SCRIPTURE: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
TEXT: 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” THEME: Developing our spiritual selves without being religious. INTRODUCTION The next preaching series from now until Thanksgiving will be in the Gospel of Mark and is called “Life Beyond”. Today’s sermon is entitled, “Beyond Tradition”. SCRIPTURE We are picking up in the Gospel of Mark where we left off 5 weeks ago. We used the Gospel of John’s version for he feeding of the 5,000 so we could have a discussion on the Bread from Heaven. Pharisees and scribes have arrived from Jerusalem to check out Jesus’ ministry. Gathering around Jesus they noticed that some of his disciples were eating without washing their hands. In this time of COVID we have had to develop our hand washing routines to insure the stop of the virus. Some of those routines have fallen along the wayside as we succumb to hand sanitizer. If we see someone eating without washing their hands, we would warn them about germs and viruses but we haven’t developed our hand washing to a judgement of moral character as much as we have about wearing a face mask. Like a tea ceremony, the Jewish culture has developed this act of good hygiene into a ritual, making doing the ritual more important than whether your hands were clean or not. And if not, a point of criticism of those less ritualistic. We all do this. When a young deacon asked why they prepared the communion with so many steps, the life timer said, “Don’t ask me why, just do it the way I have told you.” They forgot the reason why but passed on the how. Jesus’ reply was about the emptiness of the rituals, as they were void of meaning and only served as points of critique and not for the fostering a healthy community. It is not what we wear, how much communion bread and wine we eat and drink, meetings we attend or markings we have in our bibles that matter, but how we take the truth of God and try to find a way to live it with our lives and in our community. It is what is in our hearts, the choices that we make that come from good intent or evil. They make holy or defile. The list of evil intent in this passage is long, stemming from selfishness, greed, violence, lust and foolishness. I was doing the premarital counseling for a couple when I asked the groom if there was anything that he learned from his previous marriage. He said that after the divorce he went to therapy and learned something call “noble intent”. This is to assume that the action from his spouse, although awkward and hurtful actually came from a noble intent to help and do good. Looking back upon the events of his marriage, he could see the noble intention in many of the points of conflict even though he did not see it as such at the time. If he had learned about noble intent sooner, he said he probably still be married. This insight of Nobel intent is a perspective that he learned and was bringing with I’m into his new marriage. APPLICATION If we discover the meaning of our traditions, what forms might we leave behind, and what new ones might can we create? At seminary they taught theology but they did not teach us the forms or traditions of worship but the deacons of my first parish did. The deacons of the churches on Molokai were keepers of traditional forms. They took me on home visits to their members. They showed me how to set up communion. They picked the hymns from the Na Himeni, and put the worship services together. They showed me how to pray for the sick and do a hospital visit. They stood in a circle and prayed before each service. Aunty Easter prayed for each moopuna each night before she went to bed. A member was planning her funeral and asked if she needed to have a Friday evening wake, along with the Saturday morning wake, before the Funeral. That was their tradition, with visiting family, no mortuary and often time the deceased was placed in the parlor of the house. I said no because now we have a morgue to keep the body and hotels. The traditional forms could be changed with the modern conveniences we now have, she could have just one service. We made changes in how we administer communion during the COVID pandemic. We are bringing our own elements and sharing them in our bubble, in person and on line. Since taking the PSR class on Spirituality, I have working in times of silence into my day, to spend with God. Like the Zen tea ceremony, I tried using measured steps to Brewing my cup of coffee in the morning, Thanking God for the coffee bean, nourished by the ground, the plant bathe by the sun and the farmer who tended, watered, picked, roasted and packed the coffee. Then I thanked God for the water, living, cleansed, life bringing, from rains held in gathered clouds that cover misty peaks, and aquifers that collects in wells. As the water heat up to drip into the grounds of my cup, I enjoy 4 minutes of silence. When I am done…there is coffee. A new ritual that brings gratitude and closeness to God through a little bit of silence. CONCLUSION Looking at the chapters that are following this one in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus continues to act contrary to how things are. Bringing a change to life beyond what there is; life beyond tradition, beyond boundaries, beyond Human Things, beyond ambition and beyond ourselves. Living with God is beyond anything we have, into to something new for God and others.
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SCRIPTURE: John 6:56-59
TEXT: 60When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" THEME: Jesus creates pathways for us to live our faith in new ways. INTRODUCTION Sara Lee has added a new Keto, ‘Carb free’ bread to their line, to address those who follow a no carb diet with only 45 carbs per slice. Or so says the advertising. But after a closer look at the list of ingredients this bread is made from wheat or grains and if it has wheat or grain, then it has carbs. Two slices of bread are almost 100 grams of carbohydrates. That is not a ‘Carb free’ bread. The loafs that are made without wheat or grain, look like bread, but don’t taste like bread. But that is just it. If you want to live a new life, apart from carbs, you have to have a new bread. SCRIPTURE Jesus is making a departure away from the foundations of manna in the wilderness. Jesus is building lives with God with new bread from heaven. This is hard for those of faith who have been the defenders of manna in the wilderness. For them to let go means to give up their history, their tradition, their theology for something new. Jesus draws from the bread from heaven analogy to bring us into a new, formational, intimate relationship with God. Your relationship with God will be more than a just a people, who have no other God, and live by 10 rules. Here is the truth, Jesus is the ‘I am’, the bread from heaven, and if we eat of it, we will live. Okay I am going to get a little Gospel of Johnish: He likes to do if A=B, and B=C, Then C=A theological math. To know Jesus is to know God. To have Jesus in our lives is to have God in our lives. If we have God in our lives is to have the Creator of Eternal Life in our lives. And to have the Creator of Eternal Life in our lives, is to have Eternal Life. As the Father is in Jesus, and Jesus is in us, we are in Jesus. Jesus is taking out of the crime and punishment relationship we have with God the judge, to live in relationship with God the loving parent and for us to be God’s children. This is more than being obedient to a moral code, this is difficult for those who could not conceive that Jesus is any more than just a runaway carpenter, believing in Jesus is disruptive to the Status Quo. Some who have been following Jesus could no longer stay, but for those like Peter, Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, the bread from heaven and there is no turning back. This is like growing up thinking that the world is flat and then discovering that it is round. Or that certain people are not smarter than other just because of the color of their skin, or that one gender can always out run the other. Or that God cannot love us because of our imperfections and the only way that God can love us again is with believing a violent act that takes an innocent person to die as a payment of our sin. There are paradigms that are being shifted all of the time, even theological ones. And when they are shifted, we cannot go back to the way we were. The Disciples, cannot go back to live their lives for God without the taste of Jesus in their lives. APPLICATION We need help to move beyond our limited imaginations of what is possible for God. What is God doing that sets us on a path to rethink what we used to know, so that we can join in what God is doing today? Some things happen in the world that take some adjusting to. Sale clerks in the store, a few years ago, begun calling me “Uncle”. Was it because of my striking grey mane? Or because I look like a distant relative of theirs? Or as a matter of respect and honor to a senior member of society? I used to take offense to strangers being so familiar with me and wanting to be related to me. But now it happens so often, I am beginning to get used to it. When we log in on Zoom, often time people indicate the pronouns they want to be identified as. He, She, him, her, they and us. When did this become a thing? The first time I had to indicate my preferred pronoun I said, “eh you” Yes, I am change resistant. I was driving up to Church one day, listening to NPR while they talked about how our bodies develop Physically as male and female. Then they added that our brains too develop as Male and Female, but sometimes, our brains don’t get the same genetic instructions as our bodies in its development. That’s how a guy could have a feminine orientation, or a gal have a more masculine orientation. This helped my imagination to conceive how a student that I know now identifies with the gender that is different from the one assigned at birth. God does not see this as an abomination, God just loves us how we are and for who we are and wants to be part of our journey. That is bread from heaven, full of grace, strength, acceptance, belonging, and a desire that our relationship with God will help us to achieve and develop into something amazing. I can’t go back to a self-righteous, better than thou Christian life. I want to continue to live being loved by God, having grace be a part of my life, wrestling with the truth of God, and deepening my relationship with God. Together we are doing amazing things. CONCLUSION There is no such thing as a no carb bread. To accomplish such an impossible thing, one must think outside of the box. No carb Bread is a part cauliflower pizza, a Zucchini Lasagna, or Almond flour pan cake., It is a break from tradition to accomplish something more, new, and a cut above. This is a Paradigm shift to think beyond our tradition, and into new ways. With the recent events that are happening we must pray for Afghanistan. For the past 20 years we have taunted democracy, challenged their cultural morays and elevated the status of women with equality and education. There may be no turning back to suppress women but it will not be without, suffering, push back, violence, ridicule, torture and protest. God be with them as they feed on bread from heaven, God be with them as they image a life beyond their traditional limits. God be with them as they live by truth. And have courage to discover something new the desires of God. In addition, pray that we, as Americans, take to heart the disruption we have caused in their lives, their paradigm shifts in their sense of value and culture. As the look for places to escape, relocate, begin again, how might God be calling us to be a new bread from heaven with a graciousness of welcome, help and generosity for these new immigrants of this new Exodus. SCRIPTURE: John 6:51-58
TEXT: 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” THEME: INTRODUCTION This is the fourth sermon on the Bread of Heaven. This series began with the feeding of the 5,000 on the hill side. This can be seen as John’s stylized version of the Lord’s Supper at Passover. The bread of heaven, is the bread of the incarnation or Christmas bread. There are some traditions that last during Advent in preparation for celebrating the birth of Christ at Christmas. In my imagination, they break their fast with colorful, sweet, savory, pungent flavorful bread, spiked with brightly colored candied fruits. Representing the coming of Christ into our drab lives. The bread from heaven, adding life abundantly. The bread of a new age that is colored with all of the flavors of God and the tastefulness of Jesus’ dwelling in us. SCRIPTURE Debate was part of synagogue worship, as allegories and metaphors were picked apart to see if their meaning held Godly truth, or just fell apart. As Jesus talks about living bread coming down from heaven, the Jews respond with the literal debate, “Is Jesus suggesting we eat him?” Of course not. But he is talking about entering into an intimate relationship with God, beyond rules and regulations, sacrifices and appeasement through legal compensations. Jesus is talking about living, not flying under the radar of a cosmic judge of moral character, who drives around in a heavenly squad chariot looking for offenders. Jesus is talking about relationship. To eat is to live in relationship with God. God initiates an invitation of intimately. A life together that is so rich, fulfilling, meaningful that it can only be described as ‘eternal’. As the Father is a part of Jesus, Jesus is a part of the Father. And as Jesus is a part of us then we are a part of Jesus. We can live in a way that is consistent with God’s will, God’s design, God’s plans, God’s dream and God’s mission. This passage ends with a curious thought that their ancestors who ate bread from heaven died. Manna was the food that kept the Israelites alive in the wilderness, but ceased to feed them in the promise land. There is no bread that will give us eternal life, but we can have a relationship with God through Jesus that will transform the way we live. Eternal life comes as a by-product of this relationship. APPLICATION It is not what we eat that makes us special to God. God’s creation of us already makes us special. But it is eating with God that changes our lives. Our relationship with God makes Jesus influential in our transformation. What life does Christ’s indwelling in us, cause us to imagine? All this eating stuff is about Christ inhabiting us. It is about Christ being the fuel of our living. Jesus being the source of what we do with our lives. Imagine the different areas of our lives being transformed as we bring Jesus with us into these situations. Imagine if we were a professional athlete at the top of our game and we realized, or experienced the disparity of treatment by law enforcement upon blacks. How might we use our platform as an athlete to speak towards justice? During the Tokyo Olympics the Women of the US Team brought home more gold metals than the men. When awarded a metal would we use this time to publicly bring attention to the fact that the treatment of women in the United States is not equal to men, in pay, promotions, respect, or opportunities? When we walk down the street and a group is protesting their fears about their freedoms being taken away, by vaccination mandates being the gateway for gathering in large groups, participation in varsity sports, continuing to work at their jobs, or hassle-free air travel. Liberal, political philosopher John Stuart Mill says, “people should be free to act however they wish unless their actions cause harm to somebody else”. Knowing about what the COVID-19 Delta virus can do to others, what mandates would 'Christ in us' support? I signed up for the next CTEL class, from PSR, that began yesterday. I didn’t realize it but it is an introductory course on Theology. The professor gave us a one-line definition of Theology; Theology changes the world. Theology is a way God is revealed to us and we are changed. I have often thought that all of the problems in the world stem, from poor theology. Gratitude is theology changing us towards God. The invitation of the incarnation is theology bringing changes that draws us towards God. God is revealed in the relationships that we keep and bring changes to our theology. Theology is a reflection of our relationship with God. Theology is not God, but points towards God. Our relationship, with the indwelling Jesus, changes our lives and actions. CONCLUSION I chose the fruit cake or Christmas bread as an analogy to talk about the incarnation of God through Jesus in our lives and world. A colorful, savory, festive, bread to break us out of fasting lives and feed us for our abundant life with God. If we took a literal approach to Jesus, we would be kind hearted cannibals. But we are not. The Gospel of John is painting a portrait of what Jesus looks like, not a chronological history of Jesus’ Life. We have to see the Gospel of John all at once and not as the story boards that unfolds like a movie, but as a portrait of Jesus’ face with each story painting on a new feature. SCRIPTURE: John 6:35, 41-51
TEXT: 42They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” THEME: Imagine what more God is doing. INTRODUCTION When we partake of communion, we are eating what we believe. The food, textures, taste, smells of this common meal, shared in faith, from God’s love and Christ’s life. Eating means internalizing our belief and how our lives are fueled by God. This ancient meal is foundational to our understanding of who God is; as hearer the cries of God’s enslaved people, and loving in initiating a plan of liberation. Jesus builds upon this Passover meal to feed 5,000, reminding us of how our relationship with God, bolstered with daily manna, protection, provision and deliverance. These slaves in the wilderness are formed into God’s people. Jesus uses these foods to reveal God’s welcoming love and embracing community that span the ages. These foods are reminders of covenantal values of faith, formational commitments and the community Jesus builds with greater vision and purpose for our relationship with God. SCRIPTURE A prophet is without honor in his hometown is retold by John in this passage. This shows what happens when we lack theological imagination. The super powers of the world were in a colonization raced of indigenous people. Missionary activity followed conquering colonizing activity, showing that the God of the conqueror was more powerful than the territorial gods causing a breakdown in tribal belief systems. But as with any dynasty, they rise, peak, and cycle down. Theological systems become stuck in time as new believers are left to preserve, as best they can, what they have been converted too. The faithful become guardians of the faith, gate keepers, line monitors, rather than catalyst for an evolving, inspiring life. Religion becomes legalistic, self-righteous, critical, with worship services a setting for a balance of crime and sacrifice, law and justice, sin and forgiveness or theological debates, rather than opportunities to offer praises to the glory of God. Jesus comes in and rattles their theological cages. “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Instead of imagination, he triggers their knee jerk response of complaint. This is the radical part of Jesus’ ministry as he draws them into a relationship with God instead of maintaining a moral balance that would qualify them for Eternal Life. Innovation or legalism, Creativity or regulation, Imagination or restrictiveness, freedom or slavery, relationship or acquaintances. Remember the formational manna of the wilderness that hand fed a people into dependence upon God and formed a faith, a trust, a love, and a relationship as a people. Manna does not keep this people together with only a spiritual memory, but upon a community built as God’s people. This is the foundation we can built upon to be formed today, and that life is being fed to us by God and served by Jesus. APPLICATION When we don’t have to worry about what to eat or what to drink, we can get on to living what is really important. What are the important things that we can do with our lives, with career, with family, with ourselves for God? How can God help us make sure, we are giving ‘the important’ the attention it needs? How does this begin to define our relationship with God? What do we need to be freed from in order to have our imagination set free to conceive as possible and new? We don’t know what ‘manna’ is. Manna means “what is it” in Hebrew. One theory, in explaining what ‘manna’ is, is that it is a protein rich excrement left by a wilderness insect. Eww, Does God have an imagination or what? When my doctor told me that my body does not process carbohydrates and to go on a ‘no carb’, ‘intermittent fasting’ diet. Avocados became my new rice. Who knew? Then when my source of avocados froze up, I discovered a Keto recipe for a carb free Avocado Smoothie that could turn frozen avocados palatable. How wild is that? The public opinion of our building project is very important and could shut us down. We have been thinking about what to say and how to tell our neighbors. I began to do a simple mapping of how to do this and came up with our just sharing with our neighbors, with people that we know, and letting them know what we are intending to do, and record what their feelings are about our project. We don’t have to talk to strangers, just to our family, friends and acquaintances at first. I imagine, this won’t be as hard or scary as I thought. Then they could talk to people that they know. Can we imagine something new on the Mission Ground? Can we imagine the church being done another way than how we have always done it? Like sponsoring a youth camp ministry but require their leaders to take a few CTEL courses to expand their theological out look? Or in additional scholarships single parents for infant toddler care? What kind of church thinks about a single parent, who needs to go to work, but needs a safe place, affordable infant toddler care? Is that a responsible church thing to do? It’s like God using us to serve manna. We lived adaptive lives this year, that took a lot of imagination to do. God helped us to think outside of the box with communion, with worship, with what if means to visit our neighbors. Let’s not stop imagining. We still have to with the Delta variant being so contagious. Imagine the worship God wants us to invent. Imagine Wailuku Union Church in many incarnations. The Olympics this year, without its audience, showed us a different picture of the world, while competitors, were not spurred on only by national pride, but by each other, as athletes accomplishing amazing feats as competitors, as fellow human beings, not as enemies, but as part of a peaceful world, that can have fun, that can accomplish great things when we have a gracious host. There were smiles from the Japanese Women’ basketball team after their lost to the United States, they were so happy at what they accomplished. We competed hard, we did our best, we enjoyed each other, and were happy with what we have done and with each other. The two high jump winners could have had another round to determine a winner, but they agreed to share the gold medal honors in an exuberant embrace. CONCLUSION 5,000 people on the hill side, just before the Passover, being served bread and fish. A meal at the beginning of something new. Liberation, freedom, nearness with God, formation into the people of God. Manna, daily Bread. Imagine the kind of life we can live because of the sacrifices made. Live giving attention, to what is really important. We complain about things that are not done the same way, but God could be using this foundation, to build something new. SCRIPTURE: John 6:24-35
TEXT: 26Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. THEME: Jesus provides all of himself to us draw us closer to God. INTRODUCTION This is the second in a sermon series from the Gospel of John called the “Bread of Heaven”. A long discourse on Bread is set up with Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish in the previous verse. SCRIPTURE Jesus retreats to the mountain alone, while the disciples board a boat and head to the other side of the lake. In the morning, the crowd see that Jesus has gone and get in their own boats to Capernaum. They want to make Jesus king, so when they catch up with Jesus they ask, “Why did you go away?” Their expectation of Jesus is different from the reason Jesus is here. He is not here to provide food for us for the rest of our lives. There is more to Jesus than that. The answer to why Jesus is here is found beyond all of the food we could eat, for the rest of our lives. Imagine if we didn’t need to worry about what to eat, what would we be freed to do with our lives? That is the life Jesus has come to enable us to live, a life beyond food, to what is really important? In 1998 we participated in a strategic planning to discern the will of God that moved us from a chaplaincy model of the church to become missional in nature. We looked around to see what God was doing around us, we listened to each other as we asked, “What has God been saying to you, through scripture, impulses, impressions, insights, readings and prayer?” Then we met together to discuss what we heard, seen, prayed and read. We asked, “What do you think God is calling us to do? How do we participate in what God is doing? And finally, we began to imagine what the church might look like if we participated in what God was doing. Images of the church emerged. We met in groups to discuss these images, flush them out and prayed. Eventually the passage from Luke 10 and what it means to live in relationship with God in our world became our missional call. Life, more than an ‘all you can eat bread buffet’. We took the time to look at the signs of God among us, to listen to what God was saying and discerned a call to join God in what God was doing. We had to affirm, with appreciation, what the church had done before as we built upon this good foundation, of spiritual heritage, launching us into mission today, for the future. The Israelites, leaving their slave lives behind in Egypt, run into the wilderness where God provides food from heaven. Manna is unlike anything they have ever seen before; it is a sign of God’s watching out for them every day. After a while it must have been like eating hard tack or c-rations, but a daily reminder of God being with them. Manna kept the Israelites alive to inhabit the promised land, and live into being the people of God. Jesus ministers to these descendants of faith and is the manna for today that God is offering to them for a new chapter of this journey. APPLICATION The feeding of the 5,000 was the Passover meal that launch those who believe in Jesus into a new chapter on their journey with God. What are the important things God is calling us to do? Last week the Maui News had an article about the redevelopment plan for Wailuku. When considering the building a 6-story hotel, there was push back from an outspoken critic who wants to give authority, for tighter rules for approvals given to a Board of Variances and Appeals. This will over throw existing approvals, slow down or halt the project. It may seem like it would keep things as they are but it has been observed that, the town has been unbelievably changed over the years. Change has happened even without a plan in place. Now that someone has a plan for something different, our first reaction is to stop it. When I first came to Wailuku there was one homeless person; a big guy with red hair who would sit in the entrance way of the Maui Academy of Performing Arts building on Main Street. Today there are more homeless people wandering around than I can recognize. I had an occasion to stayed at the Opus Hotel in Vancouver. Set in Yaletown, a formerly, heavy industrial area dominated by warehouses and rail yards. Now this part of town is filled with the city’s most stylish restaurants, boutiques, art galleries, spas and cafés. Yaletown has been transformed into a chic, walkable neighborhood. If a hotel were built on Market Street, what other types of businesses might be attracted to services its’ guest; restaurants, boutiques, art galleries, spas, or cafes? Then, how might Wailuku town change? We could stop a plan and have uncontrolled change happen, or we could make decisions for a changed future that we could live with. We are wrong to think that if we do nothing that things will go back to the cherished memories of the past. Memories are foundational not futuristic. It has been a long time since anyone could recall the taste manna and yet that is the bread that they want to go back to. Unleavened bread set them on their journey to freedom. Manna is the c-ration that fed them on the way, but in the promised land, God has provided the opportunity for them to eat whatever bread they want, even birthday cake. Manna is a bread the celebrates the presence of God in a real and tangible way, that sees its results in the survival of the Israelites. Jesus is the new bread that feeds us today from survival to being formed into a community as the people of God and now by discerning God’s call of us through Jesus in mission. CONCLUSION When we eat stuff, it brings memories of the past, unleavened bread draws us to the Passover meal where slave began their journey to freedom. Eating the food of survival in the wilderness reminds us of God’s daily care that does not stop just because we don’t need manna any more. Jesus feeds 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish, which become the food of new chapters as we build upon our spiritual heritage into the something new God has for us. It is like eating birthday cake on the anniversary of our lives. It recalls a time of our coming forth, but we don’t stay as infants, children, teenagers, Nexters, Gen Xer’s, Boomers or Traditionalist. Birthday cake is also a celebration of a new year that is unwritten. We discern what God is doing among us and our call to be God’s partners, as the people of God, diverse, believing, multi-talented, Spirit driven, actively participating now, in God’s future, by building with appreciation on the valiant spirituality of those who create our foundation. Don’t get stuck trying to preserve the past. With appreciation of what has come before us, build upon it as we plan for a future, so change will be a blessing to our future selves, as we partner with God. |
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April 2024
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