Matthew's account of the feeding of the 5,000 is placed immediately after the story of the beheading of John the Baptist. By juxtaposing these two stories, we see an important glimpse about how we are called to live as disciples in this world, and how a life of discipleship differs from life without Christ.
As always, it comes down to how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. Both stories are stories about banquets. The story of the beheading of John the Baptist takes place in the context of Herod's birthday celebration. As part of the celebration, the daughter of Herodias, the wife of his brother Phillip, danced before Herod. Herod was pleased, and told the daughter of Herodias that he would give her anything she wanted. The daughter, prompted by her mother, told Herod that she wanted the head of John the Baptist. Herod was distraught, because he liked John the Baptist, but felt that he could not displease his guests and go against his own promise, and ordered that the execution be carried out.
In the well known story of the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus, the disciples, and the crowd are in a deserted place with no food. Jesus finds five loaves of bread and two fish, and distributes these to the crowd. Miraculously, the crowd is fed.
The participants in the first banquet represented the power elite of Israel. They had wealth, power, and prestige. They had all the food that they wanted. There was nothing but abundance. But despite this, they perceived nothing but scarcity. All Herod saw was the threat of losing his power by dishonoring himself after making his promise to the daughter of Herodias. The other guests did not step in to prevent the death of John the Baptist because they wanted to hold onto the power and influence that they had. The participants in the first banquet had nothing but abundance but saw nothing but scarcity. And as a result of their perception of scarcity, they all are preoccupied with holding onto whatever that they have, and a tragedy results.
The participants in the second banquet had nothing but scarcity but perceived and experienced nothing but abundance. The crowd included peasants who were poor, persons who lacked power, prestige, and wealth. They were literally all in the desert with nothing to eat. And they ended up filled. There is no tragic violence in the second story. There is only joy and community.
Human culture today is based upon the principle of scarcity. We believe that there is not enough of anything to go around. So we all end up fighting with each other to hold onto what we have. There is an alternative. In response to the tragic violence that arises from a culture of scarcity, God calls us to another culture. The culture of abundance. If we live as God's people, we see that scarcity is a myth. There is nothing but abundance in this world. If we enter into God's Kingdom of abundance, together, we will know only joy and community.
Supporting the work and mission of Caney Spring United Methodist Church and Berlin United Methodist Church, two churches partnered in the ministry of making disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world, located in Marshall County, Tennessee.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
A Suprising Image of the Kingdom
Matthew 13:33 contains an image of the Kingdom of God. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.
This is a surprising image of the Kingdom. On the surface, it appears to be prosaic and unremarkable. If you were in ancient Israel and you passed by a woman baking bread, you wouldn't give her a second thought. The same is true today.
The significance of the parable lies in the function of baking bread in the ancient world. In ancient Israel, bread was, literally, life. It was the staple of the ancient died. Without bread, there was no life. So this woman, who would have been regarded as powerless due to her gender and unremarkable in her task, is actually the one giving life to ancient Israel.
Uncovering the parable first also requires understanding the meaning of three "measures" of flour. In ancient Israel, this was an enormous of amount of flour. We can imagine, in fact, a woman sitting in the midst of a great amount of flour, very slowly getting the yeast mixed in to begin the process of turning the flour into bread.
God works in the world in ways that are almost imperceptible. God's creative power is at work in the world through nature to make the earth what it is and what it will be. And God works in us through the mundane and ordinary. God's grace works within us slowly and imperceptibly, transforming our hearts and minds. God, like the woman in the parable, is infinitely patient and diligent in making us into what God wants us to be.
Ancient Israel had lots of big problems that they wanted God to fix in quick, spectacular ways. God instead sent Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, to redeem and transform the hearts of those within ancient Israel, and to redeem and transform the hearts of Israel's enemy, Rome. Today, when we think about our big problems that we want God to fix in quick, spectacular ways, let us remember the parable of the woman baking bread. God's grace is present within us, and God's grace is sufficient for us. God's grace will slowly transform us into being the people that God wants us to be.
This is a surprising image of the Kingdom. On the surface, it appears to be prosaic and unremarkable. If you were in ancient Israel and you passed by a woman baking bread, you wouldn't give her a second thought. The same is true today.
The significance of the parable lies in the function of baking bread in the ancient world. In ancient Israel, bread was, literally, life. It was the staple of the ancient died. Without bread, there was no life. So this woman, who would have been regarded as powerless due to her gender and unremarkable in her task, is actually the one giving life to ancient Israel.
Uncovering the parable first also requires understanding the meaning of three "measures" of flour. In ancient Israel, this was an enormous of amount of flour. We can imagine, in fact, a woman sitting in the midst of a great amount of flour, very slowly getting the yeast mixed in to begin the process of turning the flour into bread.
God works in the world in ways that are almost imperceptible. God's creative power is at work in the world through nature to make the earth what it is and what it will be. And God works in us through the mundane and ordinary. God's grace works within us slowly and imperceptibly, transforming our hearts and minds. God, like the woman in the parable, is infinitely patient and diligent in making us into what God wants us to be.
Ancient Israel had lots of big problems that they wanted God to fix in quick, spectacular ways. God instead sent Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, to redeem and transform the hearts of those within ancient Israel, and to redeem and transform the hearts of Israel's enemy, Rome. Today, when we think about our big problems that we want God to fix in quick, spectacular ways, let us remember the parable of the woman baking bread. God's grace is present within us, and God's grace is sufficient for us. God's grace will slowly transform us into being the people that God wants us to be.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The Danger of Rushing to Judgment
We are a culture that loves to judge. When we hear a rumor in our workplace that a co worker has done something unsavory, we assume that it is true. When there are reports in such objective, reliable news sources such as the tabloids, we assume that the allegations are true. Many times it seems that the Church mirrors this tendency, spending more time judging those persons and groups that we deem worthy of our judgment than working on our own discipleship and holiness.
The parable of the wheat and tares, found at Matthew 13.24-30, shows us the danger in rushing to judgment. The image of the parable is that of a farmer who is cultivating wheat. In the ancient Near East, farmers who cultivated wheat had to deal with a weed called darnel, which grew up right along with the wheat and looked indistinguishable from the wheat. Further, even if you could distinguish it, if you tried to remove the darnel prematurely prior to the harvest of the wheat, you ended up pulling up lots of the wheat by accident. At the end of the parable, the farmer tells his servants to wait until the harvest. At that time, the darnel will be dead anyway and the wheat can be easily removed.
We love to be judgmental, but we are also very bad and ineffective at it. Many times we pass judgment on those who are innocent. When we do so, we end up pulling up lots of wheat along with the darnel. And in doing so, we do lots of damage in the world. Let's take the advice of the farmer. Let's wait until the harvest. At that time, the wheat and the darnel will be revealed for what they are. And judgment will be redundant.
In the end, God will look into our hearts and will evaluate us for what we have done and not done. Let's leave judgment to God. And even in those times when, in our workplace, our family, and even in our Church, we have to judge, let us judge carefully, selectively, and with the humility that we might be wrong. Most importantly, let's place our emphasis upon looking into our own hearts and being the best disciples that we can be.
The parable of the wheat and tares, found at Matthew 13.24-30, shows us the danger in rushing to judgment. The image of the parable is that of a farmer who is cultivating wheat. In the ancient Near East, farmers who cultivated wheat had to deal with a weed called darnel, which grew up right along with the wheat and looked indistinguishable from the wheat. Further, even if you could distinguish it, if you tried to remove the darnel prematurely prior to the harvest of the wheat, you ended up pulling up lots of the wheat by accident. At the end of the parable, the farmer tells his servants to wait until the harvest. At that time, the darnel will be dead anyway and the wheat can be easily removed.
We love to be judgmental, but we are also very bad and ineffective at it. Many times we pass judgment on those who are innocent. When we do so, we end up pulling up lots of wheat along with the darnel. And in doing so, we do lots of damage in the world. Let's take the advice of the farmer. Let's wait until the harvest. At that time, the wheat and the darnel will be revealed for what they are. And judgment will be redundant.
In the end, God will look into our hearts and will evaluate us for what we have done and not done. Let's leave judgment to God. And even in those times when, in our workplace, our family, and even in our Church, we have to judge, let us judge carefully, selectively, and with the humility that we might be wrong. Most importantly, let's place our emphasis upon looking into our own hearts and being the best disciples that we can be.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
What God Does
The philosopher Gottfried Leibniz once asked the question "why is there something rather than anything at all?" Our answer is that there is something (i.e. a universe) rather than nothing because of God's creative power. God is the creator of all things. This is a basic premise that we take for granted. But it begs another 'why' question: why does God create?
An answer to this question is implicit in the Hebrew Bible lesson from the Revised Common Lectionary, which speaks of God's creative activity:
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
The answer to the second 'why' question is that God creates because it is God's nature to create. God takes delight and joy in creation. The fact that it is God's nature to create is evident in the scope of God's creative activity. The universe is immensely large and possibly infinite in volume. Our Milky Way Galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years in diameter, and our nearest sister galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, is located roughly 2.5 million light years away. There are probably more than 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Galaxies range in size from dwarfs with as few as ten million stars, to giants with up to one trillion stars, all orbiting the galaxy's center of mass.
Even within our own planet, which as indicated above, is an infinitesimally small part of the known universe, God has done a lot of creating. And not only has God created, but God has created us, beings who create ourselves. As God's children, God's creative power lies within us and God continues to sustain us through God's power.
Our sin creates a disruption, an anomaly, in our nature as God's children. The fact that God has to expend energies to bring us to salvation does not limit what God can do--God has infinite power and grace. But it limits our own capacity to fully participate in God's creative activity through creating ourselves. Until each and every one of us gets our act together and lives a life of light and holiness, we do violence to ourselves and to each other--we destroy rather than create. We get in the way of God's creative activity.
God's nature is to create. That means that our nature, as God's children, is to create. We cannot create until we turn to God, accept the salvation that is offered to us in Christ, turn from our violence and hatred, and become transformed in the image and likeness of God.
An answer to this question is implicit in the Hebrew Bible lesson from the Revised Common Lectionary, which speaks of God's creative activity:
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
The answer to the second 'why' question is that God creates because it is God's nature to create. God takes delight and joy in creation. The fact that it is God's nature to create is evident in the scope of God's creative activity. The universe is immensely large and possibly infinite in volume. Our Milky Way Galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years in diameter, and our nearest sister galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, is located roughly 2.5 million light years away. There are probably more than 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Galaxies range in size from dwarfs with as few as ten million stars, to giants with up to one trillion stars, all orbiting the galaxy's center of mass.
Even within our own planet, which as indicated above, is an infinitesimally small part of the known universe, God has done a lot of creating. And not only has God created, but God has created us, beings who create ourselves. As God's children, God's creative power lies within us and God continues to sustain us through God's power.
Our sin creates a disruption, an anomaly, in our nature as God's children. The fact that God has to expend energies to bring us to salvation does not limit what God can do--God has infinite power and grace. But it limits our own capacity to fully participate in God's creative activity through creating ourselves. Until each and every one of us gets our act together and lives a life of light and holiness, we do violence to ourselves and to each other--we destroy rather than create. We get in the way of God's creative activity.
God's nature is to create. That means that our nature, as God's children, is to create. We cannot create until we turn to God, accept the salvation that is offered to us in Christ, turn from our violence and hatred, and become transformed in the image and likeness of God.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Getting the Right Yoke Around Our Necks
In the gospel lesson for this week, Matthew 11.25-30, Jesus says that God's "yoke is easy and his burden is light." A yoke is a wooden beam that has been used since ancient times, most commonly used between two oxen to enable them to more efficiently pull a load when working in pairs. In ancient Isreal and in other ancient cultures, a yoke was commonly used symbolically to represent servitude or subserviance. For example, in some acnient cultures, a defeated enemy was forced to pass through a symbolic yoke of spears and swords of the victor, to represent the enemy's subserviance.
Read in this context, Jesus' statement of an "easy yoke" seems to present an oxymoronic image. By definition, a yoke was not easy.
To understand the meaning of Jesus' statement, we have to begin with the nature of human beings. One of our primary characteristics is our propensity to voluntarily create yokes for ourselves. Through our fears, anxieties, and addictions, we place yokes upon ourselves. These yokes make our lives miserable, frustrating, and difficult, and sometimes our yokes make other peoples lives miserable, frustrating, and difficult. We find ourselves today in a world of suffering and servitude because of the poor choices that we have made, individually, and as a culture, collectively. Our yokes, figuratively speaking, literally begin to run our lives.
Discipleship is the process of surendering ourselves to God and to become agents of the initiation of the reign of God. The process of becoming holy begins with removing the yokes that we have voluntarily placed upon ourselves. Once we have removed these yokes, we can then accept the yoke of discipleship. In contrast to the yokes with which we have bound ourselves, God's yoke is easy and God's burden is light. In fact, by being bound by God's yoke, we agree to "submit" ourselves to living a life of joy, peace, and to live life in a spirit of reconciliation and mercy.
The fact that submitting to God's yoke of joy and peace requires continued discipline and dilligence speaks volumes about human nature. Because of our own ignorance and odd propensity to hurt ourselves and one another, we actually have to discipline ourselves to what we know, on a deep level, is best for us. You would think that the opposite would be true.
The good news, as always, is that God's yoke is available to us. We have the freedom to take the yokes off our next and accept a new yoke that is easy and a burden that is light.
Read in this context, Jesus' statement of an "easy yoke" seems to present an oxymoronic image. By definition, a yoke was not easy.
To understand the meaning of Jesus' statement, we have to begin with the nature of human beings. One of our primary characteristics is our propensity to voluntarily create yokes for ourselves. Through our fears, anxieties, and addictions, we place yokes upon ourselves. These yokes make our lives miserable, frustrating, and difficult, and sometimes our yokes make other peoples lives miserable, frustrating, and difficult. We find ourselves today in a world of suffering and servitude because of the poor choices that we have made, individually, and as a culture, collectively. Our yokes, figuratively speaking, literally begin to run our lives.
Discipleship is the process of surendering ourselves to God and to become agents of the initiation of the reign of God. The process of becoming holy begins with removing the yokes that we have voluntarily placed upon ourselves. Once we have removed these yokes, we can then accept the yoke of discipleship. In contrast to the yokes with which we have bound ourselves, God's yoke is easy and God's burden is light. In fact, by being bound by God's yoke, we agree to "submit" ourselves to living a life of joy, peace, and to live life in a spirit of reconciliation and mercy.
The fact that submitting to God's yoke of joy and peace requires continued discipline and dilligence speaks volumes about human nature. Because of our own ignorance and odd propensity to hurt ourselves and one another, we actually have to discipline ourselves to what we know, on a deep level, is best for us. You would think that the opposite would be true.
The good news, as always, is that God's yoke is available to us. We have the freedom to take the yokes off our next and accept a new yoke that is easy and a burden that is light.
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