Bread alone

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday July 31, 2011, the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

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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.

I want to take us back briefly to the first Sunday in Lent and the temptations of Christ. The Lord has just been in the wilderness forty days and forty nights. He is famished and he is ragged. This is when the tempter comes and says “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus is not one to be taken by such an obvious ruse. He answers, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Now, it is a little more than four months later and now Jesus tells his disciples, “You give them something to eat.” In a bit more than a season we move from Jesus being tempted to make bread from stone to Jesus telling his disciples they’re going to make bread out of nothing at all.

Of course there’s a difference, there’s always a difference. It could be as easy as this; we don’t live by bread alone. We need bread, but we need more than bread. In Matthew 4 Jesus says we live on every word that comes from the mouth of God, and with these words from Matthew 14, Jesus affirms that bread is still important.

In 1943, Abraham Maslow wrote a paper called “A Theory of Human Motivation” in the journal “Psychological Review.”[1] This paper’s basic concept, a standard for business students for generations, later became the basis of his book “Motivation and Personality.” Maslow separates needs into a hierarchy. His stages of needs are physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. He considered this a hierarchy because he believed the lower level needs needed to be met before the higher ones. In a way, he says that it’s impossible to dream about being all you can be when you don’t have a roof over your head. As Maslow would say it, without having physiological needs met, self-actualization is impossible.

Maslow would then agree with Jesus, bread alone isn’t enough, but bread itself is still necessary. We need more than bread, so what more do we need?

“When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.” The happening that Jesus had just heard was the beheading of his cousin John the Baptist. Jesus had just heard the gory details of a little girl who had capriciously taken the head of the prophet at the whim of her mother. It was normal for Jesus to take time alone to rest and recover from the daily grind; but between grief for his cousin and fear that he may be the next target, I imagine Jesus withdrew with a sense of urgency.

This gives us our first lesson, we need to pull back from time to time. We need to rest and we need to recover. This is the purpose of Sabbath. Sabbath is a time to rest and recover. It is a time to give thanks for life and worship the one who gives life. Often in this world, we burn the candle at both ends, Jesus teaches that we need to snuff out the wicks, cool down, and preserve ourselves. When we do this, we are open to renewal from the Spirit.

As we read though, this is one of those times when the crowd won’t let the Lord be. He knew that the needs of the people were greater than his own at this moment. He landed at a secluded place. He saw the crowd. He saw the sick and the infirm. He saw the grieving and the heartbroken. He saw people who had lost everything they had and he saw people who were losing hope. They prayed he was their hope. He knew that he was their one true hope. He came to them and had compassion on them.

Here’s a wild thought, in this use, to have compassion is a verb. It’s a combination of having pity and having sympathy that leads the person who feels these things to do something about it. It’s one thing to have sympathy or empathy or any one of a dozen other feelings, but without following up with action, there’s nothing more.

Jesus had compassion on them and healed their sick.

At this point, I imagine the disciples like the staff of a powerful politician or business leader; maybe even a rock star. In this case, I imagine the staff needing to get their leader to an important vote or meeting or show; or in the case of Jesus, his disciples were getting their leader away from the craziness of Galilee for a quick vacation. There’s a time and a place for everything and now was time to get out of Dodge. Fortunately for them, they were able to couple their want to get away and start their vacation by saying “it was getting late, they were in the boondocks, and people had to get somewhere to get some dinner.” Since both are true, you always go with the one that sounds better.

Here’s the turning point, Jesus says “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” The quick inventory showed that Mother Hubbard was better able to feed so many children than they were to feed the masses. They had five loaves of bread and two fishes and that was all she wrote.

Not to be discouraged, Jesus asked for the meager meal they provided; he looked up, gave thanks and broke the bread. Then he directed the disciples to feed the masses. In the end, all were satisfied. What a wonderful phrase, “all were satisfied.” And from the meager beginnings of five loaves and two fishes there were twelve basketfuls of pieces left over.

As I have been going on lately, this is the time in the story when we decide who we are. Jesus is God, of course. Our second lesson answers the question “So who is represented by the disciples and who is represented by the crowd?” Let me give you everybody’s least favorite answer, it depends. It depends because there are times when we are the crowd being discipled and there are times when we are the disciples doing the work.

Let’s begin with the crowd, there’s no talk of these people having a covert agenda. They truly wanted to be in the presence of the Lord, the one who has compassion and heals the sick. There is no mention of a scribe or Pharisee waiting to jump out of the bushes and quiz Jesus on theology or polity. There is no mention of Romans or other gentiles who would not know what these signs meant to the faith. There is no mention of anybody who was dragged along when they wanted to stay home and play video games.

On top of that, everyone who was there had a reason to need the compassion of the Lord. These are people who needed a miracle in their lives. They knew where to find a miracle too, this is why they followed the Lord.

One of the great truths of our life is that we all need a miracle from time to time. For some the miracles are things like health, food, and shelter; things that are basic needs on Maslow’s hierarchy. Needs that left unmet lead to anguish and misery. Needs that left unmet lead into a spiral of despair and danger. From time to time we all need a miracle. These are the sorts of miracles Jesus was performing when he came ashore. He healed and just as important, he showed compassion.

The people who followed Jesus were for the most part the dregs of society. This is because the rich and powerful didn’t want anything to do with him. He told the rich young man to sell everything and give it to the poor then he will be able to have riches in the kingdom of heaven. The rich and the powerful behaved like they didn’t need Jesus because they could take care of their own needs. The poor knew they needed Jesus in their lives. The poor knew better, and Jesus had compassion for them.

As there are times when we are the crowd, needing healing and compassion, there are times when we are the disciples too. Now, I don’t think there are times when we are supposed to tell the Lord our God that he’s late for a very important date. Jesus will keep his own time. There are times though when we will be handed a small chunk of bread and told to feed more people with it than we can imagine.

There isn’t an organization on earth that hasn’t screamed “we can’t do that, we don’t have” this or that or the other thing. When I worked at the University of Arkansas the new Chancellor wanted to implement sweeping changes to increase the academic standing of the university. I heard my secretary say, “We can’t do that.” When I asked her why, after some hemming and hawing she said “This is Arkansas!”[2]

She said “This is Arkansas” in the way that sounds like “We aren’t capable of the sort of excellence the Chancellor wants.” Yes, the University of Arkansas will never be the Oxford of the Ozarks, it isn’t meant to be, but that is doubly true if the attitude is “we can’t.” To say that there is no excellence to be had will surely lead to that end.

When a church says “we can’t do that” there is only one holy reason to come to that conclusion. The only suitable reason to say “we can’t do that” is that we aren’t called to do that.

     

The disciples were probably thinking of themselves “We don’t have the power, we don’t have the resources to do this.” Thanks be to God that the Lord did have the power and made them able to distribute enough bread that everyone was satisfied. It is by God alone that the disciples could do anything. Nothing is impossible with the Lord God. Because the disciples were obedient; doubtful maybe, curious surely; but because they were obedient they were able to do God’s work in the world for people who needed it.

There is one more character in the story, the bread. I won’t go into how psychologists and theologians and physics experts say the bread multiplied. Honestly, stories abound and I don’t know the answer. What I do know is that God’s grace, God’s power, and God’s bounty are far beyond what we can imagine. Our way of thinking about the loaves and fishes says the food Jesus started with might feed a few families. It wouldn’t feed a clan. It wouldn’t even begin to feed the masses. Yet it did. This is the power of God’s glory, a bounty of love that overflows in ways that meet all of our needs. Ways that make it so all are satisfied.

Again, isn’t that a great phrase? All were satisfied.

“Satisfied” is wonderful. It can mean two things, it can mean that they were filled with food or it can mean that they felt a sense of inward satisfaction. It is quite probable that the people were filled both physically with bread and eternally with the Spirit of God.

Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. How’s that for glory, in this case bread is not bread alone, it is the word of God. Wouldn’t that surprise ol’ Maslow? Actualization comes from the source of the living God who provides for the physiological needs. The source that fulfills the first level of needs is the same as the source that fulfills the pinnacle of needs. And he does it all with five loaves of bread and two fish.

We need bread in our lives. We need to keep our bodies strong and healthy. But we do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, this is the joy of the Lord’s Supper, when Word becomes God and with simple bread God feeds the people until all are satisifed.

Connecting ourselves to the narrative, there are days when we are the people. There are days we need to be fed because we are not able. There are also days when as the church we are called to be the disciples who share God’s bread with the crowds. There’s nothing wrong with being one or the other. From day to day or moment to moment we can move seamlessly from crowd to disciple and back again. That’s just the way of life.

What is important is that there are no days when God is not God; when Jesus is not Lord; when the Spirit does not empower; and when we live by bread alone. Thanks be to God.

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[1] Maslow, Abraham, “A Theory of Human Motivation.” Psychological Review, volume 50, 1943, pages 370-396. Accessed at http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm, retrieved July 30, 2011.

[2] True story, mores the pity.

Knowing Your Audience

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday July 24, 2011, the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Genesis 29:15-28

Psalm 128

Romans 8:26-39

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

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

I have mentioned that I use something called the Revised Common Lectionary to pick the readings we use in worship each Sunday. One of the glorious things about the lectionary is that it is used by many denominations and many congregations. If you were at another Presbyterian church today, the odds are very good that you will hear these same scriptures. It’s one of the ways the Church connects as the Body of Christ. Of course you won’t hear the same interpretation in each place, and that’s glorious too. Different sermons are a part of the glory of how God works in different places.

Matthew’s gospel takes his community into account when he uses the phrases “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Kingdom of God.” Matthew’s gospel was written for first century Jewish Christians. Because of his intended audience, Matthew’s gospel uses the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” 31 times and “Kingdom of God” just five. As for the other gospels, you won’t find “Kingdom of Heaven” in any of them. The other gospels use the phrase “Kingdom of God” 48 times.

Scholars say for the purpose of describing the kingdom, “Kingdom of Heaven” and the “Kingdom of God,” are interchangeable, but what is true to scholars was not true to Matthew’s congregation. So why use one over the other?

Something peculiar to Jews and Jewish Christians is that many will not say the word “God” lest they take the name of the Lord in vain. So Matthew’s gospel takes special care to avoid mention of God by name. Matthew’s gospel was written with such a distinct nod toward the sensitivities of Jewish Christians that over 85% of mentions of the kingdom use “Kingdom of Heaven.” As for the other gospels, this was not a concern. Matthew knew who he intended to hear this gospel and worked hard to make sure the language didn’t get in the way of the message.

Getting back to the Revised Common Lectionary, today’s reading presents a bit of a problem. Today’s reading is two different pieces from Matthew’s gospel containing five different parables about the Kingdom of Heaven. Well, surely interpreting five different parables is a big enough problem. Each of these parables could be the subject of a sermon on its own. But that’s what I want to bring to your attention today.

Today I want to focus on the parables’ audiences. Just plucking these verses out of the gospel like the editors of the lectionary did; it looks like they were addressed to a single audience. This is not so and it’s important to know who was intended to hear each of these parables because of what they mean to their intended audience.

The first two parables, the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, were intended for the crowds that were listening to Jesus. A different audience, Christ’s disciples alone, received the parables of buried treasure, the pearl of great price, and the net cast into the sea. These are two completely different and specific audiences who were meant to learn specific lessons about the Kingdom of Heaven from their specific parables.

The lessons of the mustard seed and the yeast are odd at worst, scandalous in their most glorious.

Let’s start with the fact that the parable of the mustard seed is loaded with factual errors! To start, mustard, while it’s a teeny-tiny seed, wasn’t the smallest known seed. Orchids were grown and harvested in this time and their seeds were then and are still now smaller than the mustard seed.

Saying that the mustard plant becomes a tree isn’t accurate either. It produces a great shrub, up to ten feet tall, but it isn’t a tree in any sense of the word. A mustard plant is an annual plant, not a perennial like a tree. When mustard goes dormant at the end of the growing cycle, it’s the end, not so for trees.

Where a large shrub is like a tree is that it can provide food and shelter for the most unexpected of visitors. You wouldn’t necessarily expect a shrub to protect life, but Jesus points out that this one does.

So what was Jesus doing with this parable? Jesus was saying that great things come from humble beginnings. Jesus was making a point of contrast, from a tiny seed comes something large enough to provide food and protection. Something extravagantly large comes from something infinitely minuscule. From the smallest seed, from the smallest action, from the briefest nod, the world can be changed.

There’s an old saying, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world; because it’s the only thing that ever has.”

The lesson of the leaven has its own scandalous elements.

Let’s begin with the yeast itself. The Jews would have been shocked by the kingdom being like anything with yeast. Since the days of the Passover, bread with leaven was unholy. With the celebration of the Passover meal, the Seder, a liturgy is followed. During the celebration, someone will ask if all of the leaven is out of the house. To this day, Jews will keep one piece of leavened bread in the house so that there is something to throw out. To this audience, yeast is not holy, not at all. Yet Jesus says that the kingdom is like yeast worked into the flour.

The next bit that would have shocked the listeners was the woman. Only men worked in the temple, what could a woman do that would be useful to the kingdom of heaven? She was the one who hid the yeast in the flour.

The amount of flour was also shocking. We read three measures. In amounts that mean something to us, that comes to seventy pounds. In volume, that would come up to ten gallons. Once the yeast began doing its job, the mass and volume of the dough will increase far beyond what it was before the woman and the yeast did their work. That amount of dough would be able to make bread for between 100 and 150 people.

The parable of the leaven has three things no one would have ever expected, the yeast, the woman, and the amount; the impure, the unorthodox, and the overflowing. Jesus was making the point that the Kingdom of Heaven will not be what we expect. All that we can imagine the Kingdom to be is merely a poor reflection of what we find.[1]

Along with the parable of the wheat and the weeds we heard last week, these are the messages that were intended for the people outside of our Lord’s inner circle. God is sovereign. The kingdom is extravagant. The kingdom provides protection to all who seek its shelter. The kingdom is unorthodox; God will not be contained by our expectations. The kingdom is ever expanding.

It is also important to note that all of these parables deal with God’s actions in creation. It is only God who can grow a plant from a seed. It is only God who can make yeast do what yeast does. This becomes more important when talking about the next two parables where the focus moves from the contrast of small beginnings and cosmic impact to personal encounter with the Kingdom.

Where the parables of the mustard seed and leaven are made up of several elements conveying different facets of the parable, the parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great value are to be taken as wholes. In these parables, the Kingdom of Heaven is like the entire story of the treasure and the entire story of the pearl of great value.

As for the parable of the treasure and the pearl of great value, they tell the disciples the same thing, the Kingdom is present, it’s glorious, and its price is dear. To have it you must be willing to give everything. Both of the treasure and the pearl parables say this. Like Joseph interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, the parable is repeated differently to emphasize its truth.

For as much as their object is the same, the human subject is different. Both the ploughman digging the earth and the merchant buying pearls are doing their regular day jobs. They’re taking care of business, and this is where their similarity ends. The man who found the treasure wasn’t looking for it. Maybe he has plowed this same field for years without finding the treasure, but in the wink of an eye the treasure finds him more than he finds it. When he sees it, he knows its value and knows what he has to do to have it.

As for the merchant, his business is pearls. He is looking for great and wonderful pearls. Then he finds one that is far beyond what he could ever hope or imagine. Like the ploughman he knows the value of his find. He also knows what he has to do to have it.

Jesus is reminding the disciples that the kingdom is their business, a business that requires their all.

As for the final parable, the parable of the great catch of fish, this one is similar to the parable of the wheat and the weeds showing that in the end of the age there will be a separation of the good and the bad. Like in that parable, the difference between good and bad is made by God and carried out by the angels.

When these lessons are shared, Jesus asks if they have understood all these things. Jesus asked if they understood that they would have to give everything. He asked if they knew the creation would be judged, and them along with it to which they say “Yes.” Jesus then told them that every teacher who has been instructed about the kingdom is like the owner of a house who brings out his treasure, the old and the new.

This means that those who teach need to know about the ancient covenants and the new covenant in Jesus Christ. Today we would say they need to know their Old and New Testaments.

So why did Jesus have different messages for the crowds and the disciples? Jesus answers this very question from the disciples in verses 11 and 13 of this chapter: “He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.’ The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’” As this was true when Jesus said it, so it is true today.

Earlier I said Matthew knew who he intended to hear this gospel and worked hard to make sure the language didn’t get in the way of the message. Jesus knew his audience and so did Matthew. As this was true it Matthew’s time, so it is true today.

Here in worship the interpretation of scripture is presented differently than it is in Sunday School. In Sunday School you would explain the parables differently to younger children than you would older children than you would teens. You would explain scripture to life-long Christians differently than you would to new Christians. Each of these folks is at different stages of intellectual, social, and spiritual development, so using the same illustrations for each of these groups is ineffective.

You also interpret the word differently to church members and the Session because Session members have different roles in the body of Christ; their role involves the responsibility of ruling. Not all are called to the same role in the church, so the word and the lessons should be presented as differently today as they were between the crowds and the disciples then.

Still the word is the word.

A professor in Austin once asked his Introduction to Preaching class “If the sermon were an arrow and the target represented the gospel, where should we aim?” He said to aim at the center, aim at the heart of the gospel. I later told him that I didn’t like his “target” analogy. I said that with different listeners being at different places in development to aim at the dead center would miss many.

I suggested turning the target on its side, shooting through every layer until reaching the heart of the gospel. Yes, it’s a more difficult shot in archery and preaching, but when done right it reaches all people. I believe this to be part of my call, being able to share the gospel with anyone I meet. It means that I have to be sensitive to them, and sensitive to what they are ready to hear and do with what they hear.

[And if I am failing to make this connection with you, please tell me or, if it makes you more comfortable, a member of the Session so they can tell me. Session members can tell me your concerns without telling me your name.]

In different ways, this is important for all of us. We have to know our Lord and our audience. Whether we sit on the Session, teach a Sunday School class, or listen to a friend who needs a shoulder to lean on; we need to be ready to share the gospel in a way others are able to hear. This way we can share the gospel making sure language doesn’t get in the way. This is the word of the Lord.

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[1] The following paragraph was cut for time consideration: In Austin, the evangelism professor had us read a text that laid out the kingdom of heaven from the perspective of a suburban megachurch pastor. I told that professor that I thought this author’s vision of the Kingdom of Heaven looked like Central Market, the Texas based gourmet mega-grocery store. I told him I thought it would look more like Fiesta, the huge Hispanic grocery store with a bank, salon, taqueria, and groceries a gringo like me wouldn’t know how to prepare on a bet. I believe this pastor imagined the kingdom like the American suburban dream. I think it will be more than I can know or imagine.