Song of Solomon 2:8-13; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
“But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.”
We like to keep ourselves looking good on the outside, don’t we? We put a lot of effort into it. Yet, today’s word of scripture is about improving how we look on the inside. We are warned by James to avoid being “Like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like” (1:23-24).
The Pharisees were big on looking good, that is, clean, on the outside. they believed that their religious rituals led to their personal perfection, which made them better than everybody else. It was as if being perfect in God’s law made them as perfect as God.
The Pharisees tried so very hard to protect themselves from defilement that they must have met themselves coming and going from one dirty washroom to the next. The problem was that the ways they went about being pure were contaminated with self-designed rules and regulations.
In the midst of all that ceremonial washing, When did they have time for God?
It is so easy to be distracted from God when higher honor is given to human traditions and religious rituals. In their efforts to prove themselves pure, the Pharisees actually poisoned others around them by spreading their own impurity upon the innocent and vulnerable.
James speaks to this truth: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (1:27). The Pharisees would never be in the same room with widows and orphans and the vulnerable for fear of being defiled by them. Every time they chose to wash their own feet instead of the feet of the marginalized of society, they defiled themselves. They defeated themselves.
Never one to miss a teachable moment, Jesus answered the Pharisees’ defilement challenge by naming true defilement. “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile…For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come” (Mark 7:15, 21a).
God did not design us to be hopelessly impure. Neither are we designed for perfection. Who wants a world filled with perfect people? God does not care if our hands and faces are dirty. What God cares about is the condition of our hearts. The one thing, above all else, that our God desires, is our hearts, clean and pure, ready to receive and then to share God’s abundant and perfect love for all people. So, how is it possible to share this good news.
We easily understand physical contamination, defilement, impurity in scientific, biological terms. Germs are bad; disinfectant is good. No one would prepare dinner in the bathroom, even though statistics show that the bathroom is often the cleanest room in the house. There is just a huge “ick factor” in the very idea. We all have standards of physical purity.
What, then, are the standards of spiritual purity? What if we felt as much of the “ick factor” about dishing out wounding remarks as we do about the proper ways to prepare our food? “Jesus is proposing that we intentionally build a culture that worries about whether our behavior is feeding grudges or a spiral of violence in the same way—but with considerably more intensity—that most of us were brought up to worry about food practices feeding bacteria” (Dylan’s Lectionary Blog: Proper 17, Year B).
Let’s take this even a step further. Most of us consider that if one impure thing touches a pure thing, then the whole thing is rendered impure. By the way, the five-second rule is really bad for you. I heard it on The Doctors. Let that assumption about purity carry over into how we treat people. Don’t we get caught, like the Pharisees did, in judging others as “less than?”
We are not called to live in such a way. I share with you these words written by Sarah Dylan who has such a brilliant insight to Jesus and his teachings that I dare not paraphrase and risk losing the clarity and truth of which she speaks.
It is possible to live in such a way, to display in our relationships a quality and consistency of love, that something the world writes off as irredeemable is transformed into something bearing witness to God’s power to redeem. If it’s what goes in that makes someone impure, then people need to guard carefully against coming into contact with the wrong sort of person, lest they come into contact with the wrong sort of things. But if what flows out of people in loving relationship with one another radiates purity, then we are freed to live making decisions based on love and not in fear. That I s an incredibly radical, liberating transformative insight—one I’m always trying to take in more deeply.
And there’s one further insight from Jesus’ view of purity that might be more radical still. If purity is something radiated out by how we are in relationships, then we actually NEED other people for a life of holiness. For example, If true purity is about exercising forgiveness, then we NEED to take the risk of staying in relationship with people the world thinks are hopeless to experience God’s holiness. If true purity involves exercising compassion, then suffering in the world isn’t proof that God doesn’t care, but is an opportunity to experience and proclaim just how much and in what ways God does care. If true purity is about relationship, then the challenges facing us as a church of flawed and bickering people are an opportunity to understand God’s grace more deeply and proclaim it more powerfully by insisting that reconciliation be the first, middle and final word. ..That’s Jesus’ teaching in this Sunday’s gospel; that’s the example we have in Jesus’ manner of life, which posed a profound challenge to his Pharisaic brothers much as it challenges the church today.
When we look in the mirror, I pray we do not walk away unaffected by what we see. I pray that we see the full potential of whom God creates us to be. I pray that we become carriers of contagious purity from this moment out, visiting one another with the only goal of how to build up one another in love.
In our God is the strength and power we need to meet every challenge that life presents us. Avoid the “ick factor.” Every time we look in the mirror, let’s strive to spend the rest of the day being as good-looking on the inside as we are on the outside, for God created us beautiful. Amen.
August 30, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
August 31, 2009
Suiting Up For Christ
Joshua 24:14-28; John 6:60-71; Ephesians 6:10-20
In Matthew 16, there is a simple exchange between Jesus and Peter, which ends with Jesus asking, “But who do you say that I am?” and Peter answering, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Yet, at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, in the hands of the ancient church fathers, Peter’s answer is slightly adapted to help us understand who Jesus is and his position in the Trinity.
Jesus said, “Who do men say that I am?” And his disciples answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or others say of the old prophets.”
Jesus asked, "But who do you say that I am?"
Peter answered, "Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple."
And to that answer, Jesus said, "Huh?"
So now that we understand how the three members of the Trinity relate to each other, let’s look at today’s three passages of scripture and examine how they relate to each other. I will focus on these three things: choices, witnessing, and faith.
The tribes make their emphatic choice to worship and serve Yahweh, even though Joshua defiantly goads their proclamation over and over again. “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God” (v 19). In the repartee, what happens? The people become louder and more emphatic in their witness to the covenant with Yahweh, “YES! WE WILL SERVE THE LORD! Then they confidently departed each tribe to their own land.
The crowds of disciples who have followed Jesus from the feeding of five thousand on the mount, across the sea of Galilee and then back again, the ones who begged Jesus to “give them this bread always” have been brought to the peak of faithfulness only to fall off the edge, trading faith’s fervor for great grumbling. “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” (v 60). They had a choice to make.
Most chose to leave; they departed, each back to their own land, their regular life. Only the twelve remained with the Holy One of God—and one of them would deny him three times, another would betray him with a kiss into the “sworded” (and sordid) hands of Roman soldiers.
· The fledgling churches to which Paul wrote were persecuted
relentlessly. They lived in the midst of people who hated them and a government that hunted them. They were shunned for
choosing to follow that radical blasphemer, Jesus Christ; for their rejection of the letter of the law for the spirit of the law; for their strange (cannibalistic!) practices and offensive teachings. They must have been afraid at times, insecure and vulnerable at times, so Paul reminds them that the strength of the Lord God is with them at all times. Easier said than done, many would say, but Paul knows what he is talking about.
We do not need complicated dogma when we are in crisis; Paul tells us simply, with imagery we can understand, what we need to do: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (vv 10-11).
I wanted to talk to you this morning about the shield and the helmet and breastplate, etc, probably because that would have been easier to do. However, I feel that God wants me to share with you instead how the armor of God makes us strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. How it makes us able to stand in the face of what would destroy us and brings us triumphantly through to the other side.
In June, in one day, I received two envelopes in the mail, and the contents of each caught me with my armor down. One letter was from the IRS and the other was from the Pheasant Hill Property Board. One said that I still owed them several hundred dollars after the several thousand I already paid them; the other said the condo owners were each being assessed $4000--$1000 each year for this year and the next three years and the first $500 was due July 1, just a few weeks away.
I didn’t have on my armor, I hadn’t suited up for Christ before I opened my mail, so I was not prepared to fight the good fight, physical, spiritual or otherwise. I began to cry and pace around my house. I was ready to give up. I began to succumb; I began repeating words I seemed to be hearing in my head, “You can’t do this; just give up. It’s impossible! Give up, give up, give up.” Over and over again, I heard the words—and I hated them but I was almost ready to believe them.
Then I heard a new voice, some new words, “He’s trying to trick you.” And I stopped in my tracks. Something came over me—was it the armor of God, the spirit of truth, the light of Jesus, the word of God, shining in my present darkness? Just when I was about to succumb to the wiles of evil, God spoke a stronger word to me. “Don’t believe it.” The Lord became strong in me.
I stood up straight, stretched out my arms toward the ceiling, the bad-news papers still clenched in my fist, and out loud I proclaimed (I even think I was gritting my teeth), “OK, God, then you do this!” And a sense of calm came over me. I stopped crying; I put the papers down; and I took a nap. Fighting the devil wears you out, you know!
You see, what I realized was that voice in my head, the one that was so cunning and devious, was trying to get me to believe that I was lost and alone, weak and vulnerable. I believe that voice, that deceitful cunning, is what Paul is warning all believers about when he speaks of the wiles of the devil. Only the whole armor of God can protect us when it comes to spiritual warfare.
All those bills have been paid now, God provided for me and God will provide for you, too. God provides because God loves. When clothed in the armor of God, no devil shall be able to prevail against us. Neither shall it overcome Christ’s church. True light will shine blindingly bright in this present darkness.
This is the good news today, God provides and God prevails. Why? Because the Lord our God is a jealous God and he never lets go of those who belong to him. God is so possessive of us that he sent his only son not because Jesus art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation,” but because he loves us beyond this world into the next.
So when Jesus asks you, “Do you also wish to go away?” give him not long laundry list of excuses, simply confess, as Peter did, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” The only answer left then is to follow him when we hear him call our names. Amen.
August 23, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of south Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
In Matthew 16, there is a simple exchange between Jesus and Peter, which ends with Jesus asking, “But who do you say that I am?” and Peter answering, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Yet, at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, in the hands of the ancient church fathers, Peter’s answer is slightly adapted to help us understand who Jesus is and his position in the Trinity.
Jesus said, “Who do men say that I am?” And his disciples answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist returned from the dead; others say Elijah, or others say of the old prophets.”
Jesus asked, "But who do you say that I am?"
Peter answered, "Thou art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation, but only on the fact that Scripture speaks of a Father, and a Son, and a Holy Spirit, each member of the Trinity being coequal with every other member, and each acting inseparably with and interpenetrating every other member, with only an economic subordination within God, but causing no division which would make the substance no longer simple."
And to that answer, Jesus said, "Huh?"
So now that we understand how the three members of the Trinity relate to each other, let’s look at today’s three passages of scripture and examine how they relate to each other. I will focus on these three things: choices, witnessing, and faith.
The tribes make their emphatic choice to worship and serve Yahweh, even though Joshua defiantly goads their proclamation over and over again. “You cannot serve the Lord, for he is a holy God” (v 19). In the repartee, what happens? The people become louder and more emphatic in their witness to the covenant with Yahweh, “YES! WE WILL SERVE THE LORD! Then they confidently departed each tribe to their own land.
The crowds of disciples who have followed Jesus from the feeding of five thousand on the mount, across the sea of Galilee and then back again, the ones who begged Jesus to “give them this bread always” have been brought to the peak of faithfulness only to fall off the edge, trading faith’s fervor for great grumbling. “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” (v 60). They had a choice to make.
Most chose to leave; they departed, each back to their own land, their regular life. Only the twelve remained with the Holy One of God—and one of them would deny him three times, another would betray him with a kiss into the “sworded” (and sordid) hands of Roman soldiers.
· The fledgling churches to which Paul wrote were persecuted
relentlessly. They lived in the midst of people who hated them and a government that hunted them. They were shunned for
choosing to follow that radical blasphemer, Jesus Christ; for their rejection of the letter of the law for the spirit of the law; for their strange (cannibalistic!) practices and offensive teachings. They must have been afraid at times, insecure and vulnerable at times, so Paul reminds them that the strength of the Lord God is with them at all times. Easier said than done, many would say, but Paul knows what he is talking about.
We do not need complicated dogma when we are in crisis; Paul tells us simply, with imagery we can understand, what we need to do: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (vv 10-11).
I wanted to talk to you this morning about the shield and the helmet and breastplate, etc, probably because that would have been easier to do. However, I feel that God wants me to share with you instead how the armor of God makes us strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. How it makes us able to stand in the face of what would destroy us and brings us triumphantly through to the other side.
In June, in one day, I received two envelopes in the mail, and the contents of each caught me with my armor down. One letter was from the IRS and the other was from the Pheasant Hill Property Board. One said that I still owed them several hundred dollars after the several thousand I already paid them; the other said the condo owners were each being assessed $4000--$1000 each year for this year and the next three years and the first $500 was due July 1, just a few weeks away.
I didn’t have on my armor, I hadn’t suited up for Christ before I opened my mail, so I was not prepared to fight the good fight, physical, spiritual or otherwise. I began to cry and pace around my house. I was ready to give up. I began to succumb; I began repeating words I seemed to be hearing in my head, “You can’t do this; just give up. It’s impossible! Give up, give up, give up.” Over and over again, I heard the words—and I hated them but I was almost ready to believe them.
Then I heard a new voice, some new words, “He’s trying to trick you.” And I stopped in my tracks. Something came over me—was it the armor of God, the spirit of truth, the light of Jesus, the word of God, shining in my present darkness? Just when I was about to succumb to the wiles of evil, God spoke a stronger word to me. “Don’t believe it.” The Lord became strong in me.
I stood up straight, stretched out my arms toward the ceiling, the bad-news papers still clenched in my fist, and out loud I proclaimed (I even think I was gritting my teeth), “OK, God, then you do this!” And a sense of calm came over me. I stopped crying; I put the papers down; and I took a nap. Fighting the devil wears you out, you know!
You see, what I realized was that voice in my head, the one that was so cunning and devious, was trying to get me to believe that I was lost and alone, weak and vulnerable. I believe that voice, that deceitful cunning, is what Paul is warning all believers about when he speaks of the wiles of the devil. Only the whole armor of God can protect us when it comes to spiritual warfare.
All those bills have been paid now, God provided for me and God will provide for you, too. God provides because God loves. When clothed in the armor of God, no devil shall be able to prevail against us. Neither shall it overcome Christ’s church. True light will shine blindingly bright in this present darkness.
This is the good news today, God provides and God prevails. Why? Because the Lord our God is a jealous God and he never lets go of those who belong to him. God is so possessive of us that he sent his only son not because Jesus art the Logos, existing in the Father as His rationality and then, by an act of His will, being generated, in consideration of the various functions by which God is related to his creation,” but because he loves us beyond this world into the next.
So when Jesus asks you, “Do you also wish to go away?” give him not long laundry list of excuses, simply confess, as Peter did, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” The only answer left then is to follow him when we hear him call our names. Amen.
August 23, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of south Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
August 11, 2009
DRAWN BY GOD
I Kings 19:4-8; John 6:35, 41-51
No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me;
and I will raise that person up on the last day.
I want to tell you a story of a real man named Sadhu Sundar Singh, who was born in India in 1889. At the age of 15, he converted to Christianity after having a vision of Jesus. His father threw him a farewell party and then kicked him out of the family. It was Sundar's life work to travel around distributing gospels to people. He came upon some non-Christians on the train and offered a man a copy of John's gospel. The man took it, tore it into pieces in anger and threw the pieces out of the window. That seemed the end. But it so happened, in the provident of God, there was a man anxiously seeking the truth walking along the train tracks that very day, and he picked up as he walked along, a little bit of paper. In his own language it read, “The Bread of Life.” He did not know what it meant so he began to ask of his friends.
One of them said, “I can tell you; it is out of the Christian Book. You must not read it or you will be defiled.“ The man thought for a moment and said, “I want to read a copy of the book that contains that beautiful phrase!” and he bought a copy of the New Testament. He was shown where the sentence occurred—our Lord's words “I am the Bread of Life”; and as he studied the Gospel, the light flooded into his heart. He came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and he became a preacher of the gospel. That little bit of paper through God's Spirit was indeed the Bread of Life to him, satisfying his deepest need (Adapted from Stephen Olford. Basics for Believers, 2003, pp 112-13).
Sundar Singh, it seems to me, was drawn by God for a very special purpose in spreading Truth. A holy encounter with God, God's angels, or Jesus himself happens over and over again in the bible and behind all the action is God drawing his people closer to him all the time.
Elijah was drawn by God to eat the bread of life even as the hunted prophet prayed for his own death. Under the shady, shaggy broom tree he fell asleep and either had a dream or awoke to the touch of an angel instructing him to, “Get up and eat.” His daily bread is provided near his head. He eats and falls back to sleep. Once more the words, “Get up and eat or the journey will be too much for you.” Elijah does as he is told. We don't know if Elijah is still worried that Jezebel was in pursuit of his life or not. What we do know is that after the meal of bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water, he got up and went in the strength of that food for forty days and nights Horeb, the mount of God.
Long before Jesus, you see, God was in the business of providing bread for the journey and food for the soul. God could draw the hearts of even those who though they were once zealous for the Lord but later, at the end of the day, would rather die than face another day. God, our Father and Creator, draws his children closer through life-giving bread—quite unlike Sundar's father who sent the boy packing when he gave his life to the Lord.
Food has always been a big draw for people. In ancient times just about every decision, every business transaction, and every religious ritual was centered around food. How many stories in the bible can you name that have food as one of its central characters? You can only get as far as Chapter 3 in Genesis before food—a certain fruit—leads the world's first eviction notice. Food is intended to be for our good, yet when we look around today, many people in our country have turned our daily bread for sustenance into an hourly bread, an addiction. Obesity is epidemic among children and adults alike. The weight-loss industry is a $40 billion business in this country.
In 2004, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranked obesity as the number one health threat facing America. Obesity currently results in an estimated 400,000 deaths annually1 and costs nearly $122.9 billion.2
These statistics lead me to ask, What is it that we are so hungry for? What do we hear ourselves and others saying? “I'm so hungry; I can't seem to get enough to eat.”
It's pretty common knowledge that many people are overweight because they eat the wrong foods—and lots of it. Others eat to swallow their pain; some find their weight as a way to protect themselves from anyone or anything that might get too close to them.
We're a hungry people; we stay hungry because we do not feast on the right food. Yes, we need to make deposits in our bodies of the seven food groups for our physical health, but I think that we are still starving and foraging for food because we do not eat the Bread of Life.
I was thinking about the food chart and I began to convert it into a spiritual food chart. Try to imagine with me as I describe this spiritual food pyramid.
At the base of the pyramid are three blocks. One is “bread of life”; the next is “living water”; and the third is “new birth.” In the second tier there are two blocks. One is filled with “The Word” and the other is filled with “Prayer.” At the top of the pyramid is “Worship.” As with the food pyramid, I have assigned suggested servings of each block in the spiritual pyramid.
Worship=1 large serving on Sundays; mini servings on weekdays in the midst of other moments or specially set aside. (Psalm 100:4; Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.)
The Word: I recommend at least two servings per day, one in the morning and one in the evening so as to begin and end the day with God filling your soul. (Matthew 4:4—a man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.)
Prayer = all day long—at least once before every meal and at bedtime, and any time in between (I Thessalonians 5:17).
Born Anew= first thing every morning. (John 3) Remember that Jesus taught Nicodemus that if he wanted see the kingdom of God he would have to be born from above.
Living Water=8 times a day. (John 4) Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that if she knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to her, 'Give me a drink,' she would have asked him and he would have given her living water.)
Bread of Life=all day long; repeat as often as necessary. “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” (John 6:50).
Unlike the temporary bread and water, when we eat a balanced spiritual food diet, we cannot overeat. We will grow, that is true, not around our middles but in the middle of our being—the heart and soul of who God creates and calls us to be.
Many things in our world draw us in, but they are not always the right things or good things. It is a test of will for humanity has a tendency to resist the holy things. But it's all very logical, you know. If we want to have a healthy body, we have to feed it the good things, the right things so that it can function well and allow us the strength and freedom to be all that we can be.
So if we extend the metaphor, if we want to have a healthy spirit, we must also feed our spirits with the right and good things. Jesus is the one thing, the holy thing that can fill all our spiritual needs. He is the bread of life that God provides for the whole of our lives, both on temporal and eternal.
The Good News today my friends is that God provides the true Bread of Life—all that we need to survive and thrive in today's famished world. In II Peter 3 Peter writes, the Lord does not want any of us to perish...EVER.
We have been given this Bread of Life so that we may have eternal life, drawn by God's love for us through those beautiful gates we are supposed to enter with thanksgiving. When we eat of this bread we will be spiritually filled up. Gone is the desire to eat more manna that still leaves us hungering for who knows what, and come to us is the Way to take a 40-day journey through any wilderness to the mount of God. We will survive it because God is drawing us closer with each new day—it matters not how many Jezebels seek our demise; it's like the wind and the waves, no matter how wild a ride it gets to be, cast your Jesus bread upon the waters and just see what happens.
The journey will not be too much for us when we eat the True bread of Life that God has sent directly from heaven to feed us. Forget about eating pounds of fruitless fear; stop drinking gallons of worry, anger, vengeance or apathy. We must get up and eat this Bread of Life, otherwise the journey will be too much for us. And do not worry about having enough for the journey. We've already seen what Jesus can do with five loaves and two fishes.
Eat well of the Lord today and every day, my friends, for God is drawing us nearer by the hour. Amen.
August 9, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
I Kings 19:4-8; John 6:35, 41-51
No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me;
and I will raise that person up on the last day.
I want to tell you a story of a real man named Sadhu Sundar Singh, who was born in India in 1889. At the age of 15, he converted to Christianity after having a vision of Jesus. His father threw him a farewell party and then kicked him out of the family. It was Sundar's life work to travel around distributing gospels to people. He came upon some non-Christians on the train and offered a man a copy of John's gospel. The man took it, tore it into pieces in anger and threw the pieces out of the window. That seemed the end. But it so happened, in the provident of God, there was a man anxiously seeking the truth walking along the train tracks that very day, and he picked up as he walked along, a little bit of paper. In his own language it read, “The Bread of Life.” He did not know what it meant so he began to ask of his friends.
One of them said, “I can tell you; it is out of the Christian Book. You must not read it or you will be defiled.“ The man thought for a moment and said, “I want to read a copy of the book that contains that beautiful phrase!” and he bought a copy of the New Testament. He was shown where the sentence occurred—our Lord's words “I am the Bread of Life”; and as he studied the Gospel, the light flooded into his heart. He came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and he became a preacher of the gospel. That little bit of paper through God's Spirit was indeed the Bread of Life to him, satisfying his deepest need (Adapted from Stephen Olford. Basics for Believers, 2003, pp 112-13).
Sundar Singh, it seems to me, was drawn by God for a very special purpose in spreading Truth. A holy encounter with God, God's angels, or Jesus himself happens over and over again in the bible and behind all the action is God drawing his people closer to him all the time.
Elijah was drawn by God to eat the bread of life even as the hunted prophet prayed for his own death. Under the shady, shaggy broom tree he fell asleep and either had a dream or awoke to the touch of an angel instructing him to, “Get up and eat.” His daily bread is provided near his head. He eats and falls back to sleep. Once more the words, “Get up and eat or the journey will be too much for you.” Elijah does as he is told. We don't know if Elijah is still worried that Jezebel was in pursuit of his life or not. What we do know is that after the meal of bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water, he got up and went in the strength of that food for forty days and nights Horeb, the mount of God.
Long before Jesus, you see, God was in the business of providing bread for the journey and food for the soul. God could draw the hearts of even those who though they were once zealous for the Lord but later, at the end of the day, would rather die than face another day. God, our Father and Creator, draws his children closer through life-giving bread—quite unlike Sundar's father who sent the boy packing when he gave his life to the Lord.
Food has always been a big draw for people. In ancient times just about every decision, every business transaction, and every religious ritual was centered around food. How many stories in the bible can you name that have food as one of its central characters? You can only get as far as Chapter 3 in Genesis before food—a certain fruit—leads the world's first eviction notice. Food is intended to be for our good, yet when we look around today, many people in our country have turned our daily bread for sustenance into an hourly bread, an addiction. Obesity is epidemic among children and adults alike. The weight-loss industry is a $40 billion business in this country.
In 2004, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranked obesity as the number one health threat facing America. Obesity currently results in an estimated 400,000 deaths annually1 and costs nearly $122.9 billion.2
These statistics lead me to ask, What is it that we are so hungry for? What do we hear ourselves and others saying? “I'm so hungry; I can't seem to get enough to eat.”
It's pretty common knowledge that many people are overweight because they eat the wrong foods—and lots of it. Others eat to swallow their pain; some find their weight as a way to protect themselves from anyone or anything that might get too close to them.
We're a hungry people; we stay hungry because we do not feast on the right food. Yes, we need to make deposits in our bodies of the seven food groups for our physical health, but I think that we are still starving and foraging for food because we do not eat the Bread of Life.
I was thinking about the food chart and I began to convert it into a spiritual food chart. Try to imagine with me as I describe this spiritual food pyramid.
At the base of the pyramid are three blocks. One is “bread of life”; the next is “living water”; and the third is “new birth.” In the second tier there are two blocks. One is filled with “The Word” and the other is filled with “Prayer.” At the top of the pyramid is “Worship.” As with the food pyramid, I have assigned suggested servings of each block in the spiritual pyramid.
Worship=1 large serving on Sundays; mini servings on weekdays in the midst of other moments or specially set aside. (Psalm 100:4; Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.)
The Word: I recommend at least two servings per day, one in the morning and one in the evening so as to begin and end the day with God filling your soul. (Matthew 4:4—a man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.)
Prayer = all day long—at least once before every meal and at bedtime, and any time in between (I Thessalonians 5:17).
Born Anew= first thing every morning. (John 3) Remember that Jesus taught Nicodemus that if he wanted see the kingdom of God he would have to be born from above.
Living Water=8 times a day. (John 4) Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that if she knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to her, 'Give me a drink,' she would have asked him and he would have given her living water.)
Bread of Life=all day long; repeat as often as necessary. “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” (John 6:50).
Unlike the temporary bread and water, when we eat a balanced spiritual food diet, we cannot overeat. We will grow, that is true, not around our middles but in the middle of our being—the heart and soul of who God creates and calls us to be.
Many things in our world draw us in, but they are not always the right things or good things. It is a test of will for humanity has a tendency to resist the holy things. But it's all very logical, you know. If we want to have a healthy body, we have to feed it the good things, the right things so that it can function well and allow us the strength and freedom to be all that we can be.
So if we extend the metaphor, if we want to have a healthy spirit, we must also feed our spirits with the right and good things. Jesus is the one thing, the holy thing that can fill all our spiritual needs. He is the bread of life that God provides for the whole of our lives, both on temporal and eternal.
The Good News today my friends is that God provides the true Bread of Life—all that we need to survive and thrive in today's famished world. In II Peter 3 Peter writes, the Lord does not want any of us to perish...EVER.
We have been given this Bread of Life so that we may have eternal life, drawn by God's love for us through those beautiful gates we are supposed to enter with thanksgiving. When we eat of this bread we will be spiritually filled up. Gone is the desire to eat more manna that still leaves us hungering for who knows what, and come to us is the Way to take a 40-day journey through any wilderness to the mount of God. We will survive it because God is drawing us closer with each new day—it matters not how many Jezebels seek our demise; it's like the wind and the waves, no matter how wild a ride it gets to be, cast your Jesus bread upon the waters and just see what happens.
The journey will not be too much for us when we eat the True bread of Life that God has sent directly from heaven to feed us. Forget about eating pounds of fruitless fear; stop drinking gallons of worry, anger, vengeance or apathy. We must get up and eat this Bread of Life, otherwise the journey will be too much for us. And do not worry about having enough for the journey. We've already seen what Jesus can do with five loaves and two fishes.
Eat well of the Lord today and every day, my friends, for God is drawing us nearer by the hour. Amen.
August 9, 2009
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise
August 07, 2009
MANNA ON THEIR MINDS
Exodus 16:2-4; 9-15; John 6:24-35
“I am the bread of life.”
Humanity hungers for many things—food, shelter and clothing, of course. Yet, we have other hungers as well; we have emotional, intellectual, cultural, visceral needs all blistering for a salve.
Money will not soothe the burn. In an economy as wounded as ours is, something richer is needed. We have been taught where sustenance is to be found, yet it is often the last pantry we search for that seemingly elusive spiritual satisfaction.
There is a spiritual famine in our land, even right in our own community. People today are starving for God. How is it that they have not recognized the Bread of Life moving among them? Why is it so many remain as wilderness people—wandering and wondering—with only the next crop of manna on their minds?
People walk up and down the sidewalks on either side of our sanctuary every Sunday (I can see them when the windows are open in the summer.) Even though I am speaking with you, my mind wanders out there. I shoot off a little prayer for them—and even the dogs they might be walking with—praying that some day they may walk in here rather than right past here. I want them to have what we have. I hunger for them to feast with us upon the Bread of Life.
Jesus said to the crowds, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
That’s how it is with miracles, you know. We often miss them in their ordinariness.
Barbara Brown Taylor wrote a sermon titled, “Bread of Angels” on these two passages from Exodus and John. She, too, cautions folks about missing the point of manna and miracles. Listen to her words:
If your manna has to drop straight out of heaven looking like a perfect loaf of butter-crust bread, then chances are you are going to go hungry a lot.
When you do not get the miracle you are praying for, you are going to think that God is ignoring you or punishing you or—worse yet—that God is not there. You are going to start comparing yourself to other people and wondering why they seem to have more to eat than you do, and you may start complaining to heaven about that.
Meanwhile, you are going to miss a lot of other things God is doing for you because they are too ordinary…If on the other hand you are willing to look at everything that comes to you as coming to you from God, then there will be no end to the manna in your life…Nothing will be too ordinary or too transitory to remind you of God.
Take something as ordinary and transitory as a yard sale. FPFC has the yard sale of yard sales.
Yesterday, all over the Ouellette’s lawn you could see customers on their cell phones. “You should get down here!” They were saying. “It’s unbelievable!”
While I was there for several hours on Friday and Saturday, what I witnessed among people in our church was nothing short of miraculous.
Perhaps it seemed like we were raising money to benefit our ministries here at the church, but I also know that we were releasing miracles to benefit anyone who crossed our path. What I saw was people doing the work of God by believing in the one whom God sent.
I saw such faith as I witnessed the camaraderie of your working side by side, emptying the barn stocking the tables, laying out the furniture. We were red-faced and back bent; we were sweating yet smiling; we were determined and delighted and depleted. We are exhausted yet we are replete. How good this feels!
I could feel how much you love each other, and it doesn’t get much better than that for any pastor who leads a congregation.
I witnessed as you worked at the grill, under the canopies—sorting, folding, lugging, selling, assisting customers with their purchases—making their eyes light up with the price of a bargain, and sharing invitations to join with us at church.
You could ask any of the workers yesterday to testify to the encounters they shared with people and you would understand that miracles happen, even at yard sales.
You see, the Good News today is that God is always sending us something to eat.
Day by day, God is made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives—some bread, some love, some breath, some wine—all those absolutely essential things that are here today and gone tomorrow. (BBT, p 11.)
On the surface it appeared as if we were “doing it for the church” or “to meet our budget.”
Yet, very truly I tell you, we were able to work so very diligently and devotionally for God because we are growing in our belief in the one whom God sent: Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life—and we want to work for this Bread always.
Because of our hunger for the Lord, it matters a little less what the difficult economy is doing. It matters more that people are being fed by the one who supports, sustains and satisfies spiritual life.
The world hungers for this food—always. Serve the people the same bread we taste today: the Bread of Life, sent by the one who created it all. Amen.
Taylor, Barbara Brown. Bread of Angels, p 10.
FIRST PARISH FEDERATED CHURCH OF S BERWICK, ME
August 2, 2009
Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
Exodus 16:2-4; 9-15; John 6:24-35
“I am the bread of life.”
Humanity hungers for many things—food, shelter and clothing, of course. Yet, we have other hungers as well; we have emotional, intellectual, cultural, visceral needs all blistering for a salve.
Money will not soothe the burn. In an economy as wounded as ours is, something richer is needed. We have been taught where sustenance is to be found, yet it is often the last pantry we search for that seemingly elusive spiritual satisfaction.
There is a spiritual famine in our land, even right in our own community. People today are starving for God. How is it that they have not recognized the Bread of Life moving among them? Why is it so many remain as wilderness people—wandering and wondering—with only the next crop of manna on their minds?
People walk up and down the sidewalks on either side of our sanctuary every Sunday (I can see them when the windows are open in the summer.) Even though I am speaking with you, my mind wanders out there. I shoot off a little prayer for them—and even the dogs they might be walking with—praying that some day they may walk in here rather than right past here. I want them to have what we have. I hunger for them to feast with us upon the Bread of Life.
Jesus said to the crowds, “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
That’s how it is with miracles, you know. We often miss them in their ordinariness.
Barbara Brown Taylor wrote a sermon titled, “Bread of Angels” on these two passages from Exodus and John. She, too, cautions folks about missing the point of manna and miracles. Listen to her words:
If your manna has to drop straight out of heaven looking like a perfect loaf of butter-crust bread, then chances are you are going to go hungry a lot.
When you do not get the miracle you are praying for, you are going to think that God is ignoring you or punishing you or—worse yet—that God is not there. You are going to start comparing yourself to other people and wondering why they seem to have more to eat than you do, and you may start complaining to heaven about that.
Meanwhile, you are going to miss a lot of other things God is doing for you because they are too ordinary…If on the other hand you are willing to look at everything that comes to you as coming to you from God, then there will be no end to the manna in your life…Nothing will be too ordinary or too transitory to remind you of God.
Take something as ordinary and transitory as a yard sale. FPFC has the yard sale of yard sales.
Yesterday, all over the Ouellette’s lawn you could see customers on their cell phones. “You should get down here!” They were saying. “It’s unbelievable!”
While I was there for several hours on Friday and Saturday, what I witnessed among people in our church was nothing short of miraculous.
Perhaps it seemed like we were raising money to benefit our ministries here at the church, but I also know that we were releasing miracles to benefit anyone who crossed our path. What I saw was people doing the work of God by believing in the one whom God sent.
I saw such faith as I witnessed the camaraderie of your working side by side, emptying the barn stocking the tables, laying out the furniture. We were red-faced and back bent; we were sweating yet smiling; we were determined and delighted and depleted. We are exhausted yet we are replete. How good this feels!
I could feel how much you love each other, and it doesn’t get much better than that for any pastor who leads a congregation.
I witnessed as you worked at the grill, under the canopies—sorting, folding, lugging, selling, assisting customers with their purchases—making their eyes light up with the price of a bargain, and sharing invitations to join with us at church.
You could ask any of the workers yesterday to testify to the encounters they shared with people and you would understand that miracles happen, even at yard sales.
You see, the Good News today is that God is always sending us something to eat.
Day by day, God is made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives—some bread, some love, some breath, some wine—all those absolutely essential things that are here today and gone tomorrow. (BBT, p 11.)
On the surface it appeared as if we were “doing it for the church” or “to meet our budget.”
Yet, very truly I tell you, we were able to work so very diligently and devotionally for God because we are growing in our belief in the one whom God sent: Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life—and we want to work for this Bread always.
Because of our hunger for the Lord, it matters a little less what the difficult economy is doing. It matters more that people are being fed by the one who supports, sustains and satisfies spiritual life.
The world hungers for this food—always. Serve the people the same bread we taste today: the Bread of Life, sent by the one who created it all. Amen.
Taylor, Barbara Brown. Bread of Angels, p 10.
FIRST PARISH FEDERATED CHURCH OF S BERWICK, ME
August 2, 2009
Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
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