Getting to Blest

Have you ever been asked to do something that you actually wanted to do, but the way that you were asked made you suddenly change your mind? I expect that I’m not the only one with that kind of experience. On the flip side, have you ever been asked to do something that you really didn’t want to do, but the way that you were asked made you agree? And I’m not talking about salesmen here -- that’s a whole ’nother conversation. I’m talking about friends. There are those friends to whom I have a really hard time saying “no”. But they manage to remain my friends... by never asking for too much, I suppose. Whenever they ask me for something, they always seem to know what to say, and how to say, and when to say it to win me over.

Did you know that research has been done into the ingredients of persuasion? There are things people can do to increase the chances that their requests will be granted. For example, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology published an interesting result: did you know that a request was more likely to be granted if it was asked for at the beginning of a conversation rather than at the end of it? And, of course, entire books have been written on negotiating skills -- even some famous ones -- books all about, as they say, “getting to yes”.

But does any of this stuff work on God? After all, God can see through any tricks we might be trying to pull on him. “Negotiating” may be the entirely wrong approach when it comes to God. As Paul wrote (Romans 11:35):

“Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”

And as it never hurts to be reminded of the words of Isaiah (55:8,9):

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

In fact, if there was ever a formula for influencing God, it would likely start with “don’t ever think that there is a formula for influencing God.” So this morning, please understand that we aren’t looking for a formula, or talking about influence, or even negotiation. Instead, we are going to discover some principles: habits of the heart that we can develop so that we would get to know God more and begin to recognize how he operates in this world.

And to do so, we are going to look at an event in the gospels in which a man experienced God's activity on his behalf. And I pray that when we look closely at this encounter with Jesus, we would pick up some pointers about how to approach God and how to ask for things that only God can provide.

Our text this morning is found in Mark chapter 5 and Luke chapter 8. An abbreviated version is found in Matthew chapter 9. But Mark and Luke put this story in context for us. Jesus had just gone across the Sea of Galilee in order to seek out and deliver the man who was, very likely, of all people on the planet, the furthest from the Kingdom of God -- an event that Mark concludes with the words, “and all the people were amazed.” But now Jesus and his disciples are coming back across the lake to the towns and villages that they consider “home”. And our text begins with the words:

When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him.

A crowd had gathered. They were waiting. Jesus was coming and they knew it. They were all expecting him. But our text does not give us an exact location. That's likely because those disciples of Jesus who were fishermen had all manner of favorite spots up and down the shore. They chose to go to one of those, but they didn't text the crowd to let them know where they were going.

This last February, I had the privilege of visiting the Sea Galilee with Esther. Now it isn’t a “Sea” exactly. It is a large-ish freshwater lake, only ten kilometers across. And the other side is easily visible. So if a vessel were coming across the lake, people would notice it a long ways out. With a bit of observation, they could even estimate where it was going. And then, they could connect with the boat simply by hiking along the shore to meet it. And so in our text this morning, the crowd is waiting for Jesus -- a crowd that had devoted a chunk of their day to track him across the lake, and perhaps even walked a ways in order to make that connection.

But here we find our first principle this morning: If we would like Jesus to act on our behalf, we do well to make some effort to connect with him. Now that might sound obvious. But I’ve encountered far too many people who seem to think that they can snap their fingers and Jesus will be at their beck and call. Of course, when he isn’t, they then use that as an excuse to conclude that he doesn’t care, or doesn’t exist, or something equally absurd. If we would like Jesus to act on our behalf, we may need to invest some time and effort.

Now each of you here invested some time and effort to come out to church this morning. But did you come here to meet Jesus? Are you expecting him this morning? Did you know that he was going to be here this morning? As you likely remember, Jesus said, “where two or three gather in my name,” said Jesus, “there am I among them.” Well, we've covered the "two or three" part. But what about gathering in Jesus' name? I pray we do. Of course, Jesus warns us not to claim that we are doing things in his name when we really are not. But scripture gives us enough clues to understand that doing things in Jesus name means operating in the will of God and trusting Jesus. Now I know that many here this morning desire to do God’s will. And I know that many here this morning are also trusting in Jesus to do all that he has promised for us. So I'm going out on a limb this morning to claim that we do, indeed, have two or three gathered in Jesus' name, which means that -- according to Jesus’ words, that will never pass away -- that he is here among us now.

What makes us so special? Nothing. We are broken; we are tired; we are sinful. But the good news this morning is that Jesus makes it his signature behavior to look after the broken, and the tired, and the sinful. He binds up the brokenhearted. He heals the sick. He sets the captives free. And “he is here among us.”

But back to our text. We read:

Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came and fell at Jesus’ feet. 

Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet in an expression of humility and honor. Humbling himself, and giving honor to the one at whose feet he fell. And here we find our second principle this morning: if we would like Jesus to act on our behalf, it is highly recommended that we approach him with an appropriate attitude. Now this one, too, should be obvious. But once again, I’ve encountered far too many Christians who seem to pray as if they can boss God around. Jesus is the Lord of Creation and the King of Glory. We need to remember that when we approach him. Sure: the Bible encourages us to approach the Throne of Grace with confidence. But there is an important difference between confidence and arrogance.

On Thursday mornings, T. and I (with E., when she is in town) like to go to La Corde to make sure those students get some breakfast. I’m there to feed and to bless and to love and to take care of those dear children. And while those children can always approach me with confidence, I don’t tend to respond well when they try to order me around. Now God is much more gracious than I am, but I strongly suspect that there are attitudes that keep God from showing up when we would like him to. If we would like Jesus to act on our behalf, we, too, should approach him with an appropriate attitude. Let’s read on:

Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

Yes, this man was desperate. But desperation isn’t one of our principles this morning. It doesn’t hurt, of course. But it is tragic that so many people wait until they are desperate before responding to Jesus. Or let's say the same thing in different words: it is such a shame that so few people are aware of just how desperate their situation is without Jesus. As Paul writes (in Ephesians 2:12), “[those who are] separate from Christ…[are]... without hope and without God in the world.”

In any event, at this stage in the story, the scene changes abruptly. In spite of this man’s desperation, Jesus becomes distracted. Back to our text:

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him.  And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her.  She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.
When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him...

Now this represents a remarkable encounter in its own right, and well worth its own sermon, but today we need to call attention to a few details -- especially in light of the law of Moses as it was understood and practiced in Jesus’ day. You see, an open wound or bleeding that wouldn’t stop -- as this woman was experiencing -- would have made this woman “unclean” according to the law. And we need to understand just how big a deal being “unclean” was to a Synagogue leader like Jairus. Here is how Leviticus puts it (15:25-27).

When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. 

And we see the implications of being “unclean” explicitly in the following two verses:

Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean... and anything she sits on will be unclean.... Anyone who touches them will be unclean.

Naturally, this woman wanted to be as subtle as possible about touching Jesus’ clothing; she wanted, in fact, to go entirely unnoticed! -- because religious men didn’t take particularly kindly to strangers making them unclean! But the fascinating thing about the entire encounter is that Jesus isn’t at all interested in the secrecy that this woman is trying so desperately to maintain. He seems to want everyone in the crowd to know that this woman has touched him. And he also seems to want everyone in the crowd to know exactly why she touched him. We read in Luke 8:47 that she explained why she touched him in the presence of all the people.

So everyone would know. She was unclean. She touched Jesus. That means, according to the law of Moses -- the same law that leaders of Synagogues went to great lengths to follow to the letter, and then some -- that Jesus was unclean. Now that’s inconvenient. Leaders of Synagogues would never let an unclean person into their home. Everyone in the crowd would have known that. And this particular leader of the Synagogue was urging Jesus to hurry in order to enter his home to heal his daughter.

Can you feel the tension? Can you sense the drama? Jairus was exercising remarkable restraint throughout this entire distracting episode. We could hardly blame him for becoming increasingly agitated throughout the process. His beloved daughter was dying. Notice that at this stage in the game, only Jesus and the woman are aware that she has been healed. But before we go on, we need to call out our third principle: if we would like Jesus to act on our behalf, it is highly recommended that we be gracious with others who are equally in need of Jesus’ attention.

Now this one isn’t nearly so obvious as the previous two principles. Just to remind you, they were: 1) put some work in and 2) adopt an appropriate attitude. But now, we also need to be willing to let Jesus reach out to others. Even in ways which are inconvenient or awkward or bothersome. In other words, we need to get over the common difficulty that many Christians have with… other Christians. Did you know that there are actually some Christians who voted for Donald Trump? Did you know that there are actually some Christians who voted for Hillary Clinton? For some people, issues like that are huge. But as big as they are, I’m afraid that being ceremonially unclean in Jesus’ day was much bigger.

This was a test of faith for Jairus. And I wonder how many similar tests of faith we encounter on a regular basis. Jesus is reaching out to all manner of people that we might be inclined to disapprove of. Whether we disapprove of people’s politics, or lifestyle, or theology, or forms of worship, or choice of Bible translation, we need to be able to pass these tests. And that means permitting Jesus to minister to them -- even if it might make us feel uncomfortable.

When we encounter someone who troubles us, and we think that it could be a test of faith for us, are we focused on being right or are we focused on being compassionate? Are we focused on the law or are we focused on grace. In our story today, the grace that Jairus showed toward a very troublesome and inconvenient interruption might well have been a key ingredient in the result to follow.

This was a test of faith for Jairus. Would he pull rank? Many people in the crowd would have been appalled that Jesus would delay his visit to this important Synagogue leaders’ house for the sake of a poor, miserable, outcast woman. But Jairus keeps his cool, and good thing, too. I'm so glad that he represents an example for us this morning. When God operates in ways that aren’t according to our agenda or timing, we would do well to recognize the ways in which He is caring for others of His beloved children. If we would like Jesus to act on our behalf, we would do well to be patient with interruptions, trouble and even inconvenience.

But now, in the instant that it was revealed that Jesus was ceremonially unclean -- or was he? -- poor Jairus is pushed to even greater limits. Two things happen in quick succession, and both would have certainly increased his emotional turmoil. First, let’s go back and finish the previous story:

In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

Hello! Now for the first time, Jairus gets a glimpse of why Jesus might have chosen to stop, and delay his progress. In this moment, Jairus would have reason to rethink everything he had ever been taught about being “unclean.” Instead of the touch between Jesus and this woman causing Jesus to become “unclean”, that touch seems to have caused the woman to become whole by the power of Jesus.

And I love this detail, a detail that would not have been lost on Jairus: Jesus addresses this woman as “daughter.” Jairus wanted Jesus to have compassion on his daughter. Jesus wanted Jairus to have compassion on all of the children of God -- even compassion that came at considerable personal cost to him. But even before Jairus has the time to process all of this, we read:

While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” 

Can you imagine? What a heartbreak! I don’t know about you, but whenever I experience disaster, I scan the past, thinking about all the “what if?s” Putting myself in this poor man’s shoes, I’m sure that in that moment I would be estimating how much time Jesus had been distracted, and be comparing it to how much time was needed to make it home. After all, this woman had been suffering for a long while -- surely another twenty minutes or so wouldn’t kill her. Why couldn’t Jesus have looked after her once he had healed my daughter? But as we see from our text, Jesus is aware that Jairus is finding it all too much to handle. (v50)

Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

Believe? Believe in what? Believe in Jesus, of course. Jesus is saying, “Don’t be afraid. Just trust me.” And trust in Jesus, Jairus did. And that, of course, is our fourth principle this morning: we must trust him, even when things seem particularly dire. And this is the difficult principle, of course. It is so easy, especially in our day and age, to put our trust in our government, or in technology, or in our employment, or in our family, or in our circle of friends. Now none of those things are bad, necessarily. But in each case, there will come a time when their claims will come into conflict with the claims of Jesus -- and that is going to be when it makes all the difference.

So let’s review. If we would like Jesus to act on our behalf, we do well to put in some work, to approach him with the right attitude, to be patient with interruptions, and we do well to trust in Jesus fully. Now let’s read to the end of our text:

When [Jesus] arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”
They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Now this is the result that Jairus was begging for. But it didn’t exactly happen in the way that Jairus anticipated. Far from it. It was more difficult -- much more difficult -- but it was also much more glorious. Healings had taken place in the past, but here was someone with the power to raise the dead.

The crowd would have been tempted to consider Jesus to have been unclean. But on the other hand, the crowd would have been sympathetic if Jesus refused to touch a dead body (which was also considered “unclean”). In either case, Jesus would have been kept from performing this miracle of compassion and of power. But Jesus shattered both of these expectations, as he continues to shatter expectations today. I wonder how often Jesus is only limited by our refusal to give him the opportunity to act. It is like Jesus’ experience in his hometown, about which we read (Matthew 15:38):

he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. 

But our four principles are simply expressions of faith, aren't they: If we have faith in Jesus, we will put in some Work; we will approach him with an appropriate Attitude; we will be patient with Interruptions -- letting him follow his own agenda and timing; and we will Trust in him fully. But embedded in these four principles, there is an important message: “WAIT”. This is a word that both helps us remember our principles, but it also represents a final principle. And scripture tells us that there is a blessing built into following this one:

Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

There may be many things on your mind this morning. There may be many things weighing you down or breaking your heart. I don't know what they could be. But to you, Jesus is saying, “don’t be afraid. just trust me." "Just believe.” Believe that Jesus is here, among us, just as he promised that he would be. Believe that the one who has the power to raise the dead also has the power to provide what we need. But you may also need to believe that Jesus’ method and timing might very well push you to your limits, as it did to Jairus.

Psalm 27:14 gives us this challenge:

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

This is my testimony this morning. May everyone here come to experience it as well.

Vocation

Good Morning, Bethel Friends. Welcome back to our series of sermons on Faithfulness in the Moment. We have been comparing the recent experience of the church with the Biblical experience of the people of Israel. After they were conquered by the armies of Babylon, they were hauled off into exile by a people with no respect for their values and no awareness of their God. But Babylon also shows up in the book of Revelation. It is an image of all that is violent and corrupt in the world. You’ve got to love the book of Revelation. It isn’t often that we get a glimpse of how things are going to turn out. And while the book isn’t always easy to interpret, it is impossible to miss the ultimate message of the book of Revelation: that is, God wins. Babylon will fall. (Rev 18:21,24)

So Babylon the great city will be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more … for in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.

We know how the story ends, folks. No matter how much it feels like the church is giving up territory, this, too, is part of God’s plan. And God’s plans will be fulfilled. God wins.

Just a reminder of where we are in our sermon series. As you likely recall, we have entered a practical phase, where we were highlighting practices that are critical to our role of representing God in an increasingly secular environment. We have considered and will consider the practices of: generosity, community, prayer, engaging with scripture, thanksgiving & hospitality. These are the things that should make Christians stand out in our society. They should challenge the citizens of Babylon to recognize that we have been radically changed by Jesus, and changed for the better -- giving us larger measures of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And while the world may talk about “community”, the people of God are to live it.

But this week, we will consider a practice that we call “vocation.” Now that’s not a common word: “vocation.” And our culture has messed with our habits of thinking on the topic: we have become conditioned to think that “vocation” is a word that fits somewhere among the words “work” “job” “occupation” and “career.” But scripture doesn’t ever go there. On the topic of our work, we have 1 Thessalonians (4:10,11):

But we urge you, brothers, to… aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands.

And Ephesians 4:28

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands

And in the cases of individual examples, when Jesus calls his disciples with the words, “follow me,” they simply left their jobs and followed him. But how does that help us to understand “vocation”? And how do we disentangle the idea from “job”? I’m afraid that it is might take some work this morning. So fasten your seatbelts.

By way of introduction, let me tell you about something I've learned from E. But I’m not going to talk about her work as much as I’m going to talk about her practice at work. After all, your practice at work is far more important than your actual work. As most of you know, E. works as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. In her work, there is a strong temptation for the medical professionals to label their patients, but E. tries to avoid such labeling. For example: instead of referring to “the twenty-four weeker”, E. prefers to say, “the baby born at twenty-four weeks gestation.” In this way, her patients are not being defined by their medical conditions.

Now you might be tempted to think that this is just a subtle quibble about the way we use words. I get that. But the fact is that it is an act of grace to choose to describe people instead of attempting to define them. Because nobody likes being pigeon-holed. And one of the most basic ways in which we can love our neighbours is to avoid defining them. Last month, one of the principles of Jesus’ interaction with culture was “don’t let others define you.” And today, in the spirit of the Golden Rule, we need also to altogether avoid trying to define others.

The root of the problem may be due to the English language itself. In particular, this verb that we call “to be” is peculiar. It can describe or it can define. We say “it is Saturn” (a definition) and we also say “it is large” (a description). We use exactly the same phrase -- in this case, “it is” -- for both description and definition. It doesn’t come with any warning signs as to which one of those two it is doing. And this ambiguity can cause us grief. Now philosophers make the helpful distinction between “essentials” and “incidentals” (or, as they used to say, “accidentals”). A definition is essential, but a description is incidental. And I hope to convince you this morning that occupations are incidental, but vocation is essential: in fact, vocation is what we are designed to be doing, it is the activity that matches our very definition.

It used to be -- not long ago -- that if someone were to say (for example) “I am Mennonite” (and I am!) that everyone would understand that he was just describing himself and his heritage -- the fact that his family came from that tradition is just incidental. But in the last few decades, this understanding has shifted: the descriptive has retreated, the definitive has advanced. And now, if someone says, “I am Mennonite” it is often taken as less of a description of the speaker, and more to be part of the definition of the speaker -- even essential to his very identity. Why is this happening? In a word, politics.

You may have noticed that politics has become an enormous enterprise, and expanding daily. The amount of money being spent on political campaigning has been growing at the rate of seven percent per year over the last five years. During that time, the value of real estate in Canada grew seven percent per year. Considering that there is usually something close to a fifty-percent risk of a political campaign failing, the returns on successful political money must be substantial! After all, people don’t usually want to throw their money away. So if people are investing differentially in politics rather than in stocks or real estate they must expect a huge return on those investments. And sure enough: careers in politics can be absurdly lucrative. But not only that: the levers of power can be manipulated for immense financial gains for the people that control them. Just ask SNC-Lavalin, for example. Of course, political power simply means the power to control… people.

But politicians have noticed that it isn’t very efficient to try to control people one at a time. They need to be able to control people in groups. In the past, politicians would position themselves as champions of economic classes -- representing the middle class or representing the working class, for example. But other strategies have recently come into play. Now, instead of attempting to manipulate economic classes, politicians are now focusing on classes that derive from race, and from sex, and even from religion. How is that working out for them? Follow the money. It is making people very wealthy indeed. But in order to manipulate people in this way, it helps to first convince them that their race or their sex or their religion doesn’t just describe them, it defines them. Politicians have learned that definitions are hugely more powerful motivating forces than mere descriptions. And because definition establishes identity -- because our identities are grounded in our definitions --  it makes sense to call this new trend “identity politics”.

Now politicians and their supporters have a different story to tell, of course. They would say that the expression “identity politics” just describes minorities banding together to fight injustice. But labeling “fighting for justice” as “identity politics” is a bit peculiar. Let me explain. While justice is the most noble of goals, when folks fight for justice they are always fighting for everyone to be treated the same. It is a great injustice if white folks get treated better than others because they are white. It is a travesty of justice if men get treated better than women because they are male. The essence of justice is fairness for everyone. But you know what that means? It means that as far as justice is concerned, the only human essential is our shared humanity. The very nature of justice requires this to be true. And scripture testifies to this (Gal 3:28):

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

In the body of Christ, there are no racial or economic or sexual classes. As far as justice is concerned, the only human essential is our shared humanity. The essence of justice is fairness for everyone. There just aren’t any other human essentials when it comes to justice. So when folks try to convince us that incidental things are actually essential, they are really just trying to deceive us and control us.

But that brings us back to the English language. You see, in order to exercise this kind of control, politicians would like us all to think that when they use expressions like “I am” and “you are,” these are not so much descriptions as they are definitions. And their success in this direction has gotten out of hand, now having a huge impact on our ability to think not just about our identity, but also to think about our work and our vocation.

Because we hear people say things like, “I am a plumber” or “I am a librarian” all the time. And while we used to understand that these were just descriptions, we’re more and more being conditioned to think that expressions like these are definitions. And the result has been that work, career, job -- perhaps even activity -- have been elevated to identity-defining levels, with tragic consequences. Derek Thompson wrote about this problem in the Atlantic a few weeks ago:

In the past century, the American conception of work has shifted from jobs to careers to callings—from necessity to status to meaning.
[And the ] mismatch between expectations and reality is a recipe for severe disappointment, if not outright misery, and it might explain why rates of depression and anxiety in the U.S. are “substantially higher” than they were in the 1980s....

And the problem is compounded, of course, when this trend of thinking of our jobs as our callings coincides with jobs becoming less secure and careers growing shorter. What a recipe for anguish! Because when we begin to trust in our job, when we put our faith in the company that we work for, then, being laid off or having to retire is the worst possible event, and we could collapse under its burden. And that’s just the negative consequence when the job turns out to be a good one! If, on the other hand, we have been conditioned to think that we should find our fulfillment and identity in our work but we find our work to be soul-crushing it can lead to identity crisis, and even psychological breakdown.

Instead, we need to be vigilant about who we give the authority to define us. Our identities are precious commodities. So many people will try to convince us to sacrifice our identities to their cause. But as Jesus says (John 10:10):

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
But I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Giving others the power to define us always results in our being used up and discarded. Only Jesus has the power to define us in the direction of life itself. In order to understand our vocation, we need to understand a key principle:

Your Lord defines you; Whoever defines you is your Lord.

We could even say that, "whoever we give the authority to define us becomes our lord." Now, of course, some folks imagine that they are capable of defining themselves; that they can be their own Lord. There is a proverb for them, though -- one that is so important, that it shows up twice in scripture (14:12 & 16:25)

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

There will be great disappointment for anyone expecting to define themselves or letting their government or employer define them. There is great risk to letting anyone define you by your incidentals, because those are the things that will change and eventually fade away. And as much as our identity rides on things that will pass away, when those things pass away... so do we! On the other hand, if we let Jesus define us; if we let him become our Lord, then he will provide life, and life abundantly. Because we can count on him to be the way and the truth and the life. As scripture says (Hebrews 13:8),

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Now it might come as a surprise to some that the abundant life that Jesus is promising has no connection to money, or status, or comfort. It is a Babylonian idea that abundant life must rely on any one of those things. But Jesus knows that his followers can and do go through hard times. At the same time, he also knows that we can experience abundant life in spite of life’s greatest challenges. This is what he said (Matt 7:24-27):

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.”

Jesus knows that when the storm comes, we need to be connected to something deep down and secure -- unmoving -- to ensure that our lives do not crumble. Do you want to have the internal strength to be able to not just survive but to thrive in whatever circumstances life throws at you? Jesus is telling us how to equip ourselves for even the worst of eventualities. He is calling out for us a principle that every builder knows: it is the foundation that is critical -- it is who we permit to have the authority to define us that makes all the difference. If we allow Babylon to define us, we are going to crash. If we allow Jesus to define us, we will stand firm.

The wise man builds his house upon the unmoving rock. The trends of yesterday are forgotten today. Yesterday’s superstar is today’s has-been. Yesterday’s rallying cry is today’s hate speech. Don’t waste your time attempting to build your life on what isn’t going to last. Instead, the only Rock worth building your life upon is Jesus himself. As scripture says, “The Rock is Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4)

So who does Jesus say is this wise man? Not the one who just listens to him, but the one who listens to Jesus and also puts his words into practice. Which words are these? Well, the previous three chapters are a good place to start. These chapters represent what we call the “Sermon on the Mount” -- a capsule of Jesus’ teaching. And with the time remaining, we’re going to unpack what Jesus says about the true definition -- the true “vocation” -- even the identity! of his disciples (Matthew 5:13):

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its saltiness, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

Now when Jesus was walking the earth, salt was worth more than diamonds. The English word “salary” comes from the Latin word that means “salt”. So before going any further, we need to appreciate that when Jesus tells us that “we are the salt of the earth”, he wants to define us as having great value. Seriously! But salt has no value to anyone if it is left on the shelf. The point of salt is not just to be salt: it is pointless if it just sits around. Salt is useful when it gets used up. As Jesus also said, “Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it, but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.” And saltiness is the behavior of salt and not just the character of salt.

The primary value of salt in those days was in its preserving properties. Left on its own, raw meat will go rotten very quickly -- typically within just a few days. But properly cured -- with salt, of course -- meat can be kept edible for months. Similarly, the world will also go rotten left on its own. And the same tendency toward rottenness also exists in human relationships. Misunderstandings happen so easily. They cause irritation, then bitterness, and then grudges. But the salt of the earth is to be engaged in a "ministry of reconciliation" (2 Corinthians 5:18), reversing this natural decay.

We sometimes say that the Christian life is all about a relationship with Jesus. And so it is. But Jesus himself says that whatever relationships we have with the marginalized, and the sick, and the injured, and the needy, and the hungry -- the very least of his brothers -- that is the relationship that we have with Jesus himself. And it is our willingness to reach out to the downtrodden, to love our enemies, and to see the good in people who may be messed up but really, really need to know God’s love, that make us as different from the world as salt is from rotting meat. When we behave that way, we aren’t just acting like a preservative, we’re also acting like good medicine. But that’s another property of salt, isn’t it?

When I was growing up, my parents liked to have wood burning in the fireplace. To this day, just the smell of a wood fire can bring back happy memories. But to make that happen, my father would often be chopping and stacking wood, and he would occasionally damage his hands in the process. Now having grown up in the badlands of Alberta -- mostly outdoors -- my Dad hadn’t developed the habit of caring for the cuts, and scrapes and splinters that he would receive in this way. As a result, every so often -- perhaps as much as once a year -- I would discover my Dad in the kitchen with his finger or thumb in a mug full of piping-hot salt water. It was always too hot for me. And it was super-saturated in salt. As a result, any infection that might have been troubling him would soon disappear. Within a few days, the pain and swelling would be gone. Are you that kind of person this morning? When you walk into a room, does the irritation level go down?

In our calling -- our vocation -- as the salt of the earth, we are to act as preservatives, sure, but we are also to act as good medicine. But if we direct those activities inward, or if what we offer is indistinguishable from what Babylon offers, we have become like salt that has lost its saltiness. We need to do more than just hear Jesus definition of us: “You are the salt of the earth.” We need to put it into practice.

How else does Jesus define us in the Sermon on the Mount? (5:14-16)

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Now Jesus also says that he is the light of the world. In fact, our being the light of the world is entirely due to our following him and being a reflection of his nature in the world. As you know, a mirror can only reflect a light if it is oriented toward that light. Let our fix our eyes on Jesus this morning, in order to truly be the light of the world.

Light is the most practical of God’s gifts to humanity. It provides the basis for the most basic human ability to orient oneself, to navigate, and to interact with the world around us. And it provides dimensions of beauty for those who open their eyes to creation. This, too, is part of our calling: to give the world an environment in which they, too, can orient themselves toward God; an environment in which they can also experience the incomparable beauty of His participation in their lives.

I can still vividly remember a particularly blustery winter day many years ago. I was driving home from Ottawa in a snowstorm. It was one of those snowstorms in which I could barely see the highway, let alone the lines on the highway, high beams or not. So I prayed. And just then, a semi-trailer pulled onto the highway in front of me. But not just any semi-trailer. This one was beautiful. It was going the perfect speed: I could settle in behind it quite comfortably. It had beautiful bright red lights all around the border of its tail panel. Those lights just ahead of me guiding the way made all the difference. But most important, it was heading home. I thanked God for the answered prayer.

And our calling as the light of the world will make others want to settle into our neighborhoods, and to follow us, too. Let's make sure we're steering them in the direction of their one true spiritual home. We need to do more than just hear Jesus definition of us: “You are the light of the world.” We need to put it into practice. And the world will indeed see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.

This morning, our topic was “vocation” -- much more than just our “jobs”. Rather, vocation reaches deep down to our very definition, and touches the very root of our being. But it is when we receive this vocation from Jesus that will make us be able to stand up in the storms of life. It is his vocation that will result in abundant life -- in spite of challenging circumstances. As the salt of the earth, we are called to a ministry of reconciliation -- acting as medicine and preservative in a corrupt world. And as the light of the world, we are also called to a ministry of illumination -- demonstrating the impact of Jesus’ Lordship by the way we live our lives.

Community

Good morning, and welcome back to our sermon series on Faithfulness in our Moment. Before we dive in, let me first tell you a little bit about Esther’s and my recent tour of Israel. It had been something that we had been talking about for a long time, and it was a very special experience. We got to see the foundation of the synagogue that Jesus would have taught in at Capernaum. We got to stand on the steps of the Temple that Jesus would have taught from. We got to visit the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed before his arrest and trial. We saw the Roman steps up to what was very possibly the Palace of Caiaphas, where Jesus could have been taken after his arrest. We saw the garden tomb, which some think might have been where Jesus rose from the grave. What a fascinating place. Such history. Such meaning. (We also saw the ancient walls of Jericho, Hezekiah’s tunnel, the pool of Bethesda -- near the Sheep Gate, just like the gospel of John says -- the ancient church built over the house of Peter, and the pool of Siloam, among many other sights.) But when one of the students at the TESL class asked me what was best part of the trip, I had to answer that the best part of the trip was the group of people with whom we spent those eight days. 

From all over the United States (we were the only Canadians), these were Christians of all ages who were committed to drawing closer to Jesus through this experience. And I will never forget our final dinner together at the Yad HaShmona moshav (until recently a kibbutz), seated beside a wonderful brother (who had been an almost complete stranger) talking -- not about politics, not about professional sports, not about entertainment -- but about Jesus and his love. The fellowship we had throughout that whole trip was very special. And it is that kind of fellowship that can make so much of a difference in any church. It is that kind of fellowship that forms the basis of community.

A quick recap of our series so far: Al opened it up by introducing the theme of exile throughout the Bible, reminding us that in a very real way we are “God’s chosen exiles”. The following week, we were reminded that Jesus’ response to the culture that he lived in was often unexpected to his disciples: but that the needs of each individual were always front and center for him. In the third week of the series, Andy highlighted the value of spiritual training. And I loved Andy’s illustration of the boys learning to play volleyball. Like most of us, those boys have little appreciation of how valuable the repetition of training exercises could be. We all need training. Everything that we want to become good at requires training. And God is calling each of us to training -- training in godliness. As Paul puts it (1 Timothy 4:8):

“Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

So that’s why we’ve begun to get really practical, and to look at the elements of God’s training program. Last week, Al reminded us that “generosity” is a critical component of this “training for godliness.” And this week, we will consider the element of “community”. Now “community” is a much-abused word these days, and no wonder! We live in a culture that idolizes privacy, individualism, and independence. It should come as no surprise that when we use the word “community” we are often referring to some cheap imitation. Either that, or someone wants to make a political point or sell you something.

Considering how slippery the word “community” is, in order to understand it correctly, we need to have a fixed point of reference; we need an anchor that won’t slip. Let me suggest that that anchor we need this morning is Jesus himself. The firstborn from among the dead, and the image of the invisible God. Now, when we consider community as it relates to Jesus, we will find that first, community and community-building is a necessary result of knowing Jesus, but that (second) community can draw people to Jesus as well. How do we know these things? Well, Jesus lays down a number of hints for us (John 13:34,35): 

Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

Of course, there can be no true community without love. And Jesus is saying that the love that we have for one another will convince the world that following Jesus makes all the difference. When we are not to be looking out for ourselves but instead are (Phil 2:2-4):

like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do[ing] nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility valu[ing] others above yourselves, not looking to [our] own interests but each of [us] to the interests of the others.

When we are like that, the world will sit up and take notice. And if we were to even take baby-steps in that direction, we would all not only experience a greater level of community, but we would make the gospel that much more attractive to those who are watching. There is nothing like the love we have in community to draw people to Jesus. We see this principle again in Jesus’ prayer for the church (John 17:21) (Jesus speaking to God):

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

Once again: there can be no true community without unity. And Jesus is saying that it is the unity that we have in him that will help bring the world to appreciate the good news that Jesus has been sent by God to be the Savior of the world. Please notice, however, that the unity that Jesus prays for involves a unity with God himself: it is as we truly connect with God that we have the ability to connect with each other on a deep and meaningful level. What’s more, the unity we have is also based on the unity that Jesus has with his Father. That is, community is actually an attribute of the God we serve. It isn’t some nice tack-on to our relationship with Him -- it is built into His very nature, and He calls us to participate in it with him.

So community -- and the love and unity that it embodies -- is clearly something that can help draw people to Jesus. In fact, it is the only thing that scripture tells us will be effective in bringing people to the truth. There is no such suggestion, for example, that preaching could be anywhere near as effective. You know what that means, don’t you? It means that the steps you take to bring a deeper sense of community among us are likely more valuable toward spreading the gospel than any words spoken from this pulpit. I expect that if we were to ask the people who have started coming to Bethel over the last few years why they keep coming, the kindnesses that they have received would feature higher than the quality of the teaching. 

But not only is community something that can draw people to Jesus, community is also something that always happens when people have truly come to know him. Because it is impossible to get to know Jesus without being faced with the challenge that loving Jesus means loving those around us. Jesus tells us that how we treat the least of his brothers is how we treat him. And yes: that means the lonely, and the broken, and the troubled, and the difficult. And it is this principle -- the principle that how we treat the people we encounter on this earth is how the Eternal King takes us to have treated him -- that is reflected in the teaching that we -- together -- are the body of Christ. 

But when Christians think about “the body of Christ,” we often have something else in mind, don’t we? After all, in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus tells his disciples that the bread is his body, broken for us. As you know, many churches place considerable emphasis on the Lord’s Supper. And there is good reason for that. This meal that we celebrate is, after all, one of only two practices that Jesus himself instituted for his followers. 

In fact, let me take this opportunity to encourage you to set your alarms a little earlier on a Sunday morning, and to come out to our earlier service in order to participate in this important reminder. There is something quite profound about obeying Jesus’ command to remember him in this way.

But the fact that we call the Lord’s Supper “communion” is no coincidence. Communion simply means fellowship. And communion is naturally the basis for community. It is a tragedy that community has, over centuries, become an increasingly minimized aspect of communion. But God’s intention for communion, and something that we can help regain, was always that it be a springboard for community. For it is in communion that we can strengthen our connection with God, and it is also in communion that we must be aware of the connections that we have with one another. Paul is quite explicit about this. In discussing the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians, Paul warns (11:27,28):

...whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 

And many Christians stop reading right there. So they think that Paul was telling his readers to examine themselves for unconfessed sin or something like that. But that wasn’t what Paul was saying at all. The next verse makes it clear (v29):

For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.

Discerning the body of Christ, is, quite simply, being aware that the people around you are part of the body of Christ. How do we know that this is what Paul is getting at? Well, only a very few verses later, Paul explains what he means, ultimately telling us:

All of you together are Christ’s body (1 Cor 12:27)

And this is a theme in Paul’s writings, also showing up in Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and the first chapter of Colossians. So communion (the Lord’s Supper) points backward to Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, but it also points toward the community of the body of Christ as an integral part of God’s plan for his people. These two important truths are brought together in communion. For community is something that always happens when people have truly come to know Jesus. 

As an illustration of this, let’s now turn to an example of community in the Bible. And not just any example. Let’s consider how the Bible describes the earliest Christians -- the very first “church” -- and the way that they interacted together (Acts 2:42):

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.

Now here at Bethel, we also want to take the teaching of the apostles very seriously. And recently, we’ve also recognized a greater need for fellowship. So at least two home groups have been started (on Thursday and Saturday nights, to which you are all encouraged to consider coming). And while I’ve already given a shout-out for our first service (where we share the Lord’s Supper), this is also the Sunday in the month that we will be having a prayer meeting: five o’clock today in the carpeted room downstairs and all are welcome. Teaching. Fellowship. Sharing. Prayer. These were and continue to be the hallmarks of the community of God.

But the book of Acts goes on to describe this community in more detail (Acts 2:41-47):

...all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

Wow -- that’s serious commitment: selling possessions and sharing the money with those in need; sharing everything they had. That would likely be a stretch for most of us. So I’m not going to suggest that that is something that God is calling us to be doing this morning. But I am going to suggest that God is calling us to be at least a step or two closer to that kind of behavior -- generosity was, after all, what we discussed last week. 

Now I’m sure that you’ll agree that if this is the standard for churches, the bar has been set awfully high. But a few chapters later, the writer of Acts comes back to reinforce this description of this earliest church, with many of the same highlights (Acts 4:32-37):

All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.

Sharing everything they had? Now that sounds far too much like a community turning into a communism for many Christians. The difference, of course, is that historic examples of communism, whether the Soviet Union, or China, or Cuba, had the communist experience imposed upon a nation by greedy, corrupt, and violent men. In marked contrast, the first Christian community took shape quite naturally and voluntarily. 

But why do we see so few churches today living out this radical generosity? Well, it is exceedingly difficult to sustain. Even the early church soon found challenges in such a lifestyle. We can read about it two chapters later (Acts 6:1-7):

But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.

So even the spirit-filled church of the first century struggled to maintain their idyllic community in short order. Why was that? Well, quite simply there are always ties -- family ties, ethnic ties, linguistic ties -- whose communal demands are in competition with the communal demands of the church. This kind of thing always happens. It cannot be avoided. But even its perception undermines community. If people detect that family, or ethnic or linguistic loyalties come first, community will suffer. In fact, let me tell you a true story.

Many years ago, I was sitting near the back of a congregation in a church service. In front of me were two young people who had been attending that church for most of their young lives. At the end of the service, I overheard one of these young people turn to the other and say, “well, I guess I won’t ever come back to this church.” And, as I found out later, they didn’t. So what troubled them so much? Well, it seemed to them that there was unfairness going on. They had two friends who -- it seemed to them -- were in very similar circumstances. But those two friends were receiving very different treatment from the church. One of their friends seemed to be ignored, and the other friend seemed to be celebrated. The perceived injustice toward their ignored friend was a deal-breaker for them. The tragedy was that those young people chose to walk away rather than to talk to someone about their concerns. 

Because exactly the same problem was plaguing the earliest church. There was a perceived injustice -- that the Greek-speaking widows were regularly getting a bad break in the distribution of food. But someone in the early church spoke up to the Apostles with their concerns of unfairness. Believe me: no matter how uncomfortable you think that it might be for us, the elders sincerely hope that you come and talk to one of us if you perceive any significant injustice at Bethel!

So when this injustice was reported to the Apostles, what did they do?

...the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. [And] we will give them this responsibility....”

Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

So God’s message continued to spread.

Now at first glance, this might seem like a perfectly understandable bureaucratic move: assign the problem to other people. But hidden in this text is a remarkable fact. You see, all of the earliest converts to the Way of Jesus -- including the twelve Apostles -- were Aramaic-speaking Jews. But the names on this list -- those given responsibility to resolve the problem of inequality toward the Greek-speaking widows -- are all Greek names. That is, they were all representatives of the disenfranchised widows. They were all part of the group experiencing the unfair treatment. 

But please note that the fact that they represented the disenfranchised was by no means a sufficient qualification for their appointment. Rather, the explicit qualification was that they be well respected and full of the Spirit and wisdom. And this is crucial. Because without the participation of the Spirit of God, communities will splinter into groups of people looking after their own interests. 

If we “keep in step with the Spirit,” and as we “fix our eyes on Jesus,” we should naturally be drawn into community and also draw others into true community. But other claims on our communal energies will always be in competition with the claims of the church. We can’t avoid that. And appropriately committing our energies to marriage, and family, and neighborhood, as well as church will always be a challenge. But the dynamic of the Kingdom is that if we are able to experience fellowship with Jesus, then we are asked to draw upon that experience to minister within our churches. And if we are able to experience community in our churches, then we are asked to draw upon that experience to minister within our marriages, within our families, and within our neighborhoods. This is what Paul is getting at in Philippians (2:1,2):

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? ...Then ... be like-minded, having the same love, united in spirit, with a single purpose.

Because the encouragement, comfort, and fellowship we find in Christ should be leading us to a common mind, a common love, a common spirit, and a common purpose. 

But just before I wrap up, I’m going to get really personal, and tell you about one of the hardest lessons that I ever learned -- right up there with “doing the dishes is never a problem for an adult.” (that was a hard one for me) When I was an early teen, I once asked my father why I had no friends. Now I don’t mention this for sympathy: that was a long time ago and you folks have made up for any lack of friends that I might have had a hundred-fold. But it is true that as a teenager, I had no friends. I just couldn’t get excited about any of the stuff that my peers were so into. But I will never forget my father’s advice in that moment. He said, “instead of worrying about other people becoming your friends, why not work on becoming a friend for others.” Rock my world -- difficult stuff for an adolescent. “Instead of worrying about other people becoming your friends, why not work on becoming a friend for others.” But the same is true about community, isn’t it? If we are not experiencing community ourselves, why not work on providing a community for others?

Faithfulness in Exile

Good Morning, Bethel friends. In case you missed it, last week, we launched a series of sermons to help us understand the place of the church in society today, to help us understand the times that we live in and the Biblical response to all of its challenges. As Al walked us through last week, the ideas and the ideals of the church are being increasingly marginalized in twenty-first century Canadian society. In only a very few generations, the church in Canada has gone from being seen as a source of stability, guidance, truth, and justice to being seen as out-of-date, out-of-style and out-of-touch. 

Last week, Al compared our current situation to the people of Israel having been hauled off to Babylon. Their temple had been burnt to the ground. The city of Jerusalem had been sacked. And now they were in a foreign land trying to be faithful to the God Who was largely unknown to the people around them. Their customs were -- at best -- looked down upon. At worst, they were abused for their distinctives.

Now that's a depressing way to begin a sermon... so why am I smiling? Only because this moment in history represents such an amazing opportunity. History is, after all, his story, and it is a story of redemption and deliverance from first to last. This is not the first time or the first place that the church has found itself in this kind of situation. And, believe it or not, feeling exiled in the world might actually be quite a healthy place for the church to be.

Consider, for example, the church in China. Under Mao’s rule, tens of thousands of Christians were sent to labour camps, and perhaps as many as half a million Christians were harried to death (according to an article published in the Economist in 2014). Check out the result:

Many experts, foreign and Chinese, now accept that there are probably more Christians than there are members of the 87m-strong Communist Party. Most [of those Christians] are evangelical Protestants.

That’s about two-and-a-half-times the number of Christians in China as there are people in Canada. Of course, in the same time-frame, the church in Canada, for all its material blessings and legal freedoms, decreased in size. But in China, there has been so much recent Christian influence in the corridors of power that there has been talk of much greater religious freedom for them. But here’s another quote from the same article toward the end:

...one Beijing house-church elder declared, with a nod to the erosion of Christian faith in western Europe: “If we get full religious freedom, then the church [in China] is finished.”

Isn’t that remarkable? When things appear disastrous for the church, it flourishes, but when things appear advantageous for the church, it withers. But this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with history: describing the lives of the earliest Christians, Rick McKinley writes:

Life for these believers was one of suspicion and persecution. Their newfound faith had nowhere within mainstream culture to rest its head, and their way of life was viewed as peculiar.

Does that sound familiar? If it doesn’t resonate with your experience as a Christian, you might only have to wait a few years. The life of the church today seems to be going in that direction. And yet, in spite of their marginalization, the early church grew remarkably. In his book The Patient Ferment of the Early Church Alan Kreider documents how, in spite of disincentives, harassment, and the occasional persecution, the church came to be seen as a refuge to an empire that was rotten at its core -- the good news of Jesus was attractive because those who held to it clearly had something special, something that the rest of the world was missing. The early Christians were people who lived differently; they were examples of patience, kindness, and generosity in a society longing for all those things. And so the early church blossomed.

But after a few hundred years, everything changed -- what had began as a disruptive influence throughout the Empire became a part of the mainstream. How did that happened? Well, along came this guy named Constantine. And when he became the emperor,

Persecution was over. [T]he faith that was once marginalized was now celebrated in the public square and the halls of government. 

Of course, some people cheered that moment. Christians were able to enjoy a place in the sun. Christians were given some respect. Christians were given some freedom. But in only a few generations, the church became as corrupt as the empire was. Instead of Christians being able to define the empire, the empire took the opportunity to define the church. 

When things appear disastrous for the church, it flourishes; when things appear advantageous for the church, it withers. Why is that? When the power-structures of society support the church, Christians become tempted to lean on them, and they lose their dependence on God. But when those structures are no longer a support, Christians must return to the only truly reliable source of security: they must once again rely entirely upon God. But the strong temptation among all people -- Christians no exception -- is to want a bigger piece of the pie, and a higher place on the ladder. In contrast, Jesus asks, 

what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?

The greatest failure of the church throughout history has been its habit of selling its soul for a greater portion of the world: the respect of the world, a place at the table with the world, some influence in the affairs of the world. Sure: there is discomfort in being marginalized, and it isn’t fun to be mocked or derided. But Jesus also says:

If anyone is ashamed of me and my message, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in his glory....

So we have a choice to make. Are we going to hang onto the things of the world? Are we going to continue to grasp for more of the things of this world? Or are we going to trust in the one who conquered death, and follow the one who has had more of a positive impact in the world than everyone else in history put together?

The challenge for Christians has always been, and continues to be: following Jesus means carrying a cross even as he carried his cross -- it is and remains the only path to the resurrection, after all; it means a willingness to lose this life to find the eternal life that he alone can offer. And to so follow him means to embrace the exile that it implies. 

In Philippians, Paul tells us that “our citizenship is in heaven.” Not on earth; in heaven. And in his first epistle, Peter tells us that we are “strangers and exiles [in the world]”, and -- as Al mentioned last week -- Peter addresses us as “chosen exiles according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” In the original language, the fact that we are exiles is every bit as much a part of God’s foreknowledge as the fact that we have been chosen. That is, God is very much aware of the unsettledness of our position. He is quite familiar with the discomfort we experience as exiles in the world. But it is all part of His plan. And God also works in this for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

But how are we supposed to behave as exiles? Well, that’s part of what this sermon series is intended to address. After all, the church has developed all kinds of bad habits over the last many centuries: habits of an institution close to the levers of power; habits that the church has actually acquired from the empire; habits that have got the church into a great deal of trouble as they compromise our message, and undermine our identity as salt (preservative) and light (guidance) in the world.

As ever, the best remedy to the church’s failures are to fix our eyes on Jesus. But we also need to appreciate that even the disciples were often not on the same page as Jesus. In the gospels, when Jesus was threatened, Peter pulled out his sword and took a swipe at a man in the crowd. But Jesus rebuked Peter, and healed the injured man. Sometimes, our instincts may be to fight when Jesus would call us to refrain. At another time, the disciples would have likely imagined (along with the rest of the culture) that the Temple, and all its activities, were sacred. But Jesus made a whip and drove out the animals and the money in order to purify that same Temple. Sometimes, our instincts may be to accept “the way things are” when Jesus would call us to take a stand. If the disciples were so routinely out-of-sync with their master, we need to proceed with great caution and humility. 

But this morning, I’d like to focus on a particular encounter in the life of Jesus that can help us understand our role as his disciples in our cultural environment. This event takes place in a remote area. Jesus is far from home. The environment isn’t particularly welcoming. But in spite of that, he asked his disciples to go into town for some provisions -- and he was left all alone. And while he is alone, someone arrives with a bucket to draw water from the well. That’s when Jesus asks her for a favor. John 4:7,9 --

Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ... The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?”

Now let’s appreciate that the attitude of the Samaritan woman here represented the society that she lived in. As far as she is concerned, a Jewish man asking a Samaritan woman for a drink is unthinkable. And yet here it is: it is happening right in front of her. Jesus is defying cultural expectations. And that’s the first lesson for his followers:

Don’t let others define you. 

Now when the Samaritan woman asked, “How can you ask me for a drink?” she wasn’t trying to be pick a fight. She was simply reflecting the attitudes that she had encountered from Jewish men until now. In the culture of the day, the Jewish men would have had nothing but contempt for Samaritan women. But Jesus was by no means constrained by the attitudes or behavior of others. This is very useful to remember, since the church has made so many blunders throughout history. But we do not need to be constrained by their attitudes or behaviors.

What the woman was really saying with the words “How can you ask me for a drink?” is, “you can’t do that -- that kind of behavior doesn’t fit into the nice neat little stereotype that I have of you.” I imagine Jesus chuckled at her words. And we must not let others define us either. Don’t waste any energy making excuses for other people’s nice neat little stereotypes of you. Just break it. Go ahead: break it. That’s what Jesus did. As followers of the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth, those stereotypes have no power over you. 

Instead, you have the freedom to provide dignity where no dignity could have been expected. You have the freedom to speak truth where the truth has gone out of style. You have the freedom to show love where the word “love” has only been a front for exploitation. You have the freedom to deliver hope into the lives of people who have given up hope. Don’t let others define you. Instead, define yourself as a follower of Jesus. Let's see what he says next.

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

With the words “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman,” the woman was reminding Jesus of history. History of oppression. History of abuse. History that would have connected the two of them to opposite poles in the dynamic of oppression. Him: man; her: woman; him: Jew; her: Samaritan. But Jesus isn’t playing that game. And that’s a very interesting point in a day and age in which the history of oppression looms so large. Instead, Jesus recognized this woman was a human being, and as a precious soul made in the image of God, she had needs in common with everyone else -- needs that were vastly more important than any labels. And this is our second lesson this morning. We must look beyond all the labels that we are told are so very important, and 

Be sensitive to the need in every individual.

Of course, saying this could get us in trouble -- unless we actually live it. As  Cyprian wrote in AD 256, “We are philosophers not in words but in deeds; … we know virtues by their practice ...; we do not speak great things but we live them.” 

And when Jesus said "If you knew who it is that asks you for a drink." -- that is, if you knew him. "you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Not only does Jesus recognize the need in this woman, but he knows exactly what it is that could fulfill that need, and is ready, willing, and able to supply it. But let’s read on:

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Please notice that while Jesus found a way to agree with what this woman said, he did nothing that could be described as “affirming” her choices? Some folks seem to imagine that it is impossible to love someone without affirming everything about them. Clearly Jesus thought otherwise. And, as followers of Jesus, this is something that we need to learn, too. We must love people without having to affirm everything about them. 

But please also notice, that while Jesus did nothing to “affirm” this woman’s lifestyle, he did nothing to condemn her either! Perhaps we also need to learn to avoid being so quick to condemn people, too. Of all the people Jesus ever met, this woman was likely high on the list of those that he could condemn. But he didn’t. He continued to dignify her with conversation, and let her immediately change the subject.

“Sir,” the woman said, “... Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

Having just been called out over the fact that she had been with six different men, the woman diverts the conversation toward a controversy that she feels certain to “win.” After all, she has heard countless times how wrong the Jews were in this regard. Similarly, folks today have heard the media or the academy tell us countless times how wrong the church is in so many respects. And you may have experienced conversations suddenly veering toward controversies yourself. Some people today are convinced that making reference to American politics, or scandals in the Catholic church, or the Spanish Inquisition, or the Crusades will immediately give them the upper hand in any conversation with a Christian. But please pay careful attention to how Jesus responds. The woman jumps for what she thinks is a window of opposition, but Jesus immediately turns it into a window of opportunity.

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem -- [a time] when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.”

The woman thought that by invoking an historic wedge issue, she could put Jesus on the defensive and save some face. But Jesus wasn’t playing that game either. Instead, he takes her chosen topic and uses it as an opening into which he speaks wisdom and truth. And that’s our third lesson today:

Don’t let others trap you in controversies.

Whenever we waste our time caught in the vortex of controversies, the enemy is quite content. It really doesn’t matter how correct we are. It really doesn’t matter how much in error the other guy is. That time is wasted. Jesus didn’t go around giving the final answers to all the controversies of his day. If anyone could, it would have been him! But he knew better! Instead, he was content to be continually asking good questions. Read the gospels and you will see for yourselves: his example is a master-class in avoiding controversies. 

Do you remember when the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus? “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar,” they asked him. They thought there was no escape. If he said “yes,” he would look like a wimp and a traitor to the people. If he said “no,” they could report him to the authorities as a subversive. Instead, he asked for a coin, and asked them whose picture and inscription was on it. Of course, the answer was “Caesar”, and so Jesus rose above any controversy with his famous answer, “then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.”

Please also note that Jesus’ answer to this woman implies that “his people” haven’t got it all together. As far as she is concerned, Jesus would have been expected to argue for Jerusalem as the place of worship. But he doesn’t. There is a higher Truth. Jesus doesn’t defend Jerusalem. Jerusalem is just a shadow of the reality to come. This is a principle that shows up in Paul's writings, too (Col 2:17):

For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.

And as we follow Jesus, let us not get hung up on the shadows -- such an 'empire' thing to do -- but may we receive a clear vision of higher Truth that brings us back to Jesus. Here’s the end of their conversation:

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

And that’s the final lesson for us this morning:

Jesus is the answer.

Now while this lesson might sound like the easiest one, it really is the most difficult. Sure: it is an answer that every Sunday School child might be able to repeat, but until Jesus becomes the answer in my life -- the answer to my hopes, the answer to my worries, the answer to my failures, the answer to my aspirations -- why should anyone listen to me if I tell them that Jesus is the answer in their life? 

In the conversation we’ve just considered, Jesus first broke down a number of barriers. He avoided being defined by others. He recognized the needs of the woman as a human being and he brought her to the place where she was willing to acknowledge her need. He didn’t get trapped in controversies. Rather, he turned a window of opposition into a window of opportunity, and then -- and only then -- the woman was ready to hear that truth that she so desperately needed to hear -- that Jesus was truly the answer.

And in this conversation, we see a miniature of what Jesus would like to do for each of us. Just like he was willing to share in the woman's story, he wants to share in each of our stories, and bring us to the point where our story converges with his story. Then, he would love to give us that living water that wells up inside us and changes us from the inside out. 

Jesus is the answer, but Jesus is smart enough to recognize that it is an answer that is really difficult to receive from a place of power. Rather, it is a message that is best received from a place of exile. Our Savior left his throne and came to walk among us and to be born as a baby into a poor family and into a marginalized community. Our Savior was willing to die the death of a criminal in order to get the message through to us. 

Sure, there is discomfort in exile. It can be messy. It can be dirty. But exile is the soil in which the gospel can grow the best. 

Discipleship Essentials

Happy New Year! And welcome back… to the normal? I’m afraid that that’s what this coming week will feel like to most of us. The last two weeks might have had some vacation, and four statutory holidays, Christmas among them. I hope that time included some special festivities and food. Or perhaps contacts with family and friends -- we had the joy of almost a week in Edmonton with [my daughter] and her family and my Mom who flew there from Victoria. So much fun!

Perhaps your last two weeks also included a shopping excursion or two -- either in the Christmas rush or the Boxing week sales. Now with apologies to anyone who really likes shopping, I just don’t. I’m the guy who either walks very quickly into a store, finds what I want, and am out of there in record time, or I go into a store, and agonize over the options and leave frustrated. The only stores I can relax in are thrift stores.

But on at least one occasion, my inability to make up my mind in a store resulted in a bit of fun. You can picture it: I’m putting a package back on the shelf (possibly for the third time), and someone approaches me -- thinking that I must work in the store! -- to ask me where to find something. Has that ever happened to you? Or perhaps worse: have you ever approached another customer thinking they were a store employee? I confess: I’ve done that, too. Both experiences were at least worth a chuckle... to make up for the discomfort.

But experiences like this remind us that life is a whole lot easier to navigate when our roles are clear and we understand the roles of those around us. Our society has customs around store employees, and being able to easily identify them avoids the occasional awkwardness. But knowing one’s role is valuable in all manner of situations, from sports to business. Bill Parcells, a celebrated football coach turned “knowing one’s role” into something of a mantra. These other two guys [in the slide], both business consultants, also highlight the value of knowing one’s role. But this leads us to a very important question, doesn’t it? What is our role in the Kingdom of God? What is my role in the Kingdom of God.

Now as I was thinking, studying and praying about my role at Bethel, I realized that understanding my role at Bethel is a very different thing from understanding my role in the Kingdom of God. Now perhaps talking about roles at Bethel is appropriate for another day, but this morning, I’d like to talk about roles in the Kingdom of God. And I became convinced that my role in the Kingdom needs to be exactly the same as… yours! Now this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone here. After all, with its Brethren background, Bethel Community Church has a history of participation in ministry, and the elders have long been impressed by your involvement in the ministries of the church, whether Awana, or Sunday School, or Praise in the Parlour, or the Missions Committee, or La Corde, or any other ministry at Bethel or elsewhere. At Bethel, while an elder takes responsibility for equipping the church, we recognize that elders aren’t in a “special spiritual category.” There are only two “spiritual categories.” As Jesus says:

Make every effort to enter through the narrow gate (Luke 13:24)

...For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matt 7:13,14)

Simply put, there are those who have found life, and those who have yet to find life. As far as God is concerned, there are those inside the Kingdom of God, and those outside the Kingdom of God. And in a very important sense, inside the Kingdom of God there is only one role: the role of a disciple of Jesus. So while it is my role at Bethel to encourage you in your role as Jesus’ disciples, my role in the Kingdom of God is exactly the same as yours: being Jesus disciple.

And this morning, I’d like to turn our attention to perhaps one of the most important stories in the gospels -- a story that reveals to us the expectations that God has for the role of Jesus’ disciple. In fact, I’d like to suggest to you that this story was understood by the early church to be like “the Kingdom of God in miniature” -- a picture of the proper function of the Kingdom’s outpost in the world that we call the church. This story is often called “the feeding of the five thousand.” And you can find it in Matthew 14, Mark 6, Luke 9, or John 6. And a hat-tip to Dr. Yves Cheng is in order, as I once again consulted the lessons he has published on his website.

Now how do I know that this story is so important? Well, it shows up in every one of the gospels. The only other elements of the gospels that appear in all the gospels are those that occur toward the end of Jesus’ life on Earth: his arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection. So that puts the story that we are going to look at this morning in some really important company. Now most of you are familiar with the story, so I hope you don’t mind if I read you an amalgam of all four: that is, I’ve put all four of the accounts together. This way, we can get most of the details in one go.

Because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, Jesus said to his twelve disciples, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.  

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things about the kingdom of God, and healed those who were sick.

Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” Jesus replied, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.

When they had all eaten and were satisfied, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children. And when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

Now before getting to the story itself, I’d like to highlight at the outset… the roles in this story. First, there is Jesus. Of course, he’s in a class by Himself. He is the Way and the Truth and the Life. No-one comes to God except through him. Please understand: Jesus is much bigger than anything we can think of him or say of him. He can and does work in ways that will surprise even his closest followers. But if people make it to God, they do so through Jesus. If people come to Jesus, he draws them to God. The secret ingredient in the story we’ve just read is Jesus. And we are going to come back to him, but before we do, let’s consider the other roles…

Next comes the disciples. These are not those who just claim to be Christians.These are not those who just hang around churches. These are not those who have seen Jesus from a distance and have enjoyed a free lunch. These are those individuals who have been called by Jesus. These are those who have found the narrow gate leading to life, and have entered it. Now there is no pride in this role. We know that it is all grace that has drawn us into fellowship with our Lord and Savior. As scripture says (Eph 2:3-5):

By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life [as] when he raised Christ from the dead.

We are no better than anyone else, but we have, by God’s grace, been given a new life -- experienced in the here and now and with the promise of a resurrection from the dead, as we follow in Jesus footsteps.

So the story involves Jesus, and the story involves the disciples, but the story also involves the people in the crowd. Now there might be some here who are not yet disciples of Jesus. We’re certainly glad you’ve been willing to come out this morning. As we saw from our text, Jesus sentiment toward the crowd is one of compassion, and true followers of Christ should feel exactly the same way toward those needing to meet Him for the first time -- regardless of politics, ethnicity, or life-style. But if you are not yet a disciple, Jesus has a message for you this morning. In John 6, the day after being fed by Jesus, a large portion of the crowd found him. And this is what he said to them -- and to anyone who is not yet his disciple (6:27):

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

Sure: Jesus’ compassion for the crowd involved his making sure that they didn’t go home hungry that previous day. He also told his disciples to pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” So he understands the need for “the food that perishes.” But he also wants them to understand that there are more important things in life than physical food. He challenges us to “work for the food that endures to eternal life.” Remember that narrow gate Jesus tells us to strive to enter? The one on the path to life? Well, there is a nourishment that fortifies us for that journey. There is a food that endures to eternal life. And what is the source of that food? Well, Jesus tells us that, too: “The Son of Man” is just how Jesus referred to himself. So the challenge is to come to Jesus and receive what he is offering this morning.

There are three roles in this story. But only two roles for us. We are either lost without a shepherd -- in which case we are in serious need of coming to Jesus, or we are one of his disciples -- in which case the rest of the story is intended for you. Now while it is probably comforting to put ourselves into one role or other, I wonder if there are aspects of our lives that are split between the two roles? But did you notice that the story begins with Jesus wanting to take his disciples on a retreat where they would have a chance to eat and rest? That’s how the story begins :

Because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, Jesus said to his twelve disciples, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. (Mark 6:31)

And yet, when they get out of that boat, there’s a crowd there to meet them. Now Jesus, feeling compassion for the crowd, begins to teach them and to heal them. And it is only some time later, when Jesus’ compassion finally rubs off on the disciples, that it occurs to them that the crowd could be beginning to be hungry, too. And they suggest that the crowd be sent away to look after their own needs. The fact that by this time the disciples are even more tired and more hungry just might be in play.

But that’s when Jesus puts them on the spot and asks them to do the impossible. “You give them something to eat,” he says. Say what? Jesus -- you can’t be serious! You want us to give them something to eat? They start to do the math: five, perhaps as many as eight thousand people; three dollars per person for a modest meal; that’s twenty-four thousand dollars! They don’t have access to that kind of money. And they want to make sure that Jesus is aware of the absurdity of what he is asking them to do. Then, they do an inventory (at Jesus’ suggestion): five small loaves and two small fish. As Andrew says, “how far will they go among so many?”

What they have is so little. What they have been asked to do is so great. I wonder how often we’re tempted to throw in the towel because our assessment of our resources and our gifts is to be desperately insufficient for what we know that God is calling us to? But the disciples know Jesus well enough by this time that they are going to pay close attention to his next moves. “Have the people sit down in groups of about fifty each.” Dividing thousands people into groups of fifty is a non-trivial undertaking, likely taking a significant amount of time. Yet, these tired and hungry disciples did as they were told, and then... they came back to Jesus for instructions.

And what does Jesus do? He gives thanks for God’s provision -- five small loaves and two small fish -- small as it is. No matter how small our resources seem, if we would like God to use them, it is critical that we bring them to God with gratitude. After giving thanks, Jesus breaks the food, and he gives it to his disciples. And he does it again. And he does it again. And as he does, he demonstrates that he is the Lord of Creation. He demonstrates that he has authority over nature. He has authority over the laws of nature. He was, after all, the one who made those laws. He knows just how matter was formed and how the fundamental particles interact with the fundamental forces. He is the One who came up with all that in the first place.

And while the ring of disciples around Jesus might have made it difficult for those in the crowd to see, the people closest to Jesus would likely have been aware that something amazing was happening. But those a little further out might have been unaware! And there were almost certainly people in the fringes of the crowd who were oblivious of the fact that they were in the presence of the Creator of the Universe -- not even aware that a miracle was happening at all!

There are two important principles here to think about. First: if you really want to see God at work, get closer to Jesus. Second: the effects of Jesus’ work in the world always go far beyond the human perception of Jesus’ work in the world.

But those in the crowd who were paying attention understood that something very special was happening. These are the people that exclaim, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” What prophet is that? The one Moses had prophesied in Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.” And for his part, Jesus identifies with that prophet (John 5:46 -- directly before this morning’s reading): “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.”

There was an expectation among the Jewish people in the first century that the coming Messiah would bring manna even as Moses did -- feeding the people of God with miraculous bread. This is expressed in rabbinical writings (here’s the quote) “What did the first redeemer? He brought down the manna. And the last redeemer will bring down the manna.” It is also found in the apocryphal book of 2nd Baruch: “at that time the treasury of manna will again descend from on high.” And now in our story this morning, Jesus is also distributing miraculous bread to the people of God. All that to say that this event -- at least for those in the crowd who were paying attention -- would have shaken their Jewish souls to the very core. No wonder they said, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

But let’s turn back to the disciples as they carry food out to the crowd. Likely those twelve baskets the story refers to at the end were the only thing they had to work with. So they carried a basket of food out, and carried an empty basket back to get more. Feeding such a crowd in such a manner would have taken at least another half-hour.

Did I mention that they were already tired and hungry? It makes us wonder, doesn’t it? Since Jesus was miraculously creating food in the first place (which was certainly the most difficult part of the whole process), how much harder would it have been for him to literally make manna come down from heaven? I expect that he could have done that with no more effort at all!

But Jesus chooses to do the things he does the way that he does as lessons for us. And we see the disciples needing to return again and again to their Master for his provision. Jesus chose not to “solve the problem” without his disciples’ involvement. Instead, he insisted on using his disciples, and he still insists on using his disciples -- on using us! -- to bring the Bread of Life -- the bread that endures to eternal life -- to a starving world. But this isn’t something that we can do on our own. We need to return, again and again, to our Savior -- for without him we can do nothing. We return to him for the living bread, but we also return to him for his instructions.

So what are his instructions for us this morning? What are his lessons from this story? First, we must develop compassion, emulating our Savior in His concern for the world. Second, we must be willing to exercise that compassion in service. And finally, we must return to Jesus regularly, trusting Him to look after the rest. Perhaps we could add one more: as disciples, we need to be patient in obedience if we really want to see God at work.

Because it is only when we are willing to come to Jesus, and to come back to Jesus, and to come back to Jesus again, that our eyes and our hearts can be opened in compassion to a world that desperately needs the bread that endures to eternal life.

There are two roles in play for us this morning. (to reiterate) In the crowd, those on the periphery would have just been grateful for the lunch. Closer to the action, there would have been those curious about the proceedings. Those looking over the shoulders of the disciples would have been blown away. But once Jesus got the attention of the crowd -- those yet to become his disciples -- he would nudge them toward the truth (John 6:35,51):

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst…. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.

The bread that endures to eternal life is Jesus himself. Let 2019 be the year in which you are able to meet him, to learn from him, to receive this amazing blessing from him.

For those who are already his disciples, let 2019 be the year that we develop a more compassionate heart, that you learn what it means to serve, and learn how to trust Jesus more fully. These essentials are critical to doing the work that God has prepared for us to do. With the words of Paul in mind:

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

let 2019 be the year that we develop a habit of returning, again and again, to Jesus, to receive His living bread, so that even our friends and neighbors will “taste and see that the Lord is good.”