Love Mercy - "Gathering & Gospelling" Week 6

John 6:5-14

Because we’ve been in our worship series, we’ve been hearing different texts each week, but in the Revised Common Lectionary, the gospel readings for five weeks from July 25 through next Sunday August 25 are all from Chapter 6 in the Gospel of John. This body of readings is known as the Bread of Life discourse and it begins with the reading we have today.

In his gospel, John doesn’t record miracles. Instead, the events where Jesus does the unexpected are called ‘signs’ because they point to who Jesus is. The description of what happens isn’t as important as what it says about the character of Jesus.

So, as I listened this week again to this familiar text, I tried to remember that it isn’t about a math problem – the multiplication of loaves and fish – and instead asked, “What does the sign point to?”

First, the text connects us back to Israel’s Exodus experience of being in the wilderness and receiving God’s manna. Manna was “like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. (Exodus 16:31 NRS)”. The Israelites complained to Moses while they were in the wilderness and God heard their complaints and provided them with manna that fell down and covered the ground like frost each day and they were instructed to gather only what they needed. There was enough for each person and nothing was wasted.

The second connection, as we hear Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and gave the food to the crowd, is to the meal that we gather for here at the Lord’s Table. That day, Jesus made an offering of bread and fish, but in the Eucharist or Holy Communion, Jesus makes an offering of his very own body and blood to sustain us in our life as disciples and as children of God.

The third connection is one that I hadn’t noticed before. Verse 10 says,

“Jesus said, “Get the people to sit down.” Now the men numbered about five thousand, but there was plenty of grass there for them to find a seat.”

It feels like a throw-away verse. Why does it matter where people sat?

But then, I think about when we gather for a meal in the fellowship hall, and there might be thirty or even fifty of us. The best way I know to get everyone’s attention is to call out, “The Lord be with you!” It seems like in the crowd John describes that every time you’d get one group to sit down, another likely would wander off.

And exactly where can 5,000 people sit with plenty of space? To give you an idea, Keeter Stadium, where the American Legion ball games are happening this weekend, seats 5,200. And anyone who has sat in that stadium when it’s full knows it can’t be described as ‘spacious’ when every seat is filled.

So, we know this was a big crowd and a big space. The men numbered five thousand, and the synoptic gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke- say there were women and children there too. It would have been chaotic and messy, and there was probably some grumbling happening.

But with authority, Jesus and the disciples get everyone seated on the grass.

So do you know where else in Scripture we hear about God and grass or pasture?

It’s in the psalms.

Psalm 23 says,

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures;” (Psalm 23:1-2 NRS);

Psalm 95 says,

“For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”  (Psalm 95:7 NRS); and

Psalm 100 says,

“Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. (Psalm 100:3 NRS)

The shepherd made the people lie down in green pastures and Jesus sat the people down in the carpet of green grass. (The Message)[i]

Jesus is our Shepherd, Lord and King.

In John’s gospel we recognize that the same Shepherd who leads us through valleys of death is the one who leads us to places where we can rest and be fed. 

That same Shepherd provides us with our portion – just what we need – and sustains us for the journey of faith. Following Jesus, we believe that God provides abundantly for us, without any fear of scarcity. We may be tempted like Philip or Andrew, to focus on what we cannot do, how difficult a situation seems or what our limits are, but God reminds us that God is at work in the world, and discipleship isn’t about fixing people or things. It’s about being present and trusting God to be the One who we see all through Scripture. Steadfast and loving. Generous and merciful.

And then we are freed to see what else God is doing and how we can participate, how we can help others feel welcome and know that same blessed assurance of God’s abundant love.

Let us pray…

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for your Son Jesus who restores us to life with you,

and through whom we know your abundant love and mercy.

Help us watch for signs of your presence in the world and ask how we can participate in what you are doing.

Fill us with your Spirit and send us into the world to love and serve.

We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

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[i] Karoline Lewis discussing the Bread of Life discourse on the Pulpit Fiction Podcast

Confession and Authenticity in Baptism - "Gathering and Gospelling" Week 5

Hebrews 4:14-16

Ephesians 4:1-6, 11-13

If you were baptized as an infant or small child, you may not remember the actual event of your baptism. But perhaps you remember your confirmation, the opportunity you were given to affirm the promises made on your behalf by your parents. Others of you grew up in traditions where you were baptized later in childhood or even as adults. And still others may not yet have been baptized.

What we all have in common is that God is at work in our lives.

The author of Hebrews reminds us that we have a God who sees our weaknesses and the ways we are tested, and still invites us to come and ask for the mercy and help that God is so ready to give us.[i]

Martin Luther once wrote”

This life, therefore, is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished by it is actively going on. This is not the goal but the right road. At present everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleaned.

“Everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleaned.”

Paul, imprisoned in Rome, certainly knew what the underbelly of life looked like. In Acts we’re told he “breathed threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” (Acts 9:1 NRS) Once a zealot who violently persecuted followers of Jesus, he converted and became an evangelist to the Gentiles, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ for the sake of the whole world.

When in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul urges Christians to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received” he is recognizing the “already but not yet” quality of a life of discipleship.

We see this again and again in Scripture.

Rahab, a prostitute in the Canaanite city of Jericho, hides the spies who had been sent to the city by Joshua. (Joshua 2) When the king of Jericho demands that she turn the spies over to him, she denies knowing where they are and helps them escape, telling them, “The LORD your God is indeed God in heaven above and on earth below.” (Joshua 2:11 NRS) Rahab is one of only four women listed in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus. (Matthew 1)

David, a shepherd and the youngest of his brothers, defeats Goliath and becomes king of Israel. But he is far from perfect. He rapes Bathsheba and then kills her husband Uriah so that his actions won’t be discovered. He has to flea Jerusalem when his own son Absalom tries to overthrow him. And yet, it’s in the psalms attributed to David that we hear the consoling words of Psalm 86:

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you. (Ps. 86:5 NRS)

Peter, a Galilean fisherman, is the model disciple who never quite does the right thing. He rushes to rebuke Jesus when Jesus tells the disciples about the suffering he will undergo. (Mark 8:32) Later he asks Jesus if they can stay on the mountaintop with Elijah and Moses during the transfiguration. (Mark 9:5) And then, he insists he will not deny Jesus but does so, three times. (Mark 14:54) And yet, Peter is also the one who is called the rock upon whom the Church is built. (Matt. 16:18)

When we remember our baptism, we remember that God creates us and knows all of our imperfections, temptations and brokenness. And in God’s steadfast love, God forgives us again and again, so that our sin does not separate us from God.

In the sacrament of Holy Baptism, the ordinary element of water is joined with God’s command[ii] and the promise that “You are a child of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” [iii]

Baptism is not the goal, but the beginning of a life of faith where we are nourished along the way by God’s love and God’s word.

Right now, because of COVID, we do not have water in our font, but the font is not the only place where we find water to remember our baptism. I encourage you this week to remember your baptism each time you wash your hands, get caught in the rain, or splash in a puddle.  And as you remember your baptism, remember too Luther’s own words that “Everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleaned.”

Let us pray…

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for making us your children.

Help us remember we are yours, remembering our baptism and striving to live a life worthy of you.

Thank you for your forgiveness when we make mistakes or fall short.

By your Spirit strengthen us in times of suffering and temptation and encourage us to take the help and mercy you offer.

We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

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[i] Eugene Peterson, The Message.

[ii] Matthew 28:19 NRS

[iii] Small Catechism, 79.

Commitment - "Gathering and Gospelling" Week 4

Numbers 6:22-26 

Isaiah 6:6-8

Have you ever been in a group where there’s a task to be assigned and no one volunteers? Silently each person is thinking, “Choose somebody else.”

In cartoons, everybody else takes a step back making it look like one person volunteered by stepping forward. Among friends, maybe you touch your finger to your nose, and the last one to catch on takes on the task. Maybe you draw straws. Rarely do we raise our hand and say, “Here I am, send me.

But in today’s text, when God asks aloud, “Who will I send?”, that is exactly how the prophet Isaiah responds.

Isaiah witnessed God’s glory and experienced God’s forgiveness. His sins were blotted out, and now he was ready to be dispatched on God’s behalf, to speak words of judgment and hope to God’s people.

 Often when we respond, “Choose somebody else.” we think we have good reasons:

I don’t have time.
I don’t know enough.
I don’t have experience.
I can’t do as good a job as Jack or Julie.

But when we are focused only on what we already know or already can do, we are making God small, forgetting that God is at work in and through us.

Isaiah wasn’t under any illusions that he was the perfect messenger, or that his words would always be welcomed. But he remained willing.

That is what God asks.

God creates each one of us, gives each of us unique gifts, and expects us to show God’s mercy and love to others. God knows us from the moment our inward parts were knit together in our mothers’ wombs to today, and God knows our sin but forgives us and loves us anyway. In relationship with God, we are asked to respond, “Yes, Lord, Here I am – send me!”

I never know exactly what saying “Yes” to God looks like, and I expect it looks different for each one of us.

Maybe God is placing a burden on you to reach out to neighbors here in our community. To care for children. To comfort the sick. Maybe you are being curious about vocation and listening for how you might serve God in your life. Maybe you are being called to a deeper commitment to prayer. Maybe you have gifts that are going unused or even undiscovered.

Isaiah invites us to listen and be alert for the moments in our lives where God is breaking into our routines. Pay attention to how God may be calling you to do something that challenge you.

Importantly, when we say, “Yes” to God, we are not alone.

First, God is present with us and goes with us. The Aaronic blessing from the Numbers text is one we often hear as our benediction before we are sent from worship into the world. The text provides a pattern for God’s movement, through us and into the world. As the psalmist writes, God keeps us from all evil, and keeps our going out and our coming in. (Ps. 121:7-8). God provides clarity and revelation as God shines God’s face upon us. (Ps. 67) and God graciously extends mercy to us. (Ps 123:2-3)

And, second, the community of faith surrounds us too. As we listen more closely for God’s calling on our lives, let’s be in conversation about what we are hearing from God. Let’s commit to thinking more about how God is moving here at Ascension and in our lives together. Where could God be calling us, beyond Sunday morning worship?

I don’t know what this “Yes” will look like either, but let’s discover where, together, you, and I, can say “Here I am, Lord; send me!”

Let us pray.

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for keeping us near to you that we may know your light and love in our lives;

Thank you for you for not dealing with us according to our sin but with undeserved forgiveness;

Thank you for your abundant love and compassion.

Give us courage to respond to your presence in our lives and say, “Here am I, send me” trusting you will accompany us and equip us.

We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior, your Son Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Holy Spaces - "Gathering & Gospelling" Week 2

Exodus 3:1-6

Our reading today takes place in Midian, which was to the east of the Sinai peninsula, in modern-day Saudi Arabia.

And more particularly, it takes place at Mt. Horeb, a place whose name means “parched place” or “wasteland”.

Moses is there tending his father-in-law’s flock. There’s a strip of land closer to the Red Sea that is fertile but as you move east, it becomes hotter and more arid, and I’d guess that in that mountain pasture you could hear the ground crunch beneath your feet.

What you don’t hear in today’s reading is how Moses wound up at Mt. Horeb.

Moses, a Hebrew, had been raised by Pharaoh's daughter in Egypt but when he had grown up, he saw an Egyptian man abusing another man and he killed the Egyptian. And then he fled Egypt and went to Midian, and there he met and married Zipporah, one of the daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian. (Exodus 2)

So now we’re caught up.

In today’s reading we hear how God speaks to the exiled son-in-law, a murderer, while he is hanging out in a wasteland.

That’s probably not how you heard Moses described in Sunday School, but it’s really important

to understand that Moses didn’t do anything to earn God’s favor or promises; and

to recognize that God knew exactly who God was speaking to, and God chose Moses anyway.

Imagine how Moses felt wandering that mountain pasture. This was his everyday routine; he probably knew every tree or bush in that pasture, every hill and valley. So, of course, at first, he is curious when he sees the flaming bush and the bush is not consumed. But then he hears God speaking to him, and the writer tells us Moses was afraid.

Well, of course he was afraid! He knew the wrongs he had done. And he probably imagined that the fire was going to be his destruction.

But instead, God visibly speaks to Moses, calls the ground on which he is standing holy and goes on, in the verses that follow ours, to tell Moses that he will deliver Israel from slavery into freedom. (Exodus 3:10)

God invites Moses into an in-between time or a liminal space. Moses is in this in-between space of knowing both what happened in the past and that God has said God will be with him in whatever comes next.

Liminal spaces or in-between times often occur in the midst of major transitions or times. Catholic author and teacher Richard Rohr writes, “It is a graced time, but often does not feel “graced” in any way. In such space, we are not certain or in control.”[i] He continues:

The very vulnerability and openness of liminal space allows room for something genuinely new to happen. We are empty and receptive—erased tablets waiting for new words. Liminal space is where we are most teachable, often because we are most humbled.[ii]

I have two powerful memories of God’s presence in in-between times. 

In 2006, I left my nonprofit job in Washington, DC to be the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation’s first director of development, but before I started my new job, I went to Biloxi, Mississippi with a team from my congregation in Winston-Salem. It was a little more than one year after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita had swept through the Gulf Coast. We visited a church that opened a crisis center the day after Katrina hit. That was the first time I encountered shower trailers as a ministry opportunity; the congregation had transformed its sanctuary and kitchen and was providing temporary shelter, laundry, showers and sack lunches to their community. And we spent a lot of the week working at Miz Ola’s house. It had been almost entirely gutted and one day, we bleached the bones of the house to get rid of any mold that was still in it. Another day we rebuilt doorways and prepared studs to hold sheetrock. We met some of her family including her sister and mother, celebrated her mother’s birthday over lunch at a local place and went to a high school football game together. In that liminal space, we knew the destruction that had come to the Gulf Coast but we could see God’s fingerprints everywhere.

Six years later, in 2012, a few weeks after I stopped working in Christ School’s advancement office but before I began my pastoral internship at St. Mark’s in Asheville, I returned to the Gulf Coast. This time, I was there as one of the adult leaders who took our youth from our congregation in Asheville to the Youth Gathering that was held, for the second time, in New Orleans. More than thirty thousand youth and leaders descended on the city’s neighborhoods, replanting wetlands, wielding paint brushes to brighten up school hallways and cleaning the grounds and equipment at children’s playgrounds. We worshiped in the coliseum and toured the city where we heard more stories about the destruction wrought by the storms. In that liminal space, we witnessed the slow pace of rebuilding but we also saw God working through the Gathering to build relationships, deepen our faith, and challenge us to serve our neighbors when we returned home.

In these liminal places, we see God speaking, just as Moses saw God speaking in the burning bush.

Mt. Horeb was a wasteland, but God makes it holy by God’s presence and design. God used Moses to bring freedom to Israel, and the mountain where God found Moses will become Mt. Sinai, where Moses receives the gift of the Torah from God during the exodus journey.

The storm battered Gulf Coast had its share of places that were ruined but God used the people who lived there, who had known destruction and loss, to create new ministries and new relationships.

At the beginning of worship, you were invited to pick up a rock and place a silent prayer into it, as a way of marking this as a holy place and time. You may think it’s easy to know we are in a holy space here in the sanctuary because here we can see the pews and altar and we are surrounded by stained glass windows. But the Exodus text reminds us that God is the One who makes places holy.

This sanctuary, as beautiful as it is, is just a building, unless we enter into the activity God calls us to. Unless we embody God’s promises in the world. So I invite you to recognize the holy ground where we gather and hear God speak, and then listen for what God is inviting you to do next.

Let us pray…

Holy God,

Thank you for choosing us as your children and speaking to us. Thank you for your abundant mercy that you do not give us what we deserve but instead grace us with your mercy and forgiveness. By your Spirit show us the holy places in our world, make us humble and give us courage to share your love with our neighbors.

Amen.

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[i] “Between Two Worlds.” Center for Contemplation and Action. April 26, 2020. https://cac.org/between-two-worlds-2020-04-26/, accessed 7/17/2021.

[ii] ibid

Practicing Communion - "Gathering & Gospelling" Week 1

1 Corinthians 10:16-17

John 6:30-35

One of my favorite stories of experiencing God is one Sara Miles tells. Miles was an atheist living in San Francisco when she wandered into St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church on a Sunday morning. She writes that she’d never heard a Gospel reading or said the Lord’s Prayer, but she found a seat and took in the scene, and when the priest said, “Jesus invites everyone to his table” the whole gathering moved to a table that had some dishes and a pottery goblet on it. She goes on to write that after some standing and singing, someone pressed a piece of fresh, crumbly bread in her hands saying, “the body of Christ” and handed her the goblet of sweet wine saying, “The blood of Christ.” She ends this part of her story saying, “Then something outrageous and terrifying happened. Jesus happened to me.”[i]

Another story is one I witnessed this past Easter morning. We were still worshiping in the parking lot where we had been most every Sunday since October. And as I preached, I saw a man stop on the sidewalk on Marietta Street. He stood and listened, and as the hymn of the day played, I walked over and invited him to come closer and join us. He moved a little closer during the prayers, and when we received communion that morning, I took bread and wine to him where he stood, and he received it. And just like on that morning at St. Gregory’s, Jesus happened.

What we find in “the bread and wine set in God’s Word and bound to it” is the treasure of God’s promised forgiveness of sins for you and for me.[ii]

In his Large Catechism, Martin Luther wrote,

This treasure is opened and placed at everyone’s door, and yes, upon the table, but it also belongs to the sacrament to take it and confidently believe that it is just as the words [“given and shed for you”] tell you.

Addressing the crowd in John’s gospel Jesus says, “the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (6:33)

And they respond eagerly, commanding Jesus, “Lord, give us this bread always.” (6:34)

Hearing their enthusiasm, I remembered that Luther wrote,

If you could see how many daggers, spears and arrows are aimed at you at every moment, you would be glad to come to the sacrament as often as you can.

In the sacrament, Christ “gives himself for us, so that it is impossible for sin, death, hell and Satan to stand before him”, thrusting our weakness and his strength together, where they become one.[iii]

Today’s worship theme is “practicing communion” and while “practicing communion” begins with receiving this treasure from Christ, it doesn’t end there.

When we receive communion, we become one bread and one drink among another, as Paul said to the Corinthians. (1 Corinthians 10)

When you make bread all the grains of wheat are crushed and ground so that each grain becomes the flour of the others, and they’re all mixed together and not one grain of wheat retains its original form. Instead, each loses its body in order to become the one body of bread.

In the same way when you make wine, each grape mixes its juice with the others so that no single grape remains Each loses its form to become one drink. [iv]

Gathered here together as church, our many-ness becomes one-ness, and the result isn’t mealy or bland, sour or sharp. Instead, it is hearty, sweet and joy-filled.

“Practicing communion” nourishes us as we support the life with God we each have in faith.[v]

Faith is never only about Jesus and you. As much as God’s promise is for you, your witness to the faith that sustains you matters to others. Watching how you persevere in hard times. Witnessing the gratitude that you name in joyful times. Hearing your questions when you wrestle with God. Experiencing peace when you pray together.

Seeing how you care for all those whom God loves.

Practicing communion means your presence and participation in this body of Christ matters. Whether you are worshiping online or in the sanctuary, commit to not being a spectator but participating fully in worship, willing to be surprised by God’s work in and around you.

I hope that through our worship together over this six weeks, we will be able to name reasons we gather together and what difference our faith makes in our lives, and how your faith and witness makes a difference in the lives of the people you encounter.

Let us pray…

Good and gracious God,

Thank you for your Son Jesus, the One who brings life to the world.

Thank you for your forgiveness for our sins, and the strength to stand against evil.

Give us courage to practice communion at the Table and in our lives that we would be nourished by you and support one another in all things.

We pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

[i] Sara Miles. Take this bread. 2007. 58.

[ii] Martin Luther. "The Sacrament of the Altar”, Book of Concord. LC 469:21-22.

[iii] Martin Luther. “Of the Holy Sacrament, and of Confession and Absolution”. 1523. 18.

[iv] ibid. 21

[v] Martha Grace Reese. Unbinding the Gospel. 14.