You know, not every Sunday lesson is for everyone…in the same way. Sometimes the lessons hit you and they seem
to be exactly the Bible passage that you needed to hear, bringing comfort,
offering forgiveness or issuing a timely nudge.
Other times, the texts might seem “a stretch” for you. Still other times, you may find lessons that
you didn’t think you needed to hear, yet God once again surprises you…
So how about today:
David and Bathsheba, and the villainous murder of Uriah (which of course
is part of the ancestral genealogy that leads to Jesus’ birth). What could such a tragic and scandalous text
have to do with your life? Or what about
this text about the generosity of one little boy amid the selfishness of the
multitude and the anxiety of the disciples?
What jumps out at me – and this may not fit with where you
are – but what jumps out for me is God’s
voice and God’s action in the midst of abundance. We often talk about God when things are
bad. People come flocking to the church,
when there is crisis, or death, or scarcity.
But what about when we’re doing pretty well, or even great?
Have you ever been there?
Have you ever had a moment to look around you, to look at your life, and
say, “You know, I’ve got it pretty good.”
That’s why this text—or at least my read on this text—might not be for
everyone. I realize that some of us have
never really been able to say that. For
life for some has been one tragedy after the next. There’s certainly something to be said for
God’s voice and God’s action amid the suffering and pain of the world, but
today, I want to call out those among us who have ever had a chance to look
around and say, “You know, it’s not that bad.
You know, now that I think about it, my life is pretty good – I’ve got
food in my tummy, air in my lungs, a friend, a pet, a hug coming my way, a
beautiful sunset out my window. Things
are pretty good.”
Today’s texts are about God’s voice and God’s action in the
midst of abundance and blessing.
My hunch is that King David was feeling pretty blessed, I
mean, he was certainly taking a moment to “look around” in our Old Testament
lesson.
When things are pretty good, or even great, there are two
ways that we can falter, according to our readings today. The first is to start get reckless and
entitled, like King David. We humans are
capable of some terrible things (particularly when things are good), and I’m
not sure, if given the kind of power David had, many of us would be able to
withstand our own greatest temptations either.
He did it because he could. He
even had Uriah killed because he could, and he needed to cover this up. What is it that you’d go after, if you had
all the power and money to do so?
Honestly. What lures you? And who might be forgotten in your pursuit? Would those with no voice be remembered?
The poor, the earth? Who cares
about others when I’m going after what I want, right? If you’re above that urge, then you ought to
be preaching our sermons here. David is
not so different from us; we see ourselves in him, unfortunately…
When things are pretty good, or even great, we can get
reckless and entitled, like King David, in hot, tunnel-vision pursuit…
…or we can get anxious and scared like the disciples in our
Gospel text.
There Jesus has just given them a sign, the feeding of the
5,000. Just think about that for a
moment: When we volunteer at T.A.C.O. it
takes us an hour and a half to serve about 170 people. And that’s a lot of food. Jesus serves 5,000! Now that is an awesome God. And I’d encourage you to have the faith of a
child on this one: I tell that story to
our youngest children, and they just take it on faith. (Oh yeah, he walks on water today too.) At some point—and it’s happening sooner and
sooner—we get this need to explain away the miracles. Try to hear this story with the faith of a
child. Jesus feeds 5,000 and then he
walks on water. Bask in the truth of
that!
 |
| "And 12 baskets left over…" |
And now consider the disciples, they were anxious about all
“those” people, I mean that would be like – Philips quick math – six month’s
wages. I don’t care if you’re blue
collar or white collar – six month’s pay is a lot of money. But Jesus does it! He feeds 5,000…with 12 baskets of leftovers!
Scene two: Only hours later:
A storm comes up and the disciples are afraid. Anxious before the abundance and “terrified”
after. In the midst of God’s abundance,
12 baskets overflowing just hours ago because of Christ, the disciples get
scared.
Sisters and brothers of Shepherd of the Valley, I don’t know
if we have exactly 12 baskets overflowing, but we have an abundance here. We have bread. We have able bodies. We have love and concerns and passions. And we have money here. Part of it is in your own pockets and in your
own bank accounts, part of it is in the church’s bank accounts, with the
bequest, with the preschool, with our tithes and our offerings – but we have
money here. Which means we get scared
and anxious. And we want to protect it,
and keep it and fix ourselves up nicely, our children up nicely, our carpet up
nicely, our kitchen up nicely, our garden up nicely. Just hours after Christ has “taken the
loaves, blessed them and distributed them” and there were 12 baskets
overflowing! Oh, we can relate to those
disciples. Anxious before the abundance,
and terrified after…
But friends in Christ, all that we have and all that we are,
comes from God and belongs to God. So
help us, God, to be faithful with your abundance! And God recognizes our fears and our
anxieties, our entitled attitudes, our greed, our recklessness, our need to
protect ourselves at all costs. And God
holds us in love, as we journey through all those feelings. God hears our confessions: “Yes, we’re scared. Yes, I’m selfish. Yes, we can be reckless and act like we
deserve all this.” And God holds us in love as we get knocked around by the
waves of this life…as the tragedies and pains of this world try to erode away our
trust in this God, and so easily we forget who multiplied and blessed the
loaves. But God holds us in love through
it all…God holds you. But there’s more…
But there’s Ephesians today: A prayer: that we be “strengthened in our inner being
with power through the Spirit, that Christ may dwell in our hearts through
faith, as we are being rooted and grounded in love.” Not only does God holds us in love; then God
roots us, God puts us down into the soil of this earth, in love, so that we may
grow outward. God waters us, nourishes
us, and up and out we grow. We
Christians are held by God, planted by God, and tended by God, through the
Spirit. We Christians are rooted and grounded in agape.
And so, we don’t need to be afraid…this day or ever again. For God feeds us…with the “bread of
peace”. AMEN.
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