For My Dark-Skin Boys

What can I say that has not already been said? Countless numbers of my friends and colleagues have commented on the conclusion of George Zimmerman's trial. In the past, when national, political or social catastrophic events have occurred I have had a forum. I have been in the pulpit taking the word of God and trying to shine it on the situation of the day. No longer serving a parish, this time I had no such forum. So, I struggle to figure out what I would have said to my upper middle class predominately white congregation in the light of a not guilty verdict. I don't know, but I know now I have to write.

The text for the Sunday after the verdict was from Luke 10. It was the story of the Good Samaritan. We know the story so well; we have heard it over and over again. The lawyer wants to win an argument with Jesus or show that he is righteous before God, so he asks Jesus a question: “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus does what Jesus is prone to do, he answers the lawyer with his own questions “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” He is talking to a lawyer, so of course this lawyer knows the law. He was trying to prove how smart he was.  We too know the reply; so say it with me …..”You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus affirms that the lawyer gets it right, but before I write about the next question the lawyer asks, I have a question of my own. Did George Zimmerman love himself?

Go with me for just one moment. There is something in my spirit that tells me that this neighborhood watch guy had no idea how to love himself. At least, he didn’t know how to love that part of himself that was a person of color. I have read articles and post that posit that this incidence, this killing of a young black male couldn’t have been about race, because Zimmerman is Hispanic. Really? I ask. His mother is from Peru, but did he embrace his Hispanic-ness? his brownness? Could he laugh, talk, dance, relate as a Latino? I don’t know. I do know he had a hard time loving his neighbor and this makes me think he doesn’t love himself. Someone who needs to carry a gun....someone who was always calling to report when someone else was doing wrong -- Was he trying to prove he was better, or smarter or show himself righteous? Someone who has taken it on himself to be the guardian of streets in a non-official capacity, seems to me is trying to find self-esteem in these endeavors, a place to belong, authority outside of himself. Seems to me he was looking for affirmation, attention possibly love.

The lawyer asks "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus tells him a story that contains violence, that speaks of difference, that reveals enemies. This story tells how one man responds when their is a stranger, an enemy someone he should despise is in his neighborhood. So let me talk a little about neighborhoods for a moment.

I have also heard the question: "what is the black community so upset about when so many young black men kill each other right in their own neighborhoods?" I now live in Chicago and since I moved here in November, I cannot count the times I have heard of another shooting on the Southside of the city. Little dark-skin boys are being killed by little dark-skin boys. This is absolutely horrific. I cannot fully answer those who ask such a question. Yet, I do have a hypothesis. If the only thing you heard from society, on television, in the media, if the culture you grow up in has no respect for and does not love you, it is hard for you to love yourself. So, you act out because of oppression, systemic racism, lack of economic opportunity, poor educational systems as if you hate yourself by exhibiting power over those who look like you. I would say little dark-skin boys kill other little dark-skin boys in the broader context because they have a hard time loving themselves. You see over and over again in this society they are told they are worthless…….and so they become worthless.

Many will now point out that there are many successful dark-skin men and I would say yes, of course. Perhaps, these are some of those who have learned to love themselves. I know my hypothesis sounds simplistic, but it is so complicated. I don't know how to instill love in those who see themselves as unloved. I further believe, until we figure this out, until we as a country can love and embrace them, little dark-skin boys will continue to be victims of violence. They will continue to kill and be killed trashing each other, their neighborhoods and live in fear of walking in other neighborhoods.

There is no reason that Trayvon Martin should have felt that he didn’t belong in that neighborhood. His father lived there. I wonder if the man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho thought he was in a place that he didn't belong. The religious folk obviously thought he didn't belong and  wasn't worth their help because they passed on the other side. It wasn't until the person most despised, a Samaritan, stopped did this injured man find help. When, where and how will our society be helped? When will little dark skin boys be deemed worthy of our patience, compassion, and kindness (we have to get there before we can get to love)?

The Sunday morning after the verdict I sat and read posts on facebook and I cried; I shed tears for all the dark skin men in my life. I cried for my son, my nephew, my cousins and their sons. I sobbed when I thought of my grandsons Jawon and Kerry. I want them to know they are loved. I want them to know they are made in the image of God and God loves them. I want them and all little dark skin boys and girls to feel this love, to know this love. I want them to walk in this world as though they love themselves and others. Now, I can’t guarantee that those they encounter will walk in the same way. I cannot guarantee that they will be safe and that breaks my heart. Yet, I want them to live in love and to love their neighbor.

I am so sorry, so sad, so f'ing angry that George Zimmerman did not know what it meant to love himself or his neighbor. I am so sorry that he could not identify himself in another man of color. I feel a mixture of anger, disgust and pity for him. But I am going to stop wasting my time thinking about him.

I wonder out loud: how do we keep this from happening again? What can be done to change the law and change attitudes? How do we in this country act, behave, be neighbors to one another black, white, yellow and brown? How do we love self and other? That is what Jesus calls us to do.

Jesus asked the lawyer, "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" The lawyer answered, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus doesn't simply say to him that he has the right answer. There is no pat on the back or prize. Jesus does not care that he is smart or strong or that he has authority. Out of love Jesus issues a simple statement: "Go and do likewise."

Might we show each other a little mercy, a little kindness, a little love!

Just rambling

My Story

"Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare." (Psalm 40:5)

As I I sit here the song "Life and Favor" is playing in my ears. The first words of the song are "You don't know my story." How true these words are for all of us. When we look at a person, we have no idea the story behind the person we see standing in front of us. I feel these words are especially true for me right now. Those who look at me, who see me now, have no idea of the things that I have gone thru. They have no idea of the things that I have had to overcome: poverty, lack of education, divorce, single motherhood, low self-esteem. There has been a long road to where I am now: multiple degrees, pastor, position in global mission. 

Some people may think that this life was planned. They would be wrong. Some think that I pushed and pulled and manipulated my way here; they would be wrong. My journey has been more like one crisis after another averted and then a move on. This is not my own doing. For me to have orchestrated my path would have been impossible.

I know despite what anyone says or thinks that this, my present life situation, is all God. I have gotten here inspite of myself, my faults, my mistakes, my inadequecies. My only prayer is that my life might be a witness, a testimony to the Grace and Glory of God.

I'm just rambling.

Rejoice?

“O Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.” (Psalm 98:1)

As I write, my joy in this holiday season is a bit subdued. From November until now, since I moved to Chicago, I have been unpacking boxes, furnishing an apartment and pretty much spending every waking movement that I am not learning about my job and West Africa trying to make myself at home. I haven’t put up a Christmas tree or done any substantial decorating for the holiday. I have not had the pleasure of unpacking family ornaments and placing them one by one on the tree; there is not enough time or inclination. To add to that, I miss my husband who is still in New Jersey. My life transition makes me think of all those who are away from loved ones this holiday season. I am reminded of those who serve in the military, those who work late nights, weekends and holidays. I’m reminded of those on a continent far away.  I hear the words of David singing, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre with the lyre and the sound of melody.”  I can’t seem to move my mouth to rejoice. Yet, it’s Christmas.

Here in the US there’s music everywhere. In the malls, grocery stores and office buildings, everywhere I go I hear the happy sounds of Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Noise Reindeer and Christmas Carols. People are dressed up in the colors of the season. Sparkling reds and greens, ornate Christmas sweaters and Santa hats make up the outfits du jour. But, I can’t get out of my mind the images of the twenty children and their teachers who were gunned down in Connecticut earlier this month. The images of those beautiful six and seven year olds remind me of all the babies I have had the privilege to baptize as a pastor, all the children that I introduced to the bible in third grade. I think of all the young people I have had the opportunity to watch grow as a parish pastor. I think of my grandson and my heart breaks, tears flow and I try unsuccessfully to move my mouth to rejoice. I know it is Christmas.

The violence in Connecticut brings to the forefront the violence we see on the streets of US cities every day. Since I have been in Chicago, numbers of people have been shot or stabbed or affected by violence in some fashion. I read the news reports of violence in Syria, Nigeria and the rebels who are capturing one town after another in the Central African Republic. What are they fighting for: justice, freedom a different way of life or power and money? No matter, it chills me to know that there is no peace on earth. I want what we sing about, hope and pray for at Christmas!

Yes, it’s Christmas and we know that the peace, the love, the joy we sing about is here in the faces of our children, in our loved ones and in the promise that a babe born in a manger brings. Yet, that peace, that love, that joy is not yet fully experienced, fully available fully present in our world.

Yes, it’s Christmas and we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus, Emmanuel-God with us. Jesus comes into the world as a vulnerable child, showing us that God loves us enough to take on human flesh, to live as we do, to be vulnerable and to give up this fleshy life on a cross for our salvation.

Remembering this, knowing this my mouth moves and I can “sing a new song to the Lord." My joy may be a little subdued, my life may be in transition, the news may not be good, but it's Christmas....So I will, I can, I shall rejoice because, "the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness [will not, cannot, shall not] did not overcome it." 

May you too rejoice!

Blessed Christmas

Pr. Andrea

Enough
Last Sunday at St. John’s

1 Kings 17:8-16

November 11, 2012

Grace, mercy and peace to you from 

God our Creator, Jesus our redeemer and the Holy Spirit the one who sustains us.

I want to say a tremendous amount in this sermon this morning. I want to be able to explain the text perfectly because it’s my last sermon with you. I want to use it to kick off a financial stewardship campaign because it is that time of year again. I want to be able to talk about little Frederick Vincent Stoll as he is baptized and remind you of the baptismal life that we share.

I want to adequately express to you how much you all mean to me; how you have helped me to grow and strengthened me for the next call, the new journey, the adventure that God has prepared for me. I want to put into words how much I love you. And I know it won’t all get done and I will fall short. So, I’ll just talk about our first lesson.

..................

Go with me on the path leading to the town of Zarephath. Here we will find Elijah. Elijah is a prophet who has just before our text today been living a very sparse life: You see he had dared to predict a drought in the name of the Lord and there is indeed a severe drought in the land. 

This drought will not end until Elijah says so. So, I imagine to avoid recriminations and repercussions from the people who are suffering because of this prediction God had Elijah hide himself by the Wadi Cherith, which is a little brook. There he is fed by ravens a ration of bread and meat both morning and evening.

We find him here because of the brook has dried up because there is no rain. “Then the word of the Lord came to him saying, Arise go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon”

He starts on his journey to Zarephath because God has told him that a woman will provide for him. Seems impossible in the middle of a drought when there is scarcely food for anyone.

Yet, Elijah has every reason to trust God after all up until now God’s word has been trustworthy and true.

As he enters the town he sees a widow gathering sticks and he says to her “Please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink.”and while your at it. “Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.”

.....

You should hear Vicar Blake’s outrage at Elijah’s request from the widow…"How dare he?

….in the midst of all that she is going through…in her fear and in the pain of not being able to care for her son…to keep her son nourished and fed to have this stranger, this foreigner who comes asking her to share with him the little she has.This is outrageous!….Isn’t it?"

After all she tells him,“I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.” Can't Elijah get a clue?  Elijah persists. He utters those famous biblical words, “Do not be afraid.” And we know something is about to happen.

One commentator asks in Sundays and Seasons:

“How would you live if you were not afraid? Fear is used by politicians to gain our votes, by the media to get our attention, by advertising firms to sell us what we don’t need, and by TV evangelist to get our donations. What fear is used against us? The fear that we won’t have enough or won’t get our share.” 

“We struggle with feelings of scarcity despite the abundant world that God has created.”

Yet, when the widow shares her paltry meal with Elijah, she discovers in her risky generosity that the abundance of God will, can, does supply her basic needs. This widow is connected with the bounty and abundance of God.

The bible tells us that the jug of oil did not fail. There was enough: enough for Elijah, enough for the widow's son, enough even for the widow.  The bible reminds us of God’s provision and God’s abundance. "They ate for many days."

We have been living a little sparse lately---hurricanes, power outages, snow storms.

Many of us have lost loads of food, warmth from our homes, and have almost lost our minds.

But again and again I have seen the offers of generosity, heard of friends taking in friends, estranged families helping each other.

So here’s my stewardship pitch. In the light or darkness of all we have been through

in the last few weeks, we have the opportunity to continue to risk generosity. We know that there are those who are still suffering, those still without lights or heat or provisions, those who have lost everything. And though we may not have much we have enough to share. We can respond to the goodness of God in our lives.

We can be like this widow and give food to Loaves and Fishes, give food and clothing through community agencies, give money to Lutheran Disaster Response, the Red Cross and to St. John’s, so this congregation can continue to be known as a warm and welcoming place,

There might not be much for sure---much energy, much patience, much well--- just not much. But there has been enough. Enough to take us through these strange and frightening weather conditions.There is enough!

Enough for the people of St. John’s to weather the storms of transition. All the stuff happening at St. John’s--- with the beloved musician gone and even the pastor leaving. Talk about being pushed over the edge. And though right now there isn’t much called staff here---there is enough!

Look around you. Look around at your family and friends. Look around at the fellow members of this community of faith: at the talented musicians; at the capable and quick intern; at the tenacious and efficient staff; at the detail oriented council. If you aren’t paying attention it may not seem like much. But look at God’s provision, God’s abundance. It’s enough to get you through these changes, to help you in a call process and into the next phase of your wonderful life together…

Elijah sat by the brook and wondered how he was going to be fed and God provided; he walked into Zarephath and met a widow who was looking to die, yet God provided. Hurricanes, winds and snow storms and we’re still here. God provides.

.......................... 

And God promises. For St. John’s God’s promises are trustworthy and true. The promises that come to us through Jesus on a cross and in an empty tomb. The promise that little Frederick Vincent Stoll will receive today. These promises are of God’s unconditional love, grace, mercy and forgiveness…. 

God’s provision and God’s promises are what has held me up through the last nine and ½ years. Some of which were a little rocky.

And these promises will hold all of you. 

These promises might not seem like much when you are going through a hard time, when all hell is breaking loose in your life, when the power, the energy, the resources are scarce. Yet, God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness, God’s love never fails. Especially when we see God’s love through helping hands, family and friends who come together to help one another, through the prayers and support of those all over the country and the world, through the community of faith. May not seem like much but, it’s enough.

All the widow had was some meal and a little cruet of oil and it was enough.

As they say in the black church tradition “It may not run over, but it won’t run out.”

To remind you no matter what your going through, no matter your fears, God gives enough

I have a gift for you a little vial of oil. It may not seem like much, but it symbolizes the oil you were anointed with in your baptism.  The oil that traced the sign of the cross on your forehead as you were, "Marked with the Cross of Christ forever."

It is a token of my love for you and a reminder of God’s unconditional love for us all.

Remember: "It may not run over, but it will not run out."

It's ENOUGH!

Amen

Provisions

Installation of Fred Becker

1 Kings 19:4-8

August 12, 2012

Grace and peace to you from God, creator, redeemer, sustainer.

It is such an honor and pleasure to be with you today--a joy to be here celebrating with Pastor Fred Becker celebrating this new relationship between pastor and people. It seems like only yesterday that I was preaching a sermon to push Fred out of internship and into the world of pastoral ministry.

I remember that day; It was August the 15th two years ago. Pastor Fred, before I remind you of some of the things I said on that day. I want to talk for a few minutes about Elijah.

As we enter the story in 1Kings chapter 19, we see that Elijah has decided to give up. You heard the text. He travels a day’s journey into the wilderness, ploops himself down under a broom tree and petitions God: “It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life...” Now we don’t hear the entire story in our reading this afternoon but if we go back .....We will see that Elijah has had a tremendous victory.

With the help of God, at Elijah’s command  450 of the prophets of Baal and Asherah are killed.  I am sure we cannot even imagine the energy, the nerve, and the amount of work it takes to accomplish such a task. Elijah must be exhausted and to top that off he is being threatened by Jeezebel. She sent a message to tell Elijah: So may the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this time tomorrow.

As if Jeezebel as the wife of King Ahab could be a threat bigger than hundreds of prophets. No matter Elijah flees, gets out of dodge-- seemingly fatigued and in utter despair.

Have any of you at Holy Trinity felt like that... You have been working at keeping the church together for these past years and you have done it. You should see that as a great victory. You have carried out your purpose as a host congregation, Hearing the call of God  Outreach to your neighbors near and far, good  Stewardship of your time talents, and treasure, and Teaching others. All of a sudden the fatigue sets in and you feel like you just can’t do another thing.

Perhaps Elijah is depressed considering all his enemies are gone there is nothing left to do....Burned out, he thinks he is used up, washed up and can be of no further use to God. Or could he be overcome by what one writer calls  “the magnitude of evil around him.” We know that story when people are killed in movie theaters and houses of worship we know that evil is everywhere!

Perhaps what overwhelms us is the talk of the demise of the church. If you read or listen to media you will hear that mainline protestanism is dying---and if we are dying who will speak against such evil? I would say we are dying to be reborn. We are after all a resurrection people. Certainly resurrection is availabe to us because we serve a God who dies on a cross only to be resurrected from the dead..

Elijah falls asleep wanting it all to be over. But death from sitting under a broom tree feeling sorry for himself isn’t what God wants for Elijah. That’s what the angel of the Lord is subtly conveying to him

“Get up and eat.” While he longs for a way out, God sends him a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water/. In the middle of the wilderness....provisions, to renew his strength.....

Holy Trinity, God has sent you provisions.

I don’t know if you realized it yet but you guys have gotten quite a gem in Pastor Fred Becker. I spent a year with your new pastor and what I know is that Fred Becker has a heart for God and for the people of God. He has the gift of radical hospitality, a gift for encouraging, a knack for exhibiting God’s love and energy to spare. And have you heard him laugh? It is infectious -- enough to move most people from gloom to joy. Being with him, hearing him preach, you will no doubt hear of the goodness of God, and God’s love for all of you.

But, try not to get angry with your new pastor when he pushes you in directions you have never gone--

When he leads you to look around in your community to see what God is up to-- When he asks you to let go of unrealistic and false views of who you are, and things that haven’t worked for years. Don’t get mad when he pleads that you ban those poisonous words, “ we have always done it that way” from your vocabularies. That’s his call!

Remember church if he is always saying a word that you like to hear because it confirms you in your positions, supports you in misdirection, and promises no upset in your way of life---you should be worried. He may be acting as a great chaplain but he’s not being prophetic and the mission and ministry of God well?

........................................................

Elijah stays under that broom tree and is nurtured until he no longer feels like a victim and his strength returns. Then he travels forty days and forty nights on that strength to the mountain that Moses stood on, hears God in a still small voice and goes on to do God’s work in the world.

I hope you will hear the Word and the message of God in the voice of your pastor; sometimes those words will be of encouragement and love. Sometimes they will be words of challenge. A professor of mine used to say that the Word of God was meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Through Pastor Fred I hope they might have the appropriate affect on you.

Sometimes Fred you will be hesitant to issue those words of challenge; sometimes you will want to hold back from the prophetic utterances that God gives you to speak. You might fear angering some Jezeebel and having to hide under you own broom tree. I understand, because I have felt like running and hiding myself a few times, but I am a witness that God provides. So listen again to the words I spoke to you on that last day at St. John’s two years ago.

Remember I told you that while we don’t want to upset our comfortable positions in our comfortable congregations, sometimes: 

-----a word that challenges us all to think about how we perpetuate unjust systems of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia,

----a word  that cautions us that hanging on to all of our stuff affects those who are hungry and living in poverty,

---a word that reminds us that we are called to respond to tragedy or disaster on the beaches of Wildwood or faraway places of Wisconsin, Aurora, or Haiti, might be necessary.

Fred  if we just tell people that God loves them and don’t call them to love one another and the entire world that God has made then we might be inching toward false prophecy. If we don’t tell those we are called to serve, that perhaps Jesus wants us to have more than just a Sunday morning faith that sits and sings hymns that feels good and expects Jesus to love us and take care of ONLY --- our needs.

If we don’t challenge them to a Monday thru Saturday faith that dares to walk out of these doors to look around see what is happening in the world to do what matters to God----for the sake of the other, for the sake of the world---we might be missing the mark.

Fred, preach the damn gospel! and love the people! Listen to them, observe what is important to them

value what they value and they will value you and engage- work with them laugh with them, cry with them. Engage them in and with the words of scripture. Engage them through and with the love of God

that you know so well. And feed them Fred! At this table share with them the provisions of God. 

But don’t let them off easy! Show them how to respond to God’s love. Because here in Wildwood Jesus still has work that needs to be done.

“Get up and eat pastor and people of Holy Trinity otherwise the journey will be too much for you.”

Eat, be fed and nourished with the bread of life that God provides. Be strengthened to do the work that God has given you. In the name of Jesus and for the sake of the world, Get up and eat! ....

Brian, Baptism and Bread

Brian, Baptism and Bread

John 6:24-35

August 5, 2012

Grace, peace and love to you from God.

You know I have a lot to do in this sermon, today. I have to say goodbye to an intern, welcome a baby into the community of faith, say something about the youth gathering that I spent so much time in the last three years working on, and proclaim the goodness of God through Jesus the Christ. So I have titled this sermon Brian, Baptism and Bread.

I don’t know if you realize it, but preaching is a daunting task and every time I stand to talk to you about God I get knots in my stomach. Perhaps I take it too seriously; but I try not to think that I am smart enough, good enough or even able to preach in a succinct and interesting way all the time. Some sermons come easy and others ---- well, God has to pull them out of me.

One thing I do is give thanks to God that the lectionary text, the old testament, new testament and gospel lessons are chosen by someone other than me. So along with writing a sermon, I don’t have to decide what the scripture text for a giving Sunday should be.

This week the choice of what to preach was hard. I wanted to use the words of the text from Ephesians to say to Brian: "I beg you to live a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility.... These are words that everyone needs to hear occasionally, especially we who are called to word and sacrament ministry, we who plan to live our lives as those who teach, and proclaim the word of God, as those who accompany God’s people in times of joy and crisis, we need to hear this plea ---- those of us who are tasked with helping pass on the faith, who live as examples, and witnesses of the love of God for all to see--- all the time.

It is so easy to take our calling fore granted. It is easy to forget that to preach and teach and to be involved in the lives of a community of faith is an honor and a privilege.  None of us are good enough, smart enough, able enough. It is all the gift of God. I forget this sometimes. So, I wanted to remind myself and Brian, as he is just at the beginning of this vocation, that this calling to parish ministry is by the help of God,“to equip the saints for the work of ministry.”

One scholar says, that the goal of these words are the advancement of unity, love, maturity and that we grow in faith. All of our vocations and the vocation of pastors are especially for “building up the body of Christ.”

The scripture says: “We must no longer be children tossed to and fro and blown by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.”

I wanted to use the well known story in Exodus, the story of “the bread that the Lord gave the Israelites to eat,”as we baptize William Grant Shannon, to assure his family that God is a God of love and provision. That this God who hears the complaints of the people in the wilderness will always hear our cries: the cries of parents ----- as well as the cries of children as they grow, learn and negotiate the world.

William is joining a community of faith, composed of members who understand that God hears but also know that they are called to hear the word of God and try their best to reflect the grace of God in who they are and move from this place sharing Christ’s love in tangible ways in the world: by helping those in need, feeding the hungry, and speaking words of encouragement.

Yet, I decided to focus on that text in John’s gospel to continue the bread discourse and to ask the question: why bother to feed 33,309 young people? But first......

In last week’s gospel lesson Jesus feeds 5,000 with two fish, five loaves of bread, prayer and the power of God. When the people are feed, the event was so spectacular;  they proclaim,“This is the prophet who has come into the world.”

They try to make him king; he withdraws: later Jesus catches up with the disciples and travels to the other side of the shore with them.

In today’s lesson the crowd who ate their fill get into their boats and go looking for Jesus. When they find him they are a bit confused. They never saw him get in a boat; they never saw him travel to this side of the lake with the disciples. So they began asking him questions. “Rabbi when did you come here.” Perhaps Jesus is slightly annoyed with their question. So he accuses them of looking for him

not because they saw the signs pointing to God, but because they ate their fill and want more.

He tells them, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” A back and forth conversation ensues and they have no idea what Jesus is talking about. They simply want to understand who he is how and why he fed them in the first place.

Jesus is trying to tell them it isn’t about the food that filled their stomachs. It is about the one who God had sent into the world to feed them. So he proclaims,“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Did you know that settng up a staging area for communion during a youth gathering is a major fete? Ask Jane Bowman, she helped. First you have to find where the shipping company has dropped all the supplies: the vessels, the many bottles of wine and the 900 loaves of bread. When all that is done five rows with five tables each are positioned and an assembly line of volunteers unpack the pottery communion vessels trying not to ding, chip or break any of the pieces while placing 8 communion sets on each table. Now we are ready to feed 33,309 participates plus volunteers on Sunday morning.

But why bother? Hadn’t all the excitement already taken place. Night after night, the participants had heard the proclamation of God’s goodness through the stories of amazing speakers. They heard the Sarcastic Lutheran Pastor Nadia Bolz Weber and Shane Claibourne who lives in community in Philadelphia and has been arrested for serving meals to the homeless. Leymah Gbowee a Liberian woman who protested for peace in the middle of a civil war was there. For her efforts she received the Nobel peace prize. Andrena Ingram my friend who has the distinction of been an HIV+ Lutheran pastor spoke.

For three days they left their hotel rooms to go out and practice discipleship, practice peacemaking, and practice justice--participating in service projects all over New Orleans.

So, why feed them? Wasn’t Sunday going to be kind of anti-climatic? Besides most of the participants had already eaten there way through New Orleans: beignets at cafe du monde, gumbo, jambalya and oyster po boys at Mother’s Restaurant. Was it really necessary to work out all the logistic to place over 150 teams of communion assistants to offer the Eucharist meal to tens of thousands of people in a football stadium?

Hadn’t they had enough fun? Hadn’t they cried enough, sang enough, danced enough? With all the conversations, the stories, the activities the explanations of who Jesus is and what God has done for us, didn’t they get the message? Hadn’t they had their fill? 

The purpose of the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering was:

to help to pass on the faith to young people,

to help them see they are not alone,

to point to God, 

to help them understand that believing in God through Jesus Christ does make a difference.

Yet with all the dancing, music, and spectacle one has to wonder did the message get confused?

You see we had no illusions that we were smart enough, or good enough, or even able to further this purpose on our own. Even though the collective wisdom of all those who worked to plan the gathering was amazing.

The youth gathering wasn’t about the lights or the music or even about all those wonderful speakers or service for the sake of service. It was about the one who God sent into the world, the one who gave up his life on a cross, the one who rose from the dead.

So we fed them 33,309 young people plus volunteers; we fed them bread and wine, body and blood of Jesus, so that the living body of Christ in this world might be built up---so that fed and nourished that they might go out into the world and make a difference---that they might experience--receive the precious gift of God --- Jesus the Christ in the simple form of bread and wine.

As we send off our fourth intern, as William Grant Shannon is baptized, as we come to the table might we all receive this precious gift of God in the simple form of bread and wine. May we all be fed.

Being fed, may we contemplate and remember the words Jesus spoke: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  Amen