Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ
August 23, 2009
The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Year B: Proper 16
1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43
Psalm 84
(Ephesians 6:10-20)
John 6:56-69
The Grandeur of God
Last Sunday I had so much to tell you about our mission trip to Camden that I didn’t have time to deal with our Old Testament lesson. For much of the summer we have been following the story of David – his journey from the youngest son of Jesse out tending the sheep to ruling as Israel’s king. We’ve heard about David, warts and all. We’ve heard about David, who was chosen by God to rule God’s people, but who was also capable of great selfishness and immorality.
Last week we heard about David’s death and the passing of the crown to his son Solomon. Solomon, of course, is remembered mostly for two things – his great wisdom and the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
Last week we heard about Solomon’s wisdom. The author of First Kings tells us that the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, “Ask what I should give you.” That’s quite a question and I’m sure many of us offered the same kind of blank check might not be quite as high-minded as Solomon.
In the dream the Lord says “Ask what I should give you.” And in reply Solomon says, “Give your servant…an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil.”
God is pleased with this answer and gives Solomon wisdom – and since Solomon hadn’t asked for them, God also gives honor and riches.
So the reign of wise Solomon begins.
Solomon’s other claim is what we heard about in today’s lesson – the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
The author of First Kings goes to great lengths to describe the grandeur of the Temple. It was built with enormous and expensive stone blocks. Long beams were needed to support the large building. It was decorated with gold and brass. It was designed not so much as a place to worship but as a place for God to reside.
So, in today’s lesson we hear about the priests bringing the Ark of the Covenant – the holiest object of all - into the inner sanctuary of the Temple. Of course, Solomon knew that no building can contain the God of the universe yet he spent enormous amounts of wealth to construct a temple to glorify God and to provide a place spectacular enough to remind people of the grandeur of God.
It’s a familiar story, isn’t it? For most of Christian history we have tried to construct buildings not to contain God but to glorify God and to remind people of the grandeur of God.
Maybe you’ve visited some of these spectacular, magnificent churches of Christianity. I remember visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome – usually listed as the largest church in the world – and being nearly overwhelmed by its size and its grandeur. I found it disorienting – there was so much to see I wasn’t sure where to look and I wasn’t sure what was the front or the back of the building.
Maybe some of you have visited St. Paul’s Cathedral in London – a bit smaller but in the same league as St. Peter’s. Enormous amounts of resources were spent – and continue to be spent – to create a building that glorifies God and reminds people of the grandeur of God.
These holy buildings don’t have to be as large or as grand as St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s to remind us of God’s grandeur. My home parish, St. Paul’s in Jersey City, is a little wood frame Victorian located in the middle of a side street. It has many charms, but what I love the most is a round blue window with a dove representing the Holy Spirit. When the sunlight comes through that window the whole church is bathed in blue light. For me that was always a physical reminder of the grandeur of God.
And our own Grace Church isn’t too shabby, is it? A century and a half ago the people who first began building could have constructed a simple, utilitarian structure. Instead they piled up stones into something beautiful, trying to give glory to God and to remind people of God’s grandeur.
And back in the 1950s the parishioners who expanded this church could have just built something plain and relatively inexpensive to accommodate the growing congregation. (It was not exactly a golden age of church architecture!) Instead they gave as much as they could to create something beautiful to glorify God to remind themselves and future generations of the grandeur of God.
And this is all good. Certainly one of the most attractive aspects of Anglicanism and the Episcopal Church is what’s called “the beauty of holiness.” We go to great lengths to make our churches beautiful and to make our worship beautiful. We wear colorful vestments, use silver vessels and brass candlesticks, and sing gorgeous hymns all to glorify God and to remind ourselves of the grandeur of God.
Each week the altar guild polishes and irons and the choirs rehearse all to make what we do today beautiful.
This is all good, but there is an obvious danger too. The danger is that we fall too much in love with our buildings, our shiny vessels and our lovely music. The danger is that the grandeur of our things distracts us from the grandeur of God.
Today’s gospel lesson is a powerful reminder of where we truly find the grandeur of God. We find the grandeur of God in Jesus. We find the grandeur of God in being part of the Body of Christ.
For the past few weeks we’ve been making our way through the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. We’ve been hearing this deep and profound meditation on Jesus as the Bread of Life. And we’ve heard that when we eat Jesus’ body and drink Jesus’ blood then we become part of the Body of Christ – we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us.
John tells us that some of the disciples said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”
And, let’s face it, the Eucharist is difficult to understand. The Eucharist is difficult if we try to convince ourselves that when we eat this little sliver of bread and take a little sip of wine we are really taking the body and blood of Christ into our bodies.
But the good news is we don’t have to convince ourselves of anything. Instead all we need to do is be open just enough to the power and grandeur of God working within us. In the gospel Jesus is clear that faith is a gift from God. Faith is not something that we can talk ourselves into. Faith is not something that we can convince ourselves of.
If we are open to the gift of faith then we find the grandeur of God in Jesus. We find the grandeur of God in being part of the Body of Christ.
We are reminded of the grandeur of God in our beautiful churches but we find the grandeur of God when we go out and live as the Body of Christ in the world. As the Body of Christ in the world we are able to see the grandeur of God all around us.
As the 19th Century Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins famously wrote, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”
When we live as the Body of Christ in the world we find the grandeur of God in seemingly simple moments. Just this past week I found the grandeur of God at the Community Soup Kitchen in Morristown when I looked down the line and saw so many of our young people eager to serve some of the poorest in our midst.
I certainly found the grandeur of God during that week in Camden when our young people and the adult chaperones threw themselves into a frightening unknown, willing to be bold for Christ.
We find the grandeur of God when parishioners rally around one of our own who has been hurt and is suffering. We find the grandeur of God when people visit a parishioner in the hospital or call someone who is lonely. We find the grandeur of God when some among us work hard to help someone dig her way out of crushing debt. We find the grandeur of God when some among us use their expertise to try to help churches in our diocese less fortunate than Grace. We find the grandeur of God every time someone drops a box of cereal or a jar of peanut butter into the Food for Friends bin.
Solomon built the Temple to glorify God and to remind people of the grandeur of God. We build our churches and take care with our worship to glorify God and to remind ourselves of the grandeur of God.
But we truly find the grandeur of God in Jesus. We truly find the grandeur of God in being part of the Body of Christ.
We find the grandeur of God when we go out and live as the Body of Christ. And when we go out and live as the Body of Christ we find that, indeed, the world is charged with the grandeur of God.
Amen.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Invincible
Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ
August 16, 2009
Year B: The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 15
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Psalm 111
(Ephesians 5:15-20)
John 6:51-58
Invincible
Each Sunday over the past few weeks we’ve slowly been making our way through the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. In his account of the Last Supper, the Evangelist John doesn’t include the institution of the Eucharist. There’s no mention of Jesus saying, “This is my body. This is my blood. Do this in memory of me.” John describes the foot washing instead. But, in a way the fourth gospel makes up for that omission in this long section which is a rich and deep meditation on Jesus as the Bread of Life.
Two weeks ago we heard Jesus tell the crowds that they should focus not so much on the bread that fills their stomachs but rather seek the bread that comes down from heaven. Last week we heard Jesus boldly proclaim, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jesus scandalized many who heard those words. They were scandalized when Jesus reminded them that their ancestors who ate the manna in the desert all died eventually but then insists that those who believe in him - those who eat the bread of life - will live forever.
And then today we hear very powerful and vivid Eucharistic language when Jesus says “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
You can imagine how the first readers and hearers of those words were confused and scandalized. Jesus is the living bread that comes down from heaven? And those who eat this living bread – eat this flesh – will live forever? How can this be?
They still had a lot to learn about the cheap bread of the world and the costly bread Jesus offers to the world.
We still have a lot to learn about the cheap bread of the world and the costly bread that Jesus offers to the world. Today I’d like to tell you what I learned about cheap bread and costly bread during our recent mission trip to Camden.
There is so much to tell you about the trip. Going into this experience I knew that we would be in one of the very poorest and most dangerous cities in the country. But having facts in my head really didn’t prepare me for the reality of actually being there – seeing block after block of desolation. Having facts in my head didn’t prepare me for smelling the reek of the sewage treatment plant that blankets an entire city neighborhood – invading and coating the homes of all who live there.
Having facts in my head also didn’t prepare me for the hopeful signs that I saw. At shelters and drop-in centers and food banks and day care centers we met people who have committed their lives to helping people in Camden. And at those places we met Camden residents who were good, decent people trying to survive against some awfully tough odds.
Back when Camden was thriving as a prosperous industrial city, Walt Whitman referred to it as the “city invincible.” The “city invincible.” That’s still Camden’s motto. Today there is a sad irony to that description. During our time there we saw a city not quite defeated, but all too vulnerable – vulnerable to a changed economy, vulnerable to a lack of compassion, vulnerable to poor decisions, vulnerable to a lack of leadership.
Like so many places in our nation, Camden cries out for leaders with – if not the wisdom of Solomon – at least honest leaders with genuine concern for the least among us.
Even with the fragile signs of hope sprouting here and there in the city, overall I found the experience to be nearly overwhelming. The need is so great, the damage so severe. Where will we find the strength and power to heal this broken place?
One day we did a little exercise to give us a small sense of what it’s like to be poor in Camden. We were told the federal government’s food assistance program provides 87 cents per person per meal. All of us on the mission trip were broken into “families” of four with each member of the family having three dollars to buy food for a day. We could have unlimited water, salt and a small amount of butter. Otherwise, for one day we could eat only whatever our twelve dollars was able to buy.
We walked a few blocks to one of the three supermarkets in a city with something like 80,000 people. As soon as we walked in a number of us noticed the smell the meat department although it was not near the front of the store. If the meat hadn’t already spoiled, it wasn’t far from it.
But, for us that didn’t really matter because our meager budget ruled out buying meat anyway. Now some groups did better than others – some managed to buy eggs and some fresh fruit with their limited funds.
My family was not so clever. We purchased a box of pop tarts, peanut butter and jelly, a loaf of cheap store-brand white bread, a box of off-brand macaroni and cheese…and we treated ourselves to a bag of mini chips ahoy cookies.
That’s all we would be eating the next day.
Now, I’ll admit, I hadn’t had a pop tart in a long time – and the next morning my pop tart was pretty tasty. It filled my stomach and I guess the sugar gave me a burst of energy. So I began the day feeling pretty satisfied and hopeful that this diet wouldn’t be so difficult.
That day I was working over in Philadelphia at a place called Manna, appropriately enough. It is a large industrial kitchen and food preparation center that provides meals for people suffering from AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses. When I first got there I did feel a few pangs of hunger, but I thought the sight of all this industrially-produced food would keep me from getting too hungry.
As it turns out, Manna provides what looked like and especially smelled like incredibly delicious meals. My group estimated that we helped to prepare about fifteen hundred meals that day. As we prepared tray after tray the slices of pork smelled delicious. Apples with cinnamon – delicious. Peaches – delicious. Even the vegetables – delicious.
By our lunch break I had long since burned through my pop tarts. I was out of energy. For lunch I had a peanut and butter sandwich on cheap white bread, a handful of mini chips ahoy, and a bottle of water. The bread was soft and springy and easy to eat. I finished my lunch in about 9 seconds.
All that cheap bread filled me up but I knew it wouldn’t last. The cheap bread wouldn’t give me the strength and power that was needed.
No surprise, that evening my stomach was growling when I sat down for my dinner – a box of macaroni and cheese split four ways and a handful of mini chips ahoy for dessert. I tried to fill up with even more cheap bread.
I ended the day really looking forward to the end of this exercise and the next day’s breakfast. The cheap bread just wasn’t enough.
And what’s true for our bodies is also true for our souls. The cheap bread is never enough.
The first readers and hearers of the Gospel of John lived in difficult times. The problems and challenges they faced must have often seemed overwhelming. Everyday life was difficult enough. Placing faith in Jesus and trying to live according to his teaching meant putting everything on the line, including life itself.
Oh, just like today there was plenty of cheap bread around. There was the cheap bread of caring only about yourself and not your neighbor. There was the cheap bread of despising people who were different. There was the cheap bread of focusing solely on acquiring material possessions.
Just like today that kind of cheap bread gives a rush – but it doesn’t last and it’s not enough. And it’s certainly not the right kind of bread if we want to follow Jesus.
To live the Christian life the first hearers of the gospel needed the costly bread.
To live the Christian life we need the costly bread – the bread that comes at the great cost of God living and dying and rising again among us.
In the Body of Christ – in this costly bread – we get the strength and power we need to be fully alive – to live not just for ourselves but for our brothers and sisters – especially the poorest and most vulnerable. We get the strength and power we need to live for all the Camdens of the world – even the Camdens right here in Madison.
When we eat this costly bread we become the Body of Christ in the world.
So once again today we gather at the table and eat this costly bread. And then we will go out and be the Body of Christ in the world
Even if we live in difficult times and our problems seem overwhelming, we can have confidence because Jesus has promised that we who eat this costly bread will have the strength we need – and more than that - we will live forever.
We who eat this costly bread are a people invincible.
Amen.
August 16, 2009
Year B: The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 15
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14
Psalm 111
(Ephesians 5:15-20)
John 6:51-58
Invincible
Each Sunday over the past few weeks we’ve slowly been making our way through the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. In his account of the Last Supper, the Evangelist John doesn’t include the institution of the Eucharist. There’s no mention of Jesus saying, “This is my body. This is my blood. Do this in memory of me.” John describes the foot washing instead. But, in a way the fourth gospel makes up for that omission in this long section which is a rich and deep meditation on Jesus as the Bread of Life.
Two weeks ago we heard Jesus tell the crowds that they should focus not so much on the bread that fills their stomachs but rather seek the bread that comes down from heaven. Last week we heard Jesus boldly proclaim, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Jesus scandalized many who heard those words. They were scandalized when Jesus reminded them that their ancestors who ate the manna in the desert all died eventually but then insists that those who believe in him - those who eat the bread of life - will live forever.
And then today we hear very powerful and vivid Eucharistic language when Jesus says “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
You can imagine how the first readers and hearers of those words were confused and scandalized. Jesus is the living bread that comes down from heaven? And those who eat this living bread – eat this flesh – will live forever? How can this be?
They still had a lot to learn about the cheap bread of the world and the costly bread Jesus offers to the world.
We still have a lot to learn about the cheap bread of the world and the costly bread that Jesus offers to the world. Today I’d like to tell you what I learned about cheap bread and costly bread during our recent mission trip to Camden.
There is so much to tell you about the trip. Going into this experience I knew that we would be in one of the very poorest and most dangerous cities in the country. But having facts in my head really didn’t prepare me for the reality of actually being there – seeing block after block of desolation. Having facts in my head didn’t prepare me for smelling the reek of the sewage treatment plant that blankets an entire city neighborhood – invading and coating the homes of all who live there.
Having facts in my head also didn’t prepare me for the hopeful signs that I saw. At shelters and drop-in centers and food banks and day care centers we met people who have committed their lives to helping people in Camden. And at those places we met Camden residents who were good, decent people trying to survive against some awfully tough odds.
Back when Camden was thriving as a prosperous industrial city, Walt Whitman referred to it as the “city invincible.” The “city invincible.” That’s still Camden’s motto. Today there is a sad irony to that description. During our time there we saw a city not quite defeated, but all too vulnerable – vulnerable to a changed economy, vulnerable to a lack of compassion, vulnerable to poor decisions, vulnerable to a lack of leadership.
Like so many places in our nation, Camden cries out for leaders with – if not the wisdom of Solomon – at least honest leaders with genuine concern for the least among us.
Even with the fragile signs of hope sprouting here and there in the city, overall I found the experience to be nearly overwhelming. The need is so great, the damage so severe. Where will we find the strength and power to heal this broken place?
One day we did a little exercise to give us a small sense of what it’s like to be poor in Camden. We were told the federal government’s food assistance program provides 87 cents per person per meal. All of us on the mission trip were broken into “families” of four with each member of the family having three dollars to buy food for a day. We could have unlimited water, salt and a small amount of butter. Otherwise, for one day we could eat only whatever our twelve dollars was able to buy.
We walked a few blocks to one of the three supermarkets in a city with something like 80,000 people. As soon as we walked in a number of us noticed the smell the meat department although it was not near the front of the store. If the meat hadn’t already spoiled, it wasn’t far from it.
But, for us that didn’t really matter because our meager budget ruled out buying meat anyway. Now some groups did better than others – some managed to buy eggs and some fresh fruit with their limited funds.
My family was not so clever. We purchased a box of pop tarts, peanut butter and jelly, a loaf of cheap store-brand white bread, a box of off-brand macaroni and cheese…and we treated ourselves to a bag of mini chips ahoy cookies.
That’s all we would be eating the next day.
Now, I’ll admit, I hadn’t had a pop tart in a long time – and the next morning my pop tart was pretty tasty. It filled my stomach and I guess the sugar gave me a burst of energy. So I began the day feeling pretty satisfied and hopeful that this diet wouldn’t be so difficult.
That day I was working over in Philadelphia at a place called Manna, appropriately enough. It is a large industrial kitchen and food preparation center that provides meals for people suffering from AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses. When I first got there I did feel a few pangs of hunger, but I thought the sight of all this industrially-produced food would keep me from getting too hungry.
As it turns out, Manna provides what looked like and especially smelled like incredibly delicious meals. My group estimated that we helped to prepare about fifteen hundred meals that day. As we prepared tray after tray the slices of pork smelled delicious. Apples with cinnamon – delicious. Peaches – delicious. Even the vegetables – delicious.
By our lunch break I had long since burned through my pop tarts. I was out of energy. For lunch I had a peanut and butter sandwich on cheap white bread, a handful of mini chips ahoy, and a bottle of water. The bread was soft and springy and easy to eat. I finished my lunch in about 9 seconds.
All that cheap bread filled me up but I knew it wouldn’t last. The cheap bread wouldn’t give me the strength and power that was needed.
No surprise, that evening my stomach was growling when I sat down for my dinner – a box of macaroni and cheese split four ways and a handful of mini chips ahoy for dessert. I tried to fill up with even more cheap bread.
I ended the day really looking forward to the end of this exercise and the next day’s breakfast. The cheap bread just wasn’t enough.
And what’s true for our bodies is also true for our souls. The cheap bread is never enough.
The first readers and hearers of the Gospel of John lived in difficult times. The problems and challenges they faced must have often seemed overwhelming. Everyday life was difficult enough. Placing faith in Jesus and trying to live according to his teaching meant putting everything on the line, including life itself.
Oh, just like today there was plenty of cheap bread around. There was the cheap bread of caring only about yourself and not your neighbor. There was the cheap bread of despising people who were different. There was the cheap bread of focusing solely on acquiring material possessions.
Just like today that kind of cheap bread gives a rush – but it doesn’t last and it’s not enough. And it’s certainly not the right kind of bread if we want to follow Jesus.
To live the Christian life the first hearers of the gospel needed the costly bread.
To live the Christian life we need the costly bread – the bread that comes at the great cost of God living and dying and rising again among us.
In the Body of Christ – in this costly bread – we get the strength and power we need to be fully alive – to live not just for ourselves but for our brothers and sisters – especially the poorest and most vulnerable. We get the strength and power we need to live for all the Camdens of the world – even the Camdens right here in Madison.
When we eat this costly bread we become the Body of Christ in the world.
So once again today we gather at the table and eat this costly bread. And then we will go out and be the Body of Christ in the world
Even if we live in difficult times and our problems seem overwhelming, we can have confidence because Jesus has promised that we who eat this costly bread will have the strength we need – and more than that - we will live forever.
We who eat this costly bread are a people invincible.
Amen.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Setting Priorities
Church of the Good Shepherd, Ringwood NJ
August 2, 2009
The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Year B: Proper 13
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Psalm 51:1-13
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-25
Setting Priorities
Before I got into the priest business I was a high school history teacher. It was a job that I enjoyed very much. I liked working with kids. I liked the subject that I taught. I liked having the summer off. In fact, I’m still adjusting to getting up and going to work in the summer!
It wasn’t until I left teaching, however, that I realized one of the best parts of teaching. As a teacher it is very easy, very straightforward, to set priorities. Each school day, of course, is broken up into different class periods. So for 40 minutes I would teach United States history. Then a bell would ring and I’d stop doing that and switch to teaching World Civilizations. Later another bell would ring and it would be time for lunch. And then finally at the end of the school day a bell would ring and I knew it was time to go home.
I spent a good bit of time after school grading papers and planning lessons. And even then it was easy to set priorities. The tests and quizzes that were the oldest got graded first. The classes that were coming up next needed to be planned first.
Yes, as a teacher it was very easy to set priorities.
After I was ordained and got my job at Grace Church in Madison, I had a little trouble setting priorities. Oh, sure, I knew that if I was preaching I needed to prepare my sermon before church on Sunday morning. And if there was a meeting at a certain time, then I needed to be at the right place at the right time.
But aside from that my job doesn’t have a lot of structure and there certainly isn’t a bell that rings telling me to stop what I’m doing and move on to the next thing. So, especially in my first months, I often found myself sitting at my desk wondering what I should do first. What’s most important? Should I do some planning for the youth group? Should I go visit some parishioners in the hospital or a nursing home? Should I work at my article for the parish newsletter? Should I do some reading or thinking? Should I set aside some time for prayer? Should I try to carve out some time to spend with my wife?
All good things – but what’s most important? How do I set priorities? After a while I got the hang of it, but it took some time for me to figure out how to set priorities as a priest.
I guess that many of us struggle with setting priorities. We have trouble deciding what’s most important in our lives.
Sometimes we set exactly the wrong priorities – we try to use people for our own benefit or pleasure. And this leads to much pain and sorrow.
And other times we set wrong priorities by choosing something that’s good – but not really the best or most important thing.
Today’s lessons have something important to say about setting priorities – deciding what’s most important in our lives.
These past few weeks we’ve been hearing the story of King David. We heard how he was selected by God to replace Saul as the king of Israel. We heard the famous story of how he defeated Goliath the giant. We heard how he led a triumphant parade, including the Ark of the Covenant – for the people of Israel the holiest object in the universe. He led this parade into his city, into Jerusalem, to show that he was God’s choice to lead the people.
But then things start to go terribly wrong. The truth is that David is going to abuse God’s trust and David is going to abuse his royal power. David sets the wrong priorities. Instead of serving God and serving God’s people, David seeks his own pleasure.
Last Sunday we heard the story of how David desired the beautiful Bathsheba. The only problem was that Bathsheba was married to Uriah the Hittite. But if you’re the king and your priority is your own pleasure and desire – if that’s what’s most important – then the fact that she’s married is no problem at all.
And so David arranges things so Uriah is killed in battle. And then David can take Bathsheba as his wife.
Which brings us to today’s lesson from the Old Testament.
Through the prophet Nathan God reminds David of all that God had given to him and says God would have given much more, too. But, David chose to reject God and God’s Word. David set exactly the wrong priority. David didn’t realize what was most important.
Instead of serving God and God’s people, David decided his own pleasure was most important.
And David faces the sickening reality of what he’s done – David faces the consequences of setting wrong priorities. All these centuries later we can hear the regret and imagine the sick feeling in his stomach when David says, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
David set as his priority something that was clearly wrong. Sometimes we do that, but I bet more often we set as our priority something that is good, but is not really the best or most important thing.
Which brings us to today’s gospel lesson.
The gospel picks up right after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, or the feeding of the five thousand. This is one of Jesus’ most important miracles and in fact the only one that is recorded in all four of the gospels.
On the surface this is a miracle about literally feeding people who are hungry. It’s not only a symbolic action – there’s real bread and real fish involved. While before people stomachs were rumbling with hunger now they are stuffed and I imagine them a little sleepy the way we get after a big meal.
The miracle is about real bread and fish but it’s about more than that. It’s about God’s overflowing abundance. Just when it seems like there’s just not enough, God is able to provide more than we can imagine and more than we need.
And the miracle of the loaves and fishes is about Jesus as the bread of life – Jesus who feeds us in the deepest and most profound way - Jesus who feeds our souls.
But for the people who’ve been fed the most important thing, their top priority, is keeping their bellies full. That’s definitely a good and very important thing, but it’s not the most important. Satisfying our physical needs is not the most important thing.
Anyway, even a big meal satisfies for only a while and so today’s lesson picks up the next day when the people are searching for Jesus and the disciples.
Jesus, of course, gets why they’re looking for him so eagerly. He says to the crowd, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
And at the end of today’s lesson Jesus tells the crowd, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
As Christians, Jesus needs to be our top priority. Jesus is what’s most important.
But the truth is in our daily lives many, if not all of us, forget this essential truth. We forget that Jesus needs to be our top priority and we put other things – both good and maybe not so good – in that top slot.
And that’s one of the most important reasons why we gather in church on Sunday. We gather to be reminded of the power of Jesus, to be reminded of God’s overflowing love and abundance, to be reminded of the grace that is being poured out upon us right here and now.
We gather to hear God’s word – to be reminded of God’s law and God’s history of reaching out to God’s people.
We gather to receive the bread and wine – Christ’s body and blood – to strengthen us as we face the challenges of life and to help us to set priorities – to help us remember what’s most important.
So today let us give thanks for all the good gifts God has given us. Let us give thanks for the loaves and the fishes. Let us give thanks for Jesus, the Bread of Life.
And let us ask God’s help as we make our way in the world, setting our priorities and deciding what’s most important.
Amen.
August 2, 2009
The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Year B: Proper 13
2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Psalm 51:1-13
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-25
Setting Priorities
Before I got into the priest business I was a high school history teacher. It was a job that I enjoyed very much. I liked working with kids. I liked the subject that I taught. I liked having the summer off. In fact, I’m still adjusting to getting up and going to work in the summer!
It wasn’t until I left teaching, however, that I realized one of the best parts of teaching. As a teacher it is very easy, very straightforward, to set priorities. Each school day, of course, is broken up into different class periods. So for 40 minutes I would teach United States history. Then a bell would ring and I’d stop doing that and switch to teaching World Civilizations. Later another bell would ring and it would be time for lunch. And then finally at the end of the school day a bell would ring and I knew it was time to go home.
I spent a good bit of time after school grading papers and planning lessons. And even then it was easy to set priorities. The tests and quizzes that were the oldest got graded first. The classes that were coming up next needed to be planned first.
Yes, as a teacher it was very easy to set priorities.
After I was ordained and got my job at Grace Church in Madison, I had a little trouble setting priorities. Oh, sure, I knew that if I was preaching I needed to prepare my sermon before church on Sunday morning. And if there was a meeting at a certain time, then I needed to be at the right place at the right time.
But aside from that my job doesn’t have a lot of structure and there certainly isn’t a bell that rings telling me to stop what I’m doing and move on to the next thing. So, especially in my first months, I often found myself sitting at my desk wondering what I should do first. What’s most important? Should I do some planning for the youth group? Should I go visit some parishioners in the hospital or a nursing home? Should I work at my article for the parish newsletter? Should I do some reading or thinking? Should I set aside some time for prayer? Should I try to carve out some time to spend with my wife?
All good things – but what’s most important? How do I set priorities? After a while I got the hang of it, but it took some time for me to figure out how to set priorities as a priest.
I guess that many of us struggle with setting priorities. We have trouble deciding what’s most important in our lives.
Sometimes we set exactly the wrong priorities – we try to use people for our own benefit or pleasure. And this leads to much pain and sorrow.
And other times we set wrong priorities by choosing something that’s good – but not really the best or most important thing.
Today’s lessons have something important to say about setting priorities – deciding what’s most important in our lives.
These past few weeks we’ve been hearing the story of King David. We heard how he was selected by God to replace Saul as the king of Israel. We heard the famous story of how he defeated Goliath the giant. We heard how he led a triumphant parade, including the Ark of the Covenant – for the people of Israel the holiest object in the universe. He led this parade into his city, into Jerusalem, to show that he was God’s choice to lead the people.
But then things start to go terribly wrong. The truth is that David is going to abuse God’s trust and David is going to abuse his royal power. David sets the wrong priorities. Instead of serving God and serving God’s people, David seeks his own pleasure.
Last Sunday we heard the story of how David desired the beautiful Bathsheba. The only problem was that Bathsheba was married to Uriah the Hittite. But if you’re the king and your priority is your own pleasure and desire – if that’s what’s most important – then the fact that she’s married is no problem at all.
And so David arranges things so Uriah is killed in battle. And then David can take Bathsheba as his wife.
Which brings us to today’s lesson from the Old Testament.
Through the prophet Nathan God reminds David of all that God had given to him and says God would have given much more, too. But, David chose to reject God and God’s Word. David set exactly the wrong priority. David didn’t realize what was most important.
Instead of serving God and God’s people, David decided his own pleasure was most important.
And David faces the sickening reality of what he’s done – David faces the consequences of setting wrong priorities. All these centuries later we can hear the regret and imagine the sick feeling in his stomach when David says, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
David set as his priority something that was clearly wrong. Sometimes we do that, but I bet more often we set as our priority something that is good, but is not really the best or most important thing.
Which brings us to today’s gospel lesson.
The gospel picks up right after the miracle of the loaves and fishes, or the feeding of the five thousand. This is one of Jesus’ most important miracles and in fact the only one that is recorded in all four of the gospels.
On the surface this is a miracle about literally feeding people who are hungry. It’s not only a symbolic action – there’s real bread and real fish involved. While before people stomachs were rumbling with hunger now they are stuffed and I imagine them a little sleepy the way we get after a big meal.
The miracle is about real bread and fish but it’s about more than that. It’s about God’s overflowing abundance. Just when it seems like there’s just not enough, God is able to provide more than we can imagine and more than we need.
And the miracle of the loaves and fishes is about Jesus as the bread of life – Jesus who feeds us in the deepest and most profound way - Jesus who feeds our souls.
But for the people who’ve been fed the most important thing, their top priority, is keeping their bellies full. That’s definitely a good and very important thing, but it’s not the most important. Satisfying our physical needs is not the most important thing.
Anyway, even a big meal satisfies for only a while and so today’s lesson picks up the next day when the people are searching for Jesus and the disciples.
Jesus, of course, gets why they’re looking for him so eagerly. He says to the crowd, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”
And at the end of today’s lesson Jesus tells the crowd, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
As Christians, Jesus needs to be our top priority. Jesus is what’s most important.
But the truth is in our daily lives many, if not all of us, forget this essential truth. We forget that Jesus needs to be our top priority and we put other things – both good and maybe not so good – in that top slot.
And that’s one of the most important reasons why we gather in church on Sunday. We gather to be reminded of the power of Jesus, to be reminded of God’s overflowing love and abundance, to be reminded of the grace that is being poured out upon us right here and now.
We gather to hear God’s word – to be reminded of God’s law and God’s history of reaching out to God’s people.
We gather to receive the bread and wine – Christ’s body and blood – to strengthen us as we face the challenges of life and to help us to set priorities – to help us remember what’s most important.
So today let us give thanks for all the good gifts God has given us. Let us give thanks for the loaves and the fishes. Let us give thanks for Jesus, the Bread of Life.
And let us ask God’s help as we make our way in the world, setting our priorities and deciding what’s most important.
Amen.
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