March 17, 2013, "Give Us This Day"

Psalm 119.73-80; Luke 12.13-21

Much of what Jesus says and does flows out of Israel’s story … anchored by the Exodus - I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

When Jesus says, Give us this day our daily bread, what would the disciples have thought of?

That’s right … the Exodus Story … manna in the wilderness … basic and simple, new every morning - enough for everyone!

The manna couldn’t be stockpiled for the next day - some folks tried to store it, and it became infested with worms and it stank … they had to go out every morning, to gather their daily bread - six days you shall labor, says the Commandment… and only on the sixth day, could they gather more for the sabbath day, the day of rest.

When Jesus says, Give us this day our daily bread, Jesus takes the disciples back to the wilderness … a time when God’s people were spiritually formed … prepared for the Promised Land … Here’s what you need to know in order to thrive … God will provide for you what’s needed … there’s more than enough to go around … 

Do not be afraid … trust God … 

Jesus knows full well that if the disciples are going to be of any value to the Kingdom of God, they have to live by two spiritual principles: 1) all that’s needed comes from God … and 2) and whatever the need, God provides.

Jesus frees the disciples from the most debilitating sin of all - the fear of not having enough … and here’s where the rubber hits the road for me - all my life, I’ve feared not having enough … someone might well say, Well, why in the world did ya’ go into the ministry if you were afraid of not having enough?

I was called to the ministry!

But I’ve had to struggle many a sleepless night with the demon of fear, the fear of not having enough.

Perhaps in God’s infinite wisdom, God put me into the ministry, as a place where I would always have to default to God … in the middle of the night, with churning stomach, racing mind, to open my heart with gratitude: O LORD, my God, thank you for what I have, and thank you for your promises to provide. I know that you will give what is needed, and I will trust you all the more.

The fear of not having enough … it’s the Original Sin … the snake said to Adam and Eve, You don’t have enough … take the fruit of the tree while ya’ can … 

Scarcity is the message of many a politician these days … there’s not enough to feed the widow, the orphan and the alien … there isn’t enough for the single mother on welfare, the immigrant who needs medicine, the veteran who lost both legs in the war, the elderly who need special care, the retired, and those who’ve lost their jobs … there isn’t enough to keep up our roads, to keep our schools in good repair and pay our teachers decent salaries … there isn’t enough money; we’re going broke … but what bothers me about that message, there always seems to be enough money for more bombs and missiles and aircraft carriers and tax cuts for the hyper-wealthy … always enough money to wage war, but not enough for Head Start and children’s lunch programs.

The message of scarcity is a lie … it’s not true at all … the only thing lacking is compassion and vision and courage and kindness and daring-do that made this nation great … America is great in the things of God - and when we turn inward, get crabby and fearful and selfish, going after the widow, the orphan and the alien, then we’re the rich fool for sure.

On a personal level, when the fear of not having enough takes hold of me, that’s when greed takes hold of my soul … I start to worry, fret and fuss … and then I get stingy; I get angry … my faith dries up … my soul takes a downward spiral … all I want to do is build bigger barns! And hang on to what I’ve got.

 Jesus tells the parable of a rich man … for whom there was never enough … so the man decides to build bigger barns … and what are the barns for? 

To store the harvest. 

Why store the harvest?

He’s manipulating the market … driving up prices by creating scarcity … more for him, less for others, and others will pay more for it.

The rich man follows the rules of wealth … more for himself and less for others … 

But God says to the man, What a fool you are. Tonight you die, and who, then, will get your wealth? You are rich in the things of life, but you are poor in the things of God.

 The rich man is a fool … he’s missed the point of life … here he is, prosperous enough, plenty for today and more than enough for tomorrow … but he gives in to the message of scarcity, the fearful message - there won’t be enough for me, so I better double down and build bigger barns … he’s a fool … a fool for giving his life to the lie - a message of scarcity, a message of fear, and so he forgets what life is all about.

How different if the rich man had remembered the manna principle … there is always enough … he didn’t need bigger barns … he needed a bigger heart … he didn’t need to store the harvest and drive up prices … he needed to share the harvest, keep prices low, so that everyone could have enough.

In the story of the fives loaves and two fish, the disciples say to Jesus, It’s late in the day, the crowd is hungry. Send ‘em away to find food for themselves. 

Wow … that’s how the disciples saw it … let ‘em fend for themselves; we have only enough for ourselves!

Jesus says to them, No way. You feed them. With what you have … you have enough to feed everyone … and then Jesus says, Bring the food to me, because Jesus knows full well that the disciples weren’t about to let go of the bread and fish to anyone except him, and maybe even then the disciples were reluctant - What is he going to do with our food?

Maybe that’s the great spiritual reality here … give it to Jesus, all of it; get it outta of our hands; let it go.

Jesus gives thanks, blesses what they have, breaks the bread, and gives it all back to the disciples … when all said and done, the crowd is feed, twelve baskets of leftovers … there’s more than enough to take care of the disciples, and more than enough to feed the multitude … when we let go and let God.

In God’s kingdom, there is no scarcity.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Jesus tells the Parable of the Rich Fool to a man who came to Jesus with a complaint about his brother … a matter of inheritance … nothing like an inheritance to disrupt a family.

The man already knows what he wants and tells Jesus to make it so … he wants Jesus to do the dirty work!

Jesus says to him, What makes you think I’m an arbiter of such things?

Do you not already have enough?

Can you not get along with your brother?

Why ask me to force his hand?

This is a game I won’t play with you, and if you know what’s good for you, you won’t play the game either.

Jesus turns to the crowd and says, Watch out. Guard yourselves against all kinds of greed!

Disciples then, or disciples now, always face the demon of scarcity, because we’re human, and the Snake in the grass still tempts us with the original sin: There won’t be enough for you … but Jesus says, There will always be enough. My Father in heaven provides what’s needed, and what’s needed, my Father provides.

If the disciples are going to be of any value whatsoever, they have to be clear about God’s grace - manna in the morning, quail in the evening, and water from a rock.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Amen and Amen!

July 31, 2011, "Heaven Looks Like This"

Matthew 14.13-21
July 31, 2011

Are people hungry?

In many places around the world, people are just plain hungry … not enough food - drought and war and bad economies condemn millions to starvation.

A major problem here in America is hunger for good food … childhood obesity, diabetes; a host of medical issues reflect a poor diet, loaded with “Iowa sugar,” too much fat, too much salt - highly-processed foods laced with too many chemicals and not enough food-value.

Beyond food, how many millions are hungry for safety?

A good roof over their heads.

A home where their children are safe.

Good schools.

Good jobs.

Health-care for their families.

Job security.

A living wage.

Respect for their work.

Hope for tomorrow.

The right to choose.

The right to marry.

How many hunger and thirst for righteousness?

For truth.

Honesty.

Reliable ideas.

Faith.

Integrity.

Hope and love.

The kingdom of heaven … thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ...

Hunger comes on many different levels.

On every level of hunger, we find Jesus at work.

Hungry souls.

Empty bellies.

Wherever the hunger, Jesus is there.

Whatever the need, Jesus goes to work.

Our text this morning begins on a sad note … Jesus seeks solitude when he hears of John’s death at the hands of Herod; Jesus wants to be alone … like any of us, when hard times come our way.

To be alone with our thoughts and sorrows …

“Leave me alone; I don’t wanna talk about it.”

We need time to think.

Privacy for our tears.

We want to be alone, when there’s nothing to be said, nothing to be done.

I can imagine Jesus, wanting to be alone with his thoughts … the man who baptized him in the Jordan 30 years earlier, is dead now, at the hands of craven king, a king too drunk, too proud, to say no to Herodias and her dancing daughter at his birthday party. 

This moment of wanting to be alone is one of the most touching chapters in the gospel stories … if anyone thinks that Jesus is above and beyond the trials and hurts of life, here’s proof that Jesus feels the deeps of life and its many hurts.

A friend wrote to me the other day, “I’m tired of being hurt.”

I understand that … for sure.

Yet I wrote back, “To live is to risk hurt, and the longer we live, the more hurt we acquire.” 

We cannot escape “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.”

But God is at work in our hurt!

God walks with us in the valley.

Until we have some healing, and then God takes us by the hand and leads us back to life.

I think of Elijah hiding out in the cave of his hurt.

God comes to Elijah and asks, What are you doing here?

Elijah replies with a long of list of sorrows and hurt … I’ve got good reasons to be hiding in my cave.

Yet the LORD says to Elijah, There’s work to be done. Get on your way to the tasks at hand.

Here in our story, there’s work to be done: the crowds.

They find out where Jesus is, and that’s where they go.

Instinctively, they know that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life … they’re hungry for life … and as the day wears on, their bellies grow empty!

It’s a large crowd.

5000 men, plus women and children.

A lot of people - stomachs growling all over the place.

The disciples are uneasy.

They know what Jesus will say to them.

So they make the first move … This is a deserted place, Jesus; it’s late; send the crowds away so they can buy food in the nearby villages.

The disciples are hungry, too.

They’re afraid there isn’t enough to go around.

The pie won’t be big enough.

All we have are five loaves and two fish.

Send the crowds away.

They can fend for themselves.

We have ours, and it’s just enough to feed us, and we’re not about to share any of it.

The message of scarcity - strange things happen when the message of scarcity takes hold of the soul.

Kindness and generosity evaporate, vision dies; the haves throw up barricades to the have-nots. 

The message of scarcity.

Can we see how this creates boundaries?

Jesus looks upon the crowd with compassion … the disciples look upon the crowd fearfully.

Them versus us.

Outsiders and insiders.

Deadly categories:

Good folks, bad folks.

The deserving and the undeserving.

Hard-workers and the lazy.

When we think the pie is too small to feed everyone, we grow protective of the pie, especially if we think it’s our pie.

Before we press on with story, I pause here for a moment to consider what’s going on in America … the debate about health-care, Social Security, Medicare, raising the debt-ceiling, taxation, the Dream Act, immigration, and dozens of other issues …

So much of it’s driven by fear.

The scarcity message.

The pie is too small.

There won’t be enough to go around.

Send people away to fend for themselves.

The virtues of sharing and compassion are in short order these days … 

The folks with the pie want all of it.

And why?

I suppose they’re frightened.

We’re all frightened, in some ways.

Fear is in the air.

And fear is never helpful!

Fear distorts everything.

Remember the children of Israel in the wilderness, on the borders of the Promised Land? 

The spies return, and say, Yes, it’s a good and beautiful land, but there are giants there, and they’ll give us a good thrashing. We don’t stand a chance.

That day fear took hold, Israel turned tail, walked away from the Promised Land.

Fear does terrible things to us.

The young man in Norway, who killed so many of his fellow citizens - driven by fear, riddled with fear, upside down with fear … fear of the stranger, fear of Islam, fear of other cultures, fear of change … the pie isn’t big enough.

He claims to be a Christian.

He fashions himself a Knights Templar - a military order of Europe’s Middle Ages.

Because the pie isn’t big enough … we only have five loaves and two fish, and we’re not about to share any of it with anyone.

If the church of Jesus Christ has a mission for today, any meaning whatsoever, it has to be the fearless message of Jesus … and the message of abundance … 

A message that seems ridiculous to us … 

Yes, let’s be honest.

Have we ever said about the gospel, “Well, that’s Jesus. He’s perfect. He can think that way. But we can’t think that way. We can’t live that way.”

The message of abundance, the message of no-fear, seems ridiculous to us!

But it’s not ridiculous at all - sharing is the reality of love; giving is still the truth about life.

As God created life abundantly there’s more than enough to go around; this is a world of plenty … the pie is big enough … don’t be afraid … don’t let fear twist and distort how you see things.

Something, now, of great importance in our story.

Jesus does NOT tell the disciples to share.

Jesus says to them, Give ME what you have.

Can we see what he’s doing?

A great favor to them.

Their five loaves and two fish … they cling to them … hold them tight … like Gollum and the Ring of Power … or Voldemort and the Elder Wand … 

Jesus doesn’t command them to share what they have.

Because commands aren’t good enough.

Jesus doesn’t ask them to be charitable.

Because charity isn’t big enough.

No, something more important here.

Give ME what you have.

Jesus knows that as long as the loaves and fish are in the disciples’ hands, there won’t be enough.

There’s never enough when we’re in charge of the pie.

In our eyes, the pie is always too small.

Jesus does them a great favor.

Jesus asks them to surrender the fish and the loaves.

Surrender the pie.

Reminiscent of God asking Abraham and Sarah to sacrifice their son, Isaac … God had to know what kind of people God was asking to found a new nation … God needed people who could really give … 

So God asks for the son.

And in the moment when Abraham is ready to plunge the knife into the boy, God stays his hand … There in the bush, the ram … there’s your sacrifice … but now I know the kind of man you are; you can give.

Jesus needs disciples who can give.

The cycle of selfish ends now … in this moment … give the loaves and the fish to me …

And when they do, Jesus knows.

And so do they.

The pie is big enough for the whole wide world, and then some … with plenty left over at the end.

The promise of abundance.

The message we proclaim and live, because of Jesus.

The pie is big enough!

There’s more than enough to go around, and then some.

Don’t be afraid.

We can feed the world.

No one needs to go to bed hungry.

It can be done.

It must be done.

And the church of Jesus Christ can lead the way.

The next time we watch the news, or read the headlines, pay attention to the message of scarcity - the pie isn’t big enough to feed everyone, so we have to send folks away.

Pay attention to that message, because it’s hell’s message.

Not heaven’s message.

Not the message of Jesus.

When we’re afraid for the pie we have, and we wanna send people away, we must listen to Jesus, and his message of abundance.

And his command to give what we have to him.

In his hands, there’s more than enough.

And then, Jesus gives the fish and the loaves back to the disciples so they can feed the crowd.

In the moment of their surrender, they give away their fear.

When Jesus returns the fish and the loaves to them, they gain their courage.

And feed the crowd.

With twelve baskets of leftovers.

Enough for everyone, and then some.

And that’s what heaven looks like.

Amen and Amen!