Sunday, August 27, 2006

Inreach, Outreach

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
August 27, 2006
The 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Inreach, Outreach
1 Kings 8:22-30
John 20:19-23

It is a good thing you are all sitting down,
because I have some shocking news
to share with you this morning;
It really is not at all fair of me
to spring such startling news on you
in these languid last days of summer
when our minds should be on vacations and picnics and
back-to-school sales.
But here it is:
every person in this church is called to evangelize;
Every person in this church is called to be an evangelist.

Now we Presbyterians get a little uncomfortable
when we hear that word,
the “E” word.
It is not a word we use very often in the Presbyterian church;
It is a word we are more inclined to use
when we refer to other denominations,
other churches.
Churches where the music is louder,
the preaching goes on for a lot more than 15 minutes,
and things seem not to be done “decently and in order.”

When we hear the word “evangelist”,
or “evangelical”, or “evangelize”
the kinds of images that come to mind might be revivals,
tent meetings, teary confessions from men and women.
Almost a century ago author Sinclair Lewis gave us
the classic unflattering portrait of the evangelist
in his novel “Elmer Gantry.”

Yet the word evangelize means simply, to preach the good news,
share the good news,
to bring good news and glad tidings.
And you and I are called by Christ to do just that:
to share the good news.

When Jesus appeared to the disciples on that first Easter evening,
and told them that he was sending them out,
his words were not limited to those gathered in that locked room;
His words are just as much for you and me
here and now on a summer Sunday.

You and I are called to share the good news,
all of us, each of us,
to share the good news with one another
as we help each other grow in faith
And to share the good news in the larger world,
to share it with friends and strangers alike.
That’s evangelism.

And evangelism is the very foundation of mission work,
every mission trip any of us or our young people take,
every mission trip we sponsor.
They may not have known it, but evangelism was at the heart
of the work our young people did this past summer
in Pennsylvania and Niagara Falls.
It was at the heart of our work for Habitat for Humanity.

Evangelism is not about converting someone to Christ,
bringing someone to Christ.
You and I cannot do that;
Do you remember our lesson from two weeks ago?
Jesus said to those gathered around him:
“no one can come to me
unless drawn by the Father who sent me.” (John 6:44)
It is God who does the converting
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
God is the one who plants the seed of faith in our hearts
that allows us to respond to the good news of the gospel,
the good news we share as evangelists.

Most of our evangelical work takes place outside this church,
outside these walls.
When Solomon built the Temple for the Lord God,
he understood that even the grandest structure
could not hold God,
that God was indeed everywhere:
“…even…the highest heaven cannot contain you,
much less this house that I have built…” (1 Kings 8:27)
God is everywhere we take him,
everywhere we share the good news,
share the good news in what we say,
share the good news in what we do.

Our young people were evangelists in their mission work.
They were evangelists even when they weren’t talking about God,
talking about Jesus,
singing hymns, or praying.
All they had to do to be evangelists was act selflessly,
reaching out to another person,
a friends, a stranger,
reach out with genuine compassion.

Read through the Old Testament and count the number of times
God says to his children,
“I don’t care about how grand you make my Temple,
or how elaborate your worship liturgy might be,
or how erudite are the words of your prayers.
What I care about is:
are you looking after the poor?
Are you looking after the children?
Are you feeding the hungry?
Are you working to house the homeless?
Are you visiting the lonely?
Are you comforting the sick?
Are you taking care of those who need help
in your own community,
and are you looking after those who are outside
not only the walls of your community,
but outside of your comfort zone?
Are you engaged, as one writer put it,
in inreach evangelism as well as outreach evangelism?
Inreach mission work,
as well as outreach mission work?

Dr. Herbert B. Anderson, who was the senior pastor
of the Brick Church in New York City
when I lived and worked there,
always began his benediction with the phrase,
“Now as our service begins…”
Our worship service was about to end,
but our service as disciples of Jesus Christ
was about to begin.
We were about to be called out,
not by the pastor through his benediction,
but by our Lord Jesus Christ
in the same way those confused and frightened disciples
in that locked room were called out
and sent out on that first Easter:
Sent out to evangelize –
to take God’s love in Jesus Christ
out into the world.

You and I are being called out now to service,
missional service
called out by Jesus,
to serve in his name.
Missional service in everything we say
everything we do,
at work, at home, in schools and stores.

Tomorrow we will all go back to our busy weekday schedules.
What can you do to serve in the name of Jesus Christ
in the midst of a busy day?
Here’s something simple:
Pick up the phone and invite a neighbor to church:
next Sunday we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper
and the Sunday after that we will begin a new program year,
so it’s a great time to invite a friend to church.
How about just checking in on an elderly neighbor?
Sometimes a telephone call is all it takes.
What about taking an hour at lunch and donating blood?
Find a new way to feed the hungry.
The UNICEF website is an excellent way to help;
World Relief and World Vision are other excellent sites,
as well as our own denomination.

With every act, you are evangelizing;
with every act you are doing mission work.
you are remembering that God is not to be found
within the walls of a building,
but out in the world;
God at work in the world,
the peripatetic Christ, walking the dusty roads
of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee
teaching, healing, preaching:
evangelizing.

With every act, you respond
to the call of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who sends us all out
every one of us,
sends us out to do inreach in our own families,
and outreach to all God’s children.

So go ahead, don’t be afraid:
look in the mirror later today and say,
“I am an evangelist”
You may never get completely comfortable with the term;
Afterall, we are Presbyterians:
God’s Frozen Chosen,
as we are sometimes called.
But saying it may help you to remember that Jesus calls you,
calls you and sends you, just as surely as he sent
each of the disciples some 2,000 years ago.

The Manassas Evangelical Presbyterian Church?
It may not say that on the sign,
but it is how we are called to live,
called by our Lord Jesus the Christ.

AMEN

Sunday, August 20, 2006

The Rare Prayer

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
August 20, 2006
The 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Rare Prayer
John 6:51-59
1 Kings 3:3-14

My grandfather, the first Whitworth Ferguson, Whitworth Senior,
grew up in a small town in Iowa
in the early years of the 20th century.
His father owned the local hardware store
that served the needs of the farmers who tilled the soil,
the men and women who planted the corn and soybeans
that stretched as far as the eye could see.
The years following the turn of the century
were filled with magic for a young boy:
the magic of electricity –
electricity that came through wires,
wires to light houses and schools and stores,
wires that would bring the world into living rooms through radios
wires that would make the iceman obsolete.

My grandfather was a bright young boy;
he was fascinated by all things electric.
He raced through school at the speed of light,
in a hurry to learn, to understand.
He graduated from high school at age 16, and
from Iowa State College at age 20.
From there he went to do graduate work at the prestigious
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
where for a short time he considered a career in teaching.
But he felt constrained by the academic world and
so he moved from Boston to Buffalo, New York,
which in the Roaring Twenties was a vibrant growing city
thanks to the inexpensive electricity
that came from the nearby hydroelectric dams at Niagara Falls.
He joined a construction company as an electrical engineer,
and then in the midst of the Depression,
with three young children and a wife at home,
he quit his job to set up his own company.
Over the years, he built a successful electrical contracting business
wiring office buildings and factories.

My grandfather was an exceptional electrical engineer,
and a very smart businessman.
But my grandfather was also a man of great wisdom.
He was a learned man, always reading, always curious,
he wanted to know about anything and everything.
He loved construction because it allowed him
to go into so many different settings:
a steel mill one day, the computer room of a bank the next.
His wisdom came not just from his intelligence, though;
it also came from his heart.
My grandfather was a good man,
a man of faith,
a man who could be found every Sunday in pew 148
at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Buffalo.

He and I were very close, and I learned many things from him.
But the lesson I learned from him that was above all other lessons
was the importance of wisdom.
Even now, more than 20 years after he passed away,
I still learn from him,
learn from his wisdom,
as I try to live my own live not only faithfully,
but also wisely.

Over the years I have met many men and women
of great intelligence;
some I would even describe as brilliant.
But if I counted up those whom I would describe as wise,
women and men of wisdom, my list would be short.

Wisdom is a rare commodity
and it seems to be growing rarer.
Our heroes and role models these days are celebrities,
sports stars,
executives who love to display their wealth,
their possessions, their things.

What is it that makes a person wise?
Wisdom is knowledge, but it is much more than that;
Wisdom is also understanding;
it is depth, but it is also breadth;
it is experience,
it is judgment,
it is character,
it is humility,
it is patience.
The wise man or woman has an open mind
and an open heart.
The wise woman or man connects heart and mind;
balances heart and mind.

Solomon was no doubt a highly intelligent young man.
As one of the sons of King David,
he would have learned at the feet of
the brightest rabbis in Jerusalem.
His mother, Bathsheba, was fiercely protective of him,
and made sure her son was well prepared to succeed his father.
This was not a sure thing:
David had other sons by other wives,
all of whom were older than Solomon.
By right of succession, Solomon had a long line ahead of him.

But, as we heard in our lesson, Solomon became king,
a young man thrust into a position of leadership,
a man uncertain of his ability to rule over a nation --
a nation which had known nothing but warfare
until the last few years of David’s life.
Solomon was to rule over a united kingdom,
the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah
no longer split, but one, the people of God living
together in peace with one another,
and under Solomon’s rule, peace with its neighboring countries.

As the young Solomon took his father’s throne,
the throne of the great King David,
he prayed, prayed to God.
He prayed for wisdom:
a rare prayer then, a rare prayer now:
“give your servant an understanding mind
to govern your people,
able to discern between good and evil,
for who can govern your great people?” (1 Kings 3:9)

This is a prayer of humble man,
a man who knew that without God’s help, God’s guidance,
he was nothing,
a man who understood that the people were not his;
they were God’s.
The land was not his, it was God’s;
even the throne was not his, it came from God.
And we heard how pleased God was with this rare prayer,
and how God answered it by giving Solomon
“a wise and discerning mind.”

My dictionary defines wisdom as
“showing good judgment based on experience.”
Good judgment: a blending of head and heart.
This is very biblical: in the Hebrew language that Solomon spoke
the word for head was the same as the word for heart.
God expects us to use our heads and our hearts
as we think and make decisions;
as we seek to discern;
in our going out and our coming in,
to use the poetic language of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is filled with references to wisdom.
In Psalm 111 we find this verse:
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (111:10)
Now, the word we translate as “fear”
is not about being frightened;
it is about standing in awe of God,
in reverence of God,
giving honor and glory to God.
Put another way, we might say,
the beginning of wisdom is when we stand in reverence of God,
giving all honor and glory to God
in all that we do, in all that we say.

Proverbs in particular has many passages devoted to wisdom:
“Happy are those who find wisdom,
and those who get understanding
for her income is better than silver
and her revenue better than gold
she is more precious than jewels.”
(Proverbs 3:13-15)

It is interesting to note that in the Hebrew,
the word for wisdom is a feminine noun.
In the Old Testament world that
so often seemed dominated by men,
Wisdom is personified as a woman:
“does not wisdom call, and does not understanding
raise her voice…
‘Hear, for I will speak noble things…
all the words of my mouth are righteous..
By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just;…
The Lord created me at the beginning of his work…
ages ago, I was set up…
And now my children, listen to me;
happy are those who keep my ways.
Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it…'" (Proverbs 8:1ff)

Who seeks wisdom today?
We seek instant gratification;
We seek success;
in the greater Washington area we seek power.
We are too busy for praying for things other than wisdom.

It was less than five years ago
that the Biblical prayer that even those who
rarely opened the Bible knew,
a prayer that came from a book that
even clergy tend to skip over,
a prayer from a man named “Jabez”.
Do you remember it?
“Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border
and that your hand might be with me,
and that you would keep me from hurt and harm.”
(1 Chronicles 4:9)
This is the kind of prayer that we are more likely to lift up to God:
Bless us, enrich us,
fill our lives with abundance of money and things.
Make our lives secure and comfortable.

The rare prayer is when we seek wisdom for its own sake,
wisdom and understanding:
understanding that life is filled with the good and the bad;
understanding that our faith in God does not guarantee
our success in business, or that we will be popular,
or that we will be wealthy, or even healthy;
that the road in life will have its bumps and potholes.

With wisdom comes the understanding that God will be with us
in both the good times and the bad times,
blessing us with his love,
enriching us not with money,
but with his unwavering presence.
With wisdom comes understanding that
even when our stomachs might ache from hunger,
our souls will always be full with the love that comes to us
from the bread of life: our Lord Jesus the Christ.

Solomon missed this when he prayed for wisdom.
He was wise enough to govern the people well,
but he did not feed his soul on God’s love,
he did not stand in reverence before God.
Do you remember how his story ended?
He strayed from God,
and as a result, when his reign ended,
so too did the years of peace and prosperity
for the people of Israel and Judah.

More than a century ago, the great preacher Henry Van Dyke,
who served as pastor of the Brick Church in New York City,
where I was under care while I was in seminary,
reminded us that we have an advantage over Solomon:
We have our Lord Jesus Christ to feed us,
nourish us, and sustain us as we seek to grow in wisdom.
Van Dyke prayed:
“give us grace to know your Son, and to grow like him;
for that is the true wisdom which leads to eternal life….” 165
A rarer prayer still.

Reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom,
reverence that is grounded in discipleship,
reverence that is grounded in Jesus Christ,
In this wisdom we will be fed; we will be nourished.
When we lift up that rare prayer for wisdom in Christ,
for the wisdom to follow Christ,
for the wisdom to be fed by Christ,
so that we might be – yes, transformed –
to be more and more like Christ,
when we lift up that prayer, that rare prayer
we will have riches that will exceed
even those of Solomon.
AMEN

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Transformers

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
August 13, 2006
The 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Transformers
John 6:35, 41-51
Ephesians 4:25-5:2

I sat at my desk the other day and played --
played with a toy.
It was a toy a little boy from Washingtonville sent me,
one of those transformers.
You’ve seen them:
it looks like a car, a small plastic car,
a seriously cool car, with lots of chrome.
But then if you fold the hood one way,
the trunk another,
turn the wheels out and the doors up,
before you know it, what was once a car,
has been transformed --
transformed into a robot,
something straight out of intergalactic travel
in the 23rd century.

If you are a 5-year old boy, you flip back and forth
between car and robot with no problem.
But if you are a pastor of a certain age,
you might sit there for an hour trying to figure it out.
And even if you manage to transform it from car to robot,
transforming it back from robot to car is another matter entirely.

The word “Transformer” seems so 20th century.
We equate the word not only with toys,
but with power, electric power.
Transformers are all around us on poles and power lines:
they are the gadgets that step down the high voltage
that runs through the power lines that ring our community
and reduce it to 110 or 220 volts so you and I can
run the air conditioning, watch television,
or run the washer.

The word “transformer” is not new, however.
We can find it in the Bible, in Paul’s letter to the Romans.
In the midst of a letter deep in theology,
Paul wrote such a simple sentence:
“Do not be conformed to this age,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”
(Romans 12.2).

Simple, yet incredibly challenging:
Be transformed.
The Greek word that we translate as “transform”
is one we actually use in English: “metamorphosis”.
Both words suggest a complete change,
a change as radical as going from car to a robot,

You and I are called to be transformed
utterly and completely, absolutely and without hesitation.
And it isn’t Paul who is calling us to be transformed.
In using the word, Paul is simply reinforcing the teachings
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now this is pretty strong stuff;
maybe too strong for most of us,
especially in mid-August.
So what we tend to do is interpret this thought
in way that makes us less uncomfortable:
We hear the word “transformed”
and we take it to mean that we should be
a little more loving, a little less temperamental;
a little more generous, a little less selfish;
a little more forgiving, a little less judgmental.

But that’s just not good enough.
Jesus expects more from us – much more.
We are called to be transformed,
metamorphosized,
changed utterly and completely;
dead to the old,
as we take on new life in Christ.

In trying to teach the Ephesians, Paul reinforced Jesus' lessons
with the same absolute instructions.
So we heard at the beginning of our lesson,
“Put away falsehood,
let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors.”
Paul leaves us with no wiggle room here.
But what do we do when our neighbor proudly displays
his latest purchase -- a new motorcycle, an enormous Harley,
acres of gleaming chrome,
and of course, that aftermarket muffler attachment
that makes the thing louder than a 747 taking off from Dulles.
When he asks you, “What do you think? Isn’t it great!”
what do we do with Paul’s words to us
that we speak the truth to our neighbors?

Now Paul was as fully human as you and I,
so he understood the dilemmas that we struggle with
in everyday life.
He gave the Ephesians and us a little help when he wrote:
“Let no evil come out of your mouth
but only what is useful for building up…
so that your words may give grace to those who hear.”
So your response to your neighbor might be a tactful,
“My, the chrome certainly gleams.”
But what Paul is trying to help us understand
is that we need to be thinking about every word
that comes out of our mouths.
That’s the beginning of Transformation:
to be more aware of what we are saying.

Transformation is not something that happened at our baptism,
or when we publicly professed our faith in Jesus Christ.
Transformation is a process that goes on all of our lives.
Dying to the old and
being reborn to new life in Christ is a process,
a process as we slowly squeeze out the old habits,
the old ways, and work at becoming more Christ-like.

In his classic book “Mere Christianity”,
British writer C.S. Lewis observed
that we are good at painting ourselves with a veneer of Christ,
we are good at the outward appearance.
We can give a good impression of one who is devout and faithful.
But transformation is not about surface impressions;
it is not about a new coat of paint.
Transformation goes to the deepest part of each of us.
Lewis likens it to dye, Christ injecting himself into us:
his love, wisdom, goodness, mercy all coursing through
our veins, our pores, our every neuron changing
and being transformed by Christ himself.
Transformation in Christ turns us from simply
bearing the image of God
to becoming “true sons and daughters of God.”
(220)

Paul helps us with small steps,
pieces that we can work on.
Paul encourages us to speak positively, carefully,
always trying to build up with words of grace.
But Paul also knows that there will be times
when we will lose our tempers, get angry,
words coming out of our mouths will not be filled with grace.
Paul doesn’t tell us never to be angry.
He knows that even our Lord displayed his temper
on more than a few occasions --
at the Temple, of course, when he turned over
the tables of the moneychangers,
but also on occasions with his disciples.
Peter in particular seemed to be on the receiving end
of Christ’s exasperation.
So Paul is realistic when he says,
“be angry, but do not sin;”
Don’t be abusive, vulgar, violent,
There is never any excuse for that sort of behavior.

And then he gives us that little nugget
that we so frequently overlook:
“do not let the sun go down on your anger”
If you get angry, let it go, seek forgiveness and reconciliation.
Don’t hold a grudge.
This is something I share with every
newly engaged couple I speak with
as we talk about their upcoming wedding.
I think this is one of the most valuable pieces
of counsel Paul gives us.
Paul builds on this thought by then reminding us
that we each are called to forgive one another
in the same way that Christ has forgiven us.
Working on forgiveness is yet another step
in our transformation:
To offer forgiveness to the person who angered you
earlier in the day;
to offer forgiveness even if the person did not apologize,
or ask for forgiveness;
To offer forgiveness even for the most devastating injury.
Holding a grudge, holding onto anger,
saying that you will never forgive a person who has wronged you
puts an enormous obstacle
in the path of your transformation process.

Forgiving another person may not be easy;
in fact, there are times when the injury is so great
that forgiving seems virtually impossible.
It may take time and work
to sort out our feelings.
But don’t you see that working through them
is part of transformation, part of becoming more Christ-like.

Paul is easier on us than our Lord,
gives us more space to work;
Jesus did not settle for half-measures.
In his Sermon on the Mount, he made clear for us the standard:
“Be perfect,… as your Heavenly Father is perfect” ……….
(Matthew 5:48)
No compromise there: this is what we are to aim for.
Lewis reminds us that when Jesus said this, “he meant it.
He meant that we must go in for the full treatment.” (198)
And the only way we will get there
is through complete transformation.

We have help, of course:
not just through Paul’s words,
the gentle words of the nurturing teacher.
We have our Lord, the living Christ,
to encourage us, pull us, prod us.
We heard his promise in our gospel lesson
when Jesus reminded us that we will be “taught by God”.
Taught by the living Christ,
taught through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We will be taught if we open ourselves to God’s teaching,
if we open ourselves to transformation.
The leaders of the Jewish community
who were listening to Jesus
were not going to be taught by God,
because they had closed their minds and hearts to him.
They were convinced that they already had
all the answers they needed.
Their arrogance and sense of self-righteousness
stopped any prospect of transformation.
And we all have our moments of arrogance,
when we are filled with a sense of self-righteousness.

Let’s not wait.
Let’s work on transformation;
Find one thing, even just one thing that you can work on.
Are you worried about something? Filled with anxiety?
Are you too focused on things, on money, on possessions?
Perhaps it is a strong feeling of self-righteousness;
that that you need to work on,
that you have all the answers.
Is there someone with whom you have had an argument?
Someone who has angered you?
Someone who is angry with you?
Did you let the sun go down on your anger?
Are you waiting for the other person
to take the first step toward reconciliation?

Acknowledge whatever it is that is your obstacle here and now.
Commit yourself to working on it.
There will be other obstacles that will reveal themselves,
but work on one at a time beginning today.

Jesus sets the bar high with his call to each of us to “be perfect”
We will never make it, but we must work toward it,
through our own personal transformation.
With Christ as our teacher, our guide, our mentor,
how can we go wrong?

Lewis ends his wonderful little book by encouraging us:
“The more we get what we now call ‘ourselves’ out of the way,
and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become….
But there must be a real giving up of the self.
You must throw [your old self] away ‘
…[so that ] Christ [can give] you a real personality.” 226

Now it may look a little silly,
but I am going to keep that toy on my desk,
that Transformer.
I am going to keep it to remind me
of that little boy who sent it to me.
But I am also going to keep it to remind me that each day
I have to take another step in my own transformation,
transformation from a man who bears the image of God,
to a true son of God and disciple of Christ.
Who would have thought that a trip to the toy store
could provide such a compelling lesson in faithfulness
and God’s everlasting love for us?
AMEN

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Prove It

The Rev. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
August 6, 2006
The 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Prove It
John 6:24-35
Ephesians 4:1-16

It’s August already.
The newspapers sag under the weight of
back-to-school advertisements.
Many of you may be planning to head directly to stores
following worship on this last day of the state sales tax holiday.
The stores were crowded this past week
as people shopped for vacation,
or tried to get a jump on back-to-school purchases;
many simply went to escape the heat.

August is supposed to be a deserted and quiet month
as summer comes to an end,
but I always think of August as a crowded month,
as swarms of people head to the beach, or the mountains,
or just to malls and stores.
Pat and I have been encouraged to join the crowds
at the County Fair when it opens up on Friday.

I will let you in on a little secret:
if you want to escape the crowds,
there is a place where you can go:
a place where you can spread out,
relax, not feel crushed or rushed,
a place where you can even find a prime parking place:
Church!
Yes, during the month of August, church is one of the few places
you can go where you are not likely to find crowds,
at least not the kinds of crowds we see in September,
or at Christmas, or Easter.

The word “crowd” really is one that has no place in the church.
We are never a crowd, even on those days
when we have to bring extra chairs into the Sanctuary.
No church can ever be crowded,
not this church, not even the biggest mega-church.
Because in church, we are always a community;
In church, we are only a community.

The difference is not semantic -- not just words.
We are a community
because we live in communion with one another;
we live in a communal relationship with one another
as disciples of Jesus Christ.
This has been true since the first converts gathered together
and shared everything, as Luke wrote in the Acts of the Apostles:
“All who believed were together and had all things in common…”
(Acts 2:44)

The word communal comes from a Latin word that means
“fellowship”, “to be connected; “commonality”.
We are communal because we share a common life,
built on our common faith.
We live communally even if we live divergent lives.
We live in communion with one another
because we are the church,
the Body of Christ,
each of us called here by the Holy Spirit,
each of us bringing our unique gifts
given us by the Holy Spirit;
Each of us essential to the Body.

Becoming community doesn’t just happen, of course.
It takes work on the part of every member of the Body:
every one of us gathered together.
That’s what Paul was trying to encourage the Ephesians
to understand through his letter.
Listen again to his words: “…we must grow up in every way
in him who is the head, into Christ,
from whom the whole body,
joined and knit together by every ligament
with which it is equipped,
as each part is working properly,
promotes the body’s growth in building itself up for love.”
(Ephesians 4:15-16)
It’s a rather wordy way of saying we must be communal
in order to build the Body of Christ.

As Jesus walked the dry, dusty roads of Judea,
Samaria, and Galilee preaching the gospel,
crowds followed him everywhere.
Yet, none of the crowds was a community.
The crowd in our lesson,
the one that followed Jesus across the Sea of Galilee
to Capernaum, was just that: a crowd, not a community.
They had been a community for a brief moment
as they sat on the grass on the hillside
and ate their fill of bread and fish,
but they didn’t know it, and they didn’t get it.
The bonds of community disappeared
as soon as their stomachs began to rumble
and grumble again with hunger.

Jesus confronted them with what they were really after:
“You just want more bread for your bellies –
that is the only reason you have any interest in me.
That’s the only reason you came after me.”
No one in the crowd denied it;
“Prove it” was their response to Jesus
when he said he could and would feed them.
“Show us a sign”, they demanded.
“Fill our bellies and then we will believe”…
at least until tomorrow, when we grow hungry again.
This was no community;
this was just a crowd of hungry people
looking for a short cut to the next meal.

But Jesus was not born in human flesh to cater dinner;
he came to build community,
to rebuild the community of God,
to call back into community
all God’s children who had strayed so far away.

The living Christ is still at work here and now
calling us to community
building community, in this church
and churches throughout the world.
Jesus calls us, and then he feeds us,
feeds us with God’s love and mercy,
feeds us in such a way
that we will never know hunger again.

Our Lord invites us here and now to his table,
this communion table,
to share in the meal that he has prepared for us.
A meal that will fill us,
satisfying even our deepest hunger.

Come to this table says our Lord,
He speaks to each of us: “Come to my table”
We are invited to sit at our Lord’s table
to be fed,
to be renewed,
to be refreshed,
to be transformed,
to be lifted up into the very presence of Christ.
to commune with Christ,
as we commune with one another,
even as we commune with all the saints.

People will come from east and west,
and from north and south
and sit at table in the kingdom of God,
the Community of Christ scattered throughout the world
people of different races, cultures, backgrounds, ages,
yet, all of us sitting at the same table.
We will all be fed.
The hunger that gnaws at each of us in a thousand different ways
taken away,
seemingly by a tiny morsel of bread and a drop of wine,
but in reality by the love of God that is Jesus Christ.

“I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,
and whoever believes in me, will never be thirsty.”
If you want proof, just come to this table.
Then you will know that this is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
AMEN