Dry Bones

Sermon Ezekiel 37:1-10 June 28, 2015 Ordinary time-away from lectionary.

Dry Bones

Every generation, in its own time, needs to hear that these bones will live!-Elie Wiesel.

Every generation, in its own time, needs to hear that it can change the world.

Every generation, in its own time, needs to hear that it has the foundation, it has direction, and it will take the action steps to live.

There are all kinds of ways we can describe the feeling of being in the valley of dry bones. We can be the only one looking on at a crowd and celebrating the joy of life while surrounded by doomsayers and feeling utterly alone. We can be one of the many dry bone bodies feeling completely disconnected from the world, others, and even ourselves.

Sometimes we feel left out in the dust and out of touch with all the things whirling around us and we sense that we are just a pile of disconnected bones.

I believe the Church feels that way today, as it is confused about the future, confused about the way of the world and confused about where God is in all the awful things that are happening to God’s people. There are more articles on the Internet about what’s wrong with the church, about the reasons why people are leaving the church, about why people think the church is irrelevant and out of date. It time we stop reading and listening to these words. Even the Church denominations are scrambling to save their jobs and they are acting like the valley of the dry bones. This is not the Church the way Christ intended, no the Church of Christ is a Risen, Resurrected Church.

Ezekiel the prophet describes four visions and this one about the dry bones is the third of four.

Finally, this prophet of doom- saying comes to the place where God

                                                     is placing him in a position to point out what is good,

                                                                      what is powerful,

                                what is beyond expectation and what is God’s way of doing.

God’s way of doing is one of power and might, of resurrection, of new life and new strength.

What does your life need?

What does your church experience need?

What does your faith need?

What gives you life now?

What experiences fill you,

                          energize you,

                                     and refresh you?

What encourages you,

establishes you with a solid sense of being,

and keeps you grounded?

What keeps you going and gives you hope?

Initially, all Ezekiel can see is a valley of bones, many of them, all laid to waste, all completely destroyed and devoid of any hope for life.

They are dry, they have lost any potential for reviving.

The bones are scattered in a way that it would take a forensic scientist weeks to figure out which bones belongs to which body.

And then God comes and puts Ezekiel in his grip.

                                                 “The hand of the Lord came upon me.”

God takes charge and God transports Ezekiel to see what God sees.

No one is null and void.

No one is a wasted being,

no one is without hope.

God takes Ezekiel and puts him to work.

“Prophesy”, God says, “Talk to the bones, tell them what to do”, God says.

Ezekiel tells the bones to hear God’s Word.

The bones,

              those wasted dried out disconnected pieces, hear God’s vision!

 They hear God’s purpose for them.

                          They hear God’s active Spirit of life.

                                  Something moves this waste land

                                            and the bones begin to move toward their appropriate parts. And as the song goes,

the foot bone connects to the leg bone,

to the knee and so on until all the skeletons are formed.

And then the tendons attach and the muscles and then the skin.

There is a vast valley of fully formed bodies.

And then God calls for the winds to come and life is breathed into them.

                               They are lifted up and are now a vast army ready to move for God,

                                                                         ready to renew the homeland,

                                                                                       ready to re-create the way they live.

Imagine being in Ezekiel’s shoes and being the one to witness a vision such as this! Thank goodness we have amazing media talent these days and they have recreated some very imaginative portrayals of this vision.-look it up on YouTube-you’ll be amazed.  

Sometimes that’s exactly what we need, an imagination so big and so beyond what could possibly be, so that God can work through it to create and show us what can and will happen beyond our expectations.

                       God’s vision is beyond what we can see and therefore we need

                                                             God’s hand to come upon us

                                                                and

                                 transport us to see what we couldn’t manage to see for ourselves.

It’s not easy to speak the words of God. Ezekiel had to go with God on this one and speak God’s word to a group that was beyond hope.

He had to speak to a group that had completely given up and were beyond reach.

He had to get up and put his trust fully in God’s sight of what could be and what would be and tell it as God saw it, not as he saw it.

Sometimes we cannot see God’s vision for us.

Sometimes it isn’t until we put ourselves in the hand of God that we begin to see what God wants us to see. And when we do, watch out!

God’s vision gives hope, or perhaps its hope that gives vision. A vision requires expectation. A vision requires that something will happen. A vision that requires expectation also requires a plan. And a plan requires action.

It is time for us to allow God’s breath and Spirit to enter our hearts.

It is time for us to see God’s vision.

It is time for us to stop the doom-sayers and start being part of the way of God recognizing God’s resurrection power.

We don’t need to feel out of touch or disconnected.

We don’t need to feel isolated and apart from others and God.

God’s vision for us is one united together to help each other and

                                                     to walk side by side across bridges

                                                                                     and

                                                                              down streets

                                                                     and into new lands.

Our thoughts, our ideas, our imaginations are God’s doing and God’s blessing for us.

I don’t have a one, two, three step process for how this happens, I wish I did. But, I think that’s why we have this valley of the dry bones story.

No matter how cut off we feel or out of sync, no matter how disconnected we think we are from life, God comes through to the present situation and with a command gets those bodies to quit laying around in nothingness and lifts them out of their wastefulness, and gets them on their feet.

We are all created and put together in the same way.

We are all connected by bones and tendons, muscles and skin.

We have the same Creator who comes from the four winds and breathes the breath of life in us.

We have the same God who stands us up and calls us a nation, an army.

And together God has placed a vision upon us.

Hear the Word of the Lord!

These are not easy, idle words that Ezekiel speaks

but the words of God who revives,

resurrects,

cuts thru death

and puts back life

and sets people up on their feet

and gets them moving

and shows them the way.

Hear the Word of the Lord! Watch what God does! Watch how God opens graves, revives, and sends out. Watch how God puts people to action to pull all things together for God’s glory.

Every generation, in its own time, needs to hear that these bones will live!-Elie Wiesel.
Amen.

Men of Faith-People of God!

Sermon 1 Samuel 16:1-5 June 21, 2015 Ordinary Time/Father’s Day/Departure from lectionary.

Men of Faith-People of God!

Ecumenical Benediction-World Day of Churches.
People of Faith-We stand United.

Samuel is a man of faith. And yet today we find him in the depth of a pity party. He had ‘one job’ and felt he had failed at the ‘one job’ given to him by God. He was probably listening to all the meme voices in his head saying, “You had One Job!”

He probably filled his head with images of complete-Fail!

We’ve all seen the memes across the internet and they are really funny. The one that shows the yellow stripe down the center of the highway as it curves everywhere and we laugh at the “You had One Job” failure.

Samuel was an anointer of kings and the very first king he anointed turned out to be a disappointment. Saul was dangerous. He was vindictive. He was more worried about himself and his power than he was about leading a nation.

God had had enough.

God had decided it was time for a new king.

And Samuel blamed himself. He was after all the anointer of kings and this one was a complete Fail job.

Perhaps what Samuel forgot was that he did have One Job-he was the anointer of kings-not the sustainer of them.

This story is perhaps the strongest example of how God works in our lives to keep us on task for God’s purposes. Samuel was a prophet. His way into the world was an answer to the prayer of his mother Hannah. He was dedicated to God before he was even born. His life was determined just as the psalmist wrote, “Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days formed for me, when none of them yet existed.”

His purpose was again set apart in his call story in chapter three. From that famous story we sing the song, “Here I am.” Yes, Samuel, was a man of faith. He was a man of God. He had lived his life fulfilling the purposes God had set before him. Yet, today we find him suffering. We find him deep in regret for his actions. We find him filled with grief. God promised Samuel a job to be done and Samuel fulfilled his role even though he felt it was not successful because the king turned out to be a failure-God did not count the failure to Samuel. Because the king’s success or failure was not Samuel’s job it was Saul’s job to be king and to follow God. Yet, Samuel could not hide his grief and could not help but feel responsible for the work he had done to bring Saul to power.

Perhaps we have served on committees or in political arenas or other positions where we supported the advancement of another. And when they rose to their position it did not work out well. We are embarrassed and grieved that the person we held up did not meet their end of the bargain. It can be a struggle for us. We might wonder about our decision making or about our ability to discern. We might completely rethink our value and our purpose. We might shy away from serving again. We might choose to dissociate ourselves from making any decisions. Perhaps our work cost us. Perhaps it took a piece of our dignity or worse-it cost us a loss of money or even our position. And then like Samuel we found ourselves deep in a pity party. We found ourselves lost in the grief of what could have been, what should have been and what we thought was meant to be. Perhaps we lost our faith and left the church.

To be honest, I have been in the depths of grief. I feel responsible for the Church of Jesus Christ. I feel a loss and a failure in the work I have been given because the world is still filled with hate and anger and suffering and pain. I feel at a loss when my friends are no longer safe in the sanctuary of God and are murdered as they welcome someone to join them for Bible study. The murders at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church has left each one of us as pastors stunned. It has left us with the sense that we have lost our purpose. It has left us wondering about the call God has placed on people of faith. “Where is the fruit of our labors?”, we cry out. How can we preach joy of the Word of God, the wonder and magnificence of God’s creation, the amazing power of the Lord at work in the world and in our lives when on Wednesday the safe, sacred, space was torn apart by gunfire?

Today’s Scripture speaks to us more loudly than ever to remember the Spirit of God in our lives.

Men of Faith you are called. People of Faith you are called. We pledged to love God with our heart and our soul and our minds. God has not abandoned that call on us. Even if the failures are all around us, God still has a claim on us. Our pledge, our promise to God is still valid. And even greater God’s pledge and promise to us is still valid.

We live beyond the gates of Eden and are pilgrims in this land. We will find that beyond the gates of Eden things are askew and not quite perfect yet. And yet, beyond the gates of Eden God is there. God is present with us. God continues to call us. God continues to call us out. We have tough choices, difficult situations, heart wrenching alliances of love and commitment and yet, it is these very things that propel us into the redeeming arms of the God who claims us and will never forsake us.

The voices of Samuel and others like him in Scripture remind us of the abundance of joy and the chaos of circumstance that meet us along the Way. In these stories we find assurance and hope as we continue to move forward holding on to hope and living in the presence of the love of friendship through God our Savior Jesus Christ, until he comes.

Samuel’s story continues as God lifts him out of his pity party and sends him on his way to anoint another king. God lifts us out of our grief sometimes with a swift kick, a two by four or a strong command, sometimes with a still small voice, a gentle touch and a soft leading by the hand. Whichever way God takes us, God reminds us we have a job to do and we must get out and do it.

When Samuel got up he went to the house of Jesse and there God had Samuel see David as the next king. There Samuel realized the power of God at work as he poured out the oil on David. There Samuel was renewed in his faith, renewed in his call and rejoiced in the joy of God.

Now more than ever, we are not to lament, but to respond to God. I praise God for all the "Men of Faith" who have shaped my life through the way they lived their lives.
You will never know the depth of the impact you have on one single person-make it count-it can and will change the future. God is concerned about the future and we are part of that future. This Father’s Day is a day to remember all those men of faith who have shaped our lives.

Let me offer to you today Men of Faith the power of God within you as I share these eight things for your take away today.

1.       Remember you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

2.      You have been called by God and you have a job to do.

3.      If you need time to grieve God will give it to you.

4.      God will lift you up and put you back on the Way.

5.      God knows the future and you are part of it.

6.      Your faith will impact others.

7.      Become part of a group of men of faith to sustain you-perhaps our “Faith meets Life’ group.

8.     Stay the course, have hope, and God will lead you in the paths of righteousness.

Our hope is secure in the God who loves us, through many dangers toils and snares God’s grace brings us through. Rejoice for the Lord is here. Rejoice for God is our King. Rejoice for you are our future through the power and love of Jesus Christ.

We will enter and leave God’s sanctuary, his courts, with praise and thanksgiving!!

Amen.

They Met to Read the Bible-Hymn By Carolyn Winfrey Gillette

My words are insufficient to the suffering that has occurred. My words cannot convey the aching in my chest. My words are nothing but words in the midst of all this pain. Who are we as the church if our people are not safe? Who are we as the church if welcome is not in our space? Who are we as the church if the sacred is not upon our hearts? Help us to hold on to the One who knows our fears and our tears, who knows how to lead us from here. But, God has gifted one who wrote the hymn for us to sing. A hymn to draw us together and to remind us of whose we are. Let us raise our voices in faith (even if we say we have no faith-sing with us anyway) Hear these words, sing this song and together we will offer the world God's peace.

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette composed this hymn early this morning. It came with permission to share on social media and Facebook. They Met to Read the Bible
ST. CHRISTOPHER 7.6.8.6.8.6.8.6 ("Beneath the Cross of Jesus")

They met to read the Bible,
they gathered for a prayer,
They worshiped God and shared with friends
and welcomed strangers there.
They went to church to speak of love,
To celebrate God’s grace.
O Lord, we tremble when we hear
What happened in that place.

O God of love and justice,
we thank you for the nine.
They served in their communities
and made the world more kind.
They preached and sang and coached and taught,
And cared for children, too.
They blessed your church and blessed your world
With gifts they used for you.

We grieve a wounded culture
Where fear and terror thrive,
Where some hate others for their race
And guns are glorified.
We grieve for sons and daughters lost,
For grandmas who are gone.
O God, we cry with broken hearts:
This can’t continue on!

God, may we keep on sowing
The seeds of justice here,
Till guns are silent, people sing,
And hope replaces fear.
May seeds of understanding grow
And flourish all our days.
May justice, love and mercy be
The banner that we raise.

Tune: Frederick Charles Maker, 1881
Text: Copyright © 2015 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved.
Email: bcgillette@comcast.net New Hymns: www.carolynshymns.com
Permission is given for free use by local churches and in ecumenical services

Crossings

Sermon Joshua 3:13-17 June 14, 2015 Ordinary Time-off lectionary

Crossings

There are all kinds of crossings; Railroad crossings come to mind, bridge crossings, airplane crossings of the world, ship crossings of oceans, boat crossings of bays, kids and adults crossing streets, and religious people crossing themselves.

Crossings used to be monumental.

Crossings used to be something the world paid attention to.

When airplanes made their debut, the world stopped to listen to the radio and be filled with amazement as it landed across the globe just a few hours later. When humans ventured into space generations were caught up in the possibilities of what was beyond the barriers of the atmosphere. Crossing into the dark mystery of space brought a new dimension of thinking about the future and being encouraged through this liberating event.

Crossings are a liberating event.

Crossings bring people into to new experiences and new life.

That is what happened for the people of Israel when they crossed the Jordan River.

They were brought into new life. That is what we say when we use the word redemption. New life has been given. New experiences and a new creative spirit has been born in people when they have crossed over into a new place. Joshua whose name means-The Lord Saves-has led the people into the liberating promise of God-the Land of Promise-the place of new life, a new creation.

God chose Joshua to lead the people. He was appointed by Moses to take them across the Jordan into the new land. Earlier in Joshua’s life he was one of the twelve spies who had entered the land of Canaan to scope the lay of the land and bring back a report on whether it was inhabitable and if the people could cross over into it a possess it. In Numbers 13 & 14 we read how Joshua and Caleb were outnumbered by their report. Ten of the twelve spies said it was impossible, it was dangerous and if they went into the land they would surely die. Joshua and Caleb had faith that if God was sending them into the land God would go before them and would fulfill the promise. The majority vote won that day and it cost the people 40 years in the desert and the loss of an entire generation before God would offer the opportunity for another crossing. The one thing Joshua had was faith in a BIG God, a Sovereign God. His faith never wavered even at the sight of giants and other obstacles. Joshua had faith that the God of promise would grant the people what they needed to break the boundaries that prevented them from going forward into new territory.

Sometimes I think we need reminders that we still have a big God today. These stories remind us that God’s actions prove God’s power and show us God’s nature. The nature of God is one that brings God’s people then and now into new dimensions and new opportunities.

God is living and active!

God brings us across great divides to reconcile us with the things that have kept us from advancing. God brings us across huge barriers to enter us into experiences we never dreamed of or thought possible.

In history we have sought equality of humanity and fought against slavery, we have sought equality for women by instilling rights of voting and property, we have continuously fought for those who have been discriminated against and offered ways to relate to our neighbor. Humanity has discovered technologies, medicines, manufacturing, agricultural capabilities that have been revolutionary in the advancement of the age. All of these actions were once revolutionary ideas and required crossing over into new territory to fight and to have courage to bring about a new creation, liberation, redemption.

Sometimes we get stuck, or paralyzed and have trouble finding the courage to do what we need to do to cross over into the next place of our life. And yet, if we look back earlier in our life we could find a place where we had someone help us in a time of need. We can ask, “Where did I see God in this?” And then it becomes clear how we made it through a difficult time because of God. And with that knowledge we recognize the other places in our lives and find the thread. Or we do this for someone else. And this is liberating to know that all along there has been God present and now the courage is there to cross into new territory again.

Looking closely at the crossing of the Jordan River we can see the power of God at work in the life of Joshua, the lives of the priests and the people that followed.

The river is at flood stage. It is the season of the harvest which means that the waters are flowing strong from the mountain and bringing the river to its fullest. The River Jordan flows from the Sea of Galilee to the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea. There are times in the seasons when the river is just a trickle and it is easy for people to cross over on foot without any trouble. But, the authors make it clear that is not the case this time. It will require an intervention from God to allow the people to pass.

The river is very deep and very wide.

These waters as many waters before are the center of attention for God’s miracle to take place. Just as God breathed across the waters of creation and God brought forth the waters of the flood and God parted the waters of the Red Sea, here God again encounters the waters for the sake of creation, God’s people. It is God who saves. It is God who brings the people to safety. To cross over requires a miracle. And God is the one to make the miracle happen.

The priests are the ones who carry the Ark of the Covenant. They hold the presence of God with them. The ark now holds the Law given by God that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai and all that is of God is present in the ark. The miracle of the parting of the waters of the Jordan will not take place until the presence of God steps into the river while it is still flowing. As long as the priests stand in the river with the presence of God the waters are held back on both sides like a wall.

1. The priests hold the presence of God. And they take the first step-without the step the presence of God will still be there but movement toward the miracle and movement to liberation won’t happen.

2. Joshua follows God and leads the people.

He is obedient.

He follows God’s instructions.

3. And when they reach the other side they build a monument of stones to remember. And they remember by the repetition of the story from generation to generation.

As New Testament people we have crossed over into new life through the waters of baptism. God crossed over into our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit living in us and fully present in our lives day in and day out. These Old Testament stories remind us of the power of God to fulfill the promises then and now.

To make the crossing through all the barriers of life and faith requires action.

Again we need to take steps.

The first step is to take the step.

As long as those priests stood by edge of the river nothing was going to happen. It wasn’t until they put their feet into the river that the miracle happened. Do not fear God says, I am with you, I am your God.

The second step was to follow and to lead. Joshua was a follower of God and a leader of the people. We are followers of God and we can be leaders of the people into new territory for the sake of the world. Have courage, God says, for I am the one who saves and brings new life. The big question for us today is do we want to get there? Will we abandon ourselves to the presence of God and put our full trust in God to carry us over into new life?

The third step is to remember. Through the repetition of remembrance of what God has done in our lives we maintain liberating encouragement to continue to step out into new directions and cross over to new horizons.

There are all kinds of crossings. Crossings are liberating, redeeming events. Let the crossings of the new century be monumental, world changing and attention getting events. Let us go together following God, uniting together to lead the people into a new creation in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sacred Moment.

Sacred Moment.

A moment of the sacred entered my life on Sunday.

He was three years old.

He looked at me from a distance and wasn’t really sure if he should approach. I saw him clutch his daddy’s hand a little tighter. I squatted down so we could be face to face and I said hello.

He smiled at me.

Barely verbal, he said hello back.

I told him how glad I was to see him.

I stood back up and greeted his father and the man who came to be his Godparent. They appeared as if entering the church was not a common or familiar practice for them. The father was kind and genuine. I could tell both men were determined to be there for this child. Both men were set to offer this child into the hand of God.

We had very little time before the service was to begin.

We had not spoken before.

We had not done the usual pastoral visit,

nor the usual meeting with the child.

I had received a phone call earlier in the week from the child’s grandparents’ expressing their son’s desire for his child. SO, with the permission of the elders, we forged ahead to prepare for a Sunday baptism of a child we had not met and the father they barely knew nor had I met.

I was convinced that this was a moment Jesus would honor.

The little boy was ready to run and discover as he tried to tear away from daddy’s grip. I said to him, “Do you want to play with toys?” His eyes lit up as he said to daddy, “Toys, toys!” We found our way upstairs to the nursery and there he played with fire engines and everything that made noise. Through the sirens I ran quickly through the liturgy for dad and Godparent. I shared the questions I would ask and the expected response from each of them. I again thanked them for choosing baptism for this child. It was all in such a rush, not the way we would expect it to be done right. But, what is right really? Did Philip hesitate at the request of the eunuch? I think not.

I looked at the little boy and said, “Let’s go downstairs and I’ll show you the water and everything that will happen this morning.” We went downstairs and I showed him the pitcher that held the warm water to be poured into the font. He pulled away unsure and not too keen on water. I held out the pitcher and again offered it to him to touch and then I gently took his hand and put his fingers in the water. He looked up at me with big eyes and he touched the water again dipping his fingers deeper. We walked to the font and I spoke of what would happen next and how the water would be placed on his head and, if he let me, I would lift him up and hold him.

Time was running out and it was clear we needed to empty the sanctuary and allow the congregants to gather. We squeezed through the side door and we parted ways for the time being.

The moment in worship arrived and I called the family forward and all the children to be witnesses to “remember our baptism as we witness today’s baptism.”

The little boy was filled with energy. He saw the baptism candle and tried to blow it out as one would blow out a birthday candle. He took the wooden cross to be given to him at the end and gripped it in his hand. He reached around dad and looked at the children seated there. He looked up at all those grown-ups staring down at him.

He smiled.

All through the long liturgy and the many words and prayers he held the hands of several people. He looked at them and eyed them with a wondering heart.

And then the moment came to pour the water.

Together we took the pitcher in hand and as we poured together I prayed the prayer of the presence of the Holy Spirit over the waters. It seemed in slow motion as we intentionally emptied the pitcher together into the font.

We eyed each other with satisfaction.

God had united our hearts and made us one in Christ.

I reached to pick him and he went willingly into my arms. And here the little child who was so afraid of water received the water poured over him. His eyes were mesmerized and so large.

He didn’t say a word.

“I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen!”

He was motionless,

still,

ever so quiet.

Again, we looked at each other as I said the words. “This promise is for you, God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him has eternal life…you too will grow to love God as God loves you.”

In my arms he stayed as I walked with him all around the large sanctuary and as I shared the story of home and the place to belong with God and this congregation.

                                                             I believe he saw God that day.

                                                     I believe he saw the real face of God,

                                                             his eyes and his body showed it to me. 

                                                          Yes, I’m sure he saw God that day.

The only other time I have seen this awe on the face of a child was when my son

was three years old. We had stepped inside a cathedral in the midst of mass. And there was the priest wearing white and waving his arms with the liturgy. We stood there for some time taken in with the worship. And then with respect as to not disturb the rest of worship since we were tourists we quietly departed. As we came out my son looked at me with enormous eyes. He face was almost drained of color as he stared at me. He said to me, “I saw God.” I said, “You did? Where?” He responded, “He was inside wearing white and waving his arms.

I saw God.”

I do not doubt that he saw God that day.

Just as I do not doubt this little boy saw God.

                        Because I too caught in the holy moment of Sacrament,

                                           not only experienced God,

                                                              but

                                                         I saw God.

             A moment of the sacred entered my life on Sunday.

                                                          He was three years old.

Waters of Life

Sermon Exodus 2: 1-10 June 7, 2015 Ordinary time-communion/baptism

Waters of Life

 Last Sunday during the church picnic we had a trivia game and one of the categories was Bible and there was an option of Old Testament or New Testament, well the groups always chose New Testament-so dear friends you might note that today’s lesson and for  the next three Sundays comes from the Old Testament. Coincidence perhaps-and then again perhaps not. J

Our story begins today in Exodus. You may all well know that the previous book Genesis ended with Joseph, the son of Jacob, being the hero and the rescuer as he delivered the people of Israel, the sons of Jacob, from famine by bringing them down to Egypt. Joseph welcomed his family and so did all the people of Egypt welcome these immigrants to a foreign land. They were well received and were given a new home. And we enter into the book of Exodus, 400 years later, 400 years from the welcome of immigrants and opening up their society to those in need, to turn and to close themselves to these Israelites-these Hebrews. The welcomed people are now the oppressed and living in slavery.

Now most of you are going to tell me this morning that you know all about the story of Moses. And most of you know the story well because we have all watched Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments. And this is good news if we remember the story.

The people of Israel were a people familiar with chaotic times. They had threats surround them and times of helplessness and serious conditions befell them. Their history speaks of the need for God to intervene in the most chaotic and horrendous times. This story of Moses and his leading of the people out of Egypt is the core of the faith of the Jewish people. God the great God is the one who rescues his people.

Every story has its beginning and the beginning of the Moses story is essential to the Jewish faith and its spirituality. There is much here about the sovereignty (the BIGness) of God about how God intervenes through the lives of people who do not even know God or acknowledge God’s existence.

There is much here about how a life of purpose comes unwittingly through the hands of others and how they mold and shape and prepare those in their care for the greater things of life.

Imagine if we were aware of the impact we had on the lives of people with whom we work or care for or encounter on a daily basis?

Think perhaps even how we might have been the instrument of being the ‘angel unaware’ as we assisted someone by the roadside or took in an animal needing shelter or simply smiled at a person in line at the grocery store.

There were so many players to make this event come to pass; the midwives, the mother, the sister, the Egyptian princess, all who acted from the heart, their hearts which were filled with love and concern for life. This princess who rescues the Hebrew baby ends up being the giver of life to the one who ultimately rescues all of God’s people from oppression, from slavery. Moses is known as the redeemer of the Jewish people.

The story works through many facets of planned and unexpected turns for the sake of the life of Moses.

His mother makes a basket for him and places it in the reeds near where she is aware the princess comes on a daily basis to wash. The reeds I assume are much like the shallows we have around here, where one can walk through them waist high. The princess has much autonomy in the Egyptian culture as well as authority to execute contracts and secure personnel.

She does so with the mother of Moses who then becomes the caretaker of her own son in the palace of the pharaoh. We can be sure that she nurtured his mind and character and instilled in him the values and traditions cherished by his people.

The salvation of Moses from certain death through the acts of others on his behalf points again to the power of God at work to bring about the salvation of all of God’s people. The very act of placing Moses in the waters is to put him in a vulnerable spot.

How could a mother do that?

How could mother put her child vulnerable to the elements of the water?

We who are the people who live between the waters know very well what it is like to be vulnerable on the water.

 We know about storms and seas and wind.

We know about going under and coming up again.

We know about how we are at the mercy of the elements when we place ourselves on the water.

Yet, this mother knew that to be vulnerable enough to place her child in the water was to place him in the hands of God, the Creator and giver of life.

We do the same through the act of baptism.

We place our children in the waters of baptism

placing them in the hands of God

and offering them up to new life in Christ.

In this story God is not mentioned on purpose. Because the writers of this story knew that the people hearing it and reading it would have also known all those other regional stories about babies in the water and how the gods intervened. God’s name is withheld to remind the people of the power of God fully present in the most vulnerable times. Again, pointing out the BIG God, the sovereign God we have who provides for us and uses the least likely to fulfill God’s will.

There are people who God has put in place to be vulnerable and take risks.

It happened in my life.

People came alongside and took the risk to invite.

A young girl who had no use for God,

who had no faith in God,

who had little faith experience

and people chose to invite,

despite the negative response.

And so after a yes to the invitation

and several weeks that followed

and continued yesses to invitations,

I too became vulnerable

to the place God had brought me

opening up to a new way of life with Christ.

And the most powerful sealing moment

was when the priest

shed his ecclesiastical robes

and became Christ for me.

He knew I was not baptized

nor would I have the opportunity

to be confirmed

or to join the church

or to be in full communion

and he became vulnerable to the moment

and he offered the bread and the cup to me

and my life was forever changed.

To be vulnerable is to take the risk that God will not only carry us on the water but will take us through the waters into new life.

To be vulnerable is to trust ourselves in the hand of God!

Offering ourselves to God,

to allow God to breathe the breath of life in us,

to allow the waters to flow freely,

is to say, “Take my Life and let it be all for Thee…”

Take my life, Lord.

Amen. 

12 Baskets

Sermon Matthew 14: 13-21 May 31, 2015 Casual Sunday/Church Picnic/Festival of Singing

12 Baskets

Leftovers in a deserted place, twelve baskets full!

Just to set the story straight-this is not a story like the story “Stone Soup”. The miracle here is bigger than that. We know that there were leftovers in this story and that is what the miracle is about. Matthew writes this story about the disciples and not the little boy.

It is a story about Jesus commissioning the disciples to do and be the pouring out of the abundance of miracles created by him.

In a world where refrigeration didn’t exist and Sunbeam Bread wasn’t heard of, the disciples were left with twelve baskets of food. What was Jesus thinking when he looked up to heaven to the God of glory?

What was Jesus thinking when he took the loaves and blessed them and then broke them and gave them to his disciples to share with the crowd?

Had Jesus forgotten the date stamp on the bread was only good until morning at best? As we look at the leftover baskets we could consider Jesus wasteful with the resources of God’s good earth. Perhaps Jesus just wasn’t as good at calculating for company when he performed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves. 

The disciples were amazed at what Jesus had done to satisfy the hunger of the people.

Yet, they were the ones who had to collect the baskets of leftovers and then figure out what to do with them.

It reminds me of another story in the Bible. When the people of Israel were wandering in the desert they were provided with manna-bread that rained down from heaven. There in the desert, the place of wandering, uncertainty and fragility, God made sure there was bread for every day. There was just enough for each day and no leftovers. The people were warned not to get too much because if they did the manna would rot and get worms.

In today’s text we find Jesus in a deserted place and he is trying to come to grips with the loss of his dearest friend John the Baptist.

But, Jesus has a crowd of followers who want to be close to him, to touch him and be healed by him. They don’t want to let him go for even a minute. They are hungry for his presence. They are hungry for his touch. They are hungry for his words. They are hungry for his love.  The text we read doesn’t say they were hungry for food. The disciples are the ones worried about that. It’s interesting that the ones closest to Jesus were worried about the scarcity around them. The ones who knew him best were the ones worried!

Perhaps it was Judas that was calculating the size of the crowd and realizing that there were not enough funds in the account to cover the cost of sustaining these people with a meal. Perhaps it was Peter who was looking at the amount of work it would take to prepare a meal and then have to share it. Peter saw 12 disciples and 5000 plus people and his head started spinning. There was no way that just a handful of people could do all the work. Or perhaps even John the beloved could only see the scarcity of the situation and couldn’t see past the lack of resources.

The leadership team was more worried about the reality of the situation and felt it their responsibility to let the Savior know that it was time to go. The disciples as they are watching Jesus perform miracles of healing are telling him there isn’t enough food so send those people home!

What is wrong with this picture? Can God provide a table of plenty in a deserted place?

Of course God can!! And that is the point of this miracle. In a world where bread had to baked daily and where the very act of making bread was a sacramental and time consuming process, Jesus held before the masses strength and sustenance. Jesus held before them the provision for their future, all that they needed and in abundance!

More than enough to go around, more than enough to be filled to overflowing, more than enough to have to worry about the leftovers.

When the focus is on the scarcity of resources, God turns it around so that the focus is on the abundance! And this is Good News!

How we steward what is God’s that we can see creates the ethical and moral framework for what we don’t see. (Joel Salatin).

The miracle of this story is as much for us as it was for those first disciples.

When we are faced with the reality of something too big for our imagination that is staring us in the face (like the crowd staring Jesus and the disciples in the face) our tendency is to focus on our lack of resources, our inability to respond to something beyond our capacity or capabilities.

We are human and so all we see is what can’t be done. All we see is how there isn’t enough. All we know is how there aren’t enough people to help.

And when we are faced with a desert story like this one, we are just like the disciples and we speak to Jesus and ask him to send away the crowd. We want Jesus to send away our dilemma. We want to Jesus to send away our crisis, our difficult circumstances. We want Jesus to send away the crowd that is crowding in on us.

But, Jesus responds to us out of the same compassion that he did for the disciples and for the crowd. Everything about Jesus, his mission and ministry, stemmed out of his compassion for humanity.

He became God with us because of his love for us.

Jesus was all about God’s people and still is!

His desire is for us to do and be likewise.

Last year at the Wabash Pastoral Leadership program we (16 pastors) listened to Richard Gunderman the chancellor of the IU medical school. He reflected on the life of Kent Brantly one of his former students. Kent has made national news. He is the medical missionary for his church the Church of Christ serving with Samaritan’s Purse. He has contracted the Ebola virus from the very people he was serving in Liberia.

 Anyone would say he was foolish to take a risk like that knowing that he had a wife and two small children to care for.

Yet, this man even while in medical school had another purpose.

His whole focus of life was about serving God.

As Dr Gunderman said, “Kent sees the micro-challenges of his own life – what field to study, what career to pursue, what kind of husband and father to be – in terms of the macro-challenges of the world – mouths to be fed, wounds to be dressed, diseases to be treated, and suffering human beings to be comforted.” “Kent sees his life as serving others and has the courage to follow it.”

Being a disciple is not an easy task and standing there on the hillside with his disciples Jesus made that point clear as he lifted his head to heaven to bless the five loaves and two fish.

He poured out God’s love into the food before him.

He knew that this would be the one way the disciples could act on the resources that had been given to them as they too were called to go forth and share,

not from the reality of what they could see but from the compassion bubbling up from the heart of what they could not see.

Jesus was setting them up to be good stewards and create a new framework for their lives.

The question for us today is what task or situation before us is so big and so beyond our imagination that we would ask Jesus to send it away?

Are we unable to see the abundant leftovers that there will be because we are so focused on the scarcity of the resources around us?

Jesus shows us in this miracle to remind us that all the resources are there. 

All we need to do is respond from a heart of compassion for the bigger picture.

Twelve baskets of leftovers! One basket full for each disciple!

We are not told how the disciples probably had to scramble to figure out how to share this abundance.

We are not told what their reaction was to this new dilemma.

But we get the joy of God’s work among God’s people. We get it! We really do!

Think of some of the activities we have done together as a church. How many of those activities would have died on the drawing table if we had said things like, “we are small, we don’t have enough people, we don’t have the funds, we don’t have the energy etc.”  But, we haven’t done that (even if we thought it).

And we have been blessed with leftovers!

How will we be good stewards of the leftovers?

How will we handle the baskets of good fruit?

There were twelve baskets and twelve disciples just enough for each one to carry and bring to someone to keep the abundance of giving going.

Jesus gives us more than manna for our daily bread. He gives us leftovers to carry with us and share with others. He gives us so much that we are not depleting our resources but are giving from the abundance given to us.

Let us offer our hearts to God, be blessed and broken, and poured out for many. Amen.