EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and the deepening of my theological mind. This sermon originally took place on Nov. 28, 2019.
I don’t know about you, but the year 2019 kind of kicked our family in the seat of our pants.
We lost a treasured brother-in-law in March.
Two other brothers have been in and out of the hospital doctoring for serious hip and back issues.
My father-in-law fell and sustained a serious and scary head injury.
My oldest brother’s cancer returned.
And then most recently, my mother was hospitalized for a week, and when she was released from the hospital, we all had to come to terms with the fact that she was never going to live on her own again.
And all of that was beside the normal every day stress that we lived through, including unbelievably busy schedules, wind storms blowing down fences, cars breaking down, Shelley switching jobs, our daughter switching high schools. … And I could go on.
But, you all know that, don’t you. … Because our lives are representative of your similarly challenging lives.
This year, it seemed, whenever I looked around me -- for whatever reason -- all of those around me were acutely feeling the same pressures, living through similar tragedies, overcoming the same challenges and disappointments.
I watched friends lose children to horrible diseases. I watched co-workers suffer through scary diagnoses. And I saw the stress in the eyes of our farm families here in our Faith Lutheran family.
And, it didn’t seem to get any better on the national level, where each of us can attest to the fact that it seems we are at a point where we are tearing ourselves apart from the inside.
If you are anything like me, there were many tempting moments this year, where just like the believers in today’s gospel passage, I just had to ask Jesus to give me some kind of sign that he is here.
Do you remember the believers doing that in today’s gospel passage?
So, what about it God??? … Where is my sign, I thought on more than one occasion this year?
In this year that was filled with difficulty and grief and disappointment, just where is my sign, Lord? … How about it?
You showed your people wandering in the wilderness your love and compassion by feeding them when they were hungry. … You just miraculously made the manna rain from heaven, and the people ate.
So how about me, Lord?
Or what about the farmers here in our community, God? … Where is their manna during this unbelievably challenging growing year?
Or where is the sign for my friend and co-worker whose 16-year-old son just unexpectedly died from teenage ALS on Tuesday?
16 years old. The boy, whom our son Carter once hung out with when they were younger, was your average, healthy teenager until last year. … And then, boom, the ALS hit and his health spiraled downward in less than a year’s time.
I ask, Jesus, where are his parents’ signs that he is present for them?
Well, it’s easy in this world to feel like the Jesus followers in tonight’s gospel message, isn’t it?
Because when we get into these challenging times, our first inclination is to dwell on what is grieving us ... what is hurting us ... what is separating us from God.
For instance, tonight’s gospel opens with a question from the crowd. … “When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, ‘Rabbi, when did you come here?’”
Now, it’s important to remember that just before this particular passage in John, we read the Parable of Jesus Feeding the 5,000.
I’m sure you know the story: It’s a favorite we teach in Sunday School. Jesus is speaking to the people, and there are a ton of them because it is the Jewish observance of Passover. Trouble is no one brought food.
So they do a quick search and they find a boy who has what? … Five barley loaves and two fish! … Then, despite the doubt in his disciples, Jesus takes that meager lot and makes enough to feed all 5,000 people, with leftovers. … Twelve baskets of leftovers, in fact.
So, that is the backdrop to tonight’s gospel.
After Jesus’s miracle of feeding the 5,000, though, he sees that the people want to make them their king for what he did, and not because of their belief, and so he vamooses! … He hides! … And where does he go? The Bible tells us he went to hide up the mountain, and later that night he and the disciples escape across the lake in the boat.
But just a short few passages later, the people from the Passover celebration wake up and realize that Jesus has left them. … He up and disappeared, and that is why they go looking for him. He vanished in the night.
And, in the opening verse of tonight’s gospel, they find him. … On the other side of the lake, with his disciples.
Well, it perturbs the people a bit. … As we heard earlier, they ask him: “Rabbi, when did you come here?”
I, mean, just last night you were over there with us, and filling our stomachs with bread and fish. And, life was good, not going to lie. … And then you were up and gone! Poof!
But, this is Jesus they are talking to, and he is not fooled. … Jesus responds: “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
Oof … doesn’t that hurt? … I don’t know about you, but that one hits very close to home for me.
Jesus isn’t fooled. … He knows that these people didn’t chase him all the way around the lake because the miracle they witnessed made them believe. … No, sadly, they followed him around the lake, because they were hungry again. … It was morning after all, and they needed breakfast.
But, if that’s not bad enough, these very same believers demonstrate this same pattern over and over again throughout this gospel passage. … Instead of asking the question they really should be asking, they miss the point entirely.
Just after Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish and fed 5,000 people … their next question is, “Hey, Jesus where’s breakfast?”
As Jesus so aptly points out: Their search that morning -- the reason they chased him around the lake -- is not because they were motivated to faith by seeing the sign, but by filling their bellies.
But Jesus, being who Jesus is, gently corrects them and says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”
In other words, forget about breakfast people! … Feast on me and you’ll never go hungry!
But these believers are human after all, and lo and behold, what does the crowd ask next? … Well, if that's the case, then what works do we have to do to receive this bread of life? … Which sets off this back-and-forth dialogue between Jesus and the followers.
The believers: Well, Jesus, what do we have to do get this bread of life?
Jesus: Nothing. You just have to believe in me. God sent me. You believe in me. That’s it.
The believers: Well, then, if we are to believe in you, where’s our sign that you’re the Messiah? … (You know, setting aside the fact, that a day ago, He just fed all 5,000 of you with five loaves of bread and two fish.)
The believers again: Hey, Jesus, you know, God gave our ancestors the manna. So what are you going to do for us?
Jesus again: Yes, it was my father that gave you that manna, but he gave them more than that, people. … He gave them the true bread of life, and he does so for you too. … I’m standing right here before you!”
More to the point, he says pointedly: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
And I might add … They will never be lonely. … Or devastated. … Or heartbroken. … Or truly crushed.
Jesus uses these metaphors to remind those believers, and all of us, that despite our inability at times to see the signs, he is standing right here with us. … Still performing miracles big and small.
Feeding the 5,000. … Walking on the water. … Healing those with incurable diseases. … Giving comfort to those who are abused and taken advantage of. … Humanizing all of those on the margins that society does such a good job of dehumanizing.
Jesus, our bread of life, is standing right here with us.
And all of those times this year, when I was pleading with him to show me a miracle. … To make himself present during the time of my brother-in-law’s death. To make himself present during my brother’s recurrence of cancer.
… To make himself present for our farmers. … And for the rest of you sitting here today who are going through whatever trials it is that you are going through. … And to make himself present for my friend who just lost his 16-year-old son.
All of that time, Jesus, was telling me, “Son, I am present, but you’re too busy looking for breakfast to realize I just fed you last night. … You’re too busy wondering what work you have to do to bring my favor upon you and your family and your congregation and your friends. … And you’re too busy looking for the signs, when belief is all you need.”
I heard Jesus talking to me in this passage this week as I prepared for service tonight. … I heard Jesus’s words telling me that he knows I am hurting, hungering for his peace. He knows how hard this life is. … Because he walked it with us. … He knows that we are sometimes filled with sorrow or heartbreak or fear or loneliness or anxiety. … You name it.
And he wants to remind us, just as he reminds these believers in today’s gospel, he is here with us, performing miracles.
Those miracles might not always come in the manner we wish them to, but rest assured, he is performing miracles.
I don’t know how you enter this holy space tonight. … Whether your hearts are heavy, or fear is getting the best of you, or you’re devastated by watching a loved one go through a tough time. … I’m not alone in these earthly worries. … I know that each of you walks just as difficult of a road as our family is this year.
But, what I pray for you is that you walk out of here tonight with the peace of mind that Jesus is there in that mess with you. … He is there to feed you, and quench your thirst, and all we have to do is believe. … No work required. … No admission fee. … No secret password. … Just belief.
And that is the Good News this Thanksgiving Eve 2019. … And for that, I am very, very grateful. … Amen.
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