|
 |
Sermon for July 26, 2009
Pastor Sara Kay Olson-Smith
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Texts: 2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145:10-18; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21
Grace to you and peace, from God our Creator and from Christ Jesus our Lord, who is able to do abundantly far more than we could ever ask or imagine.
I used to love to sit in the kitchen with my Grandma Velma. She was a queen at baking and her kitchen was her kingdom. I would sit on the top of her step stool, and I would ask her what we were going to bake. She’d say, “You’ll see...” So I’d watch as she would pull out the ingredients, usually just really simple stuff - flour, sugar, eggs, salt - and I’d try to guess. She never used any recipes, so I couldn’t peak over her shoulder at that. All I could do was wait and see, watch and wonder. Without fail, she’d take those simple ingredients, and make something amazing - delicious cinnamon rolls, chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, a simple loaf of bread. From those simple ingredients, she would do amazing, amazing things, beyond anything that I could imagine. As I child, I thought it was a pure miracle, that my grandmother could take these random bits of food - a bit of flour, some eggs and sugar - and make something so delicious. “You’ll see...” she’d say, and each time it was more than I could have ever guessed, more than I could have ever asked or imagined.
In our readings today, we hear of the way that God creates true miracles (though anyone who ever was blessed to eat my grandma’s sweet rolls is certain to say they were a miracle). God creates miracles out of simple things, simple offerings and small gifts. In our first reading, the people are living in the midst of a famine. Everywhere people are hungry. Yet, one man brings his first fruits, the very first foods from his harvest, as a offering of thanksgiving. There’s a famine in the area. Talk about an economic downturn! And this man brings in the entirety of his first paycheck. It’s a simple and profound gift, but not nearly enough to respond to the enormous needs of those who surround them. But Elisha, the prophet, says, “Give it away and feed those who need it...” And a servant, looking at this gift, with huge generosity but not lot of food, says, “How?!” And the prophet says, “You’ll see....” And God does God’s work and creates food, food enough for all the people who were there. From those simple gifts, God did amazing things, beyond anything they could have ever asked or imagined.
In our gospel reading, we hear this same sort of story. The story begins with a crowd of hungry people, who have come to hear Jesus. And Philip and Andrew are faced with the impossibility of feeding them, and only see the impossibility due to their scarcity. But as they think and figure and doubt, a young boy refusing to hoard it for himself or to believe that it wouldn’t be enough, this little faithful courageous boy, offers up what little he has for the cause. This little boy comes with a simple yet extravagant gift. “I have some fish and a few loaves.” It was likely just enough for his family, but he shared it. While the disciples said, “How will this ever be enough?” Jesus says, “You’ll see.” He takes that bread, blesses it and breaks it, and there is enough for everyone, enough for everyone and some left over. From those simple gifts, God did amazing things, beyond anything they could ever ask or imagine.
As we look at our own lives, we can see how God has done this. I could, of course, make this a stewardship sermon, talking about the ways that God takes our offerings, both the big ones and the meager, to do amazing things for the sake of God’s work and mission in the world. Our lives, along with this congregation’s life, are a testimony to the ways that God uses our monetary offerings to do more than we could ever ask or imagine in the world. (Quilts and homeless programs and support of a missionary and years of ministry here have proven this.) It’s true, and I pray we all continue to grow in our love and witness and generosity. But I think it’s even bigger than that. It’s about offering our whole selves into the grace and mercy and goodness and power of God, and that, in this, God uses us and works in our lives in ways that bewilder and astound us.
In our own lives, I am sure there have been moments when you have faced some huge struggle, a big transition that seemed impossible, the thing you most feared. As you prayed and discerned, thought and wondered, nothing clear came to you. All that came to you were questions and impossibilities. Yet, you heard whispered in your ear, “You’ll see...” and through God’s miraculous and transformative work, God did amazing things in your life, beyond anything you could ever ask or imagine. It is what God has done with me. I could never have dreamed that God would send me to New Jersey. As we prepared to come here, I wondered what God had in store for me, asked what God was going to do with me, and I heard, in a whisper, “You’ll see....” And here I am, grateful to be serving this beloved congregation with people I have grown to love. Though I’ll never be a Yankees or a Mets fan, I have been miraculously blessed by this place... “You’ll see,” God said, and God has done amazing things, beyond anything that I could ever ask or imagine.
For each of us, as we face transition after transition, as we look into our future as a congregation and as individuals within it, we wonder what God will do with us, with these simple offerings of ourselves, faithful people, though broken and sinful, present before God like those bits of bread and fish. We wonder, “What does God have in store for us? What God, will you do with me? Will there be a place for me to serve? What will my life look like in the coming days and months and years?” And God, with gentleness and compassion and infinite love, says to us, “You’ll see....” I know, I deeply trust, that God will do, through and in us, abundantly more that we could ever ask or imagine.
We can trust it because we’ve seen it. We can trust this word of God, who says to us, as we give ourselves to God as simple offering that we will see the goodness and mercy and multiplied generosity of God in our lives. We can trust this word, because, through Jesus, God has given of God’s self, coming to the world as Jesus, the Son of God incarnate. As the people asked, “Who are you?” Jesus said, “You’ll see...” and they did see, in his crucifixion and in his resurrection, the power and the presence and the transformative love of God which brings life abundant and eternal. Jesus was more than the king or prophet that they guessed, but the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, who has done more for us and for this world than we could ever ask or imagine.
We come, with our questions and our simple though extravagant offerings of ourselves and our possessions and our hopes and fears. We bring them to God, bring them to this table. Here we offer up simple gifts – a simple loaf of bread and a chalice of wine – and we offer them up to God. As we wonder, “What might a bit of bread and a swallow of wine really do...” God says, “You’ll see...” and we taste and see the goodness of God, take into ourselves the body and blood of Jesus which brings us forgiveness. This simple meal strengthens us in our inner being as Christ dwells is us, and roots us and grounds us in love. It is from this bread and wine, which we know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Filled with this simple though extravagant offering, God will do in us abundantly far more than we could ever ask or imagine.
Thanks be to God
Amen
|
