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The End of the Beginning

Today I want to spend some time speaking to you about my spiritual journey. Since this is my last Sunday I want to share three key lessons that I have learned thus far in life. They all have to do with change. Changes I have had to make in my thinking. I share these things not because this is what your spiritual journey should look like, but simply to use my life as an example to show how we are a part of a much larger story than our own. That God is continually changing us. Whether we realize it or not we are an actor, we play a role, in the story of God. And the story of God is about drawing us closer to Him. I want to share with you how over the 27 years of my life God has drawn me closer to him. God has provided many beginnings and in each of those opportunities . . . when they come to an end, I have been transformed.

You may have seen the title of this sermon in your bulletin. I named this sermon, “The End of the Beginning.” I chose this for a couple of reasons. First, one of the lectionary texts for today is the very final verses of the book of Revelation, the final verses in the entire Bible. Second, today is the final Sunday of the Easter season in the church calendar. Lastly, today is my last Sunday at Hillcrest. All of these things are ends. But while they are ends, they mark ends to times of transformation. They leave us changed. We are no longer quite the person we were when we began. Maybe there is no more Bible to read. Maybe there is no more Easter season and next week is Pentecost. Maybe I won’t be back here next Sunday. But these ends are not sad. They are momentous. They mark periods of change. They signify, hopefully, that God continues to mold who we are. And there is more to come. More beginnings to encounter. More opportunities to seize.

Maybe you have heard it said, “change or die.” This is applicable to our Christian life. Unless you continuously change, unless we continually allow God to mold us into new creations, into people who more fully exemplify Christ . . . we die inside. Our Christian journey grows stale. We are lukewarm. Change is essential to the Christian life.

John, the writer of Revelation, does not end the book by saying, “well that is it.” God’s Word is done. Nothing more to say. If you want to experience more God you better flip back through the rest of the Bible again. And when I leave Hillcrest, I am not headed to the beach. I am not simply saying, well that wraps up my ministry. I had a great time, but God is done with me.

No, the last verses in the book of revelation and my final Sunday here at Hillcrest are simply the end of a beginning. The Bible and the events it recorded are the beginning of our faith journey, my time here at Hillcrest has been the beginning of my ministry. But we move on. There is more to do.

It is this journey, what we do after we have begun that I want to talk to you about today. I want to connect us to a story that never ends. The story of God molding us into more obedient disciples. The story of how God repeatedly uses our life experiences to teach us more about himself. And since this is my last Sunday, I am going to tell you the three most important things that have changed me thus far in my life.

Speaking broadly the Bible is the story of God. It is the story of how God communicates with the world, what he has been up to in the universe. It is the story of how God loves us and draws us to himself.

But as we know the story does not end there. The Bible is the beginning. Somehow, thousands of years later God is still at work. He is at work here in Hillcrest Covenant Church in DeKalb, Illinois. The book of Revelation is simply the end of the beginning of God’s work.

What I want to encourage us to do today is to understand our role in God’s story. I want us to reexamine our lives, to re-author the story of our life from God’s perspective. What is God teaching us? Where are our beginnings? Where did those beginnings finally end? Do we embrace new beginnings? I want to move us from the small story of our lives, to the enormous story of God’s work in the world, of which we are a part. Of which God is continually renewing us and making us begin again.

I want to talk about my life in three stages . . . I want to tell you about 3 beginnings in my life that eventually came to an end . . . I am going to talk about: the early years (some of you are already thinking this is crazy – the early years, he still looks fifteen), the college years, the Hillcrest time.

So let’s start in a small town in West Central Illinois. I grew up in a Roman Catholic Church and went to 1^st through 8^th grades at a Roman Catholic school . . . and my first grade teacher, Mrs. Teefey just happens to be here today, “hi, mom!”

Anyways, elementary school went fine and I headed off to the public high school. I did really well in my classes and joined the National Honor Society and I played basketball and football, and even managed to become Homecoming King. . . things were going well. I had a great time in high school.

But as I look back on those years, one thing sticks out in my mind. I did not understand the nature of God’s love. I was a good kid, I didn’t do much to get into trouble . . . but I did these things because I wanted to please God. I wanted God to love me. I wanted God to be proud of me. The thing is that I wanted to earn God’s love.

You see I funneled my understanding of God through life experience. If I wanted to make a teacher like me, I studied hard, I listened in class, I was nice to other students. And if I wanted to make a coach like me, I hustled, I never missed practice, I listened to criticism and changed accordingly. I knew how to make other people like me and I thought I knew how to make God love me too. I was intense, I worked tirelessly to be “good,” I fretted continuously over what others thought of me, I wanted to be known as nice, I wanted to be a “good guy.” Now these aren’t bad things, it’s good to be a good person, but the root of my desires was not healthy. I was fighting an impossible fight against sin. I was scrambling furiously towards a perfection that could not be reached.

I did not understand God very well. Do you know that God loves you more right now than he will ever love you your entire life? Think about this. I don’t care what you did this morning. I don’t care what you did last night. Right now. As you sit there in your pew, God’s love is overflowing for you. You don’t need to earn God’s love. God already loves you.

Maybe you remember the Youth Sunday skit we did and the role played by Josh Howells. Josh was Bob WorkALot. When I wrote about Bob WorkALot, I was writing about me in my high school years. Bob wanted God’s “golden ticket of love” and Bob believed that he had to work endlessly to earn that golden ticket. One thing Bob thought was that if he stepped out into the aisle here and jumped up and touched the lights and got a few bugs while he was up there that he would earn God’s “golden ticket of love.” So he tried and tried to touch that light. But he couldn’t. He was distraught, all that work for nothing. But if you remember Bob went and began to complain to a friend that earning the ticket was hopeless . . . and then the friend noticed something in Bob’s back pocket. It was the “golden ticket of love.” Bob had had the ticket all along. He was working tirelessly and hopelessly for something he already had.

It is that way with God’s love. You have it. You don’t have to earn it. We do good works not because God needs us to, but because our experience of God’s love is so great, that it overflows from us. Did you get that. We love, we do good, because God first loved us. God enables us to do good. We don’t do good to get God. We get God in order to do good. That is why when broken people come to the church we don’t make them reform their lives first. We want them to be in a relationship with God first. Then God will help them deal with their sin.

The next phase in my life was the college years. Now I can see the high school students laughing. The college years, that is most of your life. The college years are officially over now. After 10 years, yes a decade and over 300 credit hours, I am finally done. Anyways, when I went away to college at the University of Illinois I encountered a far more diverse world than I had ever experienced before. For example, from kindergarten to my senior year in high school the only minorities I had had in my schools were foreign exchange students. I desired and needed to broaden my horizons. So I did.

But with my exposure to ethnic, religious, political and other kinds of diversity came questions. What did I really believe about myself, the world, and especially God? Did I believe what I did simply because that is how I was raised? Was I right? If I was wrong, who was right? For the first time in my life I was confronted daily with others who thought my beliefs were bogus and I wondered whether they were right.

I began to explore. I joined far too many organizations and made countless friends who I stayed up late with talking about life. Ultimately I became involved in a campus church and eventually played a large role in various aspects of its leadership. (actually I am proud to say that Aaron Rasmussen and Jeremy Geidel attend this church – I actually called down to some old friends and had them call Aaron and Jeremy when they got on campus) Another organization I became involved in right away was the fraternity I helped to start. Myself and 5 other guys founded a social fraternity at Illinois. The fraternity grew quickly and by the time we graduated we had 40-50 guys (now they are up to 150). The fraternity was my mission field. It was to be my place of impact on others and the campus.

But my eagerness and simple minded faith did not work well with others that had had very different experiences with God, church and Christianity. You see my approach to ministry in the early years was convert, convert, convert. So I talked regularly with guys in the fraternity and others on campus about hell. I wanted to save them . . . not for Jesus, but from eternal damnation. This surely gave me a sense of urgency. By my sophomore year of college, I would walk up to strangers on the Quad at the school and ask if someone would complete a spiritual interest survey. Many would agree. My first question was, “If you were to die today, would you go to heaven or hell.” I would then try to convince them that they were going to hell and that they must repent now or endure eternal damnation. Not a great approach. You see my eagerness had gotten the best of me. For me faith had become only about heaven or hell. You were in or you were out, and that was all that mattered. My faith was too simple. I tried to scare people into repentance.

I presented the Gospel as if Jesus was corralling cattle into a pasture with a cattle prod. And we better get into that pasture or Jesus’ is going to electrocute us. But that is not the Gospel. The Gospel is what it says in verse 17 of the 22^nd chapter in Revelation: “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.” We are not being chased by fire, but welcomed with open arms. We are invited by Christ to experience his love and goodness.

I learned that people are not brought into a relationship with Jesus Christ through fear or intimidation but through relationship. The fraternity gave me an opportunity to live this out. By my junior and senior years of college I was holding both a spiritual discussion group and a Bible study in the fraternity. And my approach was to develop relationships with the guys. In the spiritual discussion group I had no agenda. I came up with some very general questions like does God exist? Or is there such a thing as altruism? But if someone had something else they wanted to discuss I went with it.

What had changed was that I was no longer God’s sole avenue of salvation. No longer was I responsible for someone’s eternal destiny. I was God’s instrument. My experience of God, one of love, one of peace, one of kindness, one of understanding, compassion . . . that experience was to characterize how I treated the lost. And a remarkable thing began to happen . . . God began to change people’s hearts, not because of something I said, not because of fear, not because of some apologetic proof . . . but simply because through me others had seen a glimpse of God.

You see your evangelism, your ministry (yes you all have ministries whether you know it or not – your work place, your friends, your social networks – those are your mission fields) is about how you reflect your experience of God to others. When you talk, do others see God in what you say? When you act, do others see God in what you do? When you make decisions, do others see God in how you deliberate? People are scared of evangelism because they don’t know what to say. That is ridiculous, it has nothing to do with what you say. It has to do with who you are, not who you act to be (people can see right through that), but who you are. And if you are a child of God, if you are a recipient of God’s love and you are, then all you have to do is be yourself. Let God do the work. You are the light of the world, because God is your light. You are the salt of the earth, because God is your salt. It’s not you, it’s God. Others will know you are Christians by your love . . . by a love that was given to you by God.

The last significant period in my life I want to talk to you about is the Hillcrest years. Now those come to end today after 5 years, 30,000 miles, one dead car, and countless experiences that will forever shape who I am as a pastor and a person.

Take for instance, a particular tough day when I had just started my internship. I had stayed up until 2AM or so to finish a paper, got up at 5AM to play basketball at the seminary, went to class all day, and then drove from Chicago to DeKalb to spend time with Pastor Todd and lead Senior High fellowship. I got to DeKalb around 4:30PM and was working in the Senior High room. Pastor Todd came in to chat . . . but I was sound asleep with my head on the Senior High table and drool pouring out of my mouth. Pastor Todd tapped me on the shoulder and said, “uhh, Dan . . .” I jumped to attention immediately and panicked I was about to be fired. I tried to act like I was praying, but Pastor Todd wasn’t buying it. I was so embarrassed, but Pastor Todd graciously acted like he didn’t notice. And I acted like the drenched table was just spilt water.

Or how about the first time that I assisted Pastor Todd with the communion service. The bread had been distributed to the congregation and Pastor Todd looked to me and said, “go ahead.” I said, “what?” He said, “Go ahead.” Pastor Todd wanted me to go ahead and say, “Take and eat the body of Christ.” Confused, I just ate the bread. Pastor Todd laughed and said the words himself.

I have done other embarrassing things too. I jumped into the frozen Lake Geneva at Covenant Harbor Bible Camp. I danced ridiculous dances to entertain the Senior High. I tripped over my stole walking up to make announcements. But things haven’t all been embarrassing. I had the honor of marrying Gene and Sharalynn Kowitz. Dana and I were able to have Pastor Bernie baptize Adelaide here. My memories of Hillcrest are plentiful.

And God has taught me something valuable during my time here as well. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about ideas. It’s not about thoughts. It is not about theories. Or Greek or Hebrew . . . ultimately the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about people. People, all of us, who are participants in a story much larger than Hillcrest Covenant Church, much larger than DeKalb, much larger than the United States, we are a part of a story that started well before all of that. We are apart of a story that began with God.

Through interactions I have had with members of this church, with the youth . . . I have learned that theological ideals can only take me so far . . . ultimately my theological understandings must have a practical application. I now believe that my role is to connect us with God’s story. Where we fit in God’s plan for the world. My task is not just to impart knowledge, but to increase participation with God.

Have you ever turned on a movie about half way through it? You know the feeling. You feel disinterested. You’re a little confused about what is going on. Well our lives are that way when we start our stories in the wrong place. Our stories don’t start with our birth, but begin with human creation. If all that you understand about your beginning is your mother, you are missing something. Your beginning is as a creature created in the image of God. We must broaden our perspectives. We are not the stars of our own stories, but are role-players in the same big story.

The book of Revelation is the final book of the Bible. And chapter 22 is the final chapter of the book. But the Bible is not an ending. In verse 13 of chapter 22, it says in the words of Jesus, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” God is everything. Our movement in God’s story is a bunch of beginnings and endings. And as we move through God’s story we are continuously being changed.

This conflicts with our modern culture. Our world tell us . . . believe in you . . . don’t change. Stay true to you . . . but Christians have different understanding. Change. Change. Change. Find sin in your life. Find areas of pride. Find growing edges. And change. Become more Christ-like. We become more Christ-like by connecting with God’s story. By understanding who he created us to be and by using his Word to refine who we are.

I put a quote by Henri Nouwen at the top of today’s bulletin. It says, “Spirituality is the journey out of the microcosm into the macrocasm.” Our faith, our spirituality is a movement from the small story of our life into the profound story of God. The profound story of God has no permanent end . . . only new beginnings that draw to a close. The end is not something that despairs us, but gives us hope. We are not said at endings, but grateful that through them we have been changed. We continue to be a new person. We continue to grow in understanding of the profoundly “good” God that we worship.

Are We Known For Love?

The scripture I am going to talk about this morning is the lectionary text for this week and it’s a little peculiar. The passage falls in the lectionary a month after Easter while we are still in the Easter season of the church calendar, but falls in history in the context of the Last Supper and Jesus’ preparation for his death. It doesn’t quite fit, why study a piece of scripture that occurred before Jesus’ death soon after Easter . . . Well, we do this because of what Jesus is doing in this passage to prepare his disciples and us for when he is gone. Jesus’ instructions are meant to guide his disciples and us once Jesus is no longer physically present. The lessons of the passage apply to post-Easter, when we are all left to continue Jesus’ work on earth. This passage answers the question, “what now?”

So what does Jesus tell his disciples that they ought to do . . . he says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

The 1^st thing that sticks out in these verses is that Jesus says that this is a new commandment, but this does not seem to be a new commandment, we have heard it before. What is new, however, is not the message itself, but the way in which the message can and should be lived out. What is new is that Jesus has now set himself as the model for the love that is commanded. Jesus is our example. Jesus says, “Just as I have loved you, you should love one another.” No longer is the command to love one another simply words, but it has been embodied by Jesus. To love is to do what Jesus has done and is about to do.

Jesus’ command for the disciples to love one another falls just after Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. Even in that act, Jesus points to himself as the example that his disciples should follow. Jesus says in the beginning of chapter 13, “so if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” Jesus is showing them how to love.

Jesus did not stand up behind a pulpit and say to his disciples . . . do this and this and this twice and you will love. No, what Jesus said was “watch me! Did you see what I did, do that.” Jesus did not seek simply to tell his disciples how to love, Jesus was love. “As I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Jesus instructs us to love by his example. And Jesus’ example is service and sacrifice.

Even a cursory look at Jesus’ life reveals what love is. Jesus calls all people to himself . . . he welcomes them. Jesus washes the feet of his disciples . . . he serves them. Jesus dies for all of us . . . he sacrifices of himself for us. Jesus’ love is not some special affection, it is not some fuzzy feeling, but a willingness to place the well being of others before himself.

It is that love which is to characterize who we are as followers of Christ. The church is to be refuge of this love. And to love for Jesus is to serve. To love is to humble oneself before others.

Anyone can memorize God’s command to love others, but to actually do as Jesus did is much more profound and difficult. Anybody that is in any kind of committed relationship with someone else knows this. If love were just a feeling we would constantly be in and out of love . . . some days we would love, some days we wouldn’t. Love takes commitment . . . take my relationship with my wife, Dana . . . I know I love her not because I wake up with some giddy feeling every morning . . . actually some mornings we wake up quite annoyed with one another . . . I know I love Dana because I am fully committed to her even when I don’t feel like it. I love her because I am willing to sacrifice for her. I love her because I am willing to serve her. And how do I know this is love, because that is what God shows us love is.

Love is indeed a fascinating thing. It is seemingly unexplainable. Often it is just a 10 cent word that we toss around freely. I love my dog. I love Coldstone Creamery. I love take home exams. I love free lunches. If you listened to the way we talked you would think love is pretty easy. Love is just really liking something. But love is a lot more. The Bible says, “God is love.” This means much more than “God really likes everything.” God cares so deeply about us that God is willing to put himself on the line for our benefit. Love is action.

So if love is not a feeling, but an action, you might want to ask what actions constitute love? The Bible is full of various commandments and so are our churches. If we just do those things, do we love? If I get coffee for my friends, do I really love them? If I give money to the poor, do I love them? If I advocate for justice, do I love the oppressed? If I go on mission trips, do I love the native people? Maybe . . . but maybe not. That is just the thing about love, there is no prescription for it. We can go through the supposed motions of love, but deep down we know it is not the real thing. It is not authentic. Our attempts at love are often about us and not about God. There is no specific set of things you can do that make your actions love. You can’t exactly teach someone to love.

Ultimately, we love not by ourselves, but by funneling God’s love for us, to others. We love by experiencing God’s love for us and then modeling that love to others. We become a window through which others see a glimpse of God. We can’t create love on our own. God’s redemptive work makes it possible for us to love. We can love others because Christ first loved us. It is God through us that love is done. We, as God’s church, are God’s instruments of love to each other. By passing on the love God has given us to each other, we not only increase our personal experience of God’s love but we perpetuate it. Through our love, others experience the love of God.

This leads to a second aspect of what Jesus says in John 13. Jesus says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” How do we love? How as a church do we serve and sacrifice for one another? Not how are we friendly to one another, but how do we wash each other’s feet, how do we show that we care as much about the well being of the person in the pew next to us as ourselves . . . How well do we love not just the people we like, but each person in our congregations? Remember that Jesus washed the feet of all his disciples, including Judas. Are our churches known for such love? Are we known for love?

Today’s churches are known for many things . . . some are known for there building, some for their dynamic preachers, some are known for their enormous congregations, some are known for their fancy technology . . . but how many churches can you name only because you have heard about their love?

If we want to reach our communities and ultimately the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ we will do it through our love not just for outsiders, but for each other. I think you may increase the number of attendees in your church without love, but you will not increase the number of disciples in your church without love. Creating disciples takes love. As Christ modeled for us what love is, we must model love for the world. Unless we have fully experienced God’s love for us and by God’s love, love each other in the church community, no one outside the church will ever expect that we could love them.

Love is central to who the church is. Any organization can do good works. Any organization can be nice to people. Any organization can have great potlucks, feed the poor and clothe the naked. What makes the church unique, however, is that not only can we do all of these things, but we can do them with love. The body of Christ has a unique gift that it can give. All Christians have experienced first hand the love of God. Each of us have partaken of the immense love that God showed us by sacrificing Jesus Christ on our behalf. We have experienced profound love. And when we seek to love others as Christ loved us, we are channels of God’s love to others. By observing our love for one another, others receive, however imperfect, a glimpse of the divine. When we serve, when we sacrifice, when we put others before ourselves . . . we are channels of God’s love.

Most of us are extremely privileged people. We live in an environment where we have access to virtually unlimited educational opportunities. We have ministry skills. We have thoroughly researched ecclesial strategies. We have hundreds of books. We have a toolbox full of practical tools. And all of this is great . . . but all of our tools and all or our gifts are entirely worthless without love. Love must be the foundation of all that we do. Love must be the cornerstone upon which we build our ministry. We must be willing to serve each other. We must be willing to sacrifice of ourselves for each other. We must be willing to give without any expectation of receiving anything in return. We must desire above all us to be known for love.

The Voice - The Book of Jonah

I want to begin this morning by reading you a children’s book that I came across a couple of years ago. The book gets at what I want to talk to you about today. I want to talk with you about the Voice. The voice in all of us that chases us. That comes after us when we have gone astray, that seeks after us regardless of where we try to run. I want to talk to you about our God who desires to catch us and to hold on to us, no matter how hard we try to resist.

The book I am going to read to you is entitled “The Voice.” I contacted the publisher this week and was given permission to show the pages of the book on the screen so you can look up there to get a better view of the pages. “The Voice” by R.W. Metlen . . . .

You know there are countless religions throughout the world that have various understandings of who God is and how we should relate to Him. And most of those other religions give you detailed instructions on how to find God. They give you specific ways to discover God and where to interact with him whether through meditation or dancing, whatever. But Christianity is unique. You see Christianity is not a story about humans searching around existence trying to find God. Christianity is the story of a God trying to find his creation. The Bible records God’s efforts throughout time to find us and bring us back to him. In the Christian faith God is the pursuer not us. He is coming after us . . . trying to find us. He is trying to rescue us. From the time of creation, God has worked tirelessly to draw us home. Our life journeys then are lived based upon how we respond to God’s pursuit of us. Will we respond to His voice or will we run from it? And when that voice pursues us further, will we run faster and push harder, or will we finally stop and listen?

God does not want us to run from him. He does not want us to talk too much. He wants us to listen to him. Last week Pastor Bernie looked at the parable of the Prodigal Son . . . That is a story where the Father let his son leave home and pursue wild living with his inheritance . . . and then welcomed the son back with open and loving arms when he returned. Today I am going to look at the story of Jonah where the father, God, does not let Jonah go, but pursues after him until Jonah does as God asks. The story is about Jonah’s struggle to listen and respond to the voice of God.

Jonah hears the voice several times throughout the book of Jonah and he hears the voice of God in several different ways. The first time Jonah hears God’s voice it is in the traditional way we think of hearing God, in words. The Bible says that “the word of the Lord” came to him and told him to go to Nineveh and preach against it because of its wickedness. Jonah heard the voice and understood what it wanted him to do, but Jonah wasn’t a big fan of what the voice was telling him to do so he decided to run away from God. Instead of going to Nineveh, where God had asked him to go, Jonah flees towards Tarshish. Now Tarshish was about as far away from Nineveh as the ancient mind could comprehend. While Nineveh was east of where Jonah was, Tarshish was way to the west in modern Spain. That is 2500 miles in the opposite direction. Jonah did not just ignore the voice, he literally tried to go across the world to escape it.

Jonah went down to the port and boarded a ship headed towards Tarshish. But Jonah could not escape the voice and it followed after him. Now this time Jonah hears the voice of God again, but this time it is not through words, but through things that happen to him. The Voice speaks to Jonah through experiences and life circumstances. God was not pleased that Jonah ignored his voice and brought a huge storm and before you know it Jonah is overboard and fighting for his life in the raging waters.

The voice did not abandon Jonah though and sends a big fish which swallows him and rescues him from the waters. Now when we remember this story we often think that the bad part of the story is that Jonah was swallowed by a fish. But that was one of the good part of the story. It tells us that our God is a merciful God. . . that despite the fact that Jonah got himself in a dangerous predicament by fleeing from God, God still loved Jonah and had a plan for his life. No matter how odd the method, God rescued Jonah from drowning. While God did not communicate to Jonah through words here, Jonah’s life experience communicated to him a message from God. Jonah seems to get the message. In chapter two, Jonah prays to God in thanksgiving for rescuing him from the dangerous waters. Jonah says, “I cried out to the Lord in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the land of the dead, and Lord, you heard me!” Jonah was grateful that God had chosen to save him despite his disobedience to God’s voice and vowed to be faithful to God. So you would think at this point that the story would end happily with Jonah living a faithful life and listening to God’s voice, but that is not quite so. And that is not how our stories usually end either. No matter how many times we learn, there is always more to learn, more room to grow.

After Jonah was spit from the mouth of the fish, God once again came in a voice to Jonah and told him to go to Nineveh and proclaim that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days for its wickedness. This time Jonah obeyed, but something unexpected happened after Jonah delivered the message. The people of Nineveh decided to repent and change their wicked ways. The people of Nineveh fasted, gave up their evil ways and violence and hoped that God would spare them from his judgment and punishment.

And sure enough when God saw their reaction and how they had turned from their evil ways, he had compassion on them and did not bring the destruction that he had threatened. But this did not make Jonah very happy at all. Jonah finally follows God’s voice and this is what happens? He told them they were going to be destroyed!! After all Jonah is a prophet and prophets are in the business of communicating God’s plans. It does not look so good when the prophet’s message is not fulfilled. People stop believing that you are really a prophet. Additionally, Jonah was not a big fan of the people of Nineveh to begin with. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire which was one of the chief enemies of Israel. Jonah did not want them to repent, but wanted them to be destroyed. Jonah understood that God’s compassion encompassed the Israelites, but he did not expect God’s so-called enemies to experience God’s compassion.

And God was still not done with Jonah. Jonah went outside of Nineveh and sat to watch if anything would happen to Nineveh. He still held out hope that it would be destroyed. He was sitting in the warm sun when God gave him a shady plant to sit under. But then the next day God provided a worm which ate the plant, and the sun began to scorch Jonah’s head until he was faint and wanted to die. Talk about a bad few days . . . God scolds Jonah by saying, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

And that is the end of the story of Jonah. No happy ending. No super obedient Jonah praising God and thanking him for everything. Just a question from God. A voice prompting Jonah to change his perspective. A voice echoing in Jonah’s head beckoning a response . . .

I believe the story of Jonah is indicative our own spiritual journey with God. We are all on a journey to hear God’s voice and to respond to it. God used a huge storm and a big fish to get Jonah’s attention, what is he doing to get our attention? How is he talking to you right now? Are we listening? Are we truly hearing what God is saying? Are we responding?

You know part of our problem with hearing the voice of God is that we are not good listeners to begin with. We can’t even listen very well to people in front of us, so it’s no surprise that we struggle to listen to God who we can’t even see? But it’s a discipline and one worth pursuing because it is by listening that we must effectively live into God’s will.

There are 3 principles and 3 cautions that I believe God wants us to learn today about the voice. About the voice of God calling out to each of us. These are things that are illustrated in the children’s book I just read and they are things that are clearly communicated in Jonah’s journey and the journey of countless others throughout the Bible.

First, we can trust the voice. God created us. He knows every hair on our head. He knows our gifts and our shortcomings. He absolutely knows what is best for us and what will enable us to live a life of fulfillment. One of my scariest experiences as a child was learning to jump off the diving board. I remember walking to the edge of the diving board and just looking down. My instructor would be yelling at me to jump and that she would catch me. All I could do was trust that she was telling me the truth. And I just had to trust what I knew about the instructor. We have to truly believe what we know about God in order to trust his voice. In order to jump off and follow him we must believe he is good and knows what is best for us.

In Jonah’s case, the voice knew what was best for Jonah. God had something that Jonah needed to learn. Jonah needed to learn that God’s compassion was not just for Jonah’s people or at least people just like him, but that God’s mercy and compassion extended even to His once enemies. God knows what we need to learn and will guide us towards more faithful living if we listen to his voice.

Second, the voice will be intrusive. The voice will poke and prod in areas of our life where we do not want the voice to go. God knows us intimately. He can and will go where no one else can. Those dark secrets in our lives will be addressed. He knows our gifts and our shortcomings. It is easy to acknowledge the voice of God when we know we are doing things right, but we hate to hear that voice when we are acting badly or hiding sin. The voice will seek you out.

I sometimes think that the Bible should come with a warning. Beware!!! . . . Christianity may be hazardous to your ego . . . vulnerability and transparency is not easy. It reminds me of Lucy’s discussion with the Beavers in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lucy is asking about Aslan, the lion, and whether he is safe. Mr. Beaver responds, “safe, who said anything about being safe? Course he isn’t safe, but he is good.” The Voice is not always safe, but it is always good.

Think about how intrusive the voice was in Jonah’s situation. No matter how hard Jonah tried to run away, there was that voice calling to him. Hey Jonah, look at this storm. How do you like running away from me now. Do you like big fish, why don’t you live in one for a while. And then God gives him shade, then takes it away. . . can’t you just picture Jonah like the character in the story I read, just wanting to scream. . . LEAVE ME ALONE!!! We don’t want to hear the voice when we need to learn something. We don’t want to change.

But this is the nature of God’s voice. It enters deep into our souls and urges us to become more Christ-like. God’s voice pushes us to trust, to live a journey moving towards his will.

The third principle we need to learn about the voice is that the voice will not run from you. If you are feeling far from God, you are the one that has moved. God is a constant presence, he is always with us. Most of the time when we think God is not talking to us, we are just not hearing well enough. Sure we are listening to lots of noise, but we are not really hearing what God is trying to tell us. Hearing the voice of God takes time. It takes discipline to block out all of the other voices in our lives. But the voice will not leave us. If you can’t hear it, try taking your hands off your ears.

And now for the cautions about the voice. First, the voice is not intended to make you feel guilty. The voice is not intended to make you feel bad about yourself. God’s voice is there to prompt us towards better living. His goal is not guilt, but life transformation. When we feel excessive guilt we are stuck. We are obsessed with the sin and unable or unwilling to move on to correct the wrong behavior. The voice prompts us to move on, and not to wallow in despair.

Second, the voice will not always lead us down the easy path. Our path in obedience to the voice will not always be a cake walk. Sometimes the voice will lead us down paths that cause us heartache and pain. Jonah was led into stormy waters, the belly of a big fish, and to preach destruction upon a wicked city. These were clearly not easy things to endure.

Change is hard. Acting according to the will of someone else is a challenge. My mom and aunt told a story a couple of weeks ago about my brother as a young kid. Apparently he was so stubborn that he refused to ever walk in the direction that my mom wanted to lead him. So they would have to act like they wanted to go one direction and wait for him to walk the opposite direction, which was really the direction she wanted to go in the first place. You see some of us ignore the voice, because we just want to go our own direction.

The last caution is not all voices we hear are the voice of God. We have countless voices in our lives telling us what to do and who to be, but only one voice is worthy of following. So how do we know which voice is God’s? Well, first of all God’s voice will never be inconsistent with His word in the Bible. So by studying God’s word in the Bible we will better be able to discern His word as it is spoken to us. Second, we discern God’s voice through the church. The church as a community of believers functions as a support net for us. We should interpret scripture and God’s voice collectively to ensure that we are not misled. Lastly, Christian formation and maturity lead to a better ability to discern God’s voice. As we grow in our prayer life and our obedient actions, God’s word will become clearer and more readily apparent to us. We will be able to quickly recognize phony voices and push them away, opening our hearts to God’s voice.

Each of us are on a journey whether we realize it or not. A journey to respond to God’s voice. Will it represent a life running from God’s voice or will it represent a life running towards that voice. Listening to it and truly hearing it. Being guided by it. How will you respond today when you hear the voice? Where is the voice leading you this morning? When the voice says, “follow me,” will you? Will you do as the Voice asks?

Freedom of Simplicity

Life today is frantic. Literally thousands of things vie for our attention each day. We each have countless responsibilities that compete. . . each with a hundred reasons why they are the most important. And too often we respond by frantically trying to do everything. . . we find ourselves unable to discern which things are truly important and which things are not. We cannot distinguish between the voice of God and the countless human manipulators.

This morning I want to help us realize that we can be freed from this modern mania. I want to turn us away from the many things that our culture has taught us. . . and help us to understand that we can experience freedom and liberation through Gospel simplicity . . . not passivity and weakness. . .but a strength to rebel against the world and live free of its control. George MacDonald once said, “to have what we want is riches, but to be able to do without is power.”

This morning I would like to first explain why simplicity is important biblically and theologically. . . but then I want to give you some very practical things that we can all do to live lives of simplicity. . . lives that free us to give ourselves fully to God.

To begin this journey towards simplicity, we must realize that our value as humans is not tied to wealth, status, accomplishments, or position. . .Our human value. . . what we are worth. . .is not at all dictated by the world, but was given to us as a gift when God created us in his image. We are not people rooted in the American economy, but people rooted in the book of Genesis. We must return to this fundamental Christian understanding of creation. We are not independent people all competing against each other for success. . . but people wholly dependent on God. Simplicity is a journey from a false sense of independence and to a posture of dependence.

Our scripture from Romans this morning speaks to this with reference to sin. We do not have to be slaves to sin. We do not have to be slaves to this world. The freedom that we have in Christ gives us the power to look the world in the eye and say, “God knows a better way. I know a better way.” That better way is righteousness.

Simplicity in a sense is prioritizing. Richard Foster in his book, “Freedom of Simplicity,” (which is the source for much of this sermon) says, “for years I loved God and sought to obey him, but he remained on the periphery of my life. God and Christ were extremely important to me but certainly not the Center. After all, I had many tasks and aspirations that did not relate to God in the least. . . I thought that serving God was another duty to be added onto an already busy schedule.”

But we cannot view the service of God as a task. . . it must be viewed as integral to who we are. . . as an aspect of everything that we do. Our faith in Christ is not separate at all, but the foundation upon which we order our lives. This is precisely why simplicity is so important.

As we make our lives and the world around us more complex it becomes increasingly difficult to keep Christ as the Center. The multiple things in our lives compete against God for our attention. We need to move more and more towards God and away from other things that clutter our lives.

Now this starts to sound pretty spiritual. . . pretty theological. . . only something a preacher would say but does not make any sense in real life. . . but I think it should make a lot of sense to all of us. The idea is not to sit around in a log cabin in the middle of the woods and meditate on God all the time. . . No! The idea is that we should seek to move towards God in everything we do. . . and in moving towards God, we must shun those things that hinder our progress.

Richard Foster asked in his book, “What for heaven’s sake does swimming and gardening have to do with God? I was deeply committed, but I was not integrated or unified. . . But slowly I came to see that God desired to be not on the outskirts, but at the heart of my experience. Gardening was no longer an experience outside of my relationship with God – I discovered God in the gardening. Swimming was no longer just good exercise – it became an opportunity for communion with God. God in Christ had become the Center.”

The seeking of simplicity and the true heart of God requires the asking of some tough questions of our lives. . . Is it possible to come to a place in our life where we do not desire a larger or nicer house even if we can afford it? Is it possible to come to a place where we don’t care what people think of us when we walk into a room? Is it possible that all of the technology in our lives has made it more difficult to see God? Is it possible that we do not have to own things to enjoy them? Is it possible that our desire for privacy and independence prevents us from interacting with the image of God in other people? Is it possible to decide on a particular economic level that we can live at and rest contented with that level, even if our income exceeds it considerably?

John Wesley, a Christian theologian and early English leader of the Methodist movement, believed that with increasing income, what should rise is not the Christian's standard of living but the standard of giving. . . And Wesley backed his beliefs up with his actions. in 1731, Wesley began to limit his expenses so that he would have more money to give to the poor. He records that one year his income was 30 pounds and his living expenses 28 pounds, so he had 2 pounds to give away. The next year his income doubled, but he still managed to live on 28 pounds, so he had 32 pounds to give to the poor. In the third year, his income jumped to 90 pounds. Instead of letting his expenses rise with his income, he kept them to 28 pounds and gave away 62 pounds. In later years sales from his books would often earn him 1,400 pounds a year, but he still lived on 28 pounds and gave the rest away. Now Wesley was single most of his life and never had children, so he did not deal with the financial problems engendered by a family, but the idea is a sound one. We may have to make adjustments for children and savings for college, etc., but the principle remains the same. Simple living.

This is not a sermon about giving though, even if Wesley is a great example of generosity. No, this sermon is about simplicity and freedom. So I want you to see the freedom in Wesley’s choice. You see Wesley was so detached from worldly conceptions of what was good. . . so detached from misplaced desires for larger homes and people’s impression of him. . . so fully focused on simply living by the daily bread that God gave him. . . that he did not need the extra money. He was free from it.

I want you to soak up this idea of freedom. Freedom in God’s eyes is not necessarily a bunch of government rights. . . no the freedom that we have in Christ is a freedom from the need to impress, a freedom from the need to always be the best, a freedom from never feeling satisfied, a freedom from always needing more. G.K. Chesterton said once, “there are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”

Through simplicity we learn to desire less. And what we find when we desire less. . . is that we are free. . . we are free to be exactly who we were created to be. . . we do not have to worry about others’ expectations or impressions of us. Be Thou My Vision, the song that we just sang, speaks to this truth. . . “Riches I heed not, nor vain empty praise. . . thou mine inheritance, now and always, thou and thou only first in my heart, high King of heaven, my treasure thou art.”

Now I hope that I have impressed upon you the importance of simplicity. I hope that I have underscored the importance of ordering our lives in such a way that we facilitate God’s work. . . and not clutter it out. But how do we live simply. . . what exactly does that look like and what can we do today. We have to be careful here, though. These are suggestions. . . ultimately you need to pray and discern the areas in your life that need simplifying. Let the Holy Spirit lead you. . . and don’t take this list as something that we should be legalistic about. But this list does function as a starting point for living lives of simplicity.

Richard Foster gives us ten controlling principles for living a simple life. Ten sounds like a lot, but I think that they are exceptionally significant and each of them are directly connected to our struggle to make God the center of our lives.

1) buy things for their usefulness rather than their status. . .

This is directly related to the question. . . who are we trying to impress? Do we read the bible and say, “I want to be her. . . or I want to be like him” or are we more likely to watch TV or a movie and say, “I want to be like them.” We should buy things that we need. . . things that are useful. . .not things because they will increase our worldly status or reputation.

2) reject anything that is producing an addiction in you. . .

Addictions are gods. Addictions are not just alcohol or cigarettes or sex either. Addictions can be those things that we just cannot say no too. I think that I can be addicted to the internet at times. Actually last lent I gave up the internet during lent because I wanted to try to free myself from the attachment. We must identify the addictions in our lives and flee from them. They steal our time, thoughts, and adoration from God.

3) develop a habit of giving things away. . .

One of the most affective ways of decreasing your desires or covetousness is to give things away. If you have things in your life that you would not be willing to give away to someone in need, you may need to consider the importance that you have placed on that thing. By developing a habit of giving things away. . . not just money. . . but things that we use, we gradually break ourselves away from our attachment to those things. We begin to be set free.

4) refuse to be propagandized by the custodians of modern gadgetry. . .

This is a particularly difficult one for most Americans. But believe it or not, we do not always need the new and improved version. Faster is not always better.

5) learn to enjoy things without owning them. . .

If we own something we feel like we can control it. . . and if we control it we are under the illusion that it will be better. So when it snows an inch, everyone on the block walks out with their snow blower and blows away the snow. . . then it sits in the garage for another few weeks. . . and then 9 months. What would happen if we bought one snow blower with our neighbors and shared. . . sure it would may be a little more difficult. . . but just like we tell our kids. . . it is better to share.

6) develop a deeper appreciation for the creation. . .

God created more than just us. The Psalms say, “the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” Learn to appreciate nature. Try to see God’s hand in everything that He created. As we develop this eye for true beauty, “things” will start to look like counterfeits.

7) look with a healthy skepticism at all “buy now, pay later” schemes. . .

Don’t be tricked into buying things before you can.

8) obey Jesus’ instructions about plain, honest speech. . .

Don’t say things that you do not mean. . . and do not say more than is necessary. Make honesty and integrity the distinguishing characteristics of your speech.

9) reject anything that will breed the oppression of others. . .

I attended a symposium on Justice several days this past week and one of the speakers there said, “Live simply. . . so that others may simply live.” Our extravagant living in the United States is not without a cost. It is often at the expense of workers who are underpaid and who do not have adequate benefits. Simplicity requires that we are conscientious about the products and services that we use. That we do not abuse others, directly or indirectly, for our personal gain.

10) shun whatever would distract you from your main goal. . .

Stay focused. In the complexity of life we often find ourselves scattered. . . and we may find ourselves doing things and we don’t know why. Reevaluate the things that you do each day. . . and ask yourself whether those things are consistent with who you are and who you want to be as a creature created in the image of God.

This list is daunting. When I first read it I was very convicted. The point of the list is not to foster guilt though. It is to prompt action. It is to call us to radical living that detaches us from the concerns of the world and sets us free to fully love God.

Simplicity is not admired in our culture. Actually it is even at times frowned upon. But living a life of simplicity does not mean that we are weak, or boring, or weird or whatever. . . it actually means we are strong. . . we can set our priorities apart from the world. By taking steps to slow down and reconsider the priorities in our life. . .we can experience a gift from God. . . the freedom of simplicity.

CHIC Sunday 2006

Today I am going to venture out on a nearly impossible task. . . to summarize about 5 hours of material from CHIC 2006 into a message that hopefully lasts a few minutes less than that.

As you probably know, the overall theme of CHIC this year was “No Ordinary Day” and each day had a specific topic. . . “No Ordinary Man,” “No Ordinary Teacher,” “No Ordinary Healer,” “No Ordinary Life,” and “No Ordinary Day.”

And the scripture I chose to be read this morning supports this theme and topics. . . this morning’s scripture asks the ultimate question that all people must answer. . . who is Jesus? Now don’t let your mind try to answer this question right away. . . I don’t think the answer is quite as simple as we might think. I imagine that when we hear this question, who is Jesus, we quickly think of some reflex answers. . . he is the son of God, he is our savior, he is the lamb of God, he resurrected. . .but who do we really think Jesus is? Not who do we say that Jesus is? But who do we really believe he is?

One way of testing who we think Jesus is. . . is to imagine that we met Jesus on the street and to picture what we would feel or think when we met Jesus in person. Now some people may tell us that Jesus is like our best friend. . . that you would just run up and give him a hug. . . or even a high five. . . but I think that if we just see Jesus as a buddy we are gravely mistaken. Jesus is no ordinary man.

Have you ever encountered something awe-inspiring. . . something so mesmerizing that you could do nothing but stare in shock. At CHIC one of the speakers told a story about an encounter he and a group of his friends had with a 2000 pound moose. The group was playing cards inside a condo next to an enormous picture window. As they were playing cards they looked up and saw an enormous 2000 pound moose staring at them through the window. They froze, partly out of fear, but also out of a sense of fascination. . . and they just stared for several minutes without anyone saying a word or making a sound. They were awed at the enormity of the creature, but they were also scared of what the overpowering beast could do to them if it came through the window.

If we truly understand who Jesus is. If we truly understand that he is no ordinary man. . . we will stand before him as that group of friends did before that moose. We will be fearful because we know how powerful God is. . . but we will also be in awe of God’s glorious mercy. And so we will just stare paralyzed by a man who walks on water, heals the sick, and sacrificed his life so that we may live. Jesus is indeed no ordinary man.

Throughout the New Testament we read that wherever Jesus went there were people shocked by what he said and by what he did. If you simply thumb through your bibles you will discover that there was not anyone bored when Jesus came to town. His glory amazed people.

Now we are not easily shocked anymore. . . every movie and tv show today attempts to shock us so we have gradually become desensitized. . . but we must give ourselves the freedom to be awed by Jesus. . . because if we are not awed by Jesus. . .if we do not shutter when we encounter him. . . we probably haven’t gotten close enough to him yet. . . we probably don’t know him well enough. We should be awed by Jesus. . . and if we aren’t. . . we are not seeing him as he truly is. . . Jesus is no ordinary man.

And as we approach Jesus and discover that he is no ordinary man, we quickly discover that he is no ordinary teacher either. Jesus does not just teach us to be better people. . . he does not just give us keys to happiness. No. . . Jesus also shows us the way by teaching us about himself and by doing things that the world says are foolish. Foolish things abound in Jesus’ teaching. Jesus says look up to the poor and pity the wealthy. . . really soak these things in. . . Jesus says look up to the poor and pity the wealthy. . . Jesus says give away what someone wants to steal from you. . . Jesus says when someone strikes you on one cheek, turn your head and let him strike you on the other cheek. Jesus taught crazy things by the world’s standards. Jesus was no ordinary teacher and sometimes we find it just too hard to follow.

So when we look at our scripture from Matthew this morning and hear the question, “who do you say that I am,” . . . we quickly and easily answer, “you are Lord” . . . but so did Jesus’ disciples. . . that was not enough for the teacher of foolish things though. What Jesus really wanted his disciples and us to learn was that allegiance to him was not just about calling him the right things. . . but it was about living a life that reflected that you truly believed the right things about Jesus.

In Luke chapter 6, Jesus asks, “why do you call me Lord, and not do what I tell you?” Our answer to this question is simple. . . we often call Jesus Lord, but do not do what he asks of us. . .because Jesus is no ordinary teacher and we might look like fools if we choose to obey his words. Common sense is so much easier for us. . . But if we are truly Jesus’ followers we must learn to be no ordinary students. We must be willing to step out into the realm of foolery and bask in the awe and power of God. The risk is worth it.

A fascinating part of this journey of learning from Jesus is the fact that we don’t have to be perfect . . . we don’t have to have all the answers. . . we don’t even have to be physically, socially, emotionally or mentally healthy. . . because Jesus is not only no ordinary man and no ordinary teacher. . . Jesus is also no ordinary healer. He can pull us out of any pain that we may be experiencing and heal our brokenness.

Now any time we talk about healing, it is dangerous ground. We all know people that we have prayed for and hoped would be healed. . . but they were not. And we are left with why? There are no easy answers and there is no way for us to understand why God heals some and not others. There is no doubt, however, that God can heal people physically. . . I want us to understand, though, that to limit God’s healing power to only the physical is to miss the idea that our spirits and not our bodies are of primary concern to God.

Too often when we think of Jesus as a healer we think of his miracles where he gave sight to the blind and health to the sick. But Jesus heals in so many other ways. He is drawn to broken people of all kinds for this precise reason. . . so that he can heal their brokenness and reveal his love and compassion. Jesus wants us to find relief from our pain. He is not about quick fixes or patches over wounds. . . Jesus is about new life and new beginnings. Jesus is no ordinary healer.

And as if all this were not enough. . . and you still were not convinced of the extraordinary nature of Jesus Christ. . . Jesus lived no ordinary life. Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus was not just a wise, moral man who attracted lots of followers. No. . . Jesus was God on earth. . . he was the perfect man, entirely sinless. . . endured crucifixion and death. . . took upon himself the punishment that we all deserve. . . and then defeated it all by rising again from the dead three days later. Now anyone who takes a serious look at Jesus’ life can see that his life was no ordinary life.

All of this. . . Jesus as no ordinary man, as no ordinary teacher, as no ordinary healer, living no ordinary life. . . makes today no ordinary day. When we follow Jesus, when we truly recognize him for who he is and seek to do what he asks of us. . . no day is ordinary.

When we understand that our lives are not meaningless. . . when we understand that we can have a relationship with a God who loves us unconditionally. . . when we understand that an entire spiritual world exists beyond what we can see. . . we realize that today is no ordinary day.

This is what sets the church apart from the world. We live extraordinary lives. . . or we should be living extraordinary lives. . . not because of what we have accomplished for the world, but because of what we have accomplished for the Kingdom of God. We are committed to something greater than ourselves, something greater than the world around us. . . and as we mature in this reality. . . we become more confident that nothing is ordinary. That every day is an adventure. . . a journey to grow closer to Christ and to draw other people into the excitement of truth and faith.

Today is a new opportunity to transform people. Today is a new day to bring people closer to their creator. Today is a chance to meet God. Today is a chance to learn from the greatest teacher. Today is a chance to be touched by the greatest healer. Today is indeed no ordinary day.

The Bread of the Free

John 6:23-35

We hear an awful lot about freedom these days. Freedom in Iraq. Freedom in Cuba. Freedom in the United States. Freedom of the press. Freedom of religion. Freedom seems like a pretty great thing. But this morning I want to stretch your mind a little beyond concepts of political and social freedom. Today I want to talk about a deeper sense of freedom, namely the religious and moral freedom that Jesus offers to each of us who follow him.

In today’s gospel reading from the book of John, we pick up the story a day after Jesus has fed 5,000 people that gathered to hear him speak.

The crowd has just had a pretty awesome and filling meal and now they have gone out looking for Jesus. When they finally find him. . . Jesus confronts them and proclaims, “the truth is, you want to be with me because I fed you not because you saw the miraculous sign, don’t be so concerned with perishable things like food. Spend you energy seeking the eternal life.” Somewhat perplexed, the crowd asks, “What does God want us to do?” Jesus responds, “believe in the one he has sent.” But the crowd is not quite sure that they can do this. Even though Jesus a day earlier fed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. . . the crowd wants to see another sign.

And the crowd gives Jesus a reason for their desire to see a sign.

They point out that Moses gave their ancestors manna in the desert, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. The reference is clear. In the book of Exodus, after the Israelites had been freed from Egyptian captivity they fled into the desert where they were without food. They cried out to God for help and God gave them manna to eat. God sustained the Israelites by providing them with food and now the crowd around Jesus is asking for a similar miracle. To show them a sign that God is indeed with Jesus. But Jesus responds with a startling answer. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” “No one who comes to me will ever be hungry again. Those who believe in me will never thirst.”

Now I don’t know about you, but this does not necessarily sound like such a great deal to me at first glance. I imagine at least a few of you are sitting here today thinking, by golly I did not eat enough for breakfast, I hope that someone brought something good for the fellowship hour. So what would you think if when you went down stairs there was no food but a big sign that said, “Jesus is the bread of life. He who has Jesus won’t go hungry.” You might be a little disappointed. And you would probably still be hungry.

But I think we are missing the point if we think that Jesus is saying, stop eating, you just need me. No, Jesus is making a comparison here. And to really understand the comparison we have to understand a little about the role of bread in Jesus’ time. Now bread is still pretty important today, but in Jesus’ time bread was the staple food. The word “bread” was even used as a synonym for “food” itself. Bread was the symbol of what it took to sustain physical life. Without bread, without food wel die. Our bodies need sustenance to live.

So Jesus is drawing a comparison here. You see like bread that sustains our physical life, Jesus sustains our spiritual lives. And while bread may keep us alive for 80, 90, 100 years, Jesus, “the bread of life,” will keep us alive eternally.

In a few minutes we are going to remember the last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples before his death and resurrection. We will take bread and eat it in remembrance of Jesus, but we also will take this bread because it reminds us that as bread and food are necessary for our physical survival, the body of Christ, his death and resurrection, are necessary for our spiritual survival. Without Jesus we are spiritually dead. And if we are spiritually dead, our physical life has little significance.

But with Jesus. With the “bread of life,” we are spiritually alive. And when we are sustained not simply by physical food, but by Jesus himself we are opened up to a freedom that is more profound than anything we can find elsewhere. Like the nourishment and sustenance we get from a full meal, Jesus nourishes our spiritual lives.

Too often though we allow wants and desires to supplant our true needs. There are countless things that we think we need, but which really only get in the way of our ability to be nourished by Jesus, the bread of life. We prefer spiritual junkfood. And there are quite a few needs in our life to which we say, “Jesus, thanks, but you are not enough.” Regularly we become so detached from the richness of our faith in Christ that we come to believe that Jesus is not enough. That something more is needed.

Marva Dawn tells the story of several Canadian students who went to Nairobi, Kenya to learn about the conditions there from local residents. The group spent mornings in lectures, and then the students participated in afternoon site visits to some of Nairobi’s slum areas. The students were deeply affected by the poverty around them and one day they visited a destitute Kibera slum where 1,500,000 people lived in a small, concentrated area of long, narrow, winding dirt lanes and small mud-and-stick shanties. Up the serpentine paths they trudged, into the middle of Kibera’s dismal bleakness to a church. At the church the students discussed the congregation’s ministry and community development against seemingly impossible odds and were served tea and bread by church members. Shocked by the immensity of the problems and the lack of the congregation’s resources, the students kept asking, “where is the hope?” The students raised their question with a young Kenyan pastor, “with all this poverty and corruption, where is the hope?” The pastor eloquently described his faith and finished with an astonishingly simple remark, “our hope is Christ!” The reply from the Canadian students was swift and startling; immediately they cried, “that is not enough!”

Too often we say to Jesus Christ, “you are not enough.” We are so attached to the things of this world that we think we need more than we really do. That we need more to really be happy. We are not set free by Christ but enslaved by everything else around us.

I really believe that if we can get to a point where we realize the simplicity of the Gospel message, that Jesus Christ is the “bread of life.” That Jesus is all we need to sustain us. That even physical bread and water stop keeping us alive at some point, but that Jesus can sustain us eternally, he is the bread of eternal life. If we realize this simple fact, that Jesus is all we really need, we can realize a freedom that we have not ever experienced before.

An important point, however, is that this freedom is both a grace and a discipline. It is a grace in the sense that it is a gift from God. And with a relationship with God and personal intimacy with Jesus comes freedom. But freedom in Christ is also a discipline in that we have to be in a position to receive it. Through discipline we can order our individual and community lives in such a way that God can work into us his freedom.

I think most of us truly desire this spiritual freedom in Christ, but I think we have become so attached to our modern world that it is sometimes difficult even to know what freedom in Christ would be like. After all most of our perceptions of freedom are political and social, thus if we are free to do as we please then we are free. We completely fail to see the multitude of ways that we are enslaved to money, success, power, security, and so on. The problem is that we, like an alcoholic, are unable to recognize the disease once we have been engulfed by it.

When I was a kid, a neighbor friend about my age invited my brother and me over to play. He asked if we wanted to play cops and robbers. It sounded like a good time to me so I quickly volunteered to be the robber and darted off as if I had just committed a crime and was fleeing the cops. I have come a long way from kid robber to seminarian. Anyways, I proceeded to run around the house and hide for 10 to 15 minutes before I thought it might be fun to act like I had been caught and get arrested. So I peaked out behind a shed and revealed myself to my brother and our friend who were the cops. They quickly approached me and placed me in handcuffs. They led me around for quite some time, interrogating me, and then placing me in a jail that looked an awful lot like a lawn mower shed. It was really quite fun and we played this way all day with me in handcuffs. Eventually, it was time to go home so I asked to be let out of the handcuffs thinking there was just some button to press like on most toy handcuffs. Well that was not the case, and my friend said that he had to go get the key. He returned a few minutes later with a confused look on his face. No key. His mom came outside. No key. Apparently, the key had been lost and I was stuck in real handcuffs that were a gift from a family friend who was a police officer. There was no getting out of them. My fun quickly turned into despair. What seemed like such harmless fun quickly turned into a frustrating constraint that I could not escape.

We eventually called the police and someone came and cut the handcuffs off, but it was quite a memorable experience.

I think in many ways we handcuff ourselves with various things of this world that are eternally insignificant. And we play around and hardly notice that we are in handcuffs. And even if we know we are in handcuffs we think it is no problem getting out of them. You just press a button and off come the handcuffs. Unfortunately though, it is not quite that easy to find freedom.

This is where the discipline comes in. I mentioned earlier that freedom is one part gift and one part discipline. It is pretty difficult to reach out your hands and receive a gift when your hands are behind your back in handcuffs. We must be disciplined and seek Christian simplicity in order to avoid being enslaved or handcuffed by money, success, power, security, and whatever else it is that makes you think, “Jesus is not enough.”

The image of bread is pretty simple. It is the basic. It is fundamental. When Jesus is telling us that he is the “bread of life,” he is telling us that he is it. He is all we need. And when we realize the simplicity of this notion. When we come to understand what it feels like to have a singleness of purpose. To see everything first through the lens of Jesus Christ, we will realize what it means to be free in Christ.

Jesus is enough. He is the “bread of life.” He is the “bread of all those who are truly free.”

Almighty God, too often we think we need money, security, and power because we do not think that you are enough. Help us to realize that you are all we need. Help us to see that too often we become enslaved to the things of this world and tricked into believing that there are things that we will miss out on if you alone are the center of our lives. Jesus you alone are the bread of life. You alone can set us truly free. Give us the strength to know your power, to know your glory, and to experience your freedom. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.