Ephesians 3:14-21
John 6:1-21
Message:
Monday morning, I returned to the office and went into this sanctuary to offer a prayer. When I opened the door at the back and looked in at these beautiful pieces of art, I just kept saying “Wow.” My Wow’s did not end there. The grounds have had enormous work done on them in my time away as have the bathrooms and the office kitchenette.
And my “wows” did not end there. I listened to your messages posted on our web site. I listened to the adult study group present their reflections on the Shack. I was so impressed, I forwarded the link to Paul Young’s son with whom I had contact before we began the study. And then there were Rev. Bork’s Angels, the angel of Healing, Leaving, Transformation, and Solitude.
Wow!
And more Wows, With the bonus money I received from you and with help of two others, I bought this wonderful apple computer that is helping me present to you a long time vision. It is a vision that will help us be greener in our use of paper and printing. It is a vision that will bring more visual media for those who need more images in their worship experience. And it will, I hope, cause us to look up more as we worship and thus smile or nod to one another more often deepening in our connection as a community.
“Wow,” might also be the word to describe our God revealed in this morning’s readings.
We meet Jesus in the Gospel of John as he feeds 5,000. This story must have been very dear to the early believers as it circulated around the Christian community in such a way that it is the only story in all four of our Gospels. And in John, Matthew, and Mark, the story of the feeding is followed by the story of the disciples in the boat on the stormy sea.. But John does not copy the story from the same source as the other two. Not only that, John’s purpose in telling the story is that we might experience the “Wow “of God’s awesome, abundant presence.
When Jesus sees the crowd, he sees their need. Not their spiritual need, he sees their very mundane, very human need. They need to have their bodies feed. Before they can receive the good news, they need to have their basic needs met. Jesus as the head of the household, blesses and breaks the bread, the offering of the small child who does not know that his offering cannot possibly feed so many. The blessings of God and the offering of a hopeful heart allows Jesus to be the provider of a meal for all. God is present abundantly present. God in Jesus recognizes the basic needs of the people. Sadly, the people do not recognize the abundant presence of God. They see the abundant presence of food.
Jesus has to go up into the mountains to get away for a while. While off in his prayers, the disciples head across the sea. They set out on their own. They set off without Jesus. It is fine to be without Jesus when the weather is calm and sunny. Who needs the abundant presence of God when we have the abundant illusion of our own independence and self sufficiency? That is until the storms begin.
In the gospel of John, Jesus comes to the disciples in the storm, they are terrified because they see the divine not just the man Jesus. Jesus calls out very Godly words, “I am. Don’t be afraid.”
They want to draw him into the boat with them. It is when they draw him into their boat that suddenly their journey reaches safety, they have made it to the other side.
The reading from Ephesians, the writer is in prayer consider this prayer for and with the Christian community in those early days without Jesus being physically with them. Consider the abundant presence of God that causes the writer to kneel down in humble adoration before this God of Jesus.
He writes:
Ephesians 3:14-21 (NRSV)
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Rooted and grounded in love.
That is why Jesus fed those 5000. They were not going to be disciples. Their daily needs were so great that Jesus could help them but they still were not able to hear the message. Still, it wasn’t about them getting the message. It was about them being loved and lovable.
The writer of Ephesians prays that we may understand that love, that abundant beyond our comprehension, love. We need to embrace that love. We need to embody that love so that we can be open to the God who can “accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. “
Wow!
Church, we have that abundant presence of this loving God right here, right now. We are a people of this way of Jesus, this “Wow” of God that teaches us that we are forgiven and more importantly, that we are loved - even made to be loved. “WOW.” This is the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is the story of God’s presence given freely to all that we might enter into a life with God.
It is a life that changes us, love does that. It transforms us over and over as we deepen in relationship. WEe are a people soaked in the abundant loving presence in God.
This week I ask you to welcome that abundant love. Let yourself be soaked in the Spirit. Every morning as you awake, let the Spirit pour out God’s love afresh on you so that you can allow God to accomplish abundantly far more through you than your might notice or imagine. Allow that Spirit to drip from your presence so that like children just out of the swimming pool, you will leave foot prints of that love everywhere you go. Like the boy with the loaves and fishes, you may be surprised just how many can be fed by that gesture of kindness and compassion.
