Category: Homilies

Mark 9:38-50

Growing up I was scared stiff of these verses in Mark’s Gospel that we just heard…

• Where Jesus says that if your hand causes you to sin cut it off…
• And if your foot causes you to sin cut that off too.
• And if your eye causes you to sin gauge it out.
• I remember when I was 5 years old…I stole candy from the little mom & pop store across the street from my house.
• And then hid it under my bed.
• And I remember hearing this passage soon after that and thinking how my hand had indeed caused me to sin.
• And then and there I decided to never steal again lest Jesus insist I hack off my hand.
• Well…Jesus did not hack off my hand.
• But my mom made me give the candy back to the store owner and apologize for stealing his candy.

 

The Lord be with you

And also with you

 

Here’s the thing though: My hand and my eye and my foot cannot be blamed for my stumbling.

• To find the culprit behind my sin do not look at my hand.
• Look at my heart…my poor feet just do what they are told.
• But…it would seem…based on this text from Mark’s Gospel…this is what discipleship looks like.
• Being willing to mutilate yourself to avoid sin.
• This is a text of terror for children.
• It’s like the Gospel according to Beetlejuice.

 

The reading we just heard talks of stumbling…not of sin.

• So…I started getting curious about the word stumble.
• Stumble in Greek is scandalizo from the word group scandalon…from which we get scandal.
• So…then we might think of this text as saying we need to cut from us the things that trip us up.
• The things that cause scandals and dramas?

 

Since it is political campaign season…I was thinking about what the word scandal means in the political world.

• Scandals are when everything stops so that something small can be made into something huge…
• So that no one will pay attention anymore to the real story.
• Scandals are always a distraction from the main thing.
• And no one seems to love a scandal…a stumbling block…more than Americans do.

 

So…I wonder…rather than suggesting we literally hack off our own limbs…

• If Jesus is making a strong point about how critical it is to remember what the real story is.
• Maybe his warning against stumbling is a warning against focusing too much on anything that is not the main thing.
• And this is really a simple definition of sin:
• Placing something or someone or some accomplishment at the center…
• And making it…and not God…the source of our identity.
• It is loving something…as God…that is not God.
• It is giving our heart to that…which cannot love us like God can.

 

When these things feel like the main thing…they need to be cut away.

• Sometimes we might have the insight and will to cut from ourselves the things…the scandals…that distract us from the main thing.
• Perhaps…we may know the thing that needs to be cut out of our life…
• And we may even have the fortitude to do it.

But sometimes these things get ripped from us by God.

• I have had acquaintances tell me things like:
• “I still cannot believe I actually am coming to church.”
• Meaning: “My resentment toward religion and how it has hurt me is no longer the main thing.
• That scandal has been cut from me enough that I am now part of a spiritual community again.
• And I am happy it happened.”

 

Or someone says to me:

• “I cannot believe I am going to seminary.”
• “I can’t believe I am giving away 10 percent of my income.”
• “I can’t believe I see my work in corporate America as a Christian vocation now.”
• “I can’t believe that I no longer hate some of the people I use to love to hate.”
• “I can’t believe it. “

 

When we say: “I cannot believe such and such has changed in my life”…pay attention to that.

• Because our bafflement at this stuff is called being a disciple of Jesus Christ.
• It’s called living as a person of faith.
• I thought all this stuff about following Jesus was a matter of mustering up enough self-discipline to amputate my own limb.
• We figure that we are the ones who must hack off our hands and feet…
• And gouge out our own eyes and give away all our possessions…
• And shrink our camel-sized selves down to needle-eye size.
• But in fact…it tends to be God who does this for us…
• Who prunes us…feeds us…cuts us and our bank accounts down to size and shapes us.

 

This is why we gather every single week and tell the same story.

• We gather as the people of God and tell the same story because THAT STORY is THE STORY.
• And we simply must be reminded of it again and again because we are so easily distracted.

 

And here’s the thing:

• THAT STORY of God’s redeeming work for all of creation that happens in the birth…life…death…and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we tell every single week.
• THAT STORY is an axe.

 

And anything that we put in the center:

• Job…relationship…money…status…pride…accomplishments…politics… security.
• The things that lure us with promises that can only be given by God.
• The things that cause us to stumble.
• The promise in the Gospel text is this:
• All that stands in the place of…
• And all that would keep us from God will be burned away.

 

My confession is this:

• I do not go to church to have my needs met.
• I go to church to have my needs changed.
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ will never meet my needs.
• But watch out.
• Because it WILL change our needs.
• And that is the most beautiful thing I can tell you.

Mark 9:30-37

Miss Susan and I raised four children…and they are all wonderful adults…

• But we must tell you…that children really are a mess.
• And yet it is children who Jesus uses to teach us today in our Gospel reading.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

So…here is what is happening:

• Jesus and his disciples are on the road…and he starts talking some nonsense about how he will be betrayed and killed and raised from the dead and his disciples had no idea what that meant.
• But they were too faint-hearted to ask…so instead…they just start trash talking with each other.

 

And then when they go inside Jesus just kind of stretched his arms out…yawned and said:

• So… what were you guys arguing about on the road.
• And they all totally freeze up…guilt stricken…
• Since they were not exactly talking about how to care for the poor.
• Or who might need some extra prayer.
• They were talking about themselves…
• And like insecure high school boys they were arguing about who was the greatest among them.
• And then they were ashamed to tell the truth about that.

 

To which Jesus says: whoever wants to be great must be least.

• So…he takes a small child and places that child among them.
• And he takes the child into his arms and says: whoever welcomes such a child as this in his name welcomes him…and indeed…welcomes God.

 

But here is a caution.

• Lest…when we hear this story…we picture a cute little well-dressed kid from an ad for the Gap.
• We should consider how differently children were treated and perceived in Jesus’ day.
• It is difficult to remember that the sentimentality we Westerners attach to childhood is a recent thing.
• It really was not until the 18^th century that children were viewed as innocent and angelic.
• These days our images of children come from Norman Rockwell paintings emblazoned in our minds.
• But it was not like that in the first century.
• In Jesus’ time…there was not a growing market for adorableness like there is today.

 

These children did not take bubble baths before being tucked into their Sesame Street bed sheets and read The Cat and The Hat.

• There was no sentimentality about childhood because childhood was a time of terror.
• Children in those days only had value as replacement adults.
• Children were more like mongrel dogs than they were beloved members of a family.
• Children died all the time.
• Children were dirty and useless and often unwanted.
• And to teach his disciples about greatness and hospitality…Jesus puts not a chubby-faced angel…
• But this kind of child in the center.
• Folds this kind of child into his arms and says…
• When you welcome the likes of this child you welcome me.

 

That is a serious lesson in Christian welcome that Jesus is teaching us.

• And we…like the disciples…should welcome the messy reality of having children among us as if we are welcoming God’s own self.
• I often wonder if the distracting noise of children in worship is more pleasing to the ears of our Lord than even the most perfect choir anthem.

 

OK…here’s the thing:

• What if the child is a stand-in for us…not a generic us…I mean us…here…in this place.
• I started to wonder why it was…earlier in the story…that the disciples did not ask Jesus some simple clarifying questions.
• Why were they having an argument about who was the greatest?
• And why could they not admit to it later when he asked what they were talking about?
• And that made me think about times when I had been too afraid to ask a question about something.
• Feeling others would think it was a stupid question.
• I thought about the times when I had been showoff-y like the disciples.
• And the times when I was too ashamed to admit the truth about my smallness.

 

What I want to say is this:

• I want to say that it is the parts of us that differ very little from 1^st century children which are welcomed into the arms of our loving savior.
• The parts of us that are like a useless child who has dried mucus wiped across his unwashed face.
• A child who cannot understand Jesus’ teaching at all.
• A child who has nothing to offer.
• Who no one else wants around.
• Who no one else even notices is there.
• A child who has zero ability to make himself worthy.
• These are the very parts of us that Jesus folds into his arms and says…welcome.

 

Jesus folds us into his loving arms…that which is messy and worthless and unable to help itself…and God says “welcome”.

• We are placed in the center and are held in the arms of Jesus…
• And are welcomed into the life of God and God’s people.
• God bless the children.

Mark 8:27-38

Think with me about what we can learn from the life that Jesus lived.

• I believe that there is no one who has ever walked this earth who has lived a more meaningful life.
• Jesus knew who he was and what he wanted.
• And he lived the life that he knew he was supposed to live.
• The life that he was born to live.
• Jesus was not disappointed in himself or in his life.
• It was just the way it was meant to be.
• It was not always easy…but it was always right.
• Jesus never got it wrong.
• And he lived his life exactly as God wanted him to.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

How many of us can say that?

• If we are being honest…none of us.
• But think again about the life that Jesus lived.
• As meaningful as it was…and as fulfilled a life as he had…think about what he did not

 

Jesus never owned a home.

• The Son of Man had nowhere to lay his head.
• Jesus never traveled the world.
• He spent his whole life within walking distance of where he was born.
• He never married. Never had children.
• He was neither a husband nor a father.
• Jesus never drove in a car…or flew in an airplane.
• He never watched television…or rode a roller-coaster…or played a video game.
• And not only that…but his life was cut short when he was just 33 years old.

 

Jesus did not live a complete life…by the measure of our world.

• But without a doubt…he lived a meaningful
• So…if Jesus is any guide…none of those things that he missed out on are necessary to live a meaningful life.

 

Let’s think about this a little.

• What gave meaning to Jesus’ life?
• Well…let’s look at today’s gospel reading.
• Jesus lived his life based on his teachings in our gospel reading.
• He told Peter to set his mind on divine things…not on human things.
• And that is what Jesus did.
• He lived every day with his mind set on his divine purpose…on his relationship with his Heavenly Father.

And then he told the crowd that the only way to save their life is by losing it…

• For his sake…and for the sake of the gospel.
• I think what that means is that the only way to live a life of real meaning…
• Is by giving up on the life that this world thinks matters…
• And instead living the life that matters to God.

 

That is what Jesus did.

• And that is what he invites us to do.
• He invites us to find the only life that matters by losing the life our world thinks matters.
• He invites us to deny ourselves…and take up our cross…and follow him.
• Why? To save our lives. To find our true lives.
• The life that he died to give us.
• Not just eternal life in heaven.
• But a meaningful…purposeful life here and now.
• A wonderful…grace-filled…abundant life.

 

It is not easy to do this…though.

• Because the world constantly persuades us to place our hope in the stuff of this world.
• Hope that we can purchase…or achieve.
• Not hope that depends on someone else.
• It is tempting to place our hope in the stuff of this world.
• And we are bombarded with it.
• Every day in countless different ways.

 

Susan Ritz taught me this lesson in a powerful way 27 years.

• Susan was a member of St. Matthew Lutheran church…a congregation I served in Wilmington, NC.
• One day over coffee she shared this with me:
• “I grew up on a lovely dairy farm in Michigan.
• And when I was 12 years old…I crouched in a ditch along with my mother and father and brother…
• We hunkered down in the ditch that ran alongside the road that led to the farm.
• And we watched in fear and trembling.
• We watched a mighty tornado that engulfed and destroyed our home and barn and outbuildings.
• Helpless to stop it.”

 

“The home I grew up in was a beautiful…very large historic classic farmhouse.

• It had a small lake where we swam and fished…and ice skated in the winter.
• It was a wonderful place to grow up.
• I loved my bedroom…and I loved that house.”

 

“And it was a difficult…sad day…the day that I stood there and saw the rubble of what was.

• But it was an important day in my life.
• And especially in my life of faith.
• Because by God’s grace…I began to learn…that day…the lesson that Jesus teaches in the Gospel of Mark chapter eight.
• That the most important stuff in this life is not found in the stuff of this life.”

 

“In the rubble that was our home we found a few items.

• The most important being the pearl necklace that my father gave my mother on their wedding day.
• I found my old piggy bank…broken…with some coins in it.
• I keep the piggy bank…in my den…at home…
• As a reminder that the most important stuff in this life is not found in the stuff of this life.
• It is a lesson I learned the hard way…and one that I keep needing to be reminded of.
• I do not believe that it was God’s will that my family home was destroyed.
• I do not believe that God causes natural disasters to punish us or teach us.
• But I do believe that God can bring good things out of bad situations.
• And so…when I was 12 years old…God helped me rearrange my priorities in life.”

 

“I went back to my Bible in the days and weeks after the tornado.

• And I looked at Jesus and his life.
• I was reminded then that Jesus never even owned a home.
• Never married. And lived only 33 short years.
• But there was no doubt in my mind that he lived a fulfilled…meaningful life.
• Why? Because he set his mind on divine things.
• He lived his life constantly aware of His Heavenly Father’s loving presence in his life.
• He knew that nothing else really mattered.”

 

Well…that is what Susan shared with me that day we had coffee together.

• And so…today…Jesus is inviting us to once again let go of human things…and set our minds again on divine things.
• He is inviting us to lose the only life that the world believes matters.
• For his sake and for the sake of the gospel.
• And by doing so save the only life that really matters.

 

Finally…Susan said: “I must be honest with you.

• I still miss that house.
• I miss all the stuff from my childhood that was lost.
• I miss it all.
• But even when I am missing it…I am reminded that the life that really matters is not there.
• The life that really matters is only found in Jesus.
• Our way…our truth…and our life.
• And when I forget…I am thankful to have my little piggy bank to remind me.
• If I want to save my life…I must lose it…for Jesus’ sake…and for the sake of the gospel.
• For what will it profit me to gain the whole world…
• But forfeit the only life that really matters?”

Mark 7:24-37

Albert Einstein once said:

• There are two ways to live your life.
• One is as though nothing is a miracle.
• The other is as though everything is a miracle.

 

Yes…everything in life is a miracle…but we need to leave room for those rare instances that occur every once in a while.

• When something so extraordinary happens that there seems to be no other explanation than that God intervened.
• Intervened in a wonderful way.
• And something that was not supposed to happen…did happen.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Well…there would have been no miracle if it had not been for the deaf man’s friends bringing him to Jesus.

• The deaf man was afraid to approach Jesus…since it was difficult for him to speak.
• Most likely…he had become something of a recluse.
• So…we are glad for heaven’s accomplices to miracles.
• Those people who help in small and unspectacular ways.
• But in ways that open the door for great things to happen.
• These angels…unawares…asked Jesus to touch their friend.

 

Jesus took the man aside in private…away from the crowd.

• An empathic and sensitive thing to do.
• Crowds were a problem for this man…with his difficulty in communicating.
• Because of his deafness…he felt left out…never sure of what was going on.

 

So…Jesus put the man at ease.

• He took him alone…away from the crowd.
• Jesus healed the man’s sense of inferiority before he healed his body.
• We often need emotional healing before medicine or treatments even begin.

 

Then Jesus put his fingers into the deaf man’s ears.

• As a way of telling the man he understood where the problem was.
• And in doing this Jesus was accepting the man at the very point of his sense of rejection.
• No words could have done this.

 

And then Jesus spits on the ground.

• And he touched the man’s tongue.
• Jesus was saying…dramatically:
• “We will spit out this thing that binds your tongue.”

 

Then Jesus looked up to heaven and sighed. 

• A sigh is often a sign of weariness or of longing.
• What was in Jesus’ mind as he “sighed” while looking up to heaven?
• Well…Jesus was weary with the load of human need?
• Jesus was expressing his longing for God’s intervention in still another lamentable human case.
• He was also thinking of the Canaanite woman’s daughter he had just healed.

 

When Jesus made his comment referring to the woman as a dog…

• He was not speaking directly to the woman in distress.
• He was responding to his own Jewish disciples.
• Speaking out of their own narrowness and insensitivity.
• Remember…they had told him to send the woman away.
• They were steeped in the values of their own culture.
• To them Canaanites were dogs.
• They had yet to learn that with God no one is a dog.
• So…Jesus becomes…once again…their teacher.
• He mirrors back to them their own thinking…
• In a way that would allow them to hear just how terrible it sounded.

 

Jesus said: “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs”.

• And the Canaanite woman responds:
• “Yes Lord…yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
• Even his leftovers are enough.
• Jesus is our last resort.
• He is the profligate one.
• He wastes his crumbs…his leftovers on us!
• And so…he sighs!!!
• And the woman’s little girl is healed.

 

And then Jesus spoke.

• “Be opened.”
• The man’s ears were opened…so he could hear.
• And his tongue was released…and he spoke plainly.

 

Jesus then ordered the healed man and his friends to tell no one.

• But of course…the more he ordered them…the more they proclaimed it.
• How could it have been otherwise?
• Especially for the man who had been healed.

 

Why did Jesus order silence?

• Because those who were opposed to him were becoming increasingly agitated.
• Jesus wanted to delay his arrest and trial until he had accomplished more of his earthly mission.
• But it was hard to silence people who had been the recipients and witnesses of something so wonderful.

 

Well…here’s an afterthought:

• I cannot count the number of times I have started to complain about something…
• Only to have my friend cut me off after two or three sentences with a well-intentioned but misguided…
• “I know exactly what you are going through.
• The same thing just happened to me.”
• Suddenly we are talking about the other’s ungrateful kid…
• The other’s lousy boss…leaky fuel line.
• And I am left nodding my head in all the right places.
• Feeling angry and ripped off…wondering if we have not all come down with a bad case of emotional attention disorder.

 

Nothing is more natural than trying to soothe an overwrought friend with assurances that they are not alone.

• But calamities resemble each other only from afar.
• Up close they are as unique as fingerprints.

 

What we all hope for…when we turn to a friend because we are feeling low or agitated or wildly happy…

• Is to find someone who sounds as if they have all the time in the world.
• Someone who does not rush us.
• We do not always want answers or advice.
• Sometimes we just want company.

 

“I am learning (in my old age) to follow the other person’s lead.

• To pay attention to body language…facial gestures…tone of voice.
• To hear what is left unsaid.
• To recall relevant details and make helpful associations and connections.
• This ability to be with someone in their pain and happiness is the cornerstone of genuine empathy.
• We must immerse ourselves in the other person’s experience.
• We must pay attention to the other person.
• We must listen to the other person.

 

Jesus restores the deaf man’s hearing with the word be opened.

• Our prayer is that we too…be given this gift of generous…selfless openness of heart and spirit.
• To bring healing and life to those who need the support…
• The affirmation and the peace that the simple act of listening can give.

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

A few years ago…I met a woman who told me about a big mess her congregation had gotten into.

• It seems the church council had voted to move the grand piano…
• Which sat in the front of the worship space.
• They voted to move it five inches.
• So that they could make room for some new handicap-accessible seating.
• I am not sure why the church council was voting on something like this.
• But they were.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Anyway…the council members agreed on a date and time for meeting at church to move the piano.

• Now…I am not sure why they were going to do this themselves…either.
• But apparently word got out that this was happening.
• The appointed time arrived.
• The church council members gathered in the sanctuary…dressed…I suppose…
• In appropriate clothing for piano moving and…
• Maybe…feeling a little bit scared.
• You know…like lightning was going to strike or something if they dared move anything in such a holy place.

 

But before they even had time to think about it…

• The director of music burst through the doors of the sanctuary and barreled up the aisle.
• She said not a word.
• But rather communicated her position clearly by hoisting up her generous frame and throwing herself across the top of the piano.
• We must guess that she was dressed for piano straddling.

 

At any rate…she flat out…do not-even-try-to-mess-with-me…

• Refused to come down off the piano until the church council agreed not to touch it.

 

Who…or what…was lord in that place…do you think?

• It is easy to get confused.
• Putting tradition or culture or “my” ideas or whatever…
• At the center of our life together as believers.
• But I wonder how many of our problems…at church…
• As well as in our own personal lives…
• Would be solved if we simply remembered that JESUS is Lord.
• No thing and no one else.

 

So…ritual is engrained in our lives.

• Just as it was heavily engrained in the lives of the folks during Jesus’ time on earth.

 

In our lesson for the day…the Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law had come from Jerusalem to “investigate” Jesus.

• On the outside these Pharisees personified respectability.
• On the inside…however…they were full of fear and envy.
• Really…they were growing in their hatred for Jesus.
• They looked for any excuse to smear him and his followers.

 

On this day…they observed some of Jesus’ disciples eating food without first washing their hands.

• This…of course…offended them.
• Understand…this was not about sanitation.
• There was no sign around saying employees must wash their hands.
• It was not about preventing germs.
• They knew nothing about germs then.
• Instead…this was about maintaining a religious tradition.

 

In fact…Mark pauses for a moment and explains to his Gentile audience living outside of Palestine…the Jewish practice of ceremonial washing.

• “Unclean” …the Greek word is koinais…
• As Mark explained it…
• Meant “ceremonially unwashed.”
• It was a technical term among Hebrews denoting whatever was contaminated according to their religious rituals.
• And…for that reason…was unfit to be called holy or devoted to God.
• Unclean could refer to practices or to people.

 

The most common ritual cleansing was the washing of one’s hands before eating food.

• Disregarding this regulation was considered a sin for a loyal Jew.
• We would say that these disciples were engaging in unsanitary behavior when they did not wash their hands before eating.
• In the Pharisees’ minds…though… Jesus’ disciples were indulging in sinful behavior when they did not wash their hands.

 

Let’s pause for a moment.

• We need to acknowledge here…that this tradition of ritual cleansing…
• Would have had a positive effect on the health of the Jewish people that observed it.
• Many of the Jewish ceremonial laws protected them from disease.
• And this was certainly one of those cases.
• But protecting their health was not why they washed their hands before eating.
• It was because they were keeping the tradition of their fathers and mothers.
• And Jesus’ disciples were not observing those traditions.

 

So…the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus:

• “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders…but eat with defiled hands?”
• Well…Jesus knew what this was all about.
• Jesus knew the Pharisees were not nearly as concerned about whether his disciples washed their hands as they were determined to find fault with his ministry.
• He makes no reference to his disciples’ apparent ungodly conduct.

 

Instead…he replies:

• “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites…
• As it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips…
• But their hearts are far from me.
• They worship me in vain…
• Their teachings are merely human rules.’
• You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

 

Who we are…what we do…the kind of persons we are…begin within the heart.

• The place where God dwells.
• The evil we are capable of…the hurt we inflict on others…the degrading of the world that God created…begins within our hearts:
• When God is displaced by selfishness.
• When God is displaced by anger.
• When God is displaced by greed.
• When God is displaced by hatred.

 

Saint Paul insists that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

• So…it is right that we conclude with the words of the psalmist:
• “Create in me a clean heart…O God…and put a new and right spirit within me.”

John 6:56-69

Jesus had been invited to preach at the synagogue in Capernaum.

• By most accounts…the sermon was a flop.
• As soon as he finished speaking…the sideways glances began to fly.
• One person scowled…another ground his teeth…others stood shell-shocked by the vivid phrases that lingered in their ears.
• Several listeners were confused by what they had heard.
• The consensus was clear…the sermon was hard to swallow.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Jesus’ supporters agreed…several of them huddled outside…having one of those conversations that people sometimes have in the parking lot.

• Quiet complaints…muttered beneath the breath.
• When Jesus came near…he did not make things any better.
• He said his words are “spirit and life.”
• That did not smooth out the conflict.

 

Some grew uncomfortable and began to leave.

• Others stood around not knowing what to do…or whether they should leave.
• When Jesus asked about it…Simon Peter replied: “Lord…to whom can we go?”
• Peter meant that as a rhetorical question…but you and I know…there are many places for people to go.

 

In her memoir…poet Annie Dillard…says that she left the church as a teenager.

• On Sundays…her father dropped her off at the door and kept driving.
• The building reeked of affluence and pretension.
• By the time she was a teenager…she grew disturbed by the hypocrisy of what she saw.
• A barefoot Jesus depicted in a gold mosaic…the minister’s affected accent and parents who forced her to attend when they did not.
• Her anger simmered and she decided to quit.

 

One day…the church secretary called to make an appointment for the minister to meet with Annie.

• Her mother asked why and discovered the precocious teenager had written a letter to resign from the church.
• Both parents were appalled.
• Her father suggested she should have slipped away quietly…as many people do…making no fuss.

 

The meeting date arrived. Annie met with the tinselly minister.

• He listened for a while and said: “This is rather early for you to be quitting the church” …adding under his breath… “I suppose you’ll be back soon.”
• He figured there was nowhere else for her to go.

 

It was a naive position to hold…then and now.

• People have always been leaving churches.
• Sometimes they leave because of pretentious ministers.
• Others leave because of angry arguments with fellow Christians.
• Perhaps there was a disagreement over a political stance by a church leader.
• Or maybe something terrible happened that was never addressed.
• And sometimes they leave because it is the only day to catch up on sleep…the only available day to rest after a stressful week.
• Plenty of reasons…all too human reasons.

 

Ceaseless activity often masks a deep unsatisfied hunger at the heart of all our pursuits.

• If anything defines us as human beings…it is our hunger.
• We are creatures who received our lives from the hand of another.
• We do not have the capacity to fill our souls with what they need…we are incomplete.

 

So where do we go? What can fill our emptiness?

• Our culture would turn such questions into google searches.
• There are websites to meet every perceived human need.
• Our desires are marketed aggressively.
• We sift through empty words and wade through false promises.

 

Two decades of summers ago…I announced that in an upcoming Sunday our lay people would conduct worship.

• A church member was invited to preach.
• He was well respected by the congregation.
• He had a pleasant speaking voice and a calming presence.
• Best of all…he was incapable of saying no.

 

Sunday arrived on schedule…the congregation sang and moved through the liturgy.

• At sermon time…the man stood in silence…long enough to initiate a nervous rustle in the pews.
• Then he said: “I have never stood in a pulpit.
• Today I will read to you the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John.
• I will put them in the air and then sit down.”

He began: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

• Again…Jesus spoke to them…saying…I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
• If you continue in my word…you are truly my disciples…and you will know the truth…and the truth will make you free.
• I am the good shepherd. I know my own…and my own know me…just as the Father knows me…and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
• I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me…even though they die…will live…and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
• So…if I…your Lord and Teacher…have washed your feet…you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example…that you also should do as I have done to you.
• Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God…believe also in me.
• In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so…would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
• Peace…I leave with you…my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled…and do not let them be afraid.
• I am the vine…you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit…because apart from me you can do nothing.
• This is my commandment…that you love one another as I have loved you.
• No one has greater love than this…to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

 

He went on like that…reading out of his Bible.

• Then he sat down. Nobody moved.
• The congregation inhabited a silence that nobody felt the need to interrupt.
• There was a clear and abiding sense that Jesus had addressed them personally.

 

“Lord…where else are we going to go?”

• There are a lot of places we could go.
• There are a lot of other voices we could hear.
• But there is only One whose word gives life.
• It is the Christ…One who says:
• “Those who love me will keep my word…and my Father will love them…and we will come to them and make our home with them.”¹

 

Oh…and by-the-way.

• Remember teenaged Annie Dillard who walked out of her pastor’s office.
• And on her way down the hall…she heard him mutter to himself out loud:
• “She’ll be back!”
• Young Annie Dillard wheeled around…
• Went back into the office and said:
• “What did I hear you say?”

 

He said… “Oh…I said I presumed that you’ll probably be back.”

• And she said: “Look…this is my life.
• I live my life like I want to live my life.
• I’m not coming back!”

 

Well…Annie Dillard wrote in her life story:

• “As I write this…I’m 48 years old and I’m back.”

John 6:51-58

We mainline Christians snicker at many (of what we consider anyway) the goofy practices of other religions.

• For example…the Book of Mormon claims there were ancient civilizations in North America…and they believe Jesus Christ came to visit them.
• But it did not take long for me to stop snickering and say to myself:
• Yeah…but the thing is…we claim to eat the flesh and drink the blood of a man who lived 2,000 years ago.
• Who’s crazy now?  I mean…all religions are strange…we are just used to ours is all.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Every three years…the assigned readings during the summer include five weeks of working our way through the Gospel of John…chapter 6.

• And what is called the “Bread of Life Discourse.”
• In the last five weeks we have gone from the feeding of the 5,000 to Jesus walking on water in the middle of a storm at sea.
• A friend of mine says that Jesus walks on water during a storm at sea so often in the gospels that she started thinking it was less about being miraculous and more about just getting in some cardio.
• Anyhow…the crowd chased him down…demanding more bread.
• And then he says that he is the Bread of Life come down from heaven.
• Which angered the nice religious folks.
• And instead of backing off…he makes it even more strange by saying whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood has eternal life.

 

Which is where we pick up today when some of his disciples say:

• “Jesus…that teaching is hard…who can accept it?”
• And many of them leave. And we do not really blame them.
• This teaching is hard…but Jesus had a lot of sayings that were hard.
• Such as: ” Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”…”You who are without sin cast the first stone”…”Sell all you have and give it to the poor,”…”The first shall be last and the last shall be first”…”If you seek to save your life you will lose it.”

 

I really do understand the reaction of the disciples who say these teachings are hard.

• But here’s the thing.
• I think what unites us is not a doctrine.
• What unites us is a table…a table that is open to all…
• In which we receive this Bread of Life come down from heaven.
• The body and blood of Christ is what unites us and makes us a church.
• Hopefully not in a prideful see-how-inclusive-we-are way.
• But in a Lord-to-whom-shall-we-go? way.
• In a…You-have-the-words-of eternal-life way.

 

We all are welcomed each week with the news that we have an open table at St. Andrew for all.

• And that means that everyone without exception is invited to receive the bread and wine.
• Which for us is the body and blood of Christ.
• And we have grown so used to this that we do not realize how radical that is…given the history of Christian practice.

 

Think about it…consider the difference between Roman Catholicism…speaking in tongues Pentecostalism…polite Presbyterianism…emotional evangelicalism…intellectual Lutheranism.

• And for as much as we differ…the one thing most Christian traditions actually have in common is some form of holy communion.
• And here’s the irony…that the very thing we all seem to have in common is the thing that so often divides us.

 

A lot of ink and a lot of blood has been spilled in the history of the church over issues of who gets to take and serve communion.

• Sadly…Christians historical response to the gift of the Eucharist is to make sure that we understand it.
• Then to make sure we put boundaries around it.
• And then to make sure we enforce both the correct understanding and the correct boundaries.
• But on the night Jesus was betrayed he did not say:
• “This is my body broken for you…understand this in remembrance of me.”
• He did not say: “Accept this or defend this or boundary this in remembrance of me.”
• He just said: “DO this in remembrance of me.”
• It is a hard teaching.

 

That God would be made human and walk among us.

• That this Christ would offer his own flesh for the sake of the world.
• That he would do this knowing what scoundrels sat around his table the night he was betrayed.
• That he would do it anyway saying:
• Take and eat…this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

 

And when we feel congratulatory about our inclusivity…we might do well to remember:

• The 12 disciples who sat around that table included Judas the Betrayer and Peter the Denier.
• And the reason Judas and Peter make us cringe is that there is the Christ betrayer and the Christ denier in all of us.
• And it is precisely that part of us that Jesus seeks to make whole with his own broken body.
• This teaching is hard. Who can accept it?

 

It is hard to accept that our enemies receive the same forgiveness and grace and redemption that we do.

• But it is even harder to accept not just that God welcomes all.
• But that God welcomes all of me and all of you.
• Even that within us which we wish to hide.
• The part that cursed at our children this week.
• Or the part within us that suffers from depression or addiction and cannot admit it.
• Or the part of us that is too fearful to give our money away.

 

All the parts of us we wish Jesus had the good sense to not welcome to his table are invited to taste and see that the Lord is Good.

• All of who we are is welcomed to his table to see that the gifts of God are free and for all.
• This teaching is hard…who can accept it?

 

As your preacher…I am not asking that we accept it.

• I am only asking that we just do it.
• Because here at this table we bring our brokenness.
• Here we bring the most broken pieces of this world.
• And we receive…with no payment or worthiness on our part…the equally broken body of Jesus Christ.

 

So…we come and receive life and forgiveness and salvation with all the other broken saints and gleaming sinners.

• For this is what unites us in the love of a powerful God.

John 6:35, 41-51

“I am the bread of life” …Jesus said…not once but twice. “I am the bread of life”

• When was the last time we ate the bread of life?
• I am not asking about the Holy Eucharist because I do not think that is what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel.
• I am not denying that the eucharist is the bread of life.
• What I am saying is that the bread of life is the eucharist and more than the eucharist.
• What I am suggesting is that you and I are to become the bread of life…just like Jesus.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

I mean…just think about all the people…relationships…and experiences that have fed…nourished…and sustained our lives.

• Think about a time when someone else fed and nourished our lives.
• I mean…more than that…they fixed our supper.
• I am talking about the people that spend their time and their presence with us.
• They love us…they teach us…they care for us…they encourage us.
• And our lives are fed and nourished by them.
• Sometimes it is not even what they say or do…but just being in their presence is itself bread.
• And when we spend time with them…we simply feel well fed and full.

Recall someone who offered us wisdom or guidance…

• Who really listened to us…or spoke a word of hope or encouragement that nourished and sustained our lives.
• They were bread for us…or maybe there was someone who helped us discover meaning or purpose in our lives.
• Perhaps it was someone who said: “I forgive you” and we were strengthened to move forward.
• Maybe someone believed in us when we were not so sure about ourselves.
• Our lives are nourished and fed by others in thousands of ways.
• How have we been fed by the life of another?

I believe that is what Jesus is talking about when he speaks of himself as the bread of life.

• Throughout the gospels we see him feeding and nourishing life in so many ways and circumstances:
• Through his love…presence…guidance…and teaching.
• Through his healing…forgiveness…and mercy…
• Through his generosity…compassion…and wisdom.
• This is the bread that feeds the soul.

Those qualities are not unique to Jesus.

• They can be ours as well.
• It is a way Christ shares his life with us.
• We both eat that bread of life and we become it.
• We partake of the bread of someone else’s life and our life is nourished…our life is sustained…our life is strengthened.
• Who would that person be for us?
• What is her or his name?
• What did he or she do or say that fed our lives?

And when have we been bread in someone else’s life?

• When have we fed and nourished them?
• When have we sustained them?
• When have we strengthened them?
• We so often hear Jesus say: “I am the bread of life” and we assume he is the only loaf in the basket.
• I believe Jesus is teaching us…here…what bread of life looks like…
• So…we can find it in this world…and become that bread…and be that bread for another.

 

Oh…most of us…at one time or another…have been given a starter batch of sourdough.

• It holds the potential to become bread…to feed and nourish.
• I believe Jesus is the starter batch in us.
• Rather than making an exclusive claim about himself…
• Jesus is giving us the recipe to become as he is.
• To become the bread of life for the world.
• That is just how Christ works in the world.
• Something in us gets leavened…rises…and becomes bread.

 

The religious leaders and authorities…in today’s gospel…complain because Jesus said: “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”

• The issue is not that they do not believe that God provides or that God feeds.
• The issue is that they know Jesus and his mom and dad.
• They know where he is from.
• He is the snot-nosed kid from Nazareth…
• And he could never be bread from heaven.
• You see…they have made Nazareth and heaven mutually exclusive.
• He could never be from heaven because he is from Nazareth.

Lucky for us we do not have that problem.

• Our problem is that we know Jesus is the Son of God come down from heaven.
• Believers…like us…are often so sure of Jesus’ heavenly origin that he could not possibly come from Nazareth…
• Or St. Petersburg…or Bradenton…or Clearwater…or Tampa.
• That is often the problem for believers like us.
• We know just enough that we cannot know anything more or consider that there could be more to know.

 

We have been in the sixth chapter of John’s gospel for the last three weeks now.

• It has been three weeks of feeding…three weeks of bread…
• And we have got two more to go.
• Something is going on here.
• Jesus begins with the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish.
• And then he said we have got to know the difference between food that perishes and food that endures for eternal life…between bread that is perishable and bread that is imperishable.
• And then…he takes off on this bread of life stuff:
• The bread that lasts…the bread that endures…the bread that never runs out…the bread that never gets stale or moldy.

The reality is that there is a lot of bread in this world.

• And if you look through the Bible you will find references to all sorts of bread:
• The bread of adversity…the bread of tears…the bread of affliction…the bread of mourning…the bread of wickedness…the bread of idleness…the bread of the stingy…and on and on.

 

When you get right down to it…there is only two kinds of bread:

• The bread of life that feeds and nourishes and sustains.
• And all the other bread that leaves us hungry and malnourished.
• What kind of bread are we eating today?
• Does it fill and nourish us?
• Or does it leave us hungry and malnourished?
• Is it sustaining and enduring?
• Or has it become hard and dry?

The bread we choose to eat says something about our appetite and what we hunger for.

• What is our hunger? What is our appetite?
• Do we need a change in diet?
• The old saying: “We are what we eat.”
• If we want life…we need to eat the bread of life.
• If we want to bring life to another…we need to be the bread of life.

John 6:24-35

Jesus is always concerned about feeding hungry people.

• In John…he reminds the crowd that their ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness.
• He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
• And then here in our reading today Jesus calls himself the bread of life and shifts the focus from physical to spiritual hunger.

 

But we need to remember that after the resurrection…Jesus cooks breakfast and asks his disciple Peter about his love for Jesus:

• “Yes…Lord” replies Peter… “you know that I love you.”
• Jesus says to him: “Feed my lambs.”
• When Jesus tells Peter to feed his lambs…he is not talking about fighting world hunger.
• But Jesus is saying that to love him involves more than words and emotions.
• If we are going to love the Christ of God…we need to do
• We need to put bread in the stomachs of hungry people.

 

Food is a necessity…as essential to life as air…water and shelter.

• Much of the world’s population…throughout history and today…have concerns about where their next meal will come from.
• Despite all the technology we have developed since biblical times…
• Providing bread for hungry people is still a constant challenge.
• We feed the lambs of Jesus whenever we find a way to put bread in empty stomachs (DayStar Life Center).

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

Jesus is not satisfied…though…by simply giving fish and bread to a crowd of hungry people.

• He tells them that: “the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
• The crowd perceives that this is precious bread…so they say:
• “Sir…give us this bread always.”
• Jesus says 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.”

 

In the novel City of Peace…a Methodist pastor named Harley Camden is moved by his bishop to a tiny church in Occoquan, Virginia (Quantico).

• In that new community…he meets a couple named Youssef and Sofia…Coptic Christians from Egypt.
• The pastor is surprised that they are close friends with the Bayatis family.
• The Bayatises are Muslim immigrants from Iraq.
• “The Bayatises have become some of our closest friends here in Occoquan” Youssef tells Pastor Harley one night at dinner…
• “Mostly because we have shared so many meals.
• Back in Egypt…Christians and Muslims are getting together less and less…which has caused the animosity and violence to increase.”
• “Food is important to us” Sofia says.
• “Think of the many times that Jesus sat down to eat with people…
• Even tax collectors and sinners.
• Christian hospitality is very important to Youssef and me.”

 

“I do appreciate it” says Pastor Harley.

• “Think of how much better the world would be if people actually sat down and ate with each other.”
• Pastor Harley Camden is right.
• The world would be a better place if people made efforts to sit down and break bread with one another.
• Shared meals have physical benefits…
• But also emotional…mental and spiritual benefits.
• Throughout his ministry…Jesus showed the people around him that meals can feed the soul as well as the body.

 

Luke tells us that on the road to Emmaus, the risen Jesus comes alongside two disciples…but they do not know who he is.

• Then…when he sits down to dinner with them…he takes bread…blesses it…breaks it and gives it to them.
• Then their eyes are opened…and they recognize him…and he vanishes from their sight.
• It is then that they realize their souls have been nourished by Jesus…the bread of life.

 

This story reminds us to feed the soul as well as the body.

• Such nourishment happened at Emmaus…when the eyes of the disciples were opened.
• Soul-feeding happens when the risen Christ nourishes us today…through the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
• Whenever bread is broken…in a Communion meal…
• Or in an ordinary meal (our own monthly potluck) …
• We open our hearts to the presence of Christ.
• When we eat together…Jesus feeds us and fills us with his love.

 

The Emmaus story ends with the two disciples racing back to Jerusalem to share the news of their experience with the other disciples.

• They tell the others what happened on the road…and how Jesus “had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
• That is where they came face to face with the “true bread from heaven.”
• Their story teaches us how to welcome one another around a table…
• To strengthen our bonds with Jesus and with each other and to feed each other in body and in soul.

 

After lecturing at a Winnipeg university…Pastor Fred Craddock found himself stranded in a bus station during a surprise October snowstorm.

• Cold and wet…he finally found a seat at the depot’s café counter.
• A cranky…tired man in a greasy apron took his order.
• All they had was soup…one kind.
• So…Pastor Fred ordered the soup.
• The gray goop was the worst thing he had ever eaten.
• He wrapped his hands around the bowl…at least it kept his hands warm.

 

The door opened again…letting in the icy wind.

• “Close the door!” somebody yelled.
• In came a woman in a threadbare coat.
• She took a seat not far from the minister.
• The cranky man in the greasy apron went over to take her order.
• “Glass of water” she mumbled.
• He brought the water.
• “Now…what do you want?”
• “Just a glass of water and a chance to get warm.”
• “Look…I have customers that pay…what do you think this is…a church or something?
• If you’re not going to order…you’ve got to leave!”
• And he got real loud about it…so that everyone there could hear him.

 

So…she got up to leave.

• And almost as if rehearsed…everyone in that café got up and headed to the door.
• If she was going to have to leave…they were going…as well.

 

The man in the greasy apron saw this happening and blurted out:

• “All right…all right…she can stay.”
• Everyone sat down…and he brought her a bowl of soup.
• Pastor Fred asked the person sitting next to him: “Who is she?”
• “I never saw her in here before” …was the reply.

 

The place grew quiet…all that the minister heard was the sipping of that awful soup.

• The minister decided to try it again and put his spoon into the bowl.
• “You know” …the minister said later… “it really wasn’t bad.
• Everybody was eating the soup…and it was pretty good soup.
• I have no idea what kind of soup it was.
• I don’t know what was in it.
• But I do recall when I was eating it…it tasted a little bit like bread and wine.”

 

God’s compassion manages to transform the most horrible soup into the banquet of heaven.

• And a group of stranded travelers into a community.
• This is the “bread of heaven” that Jesus speaks of today.
• The food that will not perish.

John 6:1-21

Well…I know that the laws of Newtonian physics are not suddenly flexible if you just have enough faith.

• Atoms and molecules do not just transform randomly.
• It is more reasonable to believe that things are what they seem.
• Water stays water. Five loaves stay five loaves…and the dead stay dead.

 

I get it…and I have read all the rational explanations for what really happened at the feeding of the five thousand.

• Explanations I could offer to my non-believer friends…
• Without feeling like I must apologize for being so foolish as to believe in miracles.
• With a little effort I can easily explain away the feeding of the five thousand as little more than a wonderful picnic with a bunch of people.
• Since bread and fish did not just suddenly replicate themselves…
• What happened that day was obviously more like a big wilderness potluck.
• Where everybody felt so compelled to be good people after hearing Jesus preach…
• That they all opened their picnic baskets and gave parts of their fried chicken and potato salad to their neighbors.
• So that is why there was enough food to go around.

 

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

 

But I decided not to preach that homily today.

• That Jesus wants us to be nice and share our lunch…
• Since we all learned that lesson already in kindergarten.

 

Not that thousands of people sharing with their neighbors is not miraculous…it is.

• It is just that there are six accounts of this miracle in the gospels.
• Six…and since there are only four gospels…that means that in two of them…a version of the story was told twice.
• So…it is just too important a story for it to only be about people sharing their lunches.

 

So…as crazy as it is…I believe in miracles…not because I think I am supposed to…

• But because I need to…I need to believe that God does what I cannot do.
• I mean…if God only acted in ways we can…we could all just be our own gods.
• And if history tells us anything…it is that we make terrible gods.

We have a God who can feed so many on so little.

• A God who created the universe out of nothing.
• A God who can put flesh on dry bones.
• A God who can put life into a dry womb.
• God does all of this out of nothing.
• Nothing is God’s favorite material to work with.
• God looks upon that which we dismiss as nothing…insignificant…worthless…
• And says: “Hah…now…that I can do something with”.

 

The resource that Jesus had in abundance…that day…was not the fried chicken and potato salad hidden under people’s tunics.

• The raw material that Jesus had was the need of humanity for a God that can do miracles.
• And this need is an endless resource.

 

You see…that day…the disciples forgot that they too were hungry.

• The disciples forget that it was their own personal need for bread…
• That qualified them to participate in the miracle of feeding thousands with nothing on hand.
• It was not their cooking skills.
• It was not their ability to guilt everyone into sharing.
• It was their own deep hunger which exactly matched the hunger of the crowd.

 

How often do we forget this?

• What we really have going for us is not homiletical ability.
• Or choral conducting expertise…or leadership training.
• It is our own personal need for a savior.
• A need identical in quality and quantity to those we minister.
• This need we have for Jesus…the need for forgiveness and love and mercy…has no limit.
• This is our nothing from which God creates real miracles.

 

Yet I so often forget this.

• I am easily overwhelmed by the hunger of the multitudes.
• And I look around trying to figure out what I have at my disposal that might feed them.
• And I keep coming up short.
• Short on compassion…short on skill…short on will.
• And I think of how God called me to this.
• And needs me to feed God’s people.
• So…I lean on my own resources.
• And when I do…I quickly see how little there is.
• A few loaves? A couple fish?
• It’s never enough.

 

Years ago…I went to a retreat at a Greek Byzantine Catholic monastery outside of town.

• I was matched up for spiritual direction with one of the brothers.
• I was hoping he would give me work to do.
• You see…the monastery was a working farm.
• Instead…he looked at me and said…
• I don’t think you should do anything while you are here.
• Just walk the farm knowing that God loves you totally apart from any work you do.
• I thought that sounded awful.
• How can the work I do be important if God loves me quite apart from the fact that I do it?

 

That’s the irony.

• The more important and transformative the work is that we do…
• The more we need to know that we are loved by God…
• With or without doing that work.

 

When Jesus looks out and asks where are these hungry people going to get food?

• He means that we all are the hungry people…and he is the bread.
• When I rely only on my strengths.
• When I think I have only my small stingy little heart from which to draw love for those I serve.
• When the water is rough…and storms are real and I am scared.
• Filled with fear of what is happening or not happening in the church.
• Filled with fear that I do not have what it takes to be a leader.
• Filled with fear that everyone will see nothing in me but my inadequacies.
• I have forgotten about Jesus.
• The one who makes something out of my nothing.
• The one who walks towards me in the storm.

 

That’s our guy.

• The Man of sorrows familiar with suffering.
• Friend of scoundrels and thieves.
• Forgiver of his own executioners.
• Resurrected on the third day.
• The lamb who was slain…the great defeater of death and griller of fish and savior of sinners.

 

We are all broken and hungry in need of a savior.

• So…together we come away with Christ to sit in the grass and be fed.
• We are loved entirely and completely by God with or without doing the ministry and work we do.

 

We just do not realize how tired and hungry we are until we go away to rest and reach again for the hem of Jesus’ garment.

• And then…hands extended…someone looks into our eyes and calls us by name and says:
• “Child of God…the Body of Christ Given for you.”
• And then we realize…we had no idea how hungry we really were.
• Thanks be to God.