This Sermon Is Not About You

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday September 4, 2011, the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Exodus 12:1-14

Psalm 149

Romans 13:8-14

Matthew 18:15-20

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen

When I started writing the sermon early last week, I had a beautiful illustration for how to make it look like two people were following 18:15-17 from our reading this morning, Christ’s directions to his disciples on conflict resolution. Now as I cryptically said, the illustration made it “look like” they were following Christ’s directions, but truly they weren’t.

After sharing the illustration I was going to say “But this sermon is not about them, and it’s not about you either.” As it would happen, on Wednesday Al told me that I needed to take a look at the web site he checks for children’s sermons. The next day at Lectio Divina, the group that meets on Thursday to study the gospel reading, I was given more food for thought. Then I read an article on line that asked the pastoral question “Are You a Preacher or a Motivational Speaker?” At that point, the old illustration was worthless.

The children’s sermon Al shared with me was wonderful. I won’t share the whole text with you, but here’s the Reader’s Digest condensed version:

Once upon a time there were two brothers. When their father died, they inherited and split their father’s farm and continued in the family business. One day, one of them offended the other over a slight that is now long forgotten.

Then one day, a carpenter visited one of the brothers and asked if there was any work for him. The farmer-brother said yes, there was work. He wanted the carpenter to build a fence along the stream that split their property so he didn’t have to see his brother again.

At the end of the day, the farmer came to check on the carpenter’s work only to discover that instead of building a wall, he built a bridge. Shocked at the work, he was even more amazed to see his brother on the other side. “After all the terrible things I’ve done to you over the years, I can't believe that you would build a bridge and welcome me back.”[1] He then reached out to his brother and gave him a big hug.

After the two men made amends, the brother that hired the carpenter went home. The farmer asked the carpenter to stay. The carpenter replied “No, I have more bridges to build.”

There are several ways to interpret scripture, among them are descriptive and prescriptive. The descriptive way of interpreting scripture interprets through explanation, a grand rephrasing of the word of God for the people of God. I tend to do a lot of this. My original illustration, the one I talked about at the beginning, would have made a wonderful segue into describing verses 15-17. I would have described how this biblical conflict resolution process works and how important it is to use it.

I would have said that those three verses show us how to make amends when a brother, fellow disciple, member of the church has sinned against you. It keeps it small and intimate until the whole church is involved and it does keep the sin within the church. What starts between the disciples should remain in the church.

It’s not bad as descriptions go; at least it wasn’t bad before I was reminded there’s something better.

The prescriptive interpretation of scripture does something different. The prescriptive interpretation doesn’t describe the text. Like a prescription helps make a sick body better, the prescriptive interpretation helps us use the text in our lives. It helps make us better disciples. A prescriptive interpretation of this scripture is the basis of that children’s sermon. The prescriptive interpretation reminds us that Christ makes amends for us and between us. Christ makes amends between us and our God.

Christ bridges the gap. Christ closes the chasms and schisms that are so old that we don’t remember their particulars anymore. Yes, we can remember broad brush strokes of the sins, but the details are gone like yesterday’s news.

The glory of this prescription is that while it is humanity’s first inclination to want to build walls between us, Christ will have nothing to do with that. When something comes between disciples, between brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord is there building bridges instead of walls.

How wonderful is that? Our God saves! Even when we try to build walls God builds bridges and saves us from ourselves bringing us to reconciliation.

On Thursday, this was going through my mind as we were reading Matthew 18:15-20 in our study. On a side note, during the announcements Al always says that everyone is invited to join the study in the chapel at 10:00 Thursday mornings. As he has said, we read and we discuss, we listen and we pray. It’s not a lecture. Because of this, insights that are new (at least to me) and glorious are shared regularly.

One of the things that came up on Thursday was a wonderful and glorious interpretation that helps define church for all of us. One of the participants, Tom Malcolm, noted that in verse 20, Jesus says “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Now, that’s nothing new, this is the kind of scripture that has helped define the church for nearly 2,000 years. What made this more special was how he related it to the first part of our reading.

He reminded us verse 15 begins, “If your brother sins against you…” and ends saying “between the two of you.” Friends, intelligence is often complex and complicated, but great wisdom often comes in the very simplest of words. Let me paraphrase the point made on Thursday. He told us verse 15 has two people, the sinner and the sinned against, when they come together in Jesus’ name, Christ is among them.

I love this insight. I absolutely love it. In verses 15-17, this is a particular brother member of the church, who was sinned against by another particular brother member of the church. They are disciples, but they are individuals.

In the last three verses, the “you” Jesus is talking about is the Church, his Church. The two in verse fifteen, by coming together in Jesus’ holy name come together as the Church, the capital “C” church. They don’t form a denomination or a congregation; they come together as members of the Body of Christ, they come together as the Church.

This is important for all of us; there are times when we do not agree with one another. There are times when people will be hurt by the actions of another member of the Body of Christ. There are times when members of the same denomination or congregation hurt one another.

So now not only do we have a scriptural conflict resolution process (and good, holy tools are never a bad thing), we have a savior who is the bridge between two in conflict. Even more so, when two parties are gathered in the name of the Lord, especially when it’s two members, one who has sinned against the other, Jesus promises he is there with them.

Then I read the article by Sherman Haywood Cox II on the difference between preaching and motivational speaking. He contends that a lot of preaching, popular preaching, what passes for relevant preaching, is nothing more than changing “the title from the latest pop-psychologist’s seminar from “how to succeed” to “how to fulfill God’s purpose” where God’s purpose is defined as “succeeding in this life.”[2]

He points out that hearing this kind of message may be helpful and useful, but it’s not the gospel. He laments that often this Gospel Lite is no more than learning “a skill or a mindset that will help [the listener] finally break the boundaries that keep them from that promotion.”[3] It’s nice, but it’s not the Good News.

He says that where good motivational speaking from the pulpit breaks down is that it lacks two things, the cross and the coming kingdom of God. He also tells preachers and other readers to beware. You have to beware of sticking Jesus on the end so that it sounds Christian. The cross is central, the cross is necessary.

This week’s edition of “Presbyterians Today” magazine includes an article called “Questions Muslims ask Christians.” One of the questions was “Why do you believe that Jesus suffered and died on the cross?”[4]

The answer begins reminding the reader that Muslims don’t consider Jesus the Son of God, though they consider him a great prophet and within their theology a Messiah. They also believe that God, the God of Abraham, would have never allowed the murder of such a great prophet. Another belief they don’t share is original sin, so they don’t share our concept of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the atonement of sin. No original sin, no need for the sacrifice.

From the pulpit I must proclaim and as disciples we must to live that through Christ’s death, even death on the cross, Jesus died for the sin of the world. Our Creator knew us so well that even before we were created there would have to be someone who would build bridges between us and God, between each of us and all of us. “Jesus humanity and suffering communicate the extraordinary lengths to which our Creator has gone to lavish extravagant love upon sinful humanity.”[5]

As I said, this sermon is not about you. One of the reasons I say this is because I remember when I was in my 20’s I began to wonder if my pastor wasn’t following me around all day so that he could say something from the pulpit on Sunday that was intended just for me. I knew this wasn’t true, but it was uncanny the way he seemed to fashion messages that directly convicted me.

I don’t want anyone to think that I am indicting someone about a particular situation. I’m not. But let me say this, this sermon is not about you but it is for all of us. It is for the church. It is for the disciples. It is for the people of God. If that convicts each of us and all of us, that’s as it should be.

We are called to remember it is our Lord who takes the wood of the cross and builds bridges so that we may be one as his Body, one in his Church. This is the coming of the kingdom on Earth. We are called to go across those bridges and seek those who have sinned against us, and those who we’ve sinned against. Once a bridge is built, we can’t make anyone walk across it, but Jesus knew that too. But we also know that when two or three come together, Christ is there with them, together in his name they are the Church. This is necessary because of our sin and this redemption is only possible through his life, death, and resurrection.

I could go on and describe this passage all day, but I would rather us use this as a prescription that brings the body together than share another description. Truly, this prescription for forgiveness is a tonic for the troops.

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[1] “Building Bridges,” http://sermons4kids.com/building_bridges.htm, retrieved August 31, 2011.

[2] “Are You a Preacher or a Motivational Speaker?” http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/preaching-teaching/153625-are-you-a-preacher-or-motivational-speaker.html, retrieved September 1, 2011.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Perkins, Mitali, “Faith Seeking Understanding: Questions Muslims Ask Christians.” Presbyterians Today. Vol. 101, No. 7, September 2011, p 4.

[5] Ibid.

Go and Be Reconciled

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday February 13, 2011, the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 119:1-8
1Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

As many of you either saw or heard last Sunday, pop music diva Christina Aguilera “sang” the national anthem at Super Bowl XLV.  Well there were a lot of folks who were outraged by her rendition, wishing that singers of the anthem would just stick to the tune Francis Scott Key used when he put lyrics to melody in the first place.  It was reported by Us Weekly[1] that among the many Americans who felt this way, the most famous was former Alaska Governor and Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin.

According to a source, Governor Palin reportedly blasted Christina Aguilera’s disastrous performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl XLV calling Aguilera a “demanding beauty queen who’s clearly in over her head.” The report also mentioned the Governor wanting to “deport” Aguilera, after having “to suffer through a performance by a foreigner with a poor grasp of the English language.” Palin also levied criticism on the Obama administration for allowing “spicy Latin princesses” to do the jobs of American pop divas.

The source reported a radio interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity where the Governor says “Quite frankly, Sean, public figures must be held accountable for what they say,” explained Palin.  “Here’s another case of an airhead diva going on TV, running her mouth off, sounding like a fool.  She doesn’t understand something so basic about America, yet we’re supposed to tolerate her diva behavior?  Americans can see through that, Sean.”

These are pretty heavy words.  She even used the “F” word, fool.  But there’s one more thing you need to know about this, none of it was true.  The story was created by a satirical “news organization” called SuperTuesdayNews.com.[2]

The real Governor Palin later responded to the false reports. “I had no interview with Sean [Hannity] and I have never bashed Christina.  In fact,” Palin adds in an on the record interview with Us Weekly, “I’ve defended her by telling folks to back off the criticism of her mistake.”

This spoof of Governor Palin has been blown way out of proportion after media reported the former vice presidential candidate’s fabricated comments as fact.  It was comedy, it was satire, and it was taken for fact by “real” news organizations.

Anyone who says Raca, an ancient Aramaic insult, is answerable to the Sanhedrin.  But anyone who says, “You fool” will be in danger of the fire of hell.  If there is a problem with the written word it’s that it’s hard to detect sarcasm and anyone who has accidently insulted somebody online knows this.  SuperTuesdayNews.com was telling a joke, a joke that got lost on Us Weekly and everyone else who picked up this item as gospel truth.

SuperTuesdayNews.com was being mean for the sake of the joke.  By our reading, this would place them in danger of the fire of hell.  The only people on a slipperier slope would be those who repeated this story as truth, without first finding that it was a joke.

There are two parts to our gospel reading today.  The first we have just touched upon, injuring another.  Jesus tells those who have just heard the beatitudes, those who had just heard that they are salt and light, that if they are angry with their brother they are as subject to judgment as they would be if they murdered.  Insult your brother and you’re answerable to the Sanhedrin, but calling someone a fool, well, that makes God your judge.  This is expanded in the rest of our reading.

It’s easy to understand the injunctions against taking vows.  This is the heart of the commandment that says thou shall not take the Lord’s name in vain.  Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no.  Don’t swear by anything because once your reputation is damaged all that is left is to try to earn back the trust you have lost.  Also taking oaths by greater things adds nothing to your word.  Demanding others take oaths by greater things simply means distrust.  So let your yes mean yes and your no mean no, anything else is either window dressing or a smoke screen.

As for the injunctions against adultery and divorce, these are landmines of our time.

Jesus tells us that anyone who looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery in his heart.  If this causes you to sin, it is better to eliminate the part of the body responsible than to allow the possibility of sin.

Well, this is one of those times when something gets lost in the translation.  Let me explain this by comparing two levels of lust.  Let’s call the first “Gee, she’s (or he’s-your choice) kinda cute” and the second “Gee, how can I go all King David on this Bathsheba?”  The first type, noting someone is attractive, is not the lust of the original Greek language.  Doing something about it, as David did with Bathsheba, that’s a sin.  On top of that, considering how to do “The David” is a sin.  That’s what this passage is talking about.

Oh, and scholars agree that the self mutilation of this passage is an exaggeration, it’s just an expression used by Jesus to make sure the people understood how important this teaching was.  I’m willing to agree with them, but then again, the vast majority of these scholars were men as am I.  Men probably aren’t the most unbiased of judges on the whole “pluck it out/chop it off” matter.

The divorce statutes are even more difficult to interpret for our day and time.  It’s because so many of us are either divorced or have friends and family who are divorced.  This includes my family where among the five of us, two parents, two siblings, and me, there are seven divorces, so finding an interpretation that is faithful and pastoral means cutting away a lot of things that aren’t necessary to the core of this teaching.

That ground is here.  Jesus is teaching faithfulness.  I look to our reading from Deuteronomy when interpreting this passage.  Deuteronomy tells us to be obedient, not to bow down and worship other gods.  The passage ends with Moses declaring to the congregation to choose life so that you and your children may live.  This is our call, to choose life so that we all may live.

Divorce and adultery are about the ancient legal status that someone bestows upon another by their actions.  Whether it’s by infidelity or by legal certificate, it is about what one person in a relationship does to another.  What the passage is saying is that we are not to behave in a way that would cause dishonor to another, particularly someone we love.

Jesus is talking about relationships.  Jesus is talking about faithfulness.  Jesus is talking about choosing life not just for yourself, but for your whole family.  It’s about life that is wonderful and glorious, a delight in the eyes of God.

What it’s not about is life lived in abuse.  It is not about life lived where you wonder where your partner is, and with whom.  It’s not about worrying if you are going to survive your partner’s viciousness or carelessness.  It’s not about staying in marriage because it’s what the law requires.  It’s about relationships grounded in God’s loving kindness given without reservation to those who have not earned it, but it’s not about tolerating infidelity and horror.

The common bond of all of these specifics, murder and anger and adultery and divorce, and even oath taking, the common bond between these is that there is a higher calling than what the law calls us to live.  That higher calling is the law made and embodied in the living Torah that is Jesus the Christ.  It is Christ who tells us that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  It is about relationships lived in faithful gracious love with one another, and the truth that we often make this life more difficult than necessary.

The way we live into this new life is the second major part of our reading.

Earlier this week I got a facebook friend request from an elementary school buddy who I haven’t seen in thirty-five years.  He began, “Dear Paul, I’m sorry.”  Now, I expected the usual things someone says in a facebook friend request. I did not expect this and I had no idea the emotional impact that it would have on me.  A simple “Dear Paul, I’m sorry” made me reel.

He went on to say that after his family moved away, he had become messed up because of drugs.  He reminded me of a time at the old municipal swimming pool a few years later, we must have been about thirteen or so, and he said something about my weight. I said, “Thanks a lot.”

He wrote, “I never forgot how mean and wrong it was to say that and I still hurt really bad for having said it.”  He said he had tried to find me for the last few years on line and succeeded just last week.  He repeated his apology and asked me to forgive him.  He regretted that I was hurt and that he did not apologize then.

Jesus says “If you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there.  First go and be reconciled to your brother.”

This is what he did.  This is what God calls us to do.  But it is very important to note what he did and what Jesus says, “If you remember that your brother has something against you, you are to go and be reconciled.”  It doesn’t say we get to sit in self pity and wait for someone who has wronged us to come and make it right, it says to go out and seek who you have wronged, who we have wronged.  It says go and be reconciled.

Jesus does not call us to passively sit by waiting for the world to apologize for its injustices.  It calls us to go out and right the wrongs we have done against others.  Take my word for it, having been on both sides; these words can be difficult to say, but they are glorious to hear. It’s not easy, but it is glorious.

My response began, “Think nothing more of it.  I forgive you.”

This is something we do every week.  Every week we come together and pray a Confession of Sin.  Then we hear the Assurance of Pardon.

Today we prayed God’s compassion and mercy on us.  We prayed that we acknowledge God’s statutes and our way of replacing them with our own desires. We prayed God set us right in accord with his design for us.”

Then we heard the Assurance of Pardon, We boldly declare God will put the law within us, writing them on our hearts.  God will forgive our iniquity and remember our sin no more.[3]

We hear the Good News of the Gospel; through Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

The Rev. William Sloane Coffin preached that he is “stunned by people who… say, ‘I believe in the forgiveness of sins,’ as if it were a piece of cake.”  He continues “The Assurance of Pardon is what takes humility, because it means giving up your opinion of yourself and accepting someone else’s opinion of you.  It means allowing someone else to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.  It means that you recognize that finally your value is a gift, not an achievement.”[4]

Coffin says that he believes the Assurance of Pardon is the most exciting part of the worship service.  Yet there is another part of liturgy that I believe is just as exciting.

There is something called “Passing the Peace” which you may have participated in at another church or at Presbytery worship.  It isn’t a time to meet and greet one another; it is a time when after we confess our sin and receive the assurance of pardon people extend that same peace to one another.  People shake hands and hug, usually saying something like “Peace be with you” and are answered with something like “And also with you.”  It is a way that people in the church offer and share forgiveness received from God with each other.  It is a way people go and become reconciled one to another before coming to the altar.

The 2010 film “The Book of Eli”[5] ends with this prayer, this benediction if you will.  Denzel Washington’s Eli says:

“Dear Lord, thank you for giving me the strength and the conviction to complete the task you entrusted to me. Thank you for guiding me straight and true through the many obstacles in my path. And for keeping me resolute when all around seemed lost. Thank you for your protection and your many signs along the way. Thank you for any good that I may have done, I’m so sorry about the bad. Thank you for the friend I made. Please watch over her as you watched over me. Thank you for finally allowing me to rest. I’m so very tired, but I go now to my rest at peace knowing that I have done right with my time on this earth. I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith.”

So be strong, be straight.  Lord, keep us on straight paths through the many obstacles life places in our way.  Thank you for keeping us when all seems lost.  Thank you for your protections and signs.  Thank you for new friends and watch over them as you have watched over us.  Be with us so that we may know the higher law that is your life and the good we do by it.  And when we stray, we are sorry about the bad and pray for your forgiveness and grace as you send us to go and be reconciled, to one another and to you.

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[1] Oops! Sarah Palin Didn’t Call Christina Aguilera an Airhead,” http://www.popeater.com/2011/02/10/sarah-palin-christina-aguilera-super-bowl/, retrieved February 10, 2011.

[2] “Palin Says She’d Deport Christina Aguilera for Botching National Anthem,”

 http://www.supertuesdaynews.com/1/post/2011/02/palin-says-shed-deport-christina-aguilera-for-botching-national-anthem.html, retrieved February 10, 2011.

[3] Kirk, James G. “When We Gather, A Book of Prayers for Worship.” Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 2001, page 33-34.

[4] Coffin, William Sloane, “The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years.” Volume 2. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, page 312

[5] “The Book of Eli.” A Warner Brothers Movie, 2010.  The quote comes from the Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037705/quotes, retrieved February 11, 2011

Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday June 28, 2009, the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

2Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 30
2Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Jesus had again crossed in the boat to the other side. This crossing represents Jesus coming back from the gentile side of the sea back to the Hebrew towns. While on the other side of the world, Jesus exorcised the demons from the Gerasene man known as Legion. He was called that because the demons that dwelt within him were as many as a Roman Legion. Jesus sent the demons into a herd of swine who promptly rushed down a steep bank into the sea where they were drowned.

The no longer demon possessed man wanted to join Jesus and his disciples across the way. Jesus told the man instead to “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” The man almost follows Jesus instructions, but instead of telling the people how much the Lord has done and the great mercy God has shown, he “began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him.”

So between the wise teachings on the Jewish side, the miraculous journey across the sea, and the loosing of a legion of demons into 2,000 head of swine in gentile territory, Jesus had established a name. Of course a great crowd had gathered around him as he came ashore.

Jesus is met by Jairus, a leader of the synagogue, who came and when he saw Jesus he fell at his feet and begged and cried for the life of his daughter. It makes me wonder why Mark’s gospel chose to focus on this man. Let’s face it, the multitude came to Jesus as he made landfall. There must have been dozens who fell at his feet begging dozens of supplications, crying in agony for their personal harsh circumstance. Yet, Jesus chose to go with this one man and his one request.

I wonder why scripture focused on this one man and this one request, but this is an answer we will never truly know. This is a question on the order of the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin. Still, we do know this much. The angels dance on the head of a pin for the glory of God. So too, Jesus chose to go with this synagogue leader for the glory of God; and that’s enough of a reason.

Along the way, we have this second story, the story of the hemorrhaging woman.

According to ancient tradition, this bleeding was menstrual, making her as unclean as the demon possessed swine who just took a header. Her access to conventional society could have been denied. Whether this still applied in first century Palestine is debated by scholars,[1] but for the reader, it was a sign that she was on her own in the wilderness of her own blood.

She is without social standing, she has no one on earth, but she believes; no, she knows that if she can even touch his clothes she will be healed. And she is. “Daughter,” Jesus says, “your faith has made you well.” Dozens were pressing in on Jesus. The crowd was crushing in on him as he walked. Still, the only one who was touched by the power of Jesus was the one who believed something would happen when she touched him, even if it was just his cloak.

Again, I always wondered a couple of things about this healing. Assuming the purity law still applied to menstruating women, how in the world she could be out in polite society, much less in a crowd where she would be pressed to scores of others? Add the intentional touch of a man’s cloak and she is violating enough taboo to shame a Hollywood celebutant.[2] So why this story, why this outcome? Why of all the people who were in contact with the Lord was she the one touched by the power of Jesus? The only proper answer is the answer given for why this man and his daughter. The answer to “why?” is for the glory of God. To God goes the glory for her faith in the healing power of Jesus has made her well.

The troupe continues to the home of Jairus the synagogue leader. While Jesus is still speaking to the woman the people came and said “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?” For Jesus, there is no trouble. “Do not fear, only believe.”

It was faith that healed the woman; it was her faith in the power of Jesus that made her well. The crowd knows what happened. Jairus knows what happened. Now Jesus calls on the temple leader not to fear, but to believe.

When Jesus and Jairus along with Peter, James and John arrive, the wailing has begun. The cries of sorrow at the death of the child are ringing like a claxon. In a shocking turn; they laugh when Jesus tells them to stop making a commotion; “The girl sleeps, she is not dead.” He then shoos the people from the room, he takes the girl by the hand and says “Talitha cum.” Get up little girl; and she does.

The thread common to these two miraculous healing stories is faith; faith that Jesus our Lord is able to do all things. We are called to share that faith. We are called to trust the Lord our God. But as we do, as we have faith and as we trust; we are constantly reminded that there is pain in our world.

I am not going to regale you with stories of pain and strife, neither from ancient times nor from ours. By detailing one, we leave behind hundreds of others. On the news we see the strife and discord in Iran only to diminish the spotlight on the happenings in Iraq and Afghanistan. The brutality taking place in Darfur only ends up reducing attention to Tibetan independence from China, the plight of ethnic Albanians in the Czech Republic, and ethnic Turks in northern Iraq.

It is enough to know the simple fact that pain is real, strife is real; death and injustice are real. Yet we are called to know that Christ is victorious over pain, strife, death, and injustice. He experienced these very feelings, these very pains; unto death, death upon the cross. Still, we can take solace that in this horror, there is one place for us to rest. One of the places we see this in scripture is from our psalm reading, today’s Call to Worship.

Out of the depths have I called to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice;
let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.
I wait for you, O LORD; my soul waits for you;
in your word is my hope.
My soul waits for the LORD,
more than sentries for the morning,
more than sentries for the morning.

The psalm reminds us that the depths of human brutality know not only no physical bounds, but are as old as time itself. In the grasp of human brutality, there is one alone to whom we can turn, so we are to call to the Lord who will hear the voices of our supplication. As David laments the death of Jonathan, as Jesus hears the cries of Jairus and the hemorrhaging woman, as Jesus hears our cries of desperation, as we wait on the Lord more than sentries for the morning; in times of pain, in times of suffering; there is no other place for us to rest than in the arms of the ever-loving Lord of life. It is in God alone that we wait. This is where we wait because in God alone, in Christ alone, is victory.

There is blood and there are tears in our gospel reading. It has toil and sweat too. It reminds me of a famous line in a speech made by Winston Churchill in his first address to the British House of Commons on May 13, 1940 after his election as Prime Minister. I want to share with you the end of this speech:

I would say to the House, as I said to those who've joined this government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory. Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal.[3]

Churchill asks, “What is our aim?” “What is our goal?” Victory, that is our aim. And in Christ alone is victory. In Christ, through the blood, toil, tears, and sweat of our Lord; in Christ alone is victory. The war Churchill waged was fought by sea, land, and air with ships, planes, and men. The war we wage is fought with love, grace, and the Cross of Christ.

The life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ have set the pattern for the church and its mission. His life connects him to creation, and creation to him. His service commits the church to work for every form of well-being. His suffering makes the church sensitive to all sufferings so that it sees the face of Christ in our faces in every kind of need. His crucifixion discloses to the church God's judgment on our inhumanity and the awful consequences of its own complicity in injustice. In the power of the risen Christ and the hope of his coming the church sees the promise of God's renewal of man's life in society and of God's victory over all wrong.[4]

We are called to faith. We are called to trust in the Lord our God. In the blood, toil, tears, and sweat of our lives we are called to remember the blood, toil, tears, and sweat Jesus knew in his. We should remember that as God incarnate he could have risen above it all. Being fully divine, he could have dashed away any hint of suffering and pain. But being fully human, there is no avoiding the suffering of humanity, suffering unto death. Through this death and resurrection, his victory, and ours, is assured.

Churchill’s speech ended with this coda:

But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, “Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”[5]

We claim the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit as we are called to go forward together with our united strength, united for the glory of God Almighty by God’s grace, peace, and justice.

When Jesus called on Jairus to believe, the words were meant for him alone. Yet this message of “believe” is one that needed to be known to the apostles, the disciples, and all of the followers of Jesus in every time and place. Believe in Christ. Believe in Christ’s victory. Believe in the power of God to reconcile all of creation to God’s own self.

[1] New Interpreter’s Study Bible, page 1817
[2] A portmanteau of celebrity and debutant
[3] Churchill, Winston, Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Blood,_Toil,_Tears_and_Sweat, delivered May 13, 1940, retrieved June 21, 2009.
[4] Paraphrase from the Confession of 1967
[5] Ibid, Churchill

The Mysterious Sermon

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday June 14, 2009, the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
Psalm 20
2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17
Mark 4:26-34

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

[1]Storytelling of any sort, amusing anecdotes or tragic tales, is an unrepeatable art form. The variety of people listening, the inflections in voice, the mood of the day, the color of the sky—they all combine to create a one-time-only atmosphere for the spoken word. A story may bring a tear or a smile at one telling, and yet, the very next listener experiences the same words in a completely different way.

Mark’s gospel tells us that Jesus chose to speak in parables. Some people find that very annoying. Why didn’t Jesus come right out and say what he meant? Why did he leave behind all these cryptic sayings, loaded with innuendo, destined to be interpreted and reinterpreted, instead of a crisp code of laws or a stack of essays with titles like “How to Be a Good Disciple,” “A Brief Definition of the Kingdom of God” or “Seven Key Features of the Coming Kingdom and What This Means to You.”

Instead we have this culturally ancient, cross-eyed, cryptic, incomplete, awkward, and at times seemingly absurd yet eternally true collection of sayings known as Jesus’ parables.

A list of rules never changes, never adapts. Written essays are like insects encased in amber—beautiful and precisely formed, but no longer vital and alive. According to pastor and author Barbara Brown Taylor, even sermons, the Word of God proclaimed, have the shelf life of homemade mayonnaise.[2] It takes the fluid format of a story—a tale that can never quite be told the same way twice—to keep breathing mysterious and glorious new life into the Good News.

If you still think Jesus would have gotten his points across better with hard and fast rules, I ask you to try remembering the last time you sat down and really enjoyed reading Leviticus or the first few chapters of Numbers.

Consider this; if the hard and fast rules and customs of family status and inheritance were followed in our reading from the Old Testament, the Call of David would never have happened. If Samuel had just anointed the eldest son as tradition dictated, Jesse’s eldest, the boy whose name means “God is Father,” Eliab[3], would have become king. Instead, the Lord is in charge and Samuel follows. He anoints the eighth and youngest son of Jesse. The rules were broken, but it worked out pretty well in this case.

Despite these shortcomings, people still try to develop rules based on scripture. Only now we call them creeds, catechisms, and confessions. The earliest forms of the earliest of the confession, The Apostles’ Creed, were spawned about 150 years after the death and resurrection of Christ while the most recent of the particularly Presbyterian Creeds, A Brief Statement of Faith, isn’t even thirty years old.[4] From the first to the twenty-first century, we never really change how we try to replace mystery and glory with interpretation and legalism.

Without the easy ability Jesus’ parables have to engage us and entice us into their world, even God’s Word becomes a hard read. How these stories which are foreign to our lives become the fabric of our earthly life and heavenly salvation is wonderful and glorious.

But the process of how these stories are still vital 2,000 years after they were first told, with their many interpretations, is far more illusive and mysterious than hard and fast rules.

We come to know that by preaching to his followers in parables, Jesus lets us make the Good News become our own story, our own experience. As we are swept up in the story, we ourselves become part of a new parable—the parable of our lives. Taken all together, our individual experiences of the kingdom, our personal stories of God’s work and witness in our lives, end up creating a new gospel.

We are mistaken if we think our tradition stems from only the four gospels of the scriptural canon. As well as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the church has two millennia of other gospels to celebrate; the books of Augustine and Aquinas, Luther and Calvin, Bonhoeffer and Barth. These “gospels” have become vital parts of our tradition because of their eternal reliance on the power of God and the reconciling work of Christ.

There are still other gospels that may not be quite so well-known, but have tremendous influence in our lives in this part of the body of Christ. We must remember that the personal parable stories that make up “The Gospel According to Grandma;” or “The Gospel of Pastor Mark, the Reverend Doctor Hal, and Pastor Pam;” or “The Gospel According to That Kid at Camp Whose Name I Can’t Even Remember;” have affected our lives dramatically.

All of us are in the process of writing our own gospels—our own accounts of experiencing the Good News of the coming kingdom in our midst. Writing a gospel through the very act of living is part of being a disciple of Christ. Sharing our gospel through the very act of living is also part of being a disciple of Christ. It is why Jesus gave the power of the parable to all those listening to his words. Storytelling is one of the most basic practices common to all human communities.

Stories connect us to one another, to our ancestors, to our world and to our Lord. In this week’s gospel text, Mark notes that when Jesus spoke to the crowds around him, he “spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables.” Jesus knew that only parables had the ability to make the Good News of the kingdom a potent reality for every listening ear.

The mystery of how this works is glorious. People want proofs, rules, and standards; and Jesus gives us parables. William Sloane Coffin, creating a godly monologue, shared these words in a 1980 Advent sermon:

These creatures of mine are very clever. They are always looking for evidence to make intelligently selfish decisions. That’s why their evangelists, instead of the freedom they need, give them all the proofs they want. I have told these evangelists there are no proofs for my existence, only witnesses. Nevertheless they go on proving one ineffable mystery after another with all the ardor of orthodoxy stamping out heresy. But I am the Lord God, and will not seek to overcome selfishness by appealing to selfish motives. So, as the prophet promised, I will send my people a son. I will seek to captivate their hearts, not conquer them. I will seek to open their minds, not crack their skulls. They, of course, will continue to fight me as they always have, but the contest between us will not be one of power—only of endurance. I will show them that true conquerors are not those who can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the most. I will show them that love never ends.[5]

Demonstrating this power of witness, Andrew Young, former American ambassador to the United Nations, tells this story,[6] this parable of power, grace, and reconciliation; about an experience he had in South Africa when he was visiting at the invitation of Nelson Mandela. For years Mandela was a leading opponent of apartheid, South Africa’s official policy of racial segregation. In 1964, the white establishment locked him up for life. But as his legend grew, so did the worldwide campaign to set him free. He was released in 1990. When apartheid was abolished, and South Africa held its first democratic elections in the spring of 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected president.

Thirteen months later, Mandela invited Andy Young to be his guest when South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup Tournament. Now rugby is a white man’s game. The South African team, like most rugby teams, is entirely white. And South Africa is about 80 percent black. So, even though the world championship was being played right there in Johannesburg, there was a deliberate absence of support for the team.

As the tournament approached, a heated debate broke out about the South African team symbol -- a leaping gazelle called a “springbok.” Most of the white Afrikaners said, “The springbok has been the symbol of every rugby team we’ve ever had.” Most black South Africans said, “Exactly! It reminds us of South Africa’s racist history, and we want it changed.” It was an explosive situation.

Now, Nelson Mandela has impeccable political sensibilities. More importantly, he understands the saving power of grace. A few days before the opening game, Mandela visited the South African team. After the visit, he called a press conference. Mandela showed up wearing a rugby jersey and an athletic cap with the team mascot, a springbok, on it. The newspaper and TV reporters were there and recorded it all. Mandela said that until the elections, he and most other black people in South Africa had always supported whoever was playing against the Springboks. “But regardless of the past,” he said, “these are our boys now. They may all be white, but they’re our boys, and we must get behind them and support them in this tournament.”

The next day, the Springboks’ coach sent word for his players not to show up in their practice gear. He told them to wear their suits and ties. He took them out to Robben Island, to the prison where Nelson Mandela had spent nearly three decades of his life behind bars. The coach and every player on the team walked into Mandela’s cell.

As they stood there, the coach said, “This is the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. He was kept here for 27 years by the racist policies of our government. We Afrikaners tolerated his imprisonment for all those years, and yet he has backed us publicly. We can’t let him down.”

The tournament opened, and the Springboks played above their heads. To everyone’s surprise, they won their first game. In fact, they made it into the final game against New Zealand, a perennial power in rugby. It was like Arkansas State playing USC. And yet, at the end of regulation, the game was tied.

President Mandela was in the stands, wearing a Springbok jersey. During the timeout, he brought a South African children’s choir out of the stands. They sang an old African miners’ song which to them is sort of like Swing Low, Sweet Chariot was to the slaves in this country. Within minutes, 65,000 people in the stadium were standing and singing this black African miners’ song. Andy said, “I don’t know anything about rugby, and I don’t understand the words of the song, but I was in tears.”

When the Springboks took the field, they were unstoppable. They won the World Rugby Championship. And for the next 24 hours, whites danced with blacks in the streets of South Africa. One of the most divided nations on the planet was united by something some people consider insignificant—a rugby match. But God used it to help heal a nation.

What was in the minds of black South Africans when they saw Nelson Mandela take the podium in a Springbok jersey and cap? What was in the minds of the Springboks when they were standing in Mandela’s cell? We may never know. That is the mystery of this story is how these two earthly symbols of division became symbols of racial reconciliation.

The story begins with the work of reconciliation between God and all creation begun by our Lord Jesus Christ. It is extended by a man who was a prisoner of national sin for twenty-seven years; and a prisoner of Afrikaner culture long before his incarceration. It is received by a grateful nation. It is celebrated by dancing in the streets.

What is it about games that can make us the best people we can be, physically and spiritually? How is it that the stories of a Jewish carpenter recorded so long ago resonate so clearly now? How is it that God walked the earth as we do still today? If I knew, that would be the end of the mystery, wouldn’t it?

[1] This is an edited version of this sermon idea from HomileticsOnline.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=2711, retrieved June 8, 2009.
[2] Reported by Sallie Watson in the Presbytery of Arkansas newsletter, June 2009, link found at http://presbyteryofarkansas.org/frmNewsletter.aspx, retrieved June 9, 2009.
[3] Brown, F.. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, The. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2001, page 45.
[4] PC (USA) Office of the General Assembly, “The Book of Confessions, Study Edition.” Louisville: Geneva Press, 1996.
[5] Coffin, William Sloane, The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin, The Riverside Years, Vol. 1, Louisville, Westminster-John Knox Press, 2008, page 387.
[6] As told by Bishop Bevel Jones in a sermon before the 1996 United Methodist General Conference in Denver, HomileticsOnline.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustrations_for_installment.asp?installment_id=2711, retrieved June 8, 2009.

The Disciplined Disciple

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday September 7, 2008, the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.


Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen

Let’s get in the way-back machine and take a trip to the Year of Our Lord 48. Some men had come from Judea teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to discuss this question with the apostles and the elders. So they were sent on their way by the church, and as they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, they reported the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the believers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and said, “It is necessary for them to be circumcised and ordered to keep the Law of Moses.” [1]

This narrative from the Acts 15 describes the first great conflict of the church. In the day there were two kinds of Christians, Jewish believers and Gentile converts. Since Jesus was himself a Jew, the Christian faith has roots in the temple and the law, not Gentile shrines and customs. Yet there was a school of thought that believed that Judaism and the Hebrew customs were not prerequisite to faith in the risen Lord Christ. As usual, leave it to the Pharisees to hold the hard line saying that being circumcised and keeping the Law of Moses were necessary for salvation.

Without going into much detail, the Council of Jerusalem was called by church leaders to discuss this issue. The council made three important decisions about the church and its requirements. First, circumcision would not be an entry requirement for gentile Christians. Second, Jewish Christians would continue to practice circumcision. Finally, traditional Jewish dietary regulations were to be maintained by all Christians.

In the end there was compromise, and even this could not be kept. The resolutions of the Jerusalem Council could not be easily sustained in the scattered communities of Christians, communities which were a combination of Jewish and Gentile Christians. The clashes which arose out of these disputes about behavior were a constant threat to the survival of the church.[2] Eventually Paul could not and did not maintain support of the dietary regulations very long. In the end, had the pro-Jewish perspective been maintained, Christianity might well have remained a reform movement within Judaism.[3]

Matthew’s system of conflict resolution from chapter 18 is sound. It begins: If another member of the church has sinned against you, go alone and point out the fault. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. If that doesn’t work, then the situation escalates. Next, go with one or two others so that every word may be confirmed. Finally, if another member of the church has sinned against you and either they continue to sin against you or your grievance was not resolved by the first two steps or if the offender continues to refuse to listen, then put the offender out.

It’s a good system, beginning with one-on-one contact with repercussions if the offender continues to offend. My study bible says, “These instructions emphasize the responsibility of community members rather than leaders focusing on the goal of reconciliation.”[4] But I don’t get that sense from the reading; I sense something going on under the text.

Historically, when we read Matthew’s discourse in conflict resolution, in a way we read about conflict resolution from what was ultimately the losing side of the Council of Jerusalem. While the actions of the Council affirmed what the Jewish Christians believed, much of what they taught and how they behaved, the tide of history would ultimately leave the substance of this council and their specific brand of Jewish Christianity behind.

These were a people who held tight to their Judaism and the Judaism of their Messiah Jesus. We know that Matthew’s audience was specifically Jewish believers, the children of Moses and Jesus.

From this morning’s text, we are told that “if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” In Matthew’s words, there doesn’t seem to be much of a distinction between Gentile believers and the run-of-the-mill Gentile. Gentiles are Gentiles and whether they are believers or not, they are not the same as real believers, those who adhere to the Law of Moses and the restrictions and distinctions set long ago. Surely, tax collectors were collaborators with the Roman overseers. Reading this passage, I feel like someone ought to follow it saying “and some of my best friends are Gentiles and tax collectors.”

My study bible says that the worshiping community is to treat Gentiles and tax collectors as objects of mission. They are to be included as members of the assembly.[5] They may be the object of mission and they may be a part of the community, but I get the sense Mathew is saying they aren’t like us.

After 2,000 years of disagreements in the church you would think we would learn a thing or two about conflicts and resolving them. All we have to do is change a few words here and there and this description from Acts would be applicable to every church conflict. “Gentiles and tax collectors” can be changed to any one of a number of other proper nouns or adjectives and the reading would remain very familiar.

In fact, today we would all be known as Gentile Christians. We might even be members of Matthew’s refuse pile.

As a community, the bar of people who offend us has moved. I assume we welcome the uncircumcised, at least there’s nothing in the Book of Order. I had Canadian bacon for breakfast and would eat bacon at any meal. These two thousand year old scandals have been replaced by dozens of others; some so arcane we would not understand the issue in the first place. Recent Presbyterian scandals are just another drop in the bucket, and a young drop at that.

So what does this have to do with conflict resolution? I believe it has to do with the root of conflict. Returning to the Jerusalem Council, the pro-Jewish Christians insisted that because the church was the true Israel, converts must be circumcised before they were admitted into the community while Paul insisted that with Christ believers were freed from the works of the Law and were justified by grace through faith. The orthodox Jewish believer agreed with the Pharisees. The Gentile believer didn’t know the difference.

So here’s my question; what would have happened if a Gentile believer had been dragged before Matthew’s community for discipline. Then we have to ask what would have happened if one of Matthew’s community had been dragged before the Gentiles. If conflicts are resolved by individual communities, there will be only community justice. We have to find something broader than our communities, than our lives to resolve conflict. We have to follow the example of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ.

To do this, we Christians must return to the root of our faith, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the God in three persons. To do this we must return to the Word of God, the Holy Scripture which is the first source of what we know about God. And once we return to the Word, each of us must become interpreters of the Word, doing as it commands.

We must do more than follow rules, we have to follow commands. God saves through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, but we are transformed not only when we hear and respond to the Gospel’s narrative. Truer, fuller, more complete transformation happens when we participate in the human connectional community of the church. The symbolism and story of redemption reach the depths of our very being when we interpret and reinterpret the word in our world.[6] We do not live into our place in the community, we do not live as active followers of Christ until we both read and interpret the word.

Looking at today’s reading from Matthew, it tells us what to do with the offender. I say let’s be careful whom we call “offender.” It is important to look at the people of God, who we are as the people, who we are in the word, and who we can be before we go to another and say, “You have sinned against me.” I have to beware because I might have sinned against you first.

If true, there is one thing to remember, Jesus expected more out of those who knew him. He expects more out of those who read and interpret the word. He expects more out of those who lead the church. He expects more out of us than he does those who do not know him. He expects more out of the community called in His holy name, bearing his holy word.

We talk about those who sin against us, so let us remember the words of Paul to the church at Rome, Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” Paul commands the Romans to love, this is fulfillment of the Law and our command now and forever.

[1] Acts 15:2-5. See Acts 15 for details.
[2] 1Corinthians 8, Galatians 2:11ff
[3] Rev. Dr. Ellen Babinsky, Course pack, unpublished. Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Theology 100-Church History through 1650. Chapter 2, page 6, 2001.
[4] New Interpreter’s Study Bible, note to Matthew 18:15-20.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Farley, Edward, “Theology in the Life of the Congregation.” Theology and Worship Occasional Paper No. 17, Office of Theology and Worship, PC (USA), Louisville, 2003, page 5. (This publication is a reprint of the first chapter of Farley’s “Practicing Gospel: Unconventional Thoughts on the Church’s Ministry.” Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003.”

What We Do and What God Does

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 3, 2008, the18th Sunday in Ordinary Time.


Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 17:1-7, 15
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Lately, in one way or another, I have been preaching on discipleship. I can only guess why. Perhaps one of the reasons is that Matthew’s gospel was specifically written for Jewish followers of Jesus. He was teaching the nation of Israel how to be disciples of their long awaited messiah. Another reason is that discipleship has been weighing on my mind and in my prayers. It’s as if I am reading scripture through lenses that focus on discipleship. Anyway, today will be no different. But in addition to looking at Matthew’s gospel to see what we do, this reading is also about the glory of what God does.

When Jesus heard about the execution of John the Baptist, he withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. John has just been put to death by Herod, beheaded at the request of his daughter-slash-great-niece and her meddling mother-slash-first-cousin.[1] So Jesus left to be alone. Did he go because he was grieving? This would be a normal response to grief over the loss of a friend, the man who baptized him into the earthly church in the waters of the Jordan.

Did he want to be alone because he feared for his life? Given the circumstances, what human wouldn’t? Being fully divine doesn’t prevent Jesus from experiencing his fully human emotions. And in this case, fear and its fleeing response may have been just good thinking.

So what does Jesus do, what does God incarnate do? God loves, God feels, and God reacts to life.

The next thing that happens is that the crowd follows. Curiously, scripture doesn’t tell us why the people followed. Did they see him as the new John? Did they see him as the messiah? Did they see him as a man of miracles? Did they see him as a good teacher? As with any crowd there are as many reasons for following as there are people, but why is not important. “Why” was so unimportant to Matthew that he didn’t even bother to consider it. What is important is that the people followed.

“When Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.” Regardless of what was going on with our Lord, grieving or fearing, when the Lord saw the people, he responded to their needs with compassion. Minor needs or crippling, small or critical, chronic or acute; he had compassion for them and cured their sick. Regardless of the ailment, curing the people is done compassionately.

Evening comes, and his disciples come to him saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”

What do we have here? The disciples come to Jesus and tell him what to do. They make valid observations. They are even being at least somewhat sensitive to the needs of the people. But here’s the crux, they tell God what to do.

And how many times have I done that? How often do all of us do that? Just like Jacob, we wrestle with God.

Jesus doesn’t take the bait. He shows the disciples a new way. “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” Jesus turns their point of view from “let the people go and take care of themselves” to “you, you take care of the people.”

We tell God to do something and God comes back saying, “No, you do something.”

Surprised I’m sure, they answer “We only have five loaves of bread and two fish.” They come back saying, “Look Lord, here’s what we’ve got and it isn’t nearly enough.”

God offers the disciples a new challenge, and they are sorely inadequate to meet it. Give them credit, for a crowd this size, their bounty isn’t nearly enough. They are being realistic about their situation, realistic to a fault.

With slightly different inflection, their response can go from a realistic description of their situation to a whining complaint. “What can we do? We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.” Is this a statement of fact, or railing against God? Again, scripture doesn’t tell us, but I can easily imagine either or both of these responses coming from the disciples.

Jesus says, “Bring the loaves and fish here to me.” He ordered the crowd to sit down. Then taking the bread, he looked up to heaven and blessed it and broke it and gave it to the disciples.

Jesus takes charge again. This time, he accepts the disciple’s offering and blesses it. Then he gives it back to the disciples who give it to the people.

One more time with the mechanics of what happened here:

The first element of this cycle is implied, not mentioned. The Lord provides the disciples with a smattering of bread and fish. When we receive our daily bread, we see it as the wages of our earthly toil and strife, but it is more than that. If everything we receive comes from the Lord, our earthly wages come from the Lord. We receive what the Lord gives us.

Next, when the Lord asks the disciples about the bounty they have received. They tell him “Here’s what’s in the offering plate, Lord.” With this comes the implied, “It’s not nearly enough, but it’s what we’ve got.”

Third, the Lord takes what is offered on the altar of his life and blesses it. God blesses the offering of the disciples.

Then and only then, the disciples give the goodness of the bounty of creation to the 5,000 men, along with the many women and children who were there. And the people ate until they were filled. There were even twelve baskets of bun-ends left over.

Often when hearing a sermon, we ask “so what?” Frankly, the question is just as important when crafting a sermon too. So, here’s what we do and what God does:

The Lord leads us.
We follow.
We have needs only the Lord can meet.
And the Lord meets them.
Jesus has compassion for the people, and so do his disciples.
The Lord invites us to take care of the people.
We see that what we can do isn’t enough. If we are completely honest, we have to say that what we can do by ourselves is never enough.
The Lord says, bring it to me.

And when we respond in obedience, when we respond to Jesus’ invitation; God blesses our offering and makes it enough.

And this is what is important to learn here: God blesses our offerings, the offerings from what God gives us in the first place, using that, and us, to bless the world.

The Lord says “you take care of the people.” Through the Lord we are called to participate in the reconciling work of Jesus Christ.

There are things we do and things God does. We are called to follow the Lord God. We are called to be disciples of Jesus. We are called as his disciples to take care of his people. We are blessed and fed by the Lord when we follow.

We get into trouble when we try to do God’s work without God in the work. We get into trouble when we go into God’s good creation without God’s presence and leadership. We get into trouble when we look at how little we have and make the mistake that that’s all we have. When disciples respond in obedience, then the people do the work of God feeding the God’s children.

This is it, this is as simple as it gets. What we have is limited, but in Christ, with Christ, and through Christ; what we have is lifted up and blessed; able to do far more than we could ever hope or imagine. The love of God multiplies and blesses all that we have and all that we give. The Lord takes what is ordinary from us and uses it to do extraordinary things, all for God’s glory. In this wondrous mission, we are called to participate.

And participate we must. We participate in worship. We participate in celebrating the sacraments. We participate in the breaking of the bread. We participate in remembering our baptism. We participate in fellowship. We participate in serving God and God’s good creation. We participate in sharing the gospel in word and deed. We participate in prayer. We participate in our offerings to God. We participate in giving the fruit of that offering to others.

So let us be disciples. Let us give the Lord the offerings of God’s bounty. Let us, each of us, invite the community and the world to come and hear and share and participate in the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[1] “Herodias” and “Herod (Family)”, Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Keith Crim, General Ed. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976. (These folks were a plane ticket to Chicago away from being an episode of “Springer.” This is what John had railed against that got him beheaded.)