Proper 13B
Listen to the Sermon for August 5, 2012
Read the Sermon for August 5, 2012
Tag: Ronald D. Pogue
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A Topic for a Month of Sundays
In Year B of our Eucharistic Lectionary, the semi continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark is interrupted by a sequence of five excerpts from the sixth chapter of John on the Bread of Life. This happens once every three years and when it does, people in the pews ask why we spend so many Sundays hearing about Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life. It’s a great question and I hope my attempt at an answer will be almost as great, or at least helpful.
Each one of the three synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – has its own year in the three-year Revised Common Lectionary. John is sprinkled around during Lent, Christmas, and a couple of other times. Because of this, there is no really suitable niche for the important teaching on the Bread of Life. Since our lectionary is a Eucharistic lectionary, it would be inconceivable for those who developed the lectionary to omit this important discourse in the three-year cycle. They decided to interrupt the semi continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark at the point when Mark is about to recount the story of the feeding of the multitude in order to give us John’s more elaborate account.
We are a Eucharist-centered Church and we need the instruction provided by the Bread of Life Discourse of John’s Gospel in our Eucharistic lectionary. It is so important and so powerful that we have devoted five Sundays in a row to explore the depth of its message.
Last Sunday, we read the account of Jesus’ feeding of the multitude at the beginning of the sixth chapter. As we continue to read from this chapter for the next four Sundays, we will examine John’s indirect account of the Eucharist. Bear in mind that in John’s report of the Last Supper there is no mention of the bread and wine.
The crowds that both witnessed and participated in the miracle of the loaves and fishes didn’t really understand that Jesus came to give more than the bread that satisfies physical hunger. In this discourse, he refers to himself again and again as “The Bread of Life.”
Jesus is inviting everyone to eat this living bread. The bread our Hebrew ancestors in the faith ate in the wilderness sustained them in their journey. The Living Bread, Jesus Christ, is food that sustains the cosmos – not just our tribe, or race, or nation, but the cosmos!
That means that if we feast at the table with The Bread of Life, we are not the only invitees. There are others, many of whom are not like us, some of whom we don’t like, and plenty with whom we will disagree.
Several years ago when I was a Canon at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, Texas, I was giving a tour to a confirmation class from one of the parishes in the Diocese of Texas. We were exploring the Chancel and the Sanctuary when some of the youth spotted the needlepoint cushions on the Altar rail. I asked if they could figure out the meaning of the symbols on those cushions. One boy said, “That cross and crown in the middle is probably Jesus and the other twelve symbols represent his disciples gathered around the table with him.” That seemed like a pretty satisfactory answer, until a girl pointed out that one of the symbols looked for all the world like the symbol for Judas Iscariot. “He doesn’t belong here?” she said. “He betrayed Jesus.”
I pointed out to the class that a number of ladies from the Cathedral had painstakingly and lovingly applied every single stitch by hand on those cushions and that I would be very cautious about telling them that one of the symbols didn’t belong there. “If that’s Judas and they went to so much trouble to include him, I wonder what that might mean for us?”
After some conversation, one young man said, “Maybe it means that God’s love big enough to include Judas along with the rest of us.”
My response was to suggest that there will be times when we come to the Altar to dine with Jesus, the Bread of Life, and notice someone we can’t abide kneeling beside us or across from us. “When that happens,” I said, “remember this moment and remember that the same divine Love that welcomes you to this feast welcomes others who need it just as much.” After all, as someone has said, the bread that Jesus gives for the life of the universe (John 6:51) is multigrain.
John 6:51 says that those who eat of this bread will “live forever.” That is the consistent translation in almost all the versions of the Bible. However, some scholars point out that the literal translation of the Greek text says we will “live into the age.” The “age” – eternal life, abundant life, kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven – is a state of being where we live with God who is both in and beyond time and space. When we feast upon the Bread of Life, we are living into this divine cosmic reality. It nourishes us for the ways we touch and change that reality.
So, in this banquet, we all become one body not because we all agree or because we all are alike. We become one body because we share in one bread – the Living Bread, Jesus, who is present for us in a wonderful and mysterious way in this banquet that is happening in the here and now and at the same moment in the age into which we are living, with faith, hope, and love. This Bread of Life is our true sustenance. As we are fed, so we are sent to feed others.
It really is going to be good to spend a month of Sundays on this topic!
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When You Are In a Storm
Mark 4:35-41 begins a section in this gospel in which Jesus and his disciples make six voyages back and forth across the Sea of Galilee. In this way, Mark makes the point that the ministry of Jesus was to both Jews and gentiles. The western side was inhabited by Jews and the eastern side by gentiles.
Growing up, I always thought of the Sea of Galilee as a much larger body of water than it actually is. I remember how surprised I was when I visited Israel for the first time and our tour bus stopped atop a hill overlooking the body of water. I could see the entire thing! It is only thirteen miles from north to south and eight miles from east to west.
It is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth. The Jordan Valley makes a cleft in the earth and in the very center of this cleft is the Sea of Galilee, some 680 feet below sea level. Because of this, the climate is usually very gracious and warm, but to the west of the sea are the mountains and some large gullies. Sometimes the cold wind blows down through these gullies and causes sudden storms. All the great writers who have lived near the Sea of Galilee have experienced these sudden storms and repeatedly reported that at one moment the water can be as still as glass and then almost without warning it can become quite turbulent with enormous waves and high winds.
The scene described in Mark 4:35-41 finds Jesus and his disciples suddenly caught in one of these violent storms. Jesus had just finished preaching and was tired, so he lay down and went to sleep. When the storm arose, the waves threatened to overcome the small boat and the disciples were afraid they were going to be tossed overboard and drowned. When they turned to Jesus, they were amazed to find him asleep. They cried out to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus then calmly stood up and commanded the waves to be still. The sea became calm and the storm was gone.
Even though the disciples should have recognized who Jesus was by virtue of his command over the wind and sea, they still seem dumbfounded. The text says, “They were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’”
Don’t they remind us of ourselves? When we find ourselves in the storms of life, don’t we have similar difficulty in placing our confidence in the One who guards and keeps us? That may be the chief reason the story has been preserved and retold by generation after generation. It contains important spiritual truths and we occasionally need to be reminded of them.
Whenever we are isolated or alienated, we tend to become anxious and desperate.
This was not the first time the disciples had been in a storm. It was not the first time a turbulent sea had threatened to overturn their boat. Why did they react they way they did on this occasion? I believe it was because they felt that Jesus was unconcerned about them. They cried out, “Don’t you care?” And, in the face of their panic and despair, he calmed the angry sea. Of course he cared about them and of course he cares about us.
The storm story shows us that the disciples needed to hear a voice in whom they had confidence.
When Jesus woke up and heard the cries of the disciples, his voice rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” You and I need to learn to listen for, recognize, and trust the voice of the Shepherd and Guardian of our souls who is greater than our greatest fear, mightier than our biggest enemy, and who has the power to issue orders to the storms that threaten us. Our ears are particularly well atuned to other voices, particularly those that raise our anxieties. We want the voice of our Savior to be familiar enough and clear enough to stand out above the rest.
Wherever and whenever Christ is with us, the storms of life grow calm.
I don’t know what is going to come to my life or yours today, but I know that Jesus Christ is with us and that his presence brings peace. As a pastor, I have stood with people in just about every imaginable kind of life experience from remarkable victories to devastating defeats, in moments of joy and in moments of deepest sorrow. Whether it’s been a whirlwind of celebration or a tempest of tragedy, the presence of Jesus Christ calms the storms and brings the peace which passes understanding.
P.S. This text brought this hymn to mind.
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A Faith for Fathers
The greatest lesson I ever learned about faith, I learned from my Father. I had accidentally sailed a balsa wood glider up onto the roof of our home in Houston. When my Dad came home, instead of getting a ladder and climbing up to retrieve it, he picked me up and boosted me onto the roof so I could get it myself. We lived in a 1950's era "ranch style" house, so the roof wasn't actually that far off the ground, at least to my dad, who was 6' 4" tall. I had never been on the roof before. It was frightening – mostly the getting up.
When I began to express my fear, Dad said, "Don't worry. I won't let you fall." His hands and arms felt strong, his voice was firm and confident. He had been on the roof himself. He believed I would be okay. So, I forgot my fear. My trust in him was stronger than my fears and Dad didn't let me fall.
I found my faith. Through the experience of trusting, I discovered that my Dad was trustworthy.
I have been able to live my life with an abiding faith, often tested by the things that test everybody's faith. It goes back to that glider on the roof, my Dad's strong and loving arms, his reassuring voice, and his dependable promise, "I won't let you fall."
That has made it easier for me to trust my heavenly Father, who promised, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Earthly parents, though fallible, have a role to play in the formation of faith in their children's lives. In fact, parents are the primary faith-givers. Christian parents' chief evangelical, disciple-making opportunity is with their children.
Even helping a child retrieve a toy stuck on the roof can be an occasion for faith-forming. The world needs dads to give their children a fear-conquering faith. Of course, Moms do it too. But this is Father's Day!
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Eternal Life and Perfect Freedom
Each summer, Calvary Episcopal Church and First Christian Church of Ashland, Kentucky join together to offer a Vacation Bible School, open to children throughout the community. This year's theme is "Adventures on Promise Island: Where Children Discover God's Lifesaving Love." We will meet on the evenings of July 16-19 to assist the children in discovering some of God's promises:
• July 16 – The Story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego – God's promise: I am with you.
• July 17 – The Story of the Raising of Lazarus – God's promise: I care about you.
• July 18 – The Story of Jesus' Resurrection – God's promise: I will save you.
• July 19 – The Story of Paul and Silas in Prison – God's promise: I will answer you.
Last night we had a meeting with the VBS teachers to review these four scriptures from an adult perspective in order to help them think about ways they will present them to the children. First Christian's Pastor Ike Nicholson and I took turns providing exegesis and commentary for the teachers.
In the course of our discussions, I was struck by how each of the four readings involves liberation. For example, King Nebuchadnezzar has the hands and feet of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bound before they are thrown into the firey furnace. When he looks into the fire, he sees them (and a fourth figure who looks like a Son of God) walking around freely. They emerge from the firey furnace completely unsinged. Then, when Jesus calls Lazarus forth from his tomb, he instructs the bystanders to "Unbind him and let him go." Likewise, Jesus leaves tomb and the grave clothes behind when he is raised from the dead on the first Easter. During the earthquake, the chains the hold Paul and Silas are broken and the gates of their cell are opened so that they can go free. In each case, the miraculous liberation provides an opportunity for God's message to be shared – the message of a kind of freedom that can be found only in our relationship with the Living God.
It was an epiphany! God has been at work delivering people from one form of slavery or another for ever. When God reigns in our lives, we are completely liberated. Whatever binds us and holds us back is removed so that we can live with a freedom we can't find any other place.
Today is the feast day of St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea. Basil knew and boldly expressed that unfettered liberty when the emperor Valens passed through Caesarea in 371. Valens demanded Basil's theological submission and Basil flatly refused. The imperial prefect expressed astonishment at Basil's defiance, to which Basil replied, "Perhaps you have never met a real bishop before." His freedom was derived not from a temporal ruler, but from the Sovereign of the Universe.
This collect from the office of Morning Prayer expresses it very well:
O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our children need to know that God gives them the freedom to be who God wants them to be and to follow God's leading in their lives no matter what happens. We need to impart that message to them in the words we say and the lives we live. God, liberate from whatever attachments may interfere with our ability to freely represent you to the children you have given into our care!
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God in Three Persons
The doctrine of the Trinity was developed by the Church centuries ago in an attempt to help explain the nature of God. For many people, the doctrine raises as many questions as it answers.
Several years ago when I was rector of Galveston’s Trinity Episcopal Church, a local news organization sent a photographer to cover an event we were having. After the event, which was held on the sidewalk in front of the church, she followed me back inside the building and asked if she could talk with me for a few minutes. I told her I would enjoy the opportunity.
She then told me that she had not been inside a church since she was eleven years old. (I secretly guessed that would have been about thirty years earlier.) It seems her family was attending a church in Florida at the time and she had an experience in Sunday School that was the reason she decided to stay away from churches.
The Sunday School lesson concerned the Trinity. After listening to the teacher talk about the Trinity, she asked, “How can one God be three persons? It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
The teacher and the other children laughed at her. She never went back.
I expressed my sadness about that incident and told her that in our Church we had a Sunday School program for children called Godly Play and that children were encouraged to ask questions. In fact, our teachers and our children are taught that every question deserves to be heard respectfully.
Since we were standing in Trinity Church beneath the beautiful window with the traditional symbol that has long been associ-ated with the doctrine, I asked her if I she would permit me to respond to her long-unanswered question. She said she would appreciate that.
I said, “You are someone’s daughter, right?” “Yes,” she answered. “Do you have siblings?” She told me that she had a brother and a sister. “So, in addition to being a daughter, you are a sister, correct?” “Yes, she replied.” I asked if she had a husband and she told me that she did, so I said, “Then, besides being a daughter and a sister, you are also a wife.”
All of a sudden her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, “But I’m still me! I’m one person but I have different roles in the lives of other people. That must be what the Church is trying to say in describing God as Trinity.”
We talked on and discussed several other analogies for understanding God, the holy and undivided Trinity. I assured her we can never fully comprehend the majesty and mystery of God. Our doctrines are truth in the sense that they represent the best we can do as we reach for the Truth.
In the end, I believe she had finally gained an appreciation for this doctrine that had been a source of embarrassment and anger for so long. But, even more, I believe she found some peace that day in her relationship with God, her creator, redeemer, and sustainer.
P.S. The image above is the Trinity Window in Trinity Episcopal Church, Galveston, Texas, one of the oldest stained glass windows in Texas.
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So that your joy may be complete
Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete" (John 15:9-11).
While reading this passage, which is a portion of Sunday's gospel, I was struck by Jesus emphasis on joy. He wants our joy to be "complete." That led me to theologian Paul Tillich, who reflected on the joy of the Christian life in The New Being:
Blessedness is the eternal element in joy, that which makes it possible for joy to include in itself the sorrow out of which it arises, and which it takes into itself. In the Beatitudes, Jesus calls the poor, those who mourn, those who hunger and thirst, those who are persecuted, "blessed." And He says to them: "Rejoice and be glad!" Joy within sorrow is possible to those who are blessed, to those in whom joy has the dimension of the eternal.
Here we must once more reply to those who attack Christianity because they believe that it destroys the joy of life. In view of the Beatitudes they say that Christianity undercuts the joy of this life by pointing to and preparing for another life. They even challenge the blessedness in the promised life as a refined form of seeking for pleasure in the future life. Again we must confess that in many Christians, joy in this way is postponed till after death, and that there are Biblical words which seem to support this answer. Nevertheless, it is wrong. Jesus will give His joy to His disciples now. They shall get it after He has left them, which means in this life. And Paul asks the Philippians to have joy now. This cannot be otherwise, for blessedness is the expression of God’s eternal fulfillment. Blessed are those who participate in this fulfillment here and now. Certainly eternal fulfillment must be seen not only as eternal which is present, but also as eternal which is future. But if it is not seen in the present, it cannot be seen at all.
This joy which has in itself the depth of blessedness is asked for and promised in the Bible. It preserves in itself its opposite, sorrow. It provides the foundation for happiness and pleasure. It is present in all levels of man’s striving for fufillment. It consecrates and directs them. It does not diminish or weaken them. It does not take away the risks and dangers of the joy of life. It makes the joy of life possible in pleasure and pain, in happiness and unhappiness, in ecstasy and sorrow. Where there is joy, there is fulfillment. And where there is fulfillment, there is joy. In fulfillment and joy the inner aim of life, the meaning of creation, and the end of salvation, are attained. (Tillich, Paul, The New Being: Chapter 19, The Meaning of Joy, Chas. Schribner's Sons, 1955)
When our inner joy finds outward expression, it is "complete." When our inner joy finds outward expression, it is contageous. Joy is the essence of our salvation and the fruit of faith-filled living.
The world needs more joyful Christians! Lord, give us an abundance of joy so that we may spread it around liberally enough to change the world.