Knowing or Knowing About

I have some things here, how might we describe them:

Stone – heavy for its size, hard, cold

Bubble mix – liquid, bottle,

Coloured pencils – long thin pieces of wood, different colours

Rubber band – stretches, holds things together,

Book – pieces of paper, words, sometimes pictures

How might we describe Jesus – told stories, broke bread, rose from the dead

…

Jesus asks the disciples who do people say I am?
What is the word on the street?

And the disciples answer:

Some people say you are John the Baptist or maybe Elijah or Jeremiah or some other prophet.

Who do people say Jesus is today?

for some people Jesus is a swear word,
to some he is a prophet,
a teacher,
a good person,
an example.

If Jesus was standing here asking you that question, what would you answer? Who do you say that I am?

…

It is Simon Peter who answers, the one who tried walking on water, Peter who will deny knowing Jesus, it is Peter who answers: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Well that is all good and simple, Peter answers the question and Jesus says well done. Does this mean all we need to be able to do is repeat the word of Peter?

Peter’s words did not come from a book; they came from his experience of being with Jesus, listening, watching, and being forgiven.

We can know people or we can know about people.

We can learn about people from books and from movies etc, the way we know about John the Baptist, the way we know about various public figures, both now and in history; but we do not know them.  

The same as with the stone, bubble mix, coloured pencils etc; until you hold them and use them, you miss out on the fullness of the item. I mean bubble mix isn’t real until there are bubbles, and if you don’t know you need to blow through the solution, you don’t get bubbles. [blow bubbles]

Until you put a mark on the paper with the long thin wooden cylinders, you don’t know what colouring pencils can do, how much joy, or frustration, they can bring.

…

Yesterday Ian and I were at the ordination of Fiona Blair at Pittwater UCA. 

I thought back to when I was ordained, just over ten years ago. I went away on retreat for a few days before the service where I was ordained, meeting daily with a spiritual director. I looked through the vows I would be asked to make, and the questions I would answer in the service. 

The first question was:

Patty, are you willing to be ordained as a minister of the Word?

I am.

[All the questions have the answers written down, so you don’t get confused if you are nervous.

Until looking through the service, and reflecting on it, it hadn’t occurred to me to think about if I was ‘willing’ to be ordained. I was about to be ordained, I knew that, I had spent three and a half years at college, studied, participated in field education and college life. I knew I was about to be ordained, I was there for that reason, but was I ‘willing’ to be ordained.

The second question was:

Do you confess anew Jesus Christ as Lord?

And the answer was: I do so confess.

Easy…

But then I wondered what did I mean by saying that I confessed Jesus Christ is Lord.

Saying Jesus Christ is Lord is fairly easy, no tongue twisting names and all the words are only one or two syllables. And of course, Christians believe Jesus Christ is Lord.

I know saying Jesus is Lord implies that I am no longer the boss of my own life, but my experience is that it isn’t that clear cut. I am responsible for my words and my actions, I ask the Holy Spirit to guide me, but I am still human. I know for some people saying Jesus is Lord means that Jesus is now driving the car of their life; but for me, I think of Jesus as the navigator, I am still the driver, and yes, I don’t always listen to the navigator.

What does it mean for you to say Jesus Christ is Lord?

Who is Jesus?  

We can answer the question by speaking of his life as recorded in the Bible, we can talk about Jesus.

Or we can speak of our experience of Jesus, of forgiveness, grace, mercy and love.

How would you describe Jesus to someone who never heard of him before?[i]

We could speak of a man from the middle east, who travelled and taught and healed and did amazing things and argued with religious officials and died on the cross. All true, and possibly helpful, but until we can also speak of the difference our relationship with Jesus makes in our lives, it is only part of the answer.

I wonder if when people ask us about Jesus, they mean what is our experience, what difference does faith make in our lives.

After Peter’s declaration, Jesus tells him he has a new name, until know it has been Simon; now he has a new name: Peter, which is also the word for rock. They are to be the basis of the church, the group of people who confess that Jesus is Lord.

Then, Jesus tells the disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah, the one people are waiting for, the one who will bring freedom.

How will they then build the church, if they cannot speak of Messiah, Lord, Christ?

“Their lives will speak louder, more truthfully, and more effectively than their words.” [ii]

We need to both speak and live the gospel.

A gospel of love

for God

love for others

A gospel of hope and peace and joy

A gospel of forgiveness.

Let us build a church that demonstrates belief in a living, speaking, incarnating God, a God of freedom and not of oppression, a God of justice, love, and peace.[iii]

and may that be shown in our lives, as well as our words.

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[i] http://www.davidlose.net/2014/08/pentecost-11-a-who-do-you-say-i-am/

[ii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3361

[iii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3361

Borderlands

In this reading from Matthew’s gospel, I wonder what is going on.
What happened to the Jesus who fed over 5,000 people,
the Jesus who calmed the waters.
What happened to Jesus the compassionate healer?

Jesus is in the borderlands; the Greek isn’t clear if he is in or near the district of Tyre and Sidon. Either way, he is out of familiar territory. And as so often happens, someone comes begging for mercy. This woman is so sure Jesus can help, she asks for healing for her daughter, even though her daughter is not with her.

Then the bit that stuns me, Jesus ignores her.

She was shouting, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’

And Jesus does not answer her.

Does he not hear her?

Is he testing her?

Waiting for the disciples to do something?

??? [shoulder shrug]

The woman, who is not given a name, is given a race; she is referred to here as a Canaanite, one of the original inhabitants of the region – you may recognise the term from Genesis 15, and God’s covenant with Abram that the land between the river of Egypt and the great river, the Euphrates, would belong to his descendants – the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites. Her people had been displaced generations before by the Israelites when they started on their nation building exercise.

“The designation "Canaanite" certainly defines the woman as a gentile, but not just any gentile. The term conveys deep-seated historical biases that "Syro-Phoenician" does not. There were no Canaanites living in the first century, so the label does not describe present-day encounters. The label evokes historical conflicts and thus defines the woman in terms of age-old prejudices a first-century Jewish audience would understand.” [i]

The woman, is an outsider, in terms of gender, race, and having a sick child. But she shows something that the others do not.

While this woman is not one of the Jews that Jesus came to save, … she calls him Lord, Son of David.

She calls Jesus Lord, in each of the three times she speaks to him. The Greek word is used to speak of Lord, master, supreme authority, the Emperor and is the word used for God.

When Jesus initially ignores her, she falls at his feet, kneels or prostrates herself, she pays homage to him, and shows great respect for him in the physical position she takes, and again calls him Lord. How could Jesus continue to ignore her. Then when he has told her she is not one of the chosen ones, she continues in faith to plead her case.

After Jesus recognises her as a person of faith, and heals her daughter, she is still a gentile woman. Her daily interactions will not change, except now her daughter is healed.  She will still be a gentile, an outsider.

The woman can teach us about speaking with God.

At times, it seems like we need to follow a set formula for praying:

Use our best voice, and our best words;

Be very polite, and use ‘religiousy’ words.

This is a pattern of prayer:

recognising who God is,

recognising who we are, and

humbling ourselves before God.

When we look at this story with the first part of the gospel reading, the idea of being clean or unclean, acceptable or unacceptable, inside or outside come into play again.[ii] Traditionally, the people of Israel followed strict dietary rules, what can and cannot be eaten, how food should be prepared and ritual hand washing.

Then Jesus comes and turns that around. It isn’t eating pork or shellfish that makes you unclean, or unsuitable for being part of the people of God; it is what is in your heart.

I wonder if the story of the woman is an example of this way of thinking. Where you were born, what you eat, your ethnicity, your gender defining who you are. Being assigned a value because of where you live or what you look like. The woman would be considered of little consequence in Israel, she was an outsider, and not just any outsider, she is an old enemy.

And then comes Jesus and he says belonging to God is about what is in your heart, not what is on your dinner plate.

How is that going to work? It was easy to know if you ate the wrong thing, but how will anyone know what is in your heart?

By what comes out of your mouth.

Our words and our lives bear witness to what is in our hearts.

Are our hearts compassionate?

Do our hearts glorify God?

Are our hearts obedient to God?

Then our lives and words will show compassion;

will glorify God;

will show our obedience to God.

The interaction between Jesus and the woman start off, as a first century Jew would expect, by Jesus ignoring and then dismissing her. People were expecting a Jewish Messiah, someone to save Israel, the chosen people of God.

Jesus redefines who is in and who is out. Not even a Canaanite woman is an outsider in the Kingdom of God. That would have been shocking to the people Matthew was writing for.

In a culture where speaking to an unrelated man is seriously questionable, the woman speaks to Jesus;
she doesn’t give up, and
she does whatever she has to,
to get a result for her daughter.

She ignores what is left of her reputation,
she doesn’t take no for an answer,
she knows what people think of her race.

She doesn’t argue that it is unfair that Israel is the chosen race, just that there is enough for all.

  

These days we watch what we eat for health reasons, or because we dislike some foods. There is no list of untouchable foods.

I wonder are there still people we think of as outside God’s love?

---

[i] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=125

[ii] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=980

overwhelmed by ?

If we wanted to look at the miracles in these two readings, there are plenty:

Elijah being woken by an angel, and fed, twice

God coming to Elijah in the silence

Jesus walking on water

Peter walking on water

The wind calmed as Jesus and Peter get into the boat

This morning I want us to think about another aspect of these two readings:

·    In the gospel, we have the disciples in a boat when a storm comes. These men are fisherman, so a storm is scary, but not as terrifying as a person walking on water. Peter steps out of the boat, and walks on the water, until … he notices the wind and waves

·    Elijah is running away after threats to his life. But when does God speak to him:

o  Twice through and angel and food

o  Then in a gentle breeze, or some translations have a still small voice or silence.

o  And tells him to go back and continue the work God has given him to do.

In both of these stories, there is fear and when God/Jesus speaks and acts, a sense of calm is restored.

Looking at the world around us, and it seems that there is much to fear, chaos is everywhere:

Kim Jong-un in North Korea

Donald Trump in the USA

with their threats of nuclear war

Race hate marches in the US

unrest in Venezuela

continuing violence in various parts of the world

and natural disasters:

earthquakes

landslides

floods and droughts

At times, it seems like life is out to get us.

Elijah’s life was threatened

Peter starting drowning

I am sure we can all think of things that clamour for our attention:

As well as the news headlines, there are often more personal issues:

Health

Family

Finances

It is easy to be overwhelmed at times,

·    by the list of things that concern us and our family and friends

·    by the needs in our community

o  homelessness

o  domestic violence

o  drug addiction

o  loss of hope

o  underemployment

·    and the issues nationally and internationally

o  refugees

o  war

o  slavery

o  racism

o  poverty

o  hunger

o  child mortality

o  and on and on

as much as we would like to change things,

·    for our friends to be healthy,

·    for everyone to have a safe place to live,

·    for children to be educated

·    for people to have adequate work

·    for violence and war and poverty to cease

we feel unable to influence these issues.

It is easy for us to feel we are on our own, and out of our depth.

But we are not on our own. And I am not only talking about God being present with us.

Elijah thought he was the only one who remained loyal to God, but we read that seven thousand Israelites refused to worship Baal. Elijah is not on his own.

Peter left the disciples in the boat, but ended up back in the boat.

One of the advantage of support groups, is that you find out you are not the only person in the area with:

·    a child with a drug addiction

·    a partner with depression

·    a problem with gambling

When we work together we can help people who are homeless, offer support to those who are ill, listen to people who feel that no-one cares about their situation. We won’t have all the resources to deal with every problem in our area, but we do have the resources to make a difference.

Remember the Gospel reading from last week, the disciples wanted to send the crowd away to get their own food. The disciples could not see a way to fed everyone, they were overwhelmed by the size of the task.

But Jesus said, just wait a minute, you can do this.

…

These two passages all remind me that fear and worry can cloud our judgement and make it harder for us to be aware of God in our lives.  

For Elijah God wasn’t in the earthquake, wind or fire, but in the silence or gentle breeze.

For Peter, he started to sink when he stopped focussing on Jesus and started focusing on the waves around him.

I am not suggesting we ignore the difficulties in life. The problem isn’t being aware of what is going on around us, and Jesus never avoided the complications and difficulties around him.

But when we start focussing on the difficulties of life,
when we see what we cannot do, rather then what we can do,
we will continue to be overwhelmed,
and wonder where God is in all of the chaos.

For me, there are plenty of days when I wonder what is going on, the to-do list multiplies, the desk gets messier, and my brain gets foggier. I know what I need to do:

Make a space for me away from the lists and deadlines and

Take a few minutes to check in with God and to breathe

As this quote says: the question is not, “Does God speak?” the question is, “are you listening?”

Some people will read that quote as God speaking with a human type voice. I do believe that God guides us.

There are times when I need to rewrite something, because when I read it, my gut knots up, or my heart feels sad. At times, I have had to write something that I knew was likely to be contentious, but when I reread it, and intentionally sat with God, there was a sense of calmness. But it usually requires me to focus on God, rather than what I think I should be writing.

Life can feel overwhelming, and we can wonder, where is God in all this.

When we focus on God, the source of all life,

And on Jesus, the one who showed us how to live,

And on the Holy Spirit, who guides our way

we are more likely

• ·    to know the peace and grace of God
• ·    to follow Jesus in caring
• ·    and to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our lives

Feeding 5,000 with compassion

We could look at the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000; ponder how Jesus managed to feed so many people with such a small amount of food. We could find a way to explain the feeding, such as the miracle of sharing. What if everyone had their own little packed lunch, but no-one was game to bring it out until they saw others doing the same? I sometimes wonder if getting people to share was a bigger miracle than food being multiplied.

But, I wonder what else we might see in this story?

.. Another food story in the Bible.

·         Manna and quail in the wilderness is the iconic feeding story

·         the widow of Zarephath whose flour and oil didn’t run out [1 Kings 17]

·         wedding at Cana

·         Jesus eating with Zacchaeus,

·         And many more

Eating, especially eating with others, occurs frequently in the Bible. Maybe because food and friendship, are vital for life, especially life with dignity.

.. The section just before this is about a birthday party for Herod; the daughter of Herodias danced for him, earning his praise, and led to the death of John the Baptist. Not only was John the Baptist killed, but his head was bought on a platter into the party.

At the time, people like Herod had lots of food, but for most people there was the daily struggle to find enough to eat. Food inequality has been happening for centuries, and food inequality continues to happen today.

The feast of Herod brings about death; yet the fish and bread – subsistence food – is a life giving feast for many.

.. Jesus has compassion on the crowd. Jesus and the disciples were headed for some time together, time for Jesus to grieve the death of his cousin John at the hands of Herod; but the crowd followed. “He felt sorry for them and healed everyone who was sick.”; other translations have that Jesus had compassion on the crowd.

Compassion that led him to act, in healing and feeding.[i] When you feel compassion for someone, does that lead you to action?

.. By feeding people, Jesus is acknowledging the humanity of people in the crowd. And it wasn’t enough to get by until they were back home; they ate until they had all they wanted. This was a time when most people would not have had the luxury of having all they wanted to eat.[ii]  

.. Another idea to think about from this passage is the way Jesus sees things differently to the disciples. The disciples saw why they could not feed everyone, they did not have enough; but Jesus trusts that what has been provided will be enough.

The disciples saw only five loaves and two fish and a large crowd, and said we can't do anything for all these people send them away.

But Jesus saw what the same 5 loaves and two fish, trusted God and saw potential. And there was more than enough.

I wonder when do we see scarcity,
when do we hold on to that which we have, not being willing to share?

Sometimes we are called on to give when we don't know if we have any to spare,
sometimes we are called to act when we feel unequipped,
sometimes we are called to speak out and we don't know the words to say.

 “What if rather than fretting whether we have enough, we simply give thanks for what we have, put it to use for those around us, and see just how far God might stretch and, indeed, multiply it? “ [iii]

It is easy to look at what we have, and see scarcity, see what we don’t have; but what would happen if we looked at what we have with the gratitude and trust that Jesus showed?

.. Jesus was concerned for the physical welfare of the people, not only their spiritual lives. [iv]

Some schools, including Ettalong Primary, now have breakfast available for students, because without breakfast it is very difficult to concentrate in class.  Jesus cared not only for the spiritual life of those he met, but cared about their whole life: physical, social, emotional and spiritual aspects of living.  

…………..

I love this passage from Isaiah, I wondered about the questions that are asked:

Why do you spend your money on food that doesn’t nourish?

Why do you spend your hard-earned wages on things that will never satisfy you?

What is it we are looking for? Some in the crowd were looking for healing, but what are we looking for?

Do we spend our money on that which nourishes our own life,
nourishes and nurtures the lives of the people who produce our food and clothes and other things,
and nourishes the life of the whole of creation?

Are we like Herod, whose feasting and lifestyle meant death and hunger to other people?

What resources do we have that brings us abundant life, and offers abundant life to others?

……

Sometimes we are like the disciples,
we doubt our ability,
we are pre-occupied with our own concerns,
and Jesus comes and shows us that there is more to us and more to life than we ever imagined.

This miracle is for those times.

I wonder what we need from Jesus?

Where are we being called to live out a miracle?

.. shortly we will share around bread and juice around the table.
Bread and juice that reminds us of the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.
Bread and juice that that is enough for all
bread and juice that symbolises nourishment and grace for all people.

.. Jesus had compassion on the crowd, what does it feel like to know Jesus has compassion for you? ^[v]

I wonder what we need from Jesus?

What can we do, that would show the compassion of God, not just to some people, but to all people.

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[i] Jennifer T. Kaalund, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3357

[ii] Matt Skinner, https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=4946

[iii] David Lose http://www.davidlose.net/2017/08/pentecost-9-a-gift-not-goal/

[iv] Jennifer T. Kaalund https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3357

[v] David Lose http://www.davidlose.net/2017/08/pentecost-9-a-gift-not-goal/