Manna - What is that?

Sermon, by Pastor Ronald Nelson

Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost

August 4th, 2024

Exodus 16:2-15,

Psalm 78:23-24,

Ephesians 4:17-24,

John 6:24-35

(Eighteenth Sunday in ordinary time,

Turtle island)

What we heard in our first lesson from Exodus today is, “people grumbling against God.” They were annoyed at the harsh conditions they encountered in the wilderness. The fact that their long years of slavery had been ended and the hope that they would soon enjoy their freedom in a new land, did not seem to satisfy them.

Yearning to go back to Egypt, to slavery but having “full” stomachs again, they confronted Moses and Aaron. Even when God had provided for their needs with water, manna, and quail, they wanted more and railed against God. Moses’ frightened and hungry people told him they wished he had left them to die in Egypt. The journey towards freedom was too hard.

It is amazing how we humans can varnish memories of the past, gilding it while we whine about the present!

Our text today recounts a scene immediately after the people had crossed the Red Sea, after being delivered from Egypt. Manna seemed to be like a version of an instant breakfast. Something that was left by insects after eating a certain fruit. People could gather it and eat the flakes and even bake it into some kind of bread.

The name manna means, “what is this?”  Sounds like what I say about liver.

So, when they asked the question, it was not like they were asking of a person who had just given them a diamond ring. They had been complaining that Moses had freed them so that they now could die in the desert with manna for “dessert in the desert.”

As strange as this story of manna is, it is a classic story of God taking care of the world. But also what happens when we try to hoard an item for ourselves. (Remember toilet paper of a couple of years ago? How about the masks that saved lives so that a few could complain, protest, riot, and block streets like they did here in Ottawa and then recently had the audacity to complain that the police would not let them leave?)

In this story, the people came to realize that the manna and the quail were not just food, but a sign, what we might call sacraments. Signs that God cared for them, that God cares for us. Acknowledging that there is a God and that She cares for us can lead to good things, or it can lead to bad things like requiring the Ten Commandments to being placed on the walls of schools, but then not stopping guns from being used to kill the children in those schools.

Georges Bernanos’s priest in  “The Diary of a Country Priest,” says, “his parish is bored stiff.” Could that be why the church in general is in decay? We have forgotten the wonder of the Exodus and grumble while the world starves for bread. Have we forgotten what someone once said, “humans plan, God laughs, and stuff happens.”

Maybe we need to borrow from that horrible person in the states, “make the church great again.” Yes, it is always easier to appreciate miracles and Grace in hindsight. Yes, the people of Jesus’ day loved their thousand-year-old memory of manna that had turned into, dare I say, “a folk tale.”

Now, in Jesus’ day, the people thought Jesus/the Messiah would do the same for them. So Jesus tried to help them delve deeper into their religious imaginations. Jesus wanted to help them understand the truly human meaning of what he called the “bread of life.” If the people of Jesus’ day desired to participate in the experience of their ancestors, they would have to learn not only to look at the past or hope for the future, but to see what was right in front of them.

The fox said to “the little prince,” “it is only with one’s heart that one can see clearly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Jesus said, “very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but it is God who gives you the true bread.” You see, just like us, the people thought the bread/manna had appeared miraculously for their ancestors. They had forgotten what a small boy with a few fish or a person with some barley loaves could do. They had shared what they had and other people pitched in and the people were fed.

One of the key challenges that John’s Gospel gives us, is the call to recognize the gifts of God in our midst. The people who meet Jesus in this Gospel, according to John, are always looking for great things and seem unable to realize that the marvels they seek are right in front of them.  

As a preacher, I believe if I help you think for yourselves, I have done a good job. I hope you take today’s readings as an invitation to look at the “stuff” of our daily lives, the ordinary, the surprising, and even that which originally appears less attractive, and ask “manna?”/”what is this?”

Following the lead of our ancestors in the faith, we may slowly learn to see beyond what the letter to the Ephesians calls the “futility” of their/our minds. Doing that, we will begin to perceive what God is doing here and now. Yes, the scriptures we are using were written at least a couple of thousand years ago. God has given all of us, minds to think with, “although there will always be doubts about how some people use their minds.”

The Gospel tells us that God is constantly in the process of giving life to the world. Like the Israelites, we are invited to keep moving on our journeys of faith. We are called to go along together, seeking and praying, looking at the reality of our world and asking, “what is this?”

Sincerely asking that question in our communities will lead us to re-discover the “manna” God keeps sending. When we truly share this “manna,” we will discover that it is the only bread that satisfies the hungers of our world. Today’s selection from the letter to the Ephesians compliments Jesus’ call in the Gospels to go beyond the superficial and grasp the deepest possibilities of human life. Ephesians weaves doctrine and ethics together. The author assumes that the audience [we?] once lived “as the gentiles do.”

They/we are caught up in “the futility of our minds and deceitful desires,” as I referred to earlier, but they had/have also experienced a more satisfying alternative. While this writing to Ephesians is a fairly typical style of moral preaching for the first century, it is more applicable to our day than we might think. The author contrasts futile intellectualism to having “learned Christ.”

The first part of this reading is a warning against getting caught up in the trivial concerns that society promotes or the pseudo-sophistication of those who denigrate faith as a refuge of the intellectually or emotionally weak.

Now I know this is some “heavy stuff” but as a church living in these times, I find it interesting that 2000 years ago the church was facing the same troubles. Our consumer and/or fundamental ideas today can make a dogma out of atheism and we find we have not learned anything in 2000 years.

Pope Francis said in his “Joy of the Gospel,” “at times our media culture and some intellectual circles convey a marked skepticism with regard to the church’s message, along with a certain cynicism.”

He went on to say, “that can make us have an inferiority complex which leads us to conceal our Christian identity and convictions.” In other words, I as a preacher in the church must try to help us understand that the simplicity and directness of the Christian message can mask its truth and intensity.

Like the people in today’s Gospel, those who believe only in science cannot comprehend the transformative power of the gift of a few loaves and fishes. The letter to the Ephesians, as most if not all of the other letters in our New Testament, try to remind the communities of the early church what they had learned. The bottom line is as Ephesians says, “you learned Christ.” It is just an “odd” enough statement that it should make us think twice.

The phrase has nothing to do with intellectual knowledge or dogmatic assertions. “Learning Christ” appears to be a way of living in relationship to God. A way of orientating our entire lives to the process of coming to know God and allowing God to gradually become the meaning and central motivating factor of/and in our lives.

The author of Ephesians would like the community to be acutely aware of the difference between what God [Christ] does or could bring about in their or our lives. Using ideas that we also find in Galatians, the author speaks about the old and new orientations to life as, like a self that one puts on, or we might say, the person one decides to be. Ephesians is a call to become conscious of whether it is God or contemporary culture that orientates our daily life.

In other words, the writer of Ephesians is “hammering” away at “metanoia,” the changing of our minds, necessary for all of the followers of God.

Believers and non-believers live in the same world. We basically experience the same things. The difference revolves around how we interpret those experiences. Having a different value system, we should be able to see, hear, and touch things others miss. We should sense things through our faith in God.

God does not normally step in and change reality for our benefit. God does not work miracles for our benefit on a daily basis. God simply helps us to see, hear and touch the miraculous that is already here.

We will look at the letter of James in a few weeks. James will talk about how faith without works is dead. Something we Lutherans have had a hard time grasping. The growth and flourishing of the body of Christ, the church, always must be measured by love. A few weeks ago I made the point, “body and blood of Christ,” trying to connect it with all of life.

This is what we as a faith community need to understand.

The writer of John helps us to understand the difference between a group of people eating lunch and people participating in the Eucharist. Yes, we need to feed our bodily hunger and thirst. But in order to live a truly fulfilled life we need the bread and wine which morphs into the “bread of life.” 

Our ancestors in the desert longed for a sign of God’s faithfulness. The crowds around Jesus were asking for the same thing. I am sorry, because I am not there today, you do not have the sign of God’s faithfulness, namely the Eucharist.

But I hope you have come today to encourage and deepen your faith so you/we can be a sign of God’s presence in the world. We can be mesmerized by outright lies or manipulative promises. Things that offer superficial purpose and a shallow sense of security disconnect us from the deep need for meaning and the mystery of life, the needs that are unique to us as humans.

Today’s lessons invite us to have the courage to ask Christ, “what are you doing here?”  “What are you offering us?” If we really delve into these questions, if we really live these questions, we will learn that the bread of life is here for us in many varieties, even though it seems invisible to our eyes. That Jesus would speak of bread when describing himself should not be a surprise. Everything about Jesus’ ministry was about people experiencing the nourishment of love and the transformation that can happen when we take love into our beings and then extend that love to others. To systems  and people of authority, that love and its fruit can be a threat. To people who hunger for acceptance and love, that love is an endless banquet with enough seating for all.

Today’s Gospel returns us to the time when Jesus fed the crowds in the wilderness, then met his disciples struggling in the boat during the storm at sea as he walked on the water back to Capernaum. This story again evokes the risen Jesus, who tells the crowds that hungering for bread is only a sign of a deeper hunger that only faith can satisfy. Believing in him begins the work of God in our lives. We are part of this post-resurrection community, invited to find Jesus’ presence in the world, active along the threshold of time as we seek to imitate him, coming out of our locked rooms and fearful hesitation to trust the graces that pour into every situation where compassion is needed, in every act of loving service and selfless giving.

“Where are you?” we ask, and God answers, “come and see.”

If we move toward God’s voice, we move from darkness into light, from blindness into sight, from doubt into faith. 

Amen

The Gospel Restaurant - God's Grace is on the menu

Sermon, by Pastor Nelson

Tenth Sunday After Pentecost

July 28, 2024

2 Kings 4:42-44

Psalm 145:10-18

Ephesians 3:14-21

John 6:1-21

(Seventeenth Sunday in ordinary time,

Turtle island)

We begin this journey for the next six Sundays. When I preached on communion the last time I was with you, I did not know I would be with you again for these six Sundays.

Last Sunday you heard Mark’s version of the “bread miracles.”  Now for these next five Sundays we will be working with the Gospel of John’s ideas about the “bread miracles.”  Then on September 1, we will return to the Gospel of Mark.  I hope that even though you might not “listen” to all my six sermons, you will take the time to read them. I certainly will not pretend to have all the answers to life, but I will try to speak to life through these six Sundays of lessons.

We have a tendency to think that the four gospels all say the same thing. That is far from the truth. The writers of the four gospels each had a unique theology.  Briefly, Mark stresses the role of the community in the feedings, while the writer of John zeros in on Jesus’ role. Mark emphasizes the peoples’ action, John focuses on the bread and wine itself. Our second lessons from Ephesians try to highlight the community’s importance to give balance to John’s version. Thus, you will see some variations in the Ephesian Pericopes I use and the one in the ELW, our red book today. In the old red book [SBH) published in 1958, [some of you might be old enough to remember it, (the year I graduated from high school)]  we would use Matthew one week, Luke the next etc.  Now I know many of you are saying, “Pastor, who cares?”.  Well quite frankly I do not think I would be preaching today, if the church had not introduced the three-year cycle of lessons twenty years later in 1978.

Ok, that is more than you ever wanted to know. So, let us look at our lessons for today. This Sunday’s readings focus on sharing and practicing virtues so that the bond of unity can be preserved within the human community and among all its members. The readings today remind us that we have all been given the one spirit who lives and breathes within us and among us. An unnamed servant of Elisha is hesitant that the 20 loaves of barley bread he brings to the prophet, will not be enough to feed the 100 people. But Elisha was confident that the loaves would be enough to provide food for all. The loaves were distributed, and some bread was even left over.

Now what is the miracle here?

- is it the fact that 20 barley loaves suddenly multiplied in number or that each loaf grew in size?

- or was the miracle that all the people became truly conscious of one another and took only what they needed from a loaf, so that others could also have a share of the bread, with no one going hungry and no one doing without?  

The people in the first parish I served in Drumheller, AB were mainly people of Danish ancestry. They liked to eat, and so did this Young Swede. At every gathering there would be a cake or two. The cake would never be cut and parceled out. The whole cake would be passed around, and you would cut your own slice.  I soon learned, most people always took smaller pieces when they cut their own. No Elisha was not divine, but he knew that God works miracles through people who cooperate with the work of God in the world. There are a few politicians who I wish could understand that. Our Psalm today, 145, calls upon all creation to give thanks to God.  We as God’s faithful people are to bless God, and everyone is to talk about how our needs are satisfied if we could only work together as both human and non-human life. That there is enough for all has been demonstrated in Second Kings, and I have not even gotten to the second lesson and the gospel.

In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul urges the believing community members at Ephesus to live a life worthy of the call they have received. They are to follow the way of the Christ who embodied a virtuous life of love. Paul’s words of encouragement highlight specific virtues that the community members are to practice so that they can preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. Diverse as they may be, the people are essentially one body and one spirit. Through that communion, they are also united to God whose spirit remains alive in the midst of all creation. Here then is the message that needs to be heard so much in our day. [a life lived in humility, with patience and the ability to bear with one another through love also safeguards right relationships and ensures the practice of civility among the community’s many members.]

Now I know that is a mouthful, but that is the gospel. Please remember, when these letters by Paul and his fellow missionaries were written, the Greco-Roman world would not have heralded humility, gentleness, and patience as virtues.  In fact, in the Greco-Roman society, the above virtues would have been looked on as vices. Is it not interesting that the above has become so true today in some political circles? Paul’s directive that the community members bear with one another through love, highlights what Paul considered to be the greatest of all virtues—love. Remember Saul would have been spouting the same views as some of our political leaders do today, if he had not “fallen off his horse” and become Paul. In Ephesians today we hear that not all the people at Ephesus, even the Christians, were on the same page. They were at different stages of faith and growth. They had diverse temperaments and differences of opinions. In fact, diversity was to be celebrated and was never meant to be a stumbling block toward or for unity. Would it not be something if we understood that today? Finally, Paul and his fellow writers pushed a life of virtue grounded in love. It sounds so simple but yet it is so complicated. Are there any politicians of different stripes today who would have a beer with each other after the workday is done?   Just asking.

Well, I better get to the gospel of John. The gospel from John develops the theme of sharing, that we heard earlier in Second Kings. Captivated by Jesus’ healings, a large crowd followed Jesus, and he wanted to feed them. But buying food for such a large group would have been impossible. Andrew, one of Jesus’ disciples, draws attention to a young boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Sounds like our first lesson, eh?   Andrew immediately realizes, five loaves and two fish is not going to do it.  You can just hear him saying to himself, “why did I even mention it?”.  Well like Elisha before him, the people are all fed by the miracle of sharing. Jesus’ question to Philip is similar to the one Moses and others asked of god in the desert.  Jesus’ question to Philip is genuine and Philip’s response to Jesus is also genuine. The crowd is large, and feeding everyone is humanly and financially impossible. Once again, because people share, scarcity becomes abundance and mindfulness guards against over-consumption. 

How big a piece of cake do we really need? This Sunday’s readings remind us that we live in a world of abundance.

 - when the global human community learns to share and embrace a life of virtue, maybe then world hunger will be eradicated.

 - if miracles like the above have happened, maybe they can happen again?

When we are tempted as individuals or even as a country to think we can go it alone, we need to take another look at these scriptures for today. How should we live?

- by having patience with one another,

- by striving for humility and patience,

- by preserving unity among us,

- and by trusting that god will feed us and sustain us.

How? By realizing that God works through people just like us. Today’s gospel account of the feeding of a huge crowd shows us how Jesus was concerned with people’s physical needs while at the same time he was obviously not a political leader. I see so much of our local leaders in church and state, who get so tied up in political games that they forget their main “job” is to “feed” the people. When the crowds wanted Jesus to be a king, Jesus escaped into the mountains to pray. We in the church often forget that we are to be about more than physical hunger and political liberation. Yes, we need more than just food for physical hunger. When we get totally caught up in bread for hunger, we often forget the “bread of life.”  I know, I as a pastor, can say all kinds of flowery things, but, as we leave here today, trying to meet our responsibilities in daily life and encountering all of our ordinary limits and frustrations, we must believe that God is with us forever.

Presbyterian candidates for ordination are asked: “will you pray for and seek to serve God with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love?”  Imagination is part of ministry; a dimension of good reading and pastoral wisdom is to step back and ask occasionally about those we know best. “Who is this person?” Is to remember that each of us is fully known only to God. If we allow God to work through us, mighty things may happen. Grace is like water in the atmosphere, it cannot be diminished, but it can be redistributed. Look at what has been happening with floods while other places have drought.

We have a role in how god works within us and among us. Though God is present, divine action sometimes requires consent, and even collaboration among us. Quite simply, God does not force herself on us. It was no accident that immediately after Jesus was rejected in his hometown, Jesus sent the disciples out as strangers into new places. Their words, like wine, were to be poured into new wine-skins.

Through these next weeks we will hear of:

-           Elisha feeding 100 men, manna in the wilderness,

-           Elijah being fed by an angel,

-           Wisdom preparing a feast and inviting all to share,

-           And Jesus multiplying bread for many.

In each case those who ate were challenged to look beyond the gifts of nourishment in order to more intimately know and appreciate the giver. The people in today’s gospel were drawn to Jesus because they had a hunger for god. They followed Jesus into the wilderness because they were aware that their own lives were a wilderness. They hungered for something new. They wanted more than their ordinary lives were able to offer. But then something strange happened. Jesus gave them bread and fish. So they then wanted to make him their king.

Beware of politicians who offer us “free lunch.” Jesus was smart enough to flee from the crowds, most politicians can not do that. God has enabled us to develop technology that allows us to feed great multitudes. But we, like the people in today’s gospel are tempted by the miracles and want to make god the king of technology or even worse, technology becomes our king. Today and for the next five weeks, we will be reminded of the balance that must be kept. If we have been blessed, the gifts we have been blessed with must be shared. Love, mercy, forgiveness, companionship, peace and fulfillment are all hungers that we will try to fulfill. If we strive for that, we will find that God is always ready to satisfy our hungry hearts. But when we find ourselves clinging to safety nets and building walls for protection, we might have to return to a point where our sense of safety has to disappear. 

I think Thomas Dorsey said it best.

Precious lord, take my hand,

Lead me on, let me stand,

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.

Through the storm,

Through the night,

Lead me on, lead me to the light.

Take my hand, precious lord,

Lead me home.

[ELW 773 v. 1]

Amen

Imperfect, Exhausted, Impatient, worn out...But on the Right Path

Sermon, by Pastor Joel

Ninth Sunday After Pentecost

July 21, 2024

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Psalm 23

Ephesians 2:11-22

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

(The context of this sermon is 100%

written by a human)

In our gospel this morning, we hear that Jesus and the disciples were worn out. They had been teaching and helping other people so much that they had barely had time to eat. Yet more people kept on coming. Jesus takes pity on the weary faces of the apostles and says, let’s take a break; let’s go away where we can eat and rest in quiet. Let’s take a vacation, he tells them. I think we need it.

And yet, when they tried, the people saw where they were going and followed. And Jesus, we hear, had compassion on them – these sheep without a shepherd – and continued to work and care for them, and listen to them and teach, to give them a voice and value in the world. And the vacation was put on hold.

The lesson here is not that we should never take a vacation. Which is good news, indeed, as I look forward to heading to Nova Scotia. As we know, Jesus would eventually take the disciples on a respite up into the mountains, and he himself went alone into the desert to think. Time alone, to speak quietly to God, to hear our own thoughts, just to rest, away from the business of life, is not only part of the gospel story – it is an essential part of it. For Jesus and the disciples return from those times away wiser and better because of them.

This is a lesson about leadership – a question that seems most topical these days. We have many varied examples of it and many ways we might consider what makes a good leader. We have examples in our political leaders of those who struggle to do right and those who appear to care only to do right by themselves. That can be complicated and nuanced as we watch our neighbors finalize their candidates for president, and many of us worry about the state of that leadership in the years ahead and what it will mean for the rest of the world. If the war in Ukraine has taught us anything, it is the difference that leadership – indeed, one person – can make in the world. One leader who refuses to give up on his country. Another leader who rules with an iron and violent fist.

But we don’t have to consider what good leadership looks like – we have our frame of reference – enough so that we might celebrate good leaders and see clearly the false ones.

For we have Jesus, who, even exhausted, cared not for his own needs, but for those of the people who needed him. Jesus did not elevate himself or line his own pockets. He called out people for their lies and hubris. He welcomed strangers and loved those whom society had deemed unworthy. Importantly, he practiced compassion – exhibiting empathy to understand those he sought to teach the gospel. He demonstrated patience in serving their needs. And mercy for their mistakes. With this example, we might so clearly assess the leaders around us.

But Jesus, let’s be clear, demonstrates an aspirational form of leadership few of us can hope to attain, or at least hope to demonstrate every day. Even Jesus lost his temper on occasion.

In our first lesson, we are offered the example of King David, and an important lesson from his own leadership. David, whom we know most famously for his brave victory over Goliath. He had a backstory that was similar to that of Jesus: growing up poor, the youngest son in a line of brothers, a shepherd, who rose up in power when, by society’s rules, it should have gone to someone else.

He was a good king, but he was not a perfect one. He did unethical things – all recorded in the scripture – including sending a soldier to the frontlines of a war because he coveted the man’s wife. But he didn’t hide behind lies when this happened. He acknowledged his failing, he returned to God for forgiveness, and he looked for a better path.

And in our reading this morning, we hear that he wanted to build a grand temple in God’s name, and that God tells him not to do this, that God does not need a new temple. God tells David that it is more important to build up the kingdom, the society, and to focus his attentions elsewhere. And David agrees.

What example does this set for us? How might King David inform our modern idea of leadership? We see clearly that we are not expected to be perfect in leadership; no one can be. We will all make mistakes, but when we do, we admit them, and we try to fix them.

And we also see that leadership cannot be about what we want – in David’s case to build his temple – it must be about what God wants, about the work that should be done for the greater good. Leadership is not about making ourselves feel bigger; it is about those who feel small becoming equals. Easy to forget, when we have the power – in our communities, at work, at home, or in our marriages. But so necessary to remember.

When the confusing curves of life hit, we can lead together for the sake of the journey that lies ahead. I’ve seen it happen with many families and many marriages. Sacrificial love for the sake of the other when it truly matters. There is no better example of leadership.

So, we have today a clear definition of the gospel-led leader: an imperfect person who admits when he or she errs and seeks to make amends, someone who directs their energy not for their own elevation, but to the exhausting and necessary work of making society better. Someone who is brave when it is required, but not bombastic. Someone who sets the needs of others above their own.

It is the summer, and I hope you all get some rest. It is important to feed our souls in quiet moments of our own choosing, so that we might return invigorated. But remember the gospel this morning: even in those moments, we are still called to lead as Jesus did.

Amen