Sermon - 12th Sunday after Pentecost - Year A

Matthew 16:21-28     

                                                       Jesus “Showed” Them

For our LCM Wednesday Night program this week, the students put on their creative hats and made cards to send to the young adults serving as YAGM volunteers around the world.  It has been two years now since Clemson had an alum among the group of 65 or so young adults serving communities through the ELCA’s Global Mission Office, but this does not mean we are any less engaged or prayerfully supportive of the work being done in the name of Christ by these recent college graduates.

For the benefit of first year students, we arranged for Sarah Delap to talk a bit about YAGM.  Sarah graduated three years ago.  The year after graduation she lived and worked as a YAGM in England.  Sarah has many stories to tell, but the one she shared on Wednesday was her reaction to a conversation she had shortly after arriving in England.  She was speaking with a youth there, who pointed out that in those parts of England, it is not socially expected that you would be connected to the Church.  In fact, it is typically socially unacceptable.  “It isn’t that way where I come from,” Sarah replied.  Then came the questions from her conversation partners about life in such a place.  If it acceptable that Jesus be named and claimed, if it is somewhat expected that Jesus be given a role in our lives, is the community different?  Is there less crime?  Are there fewer folks who go hungry or homeless?  What about racism and bigotry?  I am going to assume you realize the answers she was obliged to give.  She had to be truthful, even if she could not report that our society, in which it is perfectly acceptable to claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, doesn’t necessarily look all that different from them one in which allegiance to Jesus is the last thing one would claim publicly

Should our lives be different, as a result of confessing Jesus as Messiah?  Ought the society in which we live be shown a different way of living?

We are in that section of Matthew’s Gospel where Peter confesses Jesus as Messiah.  Today’s reading asks us if we are prepared to live out that confession.  Is there to come some transformation of our lives when we come to see Jesus not just as some prophet or messenger or powerful leader, but as the very embodiment of God’s presence in our world?

Is it to make any difference at all?

I am not sure which bible you read from, and whether it’s editors have inserted paragraph headings.  The bad thing about such paragraph headings is the way in which they pre-determine what you think you are about to read.  The good thing is it allows you to see the various building blocks as they are stacked one on another.

 

If your bible has paragraph headings, and you look at the paragraphs just before today’s reading, you will see how we got to where we are.  It does help to look all the way back to Matthew 15.  Jesus feeds the 5,000 (Mt 15:32ff).  Then we have an encounter with the religious types of Jesus’ day who seem to want some other indication that Jesus is to be listened to.  Next comes Jesus’ warning to his followers about the false piety of the Pharisees and Scribes.  That is in Mt 16:5ff.  In Matthew 16:13ff we have last week’s reading about the confession of Peter, his acknowledgement that Jesus is Messiah. 

“You got it right!” Jesus congratulates Peter in that reading.  And Jesus shares with Peter, or bestows upon him, the opportunity and/or responsibility of weighing the confessions of all those who are to come after.  “You are Rock, and upon this rock I will build my Church.”  “Great!”  Jesus seems to be saying, “Now you have set aside are the half-truths of the Pharisees and scribes.  Great!  Finally we have a handle on God’s promise and hope for the world.  Great!  But then not so great.

If you have one of those bibles with paragraph headings you will see that the next building block (the first half of our appointed text for today) is labeled something like “Jesus Foretells his death and Resurrection.”  I am going to come back and take issue with that title in a moment, but for now look at the title given to the second half of our reading.  It is typically referred to as “The Cross and Self-Denial.”  Peter gets it right, and we think we are home free. Jesus seems to think we are, too.  So Jesus begins to lay out what Messiahship looks like.  Not the Messiahship hoped for by those with the false piety dealt with back in the opening verses of Matthew 16, but true piety.  Jesus speaks to those who seemed to have made a confession that they were prepared to embrace him as their Messiah.  He tells them what his Messiahship will look like.  

But they don’t like this part of the picture.  Peter, who spoke for us earlier in confessing Jesus as Messiah now expresses our dissatisfaction that following God’s Anointed One could in any way result in betrayal and suffering and death.  “There is life eternal,” Jesus promises.  “There is an unimaginable glory in store for you,” Jesus says.  “And the way you get there is by setting aside your own selfish ambitions, by giving up on what is best for you and you alone, you get there by exposing the hatred and selfishness of those who are not among my followers.”

And Peter wants no part of it.  What seemed so great in verse 16 has come crashing down by verse 22.

When we studied this text on Tuesday night, we stumbled over the word “show.”  Jesus doesn’t “tell” his disciples what being Messiah means, the text says that he “shows” them.  How would he “show” them this?    ....  (Wait for a few replies……)  We came up with being nice to others, maybe sharing another meal with a hungry person, perhaps accepting the unacceptable.  Surely these things “show” Jesus as loving and caring Messiah.  But how do you “show” that you are going to go to Jerusalem, be rejected, suffer, die, and be resurrected?

Maybe you can’t “show” that, actually.  This is surely something of which Jesus would have to speak.  But the choice of the word creates a stumbling block for any of us who would want to think that following Jesus means saying certain words or believing particular thoughts.  Following Jesus involves something that can be seen, observed, shown.  It means living one’s life quite differently.

I want to say that one more time.  Using the word “show” creates a stumbling block for any of us who would want to think that following Jesus means saying certain words or believing particular thoughts.  Following Jesus involves something that can be seen, observed, shown.  It means living one’s life quite differently.

Let me go back to my criticism of the paragraph titles.  To refer to Matthew 16:21-23 as a “Foretelling” implies that the purpose of these verses is to set up some sort of a test as to whether Jesus has the ability to know the future.  If he does, then we have further evidence that he is Messiah.  How differently we might approach those verses if they were given a title like “Jesus speaks of what Messiahship looks like.”  Then, we wouldn’t skim over them to see whether they reinforced the things that we have made part of our confession of faith, rather we would study them as guide for our own future. 

Jesus isn’t some better-than-average soothsayer. He is the One who came to show us how God desires we live our lives. 

The way God wants us to live our lives is to be concerned less about our own hide and our own prosperity and our own ideology.  Forfeiting our lives means focusing on what is best for the whole of God’s creation.  It means turning our attention from that which allows us to move ahead, giving attention instead to that which will return the dignity and promise due each of God’s children.

It took a lot of courage for Peter to confess Jesus as Lord.  And it is no small thing when we make a similar statement of faith.  But in a culture where such confessions are acceptable (maybe even expected) it is way too easy to assume that what Jesus would do is what everyone around us is already doing.  But such an assumption is built upon a faulty set of rocks.  The rock upon which Jesus’ church is built is the one in which self-denial and service and sacrifice are shown as the way.

Amen.

Devotion - Thursday, August 28

It is helpful, from time to time, to remind all of you that I don't just pick which passages I want to read each morning.  I follow a proscribed list.  It is called "The Daily Lectionary," and over the course of a two year cycle I will be exposed to most of the content of the bible.

The Lectionary is currently directing me to the book of Judges.  Judges has many wonderful stories.  We will come to Gideon and to Samson.  It also has many tales which are disturbing and disagreeable with our modern sensibilities.  There are references to the "people of God" killing every man, woman, child, and animal in the lands of their enemies.  

Throughout the book, the theme which holds is that even when the people of God abandon God, God does not abandon them.  The differing stories of the Judges begin with the reminder that "God rose up (insert name) to judge Israel."  They did not judge by sitting on the bench of a courtroom, they judged by showing how much is possible when one follows God's word.  Typically, they were military leaders rather than political or judicial authorities.

As I read through the book of Judges, I continually wonder who it is that God has "raised up" in our day.  God's faithfulness would not leave us without someone (many someones) to guide us.  Maybe the "Judge" isn't a widely known servant, but someone observed by a tight circle of seekers.  

The stories in Judges remind us that that there are lines of authority and then there is true authority.  The servants of God are in the latter group.  And there will always be those showing us the way, regardless of whether we will observe and listen and follow.

Devotion - Wednesday, August 27

You are likely to hear more about this on Sunday (if you attend worship at UniLu), but a comment at last night's LCM Bible Study so captivated the truth that it bears repeating twice.

We were discussing the call of Moses, in Exodus, Chapter 3.  In that story, Moses is called by God to return to Egypt and lead God's people out of slavery and into freedom.  Most of the conversation had been centered around the words of the commentators, which addressed the change in direction this meant for Moses' life.  He was settled; he had a job; he had a family; he had every reason to be content with his own life and ignore what God was calling him to do.

Then, he encounters the burning bush and suddenly he is on his way to talk to Pharaoh.

"But Moses had already come to the defense of his fellow Israelites," Andrew pointed out.  "And he already knew that their suffering was too much to bear.  It wasn't that Moses is called to do something he had never thought of - rather that he had previously lacked the courage to do what he knew he ought to do."

In most instances, we know what we ought to do.  What is lacking is the confidence, the assurances, the courage to do it.  The choices we are called upon to make would be easier to make, were we able to muster up the courage to do what we know should be done.

May God give you the confidence you need to act as you know you ought.  May God give you the assurance to do the right thing.

Devotion - Monday, August 25

"(Pilate) took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, 'I am innocent of this man's blood.'"  Matthew 27:24.

Pilate makes a show of being innocent, but he is not.  

Pilate wants to believe that he is not responsible, but he is.

I wonder about the parallels in our lives.  What do we see, and dismiss as something which does not concern us?  

University Lutheran begins our partnership with Family Promise, a ministry to provide shelter for homeless families.  We want to see ourselves as partners in the effort to attend to their needs, but are we prepared to examine the culturally acceptable behaviors and policies which have resulted in so many becoming homeless?

We watch the news of atrocities in places like Syria and Iraq and ask what is wrong with those people?  It was former President Jimmy Carter who, in commenting on the September 11 attacks encouraged his fellow citizens to set aside the question "Who are these people that hate us?" and ask, "Why do these people hate us?"  Are we capable of believing their might be (as Confucius suggests) "a kernel of truth in the critique of my enemy"?

As the college year begins, most universities have responded to the renewed attention to sexual assault on campus.  The most successful approaches are those which expose presumed underlying assumptions about being a college student.  Can we openly discuss our thoughts on these topics?

Maybe it is our cultural value of presumed innocence which contributes to an attitude of pretend innocence.  

We can wash our hands all we want - the truth of the situation remains.

Devotion - Thursday, August 21

"But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning..."  Joshua 9:3

What those inhabitants did was to deceive Joshua, telling him they were from a far away village, but that they wanted to be Joshua's servants.  Joshua agreed not to harm them - before learning they were actually from one of the villages in the land God had instructed Joshua to capture.

What is Joshua to do now?

He keeps his promise.

At the risk of merely repeating my reflection from last night's gathering, I could not ignore the irony of this being the appointed lesson for today.  When I opened my bible this morning, it hit me square in the face.  Interesting, isn't it, how things happen in a pattern?  

Hopefully, there is a pattern here which can be established in our lives, and in the community we share.  A pattern of knowing that God's word is kept, regardless.  No action on our part can separate us from the love of God.  That pattern then instructs us on how we are to interact with others.  Our word, should also be dependable and unbroken; maybe even particularly when our promises were offered in good conscience while deceit was the aim of the other.  Perhaps this is what happens to God, when the promises of God are met with half-hearted responses (even deceit) on our part.

God will never change his promises to you.  As a servant of God, we are to do the same.  While there will be many disappointments in our lives, we can always depend upon God's presence and God's support.  We can turn to God's servants for expressions of these gifts from God.

Devotion - Wednesday, August 20

"For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."  Romans 14:23

There are several verses of this type in Paul's letter to the church in Rome.  He is writing to a community which he has never met, so he needs to lay the foundation for his teachings and his understanding of what God is calling us to believe.  He has been concerned that among the assembled there may be differences of thought and practice.  "How am I to ensure that I won't offend or harm another?"  The answer to that is for all things to proceed from faith.

Actions and words expose what is important to us.  They allow others to see what is at the core of our lives.  When we get to that level, it is likely that there will be great differences.  How do we continue to share and be open and honest without our deeply held convictions becoming an offense to the other?  By acting out of faith.  By sharing and speaking and acting in accordance with the assurances we have that God loves us and that God is with us.  By remembering that for Jesus the most important matter of all was care for the least among us.

In a world where religious convictions are sometimes shunned and condemned, it is important that we speak up and act out.  But we do so, not in order to give offense, but in order to make known that which has sustained us.  We act in accordance to faith, not out of some sense of authority.  We share; we are not in the business of overpowering.

Devotion - Tuesday, August 19

Romans 14 is a great passage for us as we begin a new year together.  Here, Paul addresses the great variety of understanding and previous exposure to the practices and convictions of the community.  He uses the term "weak," but we should not take this to be an insult.  He also speaks of eating "vegetables" as a limitation; the reference is avoiding meat that was offered to idols.

Paul writes: "As for the one who is weak in the faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions.  One believes they may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.  Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgement on the one who eats; for God has welcomed him."

It would be a horrible thing if the group who gathers for Wednesday meals and/or Sunday worship were all identical.  C.S. Lewis advised that being of "one fold," does not mean "one pool."  In order to be the people of God, we must include all those whom God has welcomed.  (And God welcomes everyone.)

Some among us will be the home-town-champion at Bible bingo.  Others will find it difficult to locate the book of I Peter.  Some will appreciate the earlier reference to C.S. Lewis, others will have no idea who that is.

Looking again at the passage, it may be helpful to read "weak"  as "having had the luxury of idle reading."  Those who have had such a luxury will have more information at their disposal.  Those without such a luxury will have other experiences to share and offer the community.  God forbid if our variety of gifts were to lead to "disputes over opinions."

Do not be concerned about your own prior exposure. Do not be prideful in your knowledge.  Come, because God has welcomed you, into the community which bears the name and mark of Jesus.

Devotion - Monday, August 18

Romans 13:8 reads:  "Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the person who loves their neighbor has fulfilled the law."

I think of this passage (I need to commit it to memory so it will be at the ready) each time I have a conversation about that it means to be a Christian.  Too often, we complicate the answer - we get into discussions about sacraments or acquiring understanding, or making a public profession.  "The person who loves their neighbor has fulfilled the law."

Loving our neighbor, loving them for who they are rather than who we would like to see them become, means recognizing in them the mark and seal of God.  It means recognizing their unseen pressures and their life-challenges.  It means hearing from them the influences and voices which have molded their response to the world.

We meet a lot of new neighbors when we settle into our residence hall/apartment, when we go to a new set of classes, and when we get involved in extra-curricular activities.  Don't be reserved - waiting until you understand the things referenced in the previous paragraph - before you extend to them the love of Christ.  Loving those neighbors is where it begins, and where it ends.

There is another verse which comes to mind - What you give is what you receive.  Freely offering the love of God is the surest route to that same love coming into your own life.

Sermon - 9th Sunday after Pentcost - Year A

Matthew 14:21-33     

 

               Jesus Calles Us Into the Tumult

 

“When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.”

I like that image.  Safe aboard the boat with Jesus.  The wind calmed – either by command of our Savior or by some realization its own that it has nothing with which to challenge the effect Jesus has on this vessel. 

“When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.”  I like that image.  I like it a lot; particularly given the week that has just passed. 

I’ll start with my household.  Caleb (my youngest) left yesterday for a year of intentional Christian community and service.  He will live in a Lutheran Volunteer Corp house and work with a homeless ministry in Omaha.  Kat (my oldest) has a job – “Yeah”!  With Lutheran Family Services – “Double Yeah”! But she doesn’t have an apartment and this Friday her significant other graduated from Clemson and turned 30 years old.  We ended up helping her put on a picnic party at the lake for him, his family, and his friends.  Smith also graduated from Clemson on Friday.  He already has a job.  But his roommate moved out.  So the extra bedroom needed to be filled with furniture at my house.  Two pick-up loads.

“When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.”    I like that image.  I like it a lot. 

I can see the desirability of such a boat ride with Jesus it even more clearly when I break out of my little shell and think of the storms battering our extended faith family.  I made two pastoral visits this week with folks facing TAVR replacements of their aortic valves.  You probably have already looked over long list of hospitalized and ill.  We pray today for those battling cancers – fully aware that the chemo treatments are no longer having any effect.  The aging process brings wisdom, but it also brings sever limitations with mobility and the simplest of household chores becomes more than one can accomplish.  How do you help an aging parent put away their things and abandon the house that for decades has been their home? 

“When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.” 

Like me, you probably come here week after week looking for the boat that Jesus climbed into.  Like me, you may have come this morning in search of that vessel where Jesus and his followers experience the calming of the wind and a respite from their battle against the waves.  And that respite does come;  that calm is found.  It was only a few short weeks ago that we spent the entire sermon time re-memorizing the 23^rd Psalm, a song which speaks of God’s care. 

Twice, in Matthew’s Gospel, there is talk of ragging seas and persons fearful for their ability to survive.  In both instances, Jesus calms the storm.  But in both instances it isn’t all that clear that calming the storm is what concerned Jesus the most. 

Today’s reading is the second story about a storm at sea.  Mark Matthew 14 in your bible, then flip back to Matthew 8:23ff.   

Matthew 8 is the story of Jesus and the disciples attempting to cross the sea of Galilee.  During the trip, a strong wind begins to blow and the boat is tossed about in the rough seas.  In this story, Jesus is asleep while the disciples and the seamen fight the ragging storm. 

Jesus being asleep is the clearest of indications that this story is not merely about Jesus’ ability to calm the storm.  Of course he could do it.  The question in this story is what would the disciples do?  How would they respond to adversity and threats?  

They wake him.  “Lord, save us!  We are perishing!”  In the Gospel of Mark, they are accusative of Jesus.  There they say “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  (Mark 4:38)  

Jesus calms that storm.  But only after he asks them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith.” 

            Does that line sound familiar?  Turn back to today’s lesson.  Matthew 14:31.  Jesus says,  “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” 

Ragging storms, high winds, threatening situations – these seem to be the times and places where depth of faith and understanding of intentions is discovered.   

I want to be in that boat with Jesus – AFTER he calms the sea and we all climb aboard.  Jesus seems to be primarily interested in how I react in the moments before he imposes his divine protection and makes everything okay.  It at least causes me to wonder whether we miss the point when we speak of following Jesus as a calm ride in a glassy sea.  That ride comes after the disappointed Jesus asks why their faith is so unsure.  The old hymn says, “Jesus calls us, O’er the tumult.”  It may be more biblically accurate to say that Jesus calls us into the tumult.  

In the e-news I sent a note about the action word in Matthew 14:22.  The English translation says Jesus “made the disciples get into the boat and to on ahead.”  A more accurate translation is that he commanded them.  He ordered them to get in that boat and go out into the threatening weather.  If you still have a finger holding the place of the earlier story, you will see that in Matthew 8:18 Jesus also “orders” them to get in the boat and shove off.  It is almost as if Jesus wants us to leave the security of the shoreline and navigate ourselves to the very place where high winds push us from every side and threatening waves crash our boat. 

I want you to leave this morning comforted by the songs we sing and the prayers we offer and the meal we share.  Jesus wants this, too.  I know he does. 

But the lessons we read also insist that you leave here this morning questioning whether you have made your own safety and security and prosperity so important that you have jumped into the boat and made your concerns the center of your prayers.  Jesus invites Peter to come to him, on the rough waters, and in the blowing wind.  It is only after Peter reveals a lack of faith that Jesus hauls him back into the boat and the storm is calmed. 

The boat is always there – for you, for me, for all of us.  And, Jesus will take care of us. 

But Jesus also wants us to reflect on something more than saving ourselves, or our way of life, or our notion of what is best for the world.   

Don’t climb into the boat too soon.  Stay in the wind and rough seas.  But look to Jesus.  And looking to Jesus, do not be afraid.  Faith will come.  And it will make amazing things possible.  Above all, it will introduce us to the blessedness of living for something larger and better and more worthy than preserving our own individual life.

 

Amen.

Sermon - 8th Sunday after Pentecost

Matthew 14:13-21     

 What Kingdom Do We Seek?

I hope you brought your bibles today.  I realized that what I really need to do to encourage you to bring your bible is to point out that I could cut at least 5 minutes out of every sermon if I didn’t have to tell you what you can’t see when you don’t have a bible to look at.  So here is the deal – when 50% of you bring a bible, I will reduce my self-appointed length of sermon by one page.  Deal?

 Here is what I wish you could see this morning:  we are reading from Matthew 14.  Verses 13-21.  What you can’t see by looking at the back of the bulletin alone is what has been going on in the chapter before these 9 verses.  I hope I won’t offend anyone if I say that the order of the events in the Gospels is a construct of the writer of that particular Gospel.  The order of events varies between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – with each of the gospel writers putting the story together in a way that helps them to emphasis what they believe the major points to be.  Order does matters.  So Matthew 14 needs to be read with an eye on what was reported in the previous chapter. 

 

Do any of you, with a bible (or really good memory) want to remind the rest of us as to what has been going on, in the 13^th chapter of Matthew? 

 

Chapter 13 is filled with parables.  We have been reading those parables for the past three Sundays.  All of those parables coalesce around a central topic.  And that topic is “The Kingdom.”  Jesus is trying, desperately trying, to help the disciples and his hearers catch a glimpse of the Kingdom he came to reveal.  This Kingdom is like so many things, yet unlike anything they have ever known. 

 

And why is it unlike anything they have ever known?  Because it is so different from what they are experiencing.  The first 12 verses of Matthew 14 contain a grand interruption to any thought that the Kingdom is at hand.  Between those glimpses of the Kingdom in Chapter 13 and the events which take center stage in today’s reading we have the retelling of how Herod’s concern about this new Kingdom lead him to kill John the Baptist.  The Kingdom which Jesus came to proclaim was a concern, it was a threat, to the kingdom preferred by those who seek power and control.

 

Matthew 13 is filled with parables.  Parables about “The Kingdom.” 

 

When Matthew tells these parables, he speaks of the Kingdom of “Heaven.”  In Mark & Luke the same parables are told but here the reference is to the Kingdom of “God.”  I will say a bit more about why Matthew does this, later.  For now, I want to address how this change has affected the way Christians envision the “Kingdom.”

 

I had never paid much attention to this difference until I started reading the writings of a Baptist Preacher from New York City.  Walter Rauschenbusch pointed out that the shift from speaking of the “Kingdom of God,” to talk about the “Kingdom of Heaven” allowed too many of his fellow preachers to pretend that Jesus’ preaching was all about the sweet-by-and-by; that what concerned Jesus was some realm out there somewhere, beyond the space and time we currently inhabit.  Rauschenbusch disagreed.   ‘Jesus had some things to say about the kingdoms we seek here on earth,’ (my paraphrase.)  The Kingdom of which Jesus invites us to be a part begins now and is lived here. 

 

The reason Matthew changes “God” to “Heaven” isn’t because he thought Jesus was talking about what comes after death.  Rather, Matthew wrote for a group which included a lot of Jewish converts.  He knew they would be offended if forced to say the name of God.  So, he changes it.  Matthew KNOWS that Jesus is concerned about the here and now. Matthew understands that the Kingdom of which Jesus speaks is to make a real difference in what happens to us here and now.  That is why he organizes chapters 13 and 14 as he does.

 

There is really nothing new to say about the parable of the Feeding of the 5,000.  I decided early in the week that it was the ultimate ego trip for me to think that I could come up with something insightful and exciting that I had only recently discovered by way of deep research or profound, prayerful meditation.  You know the story.  You know what happens.  You know what is going to happen even before the story gets going.  At issue, I want to suggest this morning, is not so much what happens, rather the issue is whether we want to ask significant questions about what this ancient story means for us today.  What does it say to us about our preoccupation with some future heavenly kingdom, sought after at the expense of paying really close attention to the kingdoms we build on this side of eternity?

 

Jesus has been telling parable after parable about the Kingdom.  Some of the images he uses get an agreeing nod from us; some throw us for a bit of a loop.  If you were here two weeks ago, you heard my rant about the so called “interpretations” of the parables.  Those are little more than attempts on the part of the young, developing Church to soften the bite of Jesus’ words.  They worked really hard to make Jesus seem more like a wise grandparent than like the embodiment of God’s insistence that justice be done on earth.

 

Jesus’ parables about the Kingdom stand the world on its head and reverse the understanding of what is important and who is important.

 

Jesus knows that it will be difficult for us to hear these parables; nearly impossible for us to understand.  So he asks them in Matthew 13:51, “Have you understood all this?”  What are they going to say?  Are they going to say, “No, Jesus.  You are a lousy teacher - whose style of using cute little stories rather than telling us directly what you mean leaves us wondering (and often arguing) about what it is that you want us to do.”  So, they answer. “Yes, we understand.”  But they don’t.  If you want proof that they don’t understand, look at Matthew 14:16 (this one is on your bulletin.)  Jesus has been talking about the coming of the Kingdom.  But when there is an opportunity for the Kingdom to be experienced by these 5,000 men (plus all the women and children) those who had just answered, “Sure, we understand,” are ready to send those 5,000 souls off to fend for themselves.

 

Note if you will – there is no little boy in Matthew’s story, offering to share his lunch.  There is no little boy in Mark or Luke either.  You only get that sweet, innocent child in John.  “Sweet?”  “Innocent?”  Naïve and stupid is more like it.  5,000 men plus who knows how many women and children; you are the only one whose mother loved them enough to send along a bag lunch, and you are going to just hand it over?  It takes a lot of trust in the Kingdom of God to risk sharing one’s bread.

 

Jesus tells the disciples, “You feed them.”  Jesus exposes that their lack of confidence in the unfolding of the Kingdom of which he has spent so much time talking.  They have heard his parables and said they understand but they continue to believe that the Kingdom of which Jesus speaks may come someday, but not this day. 

 

Jesus says, “You feed them.”  “You make this Kingdom in which all God’s children have their bellies filled to overflowing real for these 5,000 men.  And you do it NOW!”

 

There is nothing as powerful as giving a meal to one who is hungry.  There are few things as well received as the assurance that another will provide for us.  The story tells us that these 5,000 are in a deserted place and the hour is late.  Panic will soon set in.  “Send them away,” the disciples tell Jesus.  “Let them go back to their ramshackle homes where they might have enough barley to scrape together a biscuit or two.  “Tell them to go,” the disciples insist.  This is a deserted place and the hour is late.

 

But it is the place where Jesus is.  It is the place where talk about the Kingdom has attracted a huge following.  It is the place where all the talk about the Kingdom is going to be made real in action.

 

“You give them something to eat.”

 

So long as we don’t have our bibles, it is way too easy for some slick talking preacher to pull a few verses out, print them on the back of some piece of paper, and tell you that “this” is what the story means.  I realize that my comments this morning also represent an attempt to encourage you to think maybe this story means “that.”  Decide for yourselves.  Read, and re-read these chapters.  Remember that the insertion of chapters and verses was added much later to the original story, first penned by Matthew. 

 

But I realize that the truly challenging thing about this morning’s message isn’t about literary criticism of the Bible, it is this insistence that we completely miss the point when we read these parables and allow ourselves to think they are only talking about what happens after we die, or after Jesus returns.  The stories Jesus tells about the Kingdom are not comforting words intended to appease our fear of death.  They are instructions on how we are to live the lives we have on this side of the grave.

 

The kingdom of heaven may be about such things.  The kingdom of God is about what happens to us today, tomorrow, and all the days in which we draw our breath.  The invitation from Jesus is to live in this Kingdom – Now.  And living it in such a way as to make it a reality for all those who find themselves in deserted places and a late hour. 

 

Jesus is saying to us - “You feed them.”

Amen.