On the Way to Wonder

 First Reading: Proverbs 9:1-6

 1Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars.

 2She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table.

 3She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town,

 4“You that are simple, turn in here!” To those without sense she says,

 5“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

 6Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”

Psalm: Psalm 34:9-14

Those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good. (Ps. 34:10)

 9Fear the Lord, you saints of the Lord, for those who fear the Lord lack nothing.

 10The lions are in want and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good. 

 11Come, children, and listen to me; I will teach you reverence for the Lord.

 12Who among you takes pleasure in life and desires long life to enjoy prosperity?

 13Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from lying words.

 14Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. 

Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20

15Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Gospel: John 6:51-58

[Jesus said,] 51“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON:  Aesop and Bread

Once, Aesop’s master was going on a journey. All the Servants, including Aesop had to carry sacks on their backs. Aesop selected a sack that contained bread. It was also the largest and the heaviest sack. The other Servants laughed at him for choosing the largest sack. All the Servants carried their sacks on their backs.  After some hours, everybody stopped for lunch. Aesop was asked to distribute bread from his sack. He distributed the bread to all and this lightened his burden by half. They all started walking again. Soon, it was time for supper. Aesop was asked to distribute the remaining bread to everybody. He did so and this emptied his sack. For the remainder of the journey, he had nothing but the  empty sack to carry. The other Servants’ loads seemed to get heavier and heavier at each step. Now they approved of Aesop’s clever decision!  

If you were going on a journey, what would you carry in your sack or suitcase?

Let us pray.  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the words of my lips be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

For four weeks we have been pondering our Gospel texts from the Gospel of John.  John does not organize his letter like Matthew, Mark and Luke.  John organizes thematically, not chronologically.  He is famous for sharing seven of Jesus’ “I am” statements that give us pictures for understanding our God incarnate.  Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” “I am the light of the world,” “I am the door,” “I am the good shepherd,” I am the truth and the life,” and finally “I am the true vine.”  Each image challenges us on how we understand and how we relate to our God.  We focus during the Pentecost season on the meaning of our faith to our life.  Like Aesop in our Children’s sermon, we each carry a sack or a load as we walk through life.  As we have been watching the Olympics, I have pondered the hours of dedication and focus and for sure talent each competitor brings to the games.  Of course each was born with talent, and each had a “master” and support system that guided them on their journey as they worked to be ready for Paris 2024.  That’s is a given but the person’s dedication and drive are also big factors.  We too choose how we are tackling our lives and the type of loads we carry.

Today we come to the climax and summary of chapter 6 of John and John’s first identification of Jesus as the “living bread.”

Let’s stop for a minute and think about our favorite bread.  For my children the answer might be “chapatis,” a flat bread from Kenya.  It’s kind of like a tortilla or a nan but of course, we think much better. Whether we ate it with beans or greens or meat goop, the chapatis made the meal a feast.  Bread has a living quality as it expands and rises, as the aroma of its cooking wafts through the house, and as it satisfies our hunger and relaxes our whole being. We would buy fresh hot bread at Paul’s bakery but at least one loaf would never make it home as all in the car wanted a chunk.  Bread is just good stuff and Jesus compares himself to bread, not to a steak, not to apple pie, and not to a soda.  Jesus says, 

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”

In our children’s sermon today, did you notice that the master gave his servants a choice of what sack they would carry on their journey.  Aesop chose a sack full of bread that seemed heavy at first.  There are many kinds of bread in our world today.  All are tasty and all have lots of people that eat them.  Even so John spoke into early Christianity where there were many religions and temples to many gods.  Some of the temples had prostitutes offering pleasures and gods that offered to watch over harvest time and abundance. All gods offer enhancement to our lives and in some way make life worth living. Many might identify the Christian sack as a heavy sack because faith is seen as satisfying an angry God who is distant because of our sins.  The weight of the Law, the Ten Commandments, seems impossible to carry.  There seems to be so many rules and having an all-seeing God, watching our every move is a bit scary. Jesus does not talk about a distant God watching from heaven to keep track of our good or bad deeds but Jesus self identities as “the God who came down from heaven.”

Jesus compares himself to manna, the bread God provided for the children of Israel as they crossed the desert from Egypt to the Promised Land.  Let’s quick review that story found in Exodus 16.  The children of Israel were two months into their journey after the Red Sea.  They had not yet reached Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments.  In other words they were fresh on the journey of faith and discouraged.  Growing in faith is not easy.  They reached the desert of Sin (sounds a bit poetic) and were hungry.  They grumbled against Moses and Aaron, their leaders.  They had forgotten about the pain of slavery and were remembering all the tasty foods of their former lifestyle. 

 Perhaps some of you can identify!  There are those day before I became a widow, those days when the kids sat around the dining room table eating chapatis, and those days when I could jump out of bed in the morning and tackle the day. I admit I cry as I remember the good and forget the struggles.  The people blamed their leaders and so Moses took the grumps to God.  God sent quail at night to eat and the next morning the people woke to something covering the group that they called “manna,” meaning “what is it?”  They did not know the bread God was providing nor did all follow the rules surrounding it.  They were to gather only enough for each day and double on the sixth day so they could rest on the seventh day. 

Like the manna in the wilderness, God’s bread, Jesus’ words, gives us sustenance and direction for today’s challenges.  He tells us that what will sustain us is to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our soul, with all our strength and with all our mind.  We are to love our neighbor as ourselves.  That’s the overview, the manna laying on the ground that we collect but how we cook it, how we digest that bread also has a personal factor. Loving our neighbor involves forgiveness, sharing, not killing.  I suspect, though, that like the lawyer we are often guilty of replying, “Is that other my neighbor?”  We question how.  We promise, tomorrow we’ll be good.  Jesus offers us bread for our soul and life but we choose and it is hard to chew and digest.

Jesus continues to clarify. Not only is he the life giving bread but he adds

Whoever eats of this bread will live forever,

Jesus is now challenging Moses and the Jewish deep spiritual reality.  The people would agree that manna was provided in the wilderness but the people knew that the conditions surrounding manna, that it had to be picked fresh each day.  We too would encourage daily devotions and the eating of God’s words.  Jesus is claiming that as we eat what he offers, the results will last into eternity…forever!  Jesus is not offering daily bread.  He is offering bread with eternal side effects.  He does not just want us to make it through the day.  He wants us to live for eternity.  He’s talking about the ripple affect.

The disciples have not yet come to the cross.  So we are not talking about salvation.  Like the Aesop story, we are talking about how we carry our load and give away the bread we have, how our daily choices in life affects making life lighter so we are more able to walk the journey with our Master.  Let’s think of an example.  

Let’s say an “other” offends me, perhaps even hurts me.  I am faced with a choice.  I can choose revenge of some sort or I can choose to turn the other cheek.  Revenge comes in many forms.  Perhaps I give the person the silent treatment.  Perhaps I choose to cut them out of my life.  Perhaps I just kill with gossip.  A choice of revenge in some way kills relationship and any potential future fades.  That choice becomes like a heavy sack on my back as I hold on to the incident and refuse to let God handle “justice.”  Forgiveness that is the manna from Jesus, the Jesus way, is just plain hard and often we have to turn to God for help.  As we chew on the perceived offense in light of our faith and are confronted with the call to forgiveness, as we turn over the situation from our platter to God’s hands, our load becomes lighter and the future we step into is changed.  We do not need to plot revenge for that is in God’s hands.  We continue to walk on the Master’s journey with the other person.  I believe that the choice to eat Jesus’ way creates ripples as the result of life’s experiences impacts the way forward and can lighten our load.

Perhaps another way to look at it is to reflect on Jesus’ invitation, “Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest.”  And so we must ask ourselves if there are areas of our lives that are not life giving. If so, are we eating the bread of life or are we struggling along trusting our own strength and wisdom?  When the Master called Aesop to journey, Aesop was allowed to choose the bag he would carry.  We partner with God as we journey.  We are not robots.  Jesus is the bread of life that will strengthen us to live into eternity.  We choose to obey.

But now we come to the hard part of the passage.  Understanding Jesus as bread, as food for our soul is not so hard.  We are inspired by many people that encourage us and give us words of wisdom to live by.  We may even be willing to admit that choosing to live life Jesus’ way has eternal repercussions. Then Jesus adds an additional clause that challenges us to think.  He continues by saying,

and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Now we are down to the “meat and potatoes” of our passage today.  The people could include a new prophet in their list of heroes, especially if he would heal them and fill their stomachs with bread.  They could even flock to the river Jordan to get baptized and to try and repent of their useless deeds and so have a better life. Following Jesus would bring life because he was the living bread.  But then Jesus talked about what sounded like cannibalism — eat his flesh and drink his blood.  Today we see these words as a foreshadowing of the sacrament of communion,  We hear the words, “This is my body.  This is my blood.  Take and eat.  Drink for the forgiveness of sin.”  Christians argue about what exactly is happening.  We have fancy words like consubstantiation and transsubstantiation.  Lutherans call it real presence, a mystery.  We do not believe we are actually eating and drinking Christ.  We do not believe we are just remembering and memorializing some event.  We believe these words to be sacramental, “self evident” truths that the bread is the flesh and the wine is the blood in someway we cannot understand.  It is a spiritual given.  Forgiveness is pronounced not because of the depth of our repentance or because of the holiness of the pastor but because God said it and so it is somehow true.

  Jesus was prophesizing his death that would bridge the separation between God and all the people we encounter.  Somehow in his actual human flesh and blood, Jesus would walk through death, opening the way for us to follow.  Jesus could say he was bread that we have the choice to eat.  Even as bread strengthens our bodies, so Jesus strengthens our lives.  Even as blood flows through our bodies bringing oxygen and nutrients so to the wine flows through our souls bringing life.  When we do believe and obey what he commands, he will create life and not death.  But he is also now saying that the bread he is offering is not just for us as individuals, not just for the Jewish nation who knew Moses and David, but for the whole world. 

This is a revolutionary statement.  Jesus died not just for the Christian’s in Ukraine but also for the Orthodox Russians.  He died for the criminals on death row, the prostitutes and those who perpetuated the evils of today.  He died for the Republicans and the Democrats.  It is so easy to slip into thinking that Jesus died for me and my way of thinking but our Gospel text today challenges us to think “glocally.”  Jesus is pushing us from the truth of the local setting to the truth of the global setting.  Jesus is for the whole world.

Aesop’s Master was going on a journey.  Our Master Jesus is on a journey of creating the Kingdom of Heaven.  Each disciple has a sack to carry.  We all are called to play a part in this journey.  Aesop chose the heavy one filled with bread.  We today can also choose what we put in our sacks.  We can fill them with memories of wrongs and injustices or we can also choose to focus on God’s word.  As we do and as we live by Jesus’ teachings, the living word, we become strong.  As we give away to the whole world the love and the truth God has given us then our load becomes easier to carry and the world becomes a better place. Let us put our palms together in front of us and say,”He’s got the whole world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands.  He has you and me in his hands.”   

Let the people of God say, “Amen!”

”Taste and  See that the Lord is Good”

by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

Tomorrow the Psalm of the Day is Psalm 34.  The theme of the day is Jesus  sharing his first “I Am” statement in the Gospel of John.  Jesus says in chapter 6 , “51“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  

The focus verse in the psalm is verse 10,Those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good. (Ps. 34:10).  Let us soak our souls in that promise to prepare our hearts for tomorrow as we listen to Psalm 34 sung by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir.  Enjoy!

The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir – Psalm 34(Lyric Video)

But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. (1 Corinthians 5: 11, The Message)

1 Corinthians 5 picks up Paul’s next point of clarification is he is writing to the fellowship of believers in Corinth about.  He first confronted them about their lack of unity in chapters 1-4, reminding them that they were all workers in the God’s garden but it is God who gives the growth.  They are all bricks in God’s Temple that is built on a common foundation, faith in Jesus.  They are all part of a Temple that God guards and inhabits and that functions to praise God.  Having laid that foundation of unity of purpose, he now confronts his next issue with the Corinthians.  Evidently there is sexual immorality not only existing is the church, not only tolerated, but condoned.  For sure our churches today argue about sexual immorality, what it is and to what extent it should be tolerated.  The Message translation of this chapter seems to flow smoother with Paul’s explanation.

Paul makes clear that he is talking to a group of believers and not just to people in general.  We expect sin in the world and should not be surprised.  What he is addressing is our lack of transparency and honesty with fellow believers.  We know they “are pushing the envelope” with their behavior and rather than confronting them, we tolerate the behavior possibly in the name of unity.  The reasoning is that we cannot point a finger when we ourselves are sinners.  At the beginning of the chapter, Paul specifically names sexual immorality but by the end of the chapter he broadens his comments to include all areas of our lives where we lack self control and cause disunity in the church.  That can be greed with refinances, gossip, sexual immorality and probably anything that can be divisive.  We look the other way thinking we are building unity but in reality our silence is wrong and God will judge.  Ignoring bad behavior does not resolve the problem.

Most of us would probably like to think our own behavior is ok, perhaps forgiven, and that confronting another is a really scary thought.  The question facing us today is whether we are avoiding a conflict and presenting a false face of unity or are we willing to be confronted and confront others about areas in our life where we need to grow.  We all need to grow.  Let us pray today that we will be people who can speak the truth in love and who can hear the advise we need to receive to live more abundantly.  Lord, help us care for our friends honestly.

A gentle answer turns away wrath,
    but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:1

Today is August 15.  Yesterday I spent a whole day in airports and airplanes, in transition from point A to point B.  I fell in bed exhausted and woke up aching.  When all else fails, a Bible reading technique is to read the proverb that matches the day.  There are 31 proverbs and 31 days in the month.  So I opened my Bible to Proverbs 15 this morning since today is the 15th!  Verse 1 was a familiar friend of mine and excellent medicine for my soul.

I had crossed international borders to visit my daughter.  Different country, different rules and procedures.  We arrived five minutes late to check in on Monday.  At the airport, the check in person was the person who pushed the person needing wheelchair assist to the gate and was then the person helping load the person at the gate.  Different country, different airline, different procedures.  The person though looked at my daughter and me on MOnday and had compassion and answered us with kind words as we tried to be kind in our confusion and need to sort our alternatives.  The person graciously offered a ticket on the flight yesterday, Wednesday.  Yesterday we were not late!!!  The agent’s kindness calmed the situation.

Yesterday I spent traveling and arrived at my destination, exhausted and needed a wheelchair assist off the plane, through baggage to curbside where a friend met me.  The person who pushed me and another elder from the plane was irate because there was some sort of mixup about who pushed who and when and the person was yelling at others he passed and calling them “idiots.”  I could feel my stomach knotting.  Another pusher probably heard the anger and frustration spewing forth and quickly changed direction to come and assist and claim me from the first pusher.  The whole atmosphere changed.

This is a small example of how my travel experiences changed because a soft answer turned away wrath, frustration.  Today I miss being with my daughter and can feel those grumpy words of grief stirring in my gut.  I read this verse and was again reminded that the words of our mouth really do impact not only our own reality as we turn our hearts to the blessings and away from the frustrations but also impact the reality of those around us.  May we as we deal with the frustrations of life, choose to focus on the God who incarnated and understands and who walks with us through the events of today.  May we not be someone who stirs us anger.  Blessings. 

14-16 I’m not writing all this as a neighborhood scold to shame you. I’m writing as a father to you, my children. I love you and want you to grow up well, not spoiled. There are a lot of people around who can’t wait to tell you what you’ve done wrong, but there aren’t many fathers willing to take the time and effort to help you grow up. It was as Jesus helped me proclaim God’s Message to you that I became your father. I’m not, you know, asking you to do anything I’m not already doing myself.

 (1 Corinthians 4: 14-16, The Message) 

Paul is writing to the Corinthians, a group of believers in the fourth largest urban center in the Roman Empire.  This is not a small, insignificant congregation.  He is writing to a power center in the Roman Empire. I”m sure he thought before putting pen to paper.  It is never easy ”to speak truth” to someone whom you consider important, possibly with power beyond yourself, and trying to say something you hope won’t break relationship.  Yesterday Paul described himself as a “Messiah misfit,” a person without power.  Today he says he is not just grumping like a neighbor, yelling over a fence.  He claims the relationship of a father wanting to help a child grow up well.  The image that comes to my mind is an aging elder who is past the prime of life, possibly comprimised by life’s limitations who is trying to speak to an upcoming young adult.  A bit intimidating!  Besides this perceived sense of powerlessness, though, he can assert that he is personally following his own advice.

The passage makes me ponder how I might address my children with wisdom I feel is necessary for them to hear to succeed and grow.  I don’t know about you but I have learned to recognize that tone of voice that comes with “Mom…” and I know they are going to say something honest to me that I need to hear. What if the shoe were on the other foot?  How would I open the conversation?  So let’s think.  Is there someone you need to speak truth to today?  It need not be negative as Paul is confronting the Corinthians about their lack of unity.  It could be a complement about growth you see but have not affirmed.  “I’ve been meaning to complement you about….”  “I’ve been meaning to push the envelope about….”   Ask the Holy Spirit to shine his flashlight on your soul for a minute and see if there is a note or phone call you need to make.  Blessings.

9-13 It seems to me that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater in which no one wants to buy a ticket. We’re something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street. We’re the Messiah’s misfits. You might be sure of yourselves, but we live in the midst of frailties and uncertainties. You might be well-thought-of by others, but we’re mostly kicked around. Much of the time we don’t have enough to eat, we wear patched and threadbare clothes, we get doors slammed in our faces, and we pick up odd jobs anywhere we can to eke out a living. When they call us names, we say, “God bless you.” When they spread rumors about us, we put in a good word for them. We’re treated like garbage, the leftovers that nobody wants. And it’s not getting any better.

 (1 Corinthians 4:9-13, The Message)

Paul has painted an interesting rational for unity in the church.  We all build on the same foundation.  We are all part of the same temple.  And we all have direct access to the God of the universe and sit with him.  He protects his temple.  How could life get much better than that?  

 But now Paul adds the voice of reality.  First century Christianity was not like life of the Christians in the United States today where statistically Christians are somewhat in the majority in a country somehow built on Christian standards with freedom of religion.  Life just was not like that at Paul’s time.  He calls the believers “Messiah’s Misfits.” The Kingdom of Heaven does not work like the kingdom of this world.  Forgiveness is not what we find in courts but a plead for  justice and often revenge for the evil done.  We would like to think we have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the United States but we know there is racism, inequality and poverty for many.  We do not love our neighbors like ourselves, just the people we like.  Crimes of hate are more likely to be in the news than good deeds done to improve our world.  Like Paul we feel the tension of our faith with the values of the media we live in…perhaps.

I like that term “misfit.”  It implies to me the deception of thinking something will fit to solve a problem but then discovering it just does not quite work. It is kind of like trying to work a puzzle and get the pieces to fit.  Paul’s words can be comforting because as we choose God’s ways, we do not fit with the world’s ways.  I like to call it being “stage appropriate.”  I remind myself that at my age no one is in the Olympics.  When I cut myself, I want my body to tell me it is in pain so that I can tend to it.  

Being a misfit does snot mean that we are the “wrong” fit but that we are being challenged to deal with the problem we find ourselves in.  As you face today, are there places where you feel like a “misfit.”  Let us pray for how you can be the solution and live your faith out in reality.  Blessings as you face the challenge.

7-8 For who do you know that really knows you, knows your heart? And even if they did, is there anything they would discover in you that you could take credit for? Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need. You already have more access to God than you can handle. Without bringing either Apollos or me into it, you’re sitting on top of the world—at least God’s world—and we’re right there, sitting alongside you! (1 Corinthians 4:7-8, The Message)

The phrase that catches my eye in this section of 1 Corinthians 4 in Paul’s summary is amazing.  First he encourages the Corinthians to be united and not to be jealous of each other or form cliques based on who is their favorite evangelist.  We might apply that to our loyalties during this political season and if our allegiances create divisions with our friends.  Then Paul claims that comparing and competing is pointless because we “already have all we need.”  Full stop.  Do you have all you need or are you chasing that one more dollar that might bring happiness?  Do we live with a kind of survival mentality or are we characterized by a sufficient mentality?  Not only are all of us building our faith on the foundation of Jesus, we also all have direct access to God Almighty.  He tells those early Christians that we being persecuted, dying on the cross, and loosing their lives, that they “are sitting on top of the world.”

I am visiting my daughter in Canada.  She is baby sitting a nice suburban home simply and tastefully furnished.  Her friend was headed on vacation and my daughter is babysitting the dog but the home allows for beds for her and me as her own apartment has only one bedroom.  That apartment too is very sufficient for her lifestyle.  Over the weekend we visited a farm house setting where she preached today.  That house was very different and very sufficient for its owners and setting.  We compare and contrast but we do not understand the values of the heart of others.   Only God knows our hearts.

The paragraph ends by saying we are sitting on top of the world and God is sitting with us!  We are not sitting on a tack.  We are sitting on the top of the world with God listening, on top of our world.  Lord, help me see and understand my life with your perspective and help me remember that you are sitting beside me, listening and caring.  Blessings.

This week we focused on 1 Corinthians 3 where Paul admonishes that the small group of believers in Corinth, the fourth largest urban center in the Roman Empire at the time, that they be united.  He had heard of divisions in the group as people creating subgroups based on who had led them to faith.  Paul points out that those evangelists are like the different types of workers in a field, or like different types of blocks in a building.  God gives the growth so deserves the credit.  God is the foundation of our faith building and we build on him, not the evangelist.  We are all parts of his Temple that is filled with the Holy Spirit and that praises God.  It reminded me of the worship song we enjoyed back in the day.  The song not only focuses on unit but it also has the flavor of purpose.  “We will guard each man’s dignity and save each man’s pride.”  May you enjoy and you prepare for worship tomorrow.

We Are One in the Spirit – CCS 359 – The Beyond the Walls Choir

1 Corinthians 4

5 So don’t get ahead of the Master and jump to conclusions with your judgments before all the evidence is in. When he comes, he will bring out in the open and place in evidence all kinds of things we never even dreamed of—inner motives and purposes and prayers. Only then will any one of us get to hear the “Well done!” of God.

Paul warns the Corinthians and us today not to jump to conclusions when we judge someone else.  No one knows the heart and desires of another.  The Biblical stories that come to my mind are the reports of men who came to king David to tell him about the death of Saul.  They thought they would receive a reward for bringing what they thought was good news.  They thought Saul was David’s enemy because of how Saul chased David and tried to kill him.  Despite all the political intrigue surrounding the journey to kingship by David, there were other themes as Saul was the father of David’s beloved friend Jonathan.  Saul was someone David considered in power by the will of God and so not to be tampered with.  The reporters did not understand David’s value system.  We say many things with our mouths but when our back is to the wall and if we were to fully reveal our thinking, often our conclusion does not match our words.  We might be afraid to say which candidate we are voting for because we don’t want to be laughed at or argued with. We might share gossip to gain status. We have sayings like, “if the truth were told…’. I find it helpful to remember, “(Matthew 7:2) 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Let our prayer today be that we are not hasty to judge, to see the faults in others while forgetting our own short coming, or to jump to conclusions before we hear all sides of the story.  “Time will tell,” “history will give us perspective,” and ultimately only God knows everyone’s heart.  Lord, help me be humble.

1 Corinthians 4:1-4

 1-4 Don’t imagine us leaders to be something we aren’t. We are servants of Christ, not his masters. We are guides into God’s divine secrets, not security guards posted to protect them. The requirements for a good guide are reliability and accurate knowledge. It matters very little to me what you think of me, even less where I rank in popular opinion. I don’t even rank myself. Comparisons in these matters are pointless. I’m not aware of anything that would disqualify me from being a good guide for you, but that doesn’t mean much. The Master makes that judgment.

Paul has compared the people in the congregation to workers in a field but he reminds them that it is God who gives the actual growth of the plant.  He compares them to blocks in a building but the foundation is really God, and then he compares them to a temple that God protects and the Holy Spirit inhabits.  Now he switches back to talking about the leaders, the evangelists that led the people in the congregations to faith.  Leaders are not to be put on a pedestal but should be recognized as guides that lead us on our faith journey.  The qualification for the guide is that the person be reliable and knowledgeable.  No matter who we are, there is almost for certain someone who is watching us and whose life we impact.  My teenage sons wanted their hair to be cut so they looked like their soccer heroes at school.  We all have people we want to emulate. Hopefully you have had a spiritual person who has impacted your life!

A “stubby” short prayer that ties in with this comes from Matthew 14:22-33.  The disciples cross the Sea of Galilee in a boat one night ahead of Jesus.  A storm blows up and suddenly they see Jesus come walking towards them on the water like a ghost.  They are petrified.  Jesus tells them not to be afraid because it is him.   Peter responds, if it is you, tell me to come to you.  Jesus says “come” and Peter steps out of the boat and walks toward Jesus.  But then Peter sees the wind, looses courage and starts to sink.  The stubby prayer? “Lord, save me.”

I suspect for many of us, we are aware of that little voice in our ear telling us that either we are poor disciples following our leaders but not quite in their footsteps, or that we are poor leaders not worthy or ready to be followed.  Paul tells us not to listen to the voice of fear and condemnation that would discourage us.  The only being that can truly evaluate us is God.  He is the Master.  It is Jesus calling us to walk on water and saying, “Do not be afraid, it is I.”  And it is he who lifts us up when we lose focus and confidence and sink.  He sees and he cares.  Blessings.