Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

Grace to you and Peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pastor Ellen sent me a sermon that she used a few years ago when we had the Gospel lesson we are using today.  She told me to “make it my own”, so here goes.

I suspect that most of you are familiar with Pig-Pen, a major character in the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles Schulz.  Constantly followed by a cloud of dirt, Pig-Pen was simply a dust magnet.  In fact, Charles Schulz once called Pig-Pen a “human soil bank.”   Our son Nate, whom some of you know from the years when he, Laura and the 3 kids attended Faith, was the opposite of Pig-Pen.  He didn't enjoy the fun of swilling in the dirt when he and his brother Ben were young.  In fact, he’d constantly try to keep clean, often licking his hands (demonstrate) to clean away any dirt on him.  It drove us crazy.  Finally, Connie found the cure.  She made a mud pit in the backyard in Lima one mild day in late February when he was 5 ½. She announced that “we’re going to play in the mud.”  (show the two slides) That took care of the keeping clean problem.  

Pig-Pen and my son came to mind as I studied today’s gospel lesson.  The gospel writer tells of this argument between Jesus and the Pharisees, an argument about washing hands before eating.  And, quite frankly, I think I probably would have sided with the Pharisees.  You see, I wanted my kids to have clean hands when they came to the table for dinner.  And now, the same thing for the grandkids.  I want to have clean hands when I eat dinner.   If I am eating out, or in today’s Covid situation, picking up food to take home, I want the people who are making my food and serving me to have clean hands.  In fact, with Covid still a problem and the flu season just around the corner, many of us often use hand sanitizers and wash our hands to keep from passing germs as we try to prevent the spread of disease.  Having clean hands is just good hygiene.

Today’s gospel reading tells us the Pharisees confronted Jesus, asking why his disciples ate with defiled, dirty hands.  Now, truthfully, the hand washing ritual, part of a purity code system, probably had some roots in maintaining cleanliness and probably did exist for some good reasons.  However, for the Pharisees, it had become a required religious ritual, one that was much more important than the inner attitude of the heart.  Having reduced religion to “doing the right thing” and carefully following established rules, these ritual specialists seemed to find strict enforcement of purity codes more important than having one’s heart in the right place.  With their arduous adherence to purity codes, they created sharp social boundaries which, in turn, became a means of excluding people they considered dirty and contaminated.  While the Pharisees washed and maintained clean hands, they simply did not have clean hearts.  They suffered from a form of heart disease where they had lost touch with the very heart of God.

So, Jesus begins addressing the nature of people’s hearts – the Pharisees, the disciples and ours.  Jesus knows that, for the Pharisees, observance of ritual, tradition and, quite frankly, the way they had always done things, had become more important than compassion and love.  Jesus responds by quoting the prophet Isaiah.  Listen to the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases Jesus’ response in The Message.

Jesus answered, “Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the 

bull’s-eye in fact:

‘These people make a big show of saying the right thing, 

but their heart isn’t in it.  

They act like they are worshiping me, 

but they don’t mean it.  

They just use me as a cover

For teaching whatever suits their fancy,

Ditching God’s command

And taking up the latest fads.’”

Now, I have to say that rituals are important in our lives and in the life of the faith community.   And, Jesus is not telling anyone to do away with ritual and tradition.  I make the bed every day, I try to use our elliptical machine regularly, I vacuum the floors when needed.  Connie says that’s not her thing, by the way.  However, there needs to be a balance in regard to ritual and a life of faith.  Yet, sometimes I do wonder if we also suffer from the same form of heart disease.  Do we suffer from this kind of heart disease when our rituals become antiseptic and hollow, when they are not vehicles of the love and grace of God?  Do we suffer from this kind of heart disease when we create social boundaries within our culture and divorce ourselves from the outcasts of society, from issues of the poor, the homeless and the forgotten?  The “Others?”

Theologian, Daniel Clendenin, in his weekly blog asks this question:

“….What “outcasts” do I sanctimoniously spurn as impure, unclean, dirty, contaminated, and, in my mind, far from God? The mentally ill, people who have married four or five times, wealthy executives, welfare recipients, people who hold conservative political opinions, people who hold liberal political opinions….. How have I distorted the self-sacrificing, egalitarian love of God into self-serving, exclusionary elitism? What boundaries do I wrongly build or might I bravely shatter?” 

Following Jesus’ response to the Pharisees, he does something quite interesting.  He intentionally begins addressing the disciples, and that includes you and me.  Jesus begins to take us to a much deeper place by teaching even more about the human heart which, by the way, in the Bible is a metaphor for one’s whole being, for the total person.  He begins to explain his teaching about the human heart and the problem of evil.  Again, to quote Eugene Peterson’s translation in The Message, Jesus says, “It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life.”  Jesus describes this heart disease as something that comes from within.  He is talking about the stuff that originates in the human heart.  Jesus says it is not what we touch and what goes into us that makes us unclean.  Instead, it is what is deep in our hearts and then comes out of our mouths through the harmful and hurtful things we say, and through the harmful actions we take - this is what is unclean.  This is the stuff that pollutes, the stuff that ruins relationships and destroys community.  

Jesus’ life, death and resurrection were all about addressing the human heart, the totality of our beings.  And, the gospel good news is that Jesus turns the purity code system upside down and inside out when he teaches about a radically new social vision.  Instead of hearts that pollute, Jesus announces that, through him, our hearts are transformed.  Through Jesus’ life, ministry and death, he introduces a radical alternative to community.  He proclaimed his vision of a new community where the heart is the source of compassion - compassion for all – even those we don’t like and those we might consider dirty and unclean.  Through this vision of a new community, there is not a focus on external compliance to purity codes.  No, the focus is on an internal compassion for all.  And, Jesus calls us to live into this vision of community – one that is not shaped by rules of purity, but by the gift of compassion.  (Marcus Borg)

In conclusion, as I think about the world today, I have to wonder if we who make up the body of Christ, have too often been shaped by the rules and ideas of purity.  Isn’t it interesting that, in the person of Jesus, God intentionally enters into the depth of our darkness and the dirt of our lives, to love us as we are and to change us from within by changing our hearts?  Just maybe, as we love others and welcome them into community, we need to be less focused on cleanliness and be a bit more willing to get our hands dirty.  

This is a special musical presentation of Bread of the World sung by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir.

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

August 22, 2021

Faith, Okemos

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18, Psalm 34:15-22, Ephesians 6:10-20, John 6:56-69

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those whose spirits are crushed.

                                                                                                            Psalm 34:18

Who of us who has seen this week the pictures of those on the tarmac, some even clinging to a departing plane at the airport in Kabul, who of us has not felt the great anguish of those desperate to flee their Afghan homeland?  Who of us who witnessed the tears of the Haitian people following the devastating earthquake compounded by torrents of rain from tropical storm Grace, who of us has not wondered how it could be any worse for a country still scarred by the earthquake of 2010 in which thousands died and by the recent assassination of its president?  And who of us who week after week see the grieving faces of those whose homes and even whole towns have been reduced to ashes and naked chimneys and blackened remnants of cars and trucks from the still raging fires in California and the Pacific Northwest, who of us cannot but wonder if our whole world is edging toward irreparable brokenness and unyielding darkness?

But all this week as I read and re-read the scriptures for today, the words of the psalmist refused to be extinguished:

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those whose spirits are crushed.

We pray this morning for the Afghan people, especially for the women and children, especially for all who supported the Allied forces over these past 20 years, We pray that they will know that God, whom most in Afghanistan name Allah, whom we as Christians know most intimately in Jesus, is near them is their great desperation.  We pray this morning for the people of Haiti, clearly overwhelmed and fragile and afraid, that they, even now, will know our suffering God is fully immersed in all the tragic chaos of our fallen world, that God in Christ is near them. And we pray for individuals and families in or near towns like Grizzly Flats, California that they will know that the Lord’s own tears are mingled with their tears.

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those whose spirits are crushed.

And then I read and re-read these opening words in the text from the letter to the Ephesians: 

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.  Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

I thought not only about the plight of the most vulnerable in Afghanistan and Haiti and California, but also about us….because the devastation and darkness in all those places is highly transmissible, not unlike the delta variant of Covid-19.  Even if we are not directly in the path of brutal soldiers or in the midst of flooded or crushed or burned homes and cities, on our own the immune systems of our souls cannot withstand “the cosmic powers of this present darkness.”

I think now about the questions asked of us or of our parents and sponsors when we were baptized:

Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God?

Do you renounce the powers of this world that rebel against God?

Do you renounce the ways of sin that draw you from God?  

To which we or our parents and godparents/sponsors answered:  I renounce them.

This renunciation is the first step we would wisely take each day to keep at bay the corrosive, infectious power of the devil, the power of death and darkness, the power of despair.  It is the first step we would wisely take each morning, akin to taking a tablet of vitamin C or a zinc pill, to strengthen our immunity to the wiles of the devil, to what this scripture calls “the spiritual forces of evil…” We would ask ourselves each morning:  Do you renounce the devil and all the forces that defy God?  And we would answer:  I renounce them.

But then early in the day we’re also implored to take a second step, to get dressed.  In this letter, attributed to Paul to the church in Ephesus, are these words:

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

What follows are metaphorically what we are to wear:  the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness (i.e. mustering the heart and will to both boldly and gently do what is loving and just); to put on shoes enabling us to go to our neighbors with the gospel of peace (of healing and reconciliation); to take up the shield of faith “to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”  And lastly we are to put on the helmet of salvation (the mental awareness that in this moment, in this day, God in Christ is reaching out to save me and the whole world), and finally, take into our souls the sword of the Spirit with words from God like “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power,” words that can cut through the paralyzing fears which would cause us to quickly stumble and fall.

As it was in the time of the early church when these words about the armor of God were first written, when until the year 313 it was illegal to be a Christian in the Roman empire, so today, though it may or may not be illegal for us to give our ultimate allegiance to Christ, it is still a serious struggle, a battle we can’t fight alone to speak truth in the face of so much misinformation.  It is still a struggle to patiently and lovingly persevere in actively giving of ourselves and our resources to our neighbors both here in mid-Michigan and wherever in the world our neighbors suffer and prematurely die.  No less than for the early church, we must struggle mightily and bravely today to be Christians, to authentically live the gospel of sacrifice and suffering for others, to stand up for them, to die to our self-centeredness and then to rise up by the power of the Spirit.  Wearing the armor of God, we rise up each day with Jesus at our side, giving ourselves once more for all who are suffering and dying.

Here is the gospel: we have this armor, perfectly fitted for each of us, perfectly fitted for congregations like Faith.  We have this armor of God, from God, to do battle against the wiles of the devil, against the spiritual forces of evil.  

And we have the gift of prayer: 

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.  Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel…

With this gift of prayer we think about and pray in the Spirit of Christ this morning for President Biden presently under considerable fire for not foreseeing and planning for an earlier exodus from Afghanistan for those especially endangered by the sweeping takeover of the Taliban.  We pray that each day he may be given wisdom and courage.  We pray that he would put on the whole armor of God.

We pray in the Spirit this morning for the staff of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, for the leaders and volunteers of Lutheran Disaster Response, for Samaritas, and for all others who are called to the hard, complicated, arduous work that lies ahead in bringing comfort and hope to those who are brokenhearted, whose spirits have been crushed.

In the guiding, powerful, comforting Spirit of God ever stirring within us, let us also pray for ourselves that we too might be bold in living and sharing the mystery of the gospel.  With grateful hearts for this gospel, for this good news that Jesus through his suffering and dying and rising truly equips us with exactly the armor we need to engage in daily battle against the wiles of the devil, against the forces of evil, against “this present darkness,” may we know and trust in our hearts and minds that our Lord is near to us and to all who are brokenhearted.  May we know and trust that our Lord wills to save all whose spirits are crushed.    

Amen.                                                            

This is a special musical presentation of They Shall Soar Like Eagles sung by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir.

When my kids were young and I was home with them

there was a period of time when I baked all of our bread

Yeast bread is not difficult to make

It requires just a few staple ingredients

But it does take time

It is a process that requires revisiting the dough many times

It is a process that cannot be rushed

It is a process that is dependent upon the temperature of the room

It is a process that is physical

When beginning yeast bread, the yeast must be activated

Yeast is an incredible thing

If the water is too hot you can kill it,

too cold it will remain dormant

Once the flour and other ingredients are added, the dough must be kneaded

This was always one of my favorite parts of bread making

Really using the muscles in my hands, arms, and shoulders

Massaging the ingredients together into a satiny, firm, dough

Kneading requires strength and purpose

Integrating all of the parts into the dough

Then the dough must rise in a warm place, around 100 degrees Fahrenheit

It has to sit, rest, and grow in this place

Then, for most recipes, you punch the dough down . . .

All of that rising and growth,

Was gone in an instant with a few pounds of my fist

But the yeast is incredible

It raises the dough once again, growing and rising

When the dough is finally ready to bake, there is no smell quite like fresh baked bread

The warm, grainy smell filled my nostrils, bringing me warmth, fullness and satisfaction

Jesus continues his discourse on the bread of life in the Gospel of John this week

We are quite familiar with this use of words

Words like “eat my flesh” and “drink my blood” are common in Christian communities as we regularly celebrate the Lord’s Supper

But to these people, these words were disturbing

The Jewish people abided by strict dietary codes

These words from Jesus would sound abhorrent

Yet we know that Jesus doesn’t often speak literally

He most often speaks in parable and metaphor

So while we hear clear connections to the Lord’s Supper in Jesus’ words today, this Gospel is really a bit more complicated than that

The Greek word that is translated as “eat” can also be interpreted as “chew on”

We often use a similar idiom, “chew on this”

to mean not literally to eat something

but to process it thoughtfully

Interpreting Jesus’ words in this way we hear:

Unless you chew on who I am and how I live

You have no true life within you

Those who really chew on my teaching will have a meaningful life

I will uplift them

I am true

Those who chew on my ways allow me to dwell deep within them

And they dwell deep within me

This indwelling is not only with me and them, but also with God

Because God sent me

So chew on this

And find meaningful life

The people Jesus spoke to were familiar with the process of making bread

Bread is an ordinary thing that they could relate to

Making bread isn’t difficult

But it is a process that requires time

A process that calls you back again and again

A process that invites you to be aware of what’s happening around you

A process that involves your whole self

Chew on this

Dwelling in God and accepting God’s indwelling in us is a process

Like yeast that causes the bread to grow and rise

Indwelling requires warmth and nurture

Indwelling requires rest and patience

Chew on this

Sometimes we get punched down

Deflated

Yet God’s indwelling within us causes us to rise once again

And what about drinking Jesus’ blood?

He instructs the people to drink his blood 4 times within these 7 verses

Bloodlines were a significant and critical life force in ancient times

Bloodlines ensured survival and success

This ideology of ancestry and heritage persists today

Throughout the bible, we hear stories of stress and division over bloodlines

Abraham and Sarah fretted over their inability to produce an heir

Jacob tricked his father, Isaac into blessing him with the family inheritance over his older brother Esau

Newly widowed, Ruth went to great lengths to secure a future for herself and her mother-in-law

Continuing one’s bloodline through heirs was essential to survival

And here Jesus is challenging this ancient foundation of family and society

He declares that his blood is available to all people

His blood brings meaningful life to everyone

This Holy blood runs through the veins of all humankind

Stress and division over bloodline end when we are all one in Jesus’ blood

Everyone is welcome, cared for, and included when we accept unity in Christ

This redefinition of family in Jesus’ blood has special meaning to me

It strips away what I have learned from culture, society –

• And even from my own blood-relatives -

About who is family to me

This Holy blood has broken open my heart

And persists in flowing throughout my entire being

In a way that leaves me no doubt of the interconnectedness we share with others

In a way that gives me no choice

But to be broken open and shared

By Jesus’ holy definition of family

All together, through flesh and blood,

Jesus is inviting us to embody God,

By living like Jesus

To allow God to fill our flesh and course through our veins

To be united through God

Made whole,

And to receive unimaginable experiences in life and love

We’re given a lot to chew on in today’s Gospel reading

Jesus is challenging and inviting us to grow and change

Jesus is reminding us that Christ abides within us –

and within all others

Jesus knows that living this way is a process, it takes time

It’s difficult to overcome rigid thinking and barriers

that have been perpetuated in society for thousands of years

So, as you go about your week

Chew on this

What process of change is God raising within you?

Feel the pulse of Holy blood coursing through your veins

Embody Jesus the Christ in your everyday life

God is calling you

Rise up

Rise up and follow Jesus

Rise up and unite in God’s Holy blood

Rise up and live fully into this gift

Amen

Sometimes Jesus is so annoying

We are in the midst of the Gospel of John’s discourse on the Bread of Life

It began a couple of weeks ago when Pastor Ellen read about the miracle of the loaves and fish feeding 5,000 people

Everyone is in awe of witnessing this incredible miracle

Jesus has them in a really good place

He captured their attention in a big way

They suspect something incredible is going on

They seek him out, track him down, and really are curious

They engage him, wanting to understand what’s going on

And then he blows it

He rambles on and on for three weeks in the lectionary about being living bread from heaven

I’m with the Jews on this one

They are feeling confused, frustrated, and they begin to complain

“Hey, we know you – we know your mom, we know your dad – what do you mean ‘You came down from heaven’?!”

And then Jesus doubles down on being annoying

First, by telling them not to complain

And then by talking way over their heads about learning from the Father, coming to Jesus, hearing from the Father through Jesus…

Their one assurance,

Very truly

Is that Jesus is the bread of life.

I think that the reading from Ephesians offers us more information that seems actually helpful

We are given instructions that we can apply… like

Speak the truth

Don’t make room for evil

Lift one another up

Be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving

Why didn’t Jesus “very truly” speak more directly like this?

I wonder about the message he’s sending us through this twisted discourse

I see the closest connection between Ephesians and John when I read in Ephesians:

“We are members of one another” and

Give yourself to one another like Christ is given to us

I think Jesus is being annoying on purpose

Because there are no easy answers to the incarnation of Christ in the world

There are no universal solutions to living into God’s presence within YOU

There are no easy answers for the disciples or the Jews –

Or for us –

When we’re asking about who God is and how God works and where God is found

Even after the obvious presence of a miracle of God through the feeding of 5,000

God can’t be pinned down

God is on the move, flowing in and out of everyone, everywhere, always

If we allow God

This whole chapter causes me to think about the Lord’s Supper

I think sometimes we hear the words and do the thing so often that it’s hard to grasp its significance

Every week, and again in just a few minutes we will hear the words:

Our Lord Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:  Take and eat; this is my body, given for you.  Do this for the remembrance of me.

The way Jesus talks around things I doubt “do this” is literally get the bread and share it

I wonder if Jesus is inviting us, our very selves

To be taken

Broken open

And given

In remembrance of him

We are taken into Christ through baptism

We are broken open in so many ways

We are given to one another in community

I want to be specific about how I think about being broken open

This isn’t a breaking down of oneself

This isn’t admitting to sinfulness and therefore brokenness

God doesn’t call us to be broken down by the world

No

God invites us to be broken open to the world

God calls us to recognize Godself within our soul

And crack through the layers of ego that have buried Godself so deep inside of us

And break open our true self

Revealing the incarnation of God in US

This sounds beautiful and lovely in theory

But there are no turn by turn directions for being broken and shared

And Jesus doesn’t try to give us directions

He gives us a promise

Because cracking through our outer protective layer to reveal our true self is scary

Being broken and shared feels incredibly vulnerable and can be emotionally painful!

I don’t want to do it! 

Jesus promises that if we go for it

Then we will truly live

If we let go

God will be with us so obviously

Life will be more incredible than we imagine!

Sometimes Jesus is so annoying

Especially when everything within my being resists what he’s trying to tell me

Especially when I’m trying to be tough

And smart

And look like I’ve got myself together

I don’t want to be baptized into being broken and shared!

I’d rather be baptized into comfort and wholeness

And this is the miracle God does within us

Like the feeding of the 5,000

When we allow ourselves to be broken open

And shared with one another

God makes us whole

God makes us whole

And them whole

And wholeness is God’s miracle

Sometimes Jesus is so annoying

We’ll get another week of his unclear “very truly” explanations

God is asking us to really sit with this one

Like maybe it’s really important

Like maybe it’s getting to the core of being Christian

It’s so important we’ll spend half of the summer wrestling with it

Jesus doesn’t offer a clear answer for us

I sure don’t have an answer for us

So I pray, 

may Jesus the Christ,

allow us to sense the unique gifts God has placed within each one of us. 

May that sensing be a sign,

may our wondering be a guide,

may Jesus’ promise be an inspiration,

and may we have the audacity and courage to allow ourselves to be vulnerable.

Within that vulnerability may we be broken open,

so that all of our insecurities,

and doubts

held up by our egos,

fall away to reveal God’s incarnation inside us. 

May we be bold

in our belief in abundance

to give ourselves to one another in community,

and may we celebrate the wholeness

that this broken and shared living brings. 

Amen

I find it interesting the way words change meaning and morph over time.  For example, at one time when we used the word text to tell of our Sunday morning gospel, we could count on the fact that people would interpret it as a passage from one of the gospels.  However, the meaning of the word text has changed remarkably with the invention of iPhones and droids and the myriad of communication devices we now have available for our use.  In fact, the word text has morphed from a noun to a verb as we talk about texting our friends and family members. 

Another word that has morphed in meaning over decades is the word consumption.   For most of us, consumption refers to consuming food and “stuff.”  This word comes from Latin and means “using up” or “wasting.”  In fact, at one point in time it became a word used to describe the horrible disease known as tuberculosis, a disease that had no cure, devoured the body and was usually fatal.  However, over the past century, the word consumption has morphed and is now a universal term that describes what we purchase and our patterns of purchasing. 

I thought about this morphing of the word consumption as I studied today’s gospel passage.  Jesus had just miraculously fed a crowd of thousands.  Last week we heard that Jesus had blessed a scarce commodity of five loaves and two fish and then, miraculously, there was an abundance of food.   In fact, after the people had consumed as much as their bellies could hold, they were amazed to find food leftover.  And, that experience made them even more curious and inquisitive about this Jesus. 

So, with today’s gospel passage, things start to get more interesting.  When the crowd meets Jesus the next day, they want to understand what happened.  In response, Jesus does not answer their questions, but makes a statement that questions their motives for seeking him.  He is looking at their deeper needs, not just the need to consume food.   Perplexed by what has happened, the people simply do not get it.  I can almost hear them saying in amazement, “Do it again Jesus, do it again!”   Yet, Jesus provides different answers and they become more puzzled.  The crowd comes asking about sustenance - about bread - and Jesus answers them with words not about bread that fills their bellies, but words that indicate he is talking about something much more than physical sustenance.  In him, there is richness and food that endures and does not get used up!

As I studied this reading, I found myself asking if we can really relate to this story because, for most of us, the reality is that we are not going hungry.  Or are we?  Is it our hunger, a hunger deep within us that lies behind our insatiable need to consume more and more stuff?   Is our addiction to consuming symptomatic of a much deeper problem?   And, does the fact that most of us live a life of comfort insulate us from our deeper needs?  In fact, has our level of economic comfort protected us from feeling vulnerable, even making us less dependent on God?

We have become people who are trained to be consumers and our economic system is dependent upon our consuming.  We are so deeply entrenched in consumption that the mall, Meijer, and Amazon have become the Meccas in our culture.  Buying stuff, whether it is food, shoes, clothing, or cars, has become a kind of nourishment for us.   It is as though our purchases become a part of us, as if the stuff we buy will give us energy and strength.  Consequently, we live with the illusion that life is nourished through purchasing things, stuff.  But, after the newness wears off, the stuff we purchase always leaves us wanting more.

Could it just be that the wasting disease of consumption has become an economic and, quite possibly, a spiritual disease within our culture?  Could it be we live with the illusion that free competition and a malignant form of capitalism feeds others?  It is an illusion because the fact is that self-interested consumption does not bring justice to those who are hungry and those who go without.  And, could it possibly be that the waste produced by our insatiable need to consume is not only toxic, but is also consuming us?  Just think about what plastic has done to our oceans and the precious forms of life that exist in those waters.  Just think about our addiction to fossil fuels and what that addiction is doing to our climate as it threatens the very existence of life on this planet.  Is the consumption that is so present in our culture and in our lives devouring us?  If our answer to these questions is, “Yes,” then where do we find the cure?  Where do we find the antibiotic for this deadly disease?

Jesus said to the crowd, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  Jesus invites us to live into an alternative way of being.  As we gather around this communion table each Sunday to eat and drink, we are nourished with the very life of God’s son.  Though the portions are small, we are nourished with abundance, an abundance of grace and love.  And, we are nourished, not by something we consume, but by one who welcomes us with open arms, by one with whom we commune. 

Catholic theologian, William T. Cavanaugh, suggests:

The Eucharist tells another story about hunger and consumption.  It does not begin with scarcity, but with the one who came that we might have life, and have it abundantly…..The insatiability of human desire is absorbed by the abundance of God’s grace in the gift of the body and blood of Christ…{And,} the consumer of the body and blood of Christ does not remain detached from what he or she consumes, but becomes part of the body.  (Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, p. 94-95).

In Jesus, we become part of the body of Christ and the act of consumption is turned inside out.  We who are consumers become consumed by the love and grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and we are changed.   Nourished by the body and blood of Christ, we are enabled to live that communion of grace everyday of our lives as we enter into the communities where we work, serve and play. 

Now, I must say this way of life and being is not always easy.  When we live life as members of the body of Christ we take the way of the Cross, a way that means a dying to self, and living for others.  And, that way means that the pain of the hungry person, the pain of the world, and even the pain of a broken creation, are all the pain of Christ and therefore, that pain becomes our pain.  But, we are fed by the one who not only went to the cross, but went through the cross to resurrection, bringing life and love to this very broken world.  And, when we live this communion as one body in Christ, the love of God empowers us to do things like: feed the hungry, care for the sick, care for creation, and yes, care for and love our neighbors as ourselves so much that we do things like wear masks and get vaccinated because we can then protect others.  This love of God also empowers us to work for justice and peace, and the very healing of all creation in this hurting, broken world. 

Consumption kills and it is deadly, but communion is life giving.  In the person of Jesus Christ, God has invaded not only our lives but the life of world.  Jesus is the bread of life.  And, when the body and blood of Christ is working in us and through us as we daily live compassion and love, God is transforming the world.  So, come, be served.  Jesus is the host and has spread a table before us.  Eat and live into the abundance of God.

I am sure many of you are familiar with the movie Forrest Gump.  If you know the story, you will remember the part where Forrest begins running.  As he runs and runs and runs, a crowd begins to follow him, and the people cannot seem to get enough of what they see as they watch him continue to run.  Then, at one point, Forrest simply decides he is done running and it is time to stop and go home.  When that happens, one person in the perplexed crowd asks, “What will we do?  What will we do?”

What will we do?  This is the question we find in today’s gospel reading.  Today’s gospel passage, the feeding of the 5,000, is the only miracle story found in all four of the gospels.  And, it is found twice in two of the gospels.  So. that means it is quite important and this question is significant.  In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, when faced with the perplexing problem of feeding so many people, the disciples are the ones to ask Jesus the question, “What will we do?”  But, as we read John’s version of this story, we discover there is a major twist in the tale.  In John’s gospel we hear Jesus asking Philip, “What will we do?”

 Jesus has been continually moving through Galilee doing the work of ministry – teaching, speaking words of hope, and healing people.  The crowds begin to follow him around because of the miraculous healings they have seen.  And, in today’s story, 5,000+ people follow him up a mountain wanting to see more of his astonishing healing power.  Jesus surveys the crowd and, already knowing what he is going to do, he is the one who asks Philip this test question, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?  They are hungry.  So, what are we going to do?”  Jesus is the one who asks the disciples and, by extension, asks the likes of each one of us, “What are we going to do?  How are we going to deal with this problem of hunger?”

Hunger is a universal experience.  From the moment we enter this world we are faced with hunger.  Hunger is something we all know and understand.  We all feel it when our bellies are empty.  We all know what that incessant feeling is like when hunger always returns, and our bodies need nourishment.  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once said, “The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.”  Hunger propels us to that which gives us life, that which we quite literally cannot live without.

Well, when Jesus asks Phillip this question, Philip responds quite logically and rationally.  He begins to calculate how much money they would need to buy supper for all five thousand plus people.  He replies, “Half a year’s paychecks won’t do the trick.  Our budget just is not big enough.  Our resources are just too few.”  However, Jesus knows that conventional, logical answers are not what is needed and called for in this situation.

Then, Andrew looks around, and he does a practical survey of the situation to figure out what is available.  He comes to Jesus saying, “Well, there is someone here, a kid with five barley loaves and a couple of fish.”  The very sensible Andrew tells Jesus that what is available is the lunch of a boy, someone who is not a power broker, someone who has no social rank or standing.  We know this because barley flour is the flour that poor folks used to make their loaves of bread.  The rich did not use barley.  In Andrew’s words we get the sense that real needs are not necessarily filled by the folks to whom we often look for help, those who have much.  And, as John continues to tell this story, it becomes very clear that Jesus himself is the only One who can end real hunger – hunger of every kind, not just the sort of hunger that makes for growling stomachs at lunchtime.  John makes this very clear because in his telling of this story, this miracle takes place near the time of Passover and Jesus, himself, becomes the host of the meal.  Jesus is the one who distributes the food.  In the other gospels, it is the disciples who take up the work of distributing the food, but in John, something else is going on.  Jesus, himself, is the one who feeds the 5,000 plus people.  And, in John’s telling of this story, after Jesus feeds the crowd he tells the disciples, “Gather up the fragments so that nothing is lost.”  This is important.  The Greek word used for lost really means perishing.  Jesus’ real purpose is to keep people from getting lost, from perishing, and to provide nourishment that lasts and keeps us truly alive. 

John’s placement of this story near the time of Passover where Jesus serves as host is very intentional because it is Jesus himself who will become the real food.  In fact, in just a few verses, the verses we will hear in next week’s gospel, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.  Those who come to me will never hunger.”  Jesus is saying, “I am the real food, the most important food.  Don’t spend your lives on food that spoils.  Don’t stock the shelves of your life with perishables.  Put me there instead.  Make me your staple, the food that is going to last.  When you are hungry, reach first for me.” 

I have no doubt that you will experience some form of hunger today.  And, I have no doubt that many of us have a gnawing hunger within that food alone will not fill.  We try to fill that void by shopping and buying more stuff.  We try to fill that hunger through travel.  We try to fill that hunger by striving for success.  We even try to fill that hunger by pushing our kids to achieve extreme success so they can then push their kids to do the same thing – and the cycle spirals on and continues through generations.  We try to fill the emptiness within through a whole variety of addictions, whether it be alcohol, drugs, video games, food, sex, gambling, or whatever. Even those who have more money than anyone else in the world and seem to have everything they could possibly need have this deep hunger.  So, they try to fill that hunger by doing absurd things like compete with the other richest people in the world to fly into space, all for their own personal pleasure.  However, everything we human beings do in our attempts to fill that void within is always, always, always going to leave us empty and starving again. It really is all futile and will never fill the emptiness we feel.

So, I ask each of you, what are you really hungry for?  How are you hungry?  And, how are you trying to fill the emptiness within?  God really cares about your answers to these questions.  God cares about your hunger and God is calling you to Jesus’ table of life where you can feast on this bread called Jesus, a food that is very strange indeed.  It is strange because we consume this Jesus food and take it into ourselves as ordinary bread.  We digest this Jesus food, and it becomes part of us.  But this bread, this life of Jesus, does something that ordinary bread does not do.  You see, when we consume this bread, Jesus begins to consume us.  When we consume the bread at this table, the broken body of Jesus makes us a part of himself.  And, when we consume this bread, we become food for a broken world – we become broken, living loaves of bread. 

People of God, Jesus, the one who became broken and went to the cross out of love for this world, stands before us and he is saying to each one of us, “What are you gonna do?  Feed on me, feed on my very life.  I am the real food that matters, and I am the one who will truly satisfy your hungry heart.  I am more than enough and there is abundance as I give you my very life.  Come and feast on my banquet of life!” 

In June of 1990, I had the privilege of traveling throughout Europe while performing in several countries.  I accompanied the Mona Shores Choir, directed the Handbell Choir, and gave organ recitals in St. Petersburg, in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and The Netherlands.  It was a remarkable experience for which I am deeply grateful. At one point during that tour, we took the ferry from Denmark to what was then East Germany. It was just days before the borders came down. We made our way to Berlin and, while we were in Berlin, the borders that had divided East from West did come down.  During our stay in Berlin, we were also able to chop down our own piece of the infamous Berlin Wall.  My own little chunk of that memorable, insidious, dividing wall now sits on a bookshelf in my kitchen as a reminder of that trip and our historic experience.  When I look at my piece of the Berlin Wall, it reminds me that walls of hostility, whether concrete or metaphoric, are created because of fear and they ultimately divide families, communities, and nations as the Berlin Wall did for so many years.         

When the Berlin Wall came down and when the borders between East and West Germany dissolved, I had so hoped we as a people were entering a new place and time in the history of the world.  However, when we look at the past few years, it seems we cannot learn from history because we now live in a time of epoch wall-building – walls that are seen, unseen, figurative and literal.  And, it seems we always develop such absurd arguments as we attempt to justify our wall building efforts.  We say we build walls because they will keep us safe.  Because we are afraid or in danger.  Because we feel threatened.  Because we have been hurt by others.  Because we are protecting what is ours or what we have.  But guess what, all these justification projects and arguments show no grace, no attempt to understand those considered “other,” and they serve to create divisions and hostility between people.  To move beyond this, to learn to live as builders of the household of God and not builders of dividing walls, we must change the way we look at those we consider “other.”  And, we can learn something about this in all of today’s scripture readings.

In our reading from Jeremiah, the prophet gives us a window into his world, one that can enable us to look out upon our world with clearer insight.  In a nutshell, things are not good in Jeremiah’s world.  The shepherds, the rulers of the land, those in charge of leadership at every level throughout the land, are not shepherding.  The sheep, the people, are scattered and, when the people are scattered, fear and walls of hostility develop.  Shepherds are called to care for and tend the sheep.  However, the rulers, those charged with leading justly and caring for the people, those charged with making sure that no one gets lost, those charged with helping the flock find the green pastures and still waters, those charged with helping the sheep revive their soul and find the right pathway are NOT attending to the sheep.  In fact, they are destroying the sheep.

Through the prophet, Jeremiah, God is addressing not just individuals.  God is addressing the whole nation, most especially those who hold power of any kind at any level.  God is not happy with the state of civic affairs in Israel or Judah.  So, the God of Jeremiah proclaims these words of judgement and hope: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, oh you shepherds who have not shepherded, I will attend to your evil doings.  Then I, myself, will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.  I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing says the Lord.”  You see, the people were like sheep in need of a loving, caring, justice creating shepherd. After pronouncing words of judgement regarding the evil doings of the leaders, Jeremiah speaks of the righteous Branch who will be raised up, the one who will reign as king and deal wisely and execute justice and righteousness in the land so that Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in safety.  I think we can all look at the past few years of our lives and gain some insight from Jeremiah’s words.

There is just so much in today’s readings and, as always, these readings speak to us and tell us about ourselves.  In Ephesians, we hear words addressing two groups engulfed in hostility, the Jewish people and the Gentiles.  The Gentiles are getting a little too puffed up and the writer of Ephesians reminds them that they were once outsiders looking in.  They were once strangers to the promises of God.  The Greek word used here for outsiders is xenos, as in xenophobia, as in fear of the stranger.  You see, they were once considered aliens, those literally alienated, estranged, from the commonwealth of Israel.  And the Greek word used for this sense of commonwealth is politeia, which is about the administration of civic affairs. (Think back to the administration of civic affairs Jeremiah addresses.)  This word used in Ephesians describes how we structure our society together as people, and it is the same root that gives us the world “politics.”  These stories and our stories are so connected!!  You see, the writer of Ephesians says the Gentiles, who held a lot of power in that society, were once “without hope, without God in the world.”  And, there was hostility, animosity, and enmity between those who were called “the circumcision” and those who were called “the uncircumcision.” With these words we find a little biblical name calling – “the uncircumcision” – the ultimate “not us!”  Now, just think about this. Who are the “not us” today?  Who are the groups in opposition?  Who are the groups engulfed in hostility?  Where are the binary groupings of us vs. them? When we look back at our reading from Jeremiah, there are the sheep and the shepherds. Then and now, we find those at the economic top of the ladder and those who cannot even get on the first rung. There’s management and worker.  Citizen and undocumented.  Black and white.  Men and women.  Gay and straight.  Politician and constituent.  Republican and Democrat. Liberal and Conservative. Urban and rural.  Advocates of gun control and advocates of gun rights.  There are the socially elite and those who do not know what silverware to use when you get past a fork, knife, and spoon. There are Christian, Jew, and Muslim.  There are people of faith and professed atheists.  Quite honestly, we could go on and on.  Doesn’t it kind of make you long for just two – “the circumcision” and “the uncircumcision?”  We can find so many ways to slice and dice the world into “the us” and “the not us,” the us vs. them, and, when we do this, we always continue building dividing walls!  It really can be despairing. 

However, we can only build walls between us and others if that is all we see – someone who is “other.”  That which is not us.  Not-me.  Not-us.  Not-one-of-us.  As long as we define everything and everyone else in the world as not-ours and not-us, we will continue to build dividing walls, create supposed enemies, and throw bombs, both metaphorically and literally.  But, if we can see others as Jesus the Good Shepherd sees all others, if we see with compassion, if our stomachs literally turn over with love for those we see as the Greek word describes Jesus’ compassion in today’s gospel reading, we will not be able to build walls that divide.  If we see the names, the hearts, the lives that struggle as we do, and if we see God’s face in all others, then we cannot make the “other” less than us, less than God’s precious children. You see, they too are God’s precious children!

People of God, yes, we do need to build.  But, instead of building walls that divide, we can build together.  We can build to strengthen lives, build to serve, and build to love others.  The writer of Ephesians tells us, “You are no longer strangers and aliens, you are citizens… and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.” 

People of God, Christ is our peace. Christ has broken down the dividing walls of hostility between us. Live into this truth.

This is special music from the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran church as they sing "I've Got Peace Like a River."