and the Life which God has given us freely in Christ.  May we drink in that Holy, that Eternal, that Transformed Life we have been given, and may we courageously choose in each of those moments to respond to the gift we’ve been given in the Jesus Way.  Amen.

Gnawing on Jesus

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.”

I’m here to tell you… Barbecue. Is. Serious.  It demands serious time, dedication, and effort to make, AND to eat.  Twelve hours for pulled pork on the smoker to make.  A roll of paper towels and both hands to eat.  But even though it demands a serious investment of time and effort… it is SO VERY worth it!  The prep, the rubs, sauces, checking the fire at two in the morning… all that time and all that effort... it’s all worth it for the wonderful, succulent, juicy, sweet and spicy richness that is barbecue.

Jesus said to the people, “Very truly I tell you, unless you gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life!”  The translators REALLY toned this one down.  Jesus didn’t say “eat” here.  Jesus did not say, “wearing the correct dinner jacket, one is to take one’s correct fork and sitting up straight, 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!  Get it stuck in your teeth.  Get sauce on your face and don’t expect to keep your shirt clean!”  Because NONE of that matters!  All that matters is the GNAWING… GNAWING all the way down to the bone!  Which sounds awesome when we’re talking about baby back ribs at a picnic table with rolls of paper towels for napkins, but in this Gospel lessen, Jesus ain’t talkin’ about baby back pork ribs.  He’s talking about baby back Jesus ribs here and that, understandably, freaked people out! 

Having my rabbi friend here last week reminded me of how shocking all this talk of eating flesh and drinking blood really was for the first people who heard this.  Many of us have heard it our whole lives, so the shock of it ends up just washing over us after all these years, but Jesus really said, “Those who gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.”  Then and now, those words were meant to be over the top, out of bounds, deal breaker… shocking!    

It’s no wonder the crowd couldn’t wrap their minds around what Jesus was saying.  It’s simply not something that is possible to wrap our minds around!  Now, lots of people over the last 2000 years have used a large volume of enormously sized words to try to explain all this, but I haven’t heard anyone who can fully explain it yet, no matter how many words of various sizes they use.  This idea of gnawing on Jesus, even when we set it into the context of the Eucharistic meal we share, is still mind blowing!  How is this Communion meal fully Christ’s Body and Blood?  It’s a mystery!  How, in this meal, are we given eternal life... it’s a mystery!  But “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them” is what Jesus was, and is, saying.  The honest truth is that nobody’s got this one all figured out.  

But, I think at least a part of what Jesus was trying to communicate with this incredibly graphic imagery, is that discipleship isn’t something that can be done in between the other parts of our lives.  Following Jesus isn’t a drive-through-window-meal on your way from one thing to another.  This shocking imagery is, at least in part, calling us to something that is all-encompassing… a whole-life-involving project that is much more like making barbecue which demands tending fires, cooking sauces, making rubs, mopping meat and smoking it low and slow for lots and lots of time and then settling in to a meal that will take hours and hours to eat, rather than eating something cooked in a minute and grabbed from a hand reaching out through a window.  That shocking imagery calls us to settle in and completely make Jesus a part of every moment of our lives because Jesus is the source of all goodness and life.  He is our true food and we are being called to invest EVERYTHING... all our time, all our skills and all our being into consuming the Jesus Way, the Jesus Truth, the Jesus Life, so that just like the food we eat, Jesus too becomes a part of every molecule of our bodies and the fuel we use to live our lives.

Like an amazing feast of real honest to goodness barbecue, Jesus is asking each one of us to invest REAL time, not just left-over or in-between time… and do the spiritual-practice equivalent of mixing spices, massaging in the rub and then patiently, slowly, passionately, smoking our faith over genuine hard wood.  Jesus is asking us to slow down and really see those 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 into the world like garlic through the skin.  

Discipleship isn't a McRib sandwich grabbed on a Sunday afternoon on our way to something else.  Discipleship is more like REAL barbecue.  Lovingly, miraculously, patiently and beautifully transforming something tough… someone tough… into an amazing thing that is real and fully authentic… gathering family and friends… sojourners and strangers… lovers and losers… rebels and refugees… gathering EVERYONE around God’s Table where there is a seat and a place set for EVERYONE.  Discipleship is all of us, making together, the deep commitment to gnaw and to savor every morsel of life we’ve been given, in the company of all our fellow saints and sinners… all of us together, reveling in each bone of that rich food filled with marrow, laughing and sharing together those well aged wines strained clear and going through roll after roll of the classiest sort of paper towel napkins, enjoying to the very fullest, the immeasurable sweetness and the beautiful spiciness of the abundant life that comes to us free… as a complete gift… as we gnaw on Jesus.  Amen.

@Ephisians #noroomforthedevil

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 a recent MIT study, they found that on Social Media, falsehoods travel faster than the truth. And not just a little bit faster… sometimes TEN to TWENTY TIMES faster than the truth! The professor who ran this study says, “We found that falsehood diffuses significantly farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information.” You’ll be shocked… SHOCKED I tell you… to learn that political information spreads falsehoods the fastest. I told you you’d be shocked!  

In today’s second lesson, the Apostle Paul tweets to @Ephesians, “Putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” #noroomforthedevil. For those of you not in the Social Media world, you’ll just have to trust me… that was a good one! 

Falsehoods spread faster than truth these days because of the technology we now have available to us, but the problem of falsehood and truth goes back way beyond the age of Twitter or Facebook… way back beyond the ancient technology of Myspace! The problem of falsehood and truth goes back before even the technology of papyrus and stone tablets and back to the very beginning of everything. Technology certainly cranks up the speed at which lies are spread, but spreading falsehoods isn’t a technology problem. As it was in the age before writing… as it was in the age of papyrus and paper and as it is now in the digital age… trafficking in lies is now, as it’s always been… a human problem, it’s human brokenness, it’s sin.  

One of the compounding problems with living in our world, where the old, human, sin of falsehoods are sped up to 100 Megabits per second, is that spreading those falsehoods becomes almost routine. With each of us literally swimming in a torrential flow of falsehoods every day, when WE do it, hardly anyone notices and then, as Walter Brueggemann says, “we forget to even blush.” This problem with spreading falsehoods may have been the Ephesians’ problem back then, but falsehoods, in all the forms they take, they’re our problem too. Our humanity is showing too. Our brokenness is seen in our mirrors as well. Our sin is no different than the Ephesians’ sin. 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 whether delivered by camel or computer. First he tells us when falsehoods fly… Be angry! It’s understandable to be angry! The inaccuracies, falsehoods and lies used to justify, endorse or cover up inhumanities done to our neighbors warrants our anger. BUT, he advises, don’t let that anger rule your life. Anger needs an expiration. Anger, Paul tells, us 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. The night is dark. Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives rest in you.” 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 the computer age I think Paul is telling us, “It is wise to not Tweet, email or type any comment after sunset!” Imagine what our world would be like if we took Paul’s advice on that!  

But there’s more here for us from the Apostle Paul than only how we should fight AGAINST falsehood. More than just advice for working AGAINST the devil and more than only a warning to push back AGAINST bitterness, wrath, wrangling, slander and malice. When we see and hear the injustices of our world we are often quick to be angry, and like I said, there is a calling 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 and the horrors of the world are so very horrible at times, that it can feel almost like a betrayal of the most vulnerable to let up on what we’re “Against” and not stay 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 needs to be shown what the love of God in Christ looks like, just as clearly as the world needs to be shown the things that grieve the Holy Spirit!  

It most certainly IS our task to see injustice, to be angry and fight for justice… AND, AND, AND it is ALSO most certainly our task to model what the world will look like when “God’s will is done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The world needs us flawed but faithful people, to speak words that build up with grace JUST AS OFTEN as the world needs to hear us flawed and faithful people name the sins of greed, cruelty, racism, and violence.  

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 needs us JUST AS MUCH to show it how to be imitators of Christ as beloved children, living in love as Christ loved us, giving all of ourselves to God and our neighbor.  

This world of ours moves at the speed of light these days. Falsehood travels up to twenty times faster than the truth! But don’t forget… you and I… we’ve been marked with the cross of Christ in the waters of Baptism… we’ve been sealed for the day of redemption… and God in Christ has forgiven us, set us free and given us life and that life in Christ we’ve been given, will carry us farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than even the most viral Tweet could ever hope to go!  Amen.

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.