Hot Dogs in the Kingdom

They called it Hot Dogs in the Kingdom.

One Friday night a month, Pr Herrick would fire up the grill and the people of the Northside of Syracuse would enjoy some hot dogs together.  In all kinds of weather; the sweet glow of a Syracuse summer or the frigid cold of a Syracuse winter, folks had a place to go, share some conversation, some fellowship and some hot dogs.

Although this is a very different picture than the huge crowd who gathered on the green grass of some hillside, it was still a statement of solidarity with neighbors.  That sweet smell of charcoal fire formed community where relationships could develop.  This was no fancy talk about community, it was the act of being community around some hot dogs and condiments.  The People of First English Lutheran made community once a month on the corner of James and Townsend and the people of the northside had one less meal to worry about.

It was an example of ordinary food becoming God’s grace, meeting the universal need to be known, to belong, to have value and certainly not least of all, to be fed.  There on the corner of James and Townsend unfolded one scene in God’s great drama of grace for the world.

Yet, just like our story today in the gospel of John – just like any meeting at any of our congregations, the people of First English had their own disciples named Philip and Andrew.  Philip who always asks “Do you know how much this will cost?” and Andrew who insists we have too little.

 

Hot Dogs in the Kingdom cost about $50 a month, and Pr. Craig would gently encourage disciples from more affluent lives to offer up their 5 loaves and 2 fish, like the young boy in the story.  In the end, there was too little for First English to continue, but at the same time, to the end, hot dogs were served once a month at the corner of James and Townsend.

We are familiar with the story of a miraculous feeding of 5000.  Every gospel has a version and, in each one, Jesus not only feeds the thousands in front of him, he instructs his disciples to gather up the leftovers.  Gather them up so nothing goes to waste. 

Gather them up because even if there are 5000 people reclining on the grass and being fed until they are full - there are others who aren’t here: outsiders: who need to be fed as well.  There is a larger community to be formed.  There is to be No wasted bread; no wasted people.  This is God’s mission in Jesus and God’s mission for God’s church.

And yet, that’s not how we count our ministry successful. In our minds, to be successful we need our own pastor, a beautiful sanctuary, pews and programs filled with people.    It is success by the numbers: easily reported, easily graphed, satisfying to hear. And when the numbers begin to soften, the pews are emptier year by year, our own Philip and Andrew pipe up with “How much will this cost?” and “We have too little”

Jesus, however, is looking to the horizon, looking for the hungry and lost ones, for the outsiders, the strangers. For Jesus there is to be no waste: neither bread nor people shall be lost.

Throughout Gods story, people are being fed.  Who doesn’t connect Moses in the wilderness with the manna from heaven? But we need to look beyond Moses feeding just the children of Israel, or Elijah feeding just the widow of Zarapheth and her family and see Jesus, the Christ who searches for those who need to belong, to be known, to be valued, and not least of all, to be fed.

This is where we come in.  It is our mission: to gather up the leftovers and go into the streets and seek the ones who never heard about Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the nations. To make a new community; develop  relationships centered on the life-giving good news of Jesus.

In the weeks ahead you will hear the call to take up your cross, about being a servant and putting aside riches in order to follow Jesus.  These powerful passages will call you to confession as you evaluate your own discipleship.

But I think none has the capacity to move you to confession more than our story today because this scene of a community gathered around a meal lies right within your grasp.

 

The truth is that too often we say How much? And claim that we have Too Little and our central concern is the future of what we have and not the hunger of our neighbors.  Then, like the Israelites in the desert, we pressure our leaders to make it all right, to bring us manna from heaven. We turn the story on its head, wanting for ourselves and paying no attention to the outsiders.

Today we are being asked some fundamental questions. 

Who is this Jesus whom you confess, to whom you have given your life? What do you expect from this Jesus who feeds thousands and hangs on a cross dying?

Do you truly believe that in Jesus we experience the fullness of life that we call eternal?  Do you believe that God’s bounty is intended to be blessing to all of creation?

Isn’t it time to stop asking How much and claiming that we have Too Little?

And time instead to ask Who is hungry?  Who is lost?

Lord, bless the work that we do in your name for the sake of your people.  AMEN

Who are you? Mary? Martha?

Depending on where I am in my life when I read this story about Mary and Martha, I identify with either one. There are times when I sympathize with Martha; she is doing as she has always done. She is the consummate host extending hospitality to Jesus and catering to him as is her duty in that time and place. She is irritated at her sister Mary who she thinks is slacking in her duties, just sitting there listening to Jesus. There would have been a lot of little details for Martha to attend to and having the extra set of hands of Mary would have been helpful. Sometimes I sympathize with Mary. Martha seems like a bit of a taskmaster and it couldn't have been easy for Mary to work under her when it appears that they have very different personalities. Mary wants to take advantage of the rare opportunity to listen to the words Jesus is sharing at her own table. I always think it must have been humiliating for Mary when Martha drags Jesus in to her dramatic display and asks him to make Mary work. We (in the church) frequently talk about the need for action when we are talking about doing God's work.  We preach mission and involvement and those are both action items. One could argue that the church has been a bit idle in the past and has neglected doing the "get your hands dirty" work required for mission; this is a good thing. Just not the way Martha is doing it. Martha is doing this hard work because she is supposed to - it is her station in life as a woman in this context. Martha is not doing this hospitality for the glory of God. She is worried and she is distracted by trivial details.  We too get worried and distracted by all the to-do's and task lists. Mission doesn't happen by itself - we must work at it and not be idle. However, when we lose focus of the big picture, too distracted to hear the directions, we are doing the work but at the expense of listening to the word of God. How often do we long to be like Mary; to quietly listen to the voice of Jesus? To mindfully focus on only one thing? To lay aside the worries and drudgery of work in favor of the peace and good news that Jesus brings? Being like Mary is a possibility for all of us if we can learn that it is ok to rest and meditate and simply listen for the voice of God. We need to give ourselves permission to close our eyes, to step away from the work distraction and listen. How else can we ensure that we are on the right path? I think in many ways it is easier to be like Martha - ticking items off her to-do list one by one. She feels that Mary was sitting idly, but quietly listening, focusing and absorbing is not easy to do. And yet, Jesus says, "Mary has chosen the better part." Mary and Martha are a good balance for each other, but I feel like it's important for both of these aspects to be present in each of us - to know when to get our hands dirty, to work hard for the big picture and for the glory of God but also to know when to simply sit and listen. thanks to Samantha Rossi, guest blogger and seminarian from Upstate NY Synod. This first appeared in the Upstate Update Midweek Musings.

Forgiveness given and received....or

                                               
"Why this scene on the beach between Peter and the risen Jesus is so important for people of faith."

If you are familiar with Peter's understandable but deeply disappointing behavior when Jesus was arrested, and subsequently crucified, you will understand why this scene grabs our attention.

It is intimate.  Although others are around, the gospel writer clearly makes this between Peter and Jesus.

It is serious.  Simon, son of John.......remember when your mother called you by your full name?  It's serious.

"Do you love me more than these?"   Jesus never clarifies what the 'these' are, but his point is made.  Am I number 1....or do I fall further down your list of priorities?

What do you do when you are across from the one you claimed to love yet betrayed so completely?  What do you say when you are as deeply disappointed in yourself as the other guy is?
What do you do when your crime.....sin.....wrong doing.....weakness....is an enormous elephant sitting right in the middle of the room?

Somehow, with your mouth dry from the depth of your emotion and a lot of stress, you croak out, "You know that I love you."   and you wait.

You wait to hear how big a disappointment you've been.  You wait to hear how much hurt you caused.  You wait to hear someone say outloud, "You really screwed up."  but instead you hear.

"Feed my sheep".

This is forgiveness in its rawest form.  No recriminations.  No words recapping the bad deeds of old.  No finger pointing or name calling.  Just a mission.  An important mission.  A mission to lead the others in the telling of the story to the whole world.

There are lots of potential explanations of why Jesus repeated the question three times.  Some say it parallels the 3 time denial of Peter.  Some say it helps Peter focus on the task at hand instead of the past.

Perhaps it took three times for Peter to truly believe he had been forgiven in such a way that his past was just a building block for the future that Jesus had for him.  Perhaps it took three times for Peter to truly forgive himself for being the fragile, fractured human being that we all are.

But this is the one who received the mission:  tend my sheep, feed my lambs.  Tell the world about God's love poured out; tell the world your story.  Forgiveness given sets us free and breaks open the possibility of new life.  Forgiveness received sets your steps on the path of life in God.

This is Jesus: God's great forgiveness given for you.

that pesky devil........

"The devil made me do it."
Flip Wilson introduced that long standing excuse for almost everything into the comedy scene loooong ago when I was young.  It is an excuse that comes in handy most days......even if it holds no water.  No one takes anyone seriously when they claim the devil made them do it.

Yet we get this story about Jesus and the devil and temptations in the wilderness and we have to figure out what the writer is trying to tell us.  Certainly Jesus can and does resist the temptations that the devil puts in front of him.

They are telling temptations: #1 to satisfy his own needs (since he was seriously hungry for bread) over and above whatever God the Father had in mind for him.
              #2 to satisfy his own ego needs by claiming all kinds of status with a little bit of showmanship as he throws himself off a high place and waits for the angels to catch him.  Who doesn't have some ego needs that seek a bit of status?
              #3 to satisfy himself with a grab for power, really big power.  The devil offers this world and all the power it holds if Jesus will throw over his loyalty to God the Creator and take up worship of the devil instead.  Wow!  Power!  Pretty enticing.

Why are we told this story?  What does the author of Luke want us to see here?  Is there something here that might help us as followers of Jesus to make our way in this world?

Those are good questions and I certainly don't have the definitive answers to them but let's explore.  Why are we told this story?  It could be to show that Jesus didn't just float through this world and this life.  The temptations that we face, Jesus faced as well.  Although we can talk about satisfying our lusts for food or power or status, I think there is a much larger temptation being thrown at Jesus.  It is a temptation we face as well, we just don't recognize it when it comes our way.

The big temptation here is for Jesus to give up what God the Father is calling him to do.....to mend and heal the world for the sake of the world which is loved by its creator....and instead to do what makes Jesus feel good, look good, and stand in a position of power.

God was setting Jesus out on a mission to the world where love, sacrifice and service were the foundation for power.  Jesus was not sent out to stand among the rulers of the world but among the oppressed.  Jesus was not sent to satisfy himself but to feed the hungry.  Jesus was not sent to pull off crazy stunts to get everyone's attention.  He was sent to be the source of all life, joined with the God Creator in unison bringing about a new thing.

As followers of Jesus, that is what we are called to do as well.  Therefore, we face the same temptation: to throw over our loyalty and trust in the Creator God and join the secular team of this world.

Makes giving up a little bread look a lot easier, right?

To heal and mend the world..........

We are knee deep in politics here in America as a dozen men and women press their agendas as potential candidates for the office of President.

What we get to hear is each potential 'next president'  candidate's vision for America.  Their political agenda, and if they are doing it right, their 'call to arms' to the voting public to join them in making America great.

Jesus had an agenda too, and we get to hear it in the 4th chapter of Luke when he quotes from the prophet Isaiah 60.
   

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to bring good news to the poor,

 release to the captives, sight to the blind

 and freedom to the oppressed.  

To announce the year of the Lord's favor.'

Jesus is talking about turning this world upside down, inside out.....and in the end....upside right.  Jesus is setting out to heal and mend the world.

It's what we've all dreamed of......a world of mutuality, of peace, of fellowship.....a place where the world sings in 'perfect harmony.'  We have a dream; Jesus has a mission.

The healing of the nations is God's great design and desire for this creation.  So through the Son, God acts in this world....in our world....to heal and mend the nations.

And it will start with those who have found themselves at the bottom of the pile:  those imprisoned by ruling authority gone mad, those whose bodies have been broken from the very beginning and whose lives have always been a struggle, and those who are pressed down by the structures humans have created.  But it will not stop there.

Jesus will stand in the midst of all who are held captive by the demons of drugs or mental illness; all those whose spirits have been broken by the brokenness of another; all those who are blind to the truth and those unable to see any possibility beyond today.  Jesus will stand with those oppressed by poverty and those oppressed by others.  Jesus will stand with those who have been wrongly imprisoned and those who are defined by the crimes that put them in prison in the first place.

Jesus will also stand right next to the one who does the oppressing, is guilty of blinding a neighbor, has broken the spirit of another human being.

Jesus will stand right in the midst of the gang wars and abusive homes, the killing fields and depraved indifference.....so that God might be at work in him....healing and mending the world.  Both the do-ers and the receivers.  Nothing less will accomplish God's plan: the whole creation singing in perfect harmony.

For us it is no more than a dream.  For God, it is the future that comes to us in Jesus and at the same time is waiting for us.  Jesus is that tomorrow; Jesus leads us to that tomorrow.  Thanks be to God.

There's a good chance that............

........you'll be persecuted.  Or at the very least, things are not going to go the way you had planned.

This upbeat message (of truth, I might add) was brought to us by Pr. Chris Boerger at the Upstate NY Synod assembly.  It is easy to see why the church is not in the advertising business. This kind of motto won't sell anything to anyone.

Pr. Boerger was preaching from the gospel of Matthew, beginning here  "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account......."  (Matthew 5.11)

Thousands of people were gathered 'on the mount' as Jesus delivered this, the final beatitude.  Blessed are you when people revile you......."  No one ever thinks that this is good news.  I can't imagine anyone feeling blessed as the dust storm envelopes them.

Perhaps that is because we have a skewed definition of 'blessed.' We tend to equate blessed with 'happy' ("I'm so happy").   Perhaps it's because we fail to realize that what Jesus is teaching and preaching in this famous Sermon on the Mount is founded on his very presence as the Son of God.

We are not blessed by the world.  We are not blessed because of the world.  The world is very stingy when it comes to handing out blessings.  No, we are blessed because of Jesus, present in our world in the most real way, and continually present in our world today.....when the persecutions come.

Blessed are you because of Jesus, the one who is source of light and life, the one who can mend the broken places of our bodies, our minds, our relationships and our lives.  Blessed are you (and me too!) because of Jesus leaning into us, carrying us and leading us toward the light.

But we are not just passive recipients of this blessedness; we are at the same time 'the salt of the earth.'  Salt is essential to life.  Without enough salt, the heart stops beating.  With too much salt, the body becomes water logged (a non-medical term).  Now, through Jesus, we are the salt of the earth and are called to be salt wherever we are and whatever befalls us.

The truth is: things are not going to turn out as you had planned.  What are you going to do then?  How are you going to face the trial or persevere into the future?  How could you be salt in that place?  How will your presence bring light into a dark situation?  How will you point others to a life giving relationship with Jesus?

You are blessed; you are salt.  Shake it out for the good of the world!

Not those saints.....

Just finished reading an article in today's Washington Post on Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, author of a NY Times bestseller Pastrix: the Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint. go to sinner and saint, ***


Nadia, as she is affectionately called by thousands of followers, is an unusual representative of the clergy and at first will strike many as terribly 'out there'.  In fact, she is about as 'in here' as one can get: a solid explicator of both Jesus and Luther's perspective on the faith.  I think it's the tattoos and possibly her "vocabulary" that throw folks off.

Which leads me to the title of this short reflection.  There are many who believe that the grace of Jesus is open only to those who, once having found Jesus, start to look like the rest of us.  We want to protect Jesus from those saints if in fact anyone would call them saints.

I suspect that middle class white church members maintain an underlying desire for those folks to clean up their act and be useful to the church.  In truth, just like you and me, they are being called by Jesus to be a part of God's mission on the earth.  We are called to be on God's mission team: a mission of grace and forgiveness and resurrection for the entire creation.  I would pray that this is our congregation's mission as well - to bring resurrection and radical love into the lives of others.

***BTW we are gathering folks who would like to read Nadia's book Pastrix and talk about it over coffee, etc.  Interested?  Let the office know at 458-1481.

You Can't Go Home Again. Really.

"You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ...
 back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ...
back home to places in the country,
back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time ..."  Thomas Wolfe You Can't Go Home Again

This applies to the church.
As powerfully present and spiritually enlightening those days of old might have been, today is today.  When all our effort is given over to re-capturing the past ('going home') we have turned a deaf ear and blind eye to God's work among us: renewing, resurrecting, welcoming, making whole.

God's home in Jesus lies ahead of us.  Come follow where Jesus leads.

He is Risen!

Can't believe I left you all hanging during Holy Week!
In case you haven't heard, He is Risen!

So I will quote from my own sermon from 4/15

Here is the question that we are a quisen
What do we do now that Jesus is risen?

As proud as I am of my "Suessian" rhyme, it really is a critical question for each of us and for the church at large.  In an era when congregational life has taken a serious right turn into lower attendance, even malaise in some areas, it is important that we (each person of faith) are clear about what we are called to be and do.

For too long, the 'Jesus and Me' movement has had the star role.  You know, Jesus loves me, I love Jesus.  I am saved. I get to go to heaven (although I'm in no big hurry).  Thanks be to God.  Amen.   This perspective not only guards our faith as personal, it insists that it is private as well.

As we read the lessons from the Acts of the Apostles during the season of Easter, we will discover again that the Good News of the Risen Jesus is anything but private.  The disciples are everywhere telling the story again and again.  It is a story everyone needs to hear, and will want to hear.

For if Jesus isn't healing all of creation, if Jesus isn't a part of God's plan to create a new heaven and earth, if Jesus is only the secret password for me to get to heaven, then all this hoopla over the resurrection is surely wasted.   Jesus was/is/will always be an integral part of God's plan for the redeeming of the world - the whole world - all of it.  Since we have joined our lives to the life of Jesus, this becomes our role as well. 

God has a mission - to save the world - and now we are a part of it.  We are called to be witnesses - not just to some story we've heard in church for years, but to the transformation that has happened within us, within our lives, within our families.

Hold that thought.....more later.