July 29, 2012 9th Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:1-21

   1 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near. 5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”   6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.  7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”  8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”  10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.  12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.   14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself 16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles,[b] they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” 21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.



It is impossible to feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish unless a miracle happens.
Either the miracle of multiplication or the miracle of sharing - or both - and both are signs of  the Kingdom of God in our midst.
However it happened, it is a sign that indeed the Kingdom of God has broken into our world.  God is for us not against us - always!

The food given is not the main point.  The presence of God’s love and grace is.  Bread alone is never enough.

Jewish proverb:  “When you have too much something is missing.”

The human spirit is too great to be satisfied by trinkets - even expensive trinkets.  It can only be satisfied by love.  When there is love we can never be poor again.  This is why Jesus fed the 5000 - as a sign of that love which will not let us go; which will not let us down; which will not let us off.  As we have been loved we are to let God work through us, “upbuilding our world in love.”



Jesus was trying to get away because he was exhausted.  Dare we believe he was that human?  Exhausted by their demands on Him and exhausted by their continual failure to see and believe who He really was - “The Prophet who is to come into the world.”

They were following him for the wrong reason.  He will make life easy for them - just snap His fingers and say His magic words and all will be provided, all will be well.  What an illusion!

We want this of God too!  We want God to be a co-dependent, taking care of us so we won’t have to take care of ourselves.  By repeating the miracles of Jesus.

This is not want the miracles are about - to be repeated.  In fact, a miracle is probably most clearly a miracle when it never happens again.  And the point of the miracles is to spark the miracle of faith which dares to believe that God is for us - no matter what!

The boy with the loaves and fish - Jesus needed him to perform the miracle of feeding 5000.  God needs a human vessel to do God’s thing in this world.  It is the miracle of Christmas repeated over and over and over again as God comes “ in under and with” the actions of our lives.

And remember, it doesn’t have to be big. Whatsoever we do for the least, we do for God!

July 22, 2012 8th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

³⁰ The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. ³¹ Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

³² So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. ³³ But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. ³⁴ When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

⁵³ When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴ As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵ They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

What do you suppose Jesus said to them?  

We can be safe to say it would be a word of encouragement, not a word of judgment or guilt.  Like his words in the Sermon on the Mount...or his parables.

They were ‘like sheep without a shepherd..  He would speak to them as a Shepherd.

On behalf of a God who cares.  And a people who care.

To know that there is a God who cares we need a people who care. As a poor tenant once said. “If your God doesn’t care about the rats in my apartment; I don’t care about your God.”

The Church is people who care, share, and congregate - come together to be the people of God and to do together what we could never do alone.

There is a shepherd and there is a flock.

There is a God who cares and a people who care. - and they are us!

“And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while."

There is a tension between “being alone” and “being compassionate”.

We can try to live with no compassion or we can try to live never saying no.

The first can be cold and indifferent; the second can be exhausting and draining of all energy.  Both extremes are dangerous; both ways have their strengths and weaknesses.

In either we need to get away and be recharged for living as God would have us live - compassionate and responsible.

We need to spend time alone so we can truly be with others in compassion.

Alone time feeds our souls; energizes us; fills us; renews us.

If I don’t take time for myself; I don’t have much to give you either.

To be compassionate is to be with someone; it is to help them so they can do what only they can do to make life what God meant it to be.

For as Henri Nouwen writes, 

“Compassion is the fruit of solitude and the basis of all ministry. ...

Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate.  It is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others where they hurt, were they are weak, vulnerable, lonely and broken.  But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering.  What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure." . 

“What becomes visible here is that solitude molds self-righteous persons into gentle, caring, forgiving persons who are so deeply convinced of their own sinfulness and so fully aware of God's even greater mercy that their whole lives become ministry.  In such a ministry there is hardly any difference left between doing and being...our whole being witnesses to the light that came into the darkness."   The Way Of The Heart, pp. 20,22

July 15, 2012 7th Sunday After Pentecost

Amos 7:7-15

 7...behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. 8 And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then the Lord said, "Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; 9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jerobo'am with the sword." 10 Then Amazi'ah the priest of Bethel sent to Jerobo'am king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. 11 For thus Amos has said, 'Jerobo'am shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.'" 12 And Amazi'ah said to Amos, "O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there; 13 but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom." 14 Then Amos answered Amazi'ah, "I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the LORD took me from following the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.' 

Amos’ words had a bite to them which left him less than popular. 

"Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are in the mountain of Sama'ria, who oppress the poor, who crush the  4:1  

21 "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts I will not look upon. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 5:21-24;

4 "Woe to those who lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the midst of the stall; 5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp, and like David invent for themselves instruments of music; 6 who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! 7 Therefore they shall now be the first of those to go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves shall pass away."  6:4-7

Amos was certainly not very popular in his day.  He spoke the truth no matter how much it hurt.  He didn’t do it to get rich; he had a sense of calling and mission.  He did it because the Spirit of God compelled him to do it!  And he was asked to “go away to the land of Judah” so as to not disturb the comfortable life of Israel.

God interrupted his life - as God does ours - and compels us to speak a word of truth.

When we do we will not be popular; but we will be speaking a word God wants said.

We need a prophet like Amos today, lest we are lulled to sleep in our idolatries and injustices!  We need to be confronted with the evil in our midst - even in our lives - lest we are deceived into thinking that we know God’s will for all things and know what is best for all people.  

It hurts - to face the truth of our own prejudices, hypocrisy, self-righteousness.  Yet it is only as we do that the Word of God transforms our lives and turns us into instruments of grace in a world of hate.

July 8, 2012 6th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 8:1-13

1 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? 3 Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
4 Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.” 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.


We need to hear what we don’t want to hear; see what we don’t want to see; believe what we don’t want to believe.  We can become too comfortable in our faith and then we lose the cutting edge.  We are called to follow Jesus which means we are to proclaim liberty to the captive, recovery of sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed.  That is, we are to speak and be a word of hope to those who have no hope!  This is our mission!


It’s hard to be a prophet among those you grew up with; those who remember the pranks you pulled and find it hard to believe you could amount to much of anything.
Who did Jesus think he was?  GOD!
God can’t be this human, this close, this real!

When God comes to us in too human a way and challenges us to change our ways, we too “take offense at Him”.  We like to keep God boxed up in our rituals where we are in control.
But God will not let us do that.  God is not a rabbits foot, a good luck charm, an easy way out of the difficulties of life.  God desires to enter into the changes and chances of life with us, and there make a difference not by offering new power or easy answers which eliminates all the bad and protects us from suffering, but offering a power make perfect in weakness - the power of love…of grace which is sufficient for all our needs.

“I asked God for strength that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humility to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things,  that I might enjoy life,
I was given lie, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing I asked for--but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am among all men, most richly blessed.”
Anonymous Civil War Soldier

July 1, 2012 5th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 5:21-43

²¹ When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ²² Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ²³ He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

   A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

   ³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”  ³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

   ³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

   ³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”  ³⁶ Overhearing^[a^] what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

   ³⁷ He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” ⁴⁰ But they laughed at him.

   After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). ⁴² Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. ⁴³ He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

“Your Faith Has Made You Well”  

It is easy, with a text like today's, to make faith something magic rather than deeply human.

The power to heal was not in Jesus garment.  It was hidden someplace in what happened between the woman and Jesus.  Had she not reached out, she would have never known this healing.  Had she not risked doing what was both forbidden and scary, as well as a bit selfish, nothing would have happened.

Miracles happen when we believe in them enough to make them happen.  This doesn’t mean we create the miracle;  it could mean that we have something to do with creating the possibility of a miracle happening in our lives.  The miracle begins with me.  I have to want it bad enough to risk doing what is forbidden to get it!  The woman made it happen by reaching out in faith.  How many miracles don’t happen because we don’t reach out in the same faith?

Don’t wait for God to create a miracle for you and lay it at your feet.  Create the possibility of a miracle and lay it at God’s feet.  This is what faith dares to do!  It dares to believe that God can and will make miracles out of my efforts.  God will create the miracle of reconciliation as I

open my heart and mind to being reconciling.  God will create the miracle of forgiveness as I confess and become forgiving.  This in no way diminishes God’s power.  It makes God even more real, and intimate.  Not a magician who does things I cannot do; but a Friend who walks with me and enables my life to be a miracle!

 “Don’t Be Afraid, Only Believe” 

These words could sound superficial to us as well as Jairus - they point to the truth not that God keeps bad things from happening to good people but that God continually makes life out of death, hope out of despair.  The miracle is that as we lose life we find it.

To say, “Don’t be afraid - only believe” is not a cop out on real living.  To the contrary it is really living and believing that death is not an epilogue at the end of life but an episode in the endless life and is in fact, often the source of new life.  “What the caterpillar calls the end of the old, the master calls a butterfly.”

“The Miracle Is Faith” 

The issue of this text is faith, not miracles.  Faith which dares to trust in the goodness of God against all odds.  Which dares to say, “I believe in the sun, even when it is not shinning.  I believe in love even when I feel it not.  I believe in God even when He is silent.”  (Words found on a cellar wall in Cologne, Germany after WWII.)

God is not in the business of producing mass miracles.  God is in the business of loving us uniquely, personally, powerfully, so that no matter what happens to us in our lives, ‘his unfailing love and mercy still continue’ and we can live in hope.

To worship miracles is to worship unrealistic expectations.  To worship God is to trust God’s

unfailing love and mercy” which can turn the worst into the best - and that is a miracle indeed!

June 24, 2012 4th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 4:35-41

³⁵ That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”³⁹ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

It is easy to feel that God doesn’t care; so much bad happens to good people.

We look for signs of God caring for us by how God uses his power for us - in miraculous ways.  Perhaps we need to look again at how God cares for us, not in miracles, but in the miracle of our faith.

What if the disciples had fought the storm rather then wake Jesus, trusting that they could do it? What if they had made the miracle happen by trusting that Jesus did care about them and trusting their own God given strength to overcome?  It would still have been a miracle!

This is not to diminish the uniqueness of what Jesus did; and the sign it is for who he is!

It is to say that there are miracles of God in the ordinary, not just the extraordinary things of life. 

“Anxiety impelled faith which turns people to Jesus for deliverance in emergencies is not the faith Jesus calls for.” 

Jesus calls for the faith which empowers one to believe strong enough to create one’s own miracle, by not letting fear immobilize and paralyze; by daring to believe against all odds that God is for us, not against us. always!  He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will give us all things, even the power to overcome fear and make our own miracles.

Don’t wait for God to do it for you.  Ask God to do it with you and see what miracles can be created when you dare to believe that asleep or awake, God does care for you.

June 17, 2012 3rd Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 4:26-34

    ²⁶ He (Jesus) also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸ All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. ²⁹ As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰ Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. ³² Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

 ³³ With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴ He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

"God Does It'"

The Kingdom of God seems terribly insignificant and insufficient in the affairs of the world, yet it has the dynamic that can make the difference even in our world.

That dynamic is the love of God as known in Jesus Christ.  A love which is individual and universal.  “If Christianity doesn’t begin with the individual it doesn’t begin; but if it ends with the individual, it ends.”

In the parable of the seed growing secretly we are reminded that we have little to do with the building of the Kingdom.  It grows on its own and at its own pace! 

 “The Kingdom of God is not a ‘cause’ for which we fight, nor a ‘program’ that we run.  It is what God does on His own.  We do not build God’s Kingdom.”   God does!” 

God uses us to be sure.  Yet we do not do it; God does.  And it takes time.  Patience is the word when we wait for seed to grow - in the ground and in the Kingdom.

The parable of the Mustard Seed reminds us that God often works God’s purposes out through the insignificant.  In the Kingdom of God, it is not bigness which counts, but making a difference in someone’s life.