Will Rice - Sermon #8 - Asleep at the Wheel

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Mark 4:35-41

It is not like I was the only person who life was disrupted this week, but I must admit, I had a different sermon set for today. The last two times I preached, my sermons were driven by the events of the day. Two weeks ago, it was the anniversary of 9-11, the week before that, we were reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. So, this week, I set out to preach the way I like to preach. I selected the text, read it, studied it, thought about it, and then let the scriptures, with the help of the Holy Spirit begin to form a message within me. The message was quite interesting. It was a reflection on how Jesus refuses to answer bad questions. I was to talk about how instead of getting dragged into no-win ideological debates, we can tell stories like Jesus did.

But, as the week progressed, I realized that the message, while a decent message might be a little too abstract. Part of what I try to do when I preach is to take the scriptures and find a way for us all to see their relevance for our lives today, to try and put them in our context. Well a very large part of the context of our lives this week was a giant hurricane bearing down on us.

Like a TIVO slow-motion-replay of a terrible accident
is the mention of the name Rita,
layering dread upon souls
already drenched with misery;[1]

Imagine if once the disciples had actually awoken Jesus in this week’s text, instead of calming the waves, he had given the disciples an hour-long lecture on the finer points of salvation.

"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

If it wasn’t so panic inspiring all by itself, the hurricane would be a perfect metaphor for chaos forcing its way into the order of our lives. It is not by coincidence that the Bible, with its words about the very beginning of everything begins with something like a hurricane.

Genesis 1 ¹In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

But onto today’s text.

³⁵On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side."

Sometimes I don’t know if the disciples were just incredibly naïve or if they were just amazingly obedient. If you have never read Mark’s gospel, pick it up when you get home to see what it is that Jesus is getting these guys into, but let leave it with, the “other side” is not a place where nice young Jewish fishermen should be going. Besides that, as a person who grew up on a large shallow lake, Lake Erie, I wouldn’t be very likely to take an evening trip on the Sea of Galilee. Have you ever been out in a big lake or in the gulf on a little boat without lights at night? But, off they go.

³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. ³⁷A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped.

Now for those of you who went out of town for the last couple of days, I don’t know what you were doing. For the rest of you, I do know what you were doing. You were sitting in front of the TV watching CNN or The Weather Channel. Some of us know new terms like eyewall replacement cycle, others can decipher projected path computer models that use different storm path algorithms.

So, to try and keep your attention, I know many of you are tired from putting up, and then taking back down the plywood over your windows, I will try to explain what is going on in more meteorological terms.

The Sea of Galilee is about 700 feet below sea level. The hills around the inland lake reach to about 1,500 feet above, giving you about 2000 foot difference between the lake and the tops of the hills. With that kind of elevation shift, there are often huge differences in temperatures, cool dry air up top, warm, moist air below. When those start colliding, wind and storms come up. The Sea of Galilee is a shallow lake about 150 to 200 feet deep, very similar to Lake Erie where I grew up. In deep water, like in the ocean, the energy of the wind is absorbed into large, swelling waves. In shallow water, the wind whips up the water into sharp, violent waves, not very good for little boats with disciples in them.

³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion;

There is always that one guy or girl. You know the one, you are on an airplane, being rocked by turbulence, you are pretty sure you are going to die, or at least lose that crummy airline lunch you had, and you realize the person next to you is asleep, oblivious to the danger around them, or perhaps fully aware of it and also aware of the fact that there is absolutely nothing in the world they can do about it.

³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" What a great line. "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" Sometimes we say it like, “God, do you not care that we are perishing?” “Hello God? Are you awake? Are you not interested in the fact that we are, in fact, in serious trouble down here?”

I mean who hasn’t, at least for a fleeting moment, entertained the idea that God, for one reason or another is just not paying attention has just fallen asleep at the wheel! I imagine for some, stranded on their rooftops after Katrina, their first thought was not about the socio-political systems that had led to a personal, local, state, or federal failure to provide the proper level of aid at the appropriate time. No, I imagine the first thought was, “God, are you gonna help me out here?”

I would imagine for someone inside that Superdome, in the dark, with not much to eat or drink, the smell of waste everywhere, and at total lack of certainty about one’s personal safety, I bet there were lots of questions of who was coming to help, but I bet there were lots of those questions directed up at God.

"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

We talk a lot about New Orleans, but what about some of the other towns in Mississippi and Alabama where there is just nothing left. Imagine if you were lucky enough to get out and returned home to nothing. As you pull up to your lot, you only see where your house used to be and small piles of your belongings or perhaps your neighbor’s belongings scattered around your yard. Anything of value left has been picked over by looters. Photographs, keepsakes, memories, all washed away.

"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

The devastating effects of storms are the most natural image for this passage, but there are other times when this question comes to mind. In hospital rooms, at clinics, sitting at home after receiving a life-changing phone call, standing by the grave of one who should have had more time and less suffering.

"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

Wake up! Can you blame the disciples for their impatience? They were perishing in a very real way. Yes the waves can be looked at metaphorically, but they were really about to drown and the one who could save them was asleep!

"Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"

Jesus wakes up and rebukes the wind. I can’t say that I have ever rebuked anything. Rebuke, that is the funny word we hear in the very first chapter of the Gospel of Mark. Jesus was back in Capernaum teaching at the synagogue when a man with an unclean spirit came in. An unclean spirit talked a little trash to Jesus and…

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!"[2]

It is this word: rebuke! evpitima,w (epistimawo) – which means strictly to appraise or assess a penalty, but less formally as in this case to warn, admonish or threaten. Jesus rebuked the spirit and now, he is rebuking the wind.

and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

Jesus, the man who somehow thinks it is ok to talk to the sea says to things to it:

"Peace! Be still!"

They are both imperatives – commands!

You calm down!

You be still!

The word he uses for be still! comes from the same word we see back in the first chapter:

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent (fimw,qhti), and come out of him!"[3]

The same thing Jesus has done to the unclean spirit he has done to the waves. He has rebuked them both and told them both to shut up!

And they listen!

³⁹He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

And then he has a word for the disciples:

⁴⁰He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"

I’m sorry, but if you put me in a rickety boat out on the sea of Galilee at night in the midst of a sudden violent storm, I would be afraid to! Wouldn’t you? But Jesus suggests that perhaps they are missing something. That despite all that they have witnessed so far while following Jesus, they have not yet figured out who they are with. Could this be the same one that spoke to the water once before

¹In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, ²the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. ³Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.[4]

The one who with a word separated the chaos and created order. The one who spoke and there was light. And now the one who with an order can still the sea, can bring stillness, peace from chaos.

⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Filled with great awe might be an understatement, we could also translate it as “they were filled with a great fear.” I don’t mean to say they were afraid, like when the waves were pounding, but they were filled with reverence, awe, the good kind of fear you should have for someone who just told the sea to be quiet and it listened.

But what about us? There were people in those hurricanes who cried out, “Lord, don’t you care that we are perishing?” And the wind wasn’t rebuked, it didn’t become still. It just kept blowing. What about us? What about those of us who are swamped, pounded by waves, about to go under. “Lord, don’t you care that we are perishing?”

It is an overused platitude to say, don’t worry, Jesus will rebuke the wind of your life if you just have faith. I’m sorry, I just don’t believe that is always true. Sometimes the wind and water really overcomes us. If you don’t believe me, take a trip to Haiti where over 1000 people died last year in tropical storm Jeanne. Ask those who have lost loved ones in Katrina, those who lost elderly parents on a bus trying to escape Rita. Ask any parent whose child hasn’t come home from Iraq or Afghanistan.

This scripture doesn’t tell us that Jesus will rebuke the wind of your life, but it does tell us who Jesus is. Jesus is the one, who just like in the beginning brings order from chaos and we continue to create plenty of chaos. God created and God continues to create. The creation is an ordering of the chaos and we can choose to be faithful and follow Jesus or we can just scream out in fear.

Let me read to you from the journal of John Wesley, the man who began the movement that led to the creation of what we now call the United Methodist Church. He writes this during his journey aboard ship from England to the new colonies in what we now call America.

Sunday, November 25, 1735.—At noon our third storm began. At four it was more violent than before. At seven I went to the Germans. I had long before observed the great seriousness of their behavior.

In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the mainsail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sang. I asked one of them afterward, “Were you not afraid?” He answered, “I thank God, no.” I asked, “But were not your women and children afraid?” He replied, mildly, “No; our women and children are not afraid to die.”[5]

Wesley latched on to the faith of these German Moravians. They were not afraid. Not because they expected Jesus to wake up and calm the storm, in fact they were quite prepared for the fact that the storm might kill them. They were calm because they had somehow embraced the greater creative goodness of God. The greater creative goodness of the God who calls order out of chaos, the God who is still creating, the ever present God of creation who became and remains very real to us in Jesus Christ.

In the midst of storms at sea or on land, storms that bring rain and wind or storms that bring inner turmoil in pain, it is quite natural and probably a good thing that we cry out to God. Hello! Can’t you see that we are perishing! It is perfectly natural to hope that God will come and rebuke the storm and bring peace to the sea.

But, what is more important is to begin to have faith in the overall goodness of the creation. It is more important to embrace the creative power of God and follow the one who can still the sea with just a word. All of us will some day perish. Many of us will face storms that we cannot beat. What will make the difference is whether we can hold fast to the faith that no matter what our ultimate physical outcome, we will always be held tightly in the loving embrace of our creator.

---

[1] Safiyah Fosua is the Director of Invitational Preaching Ministries at the General Board of Discipleship, Nashville, Tennessee. "Waiting for Rita — A Prayer" Copyright © 2005 The General Board of Discipleship of The United Methodist Church, PO Box 340003, Nashville TN 37203-0003. Worship website: www.umcworship.org.

[2] Mark 1:25

[3] Mark 1:25

[4] Genesis 1

[5] John Wesley, The Journal of John Wesley, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1951) 17-18

Will Rice - Sermon #7 - The Ultimate Witness

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

John 15:12-13

12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

My father had surgery a few Decembers back. He had colon cancer and his surgeon went in to remove whatever needed to come out. I walked into his room as he was wheeled in from recovery. He had a very attentive, fairly young nurse and in an attempt to see how he was coming out of the anesthesia she said, "Mr. Rice, do you know what day it is?" Barely able to get any words out, he whispered something. The nurse asked again, "Mr. Rice, do you know what day it is?" This time, a little better, "It's Pearl Harbor Day." She said again, "Mr. Rice, do you know what day it is?" This time, much clearer, "It's Pearl Harbor Day." She had a look on her face that made it clear that she thought he was still a bit loopy. But no, in fact, it was December 7^th, Pearl Harbor day.

That nurse hadn’t been alive on December 7^th, 1941, either had I. I know the date from history books, but I don’t know the date like my dad knows the date.

It makes me wonder, how old I will be before someone mentions September 11^th and some young person will ask, what is September 11^th?

September 11, 2001 has become an integral part of the collective conscious of the American people. But, not just because of the terrible images of that day, not just because of the anger or sadness it stirs within us. For many of us, it is marked within us as a day that pointed to the possibility of how, even in the midst of the worst of all evil, we could become the best of who we could possibly be.

Just like, for my father and the generations that surround his, December 7^th will always be Pearl Harbor Day, September 11^th will always be 9-11. Some have suggested that we stop dwelling on it, but I don’t think that is possible, or even the right thing to do. It is more about considering what we do to remember and give thanks each year.

My father has served 56 years as a volunteer firefighter in my hometown of Eden, New York. Eden is one of those little towns where the volunteer firefighters are the only firefighters. You have to go pretty far to find a professional firefighter.

My father’s father was once the chief of Eden Volunteer Fire Company. His father was a firefighter too. So by all means, I should have been a firefighter. Instead I became a disc jockey. That was actually a lot of fun, but sort of a strange profession. I got to move a lot.

It is amazing I ever became a pastor. Some of you may know that I never went to church as a child or even as a young adult. You want to know what is worse, I never was taught the Ten Commandments, I never memorized one single Bible verse. I didn’t even know the words to “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” When I started coming to church, I felt almost embarrassed. I thought I could never learn enough to catch up.

However, the more I learned, the more I realized how much I already knew. I realized that what the Bible tells about loving our neighbor as ourselves, trying to model the generous, love that God has for us. I realize that it is not about just following the rules, but truly embracing God’s gift to us. I realized I already knew that stuff. And I didn’t learn it by listening to someone tell me. I learned it by watching.

Eden, New York, where I grew up is a really small town. We had about 5000 residents. Especially in the winter, when it was cold, furnaces would malfunction, chimneys would clog, sparks would get in the wrong place and fires would start. In a small town like mine it used to be a loud whistle would blow to let the volunteer firemen know that something was wrong. These days they have pagers. It didn’t matter if he was eating dinner, watching his favorite show, or in the middle of well-deserved night sleep. If that whistle blew or that pager went off, he was dressed, down the stairs, in the car, down the street, and in the front seat of a fire truck before the noise ever work me up. Never once did he stop to ask, whose house is it? What do they look like? How much money do they make?

This is a job that he has done for 56 years, and he has never been paid for it. He used to be a schoolteacher by profession, a volunteer firemen the rest of the time. I didn’t learn about God through memorization, I learned through example. When I felt called to ministry, I actually had a head start at understanding the clear message of the gospel, a message of love that surpasses rules and judgment. I learned this just by watching a true witness of God’s love.

You might not look at a firefighter and immediately think love. That probably means you have never been trapped in a burning building and seen one coming your way or watched one enter a burning house to save a irreplaceable family air loom or your pet.

Some people don’t think of the love of God looking at an armed police officer. But I do, because I remember vacationing with my family in Boston as a small boy and choking on something I ate. There we were in a strange place and my parents couldn’t get my throat cleared and I couldn’t breath and a police officer came along and saved my life.

You might not think of God’s amazing love when you think of an Emergency Medical Technician, unless you have ever seen one rush into your home to save the life of someone you love.

God’s love isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a nurse, until one holds your hand on the way into surgery and reminds you that she won’t leave your side.

If you ever met my wife’s neurosurgeon, Dr. Marvin Cressman, the love of God would not be the first thing that came to mind. He sort of looks like a grumpy old man. But that man sat over my wife for eight hours certain to never flinch until every last bit of her brain tumor was gone.

Last week, as we considered the disaster left behind by hurricane Katrina, I spoke of to call of the Gospel that we love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Today, let’s take that a step further.

12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Jesus tells his disciples not just to love each other as they wished to be loved, but to love each other like Jesus had loved them. He was asking his disciples to love one another reflecting the very love of God. I said last week that loving one another as ourselves was pretty hard. Well this is even deeper.

The gospels are full of Jesus not just telling us how to love, but, through example, showing us. The first chapter of Mark’s gospel shows us Jesus as healer:

From Mark, Chapter 1:

⁴⁰A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." ⁴¹Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" ⁴²Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

A leper, in Jesus time was someone not to be associated with, especially not touched. God’s love touches those who others won’t even touch and brings healing.

Mark, Chapter 5:

³⁵While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" ³⁶But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." ³⁷He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. ³⁸When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. ³⁹When he had entered, he said to them, "Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping." ⁴⁰And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cum," which means, "Little girl, get up!" ⁴²And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement.

God’s love takes the time to go to the room of one that others thought was beyond saving.

All through the gospels, Jesus physically saves, physically heals, brings peace and tells us.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

And then to show the limitlessness of that love, while everyone else was running away, climbs up on a cross and gives his live for his friends.

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

Dave was gonna meet his wife at a coffee shop in Brooklyn,
When he heard the alarm sing out.
911, he was running up stairs that he never got back down.
Down, down.

He was an everyday angel, earnin’ his wings,
Trying to save people who are just like you and me.
Angel, living out love.
The kind of people we could use a lot more of.
An everyday angel, everyday angel.
Everyday angel, everyday angel.[1]

I am always amazed how these men walk into fires, when the rest of us run from them.

Rudolph Giuliani
Mayor of New York

As a pastor, I learn a lot from firemen and nurses and police officers. Like I learned from my father by watching, I continue to watch how they love us. In the wake of the latest disaster our country has encountered their stories convict me of the shallowness of my own commitment to love. I read some days from a little book called The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. In its ancient words (it was written in the 1400s) I find inspiration to be more loving, more patient, more graceful, less interested in me and more interested in others, more like Christ. Sometimes though, I learn more about being like Christ, by watching others.

We haven’t even begun to hear the story of the doctors and nurses who stayed behind in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi risking their lives to stay with their patients.

While most everyone was trying to get out of New Orleans, police and firemen were asking when they could get in to help.

Last week, I was driving home from the office in the hot, sticky afternoon, windows up, AC on full. I get to the intersection at five-points and I see a fire truck on each corner and firefighters standing along the edge of the road with boots and buckets in their hands. Firefighters, the people we count on to be our first line of care when we are hurt, in an accident, when our house is on fire or flooded, when catastrophe strikes, and here they are, during their down time, standing in the blazing sun trying to do more to help.[2]

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

The people who stand on the front lines to protect, serve and heal us are the ultimate witness to the love of God. This is true whether they are Christians or not. This is true whether they believe in God they way we do or not. We can learn a lot about how to be Christians by just watching them do what they do everyday.

I think this is how we should start remembering and honoring the memory of 9.11, by considering the witnesses that surround us, watching them, and then considering what more we can do to love one another and reflect that gracious, unconditional love God has for us. Amen

---

[1] Radney Foster, “Everyday Angel”, from the album Another Way to Go, 2002

[2] I have been told that it three days, four hours each, the raised around $65,000 for the Red Cross.

Will Rice - Sermon #6 - Trying Times, Extravagant Love

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

I spent an awful lot of time this week trying to figure out what to do today. Every day this week was totally different. As the week unfolded, so did the magnitude of the disaster in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. On Monday, many thought that that New Orleans had been spared, by Tuesday, we began to realize that things might be worse than we thought. By Wednesday, we knew we had a catastrophe on our hands. On Thursday and Friday, it was only getting worse.

So I had to think about what to talk about today. Very often the first question we tackle when any tragedy hits our lives is “why?” This becomes a theological and a practical question as, for some, it raises issues about the sovereignty, benevolence and power of God, while for others it raises questions of blame.

After last December’s Tsunami people often asked two question, “Why would God let this happen?” and “Why wasn’t there a tsunami warning system?”

But you know what, there will be plenty of time to ask why, so today, I am going to ask “what?” I am going to tackle the question of “what do we do now?” Now I could just stand up and answer that question myself, but I believe in the power of scripture to inform us. I was wrestling with this piece of scripture long back before Katrina was even a worry for Florida. I almost dropped it in favor of a standard post disaster text, but I realized that today’s appointed reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans is most appropriate.

Romans 13:8-10

Now people argue about this sort of thing, but one of the biggest love story movies of my generation is Titanic. At its core, it is a passionate love story about a young man and a young woman and their budding love that is fired and cemented in the terrible tragedy of ill-fated voyage of the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic. It is a story of a love that surpasses even death itself as Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio leaves Rose, played by Kate Winslet floating safely on a raft of debris as he sinks away as the music swells

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on[1]

If you went to the theatre and saw that movie and what you left with was the thought that the White Star Line was blatantly negligent in not doing more to insure the safety of the passengers that we need to think more carefully about cruise ship safety, I think you missed the point. If you walked out of the theatre thinking about transportation safety and inherent risks of international travel, I think the moviemakers missed the mark with you.

And so it is with Paul’s immensely complex letter to the Romans. There is so much theological depth to this letter that I cannot begin to understand. I cannot begin to understand the nuances of Paul’s experiences and the struggles those early Christians faced. I cannot begin to understand everything that Paul says. But through all the complex arguments and references to things that fall outside my context I can feel the main theme come together as we come to the end of the letter. It is a love letter. A story of the nearly irresistible love of God and how it is calling us to love each other in an extravagant, nearly impossible way.

⁸Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Love. What an interesting topic for today. I am trying to talk about the “what” after a disaster and here I am talking about love. Well, today may be a perfect day to talk about love. You see as Christians, we need to take love back from Hollywood. You see in that Titanic movie I just mentioned, there were two kinds of love going on. There was the Hollywood, romantic love between Jack and Rose, two star crossed lovers whose passion is so hot, it makes us look at our own relationships and wonder if something is missing. Then, there is the love of a man who gave up his seat on a lifeboat to someone he never met. That is the kind of love we are talking about today.

Sometime when I talk about love in sermons I bring up the different Greek and Hebrew words for love and how sometimes different words are used for God’s love than for human love. I am going to leave that for another sermon and go about this another way.

⁸Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ¹⁰Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul is making the same point that Jesus makes over and over in the Gospels,

“Love one’s neighbor as oneself.” Impossible. Because love, is an emotion right?

Every time our eyes meet
This feeling inside me
Is almost more than I can take.
Every time you touch me,
I can feel how much you love me
And it just blows away.

I’ve never felt this close to anyone
Or anything
I can hear your thoughts.
I can see your dreams.

I don’t know you do what you do
I’m so in love with you.
It just keeps getting better.
I want to spend the rest of my life
With you by my side
Forever and ever[2]

No matter how it is said, when we think about love, we think about romance. We think of love as a feeling, as an emotion. I see this with married couples who want to end their marriage because they are not “in love” anymore.

My marriage?

When we see love that way, Paul’s commandment seems impossible. I cannot fall in love with my neighbor. Especially when that definition of neighbor is so difficult. When Jesus was asked who “my neighbor” was,

³⁰Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from New Orleans to Houston. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. ³¹Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. ³²Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.

³³"A Samaritan driving down the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. ³⁴He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he put him in the front seat of his SUC, led him to a hotel, and made him comfortable. ³⁵In the morning he took out his American Express Card, gave it to the innkeeper, saying, "Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my card--I'll settle the bill on my way back.'

³⁶"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?"

³⁷"The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.

Jesus said, "Go and do the same."[3]

If we think of love solely in the Hollywood way, Paul’s command becomes impossible. You can’t just decide to feel all warm and fuzzy about someone. Paul’s commission is much more difficult than that. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

So often we read the text of Romans and miss this main point. It is like leaving Titanic and heading off to Washington to reform the shipping industry. I can’t tell you how many times I hear the words of this beautiful love letter used to condemn others, to judge others, to make others seem less than human. No matter what Paul says, some want to use his words to take commandments, rules and judgements out of the context of love:

for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

And

¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

There are moments when everyone seems to get that. There are moments when we are so shocked and dismayed by the events around us that Paul’s message and the message of the gospel become crystal clear.

In the days following 9/11, after last December’s Tsunami. There were no questions about religious affiliation, race, socioeconomic status. There were no judgments about whether the victims had followed the commandments. There was just a sudden and irresistible urge to help.

I cannot think of anyone, looking at television images of people stranded without food or water in the middle of a flooded city, people who had to wade through polluted flood waters to get there, people who were not sure if they would ever be rescued, I cannot think of anyone, looking at those images whose first reaction was to judge them, it was to help them.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Some of us had our moments, looking at looting and lawlessness. It wasn’t until the desperation of the situation became more clear that even that became not a reason for judgment but more evidence of the need of a whole new depth of compassion.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Times like these can be so overwhelming that we just don’t know what to do, but Paul tells us what to do. “Love one another.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I look I the thousands of displaced people who have absolutely nothing, perhaps not even their families anymore. I think about what Paul says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That is my neighbor, what I want me to do for me? Help.

You see Paul’s commission is much more demanding than even the impossible directive to feel all warm and fuzzy about someone. Paul wants us not just to love our neighbor, but to love our neighbor as ourself. Now, I don’t feel all warm and fuzzy about myself, but I do a pretty good job of loving myself. I make sure I have plenty to eat, a safe place to stay, clothes to wear. I make sure I am properly educated and entertained. I have hot coffee every morning, a comfortable bed to sleep in at night. I take pretty good care of myself.

Am I supposed to love my neighbor like that? If I take Paul seriously, when faced with a situation like the one we are faced with today, I can no longer consider the minimum amount of pity that will do, I need to consider what I would do for myself.

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of our neighboring annual conference, The Texas Annual Conference, which includes Houston wrote in an open letter this week:

“This disaster truly invites extravagant generosity.”

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

We need to not consider the minimum amount of pity we can get away with, but the ultimate amount of extravagant generosity we can bear.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

We need to pray for our brothers and sisters, but we shouldn’t stop there.

My friend Jen wrote on her weblog on Thursday:

The heaviness I felt yesterday left me as soon as I started doing something about it. I should have known. James 2:16-17 says, If one of you says to him, "Go. I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." Faith in action is incredibly fulfilling, and it will be what heals all of us.[4]

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

You see this is what the church is. The church is a place where lives are changed. The church is a place where people come not just to be changed but to change the world. We are not a prayer club; we are an agency of action.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

What do we do now? We can talk about the “why?” question later. Right now, we will act. Here is how.

Give money. There are a number of relief agencies already helping and the number one thing they ask for is money. There are ways to help physically and we will talk about that in a moment, but what is needed most right now is money. Today our entire communion rail offering will be going to hurricane relief through the United Methodist Committee on Relief. If you want to give by check just write Hurricane in the note. Because of our connectional giving throughout the year that supports this agency, they are able to send 100% of these funds to relief of the aftermath of Katrina. UMCOR will not leave when the floodwater recede. Rebuilding is what they are good at. I will talk more about that in a moment.

Some people have asked me about giving more locally. When we printed the bulletin insert, we were mostly concerned with displaced persons in Houston and so we came up with a way to get money there. Now, there are people in Houston, San Antonio and as of tomorrow, right here in Corpus Christi. If you would like your money to go to immediate relief efforts in Texas, I suggest you just mark your check Hurricane – Local. If you want to give at a later time or collect for the effort, you can bring checks and cash to the church throughout the week.

Flood buckets and health kits. Sometimes we need to work with our hands. It not only helps victims, it helps us to cope. As I quoted Jen earlier, “Faith in action is incredibly fulfilling, and it will be what heals all of us.”

There are a few things we can do. We can make health kits that will be distributed locally and throughout affected areas. If groups want to work on this, I have handouts with all the information.

I mentioned the UMCOR will still be there when the flood waters recede. They will need flood buckets, the most basic necessities that are needed when trying to clean out a flooded home. UMCOR will be heavily involved in the heartbreaking backbreaking work of making homes livable again. We have a chance to put these buckets together and have them trucked to The Sager-Brown Depot in Louisiana. Once again, I have all the details.

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

People have already asked me about going. Some want to go to Louisiana, some to Houston, some to San Antonio. We can help make that happen, but it will take a little patience. There will be an immediate need for help here in Corpus Christi this week. There will be need once the flood waters recede to help begin cleaning up. This is going to be a long process. Our neighbors will need us long after the media forgets this ever happened. So please, be patient.

“Loving your neighbor as yourself.”

My friend Jen ended her weblog entry on Thursday with this:

It's time for benevolence and overwhelming love. We have the opportunity to be part of one of the largest humanitarian efforts in history. Let's make the most of it.

And through all of this, let us remember our neighbors sitting right next to us. As we deal with a national tragedy, lives will go on, babies will be born, parents will die, people will continue in the day to day struggles and joys of life and through it all, we will all look to God to uphold us and comfort us and lead us in the daunting task of loving each other like God loves us.

Amen

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[1] Celine Dion, “My Heart Will Go On” The love theme from the motion picture “Titanic”

[2] Marv Green, Aimee Mayo, Chris Lindsey, “Amazed”, Recorded by Lonestar, from the album “Lonely Grill”

[3] Luke 10:30-37, Paraphrased from The Message

[4] Jen's weblog can be found at www.jenaustin.com]

Will Rice - Sermon #5 - Disciple is a Verb

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Matthew 28:16-20

“Disciple is a Verb”

I love languages. I love them because they are so organic and totally beyond our control. People try to control how language is used, with little success. English teachers at all levels try, in vain to enforce rules and new generations stomp all over them.

In English, nearly any noun can be instantly transformed into a verb without permission from an English scholar. If you look up the word text in your dictionary, you will see that it is clearly a noun, with its definition relating to the written word. Now, watch this. On my cell phone, I can send a text message to my wife. If my wife were to ask me to send her a text message to let her know when I would be home, she wouldn’t say, “send me a text message,” she would say, “Text me.”

Jesus does that sort of thing in today’s text.

After Jesus’ death and after Mary had reported to them of his appearance, the disciples all gathered at the place where Jesus had instructed them before. Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He then says “go”, and what he says next is where he starts to mess with the language. Up to this point in the gospel of Matthew, the word disciple has been used 71 times, mostly as a noun. But now, Jesus decides to use it as a verb. Not even just as a verb, but as an imperative verb. We are pretty familiar with imperative verbs, we like to put exclamation points after them, go! Stop! But Jesus says, “Disciple!”

I know if you are reading along with me in your own bible you see the words “make disciples” and that is not incorrect. It is just that it may miss some of the emphasis. In the original Greek, Jesus says one word, “Disciple!”

There is a big temptation here to skip over that very important verb and go right to the next part which gets us all confused. Disciple is an imperative, it is the command, the rest is the who and how. We have to be careful not to get so caught up in the who and how that we forget the what: “Disciple!”

The next three words cause the biggest problem

all the nations.

We spend so much time worrying about whether or not that means we should be discipling Buddhists that we forget to disciple our neighbor, not to mention the fact were still not be clear on what it means to disciple in the first place. Up until this point we may have still thought it was supposed to be a noun!

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Ok, here is a part of what is means to disciple. We baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is a whole other sermon there, but I think pastor John Wright is preaching on Trinity Sunday next year so we will leave that to him.

I think by the time we get to the next part we are so tired from arguing about who all nations are and figuring out the trinity that we don’t even hear it.

teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

I think the wording is important there. It is not “command them to obey all I have taught you.” It is “teach them to obey all I have commanded you.”

So if we are going to follow Jesus imperative to “Disciple!” we are teachers, not disciplinarians, not commanders, not even preachers, but teachers. But Jesus is saying this to his disciples Are we disciples? To that question, I would like to say yes. But are we disciples like the disciples that Jesus was talking to that day?

You see, by the time the disciples were standing on that mountain listening to their great commission they had been with Jesus for some time. They had sat as his feet as he taught, struggled with his parables and then heard them explained. They had also learned through watching what Jesus did.

The disciples were witnesses to the teaching of Jesus. Teaching is a very important thing in the gospel of Matthew. The verb to teach is used 13 times, Jesus is called teacher at least 9 times and Rabbi, which could be translated as teacher another 2.

With all this teaching going on, it is not surprising that when we are called to action, that action would include teaching. But with the disciples, learning was presupposed. They had been there when he taught. The ones called to “Disciple!” were disciples.

If we are to “Disciple!”, we must be disciples. Now most of us wouldn’t consider baptizing without be baptized. Why would we consider teaching without learning?

If we are to “Disciple!”, we must be disciples. And what does it mean to be a disciple? Disciples do three things. First, disciples study.

I just mentioned, the disciples were witnesses to the teaching of Jesus, first hand. Now we can’t just go to the mountain and hear Jesus speak, BUT Jesus can speak to us through scripture and community. When we gather in groups, and read and study scripture together, amazing things happen.

I just returned from a week in Dallas at the School of Congregation Development. It was held at a big fancy hotel. You know the kind with marble floors and bell hops and a concierge and giant indoor fountains. These conferences are exhausting. You sit in seminars for hour after hour. By the last day, I was just beat. I was ready to go home and I was waiting for the group I was riding back to Corpus Christi with. I was sitting up on the edge of one of these giant marble fountains. Behind me the water was spraying and bubbling, but I was paying no attention. I am staring over toward the escalator watching and wondering where my colleagues were because I wanted to go home. As I was sitting there, I saw a young family entering the hotel. A man and woman, a little boy in the woman’s arms and a two little girls walking. They came up to the big glass doors and the girls are just mesmerized as they go swoosh and open right before them. They entered the lobby and one of the girls stopped. The family continued on, but she stopped right there in the lobby staring off toward me. Her eyes grew real wide, her jaw dropped. I was wondering what she was looking at. The mother finally stops walking and turns around, at which point the girl said, “Mom! Look at the fountain!”

Seemingly forever ago, but just last year, I was teaching a class of the first course of Disciple Bible Study. I was sitting in the room looking over my notes for the class when one of the men in the group came in carrying his Bible like someone had just handed him a newborn child. He sat down next to me and said, “Will, you have to see this.” He turned to a page in the New Testament and showed me some words of Jesus that had come alive for him in a way that had just changed everything. Words he had probably seen before, in the context of the group, and the in depth prayer and study had become new and life changing. “Will, look at this scripture!” “Mom, Look at the fountain!”

Disciples study.

If we are to “Disciple!”, we must be disciples. Disciples study and disciples serve.

I thought when I first started out in ministry that I had to teach people that. It turns out, I just need to put people in touch with what God is already teaching them. Going back to that same Disciple Bible Study group. One Monday night I was getting ready to start the class and the class is was ready to get started. They were jabbering away like 5^th graders right before lunch. I was starting to get a little impatient because we were going to study the Gospel of Luke and I needed to make sure they got the message about the need to reach out to the least, the last, and the lost among us. Finally, in an effort to quiet them down I asked, “what the heck are you all talking about?” The response, “Sorry, we were just getting ready for Friday night.” I asked, “What is happening Friday night?” “Oh that is the night we go downtown to the homeless shelter and serve dinner.”

I hadn’t told them to do that! This I had to investigate.

It turns out that a member of the class had been so moved back when we were studying the Old Testament that he had to do something about it. He heard through the scriptures and through the time in this small group a word about God’s special interest in those who are without and he heard a word from God about his role in that and got his group together and went downtown. When I went downtown to see what they were doing, I saw that they weren’t just cooking up food and handing it over the counter, they were interacting with people who were homeless, they were showing true hospitality and love for these people.

Disciples serve.

If we are to “Disciple!”, we must be disciples. Disciples study, disciples serve and disciples spread the good news. There is a reason for the order that I have put these in. It is not spread, serve, study. It is study, serve, spread. We can short circuit ourselves if we don’t consider the order. Don’t get me wrong, there is something special and important about the raw enthusiasm of a new believer who is so excited about finding their way to God that they just have to tell everybody. But, we shouldn’t stop there.

You see, I spent most of my life not knowing that good news. I didn’t know God, I didn’t know Jesus. I can tell you that someone once tried to “make me a disciple” armed with not a whole lot of depth. What you have to understand about my generation is we a just a little cynical.

This is how that went.

“Will, you should accept Jesus into your heart.”

“Why is that?”

“Because Jesus loves you and will save you.”

“From what?”

“Your sin”

“Which sin?”

That was about it. And I just went back about my business knowing nothing of the life changing world transforming good news of the grace of God which is good news for everyone.

It wasn’t until later in life when I met people who took their commitment to being disciples to another level that I started to understand Jesus. People who had tried to place themselves at the feet of Jesus as he taught his disciples. People who could teach what Jesus had commanded because they had learned what Jesus had commanded and were living that out.

I want to be very careful here that you do not misunderstand me. The people who taught me to understand the love of Christ and the grace of God were not all seminary professors or intellectuals with a mastery of biblical languages. The learning I am talking about is not necessarily an understanding of the archeology of ancient Israel or a fundamental grasp of systematic theology. The people who are able to “Disciple!” The people who are able to teach are those who make an effort to learn what it is that Jesus teaches.

When I teach any long term Bible study, the question always comes up about evangelism. “How do I talk to people about God?” People want tips. They want flashcards. What they find is when they study and serve, the spread part comes naturally. As we reach deeper in faith and knowledge as we move from raw enthusiasm to mature, grounded faith we become disciples.

As we become disciples, we find we can “Disciple!” because we come to realize how God helps us to use our own natural gifts and talents to spread the good news in ways that people can hear.

Disciples study, disciples serve, disciples spread the good news.

I challenged us a few weeks ago about being a church that prays. I want to report that I have been committed to that challenge, intentionally becoming more disciplined in my daily prayer life than ever. And now, I want to make another challenge. I want us to be a church that studies in small groups. There are a number of ways to do that.

I want to first make a specific challenge. I am leading a section of what I consider to be the best small-group, long-term Bible study ever created, Disciple Bible Study. There is a description of the course on an insert in your bulletin. It doesn’t matter if you have never even seen a Bible before or if you have been studying your whole life, there is a place for you in this group. I want 16 people to make the commitment to study with me for 34 weeks.

If you have already taken Disciple I, I want to challenge to you to flip that sheet over and commit to following up with another class. Or, in your bulletin you will see opportunities for two new short-term studies that are starting soon.

For the youth, I want to challenge you to take advantage of the wonderful offerings in Sunday school and youth group and confirmation. And I want you to take them seriously and make being there one of your top priorities.

For our youngest ones, we have a place for you as well in Sunday school. I want you to look forward to Sunday mornings when you have a chance to be a disciple too!

And I want all of us to support and encourage each other in this journey we are taking together. If we are going to “Disciple!” We must be disciples. Together we can be if we study, serve, and spread the good news that God is with us and God is Good!

Will Rice - Sermon #4 - Multiplying Hope

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Mark 14:13-21

Last fall, Alisha and I were living in the suburbs of Austin. We were living in quite a family friendly neighborhood, so at Halloween, we decorated the house and got lots of candy and Alisha put on something scary and answered the door, scared the kids and gave them candy. I took a few turns at the door and I noticed some differences between these kids and the kids I used to go trick-or-treating with back in Western New York. First of all, these kids were not wearing winter coats over their costumes. Second of all, they were not caring little orange UNICEF boxes.

There are still some schools that do this, hand out boxes for kids to take trick-or-treating. In towns where this is done, most people have a bowl of candy and a bowl of change. The kids collect pennies, nickels and dimes, and they all get sent to the United Nations Children’s Fund to help kids all around the world.

As an adult, I would wonder how a measly dime could help stop world hunger, But as a kid, it made perfect sense.

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.

Sometimes, when we read scripture out of context, we miss the meaning. Other times, it makes no sense at all.

13 Now when Jesus heard this,

We have to back a up a bit to see what Jesus heard. If we read backwards, we realize that Jesus’ friend, John the Baptist has been beheaded by Herod Antipas.

¹²His disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went and told Jesus. ¹³Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself.

The stress of his ministry, grief over his friend’s death, many factors have convinced him that he needs some time away.

^13aBut when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd;

I never really got this until I drew a map. I am so thankful for the advances in technology that allow me to use projected digital maps to bring this to life for you.

Jesus heads to a deserted place in a boat. We are assuming that he is on the Sea of Galilee. Now let’s say that Jesus has picked a deserted place about 4 miles across the Sea of Galilee by boat. Now let’s say for a moment that the same location could be reached on foot by walking about ten miles. Now let’s say there wasn’t much wind to push the boat, or it was blowing in the completely wrong direction and Jesus doesn’t feel much like paddling. It becomes totally possible that people saw Jesus get on the boat, figured out where he was going and got there before him.

¹⁴When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd;

Jesus has just found out that his friend/cousin/colleague, John the Baptist has died a horrible death, Jesus has decided to take a little time away to think, pray, perhaps mourn and when he gets there, there is a huge crowd.

Now, even though I have only been here a short time, but I love you all. I love to have the chance to teach you and learn from you. I love the opportunity to help you and comfort you in times of need. I love to pray with you and remind you of God’s love. But, maybe once a year, if we are lucky, Alisha and I drive to New Mexico, rent a cabin in the mountains and spend a week in the solitude. There are no phones there, no internet. We read, we watch the fire burn in the fireplace, we take the dog for long walks in the wilderness, I nap.

Now, as much as I love you all, if I ever packed up the car, drove 10 hours, got the cabin, got out and so all of you all there. I would probably not do what Jesus did.

¹⁴When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. ¹

He had compassion for them. Actually, that might be a bit of an understatement. What it says was that he was splagcni,zomai (splageitzomai) which translates as “was moved with compassion.” But, what is interesting about this word is that, in the entire New Testament, it is used only in reference to Jesus or by Jesus in a parable as a way of describing the compassionate love of God that we are to emulate.

Jesus was moved with compassion for the crowd and this has turned into a working vacation.

¹⁵When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’

It sounds sort of like the disciples are trying to get rid of the crowd, but they might be feeling a little bit of compassion as well. Remember the map? They have all walked quite a ways and now they are in this deserted place and the disciples are looking around and they realize there is not one single Whataburger in sight.

So, they go to Jesus, the guy everyone is looking at and tell him to dismiss the crowd so they can go eat. It is extremely important to notice what Jesus does not do next. First, he doesn’t say, “O.K. good point, y’all go away now and eat.”

Second, and this is a miracle story, so it is important to see this. He doesn’t just say “shazaam” wave his hand and manifest Dominoes pizza in front of everyone. He doesn’t do that. Instead, he does something utterly preposterous.

¹⁶Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’

It is so easy for things to get lost in translation. We miss a little something here. It reads, “you give them something to eat.” What we miss is something, in Greek called an emphatic. It is a way of describing the subject twice as a way of emphasis. So, in a way it says, you, you give them something to eat. Or, perhaps, YOU give them something to eat. Jesus is being exceptionally clear who will be getting something for the crowd to eat.

This is important. Jesus is the one who will be credited with a miracle. Jesus is the one with the power here, right? But he says “you give them something to eat.”

And this is no small task, the last verse of today’s passage reveals how many people we are talking about.

²¹And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

So, add, women and children, then we have maybe 10, 15, 20,000 people. The new American Bank Center Arena seats about 10,000, picture filling that up to overflowing and then being responsible for food. And then think about realizing:

¹⁷They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’

This is even worse than it sounds. What they were probably talking about was the equivalent of a couple of sardines and five dinner rolls.

The disciples have reason to be a little concerned. Jesus has just ordered them to feed a whole lot of people with very, very little. It would be sort of like me asking you to feed all those people at the American Bank Center with a couple of the What-a-catch fish sandwiches. I might as well ask you to end poverty with what is currently in the church refrigerators.

But Jesus, seemingly not perplexed by what they find says,

¹⁸And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’

¹⁹Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²

Notice what is going on here. Jesus commands the disciples, YOU get them something to eat, they go and collect not nearly enough food, the give it to Jesus, and then Jesus gives it back to them to serve. Notice the role they take in this event.

²⁰And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

And there were leftovers.

Whatever happened with Jesus and the disciples and all those people in the deserted place was very important. This is the only “miracle story” found in all four gospels. People tend to look at it from two extremes. One is that it is simply another miracle, another way to show that Jesus is truly the Son of God. It is there for the same purpose as the walking on the water, the turning water into wine, the raising of Lazarus. The other extreme is to see this as not really all that miraculous. Some say that the only true “miracle” in this story is that once everyone opened up their hearts and bags they realized that they all had enough food to share.

Both of these views of this event can be dangerous. There is a danger in holding tightly to the idea that Jesus just decided to manifest enough food for everyone. It begs the question, when I turn on my television and see people starving to death in sub-Saharan Africa, why doesn’t God do that there? The U.S. government estimates that 35.9 million Americans live below the poverty level meaning that given their income, they cannot afford to purchase enough food to meet minimum caloric and nutrition needs.[1] Worldwide, eight million people die each year because they don’t have enough to eat.[2]

Why doesn’t God do something about that?

Now the flip side can be just as perilous.

^16byou give them something to eat.

If we take God completely out of this equation, we put all of the responsibility upon ourselves. This almost sounds like a good idea, until we begin to see the scope of the problems we feel called to solve.

Think about it, eight million people die each year because there is not enough to eat. I mean we could really put our backs into that, take our whole church budget and raise all the money we could and we couldn’t even begin to get a program off the ground that tackle to systemic, economic, government, ecological, planning and logistical issues that cause that to happen and so, and here in lies the danger, we do nothing.

The danger of both of these extreme views is that we do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Whether we put it squarely in God’s hands or squarely in ours it is more than likely that nothing will happen.

But what if… what if we do what Jesus commands here.

^16byou give them something to eat.

And then, when we are sure we don’t have enough, we listen again.

¹⁸And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’

What if instead of sitting motionless in our assurance that God will take care of it, or sit paralyzed in our fear the all of the responsibility is on our shoulders, we take what we can offer, and truly have faith in the miraculous, that God will take our meager offering and bless it and create abundance.

Isn’t that what we do when we step into the mission field? When our youth head out to work during Sea City Work Camp, they have already heard the call “you give them something to eat.” But do they go thinking that they must single handedly fix every roof, re carpet every home, fix every bathroom in Corpus Christi? Do they think that they must single-handedly change the lives of every person in the coastal bend that is living in less than adequate housing? No, they know that they are called to do what they can and trust in God to bring abundant blessings through their meager offering.

I see a box in the glassway. One of our groups is collecting bags and toiletries for kids in crises situations. They have obviously realized that God is calling them to be part of the blessing. But one bag isn’t go to change the life of a child. But we have to believe that God can take that one bag, and someone else’s bottle of shampoo and the financial gift that someone else was able to offer and the gift of time of a counselor and the gift of love of foster parent, and all the other gifts and bless them and bring from them and through them the abundant gift of life.

It is just like the UNICEF boxes, where we, with the simple minds of children believed that those pennies, nickels and dimes could change the world. And they can.

God can and does domiraculous things, but God calls on us to be faithful, to be generous, and to trust that God can bring abundant hope out of our meager offering.

Amen?

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[1] According to the U.S. Census. The information is available online at: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/002484.html

[2] According to Jeffrey D. Sachs in his book, The End of Poverty, (Penguin Press, 2005) An excerpt of his book was printed in Time Magazine, March 14, 2005. It is available online at http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1034738,00.html.