living bread and the end of hunger

John 6 is the bread discourse. Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. He who eats of me will never hunger." As a eucharistic community we can over-spiritualize this expression to mean that Jesus is pointing to the gift of the sacrament as the sign of God's never-failing love and grace which forgives our sins and promises us eternal life. But from a divine justice perspective, spoken to a world where physical hunger takes human life everyday, this self-proclamation points beyond the eucharist as an act of corporate and personal forgiveness. Jesus is establishing, not only a community to feed the hungry, but the hopeful vision of a world where there is no hunger anymore. And in so doing, he is creating the capacity within the human heart and within the human community to embody this very hope. Systemic injustice is eradicated by a believing community devoted to agape love. Belief, Brian McLaren says, is the first step in defecting from the dominant narratives in which we live and in which injustice thrives. We tell ourselves that the world is thus when the truth is "thus have we made the world." When we own the problem, we can become the solution with the help of GOD, who promises us life with meaning, purpose, and hope.
I suspect that, like the world, we in church have lost hope in the promise that God will end all hunger and death. We take for granted that people starve. And we give a little to manage global crises. But we need to have a bigger dream. We need to dream of a world where there is enough for all and all have equal access to what they need to live. We need to dream of a world where over-consumption does not cost children their lives. We need to dream of a world where GOD is good,loving, kind, and generous. A generous GOD gives us all what we need, no matter who we are or what we believe. I believe in that generosity because I have been a recipient of it. I also know that many millions of people suffer without bread. So Jesus feeds people and Jesus shows us how to live in community so that no one is hungry, compasionate justice embodied through neighbor love. Economic justice lived out in communities creates the conditions by which all benefit from God's abundance. This is the role of governments and churches: To create the conditions by which abundance is shared justly so that all have "bread". We see the problems with foreign aid often have to do with weak political systems and corrupt governments, who od not have the interests of the people, especially the poor, as a guiding principle. Even the U.S. government needs spiritual guidance in order to abide by an ethical economy that benefits the last and the least. ELCA World hunger recognizes the importance of advocacy, speaking the truth to power in order to create the conditions for justice.

May the ones who hunger receive bread. And may those with bread hunger for divine justice! Amen.

Mark 4:35-41: Jesus calms a storm. A story about fear, faith, and final frontiers.

Why did Jesus cross the sea? To get to the other side. Why did the chickens cross the sea? To follow Jesus. This is a story about Jesus and chickens and getting to the other side. So, the disciples are fishermen familiar with the boat and the fickle Galilee Sea, where fast storms and high winds arise quickly and cause havoc on typically calm waters. It is dangerous to sail this sea and they all know it. So what’s with all the drama?
They are sailing to the other side---to gentile territory as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God announced by Jesus’powerful words and deeds of healing. They are sailing to gentile territory, unsafe, scary, dark, unfamiliar, dangerous territory with dangerous foreign people. There are parts of Lancaster city you will not go into at night. There are certain people you would fear if you met them on the streets there. There is racism in that fear. They had reason to be a little anxious about this trip. But being faithful means following Jesus, following Jesus means crossing personal borders, taking risks, moving from comfortable complacency to bold, life changing action. Peter’s Porch, prison ministry, refugee ministry, community meals, any servant ministry is border crossing ministry.
Jesus is asleep. Like Jonah. Asleep during the storm. But unlike the reluctant prophet, Jesus is going exactly where he is meant to go to do exactly what he’s meant to do.
As disciples we are in this story in the disciples’ responses. First, their response to his sleeping is the question, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” They misinterpreted his behavior as a sign that he didn’t care. We want others, GOD, to care about our stuff, our issues, our concerns, our worries. I get that. I’m supposed to care. And second that they were awestruck by his power over the waters and the wind, the exercise of his divine creative powers strikes fear and amazement in them. We don’t expect GOD to show up and act. We don’t believe.
So, when they wake Jesus they do not expect him to change the events, to calm the seas, to bring peace and stillness. What do they expect? They expect him to care the way they do. They expect him to get a bucket and bail like mad, they expect him to pray for help, they expect him to cry, to hang on tight, to grab a life jacket, to grab a buddy, to quote the psalms. They expect him to do something! React! Be HUMAN! And he does. HE Sleeps.
You know how one person in a group who is angry, frustrated, upset, worried, and frightened can easily get everyone else to feel and act the same? One person can turn a group against another person, even against a trusted leader. One person’s anxiety increases the level of anxiety in a room of others. Its instinctual, part of group survival. If someone says the sky is falling, the sky is falling. You run for cover! Group panic. Group anger. Group fear. Group rebellion. It happens. Even in church. Often in politics. Some families function this way, one person’s problem becomes everyone’s problem. Usually leads to a form of mental and emotional paralysis. And the group tends to do two things: Blame someone and do whatever is necessary to reduce the emotional tension. Both unhealthy and unchristian responses.
Jesus gets up and speaks to the sea and silences the wind. And there is a dead stillness.
Jesus calms the sea. And Jesus is calm on the sea. His way is opposite and counter intuitive. He will not participate in the group’s fear, anxiety, and futile activity to save themselves. He sleeps. Then he calms the seas. He rests. Then he acts. Why? Because he knows where he’s going and what he’s doing and knows that nothing on earth will prevent that from happening because it is God’s work.
What if we followed Jesus? What two things must we do? Rest in the assurance that we will not perish. This is grace, to trust GOD before we trust ourselves. Chaos happens. Crises will occur. Social problems, evil, death is overwhelming, like the wind and the waves. And having faith trusts that the GOD who created all things is bringing order to the chaos in this world---Jesus is the way GOD is doing that. Followers of Jesus are called and equipped with the Holy Spirit to live like HIM, bringing peace and stillness and calm to every situation. And bringing divine power and blessing to bear on the great overwhelming problems of our times. Followers of Jesus are sent across the seas of change.
So try being a non-anxious presence this week. Actually try resting or even sleeping when the expectation is to do something! We are doers and fixers. Instead, try resting and inviting Jesus’ powers to accomplish what you cannot. And stop fussing and getting your dander up and getting others to join you in your worries and fears. Care like Jesus, enough to stay above the noise. Then join Jesus by offering what GOD has given you to bring mercy, peace, and grace to places and people on the other side. AMEN.

At Home Here?

"Those Christians who feel at home in the United States can do so only because they have buffered themselves from the brutal conditions of poverty, blinded themselves to the realities of racism, and deluded themselves into imagining that the vast military force of this country is the agent of justice. Many such Christians worship the idol of prosperity and have quieted their conscience in return for lives of relative ease and material comfort." Dennis Jacobsen, "Doing Justice: Congregations and Community Organizing, p.2.
The American religious narrative in which so many Christians are entwined fails to recognize the difference between the "gospel" of empire-building through consumer/material wealth and the good news of the Kingdom of GOD. I suggested recently that a subversive and cruciform expression of stewardship might be to give up credit cards because we seek to live Jubilee by remaining debt free and we seek to eliminate indebtedness. We also seek to dismantle the power and privilege dynamics that are expressed economically in our culture. Credit cards are a privilege for the wealthy, even as credit card companies and lenders have taken advantage of or rejected the poor. I wonder if any of us would willfully give up credit cards as a sign of our rejection of over-consumptive habits and a privileged status?
Reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with the hope of finding an alternative vision for life in this world reveals a subversive, non-conformist, irreligious, anti-imperial edge to Jesus and the church that has largely been rejected in favor of a more sanitized and less risky Euro-American, middle-class, suburban country club church. We have inherited a temple cult with its own pantheon, including the gods of war, wealth, eroticism/sexuality, and narcissism.
A church is emerging, however, whose subversive edge includes not only sacrificing but also embracing certain forgotten joys and hopes. This church will embrace the joy of sharing in a community. It will embrace practices of sustainability with an awareness and care for all of creation. It sees people as beautiful and broken creatures, whose sexuality is both mysterious and God-given. This church seeks compassionate justice for the least, the last, and the loser; especially those who have been imprisoned and those who continue to suffer in bondage to poverty. It will embrace non-violent forms of confrontation with powers of injustice. It will worship God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in unity and truth.
This church will not be conformed to this world but will be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we might discern what is God's good, acceptable, and perfect will. (Romans 12:2). This church's home is in the believer's heart and mind and transcends nationality, ethnicity, race, and other forms of identity imposed on the modern individual or group. It is a movement called to action by Jesus in order to embody God's dream for the new creation.
Brian McLaren says that we must defect from the narratives in which we currently reside in order to embrace the story of Jesus and the church. Defecting takes courage in the face of an oppressive system that requires conformity/uniformity. Defectors will feel like illegal aliens in this culture and may xpect to be treated as such. More on the defection strategy when I write about McLaren's book, "Everything Must Change."

Offend us, Jesus. And set us free.

Mark 6. Jesus' is rejected in Nazareth.
Jesus offended them. Their religious sensibilities, their cultural heritage, their way of life, their village rules. Jesus broke into their simple routine and threatened to expose their lack of faith. For there were many who were devoted to the synagogue in Nazareth, but they were not so devoted to God’s ways. They were devoted to keeping things the way they liked them, keeping out the sinners, rejecting the foreigners, disregarding the women and children’s poverty and disease. They would rather suffer themselves than trust in God to heal what was wounded and broken inside. They were hiding from the truth behind their religious façade. They were not free.
Jesus offends me. I cannot do what he says. I cannot go where he sends. I cannot simplify my lifestyle. I cannot leave behind what I know to be good; my home, my possessions, my safe, secure, sheltered self-importance. I cannot shake the dust off my feet and move on whenever the gospel is rejected. I cannot heal. He called me to this ministry and I can do nothing. I am not free.
Jesus offends us. Who does he think he is? He was a man, a construction worker, an illegitimate son of a young woman whose reputation was tainted by suspicions of adultery unproven. He is not authorized to speak for GOD, as GOD, and with GOD. We prefer that he does not speak with authority. We want to be our own authorities, with our own voice and vote on matters of church, household, and personal choice. We want Jesus to matter less and me to matter more. We don’t believe that Jesus is alive today or present or real or powerful or worthy of our adoration and praise. If we did, we would fall on our knees and offer our lives to this one who died for us. Instead we offer an hour a week, some prayers, and we try to keep our noses clean and to occasionally do good.
He does not approve of our religion; our tired rituals and our empty prayers, our going through the motions and our insipid old hymns. He does not need us to show up here on Sunday out of obligation or duty or routine. He does not need us to do anything, give anything, make anything. Our opinions on matters of God and faith are irrelevant in the face of His truth telling. He knows we are self-focused, self-consumed and self-motivated. He knows you are thinking about how long it will take me to preach this sermon. He knows you are thinking about lunch and about what’s next in your day. He knows some have chosen cultural and national gods this weekend over divine justice and grace. He knows our national pride this weekend chooses to overlook or ignore our national shortcomings and failures as a people to raise up women, children, the working poor, the person of color, the immigrant, the globally oppressed. He knows we have rejected the Kingdom of GOD in favor of our own private religious kingdoms, our own national identity, and our own cultural values rooted in our love of money and self. We love our church, but we’re not so sure about JESUS yet.
Jesus offends us because the in- breaking reign of GOD is sunlight through dark clouds. It exposes us. He exposed the people of Nazareth, who rejected Him. We reject Him too.
The truth is: Faithful people are not all religious. Religious people are not all faithful. There are plenty of religious people whose devotion and love is misdirected, whose lukewarm expression God spits out. There are plenty of faithful people who trust in GOD with all their hearts, soul, minds, and strength, but they do not participate in any religious community. Who would you rather be? Following Jesus is not safe or easy. And followers of Jesus will offend others with the truth. Some will welcome the truth and others will not. I want to follow Jesus. I want to heal and share the hope that I have and serve people who need a compassionate servant to love them as they are. I am learning to follow Him as I read the gospels and practice His ways. Some of you are being sent out of here today on a mission to follow and practice His ways too. Go lightly. You only need yourself and the Holy Spirit as your guide. Listen. Do what he tells you to do. Speak God’s word. Repeat what you have heard and read in it. Take better care of what God has given you. GO green. Give away what you don’t need. And don’t be tempted to pursue useless things or ideas. Build relationships with others that are mutually beneficial, but seek to serve others unconditionally. Care about others first. IN these ways you will worship HIM. You will be set free. AMEN.