Genesis 32:3-31 Psalm 17: 1-7, 15
Romans 9: 1-5 Matthew 14: 13-21
Grace & peace to you from God who created us, from Jesus who redeemed us, and from the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. Amen.
I have a pattern for sermon writing. It begins ten days before the Sunday I will preach the sermon when I gather with my text study group. This group of pastors, both Lutheran and Methodist, get together to study the texts for the Sunday that is ten days away. One of us has done the research and preparation each week and we all join in the conversation and exchange of ideas. These are brilliant women and faithful pastors and I am thankful for their collegiality. I let the text rest until after the current Sunday and on that evening I read the texts again. So tonight, for example, I will return to the texts for next Sunday. I read and pray the texts AND I read and pray over secular publications, that report the news of the day and I pray over the ministries and concerns of this congregation and eventually, with all of that, a sermon begins to form. Hopefully this happens by Thursday.
When I was writing this sermon…yesterday…I looked down at the time stamp on my computer to see that it was 2:41 pm. Saturday. This did not bode well and was most out of synch with my preferred way of sermon writing. What was going on?
Well, what was happening was, that like Jacob in the reading from Genesis today I was wrestling with God. Because the Gospel reading from Matthew was about Jesus having compassion on people even though he was bone weary and the miracle of how enough food was miraculously found to feed them…5000 families from five loaves of bread and two fish. And the reading from Genesis was about the cowardly actions of Jacob who sent his wives and children and servants across the Jabbok River to encounter the army of his angry brother. And what I was reading and hearing on the news was about how our country was being held hostage by politicians on both sides of the aisle who are double dog daring each other to drive us into financial ruin on the backs of those who can least afford it. What was a preacher to do?
Those of you who receive my weekly homilets know that I have drawn a line in the sand: no politics from the pulpit. And some days it is easy, too easy perhaps, to stand well back from that line. But on days when the Scripture readings and the state of our beloved nation seem to be at cross purposes….what was a preacher to do?
Another glance at the time stamp on my computer….it is 2:50pm and I have written 497 words of this sermon. I turn to today’s Psalm for guidance and in the second verse of Psalm 17, there is this: “Let your eyes be fixed on justice.” What is justice? What does it have to do with me, with us? Can’t we just let God deal with this? In the sixth chapter of Micah the prophet says “For what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” The Deuteronomist writes “justice and only justice shall you pursue” Jesus tells the Pharisees that although they tithe in the temple they are hypocrites because, he says, they have neglected the matters of justice and mercy.
I was not being let off the hook. I was wrestling with God. And the time stamp on my computer noted that it was 3:27pm.
Back to the Gospel reading I went. This familiar story of how Jesus feeds the enormous crowd that had gathered there. We might not think that 5000 is a big crowd, after all over 300,000 gathered downtown yesterday to watch the Torchlight Parade. But in Jesus’ day this would have equaled the population of the largest of cities. And as I read the story again I was struck by the persistence of this many people….they wanted to see Jesus so badly that they were willing to follow him even as he tried to withdraw from them. You see, he was mourning the death of his cousin, John the Baptizer. His spirit and his body were weary. He had no time for crowds, much less desperate, sick, and hungry crowds. They had taken an enormous risk following him there. Following Jesus is a risky business. It means that sometimes we will follow after him without ample time to prepare. We will simply have to GO…immediately.
This week a good friend found herself early one morning witnessing one spouse verbally abusing the other. They were her next door neighbors and she said that she was unprepared for what she was seeing and hearing. She didn’t have the time to map out what her strategy would be for dealing with the scene before her…she simply had to GO. She had to be the voice that spoke for justice and peace making and truth telling. She had to be the voice to speak for the one who was being pushed to the margins and was in peril. She had to be the voice of Jesus, clad in pajamas and carrying her coffee mug to speak for the one who had no voice.
Following Jesus can be a risky business. And it is not just risky in predictable ways. That wouldn’t be very risky at all. And it is not just about my risk in approaching that line in the sand and suggesting to you that those we have trusted to run the government are not acting in ways that are just. And it is not just in my suggesting to you that it is the place of those who call themselves followers of Christ to name un-just behaviors when we see them, whether it is happening next door or half a country away. It is about our understanding that being disciples of Christ will often mean that we risk all that we have to follow him.
Of course, as we continue to read in the story from Matthew we hear what the twelve disciples suggested that Jesus do with the hungry, desperate people who were following him. “Send the crowds away” the disciples said, “so that they may go to the village to buy food for themselves.” And what was Jesus’ response? “You give them something to eat.”
Of course, I recognize the complexities involved with comparing the crowds who followed Jesus with those who struggle in this day. I realize that there are people that take advantage of the system and that take advantage of us. But Jesus does not tell us that it is our job to determine how worthy one is over the other. “You give them something to eat” he says to the disciples and to me and to all of us.
I am so fortunate to have the means to help others have something to eat. But it has not always been this way. During my senior year of seminary I found myself living in a new reality, one I had never been before, where I purchased my food with a food stamp card and my health care through Medicade. I found myself sitting in a reception area crowded with almost exclusively women and their children who did not have enough to eat. We had to prove, through documentation of all sorts, that we deserved the assistance of our government. Anyone who says that this is an easy system is either not telling the truth or has never had to access it. But for that year it was that system, the very system that has been so casually bantered around for the sake of political soundbites, that kept me and my children alive. How we continue to maintain that system is not a small thing, my sisters and brothers. And at the risk of standing right on that line I’ve drawn in the sand I must say to you that we cannot allow those who have been pushed to the margins to suffer for the political futures of one party or another. As followers of Christ, let our actions be actions of justice, that bear witness to the one who fed the hungry and healed the sick. As followers of Christ may we not say “Send them away” but may we hear Jesus speaking to us and saying “You…you…you give them something to eat.” As followers of Christ, let us wrestle with God, determining what it is that our response will be when we witness injustice. And, when we wonder what it is that we are supposed to do, may we heed the words of the prophet Micah and do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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