Be Still: Psalm 46 invites us to pray with out words. “Be Still and know that I am God.” The spiritual practice of praying without words enables us to act on behalf of the oppressed & those facing injustice. Silence & stillness in prayer help us to take action in a fearful world without adding to the dear. This summer we’re adding silence and stillness to our prayer practices in an effort to deepen our connection with God and strengthen our compassion for the world.

Childish Gambino’s video, This Is America, is too divinely powerful, dynamic, and graphic to show or to analyze in such a diverse sacred setting in such a brief amount of time together But we will journey through the theme, This is America, by juxtaposing America vs. America: what it is and what it shall be. We will compare the Isaiah text and the Babylonians to a brief history of America while calling on dreamers (pun intended), Christians, humanitarians, lovers, comrades, to be the change we want to see; to be the good news for the oppressed, dehumanized, marginalized, criminalized, etc.

18 Do not remember the former things,

Prayer is a mystery. And prayer has been mis-understood over many years and even today. We hope to help shift the current cultural understanding of prayer either as a transaction with God or a cheap excuse for doing nothing else. Jesus taught his followers how to pray simple, short, sincere prayers that lead to action in our world. Lord, teach us to pray!

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

“When you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production… All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven,

You’re in charge!

In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.”

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Padre nuestro, que estás en el cielo, santificado sea tu Nombre.

God is the original and supreme Cheerful Giver. God gives everything to us without reluctance and never under compulsion. God’s nature is unstoppably generous. Imitation of God’s generosity is the best reflection of our human gratitude.

6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work

One of the 9-year olds from Highlands Church is featured in today’s sermon. Nikia Bain’s curiosity about the story in John chapter 21 is contagious and inspiring. Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?” and their conversation opens up to include each one of us. What is it like to really love Jesus? To feed God’s sheep? To follow Jesus? Together, we’re continuing to build a bigger table as we learn to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.

After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”“Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.”“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.

Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.”“Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said.

A third time he asked [Peter], “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.

“I tell you the truth, when you were young, you were able to do as you liked; you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and others will dress you and take you where you don’t want to go.” Jesus said this to let him know by what kind of death he would glorify God. Then Jesus told [Peter], “Follow me.”

This early “communalism” in Jerusalem was a demonstration of radical hospitality toward foreigners. All those visitors to Jerusalem had this encounter with the risen Christ and the people who lived in Jerusalem opened up their homes for them to stay and eat because they didn’t return to their foreign homes right away. They hung around, as can be see in the next couple chapters of Acts, and wanted to learn everything they could before returning to their foreign homes. The redemptive possibilities of what can happen around our tables is life changing!

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome?”

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Our ritual of Communion is one of invitation into relationship with God. The theory of substitutionary atonement has been so integrated into our understanding of Jesus’ words during his last meal that we sometimes miss what Jesus said the meal is about. What if Jesus’ invitation to eat and drink of him is about experiencing the abundant life that comes from relationship, rather than a weekly reminder that God needed someone to die, in order to forgive us and pursue relationship with us?

Gastfreundschaft – hospitality in German

Gastvrijheid – hospitality in Dutch

As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it (gave thanks for it). He broke it into pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it and eat, for this is my body. (Do this in remembrance of me.) (At the end of the meal), he took a cup of wine, and he gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to each of them, saying, “Each of you drink from it. This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. (I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.)”

Today’s bigger-table story introduces us to a spiritual practice called “Watching God.” We’re learning to look for God every time we take a bite of food at a table with someone. Hospitality and sharing meals together are complex acts of love, where we participate in the work of Christ in our world. Every meal we eat puts us in the company of Jesus. This Breakfast BBQ on the Beach, where Jesus serves a meal of fish and bread is one more reminder about how we can see the face of Christ when we see each other’s faces.

“Two things everybody’s got to do for themselves. They got to go to God and they got to find out about livin’ for themselves.”

So, after these thing sJesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberius; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of [Jesus’] disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to [Peter], “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” [Jesus] said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

Karl Marx said “without bread, you’re dead”. Jesus Christ said John 6: 51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

More than 5,000 people found themselves a long ways from home with no food, only Jesus. Yet they ate so much they had leftovers for weeks. What if God wants us to stop thinking as if there is a scarcity of …everything and that in Christ there is abundance. Is there a shortage of love, of care, of money, of resources in the world? Should we horde or can we share so that “all are satisfied.”

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

I own the cattle on a thousand hills.

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Join us for the July 4th Bigger Table event!

Mark Chapter 14 contains one of ” biggest tables” where Jesus ever sat. In the home of Simon the Leper, Jesus received an extravagant, precious gift from a woman. The others at the table saw as the woman as an unwelcome interruption. But Jesus saw her and he received the gift of love she brought. Jesus knew the risk she had taken. Jesus welcomed the scent of grace she brought to him. And now Jesus invites us to open our hearts so that love can interrupt us as we build bigger tables.

Smells are surer than sounds or sights.

While [Jesus] was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her.

But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

Give liberally and be ungrudging [when you give], for when you give freely, the Lord your God will bless you … Since there will never cease to be some [who are] in need on the earth, I therefore command you, “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”