There is Enough

Matthew 14:12-21

July 26, 2015

5000 people is a lot of people.

It’s a crowd. A big crowd.

Like a sporting event crowd.

Actually, the biggest city in the area was

probably around 7,000 people,

Christ Feeds 5000, Eric Feather

so if this hillside picnic were a city,

it would have been the second largest in the area.

We don’t know why the individuals

in this crowd showed up to see Jesus.

it says some wanted healing,

some probably were looking for any kind of hope,

some may have wanted to hear what Jesus had to say

But like in any large crowd,

some were probably pick pockets,

some might have been trying to sell things,

some were probably begging for money,

And some were probably just there just

to see why the rest of the people were there.

It’s kind of a mystery why anything

or any one attracts a crowd.

Why more than one person shows up at any event.

Advertisers and promoters and agents spend

their careers trying to figure out what makes

something popular, what interests the masses.

If someone attracted a crowd like this today,

someone would try to give them their own

TV show, or You Tube channel, 

or have them do a tour of speaking engagements.

In Jesus time they try to make him king,

but Jesus just walks away from all that.

Jesus drew a crowd, but he wasn’t after fame or money.

He just wanted to teach and heal.

Now, I think that promoters and advertisers,

and disciples then and now can agree on one thing:

and that is that you don’t try to feed a crowd of 5000,

not all at once, not without selling tickets ahead of time,

or charging them, not without some kind of sponsorship.

and definitely not without some advanced planning.

Phillip has a reasonable response

when Jesus asks him where they’re

going to get food for all these people.

He says we don’t’ have enough,

We don’t’ have access to enough

we’ll never have enough to feed all these people.

There is not enough.

There is not enough.

Those words have been repeated and repeated

over and over again in our world throughout time.

As I said last week, lots of things change –

places, norms historical, settings,

but humanity really hasn’t changed much.

And humanity is tight fisted.

We are normally gripped by the fear that there won’t be enough.

For most of us, there’s not even any

evidence that there is not enough now,

but we worry there may not be enough later.

In the US, we are maybe the wealthiest,

most comfortable society

in all of history, yet we still need more.

There are people and corporations with billions and billions,

And yet, people are going bankrupt from medical bills

Immigrant families and children are put in detention centers

just for being in this country,

people don’t have enough food to eat,

people live on the streets.

And the story that the world tells is that

there is just not enough for everyone.

We hear it so much, it’s repeated and insinuated,

and drilled into us and the fear is in us and drives us.

It’s the story of scarcity that Phillip was using.

There is not enough.

This is the story of scarcity.

We end up only with whatever we manage to get for ourselves.

What we work for, what we “deserve”.

It’s the survival of the fittest, take or be taken.

And at its root, this principle of scarcity is a lack of faith in God.

It says there are no gifts to be given

because there's no giver.

There is not enough, there will never be enough.

But in the middle of that story

being told on that hillside in front of that crowd.

One boy came up with all he had.

Five loaves and two fish.

But like the Andrew said,

“What’s so little food when you’re talking about so many people?”

We don’t know why this boy had this food.

Or what he intended to do with it that day when joined that crowd.

Maybe he was coming home from the market.

Maybe it was all his families food for the week,

maybe it was all he had for his long travels.

Food was far more precious and less plentiful than it is today.

All we know is that he was willing to share it,

and that was all Jesus needed to get the ball rolling on this hillside.

And Jesus took what the boy had to share

he blessed it, he broke it and gave it away.

With complete trust in what he and God were going to do.

Now here is where the mystery happens.

Without a food committee, without making

an announcement of a pot luck, without any planning

whatsoever, there was enough for everyone in that crowd.

Now the story is not clear on how it happened.

Some people read this and see that Jesus made more bread

and more fish right there.

Enough for all to eat and more.

ex nihilo, out of nothing.

Now that is a miracle of God no doubt.

But some people look at this and see something else.

they see Jesus bring the Spirit of God to rest

on a community of 5000 people

who were inspired to trust and share all that they had.

A normal crowd of people who traveled with their own provisions,

taking whatever they had just bought at the market,

whatever they were taking along with them for their journey,

whatever they were going to eat themselves

whatever they were there to sell to this big crowd,

and they didn’t hoard it for themselves.

They brought it out of their tunics and pockets

and baskets and shopping bags and let it all go

they brought it all out and they shared it

with the people around them who had nothing to eat.

And there was more than enough for everyone.

And I think that is still an incredible miracle.

Whichever way you see it,

Jesus’ miracles are never just miracles.

They always show us something about God.

And with that picnic meal miracle,

Jesus showed that the world is filled with God’s blessings.

We can trust in God’s blessings. There is enough.

With that meal, and this meal that we eat every week,

Jesus is reordering the world’s reality.

Not just in our stomachs, and in our churches,

Jesus is talking about the economy, the government,

the world, and our hearts.

There is enough: enough food, enough money,

enough space, enough time, enough attention, enough love.

Jesus shows us and this crowd the real story

God’s grace, God’s gifts, God’s love for everyone.

Jesus shows us and feeds us the real story

about God’s abundance.

What Jesus is saying is that when people

come together in faith and trust in God,

there is nothing that can’t happen.

Nothing that can’t be done.

No one that won’t be fed.

Jesus says

There is always enough.

Just come to the table.

Splanchnizomi

Christ Speaking to a CrowdGeorge Pedro

Mark 6:30-34; 53-56

July 22, 2015

  

The disciples are back from their travels

and their excited to tell Jesus what they’ve been up to.

Jesus and the disciples are getting big.

The word is spreading and people are coming out

from far and wide to see him.

He’s being mobbed like a TV star in Hollywood.

So Jesus suggests that they all go

and get away from the crowds

and go to a deserted place

and get some well deserved rest.

But again they’re recognized and there’s a crowd around them.

It says that Jesus looked at that crowd

and he had compassion for the crowd

Because they are like sheep without a shepherd.

We know that without a shepherd,

Sheep get lost very easily, they’re frightened

and they run from one thing to the next.

They are not calm and level headed.

They don’t know where to go,

they don’t know where their next meal is coming from

they are very anxious and lost.

These people following Jesus were like

sheep without a shepherd.

Now, we might have an idealized view of how that looks.

A crowd of sad people, like in a painting

slightly disheveled and forlorn

but patient, good natured, and thankful.

Now one thing I’ve found about reading the bible,

is that times have changed, situations have changed,

rules and norms have changed, words have changed,

but people, for the most part have not changed all that much.

And our experience tells us that the picture of

these sheep without a shepherd is not so idealized.

We know that when people are anxious and lost

when we don’t know where our next meal

is coming from, we are not at our best.

The reality is that that patient, good natured, thankful

crowd of people was more likely to be

cranky, short tempered, impolite, and rude.

People are not normally sweet and humble

when they are anxious and lost.

They are sometimes desperate.

Sheep without a shepherd often make bad choices

and when they’re anxious and lost too long

they make very bad choices like

chemical dependency, crimes, and violence.

Prisons today are filled with shepherdless sheep

People who make a one or two or a series of bad decisions.

the chronically lost souls.

We’ve probably seen people like this.

Maybe we’ve known them,

maybe we’ve been them at one time or another.

  

Now our upwardly mobile society

tells us that we should look on people like this with contempt.

Some would even say to shame them or harass

them would be the best course of action,

that that would somehow shake them up

and change the course of their behavior.

At the very least, we should not be coddling or fraternizing

with these people lest we get dragged

into their shepherdless sheep ways.

But Jesus, it said, looked at these people and had compassion.

Compassion. We know what that means. The definition is:

“Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others”

It means to hurt for someone else’s pain.

Now the word that is used here is translated

as compassion because that’s the closest in English

but the word in Greek is much more descriptive.

The word is splanch-ni-zo-mai

It’s  kind of a euphemism  more than just a word

it actually means bowels.

There are other words in Greek to convey compassion

that don’t have quite this meaning.

But what Jesus felt was this kind of compassion.

Bowel compassion. Deep low in the stomach.

You know that feeling.

A combination of sadness, pain, and deep love.

When do you remember feeling that,

deep in your bowels?

I feel it at funerals when loved ones

are just dealing with their losses.

I feel it every time there’s one of those shootings,

which seems to be almost a monthly routine

here in the United States now,

Like the one in Chatanooga this week

when they show the pictures of the people

who were killed right in the middle of their day.

Deep pain for the suffering of another,

deep emotions for another person

and a desire to change the situation.

Jesus felt compassion for them

because they were like sheep without  a shepherd.

And he began to teach them many things.

He taught them, spent time with them, talked with them.

No doubt they weren’t all saints.

No doubt they weren’t all kind or gentle.

But they didn’t have to do anything good to win Jesus attention.

All they did was be anxious, directionless people.

Lost sheep.

That tells us a lot about Jesus and about God.

I have a few friends and acquaintances

that have serious doubts about God.

They look at the church’s behavior or

the behavior of Christians and they assume that God is the same.

They see the most prominent Christians

in the world judging, shaming , harassing or ignoring others.

 and they think that is a reflection of God.

But Jesus is the way we know God.

And Jesus looks at the worst of this world

and doesn’t react with judgment, shame, contempt

 an eye roll, or by turning away.

Jesus reacts with splachnizomai.

Bowels, deep pain and sympathy.

I believe that God looks at the horrors of this world,

the violence, the lost people, the addiction, the apathy

the endless ways we hurt each other,

God looks at the shootings,

and even the shooters who cause the pain

and experiences a deep bowel pain for this symptom of a lost humanity.

Even when we have contempt and hatred,

God has compassion.

Even when we roll our eyes,

God opens his arms.

Even when we have no more compassion to give,

God has more.

We have all been lost sheep.

Humanity loses it’s way,

we are prone to callousness,

despair and cynicism,

we have all made bad choices,

We make deals with the devil and

trade in good things for bad.

We forget where our shepherd is

and who our shepherd is.

But when we get lost,

we just need to remember that

Jesus is our shepherd.

And it is his compassion, his love,

mercy and forgiveness that will

heal us, guide us, and bring us home.

Killing the Prophet

Mark 6:14-29

July 12, 2015

Today’s TV shows and movies

really have nothing on the bible, do they?

This is quite a story, full of scandal,

intrigue, personal conflict and

it ends with a horrible killing of a religious guy.

Shakespeare couldn’t do much better, could he?

King Herod Antipas liked to listen to John the Baptist,

the outspoken preacher.

Go On, John the Baptist,
Jack Baumgartner, 2012

Herod would like to protect him.

But Herod’s wife demanded that King Herod arrest John.

Herod’s wife was mad at John

because John called into question

Herod and Herodias’s marriage.

And it was pretty questionable.

Herodias was originally Herod’s brother’s wife

which wasn’t too odd in itself at the time

to marry your brother’s wife after the brother had died.

Except that Philip- Herod’s brother, Herodias’ husband-

was still alive and so was Herod’s wife.

Basically, they each abandoned their spouses

and married each other.

A scandal even today, and especially a scandal

because the Kings in Israel were not just

political leaders, but we supposed to be religious leaders

examples of living a life according to God’s laws.

And John, the preacher wasn’t silent about this

even though Herod Antipas was known to be

pretty ruthless with those who disagreed with him.

Maybe that’s why Herod liked John.
Maybe it was his boldness, his disregard for

Herod’s position and his reputation.

Or maybe it was something else.

But Herodias wasn’t having it.

She made Herod arrest John.

And when she saw the opportunity ---

when her daughter was offered anything

in front of all those officials at Herod’s birthday party,

Anything at all – even ½ of his whole kingdom --

she asked for John the Baptist to be killed,

and not just killed, she asked for his head on a platter.

Beheading is a particularly horrible method

of murder and capital punishment.

We have become again familiar with

the horror of beheadings these days.

It seems like for a while beheading was taboo.

Like we were making a progress away from that.

But now, it seems to have come back again.

We don’t have to excuse that kind of violence,

but we do have to acknowledge that

it’s a part of our mythology and literature

and it’s part of most country’s pasts.

The guillotine was used as the method of

capital punishment in France last in 1977

and it has been touted as a painless

and humane form of execution.

Even an honorable one.

But it’s more than just an execution or murder,

it’s a murder that is intended as a

fear tactic for the living.

It’s so horrible, it’s meant to intimidate others.

Beheading someone is basically terrorism

for the those who sympathize with them.

And it’s more than just that too.

It was normally reserved for those who

defy the leadership and for opposing

leaders who were captured in war.

It’s symbolic, it’s a removing

of the mind and the human voice.

A permanent silencing of the victim.

When Herodias had her daughter

ask Herod for John the Baptist’s head,

she wanted to silence him permanently

and tell others to shut up permanently.

And here’s where Herodias was wrong.

She thought that by silencing John,

she could silence the truth.

Like so many others,

She thought that by silencing the prophet,

she could silence the prophecy.

Throughout the ages,

The world and its leaders have attempted

to silence God’s truth and justice

by quieting the messengers.

From Amos and Micah and St. Stephen

Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Dorothy Day, and Oscar Romero.

The powers that be have believed that

if the mouthpiece could be imprisoned, or killed, or co-opted

that the message that they brought would go away.

But God’s truth doesn’t die that easily.

It might be delayed, it might take a turn.

It might not be realized in our time,

But God’s truth will always be there.

 In 1402, Jan Hus was a Catholic priest

in Prague who preached about the corruption of the

church leadership, complained about

the use of indulgences,

believed God’s grace gave salvation,

and demanded the reformation of the church.

In 1415, Jan Hus was burned at the stake

to shut him up and to show others

what would happen if they did the same.

But almost exactly 100 years later, in 1517

Martin Luther was nailing up his 95

theses to the door of Wittenberg,

which spoke about the corruption of the

church leadership, complained about

the use of indulgences,

believed God’s grace gave salvation

and demanded the reformation of the church.

They can kill the prophet,

but the prophecy will not die.

John the Baptist was beheaded and yet,

his voice still rings in our ears:

Prepare the way of the Lord.

Christ was still announced.

The lamb of God who takes

away the sins of the world

still came and the people were prepared for him.

And after 2000 years, Herod and Herodias’s

marriage still seems fishy.

If you watch the news at all these days,

sometimes it seems absolutely hopeless even scary.

everything seems out of whack.

Hatred and violence seem to rule

The rich keep getting richer

and the poor are getting poorer

our environment is being destroyed,

basically, the forces of evil seem to be winning,

And whenever there is a glimmer of hope,

and we find a leader who might shine the light and

gather the people and come up with solutions,

they seems to be put in jail, or corrupted, or bribed,

or discredited, co-opted, or killed and

that hope is gone.

We’ve seen it over and over again.

John’s job was to talk about Christ’s arrival

and Jesus came into the world

healing and preaching and being God’s voice

He came talking about the kingdom of God,

mercy, generosity, forgiveness, and love.

And the powers that be tried to silence him too.

But he would not stay in the grave.

After three days, he rose again.

The power of forgiveness and love would not die.

And that is the good news of this grisly story:

They can kill the prophet,

but the prophecy will never die.

Because the Spirit of God that

as alive in John and in Jesus is still alive in us.

And the Spirit of God will never die.