7th Sunday after Pentecost (Pr. 12) July 27, 2003 "Series B"
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we gather this morning to hear your word for our lives and to receive your grace in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, be near to us, open our hearts to receive your word, and empower us to love you as we ought. This we ask in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
Last Sunday, I worshipped at a large congregation, where I was privileged to baptize my oldest grandson, who gave me a tremendous gift. Aidan looked me in the eyes, and smiled the biggest smile, as the water trickled down his forehead in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I will never forget that smile, and the privilege of welcoming him into our Lord’s family.
Now, this particular congregation in which Aidan was baptized, is one of the fastest growing churches in the region, with over 2000 members served by four pastors. Their budget requires a weekly offering of thirty-five thousand dollars to maintain their ministry. In addition to an organ and piano, they had a band, complete with electronic drums, an instrument which I have never seen before.
Each of the pastors on their staff have specific talents to compliment their
ministry. One only works with children through the sixth grade. One only works with youth through high school. One is a ventriloquist, with fifty different puppets, each having their own unique personality. He does all the children’s sermons. And then there is the senior pastor, who oversees the weekly operation of the congregation and preaches the adult sermon.
Of course, I’m in no position to judge their ministry. I only attended the one service. But I was disappointed. With all of those resources at their disposal, I anticipated a powerful proclamation of God’s word. But the word was missing from the service. The Scripture lessons were never read, except for a couple of verses from Ephesians, which only loosely connected to the pastor’s sermon. The service seemed more like a well-staged performance, than worship.
Well, our Gospel lesson for this morning begins a series of lessons which are drawn on the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. This chapter is central to John’s theology, as it pushes us to come to terms with the identity of Jesus as the Christ, the incarnate Word of God, and the purpose for his ministry.
With this in mind, let’s consider some aspects of this familiar text. First, John tells us in verse two, that "a large crowd kept following Jesus, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick." Now this sounds as though Jesus has become a success. Surely this must mean that he is getting his message out to the people. Wouldn’t we like to see large numbers flocking through our doors every Sunday morning?
But large numbers do not tell the whole story. John tells us that the large crowd was following Jesus "because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick." Jesus had healed many who were sick with various diseases, and so the people were flocking to him in order that he might meet their physical needs, or in order to witness a miracle in action.
Yet in John’s Gospel, the miracles that Jesus performed were not to be seen as ends in themselves. They are called signs - signs that were meant to point beyond the actual act or miracle, to something greater that God was doing for the people in Jesus the Christ. And the miracle of multiplying the five loaves of bread and two fish is no exception.
It is no accident that John begins this story by telling us that the Passover, the festival of the Jews was near. This is the festival in which the Jews recall God’s deliverance of them from the bondage to slavery in Egypt, as they ate a sacred, but simple meal - the meal their ancestors ate as the angel of death passed over their homes. It is festival that celebrates God’s action to redeem them as a people who live in a living relationship with God.
Thus, John sets the scene for our understanding the sign of the feeding of
the five thousand. As Jesus takes the five barley loaves, gives thanks, and distributes them to the crowd, it is a sign that their deliverance is at hand. It is a sign that Jesus is at least a prophet of God, as recorded in our first lesson for today, if not the messiah. And according to all of the commentaries that I read on this story, it is John’s way of helping us to understand the sacrament of communion, in which Christ continues to nourish us with his grace.
In addition, John connects the feeding of the five thousand with Jesus walking on water. Again we have a sign that God is present in Jesus working for our redemption, just as he did in redeeming Israel from bondage years before. Following the Passover meal, the Jews left Egypt by miraculously crossing the Red Sea, as God parted the waters and enabled them to walk on dry land.
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus comes to the disciples walking on water, and he comforts his terrified companions by calling out to them with a phrase that in Greek can mean both "It is me," or "I am who I am." It is the same phrase that identified God to Moses, who appeared in the burning bush, which led him to follow God’s call to free the people of Israel from slavery.
Here again, John tells us that Jesus comforts the disciples by calling out the name of God. He says to them, Here I am. I am who I am. And as soon as he enters the boat, it immediately reaches its destination, a miraculous crossing of the sea, a sign that God is in Jesus, is working for their redemption.
This word of God that we have before us this morning, is a text in which John is begging us to see that in Jesus, God is present, fulfilling his promise to redeem us from sin and death. He relates these stories to the events of Israel’s past, as signs, as pointers that in Jesus the Christ, God is not only present to them, but actively working to redeem them to a new relationship with him.
But the true beauty of this text is not to be found in John’s sophisticated means of relating these stories to the events of Israel’s past, as if his goal was to convince the Jews of the first century that in Jesus the Christ, God was again at work to redeem his people from sin and death.
More than this, I believe that John wants to open our eyes to the fact that through God’s word, we can begin to perceive a pattern to the way God continually works to redeem us. I believe that John wants us, not only to perceive the "signs" that he records in his Gospel that identify Jesus as the Christ, but that he also wants us to understand that the events of our everyday lives today, may also be signs which point to God’s grace at work among us.
God’s Word, as recorded in Scripture, is not simply a record of events in history, as it is an existential and dynamic expression of how God continues to interact with us throughout the ages. Thus I believe that every time we celebrate communion, Jesus is present, inviting us to come and eat, offering his grace to us as he did those thousands on the hillside. And I believe that Jesus is present to us, as we face events in our life that seems like an impassable sea, to help us through, to the other side.
Oh, it may not be the journey we want. It may not even be what we want to hear. But the Word of God challenges us to listen and to look at the events in our life as signs of God’s presence at work among us. For the Word of God has the power to open our eyes and hearts to the grace of God in our midst.
In fact there are many examples from my own life that I could share with you to illustrate how God revealed his presence to me. But let me return to my opening story. The look in Aidan’s eyes, the smile on his face was a sign to me that in the few moments that I have been with him in his brief life, that he trusted me. Even when the waters of baptism poured down his face, when many children would naturally cry, he smiled. And his smile caused many to smile.
Although I have pictures to share with you today, I have no pictures of that smile. It was a gift. It was a sign that he trusted his Pap to do what was in his best interest. And as I looked at the faces of his parents, they, too, smiled, with a tears of joy. But none could match the tears in my eyes, as I came to realize that my daughter, after years of absence from the church, came back, and promised to raise her child in the Christian faith.
And quite frankly, I’m glad to be back at St. John’s. Oh, we may not have all the resources of that large congregation in Savannah, but I honestly believe that we gather to hear the Word of God, rather than to be entertained. And that is a true sign of God’s presence.
Amen.
