Jesus had gone to the land by the Sea of Galilee. The people followed him there because they were intrigued by the healing power in his touch and the common sense in his teaching.
On this day there were more than 5,000 gathered to listen and to watch. They apparently didn’t pay much attention to the time or to the growling in their bellies. Jesus knew they needed to be fed with more than his words and his touch so he asked Philip where they could buy bread to feed them.
Can you get a picture of this in your head, 5,000 people, no money, and your Master wants you to tell him where to buy bread? Was he crazy or was he trying to make a point? He was the Teacher so you know he wanted us to learn from him.
In Mark’s gospel he says that Jesus said, “You feed them.” In John Andrew brings the food that a young boy had brought with him for lunch, five loaves of bread and two fish.
Do you think what Jesus did was a miracle, feeding more than 5,000 people with just one boy’s lunch? How did it happen? How did God make it enough to feed them all?
Do we really need to know the answer? I don’t think so. The point, and I need to be reminded of this often, is, God can do great and wondrous things with the smallest contributions from us.
What did Paul say in his letter to the Ephesians? “God can do anything …far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.”
Friends, it’s all God’s grace and our faith, and that’s a gift from God too. When we are called by God to do something like feed his children we are to be reminded of what God did through Jesus on that grassy knoll by the Sea of Galilee with five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus fed 5,000, actually about double that when you count the women and children, with one boy’s lunch. Just think what he can do with what you bring to his table. You might think that you don’t have anything God could use to feed his children but you do.
God made everyone of us for a particular purpose. He has granted all of us with a gift to be used to further his kingdom. We may be afraid to step out of the boat and take the first step but Jesus tells us, “Don’t be afraid.”
Jesus has asked us to feed them. Jesus asks us to feed each other. Jesus asks us to make disciples. We might think he’s crazy but remember he’s God and he can do anything.
What’s in your basket? What are the five loaves and two fish that you bring? Will you let God bless them and multiply them so that his children can be fed? I pray that you will trust enough in God to let him increase the gifts he has blessed you with.
Friends, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Redemption, Forgiveness, and Grace
How many of you here today remember S & H Green stamps? Just for those who may be younger and never heard of Green stamps I’ll tell you what they were.
Every time we would buy things in grocery stores or gas stations we would get so many Green Stamps. When we got home we would lick them and put them in books. There was a catalog with different things that we could purchase by redeeming the books of stamps. We would take the books to the redemption center and tell them what we wanted and they would take the books, count them and make sure that all the pages were filled with stamps. Sometimes whatever we were buying wouldn’t need a full book and then they’d tear out just the pages needed. It’s kind of like the stamps that Subway issues when you buy their sandwiches.
It seemed as if everyone collected stamps. There were gold ones, green ones, and then there were coupons that came with cigarettes that could be saved and redeemed for items from catalogs. It gave us something to dream about and plan what we do with the thing we were saving stamps for.
Paul uses the word redemption in his letter to the Ephesians. Instead of stamps or coupons our lives are redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. So what does it mean to have our lives redeemed?
In the times when the Old Testament was written the people of the Mediterranean area were divided into different social classes and whatever class you were born into was the class you were in for the rest of your life. That is unless you got yourself in debt and you lost the family property. Or you broke the law of the region and you were thrown into prison. Then your social status changed, dramatically. And you could only regain your place on the social ladder if someone would redeem you. In Israel this could only happen if one of the next of kin were able to perform the task. They in fact were obligated by Jewish law to assume the role of the redeemer. The next of kin almost had to be someone of great wealth in order for this to work. You couldn’t be restored to your original status without some money or something of great value being exchanged for whatever it was that had put you where you were.
In the Old Testament God usually isn’t portrayed as the sponsor of redemption but the one from whom beings were redeemed. In other words something of value had to be put up as a substitute to make compensation for the wrong that was done.
Just about all the way through the Old Testament the basic understanding of redemption is very close to the basic social meaning. Something of value had to be exchanged for redemption. If a person lost their social status then God would make it happen for them they would be restored to their former position on life’s ladder.
In the New Testament the work of redeeming lost souls is a joint effort with God and Jesus working together. Sometimes the redemption took place in a person’s lifetime and other times Jesus talked about redemption happening sometime in the future, in the end times.
Now we can understand having to pay a price for a wrong that’s been done but we have a very difficult time understanding and getting our head around forgiveness that’s freely bestowed on anyone. We like it when it happens to us but we find it hard to accept when someone else gets off the hook without suffering. That’s the human point of view.
God on the other hand doesn’t do things the way we would. He’s willing to forgive us for our sins; in fact he has forgiven us for our sins. He doesn’t say that we’ll get off without punishment but we are promised that our sins will be forgiven. And that’s good news for us, since most of us couldn’t come up with enough to compensate God for the things we’ve done wrong in this life.
Friends, that’s grace. That’s a free gift from God and even though we feel indebted to God for it there’s nothing we can do to pay him back for it.
He has forgiven us. The slate has been wiped clean. Our sin is gone from his mind. He doesn’t keep bringing it up to remind us how bad we’ve been. It’s gone forever from his book.
Now if we could just do a better job ourselves of forgiving each other for the things we do that hurt our family and friends. Jesus taught that in order for us to receive forgiveness we are obligated to forgive others. It’s not that easy to do.
It’s not an easy thing, this being a follower of Jesus, admitting our sin, accepting forgiveness, forgiving our brothers and sisters, being disciples, and sharing this love and forgiveness freely with everyone around us.
And sometimes it can be downright dangerous. There are people in this world who don’t want to hear about Jesus and they’ll hurt and maybe even kill you for talking about Jesus. Look what happened to John when he let it be known that what Herod was doing was wrong. Eventually it cost him his life. The same thing happened to Jesus. He stood up and held the religious of his day accountable for the wrongs they were doing to the children of God. It cost him his life to go against the political powers of 1st century Palestine.
It was all part of God’s plan to save the world but it wasn’t easy knowing the pain and anguish that was required.
Because of the sacrifice of Jesus for us God lavishes on us the riches of his grace. I don’t think we can even begin to understand what that all means. We may never totally understand it until we feast at Christ’s table in glory.
God has redeemed us through the blood that Jesus poured out on the cross. We have been forgiven totally for our sins against God and each other. And it’s all grace. We have been restored to new life. Our lives have purpose.
That’s why we come here to worship. Since we have been redeemed we can then spend the rest of our lives praising God and giving him all the glory.
As we hear every time we witness a baptism, we are marked with the seal of the promise of the Holy Spirit. We are free to be all that God has planned for us to be.
We may think we’re already free but unless we give our lives totally to Jesus we haven’t even begun to experience the true joy of freedom in the Lord.
Friends believe the good news. You have been redeemed, forgiven, and given new life in Jesus Christ. Accept it, believe it, and share the good news with everyone you meet.
Brothers and sisters, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Every time we would buy things in grocery stores or gas stations we would get so many Green Stamps. When we got home we would lick them and put them in books. There was a catalog with different things that we could purchase by redeeming the books of stamps. We would take the books to the redemption center and tell them what we wanted and they would take the books, count them and make sure that all the pages were filled with stamps. Sometimes whatever we were buying wouldn’t need a full book and then they’d tear out just the pages needed. It’s kind of like the stamps that Subway issues when you buy their sandwiches.
It seemed as if everyone collected stamps. There were gold ones, green ones, and then there were coupons that came with cigarettes that could be saved and redeemed for items from catalogs. It gave us something to dream about and plan what we do with the thing we were saving stamps for.
Paul uses the word redemption in his letter to the Ephesians. Instead of stamps or coupons our lives are redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ. So what does it mean to have our lives redeemed?
In the times when the Old Testament was written the people of the Mediterranean area were divided into different social classes and whatever class you were born into was the class you were in for the rest of your life. That is unless you got yourself in debt and you lost the family property. Or you broke the law of the region and you were thrown into prison. Then your social status changed, dramatically. And you could only regain your place on the social ladder if someone would redeem you. In Israel this could only happen if one of the next of kin were able to perform the task. They in fact were obligated by Jewish law to assume the role of the redeemer. The next of kin almost had to be someone of great wealth in order for this to work. You couldn’t be restored to your original status without some money or something of great value being exchanged for whatever it was that had put you where you were.
In the Old Testament God usually isn’t portrayed as the sponsor of redemption but the one from whom beings were redeemed. In other words something of value had to be put up as a substitute to make compensation for the wrong that was done.
Just about all the way through the Old Testament the basic understanding of redemption is very close to the basic social meaning. Something of value had to be exchanged for redemption. If a person lost their social status then God would make it happen for them they would be restored to their former position on life’s ladder.
In the New Testament the work of redeeming lost souls is a joint effort with God and Jesus working together. Sometimes the redemption took place in a person’s lifetime and other times Jesus talked about redemption happening sometime in the future, in the end times.
Now we can understand having to pay a price for a wrong that’s been done but we have a very difficult time understanding and getting our head around forgiveness that’s freely bestowed on anyone. We like it when it happens to us but we find it hard to accept when someone else gets off the hook without suffering. That’s the human point of view.
God on the other hand doesn’t do things the way we would. He’s willing to forgive us for our sins; in fact he has forgiven us for our sins. He doesn’t say that we’ll get off without punishment but we are promised that our sins will be forgiven. And that’s good news for us, since most of us couldn’t come up with enough to compensate God for the things we’ve done wrong in this life.
Friends, that’s grace. That’s a free gift from God and even though we feel indebted to God for it there’s nothing we can do to pay him back for it.
He has forgiven us. The slate has been wiped clean. Our sin is gone from his mind. He doesn’t keep bringing it up to remind us how bad we’ve been. It’s gone forever from his book.
Now if we could just do a better job ourselves of forgiving each other for the things we do that hurt our family and friends. Jesus taught that in order for us to receive forgiveness we are obligated to forgive others. It’s not that easy to do.
It’s not an easy thing, this being a follower of Jesus, admitting our sin, accepting forgiveness, forgiving our brothers and sisters, being disciples, and sharing this love and forgiveness freely with everyone around us.
And sometimes it can be downright dangerous. There are people in this world who don’t want to hear about Jesus and they’ll hurt and maybe even kill you for talking about Jesus. Look what happened to John when he let it be known that what Herod was doing was wrong. Eventually it cost him his life. The same thing happened to Jesus. He stood up and held the religious of his day accountable for the wrongs they were doing to the children of God. It cost him his life to go against the political powers of 1st century Palestine.
It was all part of God’s plan to save the world but it wasn’t easy knowing the pain and anguish that was required.
Because of the sacrifice of Jesus for us God lavishes on us the riches of his grace. I don’t think we can even begin to understand what that all means. We may never totally understand it until we feast at Christ’s table in glory.
God has redeemed us through the blood that Jesus poured out on the cross. We have been forgiven totally for our sins against God and each other. And it’s all grace. We have been restored to new life. Our lives have purpose.
That’s why we come here to worship. Since we have been redeemed we can then spend the rest of our lives praising God and giving him all the glory.
As we hear every time we witness a baptism, we are marked with the seal of the promise of the Holy Spirit. We are free to be all that God has planned for us to be.
We may think we’re already free but unless we give our lives totally to Jesus we haven’t even begun to experience the true joy of freedom in the Lord.
Friends believe the good news. You have been redeemed, forgiven, and given new life in Jesus Christ. Accept it, believe it, and share the good news with everyone you meet.
Brothers and sisters, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Called
If someone were to ask you what it’s like to be called by God to a particular mission or work how would you describe it? When God called you how did you respond? Do people who know you know that you’ve been called by God? How do they accept that? Did they know you when you were growing up and making the usual teenage mistakes? Do they remember those mistakes and have a hard time believing that you’ve grown up, both physically and mentally?
That’s kind of the problem Jesus encountered when he went home to Nazareth. He went to the meeting place to teach. More than likely he was invited because they knew he was a rabbi and they’d heard about the things he’d taught and the people he’d helped.
Mark tells us they were amazed at his teaching. They knew him when and they couldn’t believe that he’d become so wise. How’d that happen? Has anyone ever said the same thing about you?
They were amazed at his wisdom and his debating abilities but then just as quickly they turned. After all they’d seen him grow up and he wasn’t anything special then. He was just a carpenter’s son who repaired doors, roofs, wagons, anything made out of wood he fixed it or learned how to fix it. His home town “friends” couldn’t believe it was possible for him to be a learned rabbi with disciples.
And so Jesus wasn’t able to do much good there because his hometown just didn’t believe in him. Not that they needed to have faith to be healed but even if he had cured lepers, made lame people walk, and cast out demons would they have believed that he was God’s Son? Not likely so why expend the energy to do something that wouldn’t make any difference in their belief. There were others in Galilee who wanted to hear the Good News and were willing to have their faith made stronger.
Have you ever experienced anything like that? Have you ever been rejected by your old friends because they couldn’t believe that you could ever change from what you were when you were growing up? If you have, then you have some idea what that feels like and you can empathize with Jesus.
Mark doesn’t say that Jesus knocked the dust from his sandals in Nazareth but he does say that he left there and went to other villages where he taught.
So he wasn’t received well in his hometown. He just moved on. There was no need to waste anymore time there. There were others who needed to hear the Message of the Way.
Jesus knew at some point his work here would end. Spreading the Good News would then rest solely on the shoulders of his disciples. Before he left them he had to be sure that they understood what it was they were being called to do.
So Jesus sent them out in pairs to preach. If someone called and said you will be leaving today with a friend to go to, oh let’s say Alabama, you would immediately begin thinking about what clothes and shoes you should pack and how much money you would need so you could buy food and so forth. But Jesus didn’t give his disciples time to do any of that. They were to go with just what they had right then, nothing extra. They didn’t have any vouchers that would allow them to stay in any Super 8’s or Comfort Inns or even a Motel 6. No, they were going to have to depend on the hospitality of strangers they would meet in the towns they traveled to. What about that? That required quite a leap of faith.
Now before you jump to the conclusion that you could never do that remember that they had been with Jesus for a while. They had been sitting at the feet of the Rabbi listening and learning. He had been preparing them for this work. And he sent them out in pairs so that they could encourage each other, help each other, and protect each other. He gave them authority, power over evil opposition, unclean spirits.
He didn’t promise them that they would be accepted everywhere they went. But he told them what to do if they weren’t. Just shrug your shoulders, accept that they weren’t interested in hearing the Message and go on their way to the next village.
But still, we can see that this required a huge amount of faith, not only in God’s providence but in the hospitality of their fellowmen. I’m trying to imagine what that would be like for me if I used this philosophy when I take off on RAGBRAI. Just ride into town and stop at a house and ask if I can camp in their yard. And, “Oh by the way would you be able to put me up for supper? And do you suppose I could use your shower?”
It sounds funny doesn’t it? But I’m not going on RAGBRAI to spread the Good News. I guess I don’t really know what God has planned for me. Who knows who I might meet.
The whole point of this gospel lesson is about faith, trusting in God’s providence. It forces us to think about our own faith, the strength of it or the lack of it whichever the case may be.
The Twelve trusted that Jesus knew what he was doing and so they went out. They may have had some doubts when they first stepped out but that changed as they began to teach and heal and cast out evil. Their faith grew and they came back filled with excitement over what they were able to accomplish.
So what about you? You knew I was going to come to this point sooner or later, didn’t you? What has God called you to do? What is he calling you to do? What is he asking you to leave behind or to give up before you begin?
It’s at this point, when the question is directed at us, that we begin to look at our lives and do an assessment. We come face to face with our priorities and they may not match what God is calling us to do.
Jesus calls us to give up our old life and follow him. We are called to leave everything behind, pick up our cross, put on the yoke of Jesus, and go out and make disciples of the world.
Friends, Jesus is calling us to go out into the world and spread the Good News. Leave all our bags behind and trust in God to provide. If no one listens to our story, so what, we move on to the next place down the street.
I don’t know for sure if God is asking us to give up our savings entirely but I do believe that God is asking us to go out and share our stories about how God is working in our lives with our families and friends so that they can hear and see what a great God we worship.
I believe that God would like us to make our lives less complicated so that we could work for him with fewer things to worry about.
Last week I talked about when healing began. I said that I believe healing begins when we have faith. It may not be a very big faith but it is faith. I also believe that we can be sent by God to proclaim the Good News if we just have faith, faith in God and faith in the folks we are sent to visit.
As John Ortberg said, “If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat.” If others are going to know about Jesus and God’s love for them we all have to tell our stories.
You’ve been tagged by God. You’re it. It’s your turn to step out onto the road with faith that God is beside you all the way.
Friends, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.
That’s kind of the problem Jesus encountered when he went home to Nazareth. He went to the meeting place to teach. More than likely he was invited because they knew he was a rabbi and they’d heard about the things he’d taught and the people he’d helped.
Mark tells us they were amazed at his teaching. They knew him when and they couldn’t believe that he’d become so wise. How’d that happen? Has anyone ever said the same thing about you?
They were amazed at his wisdom and his debating abilities but then just as quickly they turned. After all they’d seen him grow up and he wasn’t anything special then. He was just a carpenter’s son who repaired doors, roofs, wagons, anything made out of wood he fixed it or learned how to fix it. His home town “friends” couldn’t believe it was possible for him to be a learned rabbi with disciples.
And so Jesus wasn’t able to do much good there because his hometown just didn’t believe in him. Not that they needed to have faith to be healed but even if he had cured lepers, made lame people walk, and cast out demons would they have believed that he was God’s Son? Not likely so why expend the energy to do something that wouldn’t make any difference in their belief. There were others in Galilee who wanted to hear the Good News and were willing to have their faith made stronger.
Have you ever experienced anything like that? Have you ever been rejected by your old friends because they couldn’t believe that you could ever change from what you were when you were growing up? If you have, then you have some idea what that feels like and you can empathize with Jesus.
Mark doesn’t say that Jesus knocked the dust from his sandals in Nazareth but he does say that he left there and went to other villages where he taught.
So he wasn’t received well in his hometown. He just moved on. There was no need to waste anymore time there. There were others who needed to hear the Message of the Way.
Jesus knew at some point his work here would end. Spreading the Good News would then rest solely on the shoulders of his disciples. Before he left them he had to be sure that they understood what it was they were being called to do.
So Jesus sent them out in pairs to preach. If someone called and said you will be leaving today with a friend to go to, oh let’s say Alabama, you would immediately begin thinking about what clothes and shoes you should pack and how much money you would need so you could buy food and so forth. But Jesus didn’t give his disciples time to do any of that. They were to go with just what they had right then, nothing extra. They didn’t have any vouchers that would allow them to stay in any Super 8’s or Comfort Inns or even a Motel 6. No, they were going to have to depend on the hospitality of strangers they would meet in the towns they traveled to. What about that? That required quite a leap of faith.
Now before you jump to the conclusion that you could never do that remember that they had been with Jesus for a while. They had been sitting at the feet of the Rabbi listening and learning. He had been preparing them for this work. And he sent them out in pairs so that they could encourage each other, help each other, and protect each other. He gave them authority, power over evil opposition, unclean spirits.
He didn’t promise them that they would be accepted everywhere they went. But he told them what to do if they weren’t. Just shrug your shoulders, accept that they weren’t interested in hearing the Message and go on their way to the next village.
But still, we can see that this required a huge amount of faith, not only in God’s providence but in the hospitality of their fellowmen. I’m trying to imagine what that would be like for me if I used this philosophy when I take off on RAGBRAI. Just ride into town and stop at a house and ask if I can camp in their yard. And, “Oh by the way would you be able to put me up for supper? And do you suppose I could use your shower?”
It sounds funny doesn’t it? But I’m not going on RAGBRAI to spread the Good News. I guess I don’t really know what God has planned for me. Who knows who I might meet.
The whole point of this gospel lesson is about faith, trusting in God’s providence. It forces us to think about our own faith, the strength of it or the lack of it whichever the case may be.
The Twelve trusted that Jesus knew what he was doing and so they went out. They may have had some doubts when they first stepped out but that changed as they began to teach and heal and cast out evil. Their faith grew and they came back filled with excitement over what they were able to accomplish.
So what about you? You knew I was going to come to this point sooner or later, didn’t you? What has God called you to do? What is he calling you to do? What is he asking you to leave behind or to give up before you begin?
It’s at this point, when the question is directed at us, that we begin to look at our lives and do an assessment. We come face to face with our priorities and they may not match what God is calling us to do.
Jesus calls us to give up our old life and follow him. We are called to leave everything behind, pick up our cross, put on the yoke of Jesus, and go out and make disciples of the world.
Friends, Jesus is calling us to go out into the world and spread the Good News. Leave all our bags behind and trust in God to provide. If no one listens to our story, so what, we move on to the next place down the street.
I don’t know for sure if God is asking us to give up our savings entirely but I do believe that God is asking us to go out and share our stories about how God is working in our lives with our families and friends so that they can hear and see what a great God we worship.
I believe that God would like us to make our lives less complicated so that we could work for him with fewer things to worry about.
Last week I talked about when healing began. I said that I believe healing begins when we have faith. It may not be a very big faith but it is faith. I also believe that we can be sent by God to proclaim the Good News if we just have faith, faith in God and faith in the folks we are sent to visit.
As John Ortberg said, “If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat.” If others are going to know about Jesus and God’s love for them we all have to tell our stories.
You’ve been tagged by God. You’re it. It’s your turn to step out onto the road with faith that God is beside you all the way.
Friends, God loves you and so do I. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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