God's Gifts

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

We have two very different stories today.  In the first one, David, the anointed king of Israel, sleeps with another man’s wife and has that man killed to cover his sin.  In the second story, Jesus Christ, the Messiah (which means anointed), feeds five thousand people and flees so that they will not make him king of Israel.

Two very different stories about the same thing.  They are both about being blessed by God.  They are about the gifts we are given and what we do with them.

David was blessed with great wealth and power.  He was given a kingdom that he never asked for.  He went from lowly shepherd to king.  We’ve been hearing about David for the past few weeks.  We heard about how he was chosen to be king of Israel.  We heard about how he brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.  We heard about how he danced and made sacrifices for the Lord.  Today we hear about David, Bathsheba, and Uriah.  Did David use the Lords gifts for good or did he misuse them?  He messed up royally.  He got what he wanted, but he did it in a way that the Bible tells us is wrong.  You probably don’t even need to read the Bible to tell that what he did was wrong.  It is one of the laws written on our hearts.  He coveted his neighbour’s wife.  He committed adultery.  He killed.  And he came awfully close to lying.  He certainly deceived Uriah when he tried to get him to sleep with Bathsheba.  One story and almost four out of ten on the commandment list.  David’s behaviour in this story is meant to be an example of how not to use God’s gifts.  Next week we hear about how upset God was with David and what his bad behaviour cost him.

In our gospel story, just as we have a lot of hungry people gathered together, we have a bunch of lessons in a short space.

First, we have the writer pointing out that the Sea of Galilee is also called the Sea of Tiberias.  Why would he do this?  He does this to let both Jews and Gentiles know where the story took place.  This message is for both of them.

Second Jesus asks Philip where they would buy enough food for everyone to eat.  Jesus knows they don’t have enough money to buy that much food.  He is trying to get Philip to think in a different way.  He wants Philip to depend on faith, do rely on God to provide what is needed.

Third, we have a boy with some bread and a couple of fish.  The fact that the bread is made from barley identifies him as very poor.  This boy has nowhere near enough food to feed five thousand, but he is willing to give it to Jesus.  Through the grace of God, his small gift is multiplied many times to do God’s work.  In fact, what is left over is more than he gave to start.

Finally, the crowd wants to make Jesus king over Israel.  This would be a great gift of both wealth and power, but accepting it would not serve God.

All of these small points are about how we use the gifts that God has given us.  If we put them all together, we can understand at least a little bit about how God intends us to take care of the gifts that we have been given, how we can be good stewards.

First, whatever we can give, no matter how small, whether it is money or time or something else, whatever it is, God can do great things with it.

Second, we will be held responsible for what we do with God’s gifts.  We need to use what we have been given for good before personal gain.  This does not mean that we should be poor, but we should not hurt others to become rich.

Third, when we are offered a gift that seems really good, we need to be careful.  Accepting that gift may cost us more than the gift is worth.

Finally, God will help us use our gifts if we only have faith.  We need to be mindful of God’s call at all times.  If we do this, what we have will go farther than we could ever imagine.  By the grace of God, even our smallest gifts can make a huge difference.

Thanks be to God.

Time to Get Away

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

I’ve spoken a number of times now about discipleship.  I’ve talked about how we are called together.  I’ve talked about how Jesus shares his power with us.  I’ve talked about how we are sent out to do God’s will.  I’ve talked about faith, understanding (or lack of it) and mystery.  I’ve talked about how we are supposed to listen for God’s word in our lives and how we are supposed to spread the word of God to others.

Our Gospel today speaks about discipleship too, but in a different way.

The world Jesus lived in was a busy, noisy, crazy world.  Wherever Jesus or his apostles went, they were constantly called upon to teach and do deeds of power.  “For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6:32, NRSV)  The only place that Jesus and his apostles were able to be alone, was when they were out in their boat.  As soon as they came ashore, the crowds gathered and brought the sick to be healed.  Have any of you ever felt like that?  Where you just can’t get a quiet moment to yourself, no matter where you try to hide?  Me too!

Last week I got myself so would up and excited about making a noise before the Lord that I completely forgot to talk about another reason that we gather together.

“The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught.  He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.”” (Mark 6:30-31, NRSV)

Even Jesus needed to take time to rest and rejuvenate his spirit.  He took that time alone or in the company of his disciples in the wilderness, out on a boat, or in the company of foreigners.  And even then his quiet time was often interrupted.

One of the reasons that we gather on Sundays is to get away from our own crazy worlds and spend time resting in the peace of God.  Just like Jesus, we need to find rest for our souls.  In my excitement last week, I forgot to mention this as something that we do really well, and I’m sorry for that.  I believe that finding time for peace and rest in our busy lives is essential.  This is what we are commanded to do in the fourth commandment: keep the Sabbath.  Sabbath time is a time when we do no work, when we spend time with those we love as they do no work.  It is a time of rest for the body and the spirit.  This time of rest is as important to us as food and shelter.  And sometimes, here in church is the only place we can find it.

But just as Jesus could not get away from the crowds, we will not always be able to get our own version of Sabbath time by coming to church.  Unfortunately, churches that are growing do not look like ours.  The style of worship which is drawing young people to the church today is loud and energetic.  It is a style of worship which does not serve the needs of those who are worshiping here today.  For many younger people, the kind of peace which we do so well is not peace for them, it is work.

And so we are left in a difficult place.  We need to continue to worship God in our traditional way because that is what feeds our souls.  As we do this, our numbers will continue to go down.  We will find it harder and harder to support the ministry of this church both financially and through gifts of time serving on the councils of the church.

Drastically changing the way we worship won’t help us either.  Our numbers will dwindle even faster as many of us find that we are not being fed.  We would be gone long before we could attract enough people to the church to replace that support and we would not have lived up to our commitment to God of serving the needs of this congregation.

I don’t know what the future holds for us in this parish, but I do know this.  What we are doing today matters.  We are doing God’s work here in this community.  We are serving as we have been called to serve, and with God’s help, we will figure it out.

And with God’s help, we can build a future on the peace and companionship which is so strong in this place.  Amen.

Can we have fun in church and still be Anglican?

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Why are you looking so glum?  We just heard the good news from the Gospel.  You should be bright and happy!

Well, okay, we did just hear the story of the beheading of John the Baptist.  It isn’t a particularly uplifting story, is it?

Actually, today’s Gospel is very good news.  Our story today is really only five sentences long.  “King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known.  Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’  But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’  And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’”

Jesus was making a name for himself, teaching the people about the Kingdom of God and doing deeds of power in God’s name.  Not only that, but Jesus gave his disciples the same power to do God’s work.  There is the good news.  We are Christ’s disciples.  We have been given the power to do God’s work.

So why aren’t we smiling?  Why aren’t we dancing around wearing just an ephod like David did when he was doing God’s work and praising God?

Well, first of all, we would get arrested.  An ephod is a piece of cloth, either plain or adorned with metal or gems, that is like a breastpiece or mantle.  So it would cover at most from your waist to your neck and only in the front.  Typically, you would not wear only and ephod.

Hah – I just detected some smiles!

It’s hard to get smiles out of Anglicans in church.  I’m sure you smile at home, especially when you get good news like we just got.  So why not here?  Why is it so hard for us to look like we’re having fun in church?

It’s not just you, I have the same problem.  Have you noticed that when I say “we need to move during this hymn” I look kind of like a spastic chicken?

I think that we Anglicans have forgotten most of what the Bible tells us about worshiping God.  We picked one part of worship which we do really well and we left the rest out.  The Bible is big on ritual.  So are we and I think we do that quite well.  It’s the rest of it that we are missing.

Where is the joy?  Where is the dancing?  Where is the noisy music?  Clanging cymbals?  Laughter and smiles?  Fun?

We are supposed to be giving thanks for the abundance that God gives us.  We are supposed to be rejoicing in the Lord.

Instead we sit here and look like we belong in some country song where everyone we love has abandoned us including our dog, and all we have left is a beat up old Chevy pickup that barely runs.

This is how I was brought up to act in church.  You will be quiet.  You will keep your head down, especially when praying.  You will be serious.  You will not laugh.  You will not yell.  You will stay absolutely still and be respectful.

And most of all, you will not have fun!

If God truly loves us, would he want us to act like we are depressed every time we come together in his name?  I seriously doubt that.

As I said earlier, we do some things very well.  I feel God’s presence here with us as we worship.  So how do we bring more life and joy into our worship without losing what we already have? – A little bit at a time.

Changing something that we have been taught all of our lives is not easy.  Changing too quickly is not healthy and probably not helpful.  We need to pick a couple of small things, a little part of our worship, where we can start to be more lively.  We also don’t all need to do the same thing.  I have some possible suggestions.  You can pick one or two or do something completely different.

During prayer, I was taught to either sit or kneel with my head bowed and my eyes closed, hands at my sides.  How could we liven up prayer?  Open your eyes.  Lift your head.  Look out the window at God’s creation.  Lift up your hands.  Wave your hands.  Sway back and forth.  There are lots of possibilities, and every one I just listed is a way that different people regularly pray.

When you go up for communion, think about what a blessing it is and smile.  Stand at the rail instead of kneeling.  Look around you and give thanks for the family that you are sharing with.

When we sing, move around even if you do look like a spastic chicken.  Sing out even if you sound like a clanging cymbal.  If you still won’t sing, read the words aloud with us.  And most of all, smile.

Do any or all of these or something that you come up with, but do something.

For the rest of today’s service, let’s try to respond to God in our midst.  I’d love it if each and every one of you would do this at least once before we leave this church today.  Any time you hear something that you particularly agree with or something that pulls at you, call out “AMEN!”  When you feel God’s presence or just feel like making some noise, call out “HALLELUIA!” or “PRAISE GOD!”

With God’s help, we have been able to be spiritually fed by what we do in this place.  With God’s help we can not only be fed, but we can have fun and be joyful while we are fed.

Thanks be to God!  HALLELUIA! AMEN!

Faith

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

What does mean to have faith?

Our Gospel story today is divided into two distinct parts.  The first part of our story takes place in Jesus’ hometown.  No matter what Jesus does there, nothing works.  In his own community, Jesus is a failure.

Why can’t Jesus do any miracles where everyone knows him?

In the second part of the story Jesus sends out his disciples.  These are the same disciples who continually fail, who never seem to be able to understand what Jesus is asking them to do.  They go where they are sent and cast out many demons and cure many who are ill.

Why are they suddenly so successful?

The answer is the same for both parts of the story.  Faith!

Why couldn’t Jesus perform any miracles in his home town?  Because they didn’t believe he could.  Jesus was just the carpenter’s son.  He wasn’t anyone special.  They were not able to believe that the boy next door was the son of God, or even a prophet capable of doing God’s work.  They had no faith in him so he couldn’t do anything.

Just after this, Jesus’ disciples, who usually can’t get anything right, were sent out to do Jesus’ work.  They did what Jesus said and it worked.  Why?  Because they had faith.  They probably still didn’t understand, but Jesus told them that they could cast out demons and they believed him.  They had faith in what Jesus told them.

Faith is not hoping God can, it is knowing God will.

According to our Gospel today, God’s ability to act in our lives is directly tied to our faith.  If we don’t believe God can do anything, he can’t.  If we do believe God can act in our lives, he will.

So what does it mean to have faith?  What do we need to have faith?

Do we need to understand everything Jesus tries to tell us?  Not if his disciples are anything to go by.  They almost never understood him, but they clearly had faith.

Do we need to be prepared for what we will face?  No, the disciples were sent with the bare minimum.  In fact, being more prepared would have made it harder for them to succeed.  And why is that?  They would have been tempted to depend on what they had instead of depending on their faith.

There is only one thing that we need to have faith.  And that’s faith.

If we want God to be at work in this community, we need to believe that God is working in this community, not hoping that he will.

So now we know what we need to have faith but that still doesn’t tell us how to have faith.

Having faith isn’t easy.  It takes practice and discipline.

If you believe that it is going to snow, do you go out in shorts and a t-shirt?  If the forecast says that it will be 30 degrees (Celsius) do you put on your winter coat?  No.  We all dress for the weather that we expect.

We need to do the same thing with God.  We need to act like we believe that God is working in our lives.  We need to look for how God is working in our lives and expect to find his work.

The more we do this, the more God will be able to work in our lives.

And the more God can work in our lives, the more God can work in this community.

Just remember: Faith is not hoping God can, it is knowing God will.

Thanks be to God.