Isaiah 2:1-5
Psalm 122
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:36-44

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who draws us to God. Amen
 
Welcome to the beginning of a new church year,
 as always we start off with Advent and waiting.
 For what do we wait?
 We wait for the day of the Lord,
 Jesus’ return that will fulfill God’s will on earth as in heaven.
 
 When will this come?
 We don’t know,
 
not even Jesus knows
 he tells the disciples in our gospel from Matthew today,
the time is unexpected
be prepared.
 
 Jesus uses the example of the homeowner
who, if he knew his house was going to be broken into
 would have stayed up all night
 to prevent the thief from breaking in,
 
 which while true
 is an unrealistic way of preparing
for an event occurring at an unknown time.
 
This is the way we usually think of preparation,
that last minute house cleaning
for the guests arriving in the next few days,
the bustle of preparations made
when we know that the time of the special occasion is at hand. 
 
But that kind of preparation
 is not possible when we don’t know when it’s going to happen.
Yet Jesus still tells the disciples
 to be ready for the coming of the Lord,
 
 and the readiness he is talking about
 is more a way of life
than a last minute shoving of things into closets.
 It’s living as if the Lord were coming tomorrow
all the time.
 
Paul in Romans
 uses the image of clothing,
 “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”
 he tells the waiting community,
 
clothing is something separate from us
 that becomes a part of who we are
 since we generally speaking wear clothing all the time.
and it impacts how we live our lives
choosing to put on sweatpants
leads to something very different
 than donning a three piece suit. 
 
And sure sometimes a new pair of pants feel uncomfortable
but the more we wear them
the more comfortable they become
and soon we don’t even notice them.
 
 Putting on Christ is similar,
at first it may seem strange and uncomfortable
 but like with many things,
 the more we do it
the easier or more natural it becomes
 like putting on a comfortable sweater. 
 
Much like the sweater Mr. Rogers puts on
 at the beginning of his show.
Fred Rogers, is someone who lived a life
prepared to meet Jesus in everyone he met.
 
There’s a movie based on his life out now
 so there’s been a lot of talk about him again,
 how he genuinely loved people
 in a way that people didn’t expect,
 
that love was the love of Christ,
an ordained Presbyterian minister
Fred Rogers clothed himself in Christ,
and lived the love of neighbor taught by Jesus.
 
He didn’t advertise his show as ministry
 (though for him it was)
 and people weren’t drawn to him
 because of a title of position,
 
 they were drawn to him
because of his love for people,
and his love changed the lives of the children who watched his show
and the people with whom he came in contact. 
 
It’s that kind of love and lifestyle
that we are to put on,
to live in a way that draws people to God
because they want to experience the life we have in God.
 
 This is the image in Isaiah,
 the purpose for the chosen people,
 they are to live with God
and it will change their lives in such a way
 that the rest of the nations will say:
“we want to live like that! Let’s go to the house of the Lord,
 let’s learn what the secret to that life is”
 
 and the result will be peace,
not just the absence of war
but harmony that erases even the need for the tools of war. 
 
And yes that may sound too good to be true,
 in the same way many people thought that Mr. Rogers
 was too good to be true,
 that he was playing a character
 
when in reality the gentle, curious, brave, loving man seen on tv
was the same one that people met in real life,
and they were transformed by knowing him.
 Even now after his passing
 people are still drawn to him and his message of love.
 
Put on Christ,
This is how we are to wait and be ready
 and in the process spread the good news of God,
 something we are also called by Jesus to do.
 
And the best way is not by focusing on the church
or advertising or having the hippest music
or the coolest pastor
 
but by living lives oriented toward God,
 lives that have been transformed by God
and transform the lives of those around us. 
 
We have all have these people in our lives
 whether we’ve been aware of them or not,
 who have shared their faith with us
 by way that they lived out their faith,
 
 and when they invited us deeper into faith
 we were glad,
as the psalm says “I was glad when they said to me let us go to the house of the Lord”
 
 at text study this week
we there were talking about how hesitant Lutheran Christians are
 to invite someone to church,
 mostly because we don’t anticipate
that invitation being me with joy.
 
But if we are glad to go to the house of the Lord,
 to be in relationship with God
why wouldn’t others?
 
they need the peace that a relationship with God brings
and they might just realize it by watching us,
 we might be the one
whose life the holy spirit uses
to draw them to God
 
and when we live like this,
we are prepared for the day of the Lord
whenever that comes,
 we won’t need to hide things in closets
 because we have nothing to hide.
 
Now this lifestyle of advent preparedness
is not perfected overnight
 but over the course of a lifetime,
 
washed in the waters of baptism
we are called to daily put on Christ,
 
and sure sometimes it will feel like a new pair of pants
that need breaking in,
 or like that coat that we are really tired of wearing come April,
 
 but Christ keeps reaching out to us,
through the holy spirit and those around us
with love and forgiveness,
 drawing us to himself,
sustaining us with his body and blood at the table
 
and every advent
calling us to wake up,
to renew the practice of preparation,
 to be ready by being clothed in Christ. Amen

Third Sunday in Lent
Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from our God who is with us at all times. Amen
 
Jesus is teaching,
he’s surrounded by people
 who value what he says,
he helps them make sense of the world around them
 
so it’s only natural for them
to run puzzling situations by Jesus
to see what he thinks,
 
in this case it’s about these Galileans
who Pilate had murdered and then desecrated
 by mixing their blood with the blood of the sacrifices.
 
 And the people around him
 tell Jesus this story
 because they have a question:
 why?
 
 Why did that horrible thing happen to those people?
 
And Jesus responds
“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?”
 
 he asks because he knows that is at the back of their minds,
 it’s how our brains work,
we try to find meaning
 so if something bad happened to these people
then they must have done something to deserve it.
 
But then Jesus answers his own question:
“No, I tell you but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”
 
Now this seems like kind of a harsh response
to a question about suffering
 but Jesus goes on to give another example,
 
  he tells those present
 about some people who were killed
when a tower collapsed and asks
 “do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?”
 
 and again he answers his own question
 “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”
 
What does Jesus mean with this response?
 
And we’re all curious right?
Because we have observed the suffering of others and asked:
 why did it happen to them?
 And right behind that question, why didn’t it happen to me?
Or why did it happen to me and not them?
 
 These questions have been raised to the surface of our own lives
in the past weeks
 as flood waters have risen
 and we’ve watched some people lose everything
while others stayed dry.
 And we’ve wondered,
why?
 
 It’s an age old question
and frankly one without a good answer
and that drives us nuts
 
Desmond Tutu in his book God Has A Dream
makes the observation
“We humans can tolerate suffering but we cannot tolerate meaninglessness.” pg 75
 
We cannot tolerate meaninglessness,
so when faced with situations of suffering
we try to make sense of it,
 and often,
the meaning we put on it is wrong,
 at least according to God.
 
We heard this in Isaiah:
 
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts your thoughts.”
 
There is often a disconnect
 between our thinking and God’s thinking,
so when Jesus tells the questioning crowd
“No, I tell you, repent”
he is telling them, us,
 to align our thinking with God’s thinking,
 
 in a way,
that’s Jesus’ whole mission,
 to bridge the gap of misunderstanding between people and God.
 
In telling us to repent
Jesus is not saying we should feel bad about our thinking,
that’s often the feeling we associate with that word,
 
but in the gospel of Luke,
a call to repent
 is a call to turn away from the assumptions and norms of the world
to live lives directed toward God,
 living God’s way as taught to us by Jesus.
 
Jesus knows that this teaching is a bit of a stretch for his listeners
 so he tells them a parable to illustrate his point,
 
 a man with a vineyard plants a fig tree,
and when he comes to the tree and finds no fruit on it
 he tells his gardener to cut it down,
 
it’d been three years,
clearly the tree was useless.
 
 But the gardener intercedes for the tree,
asks for a year reprieve,
 time for the gardener to nurture it,
dig around it, put manure on it
and if the tree produces fruit next year, great,
 if not then the owner can cut it down.
  
There is a gap of misunderstanding
 between the owner and the gardener about the fig tree,
 
 from the owner’s perspective
a fig tree is supposed to produce figs
and after three years without figs
 he determines that the tree is a waste of soil.
 
What the gardener understands that the owner doesn’t
is that it often takes fruit trees three or four years to grow
before they produce fruit,
 and so he offers to nurture the tree for one more year,
to get it to the point where it would be reasonable to expect fruit from it
 
We are often the owner to God’s gardener,
we know what is supposed to happen, or think we do anyway,
and when it doesn’t happen when we expect
we get impatient
we render judgement
and cut down perfectly good trees in our search to make meaning.
 
We do this with ourselves as well as others,
we expect things of ourselves
and when we don’t live up to those expectations
we cut ourselves down
 before we’re done growing,
before we’re ready to produce fruit
when God knows that all we need is some more time,
and perhaps a little manure.
 
And this brings us right back to the discussion of suffering
because the manure in our lives,
what seems like stinky waste
 is actually often what we need to grow into our full selves.
 
 Again, Archbishop Tutu observes: “In our universe suffering is often how we grow, especially how we grow emotionally, spiritually, and morally. That is, when we let the suffering ennoble us and not embitter us.” pg 72
 
 His point is that when faced with suffering
we have a choice in how we respond,
we can tie ourselves in knots
trying to figure out why it happened
and whether we blame ourselves or others
we end up feeling resentful,
like we got a raw deal.
 
 Or, we can turn toward God,
 face the suffering head on,
and work to lessen the suffering,
finding the humanity in ourselves
and those around us,
growing in the love of God as we do so.
 
I think it’s safe to say that most of Nebraska
has made the second choice
in responding to the suffering around us.
 
 People have already come together
to lessen the suffering of others
 and we will continue to do so
 as what needs to be done to recover becomes clearer,
 it will be a long road
but we will walk it together
 and we will grow together.
 
Why is there suffering?
We don’t really know,
 and that’s unsatisfying.
 
 But what we do know
 is that we have a God who has also experienced suffering,
 who chose to work through it
 to lessen the suffering of others,
who promises to be with us in the midst of suffering,
 that we may even grow because of it
 and that it will not have the last say,
 
the cross of Friday after all
was only a stop along the way
to the empty tomb on Sunday. Amen
 

Fifth Sunday After Epiphany
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ
grace and peace to you from the one who makes us worthy. Amen
 
Our lessons for today,
though they speak of different events
tell the same story.
 
 The story broadly goes like this.
 
The main character has an experience of God,
 and while they are wowed by this experience
 it also serves to highlight to the main character
just how inadequate they are in the presence of God,
 
the main character expresses to God
 how unworthy they are
 both for the experience and the notice of God in general.
 
God doesn’t debate this
but goes ahead and makes the main character worthy,
 then provides a way for the main character to respond in gratitude,
 which they do.
 
That’s it,
people experience their unworthiness,
God makes them worthy,
God provides for grateful response.
 
In our first reading
 Isaiah tells of seeing God in the temple
 surrounded by seraphs- a class of angel-
 whose praise of God shakes the thresholds,
 
 Isaiah’s response is: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"
 
Isaiah expects to die
 because he is unworthy and has seen the glory of the Lord,
 but then one of the seraphs takes a hot coal from the altar
and touches Isaiah’s lips with it saying:
 "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."
 
With this ceremony
Isaiah has been made worthy.
 
Then he hears  “the voice of the Lord saying,
 "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
 and now instead of cowering in fear
Isaiah steps up and says “Here am I, send me”
 
Isaiah feels his unworthiness,
God purifies him,
 Isaiah responds in gratitude.
 
In our gospel, it’s Simon and the disciples.
 They’re cleaning their nets after a long night of fishing
 while a crowd has gathered around their new pal Jesus,
 
the crowd is so big
Jesus is about to get pushed into the water,
 so instead he climbs into Simon’s boat
 and has him put out a ways so he can teach the crowd in comfort.
 
 When he’s finished he tells Simon to take the boat out farther
 and put the nets in to catch some fish.
 
 Simon, who I’m sure is exhausted at this point
tells Jesus: "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets."
 
And at Jesus’ direction they go out
 and put the nets in the water
 and catch so many fish that the nets start to break,
 
 they call for back up and the other boat comes out
 
and together they catch so many fish that the boats start to sink!
when Simon sees all this he falls “down at Jesus' knees, saying, "’Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’"
 
 Simon knows that he is unworthy to be in the presence of Jesus.
 
But instead of going away Jesus stays,
 and indicates that he wants to spend more time with Simon
saying  "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."
 Simon is worthy enough to follow Jesus
and Luke tells us that “When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.”
 
Simon and the disciples feel their unworthiness,
 Jesus affirms their worth through an invitation,
 Simon and the disciples leave everything to follow Jesus.
 
Finally we have Paul,
 who eludes to his version of the story
 in his letter to the Corinthians
 though the full version in the book of Acts follows the same pattern.
 
 Paul or Saul as he is called then
is one of the people that is persecuting the followers of Jesus
after the resurrection,
 seeking them to send them to prison or even kill them,
 
the people of the way are afraid of him
 but they are still spreading the message beyond Jerusalem,
so Saul goes and gets permission to go to Damascus
 to hunt down people there and bring them back to Jerusalem.
 
As he’s traveling on the road to Damascus
a light flashes around him
 and he hears a voice saying
 “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Saul) asked, Who are you, Lord? The reply came, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’” Acts 9:3-4
 
When Saul gets up he is blind.
 Meanwhile Jesus also appears in a vision to Ananias,
 a disciple in Damascus
 and tells him to go find Saul,
 
naturally Ananias is hesitant to go
 because he’s heard about Saul
 but God tells him that he’s chosen Saul
to bring the message to the gentiles.
 
 So Ananias goes and lays his hands on Saul
and prays for him
and something like scales fall from Saul’s eyes and he can see again.
He is baptized
then begins preaching the good news that Jesus is the son of God.
 
on the road Damascus
Paul experiences his unworthiness
 in the presence of Jesus,
 
 God makes Paul worthy,
 through the healing of Ananias and Paul’s baptism,
 
and in grateful response
Paul begins preaching the good news of Jesus Christ.
 
Paul is unworthy,
God makes him worthy,
 he gratefully responds
 fulfilling the mission God provides him,
 preaching to the gentiles,
 
Now Paul is writing to some of those gentiles,
 the Corinthians,
who have also experienced this progression of events
 when Paul came to preach to them,
they were baptized and formed a community
but now they’ve gotten off track,
 
Paul is writing to admonish them for a number of things
 going on in the community
including failure to practice the Lord’s Supper in a way that honors all.
 
And here Paul demonstrates
that our story line is actually a story cycle
 because we humans have a hard time believing
that God has truly made us worthy,
 
we have an incredible life changing experience of God
and we respond gratefully to God’s call
but after a while
 we begin to doubt
because we know ourselves
and all the things that we have done and left undone,
how we’ve failed to love our neighbor as ourselves,
 
life is complicated,
God seems far away,
 and pretty soon it feels like we’re back where we started,
 
 and once again
 God comes to us,
 reminding us that we are worthy,
 there is a place for us in the kingdom of God.
 
Paul has spent his letter to the Corinthians
 detailing all the ways they’ve gone wrong
but here towards the end
Paul brings it back around saying
 
 “Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand.”
 
he’s telling them,
you are worthy,
and look he says I get it,
I get that feeling of doubt
look at me “I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
 
But Paul doesn’t stop there,
 he continues on “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain.”
and goes on to detail how God was able to work through him.
 
By the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace toward me has not been in vain.
Repeat it after me,
 
hold on to these words
 
We are not worthy because of our actions,
we are worthy because of the grace of God,
 
God makes us worthy
 in the font at our baptism,
 
and God reminds us we are worthy
over and over again,
in the bread and wine at the table,
with the words of confession and absolution,
 through the body of Christ gathered here.
 
By the grace of God you are worthy.
 
By the grace of God we are worthy.
 
And now God has something in mind for each of us,
whether it is to be a prophet like Isaiah,
 fishers of people like disciples,
 a reminder like Paul
or something else entirely,
 
 and because God has made us worthy,
 when we hear God’s call
 we answer: “Here am I, send me”
 Thanks be to God, Amen.

All Saints Sunday
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6
John 11:32-44

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who gathers the saints in light. Amen
 
Today we observe All Saints Sunday,
 the day when we formally recall those who have died.
 
 I say formally, because when someone we love dies
they are often on our minds and in our hearts,
 they’re the ones we want to call when the grief becomes too much
 or when we have exciting news,
 they’re the ones who shaped us in some way,
 and now that they’re gone
we find ourselves intentionally looking for them in ourselves,
 
 or we do something
and it reminds us of our loved one
 and we say ‘oh that’s where I got that’
and give thanks to God for their influence on our life.
 
we bring forward today the saints
 naming the hope and the assurance
 that we will see them again,
 and not just in our hearts
but in the flesh, at the last,
when the promises of God have come true,
when there is a new heaven and a new earth
 and there is no more mourning or crying or pain
and certainly no more death.
 
But until then, we wait.
 
In many ways
All Saints day is a day where we Christians
 are reminded that we are in the middle of time,
 stuck between the already and the not yet.
 
 We already have Jesus,
 that part of God’s promise and plan has been realized,
 Jesus fulfills the promises that God makes in Isaiah
 and through the prophets,
Jesus is God’s way of bridging the gap between God and humans,
 between God’s hopes for creation and reality.
But the kingdom of God is not yet complete,
it has come near in Jesus,
the process has started but construction is still underway
 
so we are left to wonder,
what do we do in the meantime?
 
We have hope certainly,
hope in the promise of God fulfilled in Jesus,
 and because of that hope
we work to live our lives according to the way of God
that Jesus taught us,
 making the world around us a bit more like God’s vision
 
but some days that doesn’t seem like enough,
try as we might
 there are days where hope and Jesus don’t seem like enough,
 
those days we’re like Mary in our gospel reading,
her brother has been dead four days
 and finally Jesus shows up
 and the first thing she says to him is
 “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died.”
 
what she’s really saying to him is,
where were you? We sent you a message, you’re too late.
 
 And Jesus, seeing Mary and the mourners weeping
 asks to see where Lazarus is laid,
and Jesus too is overcome with emotion and weeps with them,
for his friend,
and here Jesus too is caught in the middle.
 
Jesus is God,
he knows who he is and what he is going to do,
 especially in the gospel of John,
and sometimes, a lot of times
this involves some suffering
especially for the humans he loves
that just don’t understand the scope of Jesus’ mission in the world.
 
 Jesus’ disciples don’t understand
when he tells them what is going to happen to him,
a crucified messiah doesn’t compute
Jesus knows they will be scared and sad,
 he tries to give them reassurance,
 at the same time knowing that the only way to get to Easter Sunday
and the empty tomb
is through the fear and sadness.
 
Jesus loves his friends Mary and Martha and Lazarus
but, here too he knows that the way to the empty tomb
 goes through pain and sorrow,
 he has a mission
and Lazarus’ death plays a role in it.
 
So when Jesus is sent word that Lazarus is sick,
 he intentionally waits for two days.
 He knows that Lazarus is going to die
 and that he is going to raise Lazarus from the dead,
this miracle will be foreshadowing of his own death
 and it will bring him closer to the cross.
 
Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead
is the last straw for the authorities,
they meet together and the question is posed
 “‘What are we to do? This man is performing may signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” and they have some discussion and the chief priest points out that it’s better to have one person die then all of them die and John tells us “...so from that day on they planned to put him to death.”
 
The way to the cross and the empty tomb
 goes through Lazarus’ death and his sisters’ grief.
 
Jesus knows this
but when faced with the mourning of his friends,
Jesus weeps with them,
he’s in the middle,
 
Jesus knows what it’s like to be in the middle of the already and not yet.
Our God knows what we’re going through
in those times when hope and reality collide
 and he weeps with us,
 he comes to us.
 
Here in the middle,
Jesus comes to us through the saints,
 and when we say saints
we mean those everyday Christians
baptized into Christ
 that walk the journey with us
whether it is for a moment or a lifetime,
 
the people present who weep when we are weeping
and rejoice when we rejoice,
the ones who teach us how to live through the middle,
to hope.
 
And when our paths diverge
we’re sad, we weep and Jesus weeps with us
 but we also remember how they taught us to live through the middle
 and the promise of Jesus
that we will one day be reunited with them
on that day
when Jesus gathers all the saints together
in the completed kingdom of God. Amen
 

2nd Sunday After Pentecost
Isaiah 53:4-12
Psalm 91:9-16
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who came to serve. Amen
 
The disciples in the gospel of Mark,
bless their hearts,
 are particularly dense
 and I’ve got to say I love them for that
 
 because as exasperating as it is
 to watch them throughout the gospel
stumbling along as they follow Jesus,
 never quite fully understanding his teaching,
 often turning around
 to do the opposite of what Jesus just told them to do
 what we are witnessing is the disciples’ humanity,
 
a humanity that mirrors our own.
how many times in following Jesus
 have we never quite fully understood his teaching?
 And how many times do we hear Jesus say one thing
and turn around and go do the exact opposite?
More often than we’d like to admit.
 
 The gift of the disciples’ humanity in the gospel
is that we get to see how Jesus responds to them,
 in all their density and contrariness,
 giving us an idea of how Jesus will respond to us
in all of our density and contrariness.
 
Actually we should probably give the disciples a break
because in Jesus they are encountering not only new teachings
 but a way of looking at the world
 that is completely counter to the way they are used to.
 
 The Kingdom of God is very unlike the world,
and the way the kingdom of God comes about
 often runs against the common sense of the world.
 
Take for example what it means to be a savior.
 According to the world
 a savior is someone who is heroic,
 one who is more powerful than average
 and who uses that power to defend the little guy
against some other powerful force,
which generally increases the power of the hero.
 And yet, according to the kingdom of God,
 a savior is one, the one, who serves others in suffering.
 
We heard in our first reading from Isaiah
 part of the suffering servant passage
 that we as Christians view as a prophetic description of Jesus
 and it is not pleasant,
 
struck down, afflicted,
wounded, crushed, oppressed
 and yet God says “The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous.”
 
This is how God has chosen to save,
 and we wonder at that,
why is suffering necessary? we ask
 
we are confused because suffering on behalf of others
 goes against the common sense of the world,
 the sense that says we protect ourselves and honor the strong,
 common sense that tells us to avoid suffering at all costs.
 
But Jesus doesn’t live by the way of the world,
had Jesus lived according to common sense
 he would have tried to befriend the most powerful rather than the lowly,
 
 if he had lived according to common sense
he would have avoided the sick and the poor,
 he wouldn’t have touched lepers
or eaten with tax collectors
and he certainly wouldn’t have talked about a kingdom of God
 more powerful than the kingdom of Rome.
 
but Jesus did all those things,
 Jesus lives by un-common sense,
 and his un-common sense leads right to the cross
because the world moves swiftly
to remove anything that upsets the way things are
 
Jesus knows this,
 and he’s tried to teach his disciples this,
by the time we get to our gospel for today
Jesus has already made all his passion predictions to his followers,
 he’s sat them down and told them look:
 this is what is going to happen,
 I’m going to be arrested, put on trial and crucified.
And three days after that I will rise again.
 
And he heads toward Jerusalem.
the disciples continue to follow him
but they don’t understand,
 
today James and John come up to Jesus
and ask him to treat them according to the ways of the world.
They understand that something is going to happen soon
and they believe Jesus to be great, the messiah even
and they want to assure their places in the new order,
and so they make their request,
They want to sit in the highest worldly places of honor
when Jesus comes into his glory.
 
And Jesus looks at them and says
 “You do not know what you are asking.”
 because Jesus’ glory is the cross
 
“are you able to drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” He asks them,
referring to his suffering,
and they with all the confidence of ignorance reply
 “we are able”
 
and Jesus grants them what they ask
 “The cup that I drink you will drink and the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.” Jesus tells them,
but the positions of honor at the right and the left are not Jesus’ to give out,
 that is determined by God
and those places will be filled by the two thieves
 who will be crucified on either side of Jesus.
 
And while we might wonder at Jesus
granting James and John’s request
 without their understanding,
 
 
what Jesus is doing in that granting
 is offering a moment of grace,
 what they will understand later
and what we as listeners hear
 is that the moments of failure in the lives of the disciples
 do not determine the final outcome.
 
Yes, James and John don’t understand,
 but they are earnest in wanting to follow Jesus,
yes they along with the rest of the group will run away
 when Jesus is arrested,
but we know, as Mark’s audience knows
 that they went on to play vital
 roles in the spread of the message of the good news of Jesus Christ,
 
Acts 12:2 tells us that James is martyred,
 killed because of his witness for Jesus.
 James and John spoke the truth,
they were able to follow Jesus in his glory.
 
To be dense, confused, contrary and fail is to be human,
 to not let it get in the way,
 that is the way of God,
 
 our reading from Hebrews this morning
 in speaking of Jesus says
 “He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness”
 
Jesus, son of God,
knows what it’s like to be human
since he himself is human,
 
he understands suffering
because he has experienced it,
 
 he knows how we mess up
even with good intentions,
he knows common sense would say
do not to rely too heavily on humans to get things done,
 
and yet Jesus with his un-common sense,
 calls us, humans,
to be his disciples,
to live in the world according to the way of the kingdom of God.
 
We are to love and forgive our enemies
and those who hurt us,
befriend those cast out by society,
 share our food and resources
 so that all have enough,
 speak truth to power
even and especially when that truth is not what power wants to hear.
 
 and yes living in this way
will probably result in some suffering,
 but it will also make the world a better place,
 more like the kingdom of God brought near in Jesus.
 
and yes we will make mistakes
and fall back on common sense,
 and that is when Jesus brings us to the table,
 to share in his cup,
 the new covenant for the forgiveness of sins
 poured out by Jesus on the cross
as he gave his life so that we could be righteous
 and could dare to live un-common lives. Amen
 

Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 116:1-9
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ
grace and peace to you from the one who is the messiah. Amen
 
There are a lot of tongues in our lessons for today.
Both Isaiah and James mention that small but important body part.
 
According to James
the tongue is a slippery creature (pun intended)
 “with it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.”
 
 for such a small part of our body
the tongue wields disproportionate power,
 like a rudder that steers a great ship
 or a spark that sets a forest on fire
 a word on our tongue has the power to build up or tear down.
 
James seems to find the tongue a mostly negative influence,
calling it a “restless untamable beast full of deadly poison”
James is concerned with the alignment of word and deed,
especially as it relates to Christians.
 
 In the last couple of weeks in James
 we’ve heard him call on believers to be doers of the word,
not just hearers
saying that faith without works is dead
 
 now he’s turning it around,
 just as what we do should reflect what we say we believe,
so should what we say
 
James is highly sensitive to hypocrisy
 and to him it seems hypocritical
for someone to praise God in one breath
and in the next be horrible to another human,
one made in the image of God.
 
What we do and say matters,
because these actions reveal who we really are.
James says “Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs?”
 Trees are known by the fruit they produce,
 and we will be known by what we produce,
 it doesn’t matter if we call ourselves fig trees
 if all we produce are olives.
 
 It doesn’t matter if we call ourselves Christian
 if we don’t say and do Christian things.
What we say matters because it reflects who we truly are.
 
And yes I’m am bold enough or foolish enough
to still believe and proclaim this
 in an era where what people say
 and how they say it
seems to matter less and less.
 
I maintain my belief that words are powerful
even more so when we don’t give them their due.
What we say matters.
 
 Isaiah on the other hand
 has a decidedly more positive take on the tongue.
 
 In our first reading we hear the prophet proclaim
“The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.”
 
 The prophet Isaiah has been sent to the people of Israel
living in exile in Babylon,
 
 conquered militarily
and removed from their home in the promised land,
 all they have left are words,
 the promise of God
that they will one-day return home.
 
God has appointed Isaiah to speak those words to the people
 but the job of prophet is not simply speaking
but first listening to the word of God.  
 
Isaiah praises God for the gift the teaching tongue
 followed immediately by praise to God
 for opening his ears each morning
to first listen to God.
 
and because Isaiah listens to God
he is able to stick to the job God has given him
 even though he is mistreated because of his message,
 
 the job of prophet is not only to sustain
but to point out the often uncomfortable truth,
 the truth that people have more responsibility for their current misfortunes
than they’d like to admit
 
people who often get upset with the messenger
and go to extreme lengths to shut them up.
 
 The life of a prophet is not easy
 but because Isaiah is listening to God
 rather than the people
 he is able to be steadfast in his call
 even proclaiming “the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced;”
 
The shame that the people try to put on Isaiah doesn’t stick
because Isaiah is listening to God not the people.
 Who we listen to matters.
 
Who we listen to,
even in the background,
 forms our concept of the world and ourselves,
if we are not careful about who we listen to,
 it will be the loudest often most negative voices
that shape our view of ourselves and the world.
Who we listen to matters.
 
The importance of all this speaking and listening
come to a head in our gospel for today
 with Jesus questioning the disciples
 “who do you say that I am?”
 
 knowing that their answer
 will reveal who they’ve been listening to,
 who they’ve become.
 
The disciples have been with Jesus for a while now,
we’re about halfway through the gospel of Mark,
 they’ve heard Jesus’ teachings,
seen him heal and do miraculous deeds.
Now Jesus takes his disciples of Caesarea Philippi,
 and while this may seem like a minor detail
it tells us that Jesus is setting the scene.
 
You see Caesarea Philippi is an ancient place of idol worship,
a spring is located there in a cave
that, long before Jesus and his disciples wandered there,
was dedicated as a shrine to the Greek god Pan.
 
 Later King Herod added Caesarea to the name of the place
 to honor the Roman ruler Caesar.
 
Jesus takes his disciples
to a place where the prevailing culture
 is shouting loudly,
the availability of other gods,
 the bowing down to the Roman empire
 and it is here he asks them two questions:
Who do people say that I am?
And Who do you say that I am?
 
What Jesus is asking the disciples with these questions is:
 who have you been listening to?
And who are you because of what you’ve heard?
 
the disciples report what they’ve heard people say about Jesus,
 John the Baptist, a prophet, Elijah,
figures out of the history of Israel
and when Jesus presses them for their answer
Peter opens his mouth-
 he’s always the one speaking-
 and he says “You are the messiah”
 
He gets the right answer.
And Jesus tells them not to tell anyone about him.
 
Why Jesus keeps telling the disciples
 to keep his deeds and identity a secret is a mystery,
but it might have to do with what happens next.
 
 When Jesus tells the disciples
what is going to happen to him,
 the suffering, rejection, death
and after three days resurrection
Peter, who has just proclaimed Jesus the messiah
 opens his big mouth again
and with the tongue that just uttered a blessing
rebukes him, tells Jesus he’s wrong.
 
What Jesus describes is not the messiah that Peter is thinking of,
 the one for whom the Israelites are waiting is a King of the line of David,
who will come and throw out the oppressors
who have taken over the land of the Israelites
 and bring them freedom to purify and restore Israel.
A dead messiah, no that’s not right Peter says
 
and Jesus turns and corrects him.
 
“Follow me, you’re upset because you’re listening to humans not God. you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
 
Yes Jesus is the messiah,
but he’s not the messiah Peter or we want him to be.
 
We often talk about Jesus like he’s a magic genie,
someone who if we say the right thing will grant our wishes
solve our problems
and bring prosperity and freedom,
 of course prosperity and freedom as defined by humans.
 
But if we listen to Jesus carefully
and watch what he does,
 we find that what Jesus is most concerned with
 is his quest to identify with the lowliest,
 
again and again he seeks out those outcast by society
 and offers them what other humans have denied them,
 healing, food, dignity
 and for his troubles he will be rejected and killed.
 
 This is the divine way.
And Jesus expects his disciples to follow the divine way.
 
 what Jesus is saying when he talks of cross bearing
and losing and saving lives
 is that if you are listening to God,
 and you say that you follow God,
 and you live your life according to the divine way,
you will get push back,
 
 people will treat you like the prophet Isaiah,
 but like the prophet Isaiah
you’ll be able to endure, stick with it,
 because you’re listening to God
and not the people
 and there is no shame in following the divine way,
 it is the way of everlasting life with God.
 
Jesus knows that living in this way is extremely difficult,
that our sense of self-preservation will often overrule
our desire to follow God,
 
 on the way to the cross Peter denies Jesus three times
 and all the disciples abandon him,
 Jesus knows that this will happen too,
 and when he is raised up on the third day
who does he go to?
 
His disciples.
 Because while the divine way is difficult,
it is also one of forgiveness,
and second chances.
 
No matter how many times we abandon him for ourselves
Use our tongues for both blessings and curses
Jesus will welcome us back
 because Jesus is the messiah
according to the divine way. Amen
 

2nd Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15
Mark 1:1-8

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you from the one who meets us in the wilderness. Amen
 
Mark begins in the desert.
 
 In telling the story of Jesus
he announces the good news of Jesus Christ,
 the Son of God
and then jumps right to the wilderness,
actually quoting in part
 our first reading from Isaiah,
who is also in the wilderness with the Israelites.
 
He puts these words into the mouth of John the Baptist,
a man of the wilderness
whose preaching oddly enough draws people out to him,
out into the desert along the banks of the Jordan river
where at the urging of John
they confess their sins
 and take a ritual bath
to signify their new found way of life.
 
Why does Mark begin in the wilderness?
 
 Matthew starts off with a long Genealogy
 tracing Jesus back to David and Abraham.
 Luke starts off with the story of John the Baptist’s remarkable birth
 before heading into the story of Jesus’ remarkable birth.
 John starts with a poem mirroring the beginning of genesis
and establishing Jesus as the Word made flesh
through whom the world was created.
 
 But Mark starts in the wilderness.
 
Throughout the Bible,
the wilderness shows up again and again,
Abraham wanders around for quite awhile
 before God’s promise is fulfilled in the birth of Isaac.
 
 Moses escapes to the wilderness
after killing the Egyptian overseer
 and it is while tending sheep out on his own
 that he encounters a strange bush
that burns but is not consumed
 and when he steps aside to look meets God, I am who I am.
 
The people of Israel
wander in the desert for forty years
 before they enter the promised land,
 God uses that time to teach them to depend on God
and to live as a free community.
 
Mark starts in the wilderness
because the wilderness is where God shows up,
the wilderness is where God meets those for whom God has a job and a promise,
the wilderness is where God prepares the servants of God to fulfill the will of God.
 
Now before we romanticize the wilderness
as the place of preparation,
thinking of it like a training sequence in a sports movie
 where all the hard work is condensed into a montage of clips
set to inspirational music
 we need to recognize the difficulty of life in the wilderness
 
It is a lonely place,
where those who wander are stripped down to their essentials,
where they discover what is important
 and just what it means to live relying on God.
 
We all have wilderness times,
times when it seems we’re wandering
 without much direction or even sustenance
where it seems like we will always be in the wilderness
 
 the wilderness is our place of greatest need,
and it is where God shows up most vividly
 and it is those burning bush moments,
full of terror and wonder
that shape the rest of our lives.
 
Mark starts in the wilderness
 because that is where stories of encountering God start,
in places of desolation where all hope seems lost,
 and Mark has the biggest story of encountering God to tell,
one where the good news is so good that it’s hard to describe
so Mark starts by referencing another wilderness time of good news
he recalls the words of the prophet Isaiah,
 speaking to the Israelites in the wilderness of exile,
 
 overthrown by the Babylonians
and removed from their homes
 the Israelites despaired of ever returning,
 
 and into that despair Isaiah cries
 ‘Comfort O Comfort my people’
and continues with the message
that the time of exile is over,
 they get to go home,
 and the journey will be easy,
on a straight and level path,
 no wandering for forty years this time,
just a walk across a level highway
 
while the people sinned
 God stayed true to the covenant promise
and now is bringing them back home,
like a shepherd leading a flock to safety,
 
the picture Isaiah paints
is that of a mighty warrior turned shepherd,
who instead of waging war
uses his mighty arm to gather the lambs close,
 cuddling them while leading their mothers.
 
And just as we have wilderness moments,
we also have comfort comfort moments,
the times when we are lambs
swept up out of the path of danger into strong safe arms,
 into the presence of God.
 
For me the moment that is most vividly one of these moments
 is connected to red wine and roasted chicken.
Most of you know that I was married right before going to seminary
and that following summer
 my then husband left the marriage.
 
 The first few days after he declared his intentions
were kind of a blur, definitely a wilderness time
 but it was the middle of the week
and I had responsibilities to help me take my mind off things.
 
Then the weekend came
 and as I was still sharing a living space with my ex
two of my friends who shared an apartment
invited me to stay with them for the weekend.
 
That first night a group of friends gathered around me,
 the one who had gone to culinary school before seminary roasted a chicken,
 I’m sure there were other good things to eat too but I don’t remember them,
and we ate chicken and drank red wine
 and talked and cried and laughed,
and then full of food and sleepy from the wine
they tucked me into bed for the first good night of sleep I’d had in awhile.
 
 I was a lamb held safely in the arms of my shepherd who knew the way.
 There was still going to be a long journey ahead of me
But I knew that I would not be making it alone
And that there was hope for the future
 
‘It’s this kind of good news that I’m about to tell’
hints Mark at the beginning of his gospel,
 
coming home from exile good,
being protected in strong arms good,
 even chicken and red wine good,
 
 in fact even better than all those things good,
the best news,
 
but before we get there
we have to start in the wilderness with John,
 proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
saying ‘Prepare the way,
the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me’
 
and so we go out and join John in the desert
by the Jordan river
comforted by hope in the promised future. Amen
 

1st Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 64:1-9
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who molds us into the image of God. Amen
 
What time is it?
 Are we at the beginning? The middle? The end?
We have so many ways of organizing time
 that when they overlap
 it starts to get confusing.
 
 According to the secular calendar
we are at the end of the year,
one more month
before the clock ticks over
 to read a year later at the end of our dates.
 
According to the sacred calendar
we are at the beginning of the year,
the circular journey through the life, death and resurrection of Christ
is at the start again,
anticipating God’s entry into the world
but not just the observance of the birth of the baby Jesus
but anticipation of God’s final return
 to make the world complete.
 
Confused yet?
 
At the heart of our confusion
is the reality that while we try to control time
 by organizing it in as many ways as possible,
 managing the seasons,
looking for signs to anticipate what is coming next
 
the truth of it is
 that it’s out of our hands,
 God is on God’s own schedule
of which we are not privy to
nor can we anticipate.
 
We know the what,
 God’s return,
we do not know the when,
 but we are called to be watchful,
 to be ready for God,
whenever God happens to come.
 
Sometimes when the imperfections of the world
become too much
we get impatient and cry in the words of Isaiah
“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down”
 
 we long for God to come mix things up,
to show those people that are messing up the world
who is really in charge,
whose side God is really on,
the ones who remember and follow God’s ways
 
And then in the next instant
the next breath
 we realize the we’re not ready for God to come,
 
 that we’re the ones who have forgotten God,
 that our relationship needs healing,
that we need more time to get things on our end in order.
 
 Isaiah realizes this as well
and after lamenting the many ways the people have failed
in their relationship with God
still says this:
“Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. “
 
God is the creator and we are the creation
 In the end,
 ready or not God will arrive on God’s own time
 regardless of what our calendars read.
 
and honestly
 there will never be a perfect time for us for God to come,
 we will always be a work in progress,
and God the potter is the one working.
 
God has claimed us as sacred clay
 and is constantly working to mold us
 into the image of the divine,
 
I don’t know too much about the art of pottery
but I do know that it takes a lot of skill
to work the clay into the desired form
and even then it may not look exactly like what the potter intends
because the clay participates in how the object is formed.
 
As sacred clay
we participate in how God is forming us,
we let ourselves be molded into a receptive vessel
or we resist the gentle or sometimes not so gentle nudges
 that are intended to smooth out a rough patch
on our exterior or interior
 
and how we are molded matters
 because we are how God has chosen to work in the world at this time,
 how we respond to God’s molding work in our lives
makes a difference in the life of the world around us.
 
So when Jesus in Mark tells us to stay awake
for the coming of God
to watch for signs like the fig tree about to blossom,
 
 it is a call to pay attention to how God is working in us right now,
 molding and shaping us
in preparation for God’s final arrival
 
often the signs are subtle,
 the growing feeling that we are being called to do something
about the injustice of some having a great deal while others have very little
 
Or perhaps it’s discomfort at something that once seemed normal
but when examined is shown to be harmful to others.
 
Or maybe it’s a renewed sense of joy
in your relationship with God
 and the fellowship of those who come together to worship, pray and serve.
 Taking part in a community that has faith when we find it difficult
 
All these signs and more
 point to the coming of God
 
 who will end injustice,
 loneliness and hurt,
who will make all joyful, fed and free.
 
But in the meantime
we do the best we can to prepare,
and God knows exactly what we’re going through
 
 because God is with us,
 at this time of ending and beginning,
 beginning and ending
 
God starts by molding the divine self
 into the form of an infant,
 joining creation to work from the inside out. Amen
 

12th Sunday After Pentecost
Isaiah 51:1-6
Psalm 138
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20
​
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who gives us identity and purpose. Amen
 
“Who do you say that I am?” Jesus asks the disciples,
Simon Peter says, “you are the messiah, the Son of the living God”
 and in return Jesus gives Peter a new identity and purpose,
 he is the rock on whom Jesus will build the church,
 
Peter’s new identity and purpose
 are a direct result of who he says that Jesus is,
 and he is able to confess this only with the help of God the creator,
 Jesus’ and Peter’s identities are intertwined.
 
The question of identity is all over our readings for today
 
These days a lot of people
 have a lot to say about who Jesus is,
as a matter of fact
a lot of people have a lot to say about who they think we are
 and into that conflicting conversation
 Jesus has us pause and asks “but who do you say that I am?”
 
 because who we claim Jesus to be
 directly impacts who we understand ourselves to be
and how we live in the world.
 
But first and foremost God claims us.
As the creator of the universe
God is the source of our lives,
and our relationship with God is formalized at our baptisms
when God says “you are mine, sealed with the holy spirit and marked by the cross of Christ forever no matter what anybody says you are a child of God.”
 
And while this will never change,
we encounter events in our lives,
whether expected or unexpected
that cause us to question: who is God and who am I?
 
Our readings for today
model how God suggests that we might begin to answer these questions.
 
In our reading from Isaiah
 God is speaking to people who are seeking the Lord,
 they have experienced the tragedy of exile from their homeland
and it has caused them to ask who is God?
 
In response
God points them back to the past actions of God.
 Saying “Look to the rock from which you were hewn…
look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; f
or he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.”
 
God recalls to the people
 their collective experience with God,
 in a way saying ‘if I acted this way in the past I’ll act this way again,
I was with Abraham and Sarah when it was just them
 and I grew them into a great nation,
your number might be depleted but if I did it with them I can do it again.”
 
In many ways who we confess God to be
 depends on our experience of God,
 both as a community and as individuals.
 
 Which is why it is important that we gather and tell the stories of who God is,
 when we tell the story of the exodus
we are proclaiming that God is a God of liberation,
 when we tell the story of Jesus
we are saying that God is one who walks with us,
when we hear of the work of Jesus through the disciples
we are confessing that God works through us.
 When we tell the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection
we are saying that God is not stopped by death.
 
And we each have our own stories of God in our lives
that shape and define who we confess God to be.
When I tell the story of growing up in the church,
I am proclaiming a God that has nurtured me
 
When I tell the story of how my community took care of me
At the most difficult times in my life
I am proclaiming a God that is loving and works through community
 
 
 
When I marvel at the times when I had nothing to say
and the right words came out of my mouth
I am proclaiming a God that sends the Holy Spirit to assist me
 
What we say about God
based on the scriptures, the community and our own lives
paints a picture of a God who is intimately involved in our lives
and this realization causes us to ask, if this is so, who am I and what am I to do?
 
“You are a member of the body of Christ,” says Paul
speaking to a group of people asking that very question,
“and members of the body of Christ are unique,
 with various gifts and talents that all come together
 to help communicate to others who God is”
 
because our main mission,
as we hear at the end of the gospel of Matthew
is to go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing and teaching them of Jesus.
And Jesus has given each of us gifts
 that allow us to work together as a community
to live out this mission in the world
 
and sometimes our gifts are not always obvious
so Paul recommends to the Romans,
who are wondering what role they have to play in the body of Christ
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect”
 
Paul warns,
realizing that it is possible to get caught up in the world around us,
 that unless we take time to read scripture, pray and think about it
we might confuse what the world wants with what God wants.
 
Which is why Who we confess Jesus to be is so important
Because understanding who God is
Helps us interpret how God wants us to live in the world
 
Our confession directly impacts
 how we understand ourselves
and what we do with our lives.
Jesus’ identity and our identity are intertwined
and it can take us in some unexpected directions.
 
Peter confessed Jesus to be the messiah, the Son of the living God,
and Jesus gave Peter a new identity and purpose,
 the foundation of the church
and it took Peter in some un expected direction, the garden of Gethsemane,
the court yard of the high priest,
the empty tomb, breakfast beside the sea of Galilee,
 
his purpose as the base of the church
even took Peter, a good Jew,
 to the gentiles with the message of Jesus
 including visions of breaking the dietary laws
 for the sake of the gospel
 a place he certainly didn’t expect to wind up
 but which deepened his understanding of who God is
 and expanded who he shared the good new with.
 
We are at a time in history
 where we are being called to reexamine the questions
who is God? and who am I?
and we need to take time to discern what is good and acceptable and perfect
because how we live out our answers is a reflection of who we believe God to be
 
So we ask: Who do we say God is in the face of Charlottesville? And
How do we live out our answer as the body of Christ?
 
Who do we say God is in the face of sickness and death?
And How do we live out our answer as a member of the body of Christ?
 
Who do we say God is in the face of hurricanes and natural disasters?
And How do we live out our answer with the gifts given us by God?
 
These questions can be daunting
 but when we ask them in community,
with the scriptures as witness,
 the Holy Spirit our comforter and guide
and Jesus who has claimed us as his own
God will give us identity and purpose.
 
So, who do you say Jesus is?

9th Sunday After Pentecost
Isaiah 55:1-5
Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14: 13-21

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who calls us into relationship. Amen
 
How do you get people interested in an event?
 
Two Words.
Free food.
 
This is particularly true on college campuses,
all across the nation
 as the kids flood back to school
there will be activity fairs
 and signs advertising informational meetings for clubs and groups,
 and the most successful,
the table that will draw the biggest crowd
will have food,
and not just a few mini snickers bars
 but the best food, slices of pizza, doughnuts, maybe even tacos.
 
Now not all of the adoring taco lovers
 will become members of the rowing team
or the young diplomats club.
 
Most will be there simply for the food,
 a break from whatever delights the cafeteria serves up
 or perhaps worse their own cooking on a budget.
 
 But, there is the possibility,
ever so small,
that something more could develop
 from that initial exchange of food,
 
even if it is just knowing the name of Lutheran Campus ministries,
the association that they had good food,
 and didn’t they say something about a meal after church Sunday mornings,
 and aren’t they the ones with the open pantry of personal care supplies?
 
Even when it’s just about the food
 it’s about more than the food,
it’s an entry point into relationship.
 
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
 
 God calls out to the Israelites,
offering them free food
and not just any free food,
but the best food.
 
 God offers this food
as a way to get them to listen once again
 to the covenant promise,
 to draw them back into relationship with God,
a relationship that God started with the people
to serve as an example for the other nations
so that the other nations would also come to God.
 
Even when it’s just about the food,
 it’s about more than the food.
 
In our gospel
the crowds are already coming to Jesus,
 in this case
it is in search of the free health car
e that Jesus has been offering,
 
 as he has been wandering about teaching
 he has also been healing
 and not just offering an ointment here or a potion there
 but full, miraculous healings,
withered hands restored, demons exorcised, dead brought back to life,
he’s offering the best and people are flocking to him.
 
And when Jesus sees the crowds,
 the people seeking him
even as he is trying to get
away to mourn the death of John the Baptist,
he has compassion for them,
he feels their pain in his gut,
and he heals their sick.
 
It’s about more than just the healing.
 
The crowds are surrounding Jesus
and now the disciples’ enter the picture,
 they have committed to a relationship with Jesus
 past that of free food and health care,
 
they’ve joined his club,
 they’re on board with his mission,
 they want to help,
 
 and so when it starts getting late
they come up to Jesus and say
 ‘uh hey boss, it’s getting late,
 and there’s nothing out here,
 maybe it’s time to start telling all these people
that it’s time for them to go someplace where they can get some food.”
 
 they in their own way
are concerned for the welfare of the crowd
but they certainly don’t expect what Jesus tells them to do next.
 
“You give them something to eat”
Jesus commands the disciples
 “but we only have five loaves and two fish,” they reply
 
 and Jesus takes their food,
 blesses and breaks it
 and gives it back to the disciples to distribute.
 
And with the little they had
and the blessing of Jesus,
the disciples are able to feed the whole crowd,
 
and not just a little bit for each person
 but all ate and were filled
 and there were even left-overs
 
 and for a moment
the reign of God is realized
and all who are gathered
experience the reality
of what Jesus has been teaching the disciples to work toward.
 
 A world where people from all different walks of life
 gather together and there is such an abundance
that everyone rich or poor
gets as much as they need and there are even left-overs.
 
In his command,
 Jesus has empowered the disciples
 with an understanding that with what little they have
 and they blessing of God
 they are able to make the reign of God real for people
 in the same way Jesus has made it real for them.
 
That as disciples they are truly partners
in Jesus’ mission to spread the good news,
that the relationships they create with the crowds lead to God.
 
 and sure some people are just there for the food
and that’s okay, because God knows that all people need food
 but there’s the possibility that it will lead to something more,
a positive association with Jesus and his movement that may,
 in the future draw them into their own path of discipleship.
 
It’s about more than just the food.
 
“Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever.”
 
For most of us,
Our relationship with God
started with a free bath,
 
 and we were brought to that bath
by parents or grandparents,
 disciples empowered to share their experience of God with us.
 
 In that bath, which was more than just a bath
God promised to always be in relationship with us
 even if that was the only time we were ever in church,
or our parents had it done as “an insurance policy”
 
 even if we stopped coming to church and talking to God in our teens,
20s, 30s 40s, 50s, 60s, etc
even if sometimes we feel like faith is day to day, moment to moment
 
but Jesus doesn’t just let us go,
he continually calls us back into relationship with God and one another,
through disciples and of course with free food,
 
 the best food, his body and blood
 in with and under the bread and wine,
which of course is about more than just the food,
 it’s an offering of forgiveness for the relationships we’ve broken,
a taste of the reign of God
where all are welcome and there is enough for everybody.
 
And when we’ve gathered
with the great variety of people that God brings to the table,
 eaten our fill and seen the leftovers,
then God turns us back toward the world,
the hungry and hurting
 
and says “you give them something to eat,
have compassion for the suffering crowds,
you feed them, you heal them,
 
and yes most of them will probably just be there for the free food and health care
but it’s an opportunity to
establish a deeper relationship
 and then you can offer them something more,
a relationship with the creator of the universe”
 
And with what little we have
and the blessing of God
we are able to realize the reign of God,
 one feast at a time. Amen