Ramblings

Speech – 8/31/2014

Sermon based on Jeremiah 15: 15-21. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." "Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.'"

Each of those of course are snippets from famous speeches in English over the last 75 years. The first was from a speech given by African American Civil Rights Leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the March of Washington on August, 1963. The second snippet was from President John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech in January, 1961 and the third was from Prime Minister Winston Churchill speech to the British House of Commons in June of 1940.

I begin with those three because I don't know if in your study of the Bible if you have noticed but some people, some model the moral life. Some people heal. Some impress crowds with miracles. Some are mediocre and do little. And some are faithless and wrong. The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah was interesting because he talked. Jeremiah's call was to faithful speech. The reason I bring this up is because in Jeremiah 15, we have access to Jeremiah's process before he speaks.

As you well know, speech permeates our lives. Lots of people talk! I thought about that this past week as we heard from the President of the Ukraine in the midst of civil war and Russian incursions. We have the lingering messages from various people spoken on the streets and at the funeral of African-American teenager Michael Brown, unarmed and shot by police in Ferguson, MO. And the media is filled with what is commonly referred to as "talking heads." Of course we have the right to free speech that we all cherish.

All this means is that we live in a loud world. We can make YouTube videos. We can speak our minds in our Facebook status updates, Twitter feeds and Snapchat remarks. We can write and comment on blogs. We are surrounded by TV, radio, microphones, videos, Skype, apps, and websites. Speech is everywhere.

And on occasion, our American society pauses to examine the way in which we communicate. One such moment presented itself back in January of 2011 after the Arizona shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Immediately following the incident, people wondered if the political ads and rhetoric against Congresswoman Giffords fed the dangerous anger that led to her shooting. Ultimately, no connection between our rancid political speeches --- the billboards with Gifford's in gun sights --- and the shooter could be established. Nevertheless, the incident served as a reminder of our present poor divisive political climate and the general quality of our language. We all believe, that others, not necessarily ourselves could learn a lot from the practice of restraint. Indeed, fasting from speech in a normal day can offer tremendous insight as I experienced when I went on a silent retreat for a week back in 2005.

It is in this our climate that Jeremiah's process of how and when to speak faithfully detailed in our first lesson offers us a unique opportunity to reflect; when to speak and on speech that holds weight. You may not think that our individual speech has much impact … but it does and as followers of Jesus, it is an essential part of our job description. Jesus asks us to speak words of faith. So what can we learn from Jeremiah.

Before we begin it is important to remember that faithful speech is not reserved just for Christian preachers found in our cities and around the world. Nor I am not talking about wasting time on looking for dates and times in the book of Revelation and being inspired to share that at City Hall. Rather like Moses wistfully remarked, "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!" We are all required to consider what faithful speech would look like coming from our own mouths. 

First, Jeremiah's call to speak from a faith perspective begins with a delightful discovery. Faith filled speech is not opinion. Neither does it draw strength from popular sentiment or ideology. Faith filled speech does not come after watching Fox news, MSNBC or ESPN. Rather, faithful speech comes from a profound encounter with God. God's words "Your words were found, and I ate them," This discovery proved so significant to Jeremiah that he immediately internalized his encounter with God. In other words there was something that touched him deeply. Notice that for Jeremiah at first finding and ingesting God's words brought him joy and delight. 

That is important for us as we consider our speech as Christians, in that our speech begins with our encounter, our own personal wrestling with God. For example, what made Rev. King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial so powerful is that it resonated with his life, the lives of the African American community and his reading of the Bible, particularly the book of Isaiah

The second important detail to notice is that after his discovery, Jeremiah does not immediately go to the nearest corner. Verse 17 indicates that the prophet held his tongue. Jeremiah waited to speak, not because he did not have anything to say rather it was to deepening his thoughtfulness. This period of waiting, where Jeremiah refrained from speaking, reveals another aspect to faithful speech. Why does Jeremiah wait? Because the words of God take on a difficult weight in Jeremiah's personal life. 

Holding his tongue begins to produce a range of emotional responses in Jeremiah. Although at first the words produce joy, as considers them Jeremiah also feels angry, isolated, and wounded … so wounded in fact that Jeremiah lashes out at God and accuses God of lying to him. Where previously, Jeremiah felt joy at the discovery of God, over time, God begins to feel like a dead end: "Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail."

Have you ever had that experience? I know that has happened to me; for example, I will read something in the Bible, it will say something to me and at first I like it, but as I think about them, I am torn by the implications or cost. There is a wonderful quote by the 18^th century pastor and abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher; "Truths are first clouds, then rain, then they are harvest and food." At first Jeremiah was delighted, likened to a blue sky with brilliant white clouds. However, these same words became a rain storm leaving Jeremiah angry and wounded.

As Christians, we need to be careful about speaking immediately, not because we have nothing to say, rather there are times when we need to let God's word sink more deeply into our own lives before we speak fully. We need to think about what God's word may mean wholly.

This leads to the third aspect of faithful speech for us Christians because what happens next makes Jeremiah's turn from letting the words sink in to his life and then speaking publically truly amazing.

It begins when Jeremiah realized he has a choice. As well have a choice. It is not like the Bill of Rights, a realization that he is free to speak, rather God indicates that Jeremiah can offer the world two kinds of speech: worthless speech or precious speech. "If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall serve as my mouth."

"Worthless" speech might be that which indulges in despair, confusion, or drama. Worthless speech stems from anger and hurt. Worthless speech is our common language. Worthless speech Jeremiah realizes also flows out of the disappointment and isolation he feels after the glow of his inspiration fades. Worthless speech if we return to Beecher's quote sits at window in the rain, day after day, depressed at the cloudy weather.

Jeremiah chooses to deliver precious words to Israel. Jeremiah realized that God let him have the decision, and Jeremiah chose to speak weighty, precious words. Now for those who wonder, and as we know from other places in the Bible, we are not given much detail about "precious" or "weighty" speech. But it is implied that weighty speech does not pander to public opinion and is strong enough to endure criticism. Precious speech requires faith in nothing less than the protection of God. 

So what to do you think. How are you and I working on our speaking as Christians? We are all challenged to speak faithfully precious and weighty words in our context. I know that for me, I am way too often flip. I may speak more of anger than thoughtfulness. And, I may know God's word but I have not wrestled with as well as I would like. There is something to learn from today's passage and why I return day after day and week after week to worship and scripture.

Finally, it is important to remember Jeremiah was one of several hundred prophets with something to say in Jerusalem. The same holds true for our century, there are lots (and lots!) of people, some Christians out there talking and talking, some of it nuggets of thoughtfulness, but like the ancient excess of speech in Jerusalem that still holds true for us today. Nevertheless, Jeremiah's spoke and his words persisted and the process that unfolded in his life, I think offers us a glimpse into speech worth saying. Let us listen to God's word, ponder and consider the words deeply, in our hearts and then choose weighty, precious words, because then our words will be similar to those spoken by Jeremiah --- they will stand like walls of bronze. Amen.

Four Words – 8/24/2014

Sermon based on Romans 12: 1-8. The Apostle Paul in writing to the church in Rome today says: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,^* by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual^* worship. ²Do not be conformed to this world,^* but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God --- what is good and acceptable and perfect.^*" These two sentences are so packed with important points that we can easily miss one or more of them. Today therefore, I am going to do something a little different, I am going to speak about words. I'm going to talk about four of them from Paul's letter translated into contemporary English as: bodies, living, sacrifice, and transform.

Let's start with "bodies." Should be easy enough yet, we may not remember that one of the great controversies that the early church struggled with was this idea that Jesus Christ was not really human, was not really flesh and blood. This idea that Jesus was either a superman or more of a spirit not really like us, is easy enough to understand not only because of the miracles but also from his death on the cross and resurrection. Proponents of this idea, that Jesus was not like us, argued that Jesus just appeared to be human. Jesus just appeared to suffer and die. Instead, of being like us, Jesus was more like a spirit, or an immortal Thor with dark hair and without a hammer, not a person like you or me. A modern day expression of this view might say Jesus was a divine holographic projection. You still see some of this controversy when people avoid the earthy topics of Jesus, women and sex, or did Jesus really go to the bathroom.

Obviously, regardless with our discomfort of human side of Jesus, we can see the problem here and why that controversy died. We are what is called in the church, an incarnational people, meaning we believe that God makes God-self known in all the beauty and wonder of creation. This also includes us, in our embodied, fleshy selves. And this especially includes Jesus, who took on the fleshiness and wonder of humanity in order to bring us back into a right relationship with God. The suffering and death of Jesus on the cross was sad and real. It was bloody and shocking because death for all of us is sad, earthy and shocking. The early church theologian Irenaeus frequently wrote against what became known as a heresy. He summed up his arguments with this theological point, "Jesus became like us to make us like (him) Jesus." We have bodies --- hairy, ungainly, perspiring, cellulite-padded, beautiful bodies. And Jesus became one of those bodies to show us how to live and love in service to God. I could go on but I think you get the picture.

Then, with that understanding of the body in mind, let's move to the next two words. Paul appeals to the Romans and to us to present these physical bodies to God as a "living sacrifice." These two words together, of course, are an oxymoron --- something like "jumbo shrimp" or "open secret" or "minor crisis."

You see in the Jewish tradition, in which Jesus, Paul and the rest of the New Testament writers were raised, to sacrifice was an indispensable part of the worship of God. And an indispensable part of sacrifice was killing and bleeding the animal being offered as way to renew a relationship with God. For example, after Jesus was born and taken to the temple to be dedicated, the young family according to the gospel of Luke "… offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, 'a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.'" The blood was what was important and you could not get at the blood to give at altar without the unfortunate byproduct of a dead sheep or goat or bull or dove. The sacrifice --- however bloody and gory to modern eyes --- was the way Israel affirmed and strengthened its relationship with God.

Paul seizes onto this aspect of sacrifice --- this affirmation and strengthening --- while dispensing with the business about dead animals. And for good reason. Earlier in his Letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul says: "We have been buried with [Christ] by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life" (6:4). We have already passed through death, says Paul; therefore, we don't have to give blood if we are going to be a sacrifice; rather, we are to be a living one. In other words, our presentation of ourselves as a sacrifice involves the sum of the individual --- our physical selves as well as our minds, wills and spirits.

Blood at the time of Jesus was understood to represent the entirety of an animal. Thus, when we present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God we offer back to God all that God has given us.

Thus, being a "living sacrifice" means using this earthy, cellulite riddled, with bones and wills and spirits, this bodies of ours is for God. We are built to use our earthy bodies not only to embrace but to reason and love and affirm and strengthen creation to God.

The challenge for us to be earthy living sacrifices is difficult, because our agendas are more often moving toward our conformity to material values and competitive agendas, for that is more tangible for us. But it comes with a cost including the abuse of our bodies and creation. Divergence from God hinders us from living fully as God's creatures and deform our actions as God's living sacrifice.

So strengthen us as bodies as living sacrifices, Paul reminds us to "not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds…" We make mistakes. We live as if God did not have a relationship with us and we put lesser things in God's place. Instead, allow ourselves to change and grow. Remember that we are bodies and a living sacrifice, therefore do not be stuck in what we did yesterday, renew today, grow new skin, and change at the same time that we age and decay. Which simply means that our transformation takes place in the renewing of our minds, in the reorienting of our priorities so they resonate with the will of God. The transformation is possible because we are going through this spectrum of birth to death.

A helpful reminder for all of us was that Paul was responding to the challenges in Rome, "I'm just one person and this empire and all seems so big --- what can I do?" And "today I just don't feel like it…" We are all individuals living day by day … that's true … therefore Paul says, remember creation and that every one of us is one piece of this mosaic that we call creation. Moreover, none of us is just one person. None of us is alone, just as Jesus was never alone.

C.S. Lewis, the British author once wrote, "[Human beings] look separate because you see them walking about separately…If you could see humanity spread out in time, as God sees it, it would not look like a lot of separate things dotted about. It would look like one single growing thing—rather like a very complicated tree. Every individual would appear connected with every other."

Finally, I have been looking at individual words, but notice that the Apostle Paul said that we "present our bodies as a living sacrifice." Paul is not botching his Greek grammar here. Paul intentionally places these words together, meaning we each present our bodies in our diversity but collectively, together to God. Paul presents our variety together this way: "For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another" (12:4-5). In the one body of Christ, our individual identities and personalities and gifts find their most perfect expressions. Although we are each important, the living sacrifice happens when we affirm and strengthen our relationship with God by sharing our gifts with one another. We are better together, when our collective body galvanizes into action to do the work of God in the world, transformation and renewal are multiplied.

According to Paul, whether we have 4% body fat or a couple of replacement hips, whether we are closer to our births or closer to deaths, each of our bodies is built to be together for service, for love. Each of our bodies has been adopted and designed to fit into the one body of Christ. And this adopted body is alive. This body of Christ is being knit together as a living sacrifice, offered up to God to bring transformation to the world. Let us today and every day present our bodies as living sacrifices for the transformation of creation. Amen.

I’ve Got Shoes! – 8/17/2014

Sermon based on Isaiah 56 and Matthew 15. Today's readings from the Bible lessons from Matthew and Isaiah bring into sharp focus a very interesting question; what does it mean to be at God's table? Because when we understand what it means to be at God's table --- we come to the realization that at God table, it is not for us to decide who is beside us.

In our first lesson Isaiah is preaching to the newly restored community in Jerusalem after years of exile. Because of that reason and others, the religious community had strong voices that sought to restrict who could enter the temple, who enter. Only people who knew the rules should be able to come to the table. Only people who knew how to behave properly should be able to receive.

That question also seems to behind our second and more complex lesson from Matthew's gospel.

In Matthew 15, Jesus expresses and thus is confronted by a bias, that ethnic Jews are first at the table and thus can decide who if anyone can come next. This comes about when it seems Jesus' fame at working miracles has spread, and a woman from the north --- from Tyre, now part of Lebanon --- beyond mostly Jewish Galilee, has come seeking his favor while Jesus is traveling. She is a "Canaanite" meaning that her ethnic lineage and religious life could have been any of a dozen local varieties. Therefore, when this woman requests that Jesus heal her daughter, Jesus comes back with the standard segregationist rhetoric, the common language announced day by day in the streets and shops and synagogues where Jesus and the followers of Jesus lived. "You seek help from someone from your own kind and we'll look after ours."

Our initial response may be a question, is Jesus as bigoted as all the rest? There are dozens of other texts that say otherwise. Think of his camaraderie with the Samaritan woman. Samaritans were even more despised by the Jews than were folks from this woman's background, and Jesus showed no aversion to that woman at all. Or remember Jesus' tenderness with the Roman Centurion whose servant was dying. Jesus praised the man for his faith, and treated him as a colleague and friend.

So did Jesus change or was there something else going on here? At this point in my life --- I have struggled with this lesson and evolved over time --- I am of the mind that Jesus's response seems to have had two objectives.

The first objective was perhaps not so much to respond to the request of the Canaanite woman but more for the benefit of Jesus' disciples. The group of followers around Jesus certainly carried and even knew the ethnic paradigms and hierarchies that were taught through marketplace conversations. So when Jesus at first voiced what they themselves believed, I wonder how they may have reacted. The disciples of Jesus knew by this time, that Jesus did not limit his behaviors to the conventions of the time in other respects. Therefore, as the disciples listened to Jesus, and heard his response … I wonder if they may have cringed a little.

I don't know about you but that seems to be my experience. Prejudice may feel alright in my mind --- perhaps after some alcohol --- and with people of my own choosing in the safety of my own home. But, when someone else says what I may think, not within the walls of my community, the words can sound so … unpleasant.

The reality is that we all harbor peevish prejudices and discriminate but most of the time we keep them internalized. "What would others think of us if we really told them how we felt about so-and-so or such-and-such?" So we parade around with secret thoughts until we see someone else saying or doing what we may think and realize how unpleasant our thoughts truly are. Yet, our bigotry remains underneath. But I have also come to learn that when our inner thoughts are finally voiced or displayed in its entirety is there the start that may bring healing. So when Jesus said out loud what many of the followers of Jesus believed, perhaps that initiated a change among the disciples.

Which leads to a second possible objective as to why Jesus might be using these cruel words --- possibly to clarify the issues at stake in this moment of teaching and healing. Jesus is and never was or will be a magician doing tricks. Jesus is not a wandering medicine man who fixes elixirs to sell in a scheming con game.

Meaning that this woman and all who will be part of the aftermath of his healing miracle are to recognize that Jesus is from Israel; that Jesus is a Jew; that Jesus is appearing in this point of history in a given context that so that the healing clarifies the identity of Jesus and the mission; an important challenge of following Jesus is recognition that Jesus is the Messiah promised by the Hebrew prophets. Therefore, to ask for healing without having that understanding does not honor and recognize all of who Jesus is.

I think this is clearer if we consider that Matthew placed this episode after Jesus wrestles with the disciples coming to terms that values underlie their actions. In the verses preceding in Matthew we hear that the Pharisees valued a particular kind of religious political correctness, and their behaviors matched.

Do we act on the basis of external demands, like the peer pressure of the Pharisees in their codes of conduct? Or do we express our actions as the outcome of the all the values we have internalized in our lives? In other words do we act the way we do simply because it is needed or does it reflect our core values? The latter is truer, Jesus says. Our actions ultimately reveal what we have come to believe inside.

For example, Leo Tolstoy, the Russian author wrote a brilliant little story about this. Tolstoy told of a man who had found favor with the governing powers, and was therefore, allowed to select a parcel of government ground as his own possession. The only limitation on this field's size was the requirement that the man be able to plow a furrow around the property in a single day. So, early one morning the man set out, drawn by the lure of free land and excited about the farm he would stake out and claim as his own.

By mid-morning he had moved a great distance. Still, when he looked back, the area seemed terribly small. So, since the day was still early, he decided to angle out a bit more. After all, a larger farm would make him a wealthy man. In his mind scenes flashed of his children, robust because of the fine meals they would take off this land. If he added to this land he would become a person of importance!

Well, as noon approached the plowman grew impatient with his slow progress. The circle of land now seemed much too insignificant. He must have more; so once again he widened the sweep of his plow.

Throughout the afternoon he fantasized of kings and princes calling him to court, and the fever for more acres burned in his soul. He plowed with a passion, forgetting to watch the sun as it slipped in the western skies.

Suddenly, too late he realized that he might not make it back to the starting stake by dusk. In panic, he whipped his oxen, pushing at the plow handles as the furrow began to zigzag madly. His heart pounded, his stomach churned and his muscles tightened in desperation. He must make it!

But his desire and greed had overextended itself, and inches short of a complete circle he fell to the earth he so desperately coveted, dead of a heart attack. Ironically, wrote Tolstoy, the man was buried on all the land he ultimately received: a plot of ground three feet by six --- a farm for the dead.

Jesus expressed what many if not all his disciples believed. And in response, this Canaanite woman modeled what Jesus hoped the disciples would understand; this woman knows she has nothing, no plow, no field, in order to earn healing for her daughter. Instead, she is truthful and open: just a few crumbs from the master's table of which she has no right that she out of faith has seen that Jesus can give.

Jesus is reminding everyone that the table is always God's. Whoever would approach the table must acknowledge that no child and no dog, really no one has a right to eat there. Rather we receive an invitation from the master to the table. And since only the master controls the table, we have no control as to who else can come and receive from the table, something which as disciples we are to internalize and live out.

And since we do not control God's table, we can only shadow the words and actions of the old Negro spiritual, "I Got Shoes." The spiritual was written when the richly dressed white folks in the old South of the United States could march off to their churches wearing their polished Sunday shoes that they bought, from the labor of the fields that they owned. The black slaves, on the other hand, with their bare and dirty feet, with no fields, were left to gather for worship as they and where they could. So while white folks were singing about the worldwide church of Christ that they built which thus did not include the blacks who labored in their fields, the slaves were singing: "I got shoes! You got shoes! All God's children got shoes! And when the angel Gabriel calls us home, gonna walk all over God's heaven!"

Those antebellum black slaves had faith that fundamentally God takes care of God's children, and when God brought them finally to glory, God wouldn't check to see the color of their skin, or the whiteness of their clothes, or even the place where they were born. God wouldn't check on how much land they had or how bright their shoes were that they themselves could purchase. Instead, God would instead see how empty, how they had nothing. And then, like the only begotten Son, they too would receive a pair of shoes, the sign of people who were no longer barefoot slaves of others but cared for children of God. Who can come and receive anything at God's table? All can! But it is not based on what you and I have, or even the deep prejudice we all harbor, rather it is open to all because of whose table it belongs. Therefore, we don't have much say on who else can come and receive as well. As far as God is concerned, there is always an open seat and it keeps getting bigger. Let us live out the values of hospitality found in God. Amen.

Focus – 8/3/2014

Sermon based on Matthew 14: 13-21. There is a wonderful contemporary fable told by the Brazilian author Paulo Coelho. In his famous book from 2003 called The Alchemist, Coelho tells the tale of a young Spanish shepherd named Santiago, a young man who decided if he was going to make anything of his life he needed to get advice from the very best. The following is a very rough retelling of a portion of the story: After some difficult journeying the young man came across a grand old palace high atop a big hill. There was a wise old man living there. "Tell me what I must know for my life to be successful?" the young man asked.

The old man thought for a moment then he handed the young man a teaspoon into which he poured a few drops from a small flask of olive oil.

"I will tell you", he said, "but first you must do something for me. I want you to walk right round my palace, through all the corridors, up and down all the stairs and into every room, especially the library. But you must not spill a drop of oil from your spoon."

The young man was puzzled, but decided to humor the old guy. So off he set --- very, very carefully. Walking slowly, smoothly, avoiding any sudden movements and concentrating very hard on the spoon --- even on every step of the stairs, it took a long time. It was a big palace. "Well?" said the old man when he returned.

"Not a drop spilled," said the young man with real self-satisfaction.
"Now the real test," said the old man. "I want you to describe everything you saw as you walked. The views from the upstairs windows, the books in the library, the tapestries and fine pictures on the wall and the gardens which my gardener has spent so my time and effort creating."

The young man looked shamefaced. "Sorry," he mumbled "I didn't see anything ----- but I didn't spill a drop".

"OK. Well, I will give you a second chance. Now this time go out again your task this time is to notice everything." Off he went with a few more drops in his teaspoon.

The young man came back, his eyes sparkling, filled with excitement. "This is a fabulous home," he said. "You can see for miles into the mountains from those upstairs windows --- those forests, the patterns in the clouds… you can even see animals in the woods. And the library --- where on earth did you manage to find such interesting books. Those oil paintings in the corridors --- they must be all original. Who designed the house? Those staircases and the grand dining room…"

The old man interrupted "And the teaspoon? The young fellow looked down in embarrassment. "Oh", he said. "Well I completely forgot, yes I might have dropped a bit of oil."

"OK, you have it now," said the old man. "You see, you won't notice anything as long as you are only interested in what is in your hand."

That is a long introduction into our wonderful and well known, but strange miracle of the loaves and the fishes, the feeding of the 5 thousand men not counting women and children. For me one key to understand this miracle is on our ability to notice things away from our personal inclination and focus…or if you like away from the "spoon of oil" we carry. A superficial glance at the gospel story today leaves us with an impression of a Harry Potter --- magician type image of Jesus. This Jesus was a man able to wave his hand and cause the mysterious multiplication of bread and fishes.

If this indeed is the only thing what we think happened, I would suggest it is not helpful for two reasons. First it leaves the story entirely without the need for us to learn anything. For example, if feeding the hungry can only be accomplished by a level of deep God-like immersion, then this miracle is beyond my present job description and my personal pay grade.

The second reason if we only notice the miracle, is that by noticing the suspension of the laws of nature, the message of Jesus' action has nothing to do with our lives. I cannot break the laws of nature so I can wash my hands of this part of the gospel.

But if we forget ourselves for a moment and start to look beyond our focus, I wonder what we might see. So let's look again. First notice that Jesus is out for a boat ride, mourning his cousin John, looking for some quiet time and space --- and all those curious people coming along too ….lots of people walking to be with him.

But think about that. In a city like San Antonio, we can if we want to easily be surrounded by lots of people, go to a UTSA football game. Go down to the river walk when the Spurs were celebrating their championship basketball run. To see a crowd that is the easy bit. To notice individual people their eyes, their aches and pains --- to see them as persons --- now that is challenge.

Yet with this particular crowd Jesus does something totally unexpected – and I am not talking about multiplying loaves and fishes. Jesus notices them as individual people and … Jesus notices that they are hungry. This is not the first time. If you look at Jesus' encounters with different people through the gospels this is something that all of us can learn from --- the approach that sets Jesus apart.

The people see a mean tax collector --- Jesus looks closer and sees someone worthy of a name, Zaccheus, and what is more that Zaccheus is an unhappy person. In another place the people see an untouchable leper --- yet Jesus sees a person who suffers and needs the touch of human hand which begins the healing. The disciples see a prostitute getting far too deeply into Jesus personal space --- Jesus sees her as Mary --- an individual with a name --- and a woman who can be welcomed. Remember when the disciples see little children bothering Jesus --- Jesus sees people deserving his full attention.

I don't know about you but that is not a common practice then or now. Remember it is all too easy to drive past the person looking for a handout at a traffic stop, the young refugees at the border, the Israelis and Palestinians to see people as simply flickering images on TV … but not see them as people.

The second part of this miracle that we may have been out of focus to notice, is that Jesus doesn't see himself as the only one to whom the responsibility for the miracle should be left. If you remember, in another gospel version of the same story Jesus calls a boy to start the sharing process. In this Matthew version, it is the disciples Jesus turns to. And it works in an unexpected way. It is a sad commentary that these days we not only prefer not to notice the needs, but that when such situations are forced upon us we don't see ourselves as part of the answer to the needs, we don't see ourselves as part of God's miracle.

I am sure that many of us are unconsciously drawn to the easy option of praying for God to fix all. And I am not saying that God cannot do it, for I for one have prayed earnestly for God to address the needs of the hungry, the poor and refugees and for my problems and the problems of the church. What is that worth however, without the second step to get involved in the miracle through meals on wheels or food parcel collection or bothering the local politician with questions?

The old man in the Paul Coelho fable opened the heart and mind of young Santiago. Jesus touched the lives of the disciples and the crowd in a way that would allow them to begin to change their focus. Jesus did that by giving some organization to the messy mass and in order to do that he noticed them as people, like Jesus sees us and Jesus asked his disciples to help, like Jesus asks us.

Feeding the 5,000 plus was a miracle. It's not easy to explain. Most miracles aren't. But the greater miracle was opening the eyes of faith of those who would be "disciples."

Our God is a lavish God. God deals generously, giving much out of little. Our God is a generous God, a God of great abundance. The measure we get back is far greater than the measure we give. It is a divine law of investment. We've got to stop thinking, "We have nothing. We see nothing."

The disciples didn't make the miracle happen, but without them the Miracle of the 5000 plus would never have happened. What God provided that day was more than enough. What God provides for us today is more than enough.

Jesus took a little a teaspoon of food really… gave it to the disciples to give to the people around them; gave them the task to distribute what God provided, and in that process their eyes were opened to the people around them. May God help us take our eyes on our focus, the little we have, the crowds and open our eyes to God, to people and to our lives. Amen.