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Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
We now live in a time when Biblical teaching on the family, on marriage, and on human sexuality is under attack by our culture. This is not news to you, I know. Increasingly, we Christians find ourselves at odds with American culture and society over several fundamental issues. To be a Christian today is to open oneself up to the charge of being an ignoramus, or worse, a bigot. Certainly, being a devout Christian today is not a path to social respectability. Sadly, what has been happening over the last 15 years is that some Christian leaders have been compromising the Gospel by their teaching and their actions. There’s a new book out called, “Shepherds for Sale” by Megan Basham. In it, Basham indicts a few prominent evangelical pastors for compromising the Gospel and the Word of God for the sake of popularity, cultural respectability, and money. We are discovering today that there are many Christians who have stopped following Jesus Christ because they cannot accept His teaching, particularly on marriage, on divorce, on gender, on human sexuality. There’s been a trend over the past 5 to 10 years of once prominent evangelical leaders either denouncing traditional teaching on these subjects or them rejecting Christianity and the Church altogether. Joshua Harris, who wrote How I Kissed Dating Goodbye, made a lot of money with his book, which called for Christian young people to reject dating in favor of what he called Christian courtship. Later, he renounced the book and his Christian faith altogether. The lead singer for Caedmon’s Call, a Christian rock band, came out strong for transgenderism, writing songs that testify that Jesus thinks transgender people are “beautiful.” While this is disheartening and even shocking, it is not new. Today’s Gospel lesson from St. John tells us that there were many of Jesus’ followers who simply could not accept His teaching, and so they fell away. In response to Jesus’ teaching about He is the Bread of Life, that one had to feed on His flesh and blood to inherit eternal life. This was too much for some who said, “This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?” When we read this passage, we find it remarkable that people who lived during the time of Jesus, who saw Him in person, and who watched Him perform miracles, could then turn away from Him because they couldn’t accept what He taught. Jesus’ response to those who struggle to accept His teaching is two-fold: First, Jesus says, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?” Jesus is underscoring His identity as the eternal Son of God become Man. He reminds them that He is no mere prophet, but that He came from the Father to become a human being and live among us. And He will return to the Father, thus telling them of His coming Ascension back into heaven. Therefore, Jesus’ teaching is divine teaching, straight from heaven. Because it is divine teaching, not mere human wisdom, then we must recognize it as ultimately authoritative and receive it. Second, Jesus tells them, “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Jesus is reminding them that human intellect alone is incapable of understanding the things of God. We need divine assistance; we need the Holy Spirit to understand and receive the things of God. Jesus’ words are powerful, and Spirit filled, and they speak beyond our intellect to our souls and spirits. Jesus is not surprised that there are those who cannot accept His teaching. St. John writes, “For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray Him.” And Jesus tells them, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted to him by the Father.” Here again Jesus points to the mystery of our salvation. We choose to believe in and follow Jesus Christ. Yet, at the same time, we cannot take credit for that choice. We believe because God the Father reveals the truth to each of us. We are saved because we responded to God’s drawing of each of us to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ. This is a cause for joy and gratitude, not pride or self-satisfaction. The Christian teacher and Bible scholar A. W. Tozer once said, “A whole new generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible to ‘accept’ Christ without forsaking the world.” We read in today’s Gospel that many of Jesus’ disciples stopped following Him because they couldn’t accept the truth He was proclaiming. It was true then, and it is true today. And the fundamental reason for this is that there are those who refuse to yield fully to the Holy Spirit, to embrace Christ and reject the world and its values. We are now living in a time when the contrast between Christ and the world is stark. Each day we are being tempted with the idea that we can somehow “straddle the fence” and be a follower of Jesus Christ, and yet be accepted by the world. This is a delusion. You cannot do it. For all of us who have come to know Jesus Christ, there is only one choice. “So Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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Jesus said, “For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, I and I in him.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
There’s an ancient legend attached to the mother pelican, that she, in times of famine would wound herself by striking her breast with her beak to feed her young to prevent starvation. Early Christians adapted this legend to symbolize Jesus Christ. The pelican represents Jesus our Savior and Redeemer who gave His life for us and feeds us His own flesh to nourish us on our way through this life to eternity. This legend and image have become a part of our own liturgical tradition. The image of the pelican feeding its baby pelicans has been placed on altar frontals and on chasubles. In Durham Cathedral, before the Reformation, the Blessed Sacrament was reserved in a silver tabernacle fashioned like a pelican. The legend of the pelican is a beautiful illustration of what Christ is trying to teach us about Himself and His love for us today. The people listening to Jesus’ teaching on the deeper significance of His declaration, “I am the bread of life” are caught up in literalism. They react to Jesus’ words by asking sarcastically, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” They think, just as the pagans did, that Jesus is talking about some cannibalistic ritual of consuming human flesh and blood. But Jesus is not talking about cannibalism. He is talking spiritually, that is sacramentally. Jesus is pointing us to the mystery of the Incarnation, where He, the eternal Son of God, has come to earth as a human being. By doing so, He redeems all of creation. That means that the physical elements of this world, such as water, grain, fruit, and the human body, are no longer defiled, but holy. God can and does use the physical elements of this world to accomplish spiritual work. In the Old Testament, God saved the people of Israel from death, by allowing them to pass through the waters of the Red Sea, and by feeding them with manna, or bread from heaven, and by giving them water from the rock. Then in the Covenant He made with Moses; He commanded the people to sacrifice lambs as an offering to atone for their sins. Now in the New Testament, Jesus the Son of God, the great High Priest, takes these elements of the physical world and uses them to establish the New Covenant in Himself. The passing through the water of the Red Sea becomes the water of baptism. The manna from heaven becomes the bread and wine of the Eucharist. And the sacrificial lamb offered each year for the sins of the people becomes Jesus Himself, the perfect Lamb of God who blood shed for us on the Cross becomes the once for all sacrifice for the sin of humanity. Therefore, when Jesus is talking about the bread and the wine becoming His Body and Blood, and that His Body and Blood is true food and drink, Jesus is connecting Himself to Creation. St. Apolinaris says that we are the beneficiaries of eternal life through the Incarnation. Jesus offers His flesh on the Cross for our salvation. Through Christ’s humanity, all humanity is saved. St. Irenaus writes that in Jesus Christ we have the union of the flesh and the Spirit. Therefore, Christ has not only elevated the fallen human race back to God, so the elements of creation, such as bread and wine, are elevated to heavenly status. The bread and the wine of the Eucharist have both spiritual and physical realities. The bread becomes more than bread, it is the Body of Christ. The wine becomes more than wine, it becomes the Blood of Christ. All this is a mystery. That is, we cannot fully explain it using physics or biology. Rather than try to understand with our minds, we must first believe Jesus’s words, and then we will understand what He means. Jesus also says, “Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in Him.” When we partake of the Eucharist, we receive through the Sacrament the very eternal Life that Jesus Christ has in Himself. As Jesus says in John 15, we abide in Him; we are connected to Him as our Source and Life, and He lives His divine Life in us and through us. Today, Riley and Aramis will be receiving their First Communion. It is one more milestone on their journey towards greater union with Christ. It is also a part of their transition into deeper fellowship and communion with all of us here at St. John’s and with their Christian brothers and sisters around the world and throughout time. My prayer for you, Riley and Aramis, is that you never lose your hunger to know Christ and draw closer to Him, and that you will be filled up with His Life for eternity. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
One of my favorite classic movies is Ben Hur starring Charleston Heston as Judah Ben-Hur, a devout Jewish man of noble birth living in Judea during the time of Christ. Judah and his mother and sister are unjustly imprisoned by the Romans. Judah ends up as a slave on a Roman galley, while his mother and sister are locked away for years and become lepers as the result of the harsh conditions there. Eventually, Judah gains his freedom when he saved the life of a Roman consul in battle. He returns home to find his mother and sister, only to learn that they have become lepers. Judah then races Massala, the man who condemned him and his family unjustly, in the chariot race. Massala dies because of a crash during the race. Yet, despite Massala’s death, Judah has no peace. In one scene, Judah is speaking to his friend Balthshazzar. Judah stops to take a drink from the stream. Then Judah says to his friend, “I am thirsty still.” Balthshazzar invites Judah to come with him to go listen to Jesus speak (Jesus is speaking nearby on top of a hill). But Judah refuses, saying “I have business with Rome.” Ultimately, Judah only finds healing and peace when he witnesses Christ dying on the Cross. Seeing that Christ is an innocent man dying on for the sins of others, Judah is stuck to the heart when he hears Christ forgiving those who unjustly condemned Him. Judah says, “I felt Him take the sword out of my hand.” Ben-Hur is a powerful story of pain, suffering, revenge, and redemption. It is a very human story about how even a good man can be corrupted by the injustices and sorrows of life. It is a story about how the things of this world, such as power, fame, riches, and revenge can never satisfy. Today’s Gospel lesson shows us that only Jesus can satisfy the deepest hunger and thirst in our souls. Jesus continues His discourse on His statement “I am the bread of life.” It is one of the seven “I am” statements that Jesus makes about Himself in John’s Gospel. And you will remember that by using the expression “I am” Jesus is directly linking Himself to God’s revelation of His own Name during His encounter with Moses in Exodus. Jesus seeks to help others understand and believe that He is the answer to their longing and their searching. People have come to Jesus from all over to get more of the bread that Jesus used to feed the five thousand. Jesus tells them that mere bread cannot save them, only He can. Jesus goes on to declare that He is no mere prophet, but that He has been sent by the Father. Jesus says, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Jesus’ great purpose as the Son of God is to bring the entire human race back to Himself, that sinful suffering humanity would believe in Him and be saved for eternal life. But once again, the people listening to Jesus, particularly the members of the Jewish religious establishment, are dismissive of Jesus’ words. They dismiss Jesus’ words because they don’t have the spiritual ears to hear what Jesus is saying. They are thinking according to the ways of the world and the flesh, which say that they have no real need for God. To them, Jesus cannot be the Messiah, since He comes from Nazareth and is the son of Joseph. They don’t know or recognize His virgin birth. Furthermore, they reject God’s grace because they are not hungry for the things that only God can give. Here Jesus reminds them, “No one can come to Me unless the Father draws Him.” Here is the great mystery of salvation: Jesus does not force us to follow Him. He allows us to choose to follow Him. Yet at the same time, that desire to follow Jesus does not come from within us, but from God. Do you remember what Jesus said to Peter when Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah? Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Therefore, none of us can take our salvation for granted. We did not earn it; it was a gift given to us. We are saved because God reached out to us and revealed Himself to us. Jesus then returns to the meaning of His statement, “I am the bread of life.” Jesus tells the people that while God fed their forefathers in the desert with manna from heaven, eventually they all died all people will do. But Jesus is offering them a different kind of bread. Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” Now some Bible commentators want to tell us that Jesus is only speaking spiritually and not literally about bread. That is, Jesus is the bread for our souls. And that is certainly true, as far as it goes. When we eat bread or any other kind of food, we are satisfied for a time. But when we have the bread of Jesus we will be spiritually filled up. Speaking metaphorically, this works. But there is more meaning here: Jesus also says that “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Here Jesus is talking about His own death on the cross. Jesus offers to us the bread of His Body broken for us on the Cross for our salvation. Again, one could say that Jesus is only speaking metaphorically. But it is the words that Jesus uses at the Last Supper to connect the food of bread and wine directly to Himself and His sacrifice for us on the Cross. Jesus declares that the bread becomes His body, and the wine becomes His blood. Thus, Jesus declares that His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink. Thus, Jesus is not simply speaking spiritually or metaphorically, He is also talking about our participation in the Eucharist. It is at the Eucharist that Christ feeds our souls and bodies with the food that truly satisfied. When we feed on Jesus at the Eucharist we are fed, not just for the day, not just for life, not just to overcome the hardships and challenges of life, but for the ultimate joy of eternal life. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. [Jesus] said, “Take heart; it is I. Don’t be afraid.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
You have heard me say before that we live in an age of anxiety. Some of it is because we live in an increasingly chaotic and uncertain time. Certainly the 2020 pandemic and the rise of crime in our major cities has deepened this sense of anxiety we feel. Another fact is the rise of social media and its impact on our mental processes. Yet another contributing factor is the rise of unbelief in Western culture and society. Our cultural knowledge of God and of the Scriptures is so diminished from what it was a mere 50 years ago. Whereas we once lived in the culture that was familiar with Bible stories and was aware of the presence of God in our midst, today that is no longer true. People are ignorant of the Bible, and they don’t have an awareness of the transcendent presence of God. The great irony in all of this is that we feel this anxiety despite the great technological advances we have made in the last 50 years. On the one hand, we think our technology gives us greater control over the world around us, yet we feel less secure than ever. Today’s Gospel lesson underscores the ultimate answer to anxiety. The power and presence of Jesus Christ. As St. Mark continues his account of Jesus in his Gospel, we see that right after Jesus feeds the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fishes, that He orders them to get back into the boat again and go to Bethsaida on the other side of the lake. Once there, the disciples would finally get their opportunity for prayer and rest. In the meantime, Jesus goes off by Himself to have His own time of prayer and refreshment with the Father. Mark shows us a familiar pattern with Jesus: Before and after times of ministry, Jesus is spending time in prayer with the Father. While Jesus is off by Himself praying, the disciples are in the boat trying to get to Bethsaida. But the wind comes up and begins to greatly hinder their progress. Mark tells us that Jesus sees them out on the lake having difficulty. But Jesus waits until the fourth watch of the night (between 3am and 6am) to go out on to the lake towards them. When Jesus reaches the place where the disciples were, the text tells us that Jesus was walking on the water, and that He meant to pass by them. Now, Jesus walking on the water is amazing and supernatural, yet another sign to us of His identity as Messiah and Lord. But what is Mark talking about when he writes that Jesus “meant to pass by them?” Jesus doesn’t intend for the disciples to not see Him. He gets close enough so that they can see Him. Jesus wants to “pass by” the disciples in the boat, so that they can see Him and be encouraged and strengthened by His presence, and underscore the truth that Jesus truly is God. Jesus’ desire to “pass by” the disciples take us back to the encounter Moses has with God on Mt. Sinai, when God passes by Moses, so that Moses will get a glimpse of God’s glory and be encouraged and strengthened by His presence. But that doesn’t happen, because when the disciples see Jesus out on the water, they aren’t strengthened and encouraged, but they are terrified, thinking that Jesus is a ghost or evil spirit out on the water. They cry out in fear. Jesus responds with love and compassion to the disciples’ cries of fear, saying to them, “Take heart; it is I. Don’t be afraid.” And He gets into the boat with them, and the wind ceases. Jesus’ presence and power serve to bring peace and calm to a very terrifying and stressful situation. There is a clear lesson here for all of us. Whatever situation you find yourself in, invite Jesus to come and be with you in that situation. Don’t try to handle it by yourself. Remember that Jesus loves you and wants to bring His power and presence into the storm of your life. Where there is confusion, fear, and anger, Jesus brings His understanding, comfort, and peace. I want to suggest to you that if you want to find relief from your anxiety, there are spiritual exercises that you can do, things that will help you stay spiritually healthy amid this age of anxiety we live in. In that vein, I would like to recommend two books written by John Eldredge. Eldredge is an evangelical, but he understands the concept of a spiritual rule of life, or daily spiritual practices that can help you stay spiritually healthy. The two books are Get Your Life Back and Resilient. The first was written during the pandemic, and he wrote it to help people cope with the fear and the social isolation that were a consequence of the lockdowns. The second book was written as a follow up to the first, to elaborate more fully on the exercises he established in the first book. John Eldredge recommends that we adopt the following practices in order to stay spiritually and emotionally healthy when dealing with stressful times and situations, to help us keep our peace even during tough times. First, he recommends daily times of prayer. This prayer includes the practice of offering back to Jesus all the people and situations that are on our minds and hearts. “Lord Jesus, I give everyone and everything to you.” This also includes prayers of faith and adoration of God. “Lord Jesus, I love you, I believe in You, I worship You.” Second, he recommends that we spend less time in front of screens and more time outdoors. Instead of looking at your smartphone immediately when you wake up, spend time in prayer first. Instead of watching screens until you go to bed, turn off the screens an hour before bedtime. Take walks and have conversations with friends. Read books. These practices can help keep anxiety from overwhelming us and driving us to unhealthy behaviors. “And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but hearts were hardened.” One familiar theme we see in the Gospels is that Jesus’ disciples, despite being with Jesus and witnessing His miracles, had a difficult time accepting that He was the Son of God. Despite the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, despite Jesus walking on the water and calming the storm, the disciples still struggled to believe. We have the same struggle. We believe in Jesus, but when the crisis comes, when anxiety hits, we falter. We fall into fear. We turn to other ways of dealing with our anxiety: food, alcohol, and busyness. We refuse to give our problems and our fears to Jesus. When we find ourselves falling into this trap, the best thing to do in that moment is stop and remember that Jesus is with us. “Take heart; it is I. Don’t be afraid.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Last week we read about how Jesus sent the Twelve on their first mission without Him being with them. We examined how Jesus gave them instructions for their work that serve as principles for us today as we go out in Jesus’ name to carry out the Great Commission. In today’s passage from St. Mark, he picks up the story where we left off last week. And what we see is Jesus being the Good Shepherd of the sheep, who cares for His people, and we can also find more wisdom and guidance for living the Christian life in today’s world. St. Mark tells us that the Twelve return from their mission trip. They report back to Jesus all that they saw and did on their mission. After hearing their report, the first thing Jesus invites them to do is go find a quiet place to rest. Mark tells us that the disciples are with Jesus in a busy place, as “many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” As you know, life, especially ministry, is exhausting. Often it seems that there is no time even to take a break. Nevertheless, time to rest and refresh is essential. Time away from the hustle and bustle is essential. Jesus, because He knows and understands the needs of His disciples, invites them to go away and rest for a while. Jesus’s invitation underscores a basic need that we all have in our spiritual lives. There is a time to work, to minister. And then there is a time to rest and pray. If you don’t do both, then your Christian life and your ministry will not bear fruit. Work without prayer and rest will lead to burnout and a lack of impact for the Kingdom of God. Prayer and rest are important, but they are meant to serve as fuel to empower and strengthen us and we go out in Jesus’ name to do the work and the ministry He has called us to do. One of the great things about our Anglican tradition is that it incorporates the balance that is to be characteristic of the Christian life. Drawn from the tradition of Benedictine spirituality, it encourages a daily balance in life of work, study, and prayer. The focus is on a balanced life, not falling into the extremes of too much work or too much asceticism. Unfortunately, when Jesus and the disciples had gotten in a boat and gone over to the other side of the lake to rest and pray, the crowd noticed what they were doing, and they all followed Jesus and the disciples and found where they were staying. But when Jesus sees the crowd, He calls off the rest time. St. Mark tells us that Jesus’ first concern was for the crowd: “He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” As the Good Shepherd, Jesus sees their need, and He moves to respond. Jesus understood that sheep without a shepherd are vulnerable and need help. Lost sheep need guidance because they get lost easily. Lost sheep cannot feed themselves and need to be led to pasture. And lost sheep are vulnerable to outside attacks and need protection. What is also noteworthy is the reaction of the disciples. They were tired from their ministry work and looking forward to some down time. But (like Jesus) their rest time is interrupted by the crowd. Whereas Jesus has compassion on them and wanted to help, the disciples were cranky and put out. They tell Jesus, “Send them away to go into the surrounding villages and buy themselves something to eat.” Whenever we are faced with someone in need, we have two responses: one, we can put the responsibility for meeting that person’s need on to someone else, second, we can respond to that need ourselves. Here Jesus prods the disciples to do the latter. He says to them, “You give them something to eat.” And their response is to tell Jesus, whatever we’ve got, its not enough. This is a very natural and human reaction to all the need and suffering in the world, to the demands of ministry. We say to God, “Lord, I’m not the one to do this. I don’t have what it takes. I don’t have the skill. I don’t have the resources. And here is another great response from Jesus. He doesn’t chide them for their unbelief, He simply asks them, “what do you have?” They tell Him: “Five loaves and two fishes.” It’s a ridiculous notion that they could feed five thousand people with so little. The disciples’ feelings of inadequacy are very appropriate, given the circumstances. From a worldly perspective that is. But Jesus is here, and He takes charge of the situation. Jesus feeds the five thousand from five small loaves of bread and two fishes. There is so much left over that 12 baskets are filled. As we reflect on these events described by St. Mark, we can come to three conclusions: First, Jesus is our Good Shepherd. He cares for us and will take care of us and give us what we need. Second, balance in the spiritual life is essential. We need time to rest and pray and time to work. Each one balances out the other. After we work, we need to rest and pray and that then leads us out to do more work. Third, it’s normal that we feel inadequate to the things that Jesus calls us to do. The proper response to those feelings of inadequacy is not to throw up our hands and walk away, but to ask God for what we need and to trust Him to provide it. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. “And [Jesus] called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In today’s Gospel lesson from St. Mark, we Jesus sending His apostles out for the first time on their own: He gives them specific instructions on what to do and not do, what to take and what to leave behind. This is a preview of the Great Commission that Jesus Christ has given to the Church: to go out into the world with Jesus’ power and authority, and proclaiming the Gospel, healing the sick, and casting out evil spirits. What we see here in Jesus’ instructions to His apostles is not a detailed blueprint for the Church as it does ministry, but an outline of principles that we are to keep in mind as we work to carry out Jesus’s Great Commission. First, Jesus sends them out two by two. Jesus takes the twelve and splits them up into smaller groups. This allows the twelve to cover more ground and minister to more people. Although Jesus is Lord and God, during His earthly ministry He is limited by time and space. He can only go where His two feet can take Him. But through the ministry of His Church, Jesus’ ministry is multiplied. He can go wherever His followers go, and the more followers He gets, the more He can spread the message and the ministry. But note that Jesus does not send the disciples out individually. He sends them out in pairs. In this way, Jesus demonstrates that none of us as His followers operate on our own. We are part of a community. We do ministry alongside others. We support and encourage one another. Jesus underscores here that our ministry is not our own individually, but it is the Church’s ministry, done under the authority and commissioning of Jesus Himself. Second, Jesus gives them authority over unclean spirits. One of the things we constantly see Jesus doing in the Gospels is performing signs to accompany His message. The signs remind us of Jesus’ power and authority as the Son of God, and they serve as a visible reminder that the work of evangelism, the work of ministry, is not principally intellectual, but spiritual. Furthermore, by giving the disciples authority over unclean spirits, He is showing the disciples that they are to act in the name and power of Jesus Christ Himself. They are not simply random people trying to copy Jesus’ ministry. They are ambassadors, acting in Jesus’ name and with His authority. Third, Jesus charges the apostles to travel light, and accept the hospitality of those to whom they minister. Here Jesus emphasizes that it is God who provides for the ministry. They are to take only what they need immediately and rely on God to provide for the rest. Here, Jesus is underscoring the need to get on with the ministry, and not get bogged down in logistics. Do what you need to do to get launched, and then let God fill in the rest. And by accepting hospitality, Jesus is telling the disciples that a key part of ministry is relationship—building relationships with those to whom you minister. It is also an encouragement by Jesus that God will use the people to whom you minister to help provide for your needs as you work in Jesus’ name. Fourth, Jesus admonishes the apostles, “And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” Here, Jesus is instructing the apostles to remember that since they are going out in the name and the power of Jesus Christ to proclaim Christ’s message, then they don’t need to fret when the message is not received. Rather than feel rejected, that they have somehow done it wrong, they are to remember that the responsibility for rejecting the Gospel is on those who reject it. They are not to water down or alter the message simply because people reject it. Remember that ministry is spiritual and supernatural, not intellectual. If there is resistance to the message, it may be that this is not the place nor the people to whom the message and the ministry is to be given. It might be a sign that it is time to move on. That’s what St. Paul did on his missionary journeys. Wherever the message was rejected, he would move on to a different place and people. On the other hand, it may mean simply that more prayer and fasting needs to take place before the message and the ministry will be received. Only spiritual discernment can tell one way or the other. One of the greatest errors that the modern Church in the West has made over the past 60 years is to think that if the world is rejecting its message, then the message is wrong and must be changed or watered down. The result has been that the Church has abdicated the power and authority that Jesus has given it. Rather than please God by proclaiming the message with power and clarity, the Church has tried to pander to the sensibilities of the modern world and has abandoned the message. One of the most encouraging things I am seeing from younger people is the desire for a Christian faith and message that is not watered down, but pure and powerful. If the Church is to recover its confidence both in its ministry and its message, then we must remember the words of St. Paul in his letter to the church in Ephesus. In his magnificent introduction Paul reminds us of the great spiritual blessings we have in Christ: God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, in love He has predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, In Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, and are the recipients of God’s lavish grace. St. Paul reminds us that we are the beloved sons and daughters of God. We need not be ashamed of anything; not our past, because it has been healed and forgiven through Jesus Christ, nor of the message, for it comes from God Himself and is the source of life and truth for all who believe. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. “Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
We live in a time when we are being bombarded daily with messages of fear and anger. The media tells us over and over again about things we are supposed to be afraid of: food shortages, hyperinflation, crime, and disease. The same media is also trying to stir us up and make us angry: corruption, incompetence, abuse of power, and discrimination. In effect, the media gives us both anger and fear at the same time. It uses fear to make us angry, and anger to make us afraid. This is not to say that there aren’t things to be angry or afraid about. There are. But what today’s Scripture lessons tell us is that we don’t have to live our lives dominated by fear or anger. Rather, as followers of Jesus Christ, we can live amid things that make us afraid or angry with faith and trust in God. If you’ve been coming to Wednesday Life Group, you will recognize today’s account from St. Mark’s Gospel. During the last two weeks, the Chosen series has introduced to us to Jairus the synagogue administrator, and the women with the issue of blood. Jairus is a successful and competent synagogue administrator. He’s a trusted confidant to rabbis and members of the Jewish religious establishment. He’s a family man with a wife and children. On the other hand, the woman with the issue of blood is socially isolated. She is alone, trying to earn a living by washing people’s clothes. The reason she is socially isolated is because of her medical condition; she has been bleeding for twelve years. This bleeding makes her unclean; therefore, she is shunned by others. Jarius’ life is turned upside down when his daughter gets sick. She is getting worse, and nothing seems to help. Jairus, despite his social connections, has no access to medical treatment to help his daughter get well. But he has heard of Jesus, he has heard about Jesus’ ministry, about Jesus’ teaching and the miracles He has performed. Jairus finds Jesus and falls at His feet, begging Him to come and heal his daughter. Jesus agrees to go with Jarius. In the meantime, the woman with the issue of blood is desperate too. She can’t go on like she has. Sick and socially isolated, she needs help. When she hears about Jesus, she goes and finds Him. Despite her shame and social isolation, despite her fear of rejection because of her uncleanness due to the issue of blood, she takes bold action. When she sees Jesus walking by with Jairus, she approaches and touches Jesus’ garment. She doesn’t even bother trying to get Jesus’ attention. In fact, she’s hoping that simply by touching Jesus’ garment, she will get well, and no one need know what happened. She touches Jesus’ garment, and she is healed. But Jesus notices what has happened, and He begins to ask, “Who touched my garments?” Jesus keeps looking in the crowd for the person who touched Him. The woman is terrified. She has been healed but has been discovered. In her shame and fear she falls before Jesus and confesses to Him what has happened. To her wonderful surprise, she is not rejected and humiliated. On the contrary, Jesus does more than just heal her body, He restores her spirit as well by welcoming her with love and acceptance. He says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well.” While all this is going on, Jairus must have been at his wits end. He is desperately wanting Jesus to come and heal his daughter before it is too late. But Jesus has been interrupted to heal the women with the issue of blood. Then Jairus gets the worst news possible: “Your daughter is dead, why trouble the Teacher anymore?” At this moment of Jairus’ greatest pain and fear, Jesus says to him, “Do not fear, only believe. Jesus turns Jairus away from anger, fear, and despair to faith in Him. Jesus reassures Jairus that all is not lost, that restoration is coming. And Jesus comes through. He heals Jairus’ daughter, and Jairus’ faith in Jesus is vindicated. The story of Jairus and the woman with the issue of blood resonate with us because we see their faith in Jesus rewarded. When Jairus’ good life is turned upside with his daughter’s illness, he runs to Jesus. Despite the delays and the news of the death of his daughter, Jairus does not fall into despair or bitterness. Instead, he continues to trust Jesus and hold on to hope. The woman with the issue of blood had suffered not only from her illness, but from social rejection as well. If anyone had reason to give up, she did. But she didn’t. When she heard about Jesus, she went looking for Him. And when she found Him, she overcame her fear by coming up and touching Jesus’s garment. She believed so much in Jesus’ power to heal that she didn’t think it was necessary to even talk to Him. All she needed to do was touch His garment. She did, and her faith was rewarded. Not just with physical healing, but with emotional and spiritual healing as well. In a world where we are constantly being told to be frightened, when things happen that we didn’t anticipate or want, when life is not working out the way we hoped it would, Jesus says, “Do not fear, only believe.” As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to live by faith, not by fear. That does not mean complacency in the face of difficulties or challenges, but trust in God. Don’t worry about it. To give in to fear and despair. Pray. Ask Jesus for what you need. Be specific. Once you have prayed, believe that God has heard your prayer and that He is at work. If it seems like nothing is happening, keep praying and keep trusting. In a time of fear and anxiety and anger, we as followers of Jesus Christ can be a witness to His love and grace by not living in fear, but by walking in trust and in love. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. “And [Jesus] said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”
+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. If you are paying attention to our current cultural moment, you may know that yesterday, June 1, marks the first day of Pride Month. Pride Month is the latest celebration of our current civic religion. It is the time of the year when those who identify themselves as LGTBQ+ express their “pride” in who they are. The implication of this is, of course, that in the past, LGTBQ+ identified persons were living in shame of their lifestyle and their choices, and in whom they chose to “love,” because they once lived in an “oppressive” and “judgmental” society where their choices and their lifestyle were considered shameful. Today, things have changed for the better supposedly, and LGBTQ+ persons can now demonstrate their “pride” in who they are. And the only ones who are supposed to experience shame are all those bigots who refused to acknowledge the value and worth of the choices made by the LGTBQ+ community. How did we get here? How is it that we now live in a society and culture that now demands that we take pride in things that God condemns, in things that are harmful to people and to relationships? Fundamentally, it was because we thought that God’s laws were given to control us and make us miserable, rather then given by the God who loves us and wants us to experience joy and fulfillment. In today’s Gospel lesson from St. Mark, we read about yet another confrontation between Jesus and the members of the Jewish religious establishment. Once again, the Pharisees think that they have got Jesus in a “gotcha” moment; that Jesus is teaching His followers to be lax about honoring the Sabbath. What is really going on here is the Pharisees are grasping at anything that they can use to discredit Jesus and His followers, because they know the power and the authority of Jesus and His message and ministry, and they feel that Jesus and His ministry threatens their privileged position within Jewish society. As always, Jesus responds with love and truth. He reminds the Pharisees of what happened during David’s lifetime, when the priest gave David and his men the showbread from the Temple. While the Law stipulated that this bread was not to be eaten while it was in the sanctuary, the bread that the priest gave to David and his men was the old showbread that had been replaced by fresh showbread. A legalistic interpretation held that the bread should be disposed of, but the priest understand that it was okay to give the old bread away to hungry men who needed something to eat. To put it another way, a reasonable and proper interpretation was that feeding hungry people superseded their strict legalism regarding showbread. The Pharisees, in their desire to discredit Jesus, and in their desire to avoid any kind of violation of the Sabbath, missed the proper application of the Sabbath law itself. And we see in other episodes, where Jesus violates the strict legalism of the Law for the benefit of others: He heals a man with a withered hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath. He touches a leper with his hand to demonstrate love and compassion, even though this made him ritually “unclean.” Here, Jesus reminds the Pharisees, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus tells the Pharisees that the purpose of the Law was not to put people in a religious straitjacket, but its purpose was to establish a way of life that would give glory to God, and bring health, happiness and fulfillment. To use the Law for any other purpose was to disrespect the Law and the God who made it. Sadly, we are where we are today as a society celebrating “Pride Month” because in part, we thought of God’s law as a straitjacket and a vehicle of oppression. Ironically, we looked that the Law the way the Pharisees did, as an instrument of power and control. We thought of people who were in bad marriages, of people with unfulfilled longings, and it seemed right that we should help people get free of those things that were supposedly keeping them captive. Like the Pharisees, we forgot that God gave us the law for our benefit, to nurture our hearts and our spirits so that we would be set free from the power of our passions and impulses and truly love ourselves and others. We overreacted to the use of the Law as a straitjacket by getting rid of all the boundaries and guardrails that surround our relationship with God and each other. We told God to get out of our lives, and He did. Today, we’re miserable and confused. We tried to satisfy our passions and our lusts, and to break through anything that was holding us back. It hasn’t helped. We are neither fulfilled nor happy. What’s worse is that today our society blames Christians for the fact that we’re miserable. It’s said that Christians are self-righteous and legalistic, and hypocritical. Maybe that’s true. But that’s not the reason that we are unhappy. St. Paul writes this, “We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The Church is under attack today not because it judges people or treats them harshly, but because it speaks the truth of God to a spiritually blind world. The Church has lost its credibility with people not because it proclaims an unwelcome truth, but because it tries curry favor by watering down the truth and by not living by it. If we want to see a revival in our nation, then we won’t see it come about by avoiding the hard issues. Instead, we must speak the truth and live the truth in love. You may have noticed that our Old Testmant reading for today is the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are, as they say, an oldie but a goodie! They took them out of the schools, but do we teach them to our children? To our grandchildren? Can we recite them? Are we trying to live by them each and every day? Not so that God will love us; He loves us already. But to demonstrate our love for Him? In our civic culture, June is now Pride Month. But for the Church, June has always been the Sacred Heart of Jesus month. When we talk about the Sacred Heart of Jesus we refer to that completely self-giving, sacrificial love that Jesus has for each of us. That is something that we as a culture and as a society have forgotten about. Let’s bring it back. We can respond to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by endeavoring to love Him by keeping His commandments. And in so doing, our lives will be a powerful witness to others. As St. Paul says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
On this first Sunday after Pentecost, the Church observes what is called Trinity Sunday. It is right that we do this, because we worship a God of three Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is a great mystery, something that we cannot fully comprehend. Nevertheless, over the centuries, men have tried to illustrate the Holy Trinity in ways that we can better understand. St. Patrick is said to have used the shamrock to illustrate the Trinity--each of the leaves of the shamrock representing Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the entire shamrock being one God. Or there is the analogy of water: water comes as a liquid, a vapor, or as a solid, yet all three are water. But all that really does is get you mocked by Lutheran Satire for using bad analogies! Fundamentally, if we look at the Athanasian Creed, we confess that God is a God of three Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each Person is co-equal and co-ternal with the others. There are not three Gods, but one God. While the Scriptures reveal this to us, the Trinity is not explicit. The word trinity never appears in the Bible. But over the centuries, as the Church has reflected on the Scriptures and on God's saving acts through history, it came to understand that God has revealed Himself as a Trinity of Persons. St. Athanasius said that the Son of God was fully God. St. Basil and St. Gregory declared that the Holy Spirit was also God. And when we then read the Scriptures through the lens of this understanding, we can see all three Persons of the Godhead at work in the economy of salvation. In Exodus, we see God the Father speaking to Moses from the burning bush, commissioning Moses to go in His name to deliver the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt, and then leading the people through the wilderness with the pillar of flame. In Romans, St. Paul talks about God the Holy Spirit works in us to transform us from the inside out. Through the power of God the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to cast aside our sinful nature (the flesh) and walk in the power of the Spirit; to live a life of holiness and righteousness. St. Paul says, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" Then in today's Gospel lesson from St. John, we read about Jesus' famous encounter with Nicodemus, where Jesus declares to him, "You must be born again!" To be born again is to be spiritually transformed by the saving power of God, the saving power revealed in the mighty works of God the Son Jesus Christ through His death, resurrection, and ascension, and through the power of God the Holy Spirit. Jesus then declares those famous words, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." Here again we see the Persons of the Godhead at work: God the Father sends the Son who dies on the Cross for the salvation of the world. God the Father also sends the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the empower the Church to carry out its mission of proclaiming the Gospel, to draw people into God's fellowship, and to transform them so that they die to their sinful nature and live according to the divine nature of God Himself. To believe that God is a Trinity of Persons is to believe in the God of the Bible and to recognize His saving acts on behalf of the human race. The evidence for this is to observe the claims of the counterfeit religions of the world. They deny the Trinity. Whoever they are; Moslems, Mormons, or Moonies, they all deny the holy Trinity. And to deny the Holy Trinity is to not only reject God, but to reject the salvation that God the Holy Trinity brings us. Because without each Person of the Trinity, salvation is not possible. Rather than exhaust ourselves by trying to fully understand this sacred mystery, it is better for us to simply worship and adore the Unity. As we spend time in His presence, and we experience His love and power, we recognize that He is God and we are not. And when we fully rest in that truth, then we begin to understand who we are and what we were created for. We begin to live in the reality that our God is holy and mighty, and that we are to love Him, serve Him, and give all the glory to Him. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions…And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
+In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. A very blessed Pentecost Sunday to all of you! Today marks the 50th day since Christ’s resurrection on Easter, Today is the day we celebrate the coming of the promised Holy Spirit in a way that had not been seen before. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit fell on certain individuals whom God had chosen prophets, priests, and kings. But today, on the Feast of Pentecost, we see God pouring out His Spirit on all His people; young and old, rich and poor, people from every tribe and tongue and nation. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost transformed those gathered in that Upper Room from a beleaguered group of people hiding out from the authorities into divinely empowered and bold group of men and women who went out into the Greco-Roman world boldly proclaiming the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, living a life of radical discipleship, and turning the world upside down with their lives and their message of love and truth. This new humanity redeemed through Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension is what we call the Church. The Church born on this day at Pentecost was and is a living organism where every member has a vital and important role to play in the building up of the Body of Christ and in the spread of the Kingdom of God. This Church was so powerful and alive that nothing could stop the spread of the Gospel. As we read in the Book of Acts, persecution of the Church in Jerusalem led its spread to Judea and Samaria. Persecution in Judea and Samaria caused it to spread to the wider world; to all the places mentioned in Acts Chapter 2: Rome, Cyrene, Crete, Asia, Pontus, Cappadocia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Iran. The British historian Edward Gibbon, writing in his magisterial work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, credited the spread of the early Church to the power and authenticity of its message and common life. Through the Church’s ministry of healing and deliverance ministries, through its universal message of salvation through Jesus Christ, it appealed especially to those of the lowest parts of society. It took just 300 years for Christianity to spread throughout the Roman world and displace paganism as the official religion of the Empire. Today, the Church is a worldwide movement with Christian communities existing in nearly every country and nation in the world. All this was set in motion when the Holy Spirit fell on that small group of people in the Upper Room on Pentecost. Sadly, we Christians here in the West seem to believe that the power and zeal of the early Church is lost to us. We’re not seeing the growth. We’re not seeing lives transformed. But that power and zeal is not lost to us. Growth and a harvest of souls is still possible. My friends, the Holy Spirit is still here and He is at work. The Church that Christ established and that was born on Pentecost has the same power and authority that it had in those early days. We need to open the eyes of our faith and we need to surrender to the love and power of God. When I was the Chaplain at the Union Gospel Mission in Fort Worth, we ran an adult Christian discipleship class called the Alpha Course twice a year. At the conclusion of each Alpha Course, we would have what was called the Alpha Celebration in the main chapel on campus. It was a time to give thanks and celebrate what the Lord has been doing during the just completed Alpha Course. We would sing songs and hymns and I would give out certificates to residents and volunteers. I would also administer the Sacrament of Baptism to those who asked for it. I would then close the evening with a time for people to stand up and give testimony how the Lord had been working in their lives. What I discovered during my time at the Union Gospel Mission was that every time we gathered to thank God and to worship Him, lives were touched. At the Alpha Celebration last May, four people came forward to be baptized and six people came forward to rededicate their lives to Jesus Christ. A woman who was baptized declared that Christ had freed her from 30 years of addiction. A 9-year-old boy who was also baptized testified that Jesus Himself appeared to him in his dreams and that Jesus was calling him to preach salvation to others. There were tears of joy and a celebration of God’s great and mighty works. It's not just happening at the Union Gospel Mission, but it’s happening all around the world. People are coming to Christ in places like Iran and Nepal and China. In Africa, it’s not Islam that is on the move, but Christianity! “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions…And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The prophet Joel wrote these words five hundred years before Day of Pentecost. He wrote them to the people of God suffering in exile in Babylon, waiting for the day when they could return home and wondering if God had forgotten about them. Joel gave them these words of hope and encouragement to remind them and assure them that God had not forgotten about them, but He had great and wonderful plans in store for them, plans that were greater and more wonderful than they could imagine. As we gather on this Pentecost Sunday, it feels like we are exiles and strangers in our own land. Our country has changed in many ways over the past 60 years. The Church has experienced significant decline during that time; congregations have shrunk, churches have been closed. But that is not the final word. Today’s celebration is a reminder that the same God who sent His Holy Spirit to us on Pentecost, the same Holy Spirit who inspired the Prophet Joel to write those words, is the same Holy Spirit who is here and at work among us today. Will you yield to the Holy Spirit and let Him have His way with you? He wants to transform you and make you an instrument of His love and His power so that the Kingdom of God is advanced, and so that God will be glorified in our lives. +In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. |
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