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Oh my Lord … “I am the bread of Life” how much Bickering has this little phrase caused. What does it mean? How far does it go? What do I need to believe to be right with God? I have a book on the History of the Eucharist, and I started looking for it in my bookshelves and before I Got down on my hands and knees to start rifling through that book to find you heady quotes, I thought I don’t need that. Because THAT is not what THIS is about.
The bread and juice at the table that we share every first Sunday, have nothing to do with today’s reading. Well not directly. I know the meal, the simple act we do each month means different things for different people and I truly believe that the bread and juice is transformed (or not), through your faith, into whatever you need it to be to be, in order for your faith to remain strong, in order for your soul to be nourished, so that you may continue on your path, on your walk with God.
Today’s reading is John; John the Mystical, John, for whom Jesus never speaks plainly. John has a poetic / spiritual way of having Christ reveal himself to his followers. Then once Jesus does speak people get confused and do not get it. They take Christ literally and get upset.
Father David Smith an Episcopal priest writes about this
“Remember Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, and Jesus says to him, ‘You must be born from above’, but Nicodemus misunderstands him, and thinks he is talking about being reborn to his mother all over again!
Or recall when Jesus encounters a woman at the well, and He tells her that ‘she who drinks of your water will thirst again’, and offers her ‘living water’ instead, but she thinks he‘s talking about some underground spring that he‘s found.
And so likewise in John 6, where Jesus is dealing with a whole crowd of people, He says to them, ‘work not for the bread that perishes, but for the heavenly bread that endures for eternal life’, but the crowd thinks that he’s talking about some special health food, similar to that which Moses sourced for them back in the days of old, except that it doesn’t go off – a super-organic-health-bread-concoction perhaps, that has all the wonderful benefits that those health drinks you’ve read about on the Internet are supposed to have for you. ‘He who eats of this bread will live forever!’
Jesus says, ‘NO, NO and NO. I am the bread! My flesh is the food. What you need is not some new form of organic pastry. What you need is ME!’
You see, it’s His presence that we need – not His wisdom, not his teachings, not the memories of all the good times we spent together (nice though they were) but His presence!”[1]
For Christ there is an urgency for his followers and listeners to understand yet they just don’t hear it. This so reminds me of the urgency that the Character of Christ sings in Jesus Christ superstar by Andrew Lloyd Weber “Think while you still have me Move while you still see me!”[2] Jesus was saying I am right here in front of you. My very essence is here with you today. Yet they did not get it.
Luckily, for us, these metaphors and parables and words were written down so we can continue to explore and learn and grow through them.
Father David goes on to explain; “The crowd came looking for bread, but Jesus tells them, ‘It’s not ordinary bread that you need. You need the living bread. You need the presence of the living God in your life. You need to move beyond ‘me’ to ’we’! …You need me within you’
There’s something strikingly contemporary about this religious ‘seeking behavior’ that we read about in these early chapters of John’s Gospel.”[3]
People come to Church seeking Christ and Christ, I pray, is often revealed. Through the Sunday service, through teaching, through the community that is Church, through one another and through prayer.
I love the fact that Christ reminds us in this reading that “You’re not in charge here. The creator who sent me is in Charge” (John 6:44) We all here are still human trying to make sense of Godly words and actions that happened thousands of years ago and yet remain as active and relevant in our daily lives as the air we breathe.
The Christ who was, who is and who will be surrounding and blessings us with Living Spirit, Living Essence, just waiting for us to relax and take it in. If we just allow ourselves to open our eyes, ears and soul we would be able to experience that essence in our daily lives. How often God is reaching out to us inviting us to come in and yet we just don’t see it. We are still seeking that physical presence, the actual miracle bread that will give us eternal life.
As long as we continue to look for it, it will continue to be as elusive as the fountain of youth. I hope I am not getting too metaphorical or perhaps I need to be. You see often, as in today’s reading Christ is as clear as mud. Why? Because as I am trying to convey in words what cannot be, so was Christ. This is the spiritual, this is the soul, this is about a deeper connection that even the mystics have a hard time conveying.
Teresa of Avila put it this way; “May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing that you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into our bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, danse, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of you.”[4]
“Let this Presence settle into our bones” another physical reference to what is not physical at all. This is about connecting with the other, that which is beyond all comprehension and understanding. This is about building practices which help us find our way to the other. God is calling each and every one of us and as we choose to respond the call becomes greater.
For St. Francis of Assisi the presence of Christ was revealed through our deeds and actions. He said “The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today”. That you in your simple human form could be the actual message of God that one would receive. That you are the body of Christ. Isn’t that what being church is really about?
I remember singing at communion the John Foley song “One bread, one body, one Lord of all
One cup of blessing which we bless, And we though many, throughout the earth, We are one body in this one Lord.”[5] What I am saying is that the message today of Christ, I am the Bread of Heaven means nothing more that Christ is food for our soul. To meditate upon his life, words and deeds is the first step in our continuous walk with Christ.
But there is more to this as Professor Brian Peterson points out.
“There is theological irony at play here. The crowd’s professed knowledge of Jesus’ “father and mother” only reveals their complete ignorance of the Father who sent Jesus (verse 44). The truth is not found in knowing the human parents who have nurtured Jesus’ childhood. Rather, the truth is found in knowing that Jesus has come from the Father in Heaven. The crowd’s self-assured “knowledge” stands in their way of seeing the truth. We suffer from the same difficulty of seeing beyond what we “know” to be true (about the poor, about ourselves, about the line separating “the saved” from everyone else, etc.), so that we might see the divine Truth among us.
The only way out of such deadly unbelief is to be drawn into faith by the Father, and this activity of the Father is a major focus of today’s text. Once again, the profound and holy mystery of faith is embraced by this text, and we ought to be careful not to unravel it into bland or moralistic pieties. Faith is not simply a human choice to be made but is the activity of the Father drawing people to Jesus. The word used in verse 44 is the same word used to describe fishing nets being hauled into the boat (21:6). We must be dragged into faith by God; there is no other way to come. But what does that say about the grumblers in this text? What does it say about those around and among us who, to all appearances, have not been drawn to Jesus? What does it say about ourselves, when we recognize our own resistance to faith to be so deep and persistent?”[6].
First let me say please excuse the patristic language but it is a direct quote and the question he poses is a difficult one, what does this say about us when we recognize our own resistance to go deeper, to reach out further, to do something maybe we believe we cannot do? On our own we can’t! Yet in this passage Christ makes it clear that God is drawing us into relationship. Professor Peterson even points out that this is the same word for drawing in the fishing nets. This is an Active God drawing us into relationship through Christ, blessed and energized by the Holy Spirit.
Remember I spoke of Jesus’ urgency for his followers to understand him but not understand him through a literal sense he spoke in metaphor and parable for that is the only way to get past the physical and to reach and experience Christs Presence.
What Jesus is saying is that God is fully present to us, available to us in the everyday. This is radical. This is beyond understanding of most people then and I would say most now. I preach it and I believe it, but I must say I do not fully understand it, even when I have those moments that I feel the connection so deeply that it makes me tremble. It is a mystery. It is the mystery!
God so loved the world that God became human fully human and fully alive so that people could have a relationship with God. God is continuously drawing us closer into relationship and it is us who resist who put up road blocks. Yet through our understanding of our relation to Christ, through our knowing that Christ Lived, Loved, celebrated life to the fullest (there was a lot of wine to be had and plenty a meal to share), Knowing that Jesus became frustrated, hurt, angry, and scared, even when he knew there was a happy ending ( the resurrection), this is our bread.
These Gospel stories that have been told over and over again, feed us. This is bread. The prayer that Jesus teaches us and again is repeated in many different languages all over the world, feeds us. This is bread. When we take these lessons of how to be in the world and we share of us with others, sharing with others, this feeds us. Then when we are fed, when we take that moment to realize we are experience the Bread of Life, Christ’s very presence that is when we get it.
This isn’t something that happens every day. This isn’t something we can actually work at we just have to go about our day and hope we are doing well and carrying that bread of life in our soul and just allow it to happen.
Julian of Norwich prays; “That which is impossible for you is not impossible to me (say’s our Lord): I will preserve my word in all things and I will make all things well.
This is the Great Deed that our Lord will do.
Our faith is grounded in God’s word and we must let this faith be. How it will be done, we will not know until it is done because God wants us to be at ease and at peace, not troubled or kept from enjoying God. The more we busy ourselves to know God’s secrets, the further away from knowledge we shall be. Let all your love be, my child. Turn to me. I am everything you need. Enjoy me and your liberation. Be at peace, my child.
And so our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubt which I could raise, saying most comfortingly: I may make all things well, and I can make all things well, and I shall make all things well, and I will make all things well; and you will see yourself that every kind of thing will be well…And in these…words God wishes us to be enclosed in rest and in peace.”[7]
You see as we are drawn to God through Christ, the Bread of Life, we are nourished. Just like a meal we are nourished and now capable to carry out our day. Yet it is different for with this nourishment it is a day lived out in the Body of Christ. I hope I did not make this to ethereal, too out there yet it is. So allow me to make it even more so by offering a prayer of Thomas Merton.
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. In Christ, Amen.”[8]
[1] David Smith, Jesus, the Bread of Life: John 6:35, 41-51, accessed 8/3/2015august 2006, http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/jesus-the-bread-of-life-john-635-41-51-david-smith-sermon-on-miracles-of-jesus-99669.asp?Page=2.
[2] Tim Rice, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and arranged by Paul Murtha, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hal Leonard performance series marching band (Originally published as Chichester, U.K. United States: Universal Pictures, 1973 ;. Mèunster. Mèunster. Disney Channel :, Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 2006), Digital eBook.
[3] David Smith, Jesus, the Bread of Life: John 6:35, 41-51, accessed 8/3/2015august 2006, http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/jesus-the-bread-of-life-john-635-41-51-david-smith-sermon-on-miracles-of-jesus-99669.asp?Page=2.
[4] Goodreads inc, Teresa of Avila Qoutes, accessed */3/2015, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/74226.Teresa_of_vila.
[5] John Foley, One Bread One Body, October 14, 2013, accessed August 3, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN6UNVwlRbk.
[6] Professor Brian Peterson, Commentary on John 6:35, 41-51, accessed August 3, 2015, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=368.
[7] Fr. Ray, Food For Thought And Nourishment For The Soul, 2009, accessed August 3, 2015, http://www.christchurchpointpleasant.net/id13.html.
[8] Ibid.
Fred Craddock shares a story of manna…as a story of feeding … a story of unexpected glory…you see he had gone to Winnipeg to give two lectures. The first lecture went off without a hitch but the second lecture well…
Friday Night as he left the lecture hall it was beginning to spit a little snow. He was surprised, and his host was surprised as well because he had written, “It’s too early for the cold weather, but you might want to bring a little wind breaker, a little light jacket.” The next morning when he got up there was two or three feet of snow piled against the door. The phone rang, and his host informed him that everyone was surprised by this, the lecture had been canceled and no one could get to him to breakfast, and the airport is closed. He gave him directions to the bus depot around the corner that has a café.
Fred explains.
“I said, ‘I’ll get around’ I put on that little light jacket; it was nothing. I got my little cap and put it on; It didn’t even help me in the room. I went into the bathroom and unrolled long sheets of toilet paper and made a nest in my cap so that it would protect my head against that icy wind.
I went outside, shivering. The wind was cold, the snow was deep. I slid and bumped and finally made it around the corner into the bus station. Every stranded traveler in western Canada was in there, strangers to each other and to me, pressing and pushing and loud. I finally found a place to sit, and after a lengthy time a man in a greasy apron came over and said, ‘What’ll you have?’ I said, ‘May I see a menu?’ He said, ‘What do you want a menu for? We have soup.’ I said, ‘What kinds of soup do you have?’ and he said soup. You want some soup?’ I said, ‘That was what I was going to order – soup.’ He brought the soup, and I put the spoon to it –Yuck! It was the awfullest. It was kind of gray looking; it was so bad I couldn’t eat it, but I sat there and put my hands about it. It was warm, and so I sat there with my head down, my head wrapped in toilet paper, bemoaning and beweeping my outcast state with the horrible soup. But it was warm, so I clutched it and stayed bent over my soup stove.
The door opened again. The wind was icy, and somebody yelled, ‘Close the door!’ in came this woman clutching her little coat. She found a place, not far from me. The greasy apron came, ‘What do you want?’ She said, ‘A glass of water.’ He brought a glass of water, took out his tablet, and said, ‘Now what’ll you have’ She said, ‘Just the water.” He said, ‘You have to order lady.’ ‘Well, I just want a glass of water.’ ‘Look, I have customers that pay- what do you think this is, a church or something? Now what do you want?’ She said, ‘Just a glass of water and some time to get warm.’ ‘Look there are people paying here. I f you’re not going to order you have to leave!’ And he got real loud about it. So, she got up to leave and, almost as if rehearsed, everybody in that little café stood up and started to walk towards the door. I got up and said, ‘I’m voting for something here; I don’t know what it is.’ And the man in the greasy apron said, ‘All right, all right, she can stay.’ Everybody sat down, and he brought her a bowl of soup.
I said to the person sitting there by me, I said, ‘who is she?’ He said, ‘I never saw her before.’ The place grew quiet, nut I heard the sipping of the awful soup. I said,’ I’m going to try that again.’ I put my spoon to the soup – you know, it was not bad soup. Everybody was eating this soup. I started eating the soup, and it was pretty good soup. I have no idea what kind of soup it was. I don’t know what was in it, but I do recall when I was eating it, it tasted a little bit like bread and wine. Just a little like bread and wine.”[1]
Fred Cradock in this story shows how a greasy apron moves form scarcity to abundance and in so doing a noisy café on a very cold morning moves form a place of earnest refuge to a church. An Awful cup of soup is transformed into bread and wine.
Walter Bruggeman reflects on Psalm 145 which is the psalm for today.
Though this reflection was written in 2012 it still rings true today. This is a concept of scarcity verses abundance. This is the concept and the heart of today’s Gospel. His reflection on the voice of fear is heard loud and clear in our society today by conservative and Liberal alike. The fear of not enough is kind of the basic mantra here in the USA but the mantra of humanity in most places is not yet enough, we have never seen enough! It is a mantra of anxiety and fear it is a mantra of scarcity.
And right in the middle of this fear and anxiety comes today’s gospel. He comes upon a hungry crowd. Walter Brueggemann argues that when he asks Phillip how we shall feed them Phillip represents the Church. “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?”
“But John tells us this is a trick question that Jesus puts to Phillip.”[3] He wanted to see whether Philip understood. He hopes that Phillip by now would understand that Jesus is to enact God’s gift of abundance in the world. Where Jesus comes, life overflows with wellbeing. But Phillip – the church- does not get it. Philip is thinking in old-world categories of there is not enough. He tells Jesus I would have to work for 6 months to pay for the food. We just can’t afford it. We can’t feed all these hungry people but “Jesus already knows his own capacity for abundance; he knows the source of bread for the world. He knows there will be more than enough! But his church still is trapped in scarcity”[4]
Of course, we humans love to rationalize this miracle by saying what really happened was an act of generosity that the crowd pulls out food they had tucked away, and they share it. I think this minimizes the Gospel and its message John is pointing out “God’s amazing power to completely “transform human expectations”; instead, we modern, self-sufficient types think it’s up to us humans to handle things, to help ourselves.”[5]
One commentator “observes the power not of God but of shame in this interpretation, that is, getting people to share out of a sense of guilt: “God is no longer a miracle-worker unbounded by human laws, but a social manipulator who reminds people to share. Behavioral modification replaces amazing grace as the core of the story.”[6] This is a response that grows out of an attitude of scarcity in which our response becomes that we must be in control all the time.
Jesus is not held down by this interpretation, the Gospel of Christ cannot exist in the disciple’s response. Jesus moves us beyond a simple understanding of the way the world works. He tells the crowd to be seated. Jesus says come to the table he blesses bread. “Jesus gives thanks (the word is eucharisto, Eucharist! Imagine a meal called ‘Thanks!’)”[7]
Then all were satisfied, and he tells the disciples to get the leftovers …he didn’t ask if there were any, he knew. Jesus knew in his abundance there would be plenty left over. 12 baskets full, a basket for each of the tribes of Judah! “John tells us this is a new reality right before our eyes. Jesus enacts a new world.”[8] A world of abundance! In that old world of scarcity there is not enough, and we must cringe and save and protect and not share and not let anyone get a free lunch (or a free cup of soup) because we might run out.”
But we can see the abundance! We are witnesses to what cast out as our old fears and shows us a new way to live in this world! The old ways can no longer hold us captive by fears for we know of an abundant grace that overflows. At the end of the Gospel reading, we see Jesus showing up in an unexpected place and he says to them “be not afraid” because the world is now working in a new way!
I know our society has taught us to get more and keep more and do not share for it could be gone tomorrow. The old refrain of fear and scarcity will return to our heads and hearts daily but remember Jesus has changed the narrative “We are the people who have witnessed and know about the abundance of bread among us, for the world. The church is a pump station for abundance that overflows.”[9] We do not need to check the economics of it. We do not need to explain it. We need to stand in witness to the truth of Christ that all our fears which lead to scarcity have been conquered by the God of abundance. Be not afraid step out boldly in faith and live abundantly in the grace of God!
[1] Craddock, Fred B., and Mike Graves. Craddock Stories. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2001.
[2] Brueggemann, Walter, Samuel Wells, and Thomas G. Long. The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann. Vol. 2. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015. Pg 188
[3] Ditto, 189
[4] ditto
[5] http://www.ucc.org/worship_samuel_sermon_seeds_july_29_2018
[6] Ditto
[7] Bruggeman, 190
[8]Ditto
[9] Ditto, 191
The disciples had come to Jesus and told Him all that they had taught and done, and Jesus says…Come away to a deserted place all by your selves and rest for a while. I need this…you need this. This is sabbath. This is a different than Sunday sabbath, but this is sabbath.
Jesus prays some 30 odd times throughout the scriptures, but this is different there are 4 direct instances where he went off alone to pray. “Continually Jesus withdrew from people, daily life activities, and the demands of his ministry to be alone with the Father and pray. Jesus’ solitude and silence are a major theme in the Gospels…The priority of Jesus’ solitude and silence is everywhere in the Gospels. It’s how he began his ministry. It’s how he made important decisions. It’s how he dealt with troubling emotions like grief. It’s how he dealt with the constant demands of his ministry and cared for his soul. It’s how he taught his disciples. It’s how he prepared for important ministry events. It’s how he prepared for his death on the cross.”[1]
Jesus is teaching his disciples his practice. His practice of retreat. These moments of going away to a deserted place and prayer are mini retreats. In this instance though the retreat occurs on the water, for the crowd follows them around the bank to where they are headed and are ready for them when they arrive.
But this concept of getting away to rest and pray had me thinking about how do we pray? What do we pray for? Sometimes I am cautious in my words even up here.
As a clergy I am asked for prayers. I often see people on Facebook who are asking for prayers. I may run into someone somewhere and suddenly they will mention a family member or friend who is not doing well or is on a job hunt or who has lost themselves and needs prayer.
I make a promise of prayer and I often keep it there on the spot so that I do not forget it. But a part of me always wonders just what people are hoping for, what are they expecting, when they ask for prayer?
A UCC Minister shared this experience
“In July I had dinner with a long-time friend, also a UCC minister, who retired not long ago. It was wonderful to see him; it was sad to see him. Since his retirement he has had significant health issues, some of which seem to be resisting any and all medications. His immediate future, health wise, is very uncertain. As we parted, not sure when or if we would see each other again, I told him I would hold him in my prayers. But again, what did I mean by that? What exactly will I be praying for? What do I want my prayer for him to accomplish? In fact, is accomplish even the proper word to use?”
Every week in our worship service we lift up joys and concerns during our prayer time. But when we ask for prayer for a friend suffering from illness, for a family member stricken with grief, for ourselves as we face a surgery or a situation we fear might overwhelm us, what are we asking for… what do we hope will happen?
“Ask and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you.”
Wonderful words, comforting words, but do we believe them? What do you suppose they mean?
Do you recall Huckleberry Finn’s experience with prayer?
“Miss Watson, she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray everyday and whatever I asked for, I would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once I got a fish line but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work.”
I think of all the times I have prayed to catch that one big fish!”
He goes on to share another story a church member had shared with him
“A bar called Drummonds in Mt. Vernon, Texas, began construction on an expansion of their building, hoping to grow their business. In response, the local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from expanding, using everything from petitions to constant prayer. About a week before the bar’s grand re-opening, a bolt of lightning struck the bar and burned it to the ground.
Afterward, the church folk were rather smug, bragging about the “power of prayer.” And so the
angry bar owner proceeded to sue the church on grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the destruction of his building, “through direct actions or indirect means.” Needless to say, the church quickly abandoned the “power of prayer” argument and instead insisted it had absolutely no responsibility for or connection to the destruction of the bar.
The judge read carefully through the plaintiff’s complaint and the defendant’s reply. He then
opened the hearing by saying, “I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but it appears from the paperwork that what we have here is a bar owner who now believes in the power of prayer, and an entire congregation that does not.”
What do we believe about the power of prayer? How do we let prayer into our lives? What do we expect when we pray?
Former UCC executive minister Steve sterner once wrote.
“I think our problem with prayer is not that it works sometimes, but that sometimes it doesn’t. We truly struggle with the efficacy of prayer when it doesn’t seem to work. It is easier to believe totally that prayer does not work than it is to reconcile in our own hearts and minds why it doesn’t seem to work sometimes.”
“Ask and it will be given to you…sometimes; seek and maybe you will find?” That doesn’t
sound particularly comforting…does it?
Samuel wells speaks of three different kinds of prayer[2], the first kind is the resurrection prayer when you are just praying so hard for that miracle. Jesus alive from the dead, Lazarus walks out of the tomb. No matter what all the doctors have said… the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear…can I have just a little of that?
This is the prayer that comes from the deepest of despair, from the very wells of faith, that mustard seed that we have been told can move a mountain…well lord we do not have a mountain to move but if oyu could give us this one miraculous cure…
This prayer is the prayer that says God you have the power to fix it… so fix it, make changes, take action, restore health! I want to pray it, but there are so many times when it is even hard
to pray for healing, for the miracle, because healing just isn’t going to happen, at least not physical healing.
I am not saying miracles aren’t possible nor that a miracle won’t happen. Miracles all the time even now the simple fact that this bunch of cells can breathe and walk talk and think is a miracle. But when the resurrection prayer is lifted this is not what is expected nor understood.
More often than not I find myself praying what Wells calls the prayer of incarnation. “It’s a call for God to be with your friend or loved one. It’s a recognition that Jesus was broken, desolate, on the brink of death, and that this is all part of being human, part of the deal you sign onto the day you are born. Our bodies and minds are fragile, frail and sometimes feeble.
There is no guarantee that life will be easy, comfortable, fun or happy. The prayer of incarnation says, ‘God, in Jesus you shared our pain, our foolishness and our sheer bad luck. You took on our flesh with all its needs and clumsiness and weakness. Visit my friend, my loved one, and give them patience to endure what lies ahead, hope for every trying day and companions to show them your love.’”[3]
This is the prayer that reminds us we are not alone. God is walking beside us and sometimes carrying us for through Christ, God knows deeply what it means to be human and companions with us in our journey.
Beyond this sacred companionship there is a third type of prayer that Wells describes, this is a prayer of transfiguration, of transformation. This is a prayer that asks God to give us, our friend, our loved one a vision of the reality within, beneath and beyond what we understand. Wells says that this is a prayer that, in our times of bewilderment and confusion, asks that God might reveal to us a deeper truth to life than we have ever known, reasons for living beyond what we have ever imagined and an awareness of grace and love that we have never known before.
Wells says this prayer is asking for just a glimpse into the great mystery. Help us to see, help our minds through this problem, this pain, this trial to see perhaps just a glimpse of God’s glory.
Wells says; “Maybe this is our real prayer for our friends, our loved ones, ourselves, a prayer for God to make this trial and tragedy, this problem and pain, a glimpse of God’s glory, a window into God’s world, even into God’s heart: ‘God, let me see your face, sense the mystery in all things, and walk with angels and saints. Bring me closer to you in this crisis than I ever been. Make this a moment of truth. Touch me, raise me, and make me alive like never before.”[4]
Fred Craddock, shares an experience with prayer of transformation:
“When my sister Frieda, my only sister, was dying of cancer, I had gone back to visit and knew that the time there would be the last time I would see her. She asked me to help her prepare her funeral service, which I found extremely, extremely difficult to do. When we finished preparing the service, she asked me to pray, and this is what I did. I located myself straight in front of the throne. Before I closed my eyes, I wanted to make sure I was in front of the throne, because what I wanted was God on the throne, God the power, God the Almighty. All things are possible with God.
When I had positioned myself straight in front of the throne, I bowed my head and
prayed for her relief and for her healing as intensely and sincerely as I could, and I closed with Amen. I lifted my head, opened my eyes, and there in front of me was Jesus, the bleeding lamb. Now who wants that? And she died.
There it is. God the power, God the one who identifies with us and suffers with us. You won’t find a better picture in all the bible than here.”[5]
For Fred the prayer for a miracle became the prayer of transformation a glimpse into a deeper truth, a new reality, indeed into the very face of God. His sister died, but for Craddock, there was healing and new hope.
When Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given you,” he does not exactly say what will be given. And when he says, “Seek and you will find,” he does not exactly say what we will find.”
We live in a mystery, and we seek to touch that which we cannot comprehend. Perhaps the hardest part of prayer is just resting in this mystery. Allowing our attempt at control to slip away, learning to allow and rest and be still in the spirit of God but not only in times of need and despair but also just for ourselves.
You see in the everyday life of loving community we need to pause, be alone with God so we have the spirit the energy and the wisdom to walk when called, to pray when called, to seek the mystery and allow God to be in control.
As Steve Sterner says, “Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of prayer is surrendering to the mystery of that to which we pray.” No, our prayers may not be answered in the way we wish, may not achieve the results we hoped for. And yes, there will be times when we simply are not okay with that. I’m quite sure that God is okay with those time when we are not okay with God. But, as Craddock discovered, as we are persistent in prayer, it is often we who are transformed, we who are changed, we who begin to see life and reality and God in a whole new light. And, disarmed of our demands and expectations, we just might find ourselves able to welcome the acceptance, love and other blessings that we didn’t even pray for.” No, I have no final answers for you concerning prayer and the power of prayer. But I do want to urge you to trust the process, regardless of what comes of it, because the process itself, the prayer itself, gives us life.
________________________________________
[1] https://www.soulshepherding.org/jesus-solitude-and-silence/
[2] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2014-04/different-way-pray
[3] Ditto
[4] Ditto
[5] Craddock, Fred B., and Mike Graves. Craddock Stories. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2001. Pg 125
Stephen Sondheim wrote the great lyrical finale of into the woods with these words…
How do you say to your child in the night?
Nothing’s all black, but then nothing’s all white
How do you say it will all be all right
When you know that it might not be true?
What do you do?
Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Children may not obey, but children will listen
Children will look to you for which way to turn
To learn what to be
Careful before you say “Listen to me”
For some odd reason those are the words that first came to me as I walked with this gospel today. I cannot help but wonder what this strange request did to this young girl. I wonder if she even had a concept of what she asked for. We do not know because she is not mentioned again. Now Herod on the other hand.
“Mark chose this opportunity, after Jesus sent out his disciples on their first formal mission, to report the death of John the Baptist. Mark hinted at this political death earlier in the story when John was arrested (1:14) but saved the full report until chapter 6. Interpreters who choose to think that Jesus’ life and mission were disconnected from the socio-political affairs of his first century context must view this account (John’s death by Herod) as an aside. Using intercalation, there is a big fancy word it means sandwich, once again, Mark placed this account between the commission and the return of the disciples to intimate its significance for the expansion of Jesus’ mission.”[1]
Mark is intentional of putting this message in between the moment Jesus sends out his disciples two by two and before they return. Now this translation is a little weak on just how much Herod enjoyed the company of John.
In Nicholas Kings direct translation it says this about Herod.
“and Herodias had it in for him and wanted to kill him. And she couldn’t, for Herod was afraid of John, knowing him a just man and a saint. And he protected him, and when he was listening to him he was greatly puzzled. And he used to listen to him gladly.”[2]
It is a bit more of a gentler kinder image of Herod. He actually enjoyed being puzzled by John’s teachings and he truly did want to protect him as best he could.
Now Herodias Philips ex-wife and now wife to Herod seems to be the point of contention she is the one who doesn’t like John’s objections to the marriage and plots to be rid of him and sees an opportunity with Herod’s Birthday party. So she gets her daughter to dance for Herod.
Her daughter has become famous for her dance. What was her name?… What was the dance??
Well actually we do not know her name is not mentioned except for in some writings where it is the same as her mother’s name. What kind of dance did she do that so pleased the king? We do not know? It might have been a simple little girl trying to impress her daddy. Over the centuries there is more legend than anything substantial around this dance.
So “What was Herod’s fear all about? He could not have been happy with John’s judgment against his adultery. There is no evidence that Herod repented. Yet we are told that Herod knew John to be righteous and a holy man, and Herod liked to listen to him. Was he like we are sometimes, sensing a hard truth about our lives, uneasy but not ready to accept it? Why risk offending God by harming John; he could be a true prophet after all. Was that it? Or was it also fear, as the ancient historian, Josephus, claimed, that the power of John’s message might stir a rebellion….
Herod was not loved by all. His more zealous enemies considered him a collaborator with Rome. Herod, a small-time ruler, not actually a king, was beholden to Rome and vulnerable at home. As the drama played out, he was vulnerable to his wife as well. Beguiled by his daughter’s …dancing and its effect on his guests, Herod makes a rash promise. Herodias leverages his need to appear resolute in front of his politically important guests to get her wish; John is beheaded. Conflicted within himself about John’s message but surrounded by manifold political and family pressures, Herod does what he knows is terribly wrong. He is deeply grieved.”[3]
Herod is deeply grieved as are Johns followers and, I would imagine, John’s family which is Jesus’ family. John “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'” (Mark 1:1-3) It is John we celebrate as this wild uncontrollable spirit that comes out of the dangerous wild places proclaiming one baptism of repentance and a forgiveness of sins.
John is the one who points past himself, a lesson for all of us preachers and teachers, John proclaims; “The stronger one than me is coming after me, of whom I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. (Mark 1:8) Jesus is baptized the heavens open, the holy spirit as a dove descends upon him, and a voice is heard saying this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Then Jesus is hurled out into the desert. It is after John has been handed over to Herod that Jesus returns and starts his ministry.
John starts the Jesus story whether it be at the baptism or by a simple stirring in his mother’s womb we have no Jesus without John…I mean we could have; Jesus might have still had a great ministry and message without John and yet John is essential to our story…this is our sacred story…this is our sacred text.
So yes, we grieve the loss of John, but we do not celebrate how he died or even why for that is a bit confusing, but we celebrate the life he lived. The wild man in the desert telling us to make ready the way for our lord.
Just as much as Herod is part of our sacred text. In the best of storytelling anytime we see or hear Herod’s name we want to boo or hiss. Herod is a villain and yet in the circumstances that play out is he a villain or is he trapped by his own circumstances? Remember “Herod makes a rash promise. Herodias leverages his need to appear resolute in front of his politically important guests to get her wish”[4] so is he a patsy or is he some political parable in the midst of all of this?
One commentator points out that.
“It is tempting to see in Herod a parable that speaks to leadership in government, economic and institutional life in our own time. Persons in positions of power are subjected to powerful pressures that pose a threat to their own security. Personal pride, greed for gain and prestige, and the influence of ambitious intimates can also play a role. Under the sway of these encroaching forces, the courage to serve truth and the common good can flag. The results may not be as gruesome as John’s execution, but the damage can be even more extensive. Even exemplary leaders who are devoted to the welfare of those dependent upon them frequently find themselves mired in a morass of conflicting forces that stymie their best efforts.
Certainly, there are prophetic voices like John’s today. Yet, the impact often seems minimal. When wealthy interests can now influence the presidential election by giving anonymously to non-profit “social welfare” organizations, citizens without such economic power might wonder if their needs are being served. Indeed, one could feel a bit like the Baptist’s disciples: nothing left to do but bury the body.”[5]
But we are called to be more resolved and invested in life. We are called as disciples of Christ to stand in the face of such opposition and call it out as what it is. We are called to be the faces of hope beyond hope.
“So why does Mark tell this story: the longest of the Gospel’s anecdotes and its only flashback?
Aside from the Golgotha plot and discovery of the empty tomb, this is the only tale in which Jesus never appears. Its villains never reappear. It’s a strange story about John in which the baptizer himself never appears. Even stranger: beneath this story of John is the story of Jesus. The flashback is flashforward. Mark tips us off in “King Herod heard; for his name had become known. And he said. ‘John the baptizer has risen from the dead, and that’s the reason these miracles are at work in him…. That fellow I decapitated, John-he has risen’”(Mark 6:13-15)[6]
In this turn of events Herod foreshadows Pilate in the same way that John foretells of Jesus. Just like Herod, Pilate is amazed by circumstances surrounding an innocent prisoner, swept up in events that fast spin out of his control and unable to back down after being publicly outmaneuvered. Like John, Jesus is passive in his final hours and is executed by hideous capital punishment seemingly dying in order to placate those he offends.
As I was wondering how I might tie this into today what we see here is a governor who knows better but is trapped by the politics and expectations around him.
I found one commentator that brought me to tears. I am going to share just a part of commentary as he reflects on this gospel and today…
“Connecting to present times
One such story from today’s headlines goes like this:
When he landed in Michigan in late May, all the weary little boy carried was a trash bag stuffed with dirty clothes from his days long trek across Mexico, and two small pieces of paper — one a stick-figure drawing of his family from Honduras, the other a sketch of his father, who had been arrested and led away after they arrived at the United States border in El Paso…
An American government escort handed over the 5-year-old child, identified on his travel documents as José, to the American woman whose family was entrusted with caring for him. He refused to take her hand. He did not cry. He was silent on the ride “home.” The first few nights, he cried himself to sleep. Then it turned into “just moaning and moaning,” said Janice, his foster mother…
He recently slept through the night for the first time, though he still insists on tucking the family pictures under his pillow …
Since his arrival in Michigan, family members said, a day has not gone by when the boy has failed to ask in Spanish, “When will I see my papa?” They tell him the truth. They do not know. No one knows … José’s father is in detention, and parent and child until this week had not spoken since they were taken into the custody of United States authorities. He refused to shed the clothes he had arrived in, an oversize yellow T-shirt, navy blue sweatpants and a gray fleece pullover likely given to him by the authorities who processed him in Texas.1
I, Cláudio, have a 6-year-old boy and I am an immigrant citizen, foreign and citizen at the same time. I could not read this biblical story of John the Baptist without thinking of stories like José and the loss of his father. To have José separated from his father is like having one’s head cut off. The story told in Mark 6 has no redemption. John the Baptist had his head cut off. That is how hundreds of families are now living, with their heads cut off, parents without children and children without parents.
If John announced the coming of Jesus Christ, these kids and parents announce the horrendous cruelty of the immigration policies of this country. On behalf of these families, we must stand up like John the Baptist, who told the governor of his day: “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife” (Mark 6:18). Just as Jesus came in the footsteps of John the Baptist, we must show up as Jesus Christ to these families.”[7]
We must show up like Christ…Just as John started a ministry and Jesus came in fulfillment and yet not completion for you see the ministry goes on. The apostles stepped up, the disciples stepped up and we are called to step up as Christ to keep the ministry going. We are called to be Christ to our immigrant brothers and sisters. We are called to be Christ to our homeless brothers and sisters. We are called to be Christ to those suffering from illness. We are called to be Christ to each other any time and all the time. If not us than who?
We are the United Church of Christ a united and uniting church living to make this place heaven on earth for all. So I will leave this sermon as I began…
How do you say to your child in the night?
Nothing’s all black, but then nothing’s all white
How do you say it will all be all right
When you know that it might not be true?
What do you do?
Careful the things you say
Children will listen
Careful the things you do
Children will see and learn
Amen!
[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1325
[2] King, Nicholas. The Bible: A Study Bible. Buxhall, Stowmarket, Suffolk: Kevin Mayhew, 2013.
[3] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-james-m-childs-phd/mark-6-14-29-the-downfall-of-giving-into-fear_b_1663356.html
[4] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-james-m-childs-phd/mark-6-14-29-the-downfall-of-giving-into-fear_b_1663356.html
[5] Ditto
[6] King, Nicholas. The Bible: A Study Bible. Buxhall, Stowmarket, Suffolk: Kevin Mayhew, 2013.
[7] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3736
Today’s Gospel speaks of a great disturbance…so great that the disciples who are fisher men fear for their own lives.
One commentator points out that
“This is a remarkable story; Mark is not particularly interested in geographical details, but gets Jesus and his disciples to cross the sea.”
I have mentioned before that mark has a lot of coming and going Jesus is constantly on the move. Jesus just decides out of nowhere to just up and leave. They could have walked elsewhere but instead they got into their boats and went across the sea of Galilee.
“The Sea of Galilee, also Kinneret or Kinnereth, Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake Tiberias, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is approximately 33 mi in circumference, about 13 mi long, and 8.1 mi wide. Its area is 64.4 sq mi at its fullest, and its maximum depth is approximately 141 feet. At levels between 705 ft and 686 ft below sea level, it is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second-lowest lake in the world (after the Dead Sea, a saltwater lake). The lake is fed partly by underground springs although its main source is the Jordan River which flows through it from north to south.”
Crossing the sea of Galilee is no big deal, most of the time, and well Jesus is with a bunch of fisherman. So, what can go wrong? Well we hear a “storm of great wind” arises which is fairly common, yet the disciples panic the waves are coming into the boat and the boat is starting to fill yet Jesus sleeps.
This got me to wondering what the boat looked like. Luckily there was one recently discovered that dates back to about that time.
“The Ancient Galilee Boat, also known as the Jesus Boat, is an ancient fishing boat from the 1st century AD, discovered in 1986 on the north-west shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. The remains of the boat, 27 feet (8.27 meters) long, 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) wide and with a maximum preserved height of 4.3 feet (1.3 meters), first appeared during a drought, when the waters of the Sea (actually a great fresh-water lake) receded.”
So Jesus could have been sleeping along some sort of seat since the boat is 7.5 feet wide but how did he not roll off in rough waters? How did he not get wet?
Now frankly either the Disciples are panicking for no reason or Jesus can sleep well balanced while rocking violently and wet!
I suspect, knowing the disciples, they were panicked for no good reason. Well maybe one Good reason, so that we might learn to trust the lord.
“As often happens in these parts, a storm comes up unexpectedly, and the disciples panic, accusing Jesus of indifference to their fate. Like someone calming a boisterous dog, Jesus orders the sea to behave (and it does), then rebukes the disciples, for the first time indicating the importance of faith to them.”
The importance of faith. The importance of trusting. The importance of looking to see God. Paying attention to see God active in your life, if you want to see Jesus show up, you must look for them.
How many times are we caught up in our own storms, our own mishaps, our own illnesses, weaknesses, needs, fears, our own got to have it because I want it moments? How many times do we, in our most significant hours of need lift prayers in dire earnest? How often in our least important moment of the day do we nonchalantly turn to the lord and just say please God. Yet in the end they all have the same measure, and, in the end, we rarely look to see the answer.
We rarely pause to say thank you lord. We rarely stop to acknowledge Gods presence. Now I am not saying we do not do it. We at least do it or think about it on a Sunday, but what about the other 6 days of the week? I am just asking because this little passage got me thinking.
Now this calming of the sea happened neither here nor there they are in route from one place to another where this miracle occurs. One commentator points out that.
“Jesus likes to show up in liminal spaces in Mark — sites of transition or risk. He chooses to go to marginal spaces, away from life’s regular patterns: near a graveyard (Mark 5:2-3), at a deathbed (Mark 5:40), or hoisted atop Golgotha. He situates himself at geographical boundary-lands, like the wilderness (Mark 1:4-9, 35), mountaintops (Mark 3:13; 6:46; 9:2), Tyre (Mark 7:24), and Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:27). He also goes to sociopolitical borderlands, politically charged locations like a tax collector’s home (Mark 2:14-15) and the land outside of Jerusalem during Passover (Mark 11:11, 19).
The Sea of Galilee was both kinds of places: geographically, it separated the peoples of one shore from those on the other side; socio-politically, it provided sustenance to Galileans and generated resources that Rome could extract from those who depended on it to make a living. It kept populations distanced from each other, and it fed imperial appetites”
This is important on two aspects symbolically calming the waters that are so agitated by imperial power could symbolize the effect Jesus’ life has on all powers that be. Eventually they will calm by Christs command.
The first part of this comment that “Jesus likes to show up in the liminal spaces. I just love. Jesus in the in between space. That spot where you are neither in nor out that place where we are neither here nor there. The scariest of all places for it is in the liminal space where we tend to be the most insecure, the most frightened, and sometimes the most lost. It is in these places that we often go in prayer to seek out answers. It is in these the most difficult of times in life that Jesus shows up.
But we would never see or hear Jesus, the sprit, God if we do not stop and listen. I am not sure if Jesus’ command to be still is strictly for the sea but for the disciples as well.
Stillness is one of the most sacred traditions of how we find God in our home, in our offices, out and about. Being still is about well as the old song says putting our hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters. Tehra Cox, author. Lyricist and word artist, shares her new found experience of stillness while on a walk.
Meditation Tehra Cox
“When I moved from the noisy concrete and steel canyons of New York City to a small Hudson Valley village with its serenely forested highlands, I was stunned by the radical change of scenery. As late summer turned into fall, my favorite season, nature’s magic began its work on me. From one of my first autumn walks along the wooded mountain path behind the old Victorian house that was my new home, I was introduced to the uncanny voices of the natural world.
My first encounter with what I call “Earth-Speak” was nothing less than phenomenal for its impact on my life and sensibility. As I came around a bend at the top of the mountain, the lush goldenness of maples along the trail nearly took my breath away. They colored the very air around them. As I stood transfixed, it seemed that all the flora of the woods began to sway toward me. The dramatic red-orange-gold hues in all shapes and sizes were pulsating with light, sounds and scents so intoxicating that I wasn’t sure if I was breathing or drinking. Suddenly, I “heard” a whispering of words that I will never forget: “Ah yes, the very things you humans love about us – our different colors and shapes and smells and languages – are the things you often hate about each other. Alas, you have lost touch with your beauties because you have lost touch with us.”
Having just moved out of a city teeming with the tensions that densely-populated diversities of culture, creed, economy – and yes, race – too often provoke, this message was stunning and timely for me. During that first year of “life in the country,” I became unusually acquainted with this sentient world. In my daily walks with pen and paper, the presences of nature enfolded me in their lushness while I chronicled their wisdom-teachings. As these “inner tuitions” invited me to consider some of life’s most paradoxical mysteries, they required only one thing of me – to be utterly present and receptive. I didn’t know to call it that at the time – I was only aware that I felt light and free, as if all the space around the trees and the flowers and blades of grass was also around, and even inside, me.”
To be “utterly present and receptive” requires one to be still. To create our own in between space. Between the thing you have just finished and the next thing on your to do list. Many people begin their day with morning meditation, or quiet time. I have my quite time in the morning in my office. But I also strive for a midday. Even I it is but 10 minutes just to still the mind and find God. Time to Be still…Slow down…listen for God and the spirit’s still small voice.
This is not easy to do and it does take dedication and practice. Did you know it takes three months of doing the same thing every day at the same time before it becomes a habit.
And we are not built the same for some absolute stillness is maddening. There are many ways to be still even while being active.
Thich Nhat Hanh was a mystic, scholar, activist, and Vietnamese monk author of over 25 books including Living Buddha Living Christ which I highly recommend for reading also has a books on walking mediatation.
“Many of us walk for the sole purpose of getting from one place to another. Now suppose we are walking to a sacred place. We would walk quietly and take each gentle step with reverence. I propose that we walk this way every time we walk on the earth. The earth is sacred and we touch her with each step. We should be very respectful, because we are walking on our mother. If we walk like that, then every step will be grounding, every step will be nourishing….
Walking meditation unites our body and our mind. We combine our breathing with our steps. When we breathe in, we may take two or three steps. When we breathe out, we may take three, four, or five steps. We pay attention to what is comfortable for our body.
Our breathing has the function of helping our body and mind to calm down. As we walk, we can say, Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I bring peace into my body. Calming the breath calms the body and reduces any pain and tension.”
We can also combine our breathing with a simple prayer or intention you whish to lift up as you walk. This calms and centers the mind, creates an inner stillness that makes room for God.
Many people engage this stillness by praying the Labyrinth. Labyrinths have been used as a sacred path and spiritual resource by pilgrims for centuries, and some say they originated as scaled-down pilgrimages for people who couldn’t travel to a holy place. Labyrinths can be made of stone, turf, or ink on paper, and they are different from mazes because they don’t have dead-ends, puzzles, or tricks. Instead, they form a winding path that leads to the center and back out again.
The meandering labyrinth pathway can be seen as a metaphor for life’s journey. Walking the labyrinth with the intention of revisiting one’s life can invite memories to appear and reform with new connections.
I have seen people walk the labyrinth in silence. I have seen people dance their way through the labyrinth. There is no right or wrong way to pray.
Finally I will mention art as a form of prayer. And yes we are all artists! For any type of creativity is an art form. That means cooking, writing, gardening, singing, knitting, photography and the list goes on and on. Sometimes though we need to be intentional about time for art and creativity. Personally I love the artist way as a spiritual growth tool and a practice.
“Since its first publication, The Artist’s Way phenomena has inspired …millions of readers to embark on a creative journey and find a deeper connection to process and purpose. Julia Cameron’s novel approach guides readers in uncovering problems areas and pressure points that may be restricting their creative flow and offers techniques to free up any areas where they might be stuck, opening up opportunities for self-growth and self-discovery.
The program begins with Cameron’s most vital tools for creative recovery – The Morning Pages, a daily writing ritual of three pages of stream-of-conscious, and The Artist Date, a dedicated block of time to nurture your inner artist. From there, she shares hundreds of exercises, activities, and prompts to help readers thoroughly explore each chapter. She also offers guidance on starting a “Creative Cluster” of fellow artists who will support you in your creative endeavors.”
The morning pages easily become a still focused prayer. The artist date becomes intentional time of creativity and connecting to the spirit as one explores artistic venues.
But all these things encourage us to find stillness, find prayer, engage and walk with God so that we may still our own troubled waters. amen
_______________________________________
[1] King, Nicholas. The Bible: A Study Bible. Buxhall, Stowmarket, Suffolk: Kevin Mayhew, 2013
[1] “Sea of Galilee.” Wikipedia. June 19, 2018. Accessed June 20, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_of_Galilee
[1] Ditto
[1] King, Nicholas. The Bible: A Study Bible. Buxhall, Stowmarket, Suffolk: Kevin Mayhew, 2013.
[1] “Commentary on Mark 4:35-41 by Matt Skinner.” Ephesians 2:11-22 Commentary by Kyle Fever – Working Preacher – Preaching This Week (RCL). Accessed June 20, 2018. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3677
[1] https://www.terahcox.com/blog/the-secret-language-of-earth-speak-by-terah-cox
[1] https://www.lionsroar.com/walking-meditation-thich-nhat-hanh/
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Way-25th-Anniversary
26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
The word of God for the People of God
Brian Suntken shares a story …“The bus dropped us off at the southeast corner of the Temple Mount and our guide, John, led us down a path to the ruins of the ancient City of David. Along the way, we came across a mustard plant. John stopped the group to show us what a mustard seed plant actually looked like. He pulled a pod off of the plant, opened it up and passed it around for all to see. The seeds where so small you could hardly make out the individual kernels. There were hundreds of seeds! And then John quoted Jesus: ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’
Naturally, in a group of clergy, we all got hot and bothered about finding a mustard plant and by the time the group had passed by this particular plant, there were very few pods left on the bush! I still carry my pod with me every day, after eleven years, in my computer bag. The pod has long ago disintegrated but many of the seeds remain in a small plastic bag: a reminder of my time in the holy city of Jerusalem.
The parable of the Mustard Seed is a very dangerous lesson if we know anything about the mustard plant. Pliny the Elder was a Roman author who lived in the first century of the Common Era, He wrote about his experience with the mustard plant in his encyclopedic Natural History[1]: “Mustard… with its pungent taste and fiery effect is extremely beneficial for the health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted: but on the other hand, when it is sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.[2]
Mark doesn’t have that many parables but the few he has are truly impactful.
This passage concludes an extended string of parables that start in Mark 3:23. When we look at all of Jesus parables in mark together, we can see a way of experiencing Jesus’ continuing ministry as the proclaimer and originator of the, though we do not know when or where, of the reign or “kingdom” of God. One commentator states “In the parables Jesus divulges enough to keep us from throwing up our hands in dismay later in Mark each time we encounter a disciple’s blunder or a command to keep Jesus’ identity secret.”[3]
So, what are Parables? Parables are stories used to compare two things alongside one another to provide metaphor, contrast, or reflection –”usually a reflection similar to the distortions that appear in a funhouse mirror”[4] Jesus’ parables, no matter how long or how short have a way of making his audience re-evaluate their beliefs and their assumptions.
The parables do not tell anyone definitively what heaven is or what the reign of God is supposed to look like, but they do make us want to seek new ways of looking at the world. Then they encourage us to see those glimpses of the kin-dom around us.
Here mark introduces two parables where Jesus is saying the reign of God is like this. Yet just to make all things clear he puts forth two separate images. Jesus speaks about seeds (a common metaphor for formation and education in ancient contexts). He uses these images to illustrate God’s kin-dom is coming and it will come whether you like it or not.
The first parable is of the growing seed.
“No other Gospel contains this parable. Probably because it’s boring. Its plot has all the suspenseful drama of an ordinary elementary-school life sciences textbook. There are no surprises. Everything proceeds according to plan. Jesus simply speaks about seeds and what they are supposed to do. They grow and produce. Moreover, they grow and produce without your help or your intricate knowledge of germination or photosynthesis or palea, thank you very much.”[5]
In other words, the reign of God is coming, it is taking root, it is growing. It will grow with your knowledge of it or without. It will grow among you to whom Jesus is speaking, it will grow among the poor and the outcast, it will grow in the empire despite the empire. The kingdom of God is a natural thing as natural as a seed growing.
I always think of our little mustard flower that can be found just about anywhere in America. However, the one Jesus is addressing is a different variety. The mustard plant can grow into a shrub especially the south African variety which is often what is found in the area of Jerusalem. There is a picture of the shrub shared in our story on the cover of your bulletin. It can get to be quite a healthy and pervasive plant.
John Dominic Crossan, in his book Jesus A Revolutionary Biography states that “the mustard plant is dangerous even when domesticated in the garden, and is deadly when growing wild in the grain fields. And those nesting birds, which may strike us as charming, represented to ancient farmers a permanent danger to the seed and to the grain. The point, in other words, is not just that the mustard plant starts as a proverbially small seed and grows into a shrub of three, four, or five feet in height. It is that it tends to take over where it is not wanted, that it tends to get out of control, and that it tends to attract birds within cultivated areas, where they are not particularly desired. And that, said Jesus, is what the Kingdom of God was like. Like a pungent shrub with dangerous take-over properties.[6]
In other words, the reign of God will take root — whether in the world, in imperial society, or in someone’s heart, Jesus does not specify. It will grow gradually and automatically (the New Revised Standard Version renders automate in Mark 4:26 as what the earth does “on its own”). It will grow perhaps so subtly that you won’t even notice, until at last it produces its intended fruit.
But Jesus goes on to describe two things that are well actually funny. The whole point of the mustard seed and the way it grows… Some of Jesus’ listeners must have groaned or chuckled. Imagine him speaking today of thistles or ground-ivy or better yet dandelions, but bigger, and more useful, since mustard has a range of medicinal qualities. In any case, the reign of God apparently isn’t much of a cash crop. Yet it grows. It is not easily eradicated. Good luck keeping it out of your well-manicured garden or your farmland. Better be careful what you pray for when you say, “Your kingdom come…”
The second point Jesus describes it as the greatest of shrubs well…. It can grow dense, but it is hardly magnificent. Jesus must be grinning as he speaks. He is not aiming to impart insights about the relative worth of shrubberies but to shock people into a new way of perceiving greatness.
And once the seed is planted there will be no control over it. It will grow naturally, it will grow willfully, and it will grow with the help of humans or without. Perhaps that was the sin of Rome trying to control where the spirit leads. Trying to benefit from kingdom of God as opposed to being servants within the kin-dom of God.
This parable contradicts the other parable of the seed where it falls on different soils and hardly survives in this message mark is saying it is the nature of God’s reign to grow and to manifest itself. That’s what it does. As a lamp belongs on a lampstand (Mark 4:21-22), God’s reign, like a seed, must grow, even if untended and even if its gradual expansion is nearly impossible to detect.
At first glance this story seems to bring comfort and well assumptions one already knows of the kin-dom of God. This points out that something very small will eventually morph into something much larger; also, something that appears obscure and insignificant will turn into something public and grand. Yet there is more: the reign of God won’t just grow for the sake of looking pretty, but creatures will find that it provides them shelter and security.
Not a majestic home or a pretty home but a secure home. Those flocks of birds those are not what one wants near their farm or gardens because they will eat and pick at the crops and plants. The landowner would be shoeing them away trying to protect his crop. Protect his world as he knows it. Not wanting to share with the uninvited guest and yet…
“so too it promises to upend a society’s ways of enforcing stability and relegating everyone to their “proper” places. The reign of God will mess with established boundaries and conventional values. Like a fast-replicating plant, it will get into everything. It will bring life and color to desolate places. It will crowd out other concerns. It will resist our manipulations. Its humble appearance will expose and mock pride and pretentiousness like a good burlesque show.”
There is story after story in the gospel of how Jesus walks and acts and does what this vision of the kin-dom of God is. In and through parables we get glimpses of this wild, out of control, kin-dom that is always seeking out new ways. Gods reign is upon us and yet often we choose to look the other way, or worse yet we tend to look backwards.
We are all guilty of it. When the spirit starts moving, we panic. We pull out all the old excuses …we have always done it this way…well we did this in the past and it worked then so let’s focus on what we did …do not move forward…do not change. We do this as individuals, as congregations, as associations, as conferences, and even as denominations.
Heck they even do it the old testament. “You may remember the story of the Hebrew nation escaping from slavery in Egypt. Moses led them out, God parted the Red Sea to get them to safety, and they began to cross the wilderness into the Promised Land.
The problem that occurred really began when the folks began to miss what they had in Egypt. According to the complainers, they had it made in the shade when they were slaves. They had pots full of meat, cucumbers, melons, garlic, leeks, and onions (and some good mouthwash, I hope).” [7]
We can find resistance in that other famous movement known as NIMBY. Not in my back yard. It is fine if as a church you want to feed the hungry, shoe the children, clothe the poor. But do not do it at your church it will attract the wrong kind of people.
You can hear the concern expressed and the wild kin-dom of god moving in this short article from the los Angeles daily news.
“On the second night after his church opened its parking lot to people living out of their cars, vans and other vehicles, Glenn Nishibayashi noticed a mother and daughter using one of the spaces.
He was interested in knowing how the previous evening worked out for them and went over to inquire.
“This was the first good night’s sleep I’ve had in weeks,” the woman told him.
She explained that she was more accustomed to fitful nights parked on the street, staying half-awake so she could be alert to potentially being approached by strangers or rousted by police officers.
Members of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church were initially concerned about the possible risks of opening up their parking lot to down-and-out strangers. But talking to the mother and daughter reassured Nishibayashi that their congregation had made the right decision to give the program a try.
“This is exactly what this program is for,” said the 61-year-old Nishibayashi, whose grandparents helped found the historically Japanese American church located in what is now Los Angeles’ Koreatown.
“It gets rid of that worry, so you can function so much better,” he said. “This told me we were doing exactly the right thing.”[8] There are always new and better ways of being church.
“For many, church time is a sobering time. But for a growing number of American Christians, it’s the best time to crack open a beer.
Just ask the so-called “Church-in-a-pub” gathering in Fort Worth, Texas, which worships at the Zio Carlo brewpub and toasts with craft beer. These Sunday evening services are meant to offer “salvation and everlasting life with really good beer,” according to a recent broadcast by NPR. The creative approach appears to be working: The event attracts about 30-40 congregants weekly, and the group is looking to expand to more locations.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recently deemed Church-in-a-pub a Synodically Authorized Worshipping Community.”[9]
The face of Christianity is always changing and the ways we serve those around us in need is evolving. The way people come together to worship is getting radical. The way sanctuary is expressed is always on the move.
“Twice a week, every Sunday and Monday night, around a dozen New Yorkers gather in long, candle-lit studio apartment nestled between a hair salon and some warehouses in one of Brooklyn’s latest hip neighborhoods. They’re actors, singers, seminarians and new parents, and they sit in groups of six around tables in one of the simplest and most untraditional Christian worship spaces the city has to offer.
St. Lydia’s Church has no pews, no altar, no vestments, no band or choir, and little formality of any kind. Instead, church means drums and chanting, with frequent references to Jesus; breaking bread and drinking communion grape juice; and a long, three-hour homemade vegetarian dinner punctuated by Bible readings, a sermon and frequent talk of what it means to be a young spiritual seeker in Brooklyn. The pastor is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but the members themselves range from atheist and agnostic to evangelical, Catholic and Episcopalian.”[10]
In San Francisco ministers walk the street at night. They stop by bars and social events to check on their congregation. They offer counseling and a friendly face to the indigent and the affluent alike. But their church has no walls.
“San Francisco Night Ministry, now at 54 years, is often referred to as the Church’s “Night Shift.” We are engaged in over 21,000 significant conversations, and serve over 9,500 meals each year, becoming an important bridge and steady support for many people as they face the darkness of the night, but not alone. We provide compassionate, non-judgmental pastoral care, care of the soul, counseling, referrals, and crisis intervention to anyone in any kind of distress, every night of the year between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. … the Night Ministry sponsors two Open Cathedrals. They are outdoor worship services — one in the Tenderloin and one in the Mission. They are weekly worship services followed by a time of sharing food. We provide meals and we also offer an opportunity for conversation and prayer and crisis intervention. We have a wellness program, a community-building program to extend our outreach to many more people in need. We believe that our work helps to make San Francisco a city that is healthier, safer, and more stable for all who live and work here.”[11]
The kin-dom of God is uncontrollable. It is as wild as the mustard seed and it thrives in the wild places, In parking lots and small apartments, in pubs and on the streets. For us this is a place a nourishment and soul enrichment but then…then what. You have to let the spirit move, let it take control if you have a vision or a concept that seems to far out there…well form what we just heard how far out can it be?
It is never too soon to start something new. There is no rule that says you must wait for a new settled pastor to start something. I truly believe there is great ministry opportunity in this community you just need to follow your heart to find it. Let some of that mustard seed wildness go and let it grow into a vison of the Uncontrollable Kingdom of God here and now. Amen!
[1] http://john13verse34.blogspot.com/2012/03/lent-2-thursday-mustard-seed.html
[2] Pliny, H. Rackham, W. H. S. Jones, and D. E. Eichholz. Natural History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991, 170-171
[3] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-11-2/commentary-on-mark-426-34-4
[4] Ditto
[5] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-11-2/commentary-on-mark-426-34-4
[6] Crossan, John Dominic. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. New York: HarperOne, 1995, page 65.
[7] http://davezuchelli.com/2016/10/back-egypt-committee/
[8] https://www.dailynews.com/2018/04/30/for-homeless-people-living-in-their-cars-southern-california-churches-temples-open-their-parking-lots/
[9] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/church-beer_n_4212545.html
[10] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/11/future-of-sacred-space_n_7228650.html
[11] http://www.sfnightministry.org/joomla/index.php/about/what-we-do
Who is in and who is out? We are family!
I open this reflection with a direct quote from sermon seeds, a ucc online resource because it sums up all that is happening so well…
“This scene from the early part of Jesus’ ministry, right after he has chosen his twelve apostles, feels almost as chaotic to read about as it must have seemed to those gathered around Jesus. It might be helpful to get a sense of how the Gospel of Mark itself feels–it’s no leisurely story with nice, long sermons and extended conversations (think the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, and the woman at the well, or Nicodemus, in John). The Marcan Jesus is on the move constantly, like a man on a mission with little time to spare and even less patience with people who like to criticize everything he does.
We’re only in the third chapter of Mark now, but a quick read of those first chapters is exhausting: Jesus has gone from his hometown to the wilderness to Galilee to the sea to Capernaum to a house to a deserted place and back out to the towns of Galilee (in just the first chapter) and then back to Capernaum and home, and then to the sea, and to Levi’s house, through the grain fields and to the synagogue, and then back to the sea, into a boat, before heading up the mountain where he gathers those twelve apostles around him, and then, finally, he goes home.
Imagine all this travel with desperate crowds around him (people “from every quarter,” 1:45), clinging to him, begging for healing, begging to be released from the demons that had hold of them, and then picture a group of carping critics picking at everything he did–breaking the rules about healing on the Sabbath, eating with tax collectors and sinners, and not fasting as they should. In other words, finding it more lawful to meet human need than to let human suffering go on unnecessarily: Jesus understood the heart of God’s Law.
Of course, we can understand that the crowds couldn’t help themselves: who among us would not do whatever it took to get our sick child, for example, to a healer who was doing the amazing things being attributed to Jesus? Still, it’s poignant to see how Jesus couldn’t even go home and have a meal in peace (a practice with much greater significance in that culture than we allow in our own).
In chapter two, people dig through his roof and drop a paralyzed person right next to him, hoping for a cure, and after admiring their faith and handling the criticism of the scribes when he forgives the man’s sins, Jesus tells the man to get up and walk. That healing amazes the crowd, of course, and makes Jesus even more sought-after, but it really gets the attention of the powers that be, which explains why they’re back again, all the way from Jerusalem, here in the third chapter, as Jesus tries once more to go into a house for a break from all this activity.
The problems with crowd control persist, so much so that Jesus can’t even have supper with his friends, his disciples. But he isn’t surrounded only by people who were willing to admit their brokenness and their need, along with those institutional critics who, we suspect by this time, are looking to find fault with Jesus rather than to affirm the wonderful thing God is doing in him. The growing crowd also includes, of all people, the family of Jesus: his mother and his brothers, who can’t even get inside the house and talk to him face to face.”[1]
That brings the next part of the text…Jesus’ family. We do not know exactly what prompted Jesus’ mother and brothers to come and well, give him a talking too…but it may have been the stirring up of the crowds…it may have been the exorcisms… Jesus was changing the conversation around sin and heaven and well it scared some people and his family might have been just scared for him too. It may have been they felt he needed a break…we just don’t know.
But here in the midst of bickering and crowds and confusion and family trying to push in and other people probably yelling hey we were here first. Your wrong about Jesus no your wrong about Jesus …Jesus heal me. Jesus teach me …in the middle of that confusion some one pauses and says hey Jesus your family is here…Jesus paused looked around him and said you are my family. Right here, right now, you are my family ….” whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister and mother.”
“the text reveals the startling truth that even Jesus had family problems. The dynamics that happen within familial relationships are part of the human condition. Evidence of this can even be found within the gospel passage highlighted this week. Family may be defined by blood lines of ancestry, secured by formal and informal adoption, or expanded to include ties voluntarily bound to be like family. “You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family” as an expression gets disproven by groups of people in small and large units as well as the biblical witness.”
“The family of Jesus–his mother and brothers–make their way through much of the crowd to reach the outside door of the house where Jesus was sitting. Scholars note that even such a small detail is significant: Judith Hoch Wray says that “house” is the “key word” here, and the understanding of who is on the inside and who is on the outside is central to the meaning of this passage .”[2]
Who is inside and who is outside of the “house?” Who is inside or outside of the church. That is a question that comes at me from so many ways. It stirs me up. It upsets me. It brings pain and joy and understanding and confusion all at once.
I recall a time when I was paying a bit more attention to this.. Maybe because it is Pride month…I don’t know…I think it started on face book someone asked what is cis gender? They wanted to know what it meant.
“Ryan Ashley Caldwell It’s when the gender you were assigned at birth actually matches the cultural gender expectations for presentation once older. It’s as if you’re saying “yes!” To your assigned at birth gender. (All this assumes a binary system and not a queer identity)”[3]
That is a great description it’s all very scientific…. until…one-person claims “labels used to divide and separate!” I pointed out that here are more terms to help understand and lift up and celebrate our glorious differences. He didn’t like that too much, the conversation went on until this
“The less united we are as a population (through divisive labels), the more manipulation can occur by the media and the more control can occur by the government. We can no longer be ______Insert name here (identified by those that know me with my quirks, foibles, etc.), we now have to be known by our labels… race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, pregnancy, citizenship, familial status, disability, veteran, genetic information… and yes, all the above are protected with the only class of people remaining without protection are white males 19-39 years of age unless they’re a religion other than Christian, are married, are disabled, or are a veteran.”[4]
Well I am assuming, from this post, this young man is white between the ages of 18-39 single, and considers himself Christian. Yikes …. who is in and who is out? Who is my family?
June 4th was the Pride flag raising from Hart plaza in Detroit, my hometown…When I was young and in Detroit we could barely have a pride rally for fear of retaliation and now they wave the pride flag with the mayor present and council people present. It really is amazing to see how far some communities have come and yet…the ACLU is tracking 515 anti LGBTIQQ pieces of legislation across this country..
A few years ago a minister who is serving in a UCC church shared some pain. “This last Sunday during my sermon, I revealed that I was transgender and transitioning. (I should begin by saying we are an ONA congregation, and the leadership of the church already knew I was transgender.)
The initial response from the congregation was either positive and supportive, or neutral. I heard nothing that was negative to my face. All day Monday I was in the office and not a word was said to me about my revelation. There was a great deal more silence in my presence than normal from the church staff who are also on council (I know, you bad idea, small congregation, old practices die hard.)
I found out last night that our Council President had called in our Association General Minister to attend our Council Meeting this evening (and did so without consulting with other folks on Council.) Please pray that tonight’s meeting will be civil, that love will prevail, and God’s will be done.”
I reached out to her and she basically said I am treading water right now…It did work out fine but. No one…no one should have to tread water in the United Church of Christ, or any Church for that matter! This is unacceptable and yet it goes on day after day. Sometimes in more subtle ways…If we hire a gay pastor, they will turn us into a gay church! It’s okay to be a gay Pastor just don’t talk about it. Here is one I got from the LAPD before being approved as a chaplain …please do not evangelize your openly gay agenda??? I am not sure what that would even mean.
To this day there are 64 countries that Criminalize same sex relations. Ther are 40 countries that countries criminalize private, consensual sexual activity between women. There are 12 countries have jurisdictions in which the death penalty is imposed or at least a possibility for private, consensual same-sex sexual activity. At least 6 of these implement the death penalty – Iran, Northern Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen – and the death penalty is a legal possibility in Afghanistan, Brunei, Mauritania, Pakistan, Qatar, UAE and Uganda. 14 countries criminalise the gender identity and/or expression of transgender people, using so-called ‘cross-dressing’, ‘impersonation’ and ‘disguise’ laws.
One other note about this week this Sunday they are celebrating Pride in Los Angeles, which incidentally was founded by Christian ministers, Rev. Bob Humphries (founder of the United States Mission), Morris Kight (a founder of the Gay Liberation Front), and Rev. Troy Perry (founder of the Metropolitan Community Church) they came up with the idea as a way to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall uprisings. but before all the festivities today thousands of people on Bikes rode in after riding all week, 545 miles from San Francisco to los Angeles raising over 11 million dollars for the San Francisco Aids foundation and los Angeles LGBT Center both supplying life saving service.
On the opposite end of that the house republicans passed a bill fr funding vet services and attached to it were bills deny gender affirming care for veterans and a rule saying vet services cannot fly a rainbow flag anywhere on government property.
For generations the LGBTQ community and many others have sought out their own kind, like-minded people and declared them their family, a family of choice, a family of necessity, just as Jesus did in this gospel reading today.
I saw a wonderful meme yesterday which answers a question so often heard; “when is straight Pride?” The meme says straight Pride would be equivalent to having soup kitchens for the Poor.
This is why we are an open and affirming congregation and why the ONA movement is crucial. To this day only about a third of UCC churches are intentionally proclaiming to be ONA.
The Gay community is a family! We are a family! A family of loving and supporting Christians. We Live in a community that needs healing and safe places for all families. I pray we continue to reach out and let everyone know that is just who we are! Amen
[1] http://www.ucc.org/worship_samuel_sermon_seeds_june_10_2018
[2] http://www.ucc.org/worship_samuel_sermon_seeds_june_10_2018
[3] https://www.facebook.com
[4] https://www.facebook.com
Today’s Gospel reading has us again abiding with, remaining in God. Living out the Great commandment to love one another “that our Joy may be complete!” Jesus is lifting up his followers claiming and proclaiming; I no longer call you servants but “I call you friends”. So Lovely, what a beautiful concept it calls to mind the old hymn Oh what a friend we have in Jesus… A friend of Jesus a friend in God….
Let me share this Fred Craddock story….
Fred explains that for some reason he had never preached on this verse before and he found himself a little nervous;
“From servant to friend – do you welcome, will you accept this promotion?…
I must acknowledge that my trembling before john 15:15 has an antecedent in a sermon heard almost twenty years ago on a kindred theme: Abraham was called a friend of God James 2:23 The preacher, a large man, made painfully awkward by a number of maladies, including poor eyesight, moved to the pulpit and read in crippled speech his sermon text James 2:23.
His opening words were, “Abraham was a friend of God. I’m sure glad I am not a friend of God.” His sermon was an explanation of why he was pleased not to be a friend of God…. (Fred goes on to explain)
I cannot recall being so engaged in a sermon… He recalled the story of Abraham, pilgrim and wanderer, who, after years of homelessness, died and was buried in a land not his own. “Abraham was a friend of God,” He said; “I’m glad I’m not. “He then spoke of others who had been called friends of God, faithful in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword. He concluded with Teresa of Avila, remembered by the church as a friend of God. He recalled her begging in public to raise funds for an orphanage. After a series of setbacks- flood, storm and fire repeatedly destroying the orphanage- Teresa in her evening prayers said to God, “So this is how you treat your friends; no wonder you have so few.” The sermon closed with Counsel: if you find yourself being drawn into the inner circle of the friends of God, blessed are you. But pray for strength to bear the burden of it.”[1]
Oh what a friend we have in Jesus… Cradock’s story does make one pause
One way this Easter season can be described is “trekking through John’s Gospel!” This passage is more of the same of last weeks passage it is a continuation of Jesus’ farewell speech. So, we are still on the move, called to remain in Christ’s love. To make our Home in Christ and allow Christ to make a home in us.
This part of Jesus’ teaching opens with as the father has loved me so I have loved you and ends with I am giving you these commandments so that you can love one another. A Nice pair of Book ends. But the opening verse does make me ask or ponder and wonder: how has Jesus loved us as God loves Jesus? What is this mirror image supposed to tell us about Jesus’ love for his people, the love in which we are to remain?
Well, there are some things we learn as we have walk with Jesus through the Gospels… “God’s love towards Jesus is demanding, full of presence and promise, rich in public displays of God’s power. It prunes, cleanses, molds, forms, challenges, and supports Jesus in his ministry. This is the love of Jesus Christ in which we are invited to abide.”[2] or remain.
This is the Love we are called to live into, a love fully and completely around us at all times, Challenging us to do better, to be better. This love we are called into is full of the promise of being welcomed home into the eternal love that is God.
Jesus emphatically says this road of remaining in me consists in keeping his commandments (John 15:10). So, what is Jesus’ commandments he is requiring us to keep? This is the little trick in John…John assumes his readers and his community know the stories of Christ including the great Commandment. Jesus again urges his disciples to do this since he has kept God’s commandments, and the results of such remaining, the results of that love were observable in all he did, and we can still live into that presence today!
One commentator reflects that in the first two versus of this reading we can imaging “a parent leaning over a young baby, with smiles, trying to elicit smiles, and with gestures encouraging the baby to do the same as the parent.” Of course, how many parents recall trying to get their baby to smile and they get everything other than a smile? Jesus knows we are human. Yet, Jesus’ use of himself as the model for love, and for commandment keeping, is anchored in daily life. One imagines his encouragement: “You can do this! You can do this because I have done it, and I am here to show you how to do it.”
“Verse 11; “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” This, this is an odd outcome, this is not one would expect to hear…the result of keeping Christs commandments is Joy–joy. And not just any joy, but the joy of Jesus the Christ, a complete joy. I would even venture to say an incomprehensible joy. But what does this mean? What does this Joy look like? I believe it means an exuberance of faith that nothing can destroy. It means a deep-seated sense of happiness that is not merely emotion alone, but also a lively pleasure in the things of God. It is such a deep-rooted joy that even in the most challenging of times we can find a comfort or even a bit of holy sarcasm…remember Teresa’s prayer…in the face of extreme adversity she can comfortably come to God and say so this is how you treat your friends…
This passage gives a view of what we are truly called to as Christians.
These words of Jesus effectively combine human action, the fulfilling of his commandments, love God with your whole heart and love your neighbor, with a radical human emotion as their effect, Joy! remaining in Jesus the risen Lord is not a matter of grim-faced respectability or dour commandment keeping −it is a joy, a holy hilarity!
Right here is the great commandment, as Jesus reminds us is “that you love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12). love one another. Jesus extends the depths and extent of this love by saying the greatest expression of love is dying for one’s friends.
Let me say this… there are many ways of dying that do not require a cross.
Giving up time or a want, so that another may be happy, sacrificing a meal so another may eat, walking a little further down a road so one does not have to be alone. These are all little deaths, deaths of one’s own ego. Sacrificing of our time, talent and giving up our many ways of being self-serving and becoming self-sacrificing truly this is laying down one’s life for their friends.
Biblical commentators have pointed out some interesting issues of which to be aware of in verses 12 and 13. In these verses, Jesus is speaking of love between and among friends. What about the enemies? The strangers? Would one die for love of these as well? Well, well, well, what about that…if we love our neighbor no matter who that is…how can they be an enemy. Often one is heard to ask who is my neighbor? Who am I called to love, who is my friend that I am called to love? Well…mm mm…ok who is my enemy, who, I mean really who is your enemy? Who is so excluded from our world view that we can truly claim them as an enemy. In Mathew we are reminded you have heard love your neighbor, but I say love your enemies.
In this day and age, we may feel we have enemies at times, but do we really? Aren’t our true enemies empire? Perhaps our enemies are attitudes of what mine is mine and what yours is mine, or attitudes of superiority which can easily be seen in white privilege and male dominance or the way society may scapegoat a particular ethnic population. The list could go on and on. But we do not, as Christians, have people as enemies. I believe we have behaviors, attitudes and egos to resist and hearts and minds to change!
Jesus reminds us “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”, Jesus then clarifies how he regards his disciples. They are not strangers, nor merely disciples, and certainly not just servants: they are friends.
Jesus notes the reason he calls them “friends” is he has shared the riches of all he has with them, in terms of his relationship with God. “I have made known to you everything…” (John 15:15). Here Jesus’ offer of the intimacy of friendship is overwhelming. To live in the love of Jesus, Jesus the Risen Lord, is to be invited into friendship with God. There it is, we are invited. Through the Gospels Jesus has made known to us everything as well and so we are called to be friends of God.
Friends of God. The reality of the friendship with Jesus that is offered, in full disclosure is this; To know the Risen Christ is to know the heart of God. Then Jesus reminds us we did not choose Christ but Christ chose us…We are chosen just as the disciples are chosen John 15:16 and then we are reminded of what it means to be a disciple, a follower of Christ…Go and bear fruit …fruit that will last.
We are receiving something we did not create, go searching for, or earn on our own. This is pure grace…the gifted-ness of God.
But there is responsibility attached to the work of fruit bearing. Not only are we to do it, but we are to bear “fruit that will last.”
Bearing fruit means making wise choices and decisions for the work of and on behalf of God. It means acting thoughtfully over a life time; discerning what thoughts, words, and actions best serve the intentions of a loving God in this world.
Let us Pray as we continue to grow in God that we be that loving presence of Christ, just as Christ is that loving presence in us. So that all around us one by one hearts and minds may be changed, bent towards the arch of love. That truly is fruit that will last!
[1] The collected sermons of Fred B Craddock189-190
[2] Sermon seeds
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