Reflection on John 6:1-21

What are your expectations of God?

What do you expect God to do for you?

The people who ate their fill of the bread on the grassy side of that mountain came away with lots of expectations of Jesus.

What are yours?

The disciples who saw Jesus walking across the water wanted to grab a hold of Jesus and pull him close.

Do you?

What are your expectations of God?

What do you expect God to do for you?

I know of a couple who, quite a number of years back, expected to get a baby. They prayed and prayed for a baby to call their own.

The man envisioned some hoop time and preemptively bought a basketball. The woman had dreams of her own, buying cute little baby shoes that she saw on an end cap in the baby section of Target.

They both dreamed of the day that their little ones would eventually walk down the graduation and wedding aisles, but, the basketball remained in the closet and the shoes stuffed away safe in their boxes. You see, despite their prayers and the cries of their desires, they did not conceive and have a baby. Their expectations never lined up with reality.

What are your expectations of God?

What do you expect God to do for you?

Have your expectations played out like you had hoped? Have your expectations come about differently? Perhaps, if I even dare ask it out loud, have your expectations been completely ignored…as if Jesus just decided to get up, turn his back, and walk away?

It is OK to venture into that question. It is OK to at least wonder if God has been ignoring your concerns because we see, right here in Holy Scripture, that Jesus does sometimes flee the scene of our expectations.

After feeding the 5000, the people sitting on that soft, green mountain grass see in Jesus the makings of a great king. They have visions of an abundant nation. They have visions of a defeated Rome. They have visions of green pastures and still waters. They have visions of a good king who might shepherd them in all the right ways.

The 5000 get up from their seats and seek to make Jesus the earthly king that they need, and Jesus turnz his back and walks away.

It happens again as the disciples see Jesus walking across the turbulent waters of the sea. They desire to bring him into the boat. They desire to have that power with them. But, as soon as they reach out to grasp him, Jesus sends them straight to the shore. They did not even have a chance to grasp his hand.

It happens again, this refusal of Jesus to be grasped and controlled, at the end of the gospel of John where we find an elated Mary discovering that her teacher, Jesus, is not dead, but has been raised. She wants to grasp a hold of her Lord. She wants to hold tight to the teacher that she loves, but Jesus stops her and asks her not to hold on.

It seems that John wants us to understand that Jesus does not want to be grasped. Jesus does not want to be controlled. Jesus does not want to be told what to do. It seems that John needs us to understand that Jesus is Jesus, and Jesus will decide what is right and good. Jesus will instruct us, not the other way around.

What are your expectations of God?

What do you expect God to do for you?

There is another way to live this thing that we call faith. Rather than defining for God what life should look like and what life should be about, perhaps we could quiet our minds, open our hearts, and, instead, open our eyes to where God takes us in this life. Past experience suggests that some amazing things can be discovered when we allow God to be God, and we simply wait to discover all that God is up to.

If we drop our expectations, we just might find ourselves following Jesus up a mountain towards the divine heavens, sitting down on that promised soft grass that is usually reserved for green pastures, and see the unexpected. If we drop our expectations, we just might see Jesus take the offering of a little boy, (five loaves of bread and two fish) and start handing it out to all 5000 people sitting around. There is even some left over!

If we drop our expectations, we might just see something that we would have never, in our wildest imaginings, considered possible.

If we drop our expectations, we just might see the grace and mercy of our almighty God play out all around us in unexpected and amazing ways.

God’s grace is a gift after-all. And, we all know that the greatest gifts that we get at Christmas are those gifts that were not even on our Christmas lists, but are still, amazingly, just what we needed.

Now, that is not an instruction from the pulpit to abandon shopping from the list. We have all received the amazingly nice smelling candle that we then go and add to the closet of 43 other unwanted, amazingly nice smelling candles. We are not God. We are not so good at making unexpected miracles happen, but God is quite good at it.

God will take 5000 hungry people and surprise them with the gift of unending, everlasting bread. God will take a boat that is floundering in the waves of a troubled sea and immediately send it to safe to shore. God will do the great and unexpected, that is a promise, but we will only be able to see it when we release our expectations into the wind and open ourselves to whatever unexpected gift that God has in store.

Take note: it was when that barren couple had given up all hope of giving birth to a child, and had no expectations of ever giving birth, that they received the call from a friend who worked at the county’s Children and Youth Services asking if they would be willing to take in an infant who needed a home.

The woman scrambled to find those small shoes in the closet.

A quick side note: all that stuff in the closet can come in handy some day...it is not hording...it is preparation.

Back to the couple: getting that first small child soon turned into getting a small family of foster kids. The basketball was soon retrieved and pumped up. And, finally came the day that the woman got to see the man walk not just one, but eventually four beautiful brides down the aisle to their new lives with their new husbands.

The children's own biological parents had not been there for them, but this couple had. This couple had been placed there by God, and they were, for these kids, an amazing and unexpected miracle.

The situation was a miracle for the couple too.

The couple had once thought that God had forgotten them as they struggled with their barrenness. But, God does not forget.

God may walk away from our plans and expectations, that is true, but God does not walk away from us. God just might have something completely unexpected in store. God might have a path in mind that is completely unknown to us.

That is what the feeding of the 5000 is all about. It is about Jesus’ unexpected grace filling up people’s lives.

What are your expectations of God?

What do you expect God to do for you?

Maybe, we should forget those questions and instead ask, “What does God have in store?”

“What does God have in store for us?” To find out, all that is required is that we just wait and see.

Reflection on Ephesians 1:3-14

How would the world be different if everyone knew that God’s “plan for the fullness of time,” was “to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth”?

How would you, as one who has already set your “hope on Christ…live for the praise of his glory” knowing full well that it is Christ’s plan to stretch his arms wide and gather together all creation?

In other words, how would you, one of God’s faithful servants, live your life differently if you remembered daily that God’s plan is to gather together all creation?

When asked a question along these lines, one young woman responded with a giggle, “I guess that I would have to forgive my sister for being a jerk.” She was giggling because her sister was standing right next to her. For the record, her sister was also giggling.

For these sisters, answering the question was somewhat of a joke, but here is the thing about jokes: they reveal truths that we keep hidden just under the surface. One of these truths is that resentment is real and it keeps people at arm’s length.

I know of numerous siblings that have not spoken to one another in years because of one family incident that happened one time at the family reunion…well, you can tell the story because you probably have an example of it within your own family.

Maybe, we have never fully realized that our unwillingness to forgive is also our unwillingness to acknowledge God’s desire through Christ to gather us all up.

Maybe, we are like the ice cream man who doles out scoops of Chocolaty Fudge Delight without the delight…without a smile. The man has forgotten that ice cream is not a basic nourishment that simply needs to be doled out in the way that stereotypical, Hollywood lunch ladies slap food on student's plates, but rather is happiness in a cone that makes lasting memories.

When we forgive it is like we are offering that ice cream with a sweet smile, and in doing so, we go a long way in sharing that vision of happiness and togetherness that God holds dear.

After-all, God’s desire from the beginning of time is the same desire that led my grandmother to invite all of the divorced, former spouses of the family to the family Christmas dinner, without warning anyone beforehand. She wanted to make certain that no one was forgotten. Believe you me, no one was forgotten that day.

That was a Christmas dinner none of us will ever forget. But, in the same way, neither will we forget the end of time when Christ gathers everyone and everything together. It will be a banquet of the once divided, but again united. Hopefully, the faithful will not be surprised as they glance around the table and see who is sitting there since the lid on the mysteries of God’s heart have long ago been cracked open by Christ and we have long been able to peek in and see God’s very heart. Hopefully, we would have long been about the business of gathering all together.

How would you, one of God’s faithful servants, live your life differently if you remembered daily that God’s plan is to gather together all creation?

One thing that has stopped me every single time that I have studied this verse is reading that Christ’s intention is “to gather up ALL THINGS in him.” Now, I know that the verse is intended to be welcoming to the outsider, to the gentiles, so that they may also feel adopted as one of God’s own people. But, authors can choose to write whatever they want. They can choose any word that they desire. This author chose a word that not only includes all people, but also includes all “things.”

Again, I ask: “How would you, one of God’s faithful servants, live your life differently if you remembered daily that God’s plan is to gather together all creation?” How would you live your life differently if you realized that God truly, truly cares about everyTHING in creation; not just people?

In my college religion class days, I read an author, Sally McFague, who tried to shift our eyes to see our natural world in a different way. Rather than seeing a tree as an object that we can just use, she encouraged us to try viewing it as a subject? You see objects are things that we can manipulate and do with however we please. A subject, on the other hand, is a someone or something with real life and real presence. You cannot simply dispose of living subjects without any thought or concern.

Here is a way to try to help you understand. In warfare, it is easier to shoot a faceless, evil enemy. If, for instance, you give your enemy a demeaning nickname, it is easier to pick them off one by one. If you make your enemy an object, then it is easier to do with them whatever is necessary.

But, if your enemy stumbles in front of you and the photograph of their 2 year old daughter falls out on top of the mud and rests right next to the female soldier’s trembling face, then, all of the sudden, your enemy becomes a person…a subject…and it is no longer easy to do with them whatever you please.

Sally McFague suggests that every living thing that God has made (plants, animals, and all) are living subjects, and are not dead objects. She points out that God desires to gather it "all things" together in one redeeming act for all creation. As I already pointed out, the Bible could read that it was God’s “plan for the fullness of time,” was “to gather up all people in him.” But, the Bible does not say that. The Bible reads: “to gather all things in him.” That is no mistake.

How would you, one of God’s faithful servants, live your life differently if you remembered daily that God’s plan is to gather together even those fellow creatures and plants outside of our walls in nature?

Does it make a difference to know that God cares deeply about those subjects of creation also?

Does is make a difference that God plans to redeem and restore them to fullness of life in addition to us?

One thing is certain, you are an adopted child of God. You were chosen for this adoption through Jesus Christ, simply because God desired to hold you forever. That is the same comforting good news that a parent provides a child when they gather the child into their lap and promises to never, ever let them go.

You were chosen to be a part of a holy family “in Christ before the foundation of the world,” a family that was created “to be holy and blameless before him in love.” In other words, you have been adopted into love.

You are a part of a family of love that forgives and you have been forgiven.

You are a part of a family of love that does not forget the suffering or the stranger, because love also sees them as a family member.

You are part of a family of love that sees all in creation for what it is: beautiful beings created by God so that they may enjoy God's gift of life.

How would the world be different if everyone knew that God’s “plan for the fullness of time,” was “to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth”?

How would you, as one who has already set your “hope on Christ…live for the praise of his glory” knowing full well that it is Christ’s plan to stretch his arms wide and gather together all creation?

In other words, how would you, one of God’s faithful servants, live your life differently if you remembered daily that God’s plan is to gather together all creation?

Reflection on Mark 6:1-13

Sun is up, a new day is before you

Sun is up, wake your sleepy soul

Sun is up, hold on to what is yours

Take up your spade and break ground

-Sara Watkins

Welcome to this new day O people of God! It is a new day of possibility.

The story of the day has not been written, and here is the awesome thing about the day: God has given you the opportunity to help write the story of this day. There is love to be shared this day, and you get to be the one to decide how it is shared. You get to walk where you feel compelled. You get to shape the lives of those whom you choose with God’s unconditional love. You get the chance to pick up your spade and break ground.

And, here is the thing that is even cooler, you have been equipped with all that you need to do the important task of planting the love of Christ today. All you need is…well…you. Really that is all you need. Jesus allows you to take a walking stick if you like for the journey, but other than that, you have all you need to make a difference in your world today. That statement is true for both the richest of us and the poorest of us.

Do not be caught in the trap of so many divorced parents where they worry about what their Ex and their Ex's family is able to provide materialistically. I am talking about all the stuff and the junk. Do not worry if others can provide more materialistically. After-all, no grown child reflects back on their lives and says, “I’m so happy that my parents left me and neglected me and gave me all that cool stuff to play with!” Those words have never come out of anyone’s mouth in the history of the world…ever.

You are enough. You have enough. Your presence is enough. Your love is enough.  Not only are other people a gift of God for you, but you also are a gift of God for others.

God’s unconditional love can come from the hearts of people who live in the mansions of Beverly Hills just as equally as from the hearts of people who live in a 12 foot by 12 foot house in the slums of Mumbai, India.

I guess, what I am saying is that: you are enough! You have nothing deterring you from your task of sharing God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, and desire to seek justice for those who have been forgotten. Nothing can stop you from making this a great day.

Shake off your shoes,

Leave yesterday behind you

Shake off your shoes,

But forget not where you’ve been

Shake off your shoes,

Forgive and be forgiven

Take up your spade and break ground

- Sara Watkins

“Shake off your shoes” probably ranks up in the top ten of my favorite teachings from Jesus. Maybe it is even right there at number two behind “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' and "Love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Shake off the dust that is on your feet” is how our bible puts it. And, it refers to all those times that you come to someone’s aid or come to share some your love and they reject you. This rejection happened to Jesus also. There was the time when Jesus came to spread God’s love in his own hometown, and the people regarded him merely as "the carpenter" and “Mary’s son” and refused to see his holy goodness as either holy or good.

Did any of this rejection from those who he grew up with; from those who helped raise him; from those who you would expect to give him the greatest support but were instead his greatest critics; did any of that rejection stop him from starting out a new day fresh with God’s love?

No.

Yesterday is yesterday. If those people had a problem with receiving God’s love and healing, that is their issue. That was not Jesus’ issue.

Shake off your shoes. Do not let any of that negativity cling onto you and hitch a ride for the following days. Leave the dust of their rejection behind, forgive them of their shortcomings, and move on.

It is a new day after-all. There are other towns. There are other villages. There are other people who need the love and healing. There are other pages to be written in this story of God's. There are other fields that need to be tilled. Shake off your shoes and move on.

We are a people of forgiveness after-all. And, that forgiveness not only has the potential to transform those who have rejected or afflicted us in any way, it also gives us the freedom to just move on in life and till new fields without letting the past drag us down. Shake off your shoes.

Give thanks, for all that you’ve been given

Give thanks, for who you can become

Give thanks, for each moment and every crumb

Take up your spade and break ground

- Sarah Watkins

Give thanks because God has given you a new day! Give thanks because God has given you an eternal love! Give thanks because God has given you a purpose in life and you do not need to wander aimlessly. Give thanks because every moment, every breath, every act of love, every demon cast out, every recovery from darkness, every moment of forgiveness, and every good thing is a precious gift from God.

We give thanks because all of these things are the gifts from God that write the story of our day. These acts of holy love are the gifts from God that will fill the air with good stories shared long after you are gone. These are the things that matter. Give thanks for it all. God is good. The day we have been given is good. And, Christ is with us! What more could you ask for?

Christ is here, step out into your fields

Christ is here, you will not work alone

Christ is here, hold hope out for the harvest

Take up you spade and break ground

- Jira Albers

Yes, this is a new day in God’s world. Let’s go ahead and enjoy the lyrics of that great bluegrass song from Sara Watkins that envisions the possibilities for our days through the lens of gardening with a little gospel of Jesus Christ to guide the imagery.

By the way, that last verse was added by myself. I felt the need to “churchify” the song at one point in my life. It is not up to the standards of the original, but I shared it anyway because it preaches too. Enjoy the new day! It is God's new day!

Sun is up, a new day is before you

Sun is up, wake your sleepy soul

Sun is up, hold on to what is yours

Take up your spade and break ground

Shake off your shoes,

Leave yesterday behind you

Shake off your shoes,

But forget not where you’ve been

Shake off your shoes,

Forgive and be forgiven

Take up your spade and break ground

Give thanks, for all that you’ve been given

Give thanks, for who you can become

Give thanks, for each moment and every crumb

Take up your spade and break ground

[Christ is here, step out into your fields

Christ is here, you will not work alone

Christ is here, hold hope out for the harvest

Take up you spade and break ground]

"Take Up Your Spade" by Sara Watkins from the album: "Sun Midnight Sun"

Verse 4 by Jira Albers

Refection on Mark 5:21-43

Say it with me, “There is more than enough.”

There is more than enough love. There is more than enough concern. There is more than enough healing. There is more than enough time. In Jesus Christ there is more than enough. Say it again, “There is more than enough.”

I want that phrase to be embedded in your mind as you move on through the day because it is easy to be convinced that scarcity rules the world.

You feel the fear of scarcity as you read this gospel story. It is right there, hovering under the surface of these two female’s stories. Their stories do not start with fear though. These two intertwined stories start out quite normal, with faith, revealing a synagogue leader who faithfully asks Jesus to come and quickly heal his daughter who is at the point of death. Jesus agrees and follows the synagogue leader to his home. But, along the way the fear of scarcity starts to set in.

You see, there was this old woman who had been pushed to the edge of her society, and most likely literally pushed to the edge of town, because she had been suffering from a continuous, menstrual type of bleeding for years and years. Doctors had not helped her. They had actually made matters worse by draining her both physically and financially. She was ruined and suffering.

This old woman sees Jesus coming and takes her chance. She mixes in with the crowd that boxes Jesus in as he tries, unsuccessfully, to move quickly to the ailing little girl. Getting close, she reaches out with the tips of her fingers and touches the edge of his cloak. And, it is in the next words of the story where we see the fear of scarcity setting in: “Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’"

Yes, you read that correctly, "the power had gone forth from him." It was like her neediness sucked the power right out. And, his ominous question has us wondering if the little girl’s healing had been stolen for the benefit of this much older woman?

Scarcity. It is the notion that there is a limited supply of something, and the fear that you or your loved one might not get any. It is having only 12 peanut butter cookies in a room of 30. Worse yet, it is having 12 cups of coffee to go with those cookies for a room of 30. It is having a small reservoir of water for a vast plain of fields. It is having two jobs available and 15 applicants. It is having one kidney and 5 patients waiting for the transplant.

And, in this story, it is having the power of healing intended for a young girl of a high member of society (a synagogue leader) with limited time to do the healing, and both appear to be stolen by an old woman who invades Jesus’ personal space, leaches away the healing, and causes Jesus to stop his life saving mission. “Who touched my clothes?” Jesus demands to know.

At this very moment, when the fear of scarcity has climbed very near its climax in the story, the disciples provide a little bit of comic relief. That is always a good thing when there is a lot of tension in the air. “What do you mean, ‘Who touched my clothes, Jesus.’ You are in this crowd, being knocked back and forth like a pinball in a machine and you want to know who touched you?” I can imagine the disciples spitting out today.

The comic relief clears a space and reveals an old woman on her knees, apologizing profusely, telling her story…the whole story…ashamed at her theft of power, all so that she might be healed.

Here is where my heart breaks. It breaks because this woman has been stripped of everything good in life and is still caused to feel selfish for desiring the most basic of needs.

I think of the story of Jean Val Jean in Les Miserables who is sent to jail for years because he stole some bread to save his sister’s son from starvation.

I think of the guy who was fired from his well paying job and lost his medical insurance because he had to leave the job site suddenly to care for his daughter in the ER; the first sign of a deadly and expensive cancer.

I think of the woman who lost her home and business in a flood and found herself, jobless and homeless just days later (two states away from her flooded home) on the side of the street next to her little girl with hands out; people spitting on her and telling her to just "Go get a job."

I think of a mother and child who have courageously left the only home they have ever known, escaping rape and violence in Ecuador, only to be detained and ripped from each other at the border of the US.

I think about all of these people who have been brought to the lowest of low, and are still kicked while on the ground.

I wonder if the old woman feared being kicked while she pleaded on the ground? I wonder if she feared the retribution that comes when you have nothing and reach out in desperation for healing?

Jesus looks down at the old woman, who stole the power and stole the limited time and says, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." Jesus says these amazing words of healing and wholeness because Jesus knows a truth that we often forget: “There is more than enough.”

The truth is that in Jesus there is more than enough love. There is more than enough concern. There is more than enough healing. And, we will see very soon that there is more than enough time.

The climax of the fear of scarcity comes right after Jesus' kind words to the old woman when, suddenly, some people come from the synagogue leader’s home to report that too much time has been wasted. The little girl is dead. There is no need to bother Jesus any longer. If only Jesus had not been stopped and had not wasted so much time listening to that old woman’s story!

But, Jesus knows the truth. Jesus, the Word of God, who breathed life into a dark nothing and gave rise to the entire universe, responds confidently, "Do not fear, only believe." Because, guess what? “There is more than enough.”

There is more than enough time. Jesus reaches out to the seemingly lifeless little girl and says, “Little girl, get up,” and she does. In Jesus we discover that we need not fear, there is more than enough.

We can be concerned and show love for both old women and little girls because in Jesus there is more than enough.

We can care about separated families in our communities and at our borders because in Jesus there is more than enough.

We can care about homeless, starving veterans and homeless, starving children of God in war-torn African nations because in Jesus there is more than enough.

We can love our own families and love our neighbors because in Jesus there is more than enough.

We can love ourselves, care about our own dignity, and we can love our enemies, caring about their dignity also because in Jesus there is more than enough.

Have faith people of God. There is more than enough love. There is more than enough concern. There is more than enough healing. There is more than enough time.

In Jesus Christ there is more than enough to heal all that is broken. Through the cross of Christ which saves the entire world, there is more than enough.