My wife, Penny and I laughed. CBS news helped us make a decision. We were wondering what we might do to
celebrate our next anniversary. We are
not fans of gambling but we learned of a new restaurant chain opening in Las Vegas. Just listen: the new Denny’s is
6,400 square feet with a wedding chapel in the middle. You get dressed up with Las Vegas
outfits…circus people, night club show people, western apparel. I am trying to imagine what Penny might
choose. Photographers take your
pictures, print them and put them on Facebook.
And the wedding cake is made out of pancakes and there is also a
bar. You can go to the bar, to the
wedding, to the bar, to the photos, and back to the bar. It is a Denny’s. All I can say is, “NO THANKS.”
THE WORLD NEEDS PLACES TO GET FED
If you will remember the people who got fed with the other
5,000 first sat down with each other.
That meant meeting people you did not know. It meant talking and getting acquainted and
connected.
There were some people who just wanted the food…that’s
it. Jesus knew there would be people
who just were interested in food and nothing else. But the feeding of the 5,000 was less
important than what he hoped they would learn: that he was and is the bread of
heaven. He wanted people to know that he
was one way that people could feed on God in the hearts by faith. There is always enough spiritual food.
Yesterday, was the funeral of Andy McIntosh and following
the graveside service family and friends came back to the church for the
funeral meal. Betty Beach, Nova Brooks,
and Erma Johnson were in the kitchen doing their part. I cannot tell you how much the family
appreciated it. With the church’s
assistance and donated food, the family can look at photos, tell stories, laugh
and cry, and heal. Otherwise some family
member would have to work on that rather than be a part of the healing.
One man was there who told me that would never think of
being in a church. He is not a church
person. But he told me that the worship
was very good…he like the bagpipes, the funny Norwegian song was a hoot, and
the singer did a great job. He enjoyed
the organ music and he did think he would and he even liked the sermon and the
meal was the awesome. He described the
experience as very good, nothing he would ever associate with a church.
I thank God every day that our church has a cohesive,
congregational identity with a strong sense of belonging. In many places in our country the church is
declining in a big way. Yet, three faith
families are increasing more than all the rest: the Mormons and Muslims and
Non-denominational Christians. 7 out of
10 Americans believe in a personal God, but only ½ of all Americans affiliate
with any faith community. It is my
belief that we need lots of different faith families each having some different
and unique niche in the millions who do not come. Each church or mosque or temple or
congregation can be a holy place for the kingdom of God. I doubt if God is too concerned about labels,
but God is very concerned about people having faith families.
People need places for bread…Panera is good…but Jesus is
better. Starbucks is popular and
Radina’s. Bars are good for getting
together. But churches can be so much
better. The world is starving for
spiritual nourishment, nurture, and support.
People are dying for spiritual bread…they are so hungry…now they are
killing for lack of bread.
SPIRITUAL BREAD IS GIVEN TO THOSE WHO PRAY AND STUDY THE
BIBLE
The film, “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” was a fictional
movie yet it told the story of a river in Thailand, where a railroad was built
in 1942-3. Along its banks, 13,000 POW’s
died of disease, starvation, and brutality.
Their captors forced them to build a railroad. The heat got up to 120 degrees and husky men
became walking skeletons in weeks.
Morale was terrible; something had to be done. Two prisoners organized Bible Study and
prayer groups. Ernest Gordon, a prisoner
at that time, wrote of his experiences in building the railroad.
I quote: “We
changed. We stopped thinking about
ourselves as angry victims of the some cruel joke and began to grasp a truth
that suffering comes from human hunger and stupidity, not from God.”
“Nowhere was the change in us more manifest than in our
prayers. We learned to pray for others
more than for ourselves. When we did
pray for ourselves it grew less about getting something and more to release the
power within us.
Gradually we learned to pray the hardest of all prayers: for
our enemies. During the final months of
our imprisonment, something happened that convinced us that God was at
work. A trainload of enemy soldiers
pulled in from the battles. They were
casualties from the fighting in Burma.
They were in pitiful condition, starving, and wounded.
My men’s action was as instinctive as it was
compassionate. With no order from me,
they moved over to clean the wounds, give them our rations of rice, share them
our meager resources. To our men these
were no longer enemies, but fellow sufferers.”
SPIRITUAL BREAD IS GIVEN TO THOSE WHO RECEIVE COMMUNION
Years after the Last Supper, Paul wrote:
THE LORD JESUS ON THE NIGHT IN WHICH HE WAS BETRAYED
TOOK BREAD
AND AFTER HE HAD GIVEN THANKS
BROKE IT AND SAID,
“THIS IS MY BODY, WHICH IS FOR YOU.
DO THIS IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME.”
IN THE SAME WAY AFTER SUPPER, HE TOOK THE CUP SAYING,
“THIS CUP IS THE NEW COVENANT IN MY BLOOD. DO THIS WHEN, WHENEVER YOU DRINK IT, IN
REMEMBRANCE OF ME.”
“EVERY TIME, THEN YOU EAT THIS BREAD AND DRINK THIS CUP, YOU
PROCLAIM THE DEATH OF THE LORD UNTIL HE COMES.”
SPIRITUAL BREAD IS GIVEN TO THOSE WHO REFUSE TO SAY IN THE
PAST, THOSE WHO CLAIM GOD’S NOT YET
I come here to worship because I am hungry for Jesus. I have had too much of killing in Colorado,
and now in Wisconsin. I am saddened that
a Muslim Mosque was just burned to the ground in Joplin, Missouri.
This kind of bread takes my physical hunger away, but I am
soon hungry again for food. What I
partake of the Holy Spirit, I am always more spiritually hungry for what Jesus
gives. When I come here I am admitting
that I need God. Jesus has not returned
yet, and I have not yet gone to heaven.
When I think of the NOT YET, I then know that Jesus is present.
One temptation of the church is to celebrate only the
presence of God and not the absence. I
cannot always make people happy telling you that you are OK and I am OK. This way everything fills up and there is no
empty space left for affirming our lack of fulfillment.
Therefore, every time I have communion, I experience the
Lord’s presence and his absence in the world and in us. We both feast and we mourn. We celebrate the joy and the sadness…the
fulfillment and the yet to be, satisfaction and the longing.
The kingdom of God is a process of God feeding us and then
we tell people where we have found food.
The kingdom of God is only in a process, it is not yet completed. The vine is growing we are part of that
vine. Sometimes we get to see and enjoy
the fruit and sometimes we do not. It is
yet to come.
Did you notice that the people around Jesus wanted to pen
him into the past they knew…”We know his parents! We know where he lives.” Instead they could have seen the glory of God
unfolding before their eyes.
Luke has Jesus telling us:
BLEST ARE YOU WHO ARE HUNGRY, YOU SHALL BE FILLED.
SPIRITUAL BREAD IS GIVEN TO THOSE WHO GIVE
The Jesus of Luke might well have said the words written on
the Statute of Liberty in the New York Harbor:
“GIVE ME YOUR TIRED, YOUR POOR, YOUR HUDDLED MASSES YEARNING
TO BREATHE FREE….SEND THESE, THE HOMELESS, THE TEMPEST-TOST TO ME.”
In my perception we are about to lose this part of America.
I can remember my grandmother telling me about the Great
Depression. People would walk by and ask
if they had some extra food. Yet grandma
would feed them on the porch. She and
grandpa had mom and five boys…7 in the family.
No matter what, even feeding those travelers, there was always
enough. I hope America in this election
does not forget this foundation of America.
SPIRITUAL BREAD IS GIVEN TO THOSE WHO LEARN TO MAKE THE BEST
OUT OF THE WORST.
Our church has several children in 4-H and Riley County just
finished the fair. Andy learned leadership, planning and executing
projects, and how conducting meetings.
In 4-H there are countless opportunities to make your contribution to
the good of the club. And that he
learned well.
The family shared a short of one of Andy’s 4-H
projects. He enjoyed 10 years of this
leadership-building club. For the fair
he made a map of the United States with thousands of match sticks. It was an awesome map, but trouble came when
the matchsticks caught fire. After the
fire dept. visited the house, he was faced with the problem of what to do with
a charred map. He creativity kicked in
and his did a project on preventing forest fires.
Then to think he worked for Apple and had that last
name. What fun. He once has the enjoyment of standing near
Steve Jobs and having him laugh and laugh.
Then he was the one to put together a memorial service for Steve in the
Boulder/Denver Area.
Steve Jobs:
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and
the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you
believe is great work. And the only way
to do great work is to love what you do.
Jesus added: DO NOT WORK FOR THE BREAD THE SPOILS; INSTEAD,
WORK FOR THE FOOD THAT LASTS FOR ETERNAL LIFE.
THIS IS FOOD WHICH THE SON OF MAN WILL GIVE YOU BECAUSE GOD THE FATHER
HAS PUT IS MARK OF APPROVAL ON HIM.
THIS IS WHAT MY FATHER WANTS: THAT ANYONE WHO SEES THE SON
AND TRUSTS WHO HE IS AND WHAT HE DOES AND THEN ALIGNS HIMSELF WITH HIM WILL
ENTER REAL LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE.
EAT THIS BREAD AND YOU WILL LIVE FOREVER AND LIVE HERE AND
NOW.
The Bread of Heaven came down to feed us and to give life to
the world. Jesus was willing to give us
everything, all of life, in order for us to have life.
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