Keeping Faith With the Faithful

Text: Hebrews 11:29–12:2

Focus: Faith

Function: Celebrating life

Form: GOK

Intro: We know that Brother Paul told us that three things endure through the tests of all time, Faith, Hope and Love, and the greatest of these is love. We are named HOPE, we focus on Love, and faith is the third leg of the stool that helps us keep focused.

In the midst of the turmoil and uncertainty in our lives, one of the things that seems to be endure in one way or another is our community of faith.

And that community of faith will be a blessing to the world around it as long, I believe, as it remains to this principle from the scriptures, Love Wins. Well, the words are written like this, in 1 Peter: 1:¹⁹Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.

Love is really the only option.

I was at the Dentist the other day and a sort of vocal about her faith employee was there and she was defending the right to bear arms to another employee and she said it this way, “Jesus wants us armed to protect ourselves from our enemies.”

I felt sorry for her because she backed herself into a corner by trying to equate her politics with the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus made it clear that we are to rise above the political structures of the day. This is the place where everyone is welcome.

Although I could not support her position, I felt sorry for her and so, in agreeing with her to “help her out,” I added, hoping she would pick up the gospel message the statement: “And Jesus is the one who told us that is indeed possible to love even our enemies.”

She thought I was arguing with her and she reacted with something.

I should have left her alone to fend for herself and anyway. Oops. Religion and politics, the two subjects you cannot talk about.

Now the situation had degenerated and I was concerned that we might have a disagreement in front of her co worker and I might undermine whatever ministry she was doing with her.

Remember, wherever believers go, the Holy Spirit comes with them and wherever we are, God is working through us. Even her.

I wanted to help her, but she was defensive and I was now making it worse, so I was trying to graciously get out of it in such a way that her co worker could see that not all Christians believe in violence as a solution to human conflict.

Not knowing why I said it, I said: “But Jesus told us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (shake head in confusion)

I don’t know what I was thinking. I hate arguing, it never changes anyones mind and afterwards I go through all the what if’s and should’ve saids.

She said. “But if we are wise, we are smart enough to arm ourselves.”

Unfortunately, the lady she was talking to laughed in derision at her, shook her head and walked away. I caught her eye enough to let her know I was giving up arguing with her co-worker anymore.

I know we are to be a witness for peace everywhere we go. It is like there are two forms of Christianity out there, one that seems to serve those in power and one that seems to serve those who are not in power.

I felt the leading of the Holy Spirit as I was talking with the ladies, but again, sometimes it is better to keep one’s mouth silent.

I like encounters like that because I can learn from anyone and it helps me understand my own convictions.

Afterwards, I go through the what if I had said and I did come up with the clever answer later, and I want to tell you, not to think I am clever, because it was way to late to make a difference, but as I unpacked her response I realized that this is exactly what Jesus meant.

Obviously, Jesus did not that we should resort to violence, but that we should by faith depend on the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to give us an alternative to violence. That is exactly what Jesus meant.

Love, over violence, will eventually win.

Either that or humanity will not survive its ability to wage war.

I say this because this week marked the anniversary of the Bombing at Nagasaki and one of the Presidential Candidates actually asked why we cannot use nuclear weapons again.

Humanity has to figure out a way to love one another.

And God has given the world the Church for that singular purpose.

I love the Great Commission from Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20. Go into all the world and preach good news, teaching them all I have taught you, baptizing them in the names of God and I am always going to be with you on this task.

God is here.

And, according to our passage, God has already been there.

God wants us to show the world how to love each other, but to do it, God gives us faith.

I look at faith and hope as the spiritual energy to do the job of loving those Jesus calls us to love.

Hebrews 11 tells recaps the stories of faith from the Old Testament and it says:

All these people died in faith without seeing the actual gift of Love that God gave to all of Humanity when God’s own self left Heaven to suffer and die.

And, that suffering and dying taught us how to live and love one another also.

Jesus laid down His life to love others.

By faith, we to can live for others.

Last week we kept seeing the repeating theme through the lesson of faith. The people of God lived their earthly lives with the knowledge that heaven is their reward. They lived for the heavenly city and today’s text says that people like that are better than this world. It says “the world was not worth of them.”

They lived with that hope in heaven and believed that living a sacrificial life here on earth was worth it because it was the way that they could live and keep faith with God.

We saw last week how they kept faith with God.

Today, we see how we can keep faith with both God and the faithful.

What I love about this part of Hebrews 11 is the transition that occurs right in the middle of verse 35. He is going on about all the great miracles that happened, some at the last moment, acts that were more than bravery, but events that clearly marked God’s favor and help. Events that proved that prayer works and God answers prayers.

But then he shifts to a whole `nother group of people who prayed and did not get an answer they were hoping for. He says “sawn in two, bound for prison, tortured.

I think the biggest one of faith comes from Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego. They were the three men to be placed in the fiery furnace and the King said to them: “What God can deliver you out of my hands?”

And their answer was one of great faith. They did not confess a miracle. They did not act like the prophet Elisha and call down fire on two different groups of 50 men. They did not “take authority in the name of Jesus” over this bad king.

No, they simply said to the king: “Whether or not our God delivers us from your hands, we do not know. But we know that God is able. But more than that, the one thing that is certain is that we will not worship another god.”

Faith, for them, was trust in the outcome from God, even if it was what appeared to be a bad outcome.

Now, there are many times in our lives when we have been disappointed over something that we thought we had to have, only to find that something else was better and we chalked it up to youth and naiveté.

Some had what appeared to be a victory. Some did not. And they all lived in faith.

These people were the faithful.

I have met a lot in my life.

I know our numbers are low this morning because of the faithfulness of Don Willoughby and the memorial service for him this morning.

I know Marie, and if Don was like her, what a saint.

People like that are people that we can look up to as examples of what it means to live a life that demonstrates faithfulness.

I know we are here to worship Jesus this morning, but it is important to realize that God is still alive in the Church.

Keeping Faith With God

Text: Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-10, 13-16

Focus: Faith

Function:

Form: Bible Study

Intro:

Among Christian Biblical Scholars, there is quite a debate as to who wrote the book of Hebrews.

Almost all the New Testament, is written in the trade language of the day, Koinẻ Greek except for Matthew, written in Aramaic, the common language of the Jews and the book of Hebrews which is written in classical Greek.

Classical Greek is difficult and writing with the style suggested that the author was highly educated. The Apostle Paul could fit that bill, but all the rest of his writings are in Koinẻ.

The Apostle Apollos, a latecomer to the apostleship, was also educated enough to have written the anonymous book. Then there was also the Apostle Prisca. Some wonder if the reason the authorship is kept secret is because it was a woman.

That is not worth arguing except to understand whoever wrote verse 3 understood both Classical Greek and philosophy.

Although the Greeks had their own mythology that involved Deities with Supernatural powers, at the core of everything, Greek mythology believed in materialism.

Materialism was also the dominant philosophy of the Age of Modernity that seemed to have ended sometime around 9/11.

Materialists believe that the first cause of everything is matter. Matter is and has always existed.

At the time that the Ancients were pondering the meaning of the universe, physics, astronomy, philosophy and all the other disciplines that have created the fabric of human understanding of life, the universe and everything when the scriptures were being written in Greek Culture, the dominant philosophy of the origin of the universe is that matter is the only thing that has always existed.

The Logic was simple and it went like this: Since it appears impossible for matter to create itself, matter itself must have always existed. Matter is the one thing that appears constant.

And for earlier man, that made sense. As mankind learned, tested hypothesis against experience, dominant theories have become so absolute that we accept them as fact.

We have the laws of motion, gravity, thermodynamics, electrical conductivity, physiology, and so forth.

All of that learning has happened because matter and the universe appears to be constant.

But, as we have learned, it isn’t constant, and it is in flux and we stand more and more in awe of it.

Some people worship it.

But then we learned that the universe that we know is at best, according to our ability to measure, somewhere around 4.5 to 5 billion years old.

We can see microwave radiation that confirms that it all began at one point in time. We theorize that this is one of many universes that have expanded in and out of existence forever and then we realized that perhaps the universe started out as big as it seems, but we wonder what happened before it?

What is outside of the universe? Everything material has a physical limit. The Universe is material, and although we cannot imagine an end to it, we can imagine something that is bigger than it. And we question ourselves that if we can imagine something, can it also exist?

It all gets dizzying.

Except, the same thing can be said for God.

When I was a kid I used to wonder who God’s Father was. And if God had a Father, who was His Father? And where was God’s Mother? And if They had parents, then somewhere, sometime, somehow someone must have been always there.

Again, the Greeks believed it was matter.

And we Christians, according to this text, believe that it is God.

I wonder if the Jewish writer/philosopher wrote this verse, believing that God created it all because he or she knew that the logic of God being the First Cause over matter makes more sense.

Matter is inanimate. Our theory of evolution, one of those things that most accept has been elevated to fact, -one in which many theologians like me see no inconsistency with this verse and the account of Creation in Genesis- states that somehow the inanimate became animate. SOMEHOW. Scientists have a plausible theory, but we lack any way to re-create it in a lab because of the statistical improbability of success.

Anything is statistically possible, but not statistically probable. And, our Scientific experience is that matter in of itself is dead.

We wonder if it is possible. If there is no Creator God, then it must be possible.

And again, matter could not have created itself. If we can imagine a “Father” to the Father God and that infinite chain of Fathers eventually going back to the One who always was, then we can also imagine a time before there was matter. It has to be, or it cannot be because it cannot create itself.

It is a logical dilemma. The Greek mind chose matter, the Jewish mind chose God.

And the reason seemed to be superior logic. Since matter cannot create itself, then something supernatural, that has creative ability, the ability to self-exist with divine power.

Something has to be supernatural enough to have always existed.

We cannot actually prove God.

But, logic makes more sense that God is the first cause since matter could not have created itself and there has to have been a time before matter existed. Right now, we know it has existed around less than 5,000,000,000 years.

By faith we understand. The author of Hebrews make an intellectual statement to the learned minds of his or her time.

And the Author goes on to describe in the chapter a litany of people who lived and died in faith, but then we see the story of Abraham:

I want to jump down to verse 8 and start reading

the phrases connected with why he is credited with having faith:

(God) ...called him to go… ...to a different country.

Now this is huge. The tribal family was the government and the only real system of defense and security. Anyone could have killed him and there would be no government to enforce justice on his behalf.

That was verse 8. Verse 9: by faith… ...he was a foreigner. He lived in tents… ...no permanent place here on earth, a different place was home to him, and it was not on earth. We see it in verse 10:

Verse 10: waiting for a city… a perfect city… ...the city of God… ...his divine reward. He lived for the Kingdom of God.

God changed his country of allegiance and called him to live by faith in a foreign land.

Verse 13. The author adds back in others from the list that I have left out. And again, this itinerant phrase is applied to them: “they admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth.”

Look at their bravery. They choose to side with the weak and the oppressed, the foreigner and the refugees. They choose to side with the refugees. Think about that. This is the legacy of those who have faith. This is the proof of their faith.

Verse 14, They all make it clear they are looking for a country that is not their own.

Our reward, our hope is not here. We too, live for a foreign country whose foundations are permanent, in heaven, set aside for us.

Verse 15. It is not an earthly place that anyone can return to.

Verse 16: “A better country.”

Every single verse describes the hope and inheritance of believers. This is where our reward and security lies. Why should we live in fear of what happens here on earth?

Why side with those who live in fear and preach fear?

We live by faith.

And, continuing to side with the marginalized and oppressed, speaking louder and clearer is what is needed from the church today.

We are the city of God.

We are the place where the stranger and the refugee is welcome.

And if we are to keep faith with God, then we must remember that we love God as much as the person we love the least.

The Foot of the Prophet

Text: Isaiah 52:7-10

Focus: Hope

Function: Peace in uncertain times

Form: Storytelling

Intro:

I want to give thanks to you on behalf of the Michigan District and Camp Brethren Heights for giving me the opportunity to serve the district on your behalf by being the male counselor at Camp Brethren Heights last week.

I admit, counseling at camp has always been one of the the things I look forward to during the busy time of summer ministry and vacations.

However, I am starting to feel the age.

I had 6 young men in the cabin, 4 of them were an absolute delight, always volunteering even though others were clearly shirking their chores, they just kept on serving Christ by serving others.

I had another young man who was also a delight, but took a lot of attention. He was obviously gifted and he already possessed a college level vocabulary. It was fascinating to watch and see his intellectual development. But he was a little young for the camp.

Now before we get to the last child, let me just say that I am a different person as camp counselor than I am as pastor.

Typically there is a spiritual director at camp, so I get to be a mentor instead of the pastor to the kids. Instead of telling them what they need to hear, I try to listen and guide them.

Now the last kid. I actually thought it might be best to send him home and yet I spent two sleepless nights praying for the kid and the obvious emotional damage that he has experienced. I shudder to think what kind of environment could produce such an oppositional attitude.

Because of him, we had to limit the cutting up that Junior High kids like to do because he would immediately take it to the extreme with his aggression. That made it difficult for me to get a good bond with the rest of the kids because the one child took almost all my attention.

I finally decided that my success with the boys for the week might be measured by preventing him from committing an act of violence against one of the other campers. Twice I physically had to stop him from striking two different children.

But God is good. And even though I was ineffective with the kid, the other campers were not.

At Camp Brethren Heights, something always seems to happen in spite of all the problems that are automatically going to come up in any situation that is run on a shoestring budget with some of the most amazing and committed staff I have ever worked with.

And that something is that people meet God there in a special way.

Friday night worship and campfire is always something that is moving both spiritually and emotionally.

Michele, the camp dean, decided to do a foot-washing and then bread and cup communion with the young men and women.

Of course, the idea of washing feet is gross to some of us Brethren, so, think of how it seemed to some of the kids who didn’t come from Brethren backgrounds.

We gave them the option of washing hands instead of feet and most of the kids were relieved that they could do that until, the Holy Spirit took over and it wasn’t really an issue anymore.

The first thing we did was demonstrate to the kids just how a foot washing ritual transpires.

I mentioned that Michele brought in a separate Spiritual director, and God really used him with the kids. He engaged them about the teachings of Jesus in the context of there home, schools, churches, neighborhoods and the world.

It was prophetic! And every time we went into session, one could see the kids respond to him in a positive way. I know him, so I wasn’t surprised that it happened.

But as I bent down to wash his feet, we could both feel a move of the Holy Spirit. He responded to the Holy Spirit by embracing me with two Holy Kisses before I washed his feet. That was not something we had not discussed. And then I washed his right foot.

Our exercise was to bring the teachings of Jesus closer to the kids in a worship setting.

And we were hoping that the tradition of the Church of the Brethren might be inspiring.

You have heard that Tradition is the living faith of those now dead and Traditionalism is the dead faith of those now living.

Traditionalism is the elevation of tradition above what is meaningful in worship. Tradition is the bringing alive of our historic faith in a modern context.

Sometimes, then, tradition is best served by breaking the form of tradition with something new.

And the way those holy kisses worked, surprised those kids. I heard a few of them gasp. But we kept on.

Instead of the possible Junior High reaction of kids laughing to cover up either their fears or t their discomfort, the mood got more solemn.

But just as I bent down to wash his left foot, it was like my vision changed and his tired old feet... -and they were tired old feet- ...they seemed to radiate with life; it looked almost as if they started to glow pink, like a baby, and they were beautiful and I wanted to kiss his foot.

Now, I knew I was going to do this demonstration, and I had considered the idea before, but I had discounted it because 1), it might be to extreme and 2), I did not want to take attention away from God. (Explain -I did not want to prove I was more humble by abasing myself more than he did) So, I decided to wait until the moment to see how the Holy Spirit lead me.

So, as I hovered over that foot for what seemed to me to be a few uncomfortable moments longer than what anyone was expecting, I prayed.

Immediately our scripture from this morning came into my mind, “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, announcing peace, proclaiming news of happiness, Our God reigns.”

Now, those who remember those early teen years remember how awkward, gangling, odd and insecure youth can be. It is all about image.

Imagine when two grown men, symbols of extreme authority in this environment, kiss each other in an highly religiously symbolic fashion. Instead of grossing them out, all of a sudden, the mood got real serious and all the kids sensed that we were in the presence of God. I think that was a divine moment where the Holy Spirit was touching the hearts of the kids.

Out of the corner of my eye, I witnessed a young Brethren girl, first time at this age group, take off her shoes in preparation. So we decided to instruct the kids to remove their shoes if they wanted to have their feet washed, otherwise, they could use the hand tub.

Obviously, the foot tub moved around the room much faster than the hand tub.

But what might have had a more profound effect on the room was when that younger girl removed her shoes. She was the one girl who stayed in the back, had that same gifted child sense of humor and social order that the one young man in my cabin had. She stayed back all week until the end when she led the kids in getting ready for the foot washing.

I saw her feet, and again, it looked like they were glowing with that same surreal hue of pink that I saw on the Spiritual Director and I thought again of that scripture, “how lovely on the mountains,” and I realized that she too, had become a preacher of good news. She broke down a wall.

I saw God lead the kids through what seemed to be one of the more unlikely sources. I saw God use her in a way that humbled all of us.

Now, there is another young woman who was supposed to be with the High School camp, but it was canceled.

She was with us last year. She is always the loudest girl in the camp, not as disruptive as my boy, but very much in need of attention.

She comes from the foster care system and is connected with us through the ministry of one of our urban churches.

She freaked out at the idea of touching someone else’s feet.

And all of a sudden, it seemed as if God decided to speak to all the children through her.

She started washing all the kids feet. The first time she did it, I wept. A few other young men and women got their feet washed by her but when she went to this boy, the one who was disruptive -who was also the other person with which I had to physically intervene before that child’s poor impulse control caused him to harm someone else- the one she clashed with all week, and asked to wash his feet, I knew that God was really moving in our midst.

And he said yes!

And that opened up a lot more kids who were resisting the notion because it didn’t fit their image.

More and more socks came off of feet. And that young woman went around the room washing several feet.

And we got to see them take a genuine and very difficult step in deciding to be like Jesus.

Now to the Scripture. (Reread)

How lovely on the mountains are the peacemakers, the men and women of God, who are willing to maintain hope and faith in the midst of uncertainty and remind both themselves and others that God is alive and well and that God still reigns.

We need those messengers to remind us of God’s faithfulness.

And I find them everywhere. If God used three unlikely, one who seemed to me to be very unlikely to lead the rest, then God is still on the Throne.

Carry The Light

Text: Isaiah 58:6-12

Focus: The Light of God

Function: to help people see the mystery in our spirituality

Form: GOK

Intro:

From AC

There is the light of creation on the first day, but the Sun and Moon were not created until the 4^th day. Now, it is still problematic as to how the plants began the process of growing before the Sun and Moon, but the idea is an important concept.

The light of Social Justice

The Light of Salvation.

The Light at the end (the same as the beginning).

Huffington Post: 3 ways to be a peacemaker in a time of hatred.

1). Stand in Solidarity with those under attack.

During the Holocaust the King of Denmark wore the Jewish star of David.

In 1933 a cinder block was thrown threw the window of an house with a Menorah. Thousands of Non-Jews displayed Menorah’s. At first the vandalism intensified, but then the solidarity brought it to an halt.

Every Time I visit the Holocaust Museum, I leave in agony wondering how and why this could have happened in modern times.

And yet, the rhetoric that fueled it is ginned up today.

How do we stand in Solidarity with the Black Man?

How do we stand in Solidarity with the Muslim?

How do we stand in Solidarity with the Peace officer?

How do we stand in Solidarity with those neighbors who are called “illegal?”

How do we stand in Solidarity with those who were formerly incarcerated?

How do we stand in Solidarity with those gender identity causes them to be ridiculed and marginalized?

How do we stand in Solidarity with those who deeply held religious beliefs are held in suspicion by others?

I know this, unless we stand in Solidarity, then we will be guilty of the same.

2). Love the Person Consumed by Hatred.

Let me quote directly from the Article:

If we really want to be agents of transformation we have to go farther. We have to learn to love the person consumed by hatred.

Let me state the obvious: anyone who has to attack another in order to feel right about him or herself has no clue who and what they truly are. They do not know they are expressions of the Source of All Being. They do not know they were born worthy. They do not know their goodness is and always has been a given.

They believe instead that their worth and their power arise from their ability to dominate or even destroy another. Blinded to their own divine nature, they cannot see the divine nature of those around them. Oblivious to the reality of oneness, they do not comprehend that when they attack another it is themselves they attack.

As healers, our task is to witness to the truth of who they are. We don’t condone their actions or defend their ignorance, but we hold to the truth of what they cannot see: that in their essence they are whole, and far more beautiful than they imagine.

3). Heal Your Own Mind

Our Light shines in the darkness.

The Light Shines in the darkness and the darkness can not understand it.

We need to come to our own place of healing in God.

I have been on a journey and no matter where I stand, I have been a voice.

I worried how I was going to interact with my friends at AC since a lot of what comes from my own voice has changed.

At the Congregational Life Ministries dinner, one of our Staff members handed me a card with the prayer of St Francis of Assisi.

“Lord,” it begins, “Make me an instrument of your peace...”

We faced a rather volatile conference and all of a sudden, my mission, “to help my more conservative friends see how God changed my opinion of Same Sex marriage” was changed to the theme of the conference, as I took it from my Siser, to be an instrument of Christ’s peace and to carry the Light of Christ.

And then I came home and saw what appears to be an over-reaction fear based killing of a black man and then another. God, I realized, my concern for my problems are nothing. People are dying in the streets.

At AC, I heard reports from a BLM organizer who spoke on and on about non-violent Christian witness to the problems we are facing.

And then the killing of Police officers happened.

And I realized that we need help, desperately.

The Family

Text: Galatians 3:23-29

Focus: Family Celebration

Function: To Help People see the family nature of Church

Form: 3 points

Intro: Today we are celebrating family. You are all invited to stay for a potluck and a program afterwards.

And I love the theme on the cover of the Bulletin: “You are all children of God.”

I confess, emphasizing that part of the passage, “you are ALL children of God” changes my perspective on the passage.

It seems like the times that I have studied this passage before, I have come to emphasize the line: “because of Faith...” you are all Children of God.

I have emphasized the part that in order to be children of God, we must have faith.

And faith is important. It is the difference. Faith is trust in God. Rest in God. Faith in God is born out of relationship with God.

I believe that a formal relationship with God is an important part of our faith journey.

But the emphasis of the passage is not that you must have faith, you must trust God, but that everyone who does is part of the family.

He makes sure we know what the family of God consists of. And it is a breaking down of barriers between ancient divisions.

For the Jews, it meant that their racial heritage did not make them any more special. The same applies for us.

Two of the other major dividing factions of the time are also shown to be irrelevant in the family of God. The first is the distinction between the classes of people who are free and who are slaves, remember, in Rome 2/3 of the population were slaves, it was a slave economy. And the section distinction is between the genders.

This Church, this faith, this family, cuts through ancient divisions between people to bring us all into the same place, Children of God.

We are all part of the family and the family realizes that every part is just as important.

There is an emphasis here that I remind myself to remember, “Because of our faith, everyone is important.”

It is like he is saying, “now that you have faith, see the value in every single person.”

And, I see the importance of the family analogy in the way we value others.

Look at 1 Timothy 5:1-2: ¹Do not speak harshly to an older man, but speak to him as to a father, to younger men as brothers, ²to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters—with absolute purity.

I think there is an assumption here. And that is this, when dealing with family, we do not have the luxury of merely winning an argument, but with family, we have burden of working it out.

Now I know we live in a broken world and this is idealistic in nature. And I know that at best effort, sometimes it is not possible to work things out, or safety and other issues get in the way, but the idea is still the same, we talk in such a way as to not win an argument, but to work it out because we have to.

That commitment to family means that we value and respect the people here so much that we will work it out with them.

The love inherent in the family of God is designed to be unconditional. That does not mean that we do not have conflict, but it means that we live through it for the purpose of community.

God’s love is unconditional, so is ours.

Family love is also deliberate.

In my morning devotions both yesterday and today, I was reading the feeding of 5,000 Jewish people in the desert and the feeding of 4,000 Canaanite people in another desert by Jesus.

I am reading it in the Gospel of Mark, but in both Mark and Matthew, the author points out both miracles and then has a section where Jesus chides the disciples for their lack of faith later when the food supplies are running low.

I have always read those miracles as miracles that prove that if we, like the little boy, give our loaves and fishes, a small portion, then God will take what we have, and by the power of the Holy Spirit multiply it into miraculous force and great things could happen.

It was always a lesson in faith about giving our little bit to God and then God would multiply it.

It depended on a visible sign. But I wonder now more and more if the actual miracle was the miracle of sharing.

First, the boy offering his gifts as a metaphor for his talents is not present in the second account.

The emphasis in either point is not on the boy who gave, but on Jesus who made it adequate.

But the miracle of sharing, the miracle of community, the miracle of trusting God for the moment by giving what we have now to those in need with the trust that God will provide in the future seems to make more sense today to me.

But more than that, the disciples reaction to the need of the crowd and the problem with feeding the crowd is telling.

The crowd is hungry and Jesus tells the disciples to feed them.

Their answer is that the task is enormous. “A year’s wages would be needed to buy that much food,” they say.

The task is enormous.

They are being commanded to care for others.

Actually caring for others takes the willingness to sacrifice time and effort for them.

I hope it was the miracle of sharing because the value of stopping, caring and nurturing others is what it means to be a part of the family of God.

In First Corinthians 12, we get another look at this family called the church as it relates to the fact that it is also an individual body.

When one part of the body hurts or is sick, the entire body is in distress and is distracted.

When one part of the body does not do its job, or cannot do its job, the whole body, again, is affected and at times, it can even die.

Every part of the family is important and needs to be cared for and nurtured.

And again, it takes time and effort.

Actually, I am becoming more aware that it takes a lot of time and effort.

I remember taking biology in college and the professor was working out the ratio of sunlight to the growth of a plant and less than .01% of the sunlight is actually absorbed and used for growth.

And then I look at the corn as it gets tall (Lord, give us more rain), and I realize that all that sun energy is used to produce this big plant and out of that plant, we just use a part of a part of a part. The carbohydrates inside the husk of the kernel provides energy for our bodies. It is less than .01% of the plant.

So, the energy from the sun is reduced from an hundredth percent to a thousandth percent and then it gets consumed by the body and only a small percentage of that is actually used by us.

I remember thinking that God designed an incredibly inefficient system.

And then I thought of the thousands of years that humanity spent most of its effort just making sure that this process happened year after year and I realized something.

The culture does not live that way anymore. We don’t walk past our neighbors house on the way to the local village where we know and grew up with everyone anymore.

This ancient system of a yearly cycle of a lot of effort to survive brought the community together to a place where they depended on each other.

God designed the world for us to stop, take the time to nurture and care for each other. I see the importance and value of community. I see the beauty and value of the Church that, according to our scripture this morning is intentional about including outsiders.

I see that God designed the family, both the nuclear family and the Church family to be this place where people take the time to stop, care for and nurture one another.

I believe that we have to be intentional about maintaining our sense of family and interdependence since we live in a fast paced society and continue to build a place where we can all nurture and be nurtured.