Sept. 2, 2012 14th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

¹ The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus ² and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. ³ (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. ⁴ When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.)

   ⁵ So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?”

   ⁶ He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

“‘These people honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
⁷ They worship me in vain;
    their teachings are merely human rules.’

   ⁸ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”¹⁴ Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵ Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” ²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²² adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

 “Living From the Heart”

Words can be cheap and deceiving.  We often sound different then we are inside.  This is what makes communication so difficult and hypocrisy so easy, for all of us!

No one sets out to be a hypocrite.  We too easily become one when we let our greed, jealousy, pride, folly keep us from being congruent from the inside out.

When our hearts are right with God, our words and deeds are going to be right for others.  Such is the Kingdom of God in our midst.

Hypocrisy is anything in our lives which is not right for others, but only for us, no matter how we try to cover up what is in our hearts by words and pious platitudes.  

This is not pleasing to God, nor is it of the Kingdom of God.

“A Call For Deep Things”

 “The most apparent meaning of this (text) could be summarized as a criticism of surface things and a call for deep things.” (Source unknown)

Religion is not meant to be something we play at; it is not meant to be superficial, mechanical, ritualistic. It is meant to be something which comes from the heart - a heart touched by the love and grace of God.

Observing the traditions of the elders is not what is important.  Living as one who has been touched by the love of God is.

This means we need to see the spiritual quality of everything we do and I mean everything!

God is in the business of changing us and deepening us.  Opening us up and making us real. To be truly religious is to let God have my heart.  When God has my heart, God is going to change things and rearrange my priorities and cause me to do things I otherwise would never do.

A man once said to Mother Teresa,“I wouldn’t do what you do for a million dollars.”   To which she replied, “Neither would I. But I will for the love of God!”

To worship is to open our hearts to change from the inside out.  It is to be challenged to be sensitized over and over again as to what it is God really desires - justice rolling down like waters and human kind truly loving one another, seeking to understand, accept differences, and live in peace.

August 26, 2012 13th Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:59-69

59 He (Jesus) said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.  60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?  62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[a] and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.  67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
“Too Offensive To Be Believed”

The story in John 6 gets worse before it gets better.  It is not always soft words which help us break through the animation of our lives and become real.  Sometimes it takes hard words, offensive words, strong words to break the crust which keeps us pretending we are who we are not.

Jesus did not let them nor does he let us off the hook with just sweet words.  He pushes us to the wall and makes us face the games we play with ourselves and with God, for therein lies life.

We pretend so hard.  We pretend we are good, righteous, religious, pious.  Only God is good and only God’s love can make us good.  Really good!

We do have to let go and let God!  It is the only way to life abundant!
For we live by grace and grace is a gift of God’s love; undeserved by any and all, lest even the best of us should boast.

“Will You Also Go Away?”

Jesus Christ was an offensive person.  He had a way of getting under peoples skin and either turning them on or off...mostly off.

“Many of his followers turned back and would not go with him any more.”  Jn. 6:66

“Even though he had done all these mighty works before their very eyes they did not believe in him.”  Jn. 12:37

He ate with tax collectors and sinners.
He healed on the sabbath.
He refused to condemn a woman caught in the act of adultery.
He claimed to be the son of God.

Jesus Christ was an offensive person.  For he came to create change in our lives;  changing us from living for ourselves to living for others - living a life of the Spirit, a life full of compassion that produces a harvest of good deeds; “without a trace of partiality or  hypocrisy...” as James says. (3:17)

This is no easy task!  Especially if we are religious!
Jesus was not religious enough for those who left him.
Life is change, yet we often don’t want it.  We even fight against it.  We want to keep our prejudices and self-serving attitudes, rather then be led into places where love is at the heart of it all.  Faith in Jesus Christ is trusting Him and following, no matter how much we have to change to do so.

Will we also go away?

August 19 2012 12th Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:51-58

⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

   ⁵² Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

   ⁵³ Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

This is a troublesome text.  As one theologian said of it - 

“The language in this text is raw and probably ought to shock our sensibilities.”  

Because of these words more then one person has accused the church of advocating cannibalism.  And nothing could be further from the truth!

What ever we do with these words, we dare not take them literal - for then we will miss the point of what Jesus is saying - as is often the case when the Bible is take literally.  We end up with a distorted, disconnected message which leads to distorted and disconnected living.

Perhaps this is why Karl Barth said, ”I love the Bible too much to take it literal.”

These words have to be taken in context and they have to be understood in  a deeper way - a way which goes beyond our rational capacity to understand and grasps mystery.

So what is it Jesus is trying to say to us today?

Robert Kyser, a Biblical scholar of today makes a good point as to what Jesus might be getting at here. in his book, “Preaching John”.  He suggests that Jesus is telling the hearers that they literally need to take Jesus into themselves, make him “part of their essence”

“No arm’s-length relationship here, no safe distance between us.  As (those) who long for the abundant life, we have no other way to such a life except by taking Jesus in, having him become so intermingled with our own being that we cannot separate one from the other. “  Adele Resmer, Proc. B,’06,p.179

Then, in the words of the great preacher of the past, P.T. Forsythe, faith will become “a power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of life” - our lives.

We will no longer be able to live indifferent to callings of the spirit to place faith, hope, and love at the center of our living and let nothing take its place.

August 12, 2012 11th Sunday After Pentecost

August 12, 2012 11th Sunday After Pentecost

John 6:35, 41-51

35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst...

 41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." 42 They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" 43 Jesus answered them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that any one has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

“The Offense Of The Incarnation  

Jesus was too human for the people of his day.  He was Joseph’s son who lived in their midst.  He was too human, too real, too common for them to believe he was God’s son.

We want God to be something other then human.  We are not inclined to see God in the common.  We don’t think of God being  “ in, under, and with”  everyday activities.

We want God to be a miracle worker who does things in unnatural ways.  

Who takes care of the tough stuff so we don’t have to deal with it.

This is a subtle form of idolatry.  

One writer called it “the offense of the Incarnation.”

We believe Jesus was spiritual; we struggle with him being human.  The truth is, as a friend often said, ”To be spiritual is to be human; to be human is to be spiritual.”  The most spiritual things we can do are also the most human.  We dare not be afraid to be human for that is the essence of what it means to eat of the Bread of Life - it is to be humanly open, honest, compassionate, intimate.

God became so human we can’t separate God from that which is human.  Every time we touch intimately, lovingly, compassionately in the midst of the pain and joy of being human, God is there with life giving bread to impart eternal life.  This is a miracle beyond all miracles!

Aug. 5 2012 10th Sunday After Pentecost

24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

 25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”  26 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”

28 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’[a]”

32 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.


"When People Seek Jesus”

The people in our text were looking for the easy way out.  They wanted a free meal;  a life without difficulty, pain, suffering.  They came to Jesus for the wrong thing.

For Jesus came to give life a fulness;  to open life up to all its greatness as we discover the dynamic of creative living, nourished by His presence and His spirit,  nourished by the Bread of Life.

Jesus didn’t come just to give us answers; Jesus came to give us himself, a living, dynamic, creative presence with us which enables us to live abundantly no matter what.


They wanted Jesus “Not because (they) saw signs, but because (they) ate their fill of the loaves.”

They wanted Jesus for the wrong reason - and so do we.

We want Jesus as an insurance policy against bad things happening to us.

Even if we are careless, greedy, indifferent.  It isn’t that we want to be “renewed in the spirit of our minds”  We want to have our bases covered.

But this is not how it is with God.  God did not send Jesus to dwell among us so life could be a bed of roses.  God sent Jesus to dwell among us so that life could be different - strangely, powerfully, eternally different!

Faith doesn’t change anything in our world.  It changes something in here (heart) and here and here and here!  ((eyes, ears, head)  Then everything takes on a new meaning and purpose.  Nothing is left untouched by this new and different perspective, which makes a new and different person.

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