The Power of Bread (Pent.11B-2015)

Blaiklock, an Emeritus Classics Prof. of the University of Auckland wrote, “It was loneliness that broke Elijah.  No one prayed with him. He was convinced that, after all he had done, suffered, and accomplished, there was no one with him.  He was alone, abandoned, and for all his triumph, beaten.”

We come to church this morning -coffee in hand- and perhaps feel the same way, either because we have not had our full cup of coffee, or it is current life circumstance that no amount of coffee can fix it.

I feel for Elijah. Remembered in sacred text as the wile-ly miracle producing prophet, full of courage and faithfulness, he dared to speak the truth and act with conviction.  At his time his people were living two lives: one foot in the religious rites of the covenant with God –as Hebrew people, Israelites; and the other in the culture and festivals of the other god Ba’al. They were trying to gain the will and favour of both parties… and this dual allegiance was bringing them to ruin.  All one had to do was open their eyes to see King Ahaz being swept away by his confident Ba’al following wife Jezebel, to whom he would acquiesce on all sorts of religious and political matters.

Ahaz blamed Elijah for the long term drought that was over the land, as he was considered a trouble maker; Elijah said it was Ahaz because he turned from the Lord and was corrupting the land.

Elijah had had enough – regular words and prophetic vigour were not enough to speak to the heart of the King or the priests – so he orchestrated a demonstration.  The prophets of Ba’al are instructed to build an altar and prepare a sacrifice and order Ba’al (if the god really had power) to light the pyre.  So they did, and danced, and prayed, and cut themselves, and danced, and prayed, and thrashed around all day- and no fire came to light their altar.  Elijah (by himself) had built an altar too –with prayers as he worked-; he prepared a sacrifice, and dug a trench around the altar.  He asked for water to be poured over the whole works, flooding it, with water filling the trench.  He had more water dumped on the pyre.  And then a third time – more water.  Elijah prayed to the Lord – and fire rained down to consume the offering, the wood, the stone, the dust; it even licked up all the water in the trench. 

Elijah’s God had won! 

The prophets of Ba’al lost their lives that day, which infuriated Jezebel – so Jezebel threaten Elijah’s life.

This morning’s reading of Elijah follows this episode.  Elijah has taken off to the desert --- to hide and to quit.

Do you ever feel like running away, hiding, or quitting?

What I appreciate about the story of Elijah, is that we get a “bigger-than-life” figure (one surely full of God’s spirit), in essence having a nervous breakdown. And the Bible records it – I’ll be in a snarky humorous-ridden tale that has Elijah looking like a sop; sulking under a broom tree, having overcome “evil” and yet feeling helpless, and wanting to die.

Elijah’s spirit, however, is not taking him to the desert to die – deep down his instincts take him to find God.  He goes into the desert toward the Mountain of God, Mount Sinai – the old traditional holy place.

And it is here, at the point of desperation, melt down, a final exhaustion at the end of an episode full of adrenalin and anxiety – that Elijah is ministered to through a simple ministry of kindliness and love – the angel or messenger from God, comes with a touch, a cake, and water; and additional encouragement to get up and eat. This simple act of God’s messenger brings healing to Elijah. 

After regaining some strength God speaks with Elijah and Elijah finds out that he is not the ONLY person in Israel who has remained faithful to the covenant – there are others like him.

And he also learns that this is not the end of being courageous and faithful, there are bigger things yet to come.

In an article from the, America: National Catholic Review, writer Valerie Schultz and Msgr. Robert McNamara provide the “Top 10 Reasons to Stay Catholic.” After reading the whole article, the number 1 reason to stay, or the number one reason people do stay is:

 “We are fed by the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Jesus. When all is said and done, no matter how deeply the human face of the church may disappoint us, we believe passionately in the power of the Eucharist that nourishes us each time we receive it. Steeped in incarnate mystery, we know how to sustain ourselves in faith.”

            Is it “food” that compels you to come here on Sunday morning?  To come, and with others acknowledge that we often do feel alone in the world – rejected, depressed, anxious, helpless, fighting through nervous breakdown-; and that during the week we try to live in two worlds; that of being courageous and faithful, turned towards God, and the other foot navigating the values and perils within our culture and society. On Sundays we flee to a holy place, where others, through simple kindliness and love will exhibit care; perhaps a touch --- and we come to share bread.  The power of the bread is that it fills us with a mystery bigger than ourselves and instills in us that we are not alone.  The bread feeds us to set our hearts once again to listen for God’s voice, for the Spirit’s nudging, in the deserts of life – to get up and eat, so that we can be messengers of kindliness and love particularly to the broken hearted, the nervous wrecks, and people like us who need at times more than coffee to face the pains and struggles of any given day.

This week I learned about a courageous and faithful Lutheran whom I had never heard about.  In light of Elijah’s story, I wonder if this Lutheran felt alone and discouraged.  His story is like that of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, minus having friends and support from places outside of Germany.  I wonder if he even knew of Bonhoeffer – or if he felt he was the only prophet left.

Kaj (KYE) Munk “was a Danish Lutheran pastor and playwright.  He was an outspoken critic of the Nazis, who occupied Denmark during WWII.  His plays frequently highlighted the eventual victory of the Christian faith despite the church’s weak and ineffective witness [against the perils of the time]. The Nazis feared Munk because his sermons and articles helped to strengthen the Danish resistance movement. He was executed by the Gestapo on January 5, 1944.” –Sundays and Seasons, Augs.Fortress

            Courage and faithfulness amidst the dual worlds in which we live.  Is it possible to survive the nervous break-down, the feeling of being alone, and the wanting to curl up under a broom tree and sulk? Yes. It is. Elijah survives because a messenger offered kindliness and love through words of encouragement, a touch, bread and water. Perhaps this week you will be that messenger for someone curled up under a broom tree.  Or perhaps you will be the one touched and assured that you are not alone.

But, knowing that there is life after the desert – for after the desert, Elijah anoints two new kings, performs more miracles, sees the end of Jezebel, and is swept up in a chariot of fire – is this not an incentive and push to live into covenant, to be faithful to our convictions; to speak out when justice is perversed, when government runs amok, when the poor are forgotten, when values are trampled upon, when goodness is overrun by conceit, vengeance, and apathy.  Can we as a community fed here on Sunday morning, get up tomorrow, drink our coffees and go out with a voice (even if we feel alone) to tackle and confront face to face the ills around us?  Knowing that, even if God prevails in a huge way – like fire coming from the skies – we may feel exhausted afterward, depressed, and ready to quit. Yes. We can. Because there is more food here. Lots more food. And there are many messengers –including us at times- to bring kindliness and love to those in the desert.

This morning, we close with a prayer of Pr. Kaj Munk.  Ingest these words into your heart as food and sustenance  - as a call to action through courage and faithfulness- kindliness and love, for the coming week:

O Holy Spirit, wipe the tears away from my eyes so that I can see the Savior, see Him so clearly that I can speak of Him to my people in these fateful times. Do your great work in our hearts in this degraded age so that Jesus may be a light to us. Then nothing can subdue us and our eyes are blessed. With the spring of joy bubbling from the heart, each one in the church and those among our people who have eyes with which to see, shall learn of the calm and noble Jesus, where to say no and where to say yes, and how we are to live our lives and do our work so that it may help our neighbor and our country. Amen

CIZE - Full Out Attempt #1

This morning I am adding a video of my husband.  I am doing this because GRACE comes in various forms.  I see GRACE in his dancing and in his enthusiasm.  After years of struggling with weight, he has found #Beachbody products.  For the past year, he has worked very hard - #shakeology (nutrient dense meal replacement), #exercise, and #onlinesupportgroup - have had him experience: lost inches, more muscle, better sleeps, ability to walk longer, less cravings, and more energy....best of all a belief in himself and his worth.  This is grace.
He is a Beachbody coach and is willing to help others on their journey.  Would you like to experience GRACE in this way?  Talk to Tim.

Bread. What is it?

PENT 10B-2015

Bread.  The Israelites look out on the desert, after the dew had lifted, and asked “What is it?” It is manna, the bread from heaven that God promised. Take what you need; there is enough for everyone. 

The question is what intrigued me as I prepared the sermon; bread, what is it?

In our day, what is bread?

We have managed to immobilize large amounts of food for food aid projects to address famine, food banks and soup kitchens operate in cities and towns all over North America, and development projects are undertaken worldwide to create sustainable water sources and farms, but, is this all there is to bread – feeding people physically?

The readings have a couple of lines for us to draw our attention to:

After Jesus commends the disciples to work, not for food that perishes, but for food that endures and offers life, the disciples ask Jesus, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” “What must we do to perform the works of God?”

Ephesians speaks about vocations and gifts, focusing on the purpose of each vocation and gift – through their work people are “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” and “build up the body of Christ.” Together the whole community – everyone – working together is to “promote the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”  This is what BREAD is.

With the introduction of our current hymn book, a lovely addition was added to one of the post-communion prayers. The line of the prayer is welcome theology for our time and place, extending the image of bread as used in the Eucharist.  We are fed by Christ’s body by receiving the sacrament, the sacrament feeds us such that we pray these words in response, “By your spirit strengthen us to serve all in need and to give ourselves away as bread for the hungry.”

The prayer has moved forward from the question the disciples ask –“What must we do to perform the works of God?” We understand that to do God’s work means freely giving away that which we have received.

I heard the most beautiful true story at National Assembly:  

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, was an established church in St. Petersburg, Russia.  It was built of wood and for generations had been kept up and loved by the people.  During World War II life was difficult in Russia, particularly for those on the margins.  The poor and those who were pushed off their lands congregated in St. Petersburg, looking for food and shelter.  As the war proceeded resources became ever more scarce; fuel to make small fires for warmth and the preparing of food was almost non-existent.  Citizens began to use pieces of board from the church to make their small fires so that they could survive … and guess what the church did?  They didn’t put up a fence, or hire a security guard, no chastisements were handed out – rather, the church allowed the people in need to use the resources they had to be bread, God’s kingdom in that time and place, for those people, a people in desperate need. By the end of the war, the church building was close to gone, except for the boards too high to reach. The building was gone; the people survived. The church - God’s story – was alive. It was alive in the actions of the people. That’s what it means to be bread for the world.  It is a costly grace -  St. Mark’s was a serving church, in mission for others.

They were a people liberated and then called to be a people of faith for people in need.

The ELCIC National Assembly in Edmonton closed with worship at Trinity Lutheran Church.  This large church, with services each week in German and English, houses the Synod Office of Alberta and the Territories, must seat around 900 people.  It had a balcony that stretched around 3 quarters of the building and side areas to the chancel for the choir.  There were double rows of pews down the centre with banks of pews off side aisles. 

The Anglican Primate Bishop Fred Hiltz preached the sermon, which was his reflections as an observer during Convention proceedings. He ordered the sermon around the Assembly theme: liberated by God’s grace.

He spelled out for us that not only did we embrace that we are liberated by God’s grace, which he suspected we already knew and believed as it’s “good” Lutheran theology.  He congratulated us on ingesting the theology such that in Assembly we acted on it; physically demonstrating that being liberated means sharing that this grace is for all; stressing that one truly isn’t liberated until one shares the grace.

Some of what he reflected was:

Liberated by God’s grace … you chose to accept proposals from KAIROS to live into and make happen suggestions made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; commendable because we didn’t have to go there because as an institution we were not culpable for residential schools;

Liberated by God’s grace … you chose to stand with Indigenous women and request a national inquiry into their disappearances.

Liberated by God’s grace … you chose to take make a statement on the Canadian Criminal justice system and set out a plan for a system that focuses on restorative practices, rehabilitation, and reintegration – including in the motion specific ways to go about doing this;

Liberated by God’s grace … you extended an olive leaf of reconciliation to brothers and sisters who felt a need to leave the church because of decisions made at previous conventions to allow for same sex marriage and the ordination of those who are gay.

Liberated by God’s grace … you are willing to look again at the churches policy on End-of-life-decisions and to continue to wrestle with current social issues.

Liberated by God’s grace …  you have set audacious goals to celebrate the 500^th Anniversary of Lutheran Reformation – starting 500 new refugee sponsorships, creating 500 new bursaries for students in schools of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, planting 500,000 trees in Canada and around the world; and raising $500,000 for the Lutheran World Federation Endowment Fund .

Bishop Fred went on passionately for 28 and a half mins…or so… proud to be a partner in ministry and thankful for a push in the behind to the Anglican Church of Canada to get their act together to start living for others.  None of the work we did at Assembly was for us, it was for the healing of the world and more specifically for healing our relationships with the world around us, as a medium sized church and as individuals.

Liberated by God’s grace … you are looking forward from a perspective of abundance, not scarcity.

In essence Bishop Fred was saying that Liberated by God’s grace we are offering ourselves as bread for the hungry.

This is Resurrection’s100th anniversary year.   If you have noticed we have not been focused on the past.  Sure we have some neat historical pieces on display in the church hall, but, the anniversary is being marked by the present moving to the future: we have expressed why it is we come to this place (sharing with others the Good News we encounter here); we are practising spirited discipleship by reading portions of scripture; we have been “in mission for others” by giving away loonies; we are inviting people to join us for a celebration filled with music and followed by bread in the form of potluck and fellowship; we are knitting 100 toques, gathering 100 scarves and mitts to make 100 boxes –as bread- for the seafarers who come into the Halifax port this  winter; we are being bread by opening our hearts to 10 new refugees whose forms have finally accepted and entered the Canadian Immigration Services system; we are bread as the kitchen is refurbished to allow for ministry to happen in the church hall- over broken bread.  Living from abundance we are performing the works of God, equipping the saints for ministry, building up the body of Christ; we are being bread for the hungry!

For this I am beyond ecstatic!  Keep on carrying on.  Thanks be to God. Amen.