14 Pentecost Proper 16 Yr B Aug 26 2018

14 Pentecost Proper 16 Yr B Aug 26 2018 Audio

So we come to our last Sunday reading this sixth chapter of John. Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is the living bread. But some of Jesus’ disciples said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”

Do we do that too? Do we ever say, this teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” I do, I think this is difficult, following Jesus is hard, but we can do hard things. So today lets take a look at what Jesus asks of us. Lets take a look at how Jesus empowers us to be followers. Lets take a look at how Jesus fills us with food, nourishment, life, so that we may have new life. Lets take a look at how Jesus abides in us.

And to get there, we need to remember what John asks us to recall. John assumes that we know our bible, and the story of Moses and the Hebrew people wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They did a bit of whining while they were wandering, wouldn’t we all, and they were fed manna. They were sustained in the wilderness, but John is making a point that even that food was not the bread of life, the living bread. The trouble in this text is that people don’t believe Jesus is who he is. The trouble is that people don’t believe Jesus is God in the flesh.

It’s important for us to remember that John’s story is told many years after Jesus lived, suffered, died, resurrected and ascended. John finds it very hard to understand that anyone who has an encounter with the story of Jesus would not believe that Jesus is indeed God in the flesh, the incarnate one. John shows us the truth of who Jesus is by showing us the signs that Jesus did, turning water into wine, healing the woman who bled for years, healing the man who was ill for 38 years, feeding 5000 people, healing the man blind from birth, and raising Lazarus from the dead. So the disciples make the statement we are thinking in our heads. This is hard, not only to wrap our minds around, but to open our hearts, and to follow.

What makes it so hard? We didn’t see it ourselves or hear it ourselves. And it is very apparent in our lives today that nothing and no one can be trusted and that facts are not really facts at all. The trouble in our world is that talk about being faithful rather than successful is all foolishness. You all know this. You all have experienced this. Talk about things not seen makes your sanity suspect. Commitment to gathering in Jesus’ name, prayer and study makes your priorities questionable in some circles. And abiding in Jesus’ real presence in bread and wine, body and blood, is foolish.

So many in leadership positions rely on their own perceived power, and get into a heap of trouble. In all walks of life we see people who have come to believe that they are above or beyond being accountable to the community, to us.

So this good news is hard because it calls us into community, it calls us to accountability, it calls us to lay down our own desire for power. That’s why the Jewish and Roman authorities of Jesus day tried to trip him up, tried to snare him. Their power was being threatened. And it is not so different today.

So in this last story of John’s gospel about the bread of life, the living bread, let’s see what may be going on. Remember the word John uses for the deep relationship Jesus has with us, to abide, or dwell. John is very interested in showing Jesus’ followers what incarnation looks like. Incarnation, God being born in a barn, God coming into this world as one of us, God taking on flesh. Incarnation means God dwells with us, God in our midst, God in the flesh. This relationship between God in the flesh, who is Jesus, and God’s creation, you and me, is cellular, it is so deep and so broad and so wide, it is so intimate, that Jesus’ presence is nourishment, sustenance, life, it is bread for our souls.

John uses this verb, abide, throughout the gospel, and it means the mutual indwelling of God, Jesus, and the disciples. Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his Love.” There is a sense of divine presence and companionship, and friendship.

Could this also be what is so hard? And maybe even scary. That God, who is creator of all that is, seen and unseen, creator of the cosmos, sees fit to walk this journey of life with us. That Jesus is so very present with us. Really present, present when we are so broken we have no hope that the bits and pieces could ever be made whole again. Really present, present when our joy is so intense that we feel it throughout our bodies. Really present even in our worries, and in our mistakes that deep down inside we believe cannot be forgiven. Really present, when we are filled with bread that is body and wine that is blood. Really present, and that presence fills us with fear, fear that is awe.

We have lost the sense of awe. Everything is awesome, but not filled with awe. Jesus, really present in the bread and the wine, the body and the blood, fills us with fear, with awe. How can this be? This is really hard, and somewhat scary. Jesus abides in us, Jesus calls us into relationship, Jesus nourishes us. Because when we are filled with Jesus, filled with bread and wine, body and blood, we are changed, we are transformed, and we are deepened, we are made into who God means for us to be. It is this, abiding presence that empowers us to let go of and to lay down our burdens, our addictions, our worries, and being made into the new creation of God’s dream. And letting go is hard, giving up power, and the illusion of control is hard, but you can do hard things.

God’s dream is to be people who love. Because, if it’s not about love, it’s not about God. We are people who follow Jesus, who each day face the realities of our lives, our joys and our sorrows, our anxieties and our loveliness. Who get out of bed to face ourselves with integrity and honesty, with the heart knowledge that Jesus abides in us. We step out into the world in love. We leave this place filled with the real presence of Jesus. We love because God first loved us.

Risen lord, be know to us in the breaking of the bread. Lord Jesus, abide in us, as we love one another. Amen.

13 Pentecost Proper 15 Yr B Aug 19 2018

So this sermon is in video form. Here it is.

Bread of Life

12 Pentecost Proper 14 Yr B August 12 2018

12 Pentecost Proper 14 Yr B August 2018 Audio

I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. How can this be? Is it really true? Those who surrounded Jesus didn’t think so. Who is this guy they ask? You may ask it also. He’s just Mary and Joseph’s son, how can he say what he says? He’s just an ordinary man, much like us. But he’s also God’s son. And it’s these two things, humanity and divinity, that work together so that we may be made whole. So that we may know the love that heals, the love that wins. It is Jesus’ identity as God’s son, and as bread of life that we see in this series of readings.

Whoever believes has eternal life. John, in chapter three, that whoever believes may have eternal life, and for God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. And John in chapter six, those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.

For John, eternal life and believing are intimately related. Jesus associates his identity as the bread of life with believing. And for the gospel writer John, believing matters, and for John, believing is about relationship. The big picture that John paints is that believing in Jesus as the bread of life is primarily acknowledging the relationship between God and God’s people. A relationship that is so essential, it is like bread is to the body: nourishing, life-giving, sustaining. A relationship that is so intimate, it is like blood pulsing in the veins: pumping, throbbing, vitality. A relationship that is so mysterious, it is like creator, redeemer, spirit, all in one.

John shows us this essential, intimate, mysterious relationship over and over in the gospel. It is like word that becomes flesh. It is like lots of water that becomes lots of wine, fish that becomes enough for all. It is like bread that heals, and vines connected to branches. It is like blind eyes that see, and a friend raised from the dead.

This essential, intimate, mysterious relationship is grace upon grace, abundance that has no limit. It is to abide in Jesus, believe in Jesus. This essential, intimate, mysterious relationship is belief, and it is love. This relationship gives life, eternal life, says John. And according to John, eternal life is now; it is not waiting for life after death. It is new life affected by the resurrection and ascension of God in the flesh. It is life fully lived in the here and now. It is the way we are to live our lives right now.

God in the flesh, the God who does not despise the ordinary and common but rather who seeks out the ordinary and common to show us God’s dream for us, this is the promise that rests behind the bread and the wine made real in body and blood. For as God does not despise water, bread, or wine, such ordinary, common things, so we also know that God does not despise or abandon us, who are similarly such ordinary and common people. And so in the body and blood, we find God’s promise to take hold of us and make us God’s own, to remain with us and to never let us go. And there is another promise God makes to us. It is the promise to use us – to make use of our skills and talents, inadequate or insufficient though they may seem, to continue God’s work of creating, redeeming, and sustaining all that is. And that, also, is an incredible promise.

You see my friends, John’s gospel is not hard to understand, this essential, intimate, mysterious relationship, this grace upon grace, this belief, brings eternal life. And eternal life looks like        love     .

That’s right, it looks like love. Because love is not something that we feel all mushy about, love is who God is and what God does. It is for love that God, who creates all that is seen and unseen, God who creates the cosmos, comes into our world, to walk this path with us, to show us the way, to carry us when we cannot walk it our selves.

And how does God carry us? In love, through you. You are God’s hands and feet, you are God’s love in this world. You and you and you, all of us, this community of faith that comes together to pray, to eat bread and drink wine, to share meals, and tears, heartache and joy, and who is sent out into the world to do what we are called to do.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we hear that call as clearly as we’ve ever heard it. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

This bread of life is Jesus’ body and feeds us. This bread of life is Jesus’ body that is broken for us, so that the bits and pieces of our brokenness may be put back together. Believe it, Jesus says. Live it, Jesus says. And Love. For Love is the recognition of the truth that we are neighbors. The Love we show is the recognition of the truth that as bad as we think we can get, God’s grace upon grace is capable of embracing us anyway.

God’s promise of forgiveness and acceptance, of wholeness and of life, is given to each of us in a form we not only can hear, but also see, taste, touch, and feel. And so the bread and the wine, the body and the blood, bid us to raise our eyes from the confusion and ambiguity of life for a moment, so that we may receive God’s grace upon grace, God’s abundance, and return to our lives in this confusing world with courage and hope.

But don’t wait, don’t wait until the time is right, or until you have more or know more, eternal life is now. Don’t wait, until tomorrow or the next day, loving your neighbor is now. Don’t wait, until the world is a better place, make it so today.

I heard a story at bible study this week. One of us Trinitarians was out for a walk in her neighborhood. As she was passing by a family sitting outside in the beautiful pergola they had just built, she stopped to tell them how beautiful it was. This family was clearly dressed in a fashion that indicated they were Muslim, and yet, conversation ensued. She learned that these family members were preparing themselves for their pilgrimage to Mecca, a huge undertaking in and of itself, made more so because the elderly father was going as well. These neighbors prayed together, for safety in the journey, and in thanksgiving for being neighbors.  

This is the bread of life, broken for you. Thanks be to God.

10 Pentecost Proper 12 Yr B July 29 2018

10 Pentecost Proper 12 Yr B July 29 2018 Audio

Because you all are quick, you’ll realize right away that we jumped from reading the gospel of Mark to the gospel of John. Be forewarned, we’ll jump back into Mark in a few weeks. But for the next few weeks, we will be considering the entire sixth chapter of John. It feels a bit to me like starting the yeast today, and waiting for the next five weeks as the yeast does its work. As the bread rises, gets punched down and rises again. These are the bread stories, the feeding stories, these are the stories of sacrament and sacrifice.

The stories before us today are stories of abundance. Not the abundance of the prosperity gospel. It’s important for us to understand this difference. There are preachers who claim if you give your money to God, God will bless you with more money. If you invest your money with God, you could have a hundredfold return on your investment. This prosperity gospel is rooted in success, not Scripture. Mother Teresa has said “God does not require that we be successful, only that we be faithful.”

Believers in prosperity like winners. Thus, natural disasters like hurricanes and catastrophic floods do not provide the winning narratives crucial to keep adherents chained to prosperity gospel thinking. The likely conclusion then to a prosperity gospel is that the unlucky are responsible for their own misfortune. This prosperity gospel informs many who are in power today, both as televangelists and politicians.

Very different from a prosperity gospel are these stories about how life is abundant when it is grounded in relationship with Jesus. Jesus is the source of abundance.

So let’s consider our abundance. We eat really well, don't we? Every time we get together we have a feast, right here in this space, as well as over at Ortymeyer. One of the most important ways we take care of the family of a loved one who has died is with the hospitality of a meal. And Paula leads us in providing an ample breakfast for the men of GIFTS. We have church potlucks and family potlucks, and sometimes those are one and the same. I believe gathering around a table and sharing a meal is one way, and a really important way, we respect the dignity of every human being. We don't have to agree on anything when we eat together. We honor God's image in one another as we share a meal. Everyone has something to eat, and that is enough. 

The feeding story is about that. Everyone has something to eat, and that is enough. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down with the disciples. They all sat there in the city park, about five thousand in all. The little boy had five loaves and two fish. What a surprise. Jesus took the five loaves of bread, the two fish, gave thanks for all of it, and Jesus distributed them to everyone. They ate as much as they wanted, and when they were satisfied, the disciples gathered up the fragments, and they filled twelve baskets.

In this gospel, and this is different from the same story in the other gospels where the disciples distribute the bread and the fish, Jesus feeds those who are sitting in the park. Imagine yourself, sitting in that park, on the grass, with your family by you, anticipating what this teacher may have to say today, what may inspire you. As you are sitting there listening, and watching all that is going on around you, Jesus brings you some bread, and a piece of fish. You are close enough to see Jesus, to look into those eyes, to see care and compassion. You, and your family eat your fill, and there is enough left to fill twelve baskets.

It seems to me that this feeding story in the gospel of John is a precursor to the feeding stories of our own families and church potlucks and meals. They are stories of abundance. When was the last time anyone went away hungry from your family potluck? When was the last time anyone went away hungry from a Trinity potluck? Even when it seems like there may not be enough, somewhere, somehow, there is enough, and usually more than enough.

Sometimes we want to complicate the gospel of John. Sometimes we want to say it’s all metaphor and symbol and therefore hard to understand. But I don’t think that is the case. I think it is exactly what it is. Jesus is the bread of life. Bread is an essential component of daily life in the ancient world, and Jesus is bread. Bread is a necessity for sustenance as a human being, and Jesus is bread. This is who Jesus is, this is who we recognize Jesus to be. Jesus is completely present with us, and Jesus was completely present to the boy who had the loaves and fishes, and the families Jesus feeds with the loaves and fishes.

So then, this is an invitation into a relationship with Jesus. Jesus invites us into this relationship through these feeding stories. Jesus invites us into this relationship each time we come to this table to eat and drink, bread and wine, body and blood. It’s our Episcopal altar call. Jesus invites us into this relationship each time we experience the boy with the loaves and fishes, the woman who asks for our prayers of thanksgiving or healing, the man who needs us to pray for his son, the children whose life is in chaos.

This is an invitation into a relationship with Jesus. And we recognize Jesus in our neighbors who don’t look like us, or think like us, or love like us, or speak like us, or pray like us, or vote like us. We recognize Jesus in our neighbors. Because God’s abundance is available to all.

And it cannot be accidental that the feeding of the five thousand is followed immediately by the story of Jesus walking on the sea. Jesus said to them, and says to us, “it is I; do not be afraid.” When it feels like we are losing more than we are gaining, when it seems like there is not enough, remember, in the breaking and the sharing of the bread, there is always enough, “it is I; do not be afraid.”

These stories from John not only describe the way God’s abundance was present then and is now; it also points us to the feast that is to come. This massive picnic in the wilderness is manna from heaven, the bread of angels. Our participation in the feeding of many today, our participation in God’s divine plenty and generosity today, does affect the Kingdom that will come. The story continues to show us that Jesus is the bread of life. Feeding people, their minds, their bodies and their spirits is what you are about here at Trinity. No one goes hungry, everyone is invited to the feast.

9 Pentecost Yr B Proper 11 July 22 2018

9 Pentecost Yr B Proper 11 July 22 2018 Audio

Jesus said, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” And so they went.

I had the great gift of sabbatical a few years ago. I took three months away from the congregation and did some traveling. The first couple of weeks Rick and I, and Tom and Amanda, who were newly married, and Willie, who was newly graduated from college, went to Norway. We saw family, we saw spectacular fjords and mountains, and we stayed in some mighty fine places. The kids flew home, and Rick and I were in London, and then we traveled through Europe ending in Paris. We were with a group of people who turned into friends, and we saw beautiful sights, ancient ruins, and ate really well. Rick flew home from Paris, and I had a month, by myself. The first two months were highly planned, and rightly so when you want to make sure you do and see some very particular things. But I purposefully did not plan out my month by myself. I went where the Spirit led. So the deserted place for me was the Scottish Island called Iona. Iona is a thin place, it is a place where the land and the sky meet. It is a place where prayer has been placed throughout time. It is a place where sacred and secular dance. And it is a place where there are not many people, mostly sheep.

Have you been to a deserted place? It doesn’t have to be far away. In fact, I believe we are called to deserted places that are not far from home. Sometimes it is in the deserted place, the quiet place, where we may listen and know we are God’ beloved.

As you well know by now, Mark doesn’t waste any time getting down to business about Jesus, the Son of God, those are his very first words. Jesus is then baptized by John in the Jordan, and we hear “You are my beloved Son, I am well pleased.” And in an instant, Jesus is in the wilderness. I believe that event, and this excursion to the deserted place, are related. Between these two desert place stories, Jesus calls the disciples and sets about healing and teaching. Jesus calls out unclean spirits, Jesus heals a paralytic, a woman who was bleeding, a man with a withered hand, and a little girl. Jesus teaches about the kingdom of God. Jesus feeds five thousand with five fish and two loaves of bread, and Jesus walks on water. The disciples are in all of this with Jesus, and they need to rest.  

We don’t hear the feeding story, with five fish and two loaves of bread, nor do we hear the walking on water story this morning, but we know they are there. After the feeding story, Jesus goes off by himself to pray. And when evening came, Jesus saw that the disciples were in trouble on the water, and goes out to help them. The disciples thought Jesus was a ghost and they were terrified. That’s also what is left out of what we hear this morning, and we pick it up again when they all get to the other side of the lake. At this point people recognized Jesus, and wanted to touch Jesus, or at least the fringe of the cloak, and be healed. Remember the woman who was bleeding, she reached out her hand to touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak and was healed.

This is a good news, bad news story. People were recognizing Jesus, they knew what Jesus could do, and what Jesus could do for them. The trouble it seems is that Jesus was beginning to feel closed in, torn apart, mobbed. Expectations of Jesus were rising, this man could heal, and so many needed to be healed. The disciples were beginning to feel afraid of what might happen. Just like at the very beginning, Jesus goes to a deserted place, a lonely place, but this time, Jesus invites the disciples to come.

I wonder if you’ve ever experienced what Jesus and the disciples might have been experiencing? Sometimes I feel like we live in a cacophony of noise, motion, input. With the world at our fingertips, we are bombarded with news and information from all over the world. It’s not all a bad thing, we create a community of prayer when we see the images of the young boys stuck in a cave and rescued from that danger. Or when we witness an explosion in Sun Prairie, and we can join in the prayers for all those people. Or when we see homes destroyed by tornadoes and storms and our prayers go to them. All of this information gives us opportunities to contribute our money when we are so moved.

But we also hear and see news and information that engenders fear and anxiety. The Mayhem guy has us convinced that at every occasion we need to be fearful of what will go wrong. Drug companies have us convinced that we’ll die if we don’t take their drugs, forgetting about the fact that we’ll die anyway. And your nightly news always leads with the disease, or the product, or the event that we must be scared of today.

But this Good News from Mark tells us a very different story. Jesus said, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” And so they went. Jesus makes this very same invitation to us. Come away to a deserted place. And yet, the deserted places are often the places we avoid and yet know somewhere deep down they are necessary places, truthful places. They are not just “time to get away” places. They are not just “we all need a break” places. They force us to recognize what’s necessary. What’s absolutely needed. And who will truly be there when everyone else walks away. And none of this is what we see and hear on our televisions and in our news today.

When I was away, on my own in Canterbury, Durham, Edinburgh, Iona, I listened. I found quiet places, sometimes deserted places, thin places, in the catacombs and the cathedrals, in the countryside and the seaside. And what spoke most loudly to me in the quiet, was this, “In the end only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”

And so Jesus takes the disciples to a deserted place not just for a well-deserved respite, but to teach them what was learned in the wilderness -- and what will be essential for them to remember when it comes to their role in bringing about the Kingdom of God. Deserted places change our perspective. In the quiet places we have a chance to meet Jesus again. In the quiet places we have a chance to hear Jesus’ claim on our lives and our hearts. We are followers of Jesus. We are invited into the quiet places with Jesus so that we may hear Jesus’ call to us. Jesus says to us, you are my beloved, you are my beloved, and together we may build this Kingdom of God. Amen.