Who do you say I Am

As Jesus and the disciples are walking along the road to the villages of Caesarea Philippi Jesus asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” Thinking themselves wise and informed, they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” Test passed, “we are good followers of the Master.” But, Jesus then turns, looks them in the eyes and asks, “But who do you say that I am?” I suspect their first answer was “wow, we sure didn’t see that one coming.” Peter, never the shy one answers, “You are the Messiah.”

I suspect Peter was proud of himself for giving the correct answer to his Lord, I certainly would have been. I doubt that feeling lasted very long, because as they walked, “Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Peter understood, but not completely.

How would you and I answer this question today? Who do we say Jesus is? Later in this passage which is taken from Mark 8:27-38, Jesus gives us instructions on how we can tell the world who Jesus is for us. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

We are invited to pick up our crosses and follow Jesus; to surrender ourselves to God: to give up our selfishness and greed; to proclaim by our words and our actions the Good news of God in Jesus Christ, to be a part of the kingdom of God on earth.

This past week I attended an Open House for the Court Appointed Juvenile Advocate program (CAJA) and met a young woman who works for Family Services of North Alabama. She grew up in the Black Belt Section of Alabama, near Greensboro and attended Sawyerville Day Camp as a child. The camp is sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama Youth Department. The camp provides a camping and learning experience for children in one of the poorest areas of our state. As an adult she is the Victims Services Director for an organization that helps people put their lives back together for the benefit of their families and their communities. By her actions she has truly “picked up her cross and is following Jesus.”

By picking up our cross, by giving back, by welcoming the stranger and by respecting the dignity of every human being, we do what Jesus did, and we change the world. May we continue to walk in love as Christ loves us, and give ourselves as an offering and a sacrifice to God.

Rich and Poor have this in Common, The Lord is Maker of them All

As the letter of James continues (2:1-17) Jesus’ brother reminds us of the importance of treating others as we would like to be treated, and the all too common temptation to do otherwise.

“My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?”

James goes on to remind us of the importance of the great commandment, “you do well if you really fulfill the law according to scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Many years ago I was the Rector (Pastor) of an Episcopal Church in New Orleans facing the difficulty of following James’ challenge to love all people as Christ loves us. New Orleans is a city where rich and poor often live side by side and this makes for some interesting times in the churches of the city. We often had book studies and Bible Studies in the homes of church members. During one such book study, a church member who lived mostly on the streets and made his living selling used books showed up. The next week he brought a friend with him who worked as a dancer at a French Quarter Bar and a sometimes prostitute. She too became a member of our church. The hostess, and I understand where she was coming from, simply could not live into James’ instruction to treat all comers the same. We talked and decided to move the book study to the church, after which she quite attending the book study and finally left the church (temporarily). Through time and prayer and conversation, she came back to the church, we rebuilt our relationship and we remained friends for the remainder of her life.

It is not easy to follow James’ command to be “doers of the word and not merely hearers,” but through prayer and trust in God and in each other and haltingly doing our best to follow scripture and “love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, it can, through God’s grace, happen.

As the writer of the Book of Proverbs reminds us: (22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23)

“Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of anger will fail.

Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.

Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate;

for the Lord pleads their cause and despoils of life those who despoil them.

The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all.”

Be Doers of the Word and Not Merely Hearers

Jesus’ brother, James, helps us put faith and works in perspective by reminding us that for people of faith, one does not exist without the other. “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. . . You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.”(James 1:17-27)

James goes on to teach that God calls us to be, not simply hearers of God’s Word, but “doers of the Word.” James tells us that by acting on God’s Word, by walking the walk as well as talking the talk, that we will be blessed in the doing, in the acting, in the living out of and living into the Word of God.

What does our doing look like? James tells us that it looks like “care for orphans and widows in their distress, keeping ourselves unstained by the world, and, perhaps the most difficult, “bridling our tongues.” (I do so hate it when preachers quit preaching and start to meddling, but, James does stop us in our tracks and force us to think about our actions.)

For those of us who are Christians today, this means that we hear the word and act; that we love one another as Christ loves us; that we feed the hungry, cloth the naked, welcome the stranger. It means that we fight for what we believe, based on our faith and our knowledge, but that we respect those whose opinions and beliefs differ from ours.

Who are the widows and orphans of our time? Who are the vulnerable in our world today? Who is God calling us to serve? To find out, we need only look to the margins of our society. To follow God’s will, we need only love and care for those who live there. May God give us the strength and courage to be doers of the word, and that by doing, to be blessed and to be a blessing!

Love God, Love Your Neighbor, Change the World

I am involved in several different organizations in the community and state: civic, religious, political and recreational. Most of these profess standards of unity, cooperation, the common good, and in the case of the religious organizations, the first and great commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” On our best days we actually come close to living up to these lofty goals. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “there is no limit to the good we can do if we do not care who gets the credit.”

At other times, our human desire for recognition, power and reward gets the best of us and as soon as the prayers for unity end, the knives come out, at times, even in the church. This past week I was involved in several activities, some reflecting “our better angels,” and others, not so much.

Two examples from last Sunday’s scripture readings may help us see ourselves more clearly and inspire us to find a better way. In Second Samuel 18 we see how conflict within King David’s family lead to a disruption of the kingdom and the death of David’s son Absalom: 

"Then the Cushite came and said, “Good tidings for my lord the king! For the Lord has vindicated you this day, delivering you from the power of all who rose up against you.” The king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” The Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up to do you harm, be like that young man.”

The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

Jesus’ proclamation that he is the bread of life and that, whoever believes has eternal life caused a division among the people of Nazareth. Some responded, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?

As we began worship this past Sunday, our opening prayer helped bring my thoughts and actions into focus. “Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will.” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 232)

I believe that we, the Church and all people of God find hope in prayer and scripture and that we can be the yeast, the leaven, in the loaf of humanity that can bring hope to the world. The letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4:25-5:2 says this much better than I.

“Putting away falsehood let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Building a life on this foundation would solve most of the problems and jealousies I encountered this weekend and would change us and change the world.

LOVE GOD, LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR, CHANGE THE WORLD!

Free Food or Food that Endures

Why do we look for Jesus? After the feeding of the five thousand, as recorded in John 6:1-35, people got into boats and came looking for Jesus. Jesus accused them of looking for more “free food,” rather than signs of the presence of God. He then admonished them to “work not for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.”(John 6:27) They then challenge Jesus to perform a miracle so that they can believe him, reminding him that Moses fed them with Manna in the wilderness. Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”(John 6:32-33)

It was not Moses, it was not Caesar, it was not even Jesus who gave them and gives us the bread of heaven. It is God. And Jesus is that bread! “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’”(John 6:35)

When we receive, when we eat the ‘bread of heaven,’ we are fed physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally and truthfully. We receive forgiveness of sin and are raised to a new life of grace. Life that changes when we die physically, but never ends. God sustains us with the Holy Spirit that leads us and guides us into all truth. The following prayer for the recently baptized sums this up for all of us.

“Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you have bestowed upon us your servants the forgiveness of sin, and have raised us to the new life of grace. Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit. Give us an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 308)

Five Loaves and Two Fish: The First Church Picnic

Was Jesus a magician or miracle worker, a showman or a savior? The feeding of the five thousand is the only one of Jesus’ miracles recorded in all four Gospels. Today I invite you to reflect with me on John’s version (John 6:1-21) of this powerful and life changing story. Jesus, in the middle of his sermon, and knowing what he planned to do, calls Philip to him and asks where they can buy food for all these hungry folks who have come out to hear the lifesaving words of Jesus. Philip tells Jesus it would take six months wages to feed a crowd this large. Another disciple, Andrew, responds to Jesus with the somewhat ridiculous solution of five loaves and two fish which have been brought by a young boy.

We have heard the story many times. All sit on the grass and eat their fill, and then the disciples pick up twelve basketsfull of leftovers. So, was this magical multiplication or inspired sharing? Yesterday I drove through Albertville on Highway 431 and in the space of a mile counted six fast food restaurants and five eat in restaurants. These did not exist in First Century Israel and Judah. In Jesus’ day, when people traveled they usually took food with them to sustain them on their journey, just as the young boy in the Gospel. I suspect that he was not the only one of the five thousand who prepared for the journey ahead of time. I certainly believe in a Creator and creative God, but what if the real miracle, the message Jesus was really trying to communicate, was the gift of sharing, that everyone gave of what they had, and that all were blessed and fed.

When I lived in New Orleans in the late 1990’s there were downtown feeding ministries every day of the week except Friday. The Episcopal Churches of the city and suburbs joined together to provide food for the homeless on Fridays. The ministry was called, that’s right, “Loaves and Fishes.” It succeeded because of sharing, the miracle of sharing. Each congregation took what it had, put it all together, prayed over it and there was always enough to feed everyone. As Christians, we believe that the Lord feeds us, that God answers all our needs and that we help the Lord meet the needs of others.

We learn from Jesus’ life and ministry that God desires for us a life, not of scarcity but abundance. Out of our abundance we in the affluent nations of the world are called to provide for the impoverished people of the earth, both at home and elsewhere. We are also called by God to preserve the land and waters of our planet so that the Earth too will be a place of abundance and peace for all of God’s people.

Are we to provide food? Yes, but we are also called to provide training, skills and resources that will prepare people to provide for themselves as well as others. Can we heal every person? Can we fix every human problem? Can your church and my church do all that needs to be done? No, but each person we feed or train or empower will change many others.

Five loaves, two fish, Change the World!

Like Sheep without a Shepherd

The Biblical writers often use the metaphors of sheep and shepherd to explain our relationship with God and with each other. As we examine some of these scriptures we get a sense of who we are, who God is and how important, and sometimes troubling, these relationships can be.

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture says the Lord. . . It is you who have scattered my flock. . .and have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock . . . and I will bring them back to their fold. . . I will raise up shepherds over them, who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:1-6)

When Jesus’ disciples return from their mission trips they are excited and share with Him “all that they had done and taught.” Jesus takes them away to a deserted place to rest, but the crowds see them go and hurry around the lake on foot, arriving ahead of them.” Jesus saw the crowd and had compassion for them, “because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:30-34) Jesus became their shepherd just as the Lord raised up new shepherds in the days of Jeremiah.

The Psalmist captures the power of shepherd and sheep, Lord and people in, what I believe, is the best known and most loved chapter in the Bible, the Twenty-Third Psalm,

Psalm 23

1 The Lord is my shepherd; * I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures *and leads me beside still waters.

3 He revives my soul *and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; *
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5 You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *
you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over.

6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The Lord is our Guide who will supply our needs; who leads us into times and places of peace; who renews our spirits and leads us into all truth. God is always with us, in good times and bad times, in life and death. God takes away our fears, feeds us, protects us, heals us, gives us abundant life and makes us citizens of God’s Kingdom. The Lord is our Shepherd.