10th Sunday after Pentecost
2 Kings 4:42-44 Psalm 145:10-18 Ephesians 3:14-21 John 6:1-21 Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who is faithful in all words and loving in all works. Amen We have a God whose love and works surpass human understanding. We can’t explain how Elisha was able to feed a hundred men with a little bit of bread and corn let alone Jesus feeding five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish Jesus’ walking across the top of the sea of Galilee in a storm defies the laws of nature that God set in place, and these are only the examples we have from the readings for today, the Bible is filled with stories that we can’t explain, at least with head knowledge, logic and reason But with heart knowledge, our ability to accept the reality of mysteries we know that these stories tell us the truth, the truth about God and what it means to be a child of God. As a society, we’ve come to depend almost entirely on head knowledge, for something to be true it must be able to be proven. Now I’m not discounting science and measurable outcomes, the ability to understand the world around us is a gift from God and has done much good, but we limit our experience of life if we rely only on head knowledge and dismiss the power and truth of heart knowledge, truth that defies explanation and yet exists in the world. So what do we who live in a world of logic do with truth that defies explanation? I think our best course is to follow the lead of the psalmists who in the face of the inexplicable takes the time to describe their experience, however contradictory. Have you ever noticed that about the psalms? Especially the psalms of lament, the psalmist goes on and on about how awful life is and then at very end they give praise to God, and it seems to go against everything that came before, but we recognize the truth in these psalms because that’s how people of faith live, with the ability to tell God everything that’s going wrong and at the same time still praise and trust God. Our psalm for today is a psalm of praise, in praising God, the psalmist describes the actions of God, who upholds all who fall and lifts those who are bowed down, who satisfies the desire of every living thing, who is near to all who call, and throughout this litany of what God does there is a kind of refrain as the psalmist says: “You Lord, are faithful in all your words and loving in all your works.” and later again “you are righteous in all your ways and loving in all your works.” Even if we don’t understand what God is doing with our head knowledge, we know with our heart knowledge that God is faithful to God’s promises and God acts in love. And so we live into that truth. It’s why we baptize babies like Royce. Yes she doesn’t understand what that splash of water was about, and if we’re honest we don’t always fully understand either, but she does understand love and ultimately that’s what is at the root of what happens at the font, God loved the world so much that God sent Jesus, and in his death and resurrection Jesus bridged the gap between God and humanity and God who is faithful in all words claims us as children of God, and God who is loving in all works gave us a sign of that promise so that on the days when we have doubts we have a moment in time to point to and can say I am baptized! I am a child of God! I am loved! And though we only baptize once, the water and the word are just the beginning of the baptismal life, a life where we live into the love and identity that God has given us, which is why we all promised to continue to live in community with Royce and we promised that as she grows to bring her to the table and to teach her the creed and the ten commandments, and the lord’s prayer, and when she can read we’ll place the scriptures in her hands, all the while continuing to surround her with love, as we strive to do with all God’s children. And we pray with Paul that God work through this community to strengthen her inner being with the power of the spirit, that Christ may dwell in her heart as she is rooted and grounded in love, and we pray that she grows into some understanding but most of all that she knows with head and heart the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. That is our prayer for Royce, and for all God’s children, including those of us gathered here, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God and that secure in our beloved identity as children of God we may overflow with praise for the one who is faithful in all words and loving in all works. Amen
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AboutPastor Emily Johnson preaches weekly at Christ Lutheran. These are manuscripts of her sermons given at Christ Lutheran. Feel free to engage with them in the comments section of the blog. Archives
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