A Day to Commit

Integrity. It is a word that is used more often than it is seen in action. For the core meaning of integrity means that a person is of one mind, indivisible. In action, it means that a person has fully committed to a course of action, and plans to stay in that course of action – and does stay in that course of action. Integrity is honesty in action – when a vow has been made, the person with integrity sticks to the vow, as when someone borrows money and then pays the debt off, even if it means hardship.

Our culture these days speaks highly of integrity, but then encourages us to act against our integrity. We make promises to employees, and then lay them off when they become inconvenient. As employees, we move on when we find a job that pays $2 an hour more than our existing one. Everything in our life, it seems, is up for bid – our job, our vehicles, our groceries, our clothing, our loans, our relationships. Only the currency changes – is it cash or is it physical beauty? And so we do not have integrity. Instead, we daily conduct an auction about the things of life – what we buy, what we sell, our relationships – both with people and with God. In our culture, we are always asking: Can I get a better job? Can I refinance my home loan? Is there a better church? Can I find a better spouse?

Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18; Psalm 34:15-22; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69 

In our Old Testament reading, Joshua had taken command of the wandering Israelites after Moses had died. Joshua had led the people into the promised land, defeating the people of the land and allocating the land to the Twelve Tribes. Finally, Joshua had grown old, and it was time for him to die. So he called them all together for one last speech. He spoke of their history, beginning with Terah, the father of Abraham. He spoke of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He spoke of Egypt and Moses and Aaron and what the Lord did. He told of crossing the Jordan and the defeat of Jericho. He told how it was God that led them into the land, defeated the people of the land, and allowed them to eat from vineyards and olive groves they did not plant.

And Joshua said, it was time for them to be of one mind, to have integrity. Many of the Israelites had brought with them gods from the old days and still worshiped them, as well as Yahweh, the name of the One God which God had given to Moses, God who had brought them out of Egypt and into the promised land. The people of Israel, you see, liked to hedge their bets, they liked to keep several baskets of eggs, not putting everything into one basket. They worshiped Yahweh, but they also worshiped other gods, wooden and metal idols they had brought with them from Egypt. 

(In most English translations of the Bible, YHWH is translated as LORD with all capital letters. While we don't know the exact pronounciation of YHWH because early Hebrew did not have symbols for vowels, most scholars think Yahweh - "I am that I am" - is the most likely translation.)

In our culture today, we are much the same. We say we worship God, Yahweh, but we also behave during the week as if we worship money, on Saturdays, we worship the Mountaineers with the largest worship service in the state. On Sundays, we worship the Steelers, other days we worship food, our vehicles, celebrities with pretty faces and great bodies, even politicians, perhaps we spend our days thinking and planning about where the next drink will come from. Some worship women, others worship men, others worship at the altar of a chemical. We even worship the building in which we worship, its décor, the songs we sing, the style of music we use. These things have become as important or more important than our true God.

There is the story of the missionary who traveled to a village in India in the 1970's. He had brought with him the common print from the 1930’s or 40’s of Jesus, you know the one, it is found in almost every Methodist Church. A man came to a tent service and appeared moved by the message, asking if he could have a copy of the print, that he might worship Jesus. The missionary gladly gave him a copy. A few days later, he visited the man in his home, where he was pleased to see the print had been given a place of honor, with lit candles and incense burning below. He was please, that is, until he noticed on the wall there was also a small statue of Genesha, the elephant headed Hindu god that Babar is based upon, and a photograph of John F. Kennedy, all with lit candles and incense.

We laugh, but we do the same thing in America – we just don’t recognize what we are doing.

Joshua put the decision to the people in front of him. He said to fear the LORD and worship Him in sincerity and truth. He told them to get rid of the other gods, but most importantly, to choose who they would worship. And Joshua made the commitment: “As for me and my family, we will worship the LORD.”

Notice two things. Joshua made a public commitment, and Joshua not only committed himself, but he committed his family to worship Yahweh.

You know, it is actually fairly easy to commit yourself to the worship of God. We begin it with a ten minute ceremony and a baptism. Then, it is a matter of priorities, choosing each day to separate ourselves from the world and follow Christ’s teachings.

But committing our family for the worship of God requires a bit more work. After all, we have to make sure the kids get up and come to church. We have to begin to talk about God and Christ as realities in the world, rather than ignore them everyday as most of the world does. And we have to make difficult decisions – soccer or church?

Research done by Focus on the Family and the Nazarene Church about fifteen years ago showed something interesting. Of all the people who were professing Christians as adults, 86% of them had made the decision by age 14. Another 10% came to know Christ by age 30, and only 4% came to know Christ after age 30. The lesson to be learned is that bringing children to church at a young age is critical for their ultimate salvation. If you want your children and grandchildren to join you in New Jerusalem one day and avoid the lake of fire, the path of salvation needs to be walked with them in the age 4-14 window. Those who guide them along that path are making a huge difference in their eternal lives.

The Chinese Communist Party understands this dynamic. In China, children of any age are not allowed to attend church services. This appears to be how the Party hopes to eventually eliminate the worship of any god except the Party.

But here, we still have the right to teach our children and grandchildren about the Living God. And yet, because of our culture, we often do not teach, but we give our children the right to choose. In a day when almost everyone attended a Christian church, the right to choose meant a choice between Methodist, Baptist, or Catholic. All of these choices ended up with the child’s salvation and eternity with God, so a bit of choice was warranted. But today, giving the choice means a choice between church or no church, between Christianity and atheism, a choice between eternity spent with God – or eternity spent in a lake of fire.

The Apostle Peter, the big burly fisherman, was the first to recognize that the choices were not between several good ways to salvation, but between salvation and no salvation.

Jesus had continued to speak to His core twelve disciples, and a much larger group of tag-a-long disciples. He said, “The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your fathers ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

You can imagine his listeners turning to each other. “He wants us to eat His flesh and drink His blood? Yuck!” and another saying, “Do you think He’s lost it?” Still another deciding that this Jesus Way was beginning to look like some sort of grape Kool-aid cult.

And so, politely, some said, “This teaching is hard! Who can accept it?”

But, as usual, Jesus knew what the muttering meant.

“Does this offend you?” And you can just see them looking at their feet as He spoke up.

“Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?” Referring once more to Himself, He asked them, if this bothers them, what they would do if they saw Jesus going up to Heaven?

And then He partially explains the meaning behind His words.

“The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all.” He’s saying that He’s talking about Spiritual flesh, Spiritual food, Spiritual blood, Spiritual Drink. It is a connection with the Holy Spirit of God that gives life. Without that connection, which usually comes to us during the baptism ceremony, we are dead people walking, like zombies going through an almost-life. But with that connection, with that Holy Spirit inside us, refreshed regularly with the spiritual flesh and blood of Christ, we come alive, learning to live a complete life, an eternal life, an abundant, joyful life.

Have you ever noticed that an infant or a toddler is not quite alive, living a life that is oh so limited to eating, drinking, puking, and maybe crawling? But suddenly, they begin to speak, they connect with the world around them, they become a person instead of a baby. They learn to walk, they take a-hold of anything they can get their hands around, they talk, they laugh, they ask questions. And pretty soon, you have a person who may be short in stature, but they are fully aware of the world around them. The difference between an infant and a four-year-old – that’s the difference between the walking dead to the spirit, and those that are animated by the Holy Spirit of God!

Jesus continues: “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” Have you noticed that most people speak words that are concerned with material things, and they like to speak words to others that hurt them, wound them, cut them, kill their spirits? The words most people speak lead us to the grave – think of your friends – how many of them are really good at lifting your spirit, at lifting you out of sadness, at giving you a love of life – and how many of them think the way to lift you up is murder another with words through gossip, pessimism, and sarcasm?

Can you move in the habit of speaking uplifting words? “I loved what you said today,” you can tell your friend. You will give others life! Or you can tear people down, murdering them with your words. “Why did you make THOSE comments today?” you tell your friend, and the knife goes in just a bit deeper.

This also happens to churches. When you are constantly telling your friends, neighbors, and family how good and joyful and uplifting your church is, the Spirit tugs at them and says “We ought to go, too!” But if you are constantly complaining about people in the church, pointing out that the church is smaller today than a couple years ago – never mind that almost everyone who has left has transferred directly to the church of Heaven – if you are always putting a wet blanket on the fire that the Spirit wants to kindle, that no one will want to be involved with your church. We must do as Jesus, speak words of spirit and life.

So why don’t we always want to speak uplifting words?

Jesus pointed out to his listeners. “But there are some among you who don’t believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning those who would not believe and the one who would betray Him.) He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted to him by the Father.”

There are always some people who will choose not to believe, choose not to follow, choose not serve the Lord. They may come to church, they may even be baptized, but deep down, they don’t believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God, God the Son! Jesus and God know who these people are, even from the beginning. But they have still decided that the choice is ours to make. We get to decide whether to believe or not, to watch Jesus or to follow Jesus, to serve the One Living God or try to serve multiple gods. We decide, but Jesus and God have always know the decision we will make.

How can this be? Some people always want get into a debate about free will and determinism. Let me ask you – Even with your wisdom, did you know what flavor of ice cream your children would order even before you went to the ice cream shop? Did you still give them the choice? God is the same way with us. Knowing does not mean determining.

Many of the wider crowd of disciples left Jesus that day, for, just as Jesus had said earlier, they were following Him for earthly bread, not for eternal bread. They had followed Him to see if he was going to multiply the loaves again, like He had a couple of days earlier.

So, after the crowd began to leave, He turned to the core Twelve, who had always been personally chosen, whom Jesus had hand-picked, who were there every Sunday. And He asked them – “Are you going to go away, too?”

And Peter, the big burly fisherman whose mouth was always the first to speak, the man who had declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of the Living God the day that Jesus asked them, “Who do you think I am?” Simon Peter, Simon the Rock, said, “Lord, who will we go to? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God!”

There is a point in every person’s life where a deep commitment has to be made to Christ. But I’m not talking about the day you “take Jesus into your heart.” I’m not talking about the day you announce that Jesus is the Son of God to a friend. I’m not talking about the day you’re baptized. All of those days are important, they are critical, they are eternally significant.

But... imagine that you are walking deep in the woods up in the mountains. You come across a cabin. Now you and I are from West Virginia – we know that some people who live in cabins deep in the woods up in the mountains don’t like strangers.

And so you come up to the front steps of the cabin, and the long-haired man comes to the door. He asks you a couple of questions, which you don't clearly understand, but then he invites you to come on up. There are a couple of steps to climb, a front porch to sit on. You can’t see inside the house whether it is a nice, comfortable place – or whether someone you can’t see standing in the dark has a weapon aimed at you.

Those days you declared your decision for Christ are the days you put your feet on the steps leading up to God’s front porch. Baptism is the day you sat down on that front porch. But there is a further step to be made.

It is the day you choose to walk into God’s living room. It is the day when you have decided that you are willing to trust Christ in His house. It is the day you have decided that this Jesus is trustworthy and will be the best friend you’ve ever had, the only one who will never betray you. It is the day when you decide that nothing in the world outside is worth what you will find in God’s house, sitting in that living room talking with Christ.

Oh yes, the world is still there. Somewhere is a great sale to buy things at, a football game to watch, an employer that will pay you a bit more, a pretty girl or a handsome guy to meet, another great tv show to watch, a vacation place to travel to. But in that living room is Jesus, and He has all the time in the world for you. Do you have the rest of your life to learn from Him? Would you bring your family into that living room to meet Him and learn from Him? Or is there something else outside that is calling you away?

You can decide to drop by occasionally – or you can decide that nothing in the world outside is worth what you will find sitting in that living room talking with Christ. You can decide to spend the rest of your life with Christ.

Peter made that decision that day when He said, “Lord, who will we go to?”

Peter had followed Jesus long enough he understood that there was no other option. He told Jesus: “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God!”
Yet, in our American culture, we still want to leave room for an auction. We keep looking for a “better deal”. We search for meaning in movies, find ourselves with financial funds and look for purpose in products. But Peter – not always the sharpest tool in the shed, had the answer that day. “Jesus, you have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that You are the Holy One of God! Where else could we go?”
You and your children will not find eternal life in the gods of sports – although playing sports are good for the development of the body and character. You and your children will not find the words of eternal life in the gods of academics, although academics are good for the development of the mind and the ability to speak well. You and your children will not find God in video games nor in crafts, nor in fishing or hunting or in the chores of life – although each of these has some good to commend it to us.

But you and your children will find God by four, practical commitments:

First, you and your children must read and study the word of God, the Holy Bible - the more often the better. This is how we understand the character of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit.

Second, you and your children must practice daily two-way prayer – talking to God and listening to the response from the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit. This is how we find the will of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit for our lives.

Third, you and your children must spend time in small groups with other Christian friends, sharing God-sightings, praying for each other, debating the meaning of Scripture. This is how we gain deeper understandings of the love of God, of Christ, of the Holy Spirit.

And fourth, you and your children must join with others on the path of Holiness, the means of Grace where God speaks to us and feeds us and steps into our lives through baptism, through holy communion, through regular church attendance. This is how God, Christ, and Holy Spirit give us all good things.

There is a word which is commonly used about those who wish to follow Jesus. The word is “repentance” – the Greek word, metanoia, literally means to “rethink”, to change our way of thinking about the world, about God, about what is important in life. Repentance comes first – rethinking – before anything else.

If you will do these things – rethinking the priorities in your life and making a commitment to walk into God’s living room, up the steps to the front porch, even past the front porch, and into the living room, to sit in a deep cushioned chair in conversation with Christ, to trust Him completely with your life – not just a little bit, but completely – then you will begin very soon to experience the joy of eternal life, an eternal, abundant life that begins here, right here in this life, maybe even this morning and continues throughout the next ten thousand years and beyond. 

For we who follow Jesus shall live forever!

Will you join us?

Services at Calvary United Methodist Church are Sundays at 9:30 am and 7:00 pm, with a deep Bible study Tuesdays at 7:00 pm. Our Children's Group meets at 5:30 pm on Sundays, with a Parent's Fellowship at that time. 390 S. 22nd St, Clarksburg, WV 26301 (in Adamston).

Services at Mt Clare United Methodist Church are Sundays at 11:00 am, with Bible study Wednesdays at 6:30 pm. The Church at the Chubb Run corner in Mt Clare, WV.

Seek Wisdom

I was reading the other day about Johnny Depp. You know Johnny? He’s played Captain Jack Sparrow on the Pirates of the Caribbean Movies? He’s played Barnabas Collins in the Dark Shadows movie. He’s played in the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and many other movies. His movies had made over $8 billion worldwide, and has been nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actor, and made $75 million in 2012 as the world’s highest paid actor. Today, he’s teetering on bankruptcy and has been fighting lawsuits from his accountants. He made enough money to have perfect freedom, but did not have the wisdom to handle it.

Have you ever dreamed what you would do if you had perfect freedom? Have you ever wondered what you would do if you won the lottery, or if a rich uncle’s lawyer just appeared and said, “Congratulations, your uncle left you a hundred million dollars.”

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58 

It is a nice exercise. Most of us would pay off our debts, set up trust funds for our children and grandchildren, maybe buy a new car or a new home or both.

When we pray, we can ask for these things, but generally speaking, God is not going to give them to us because, in general, they are not what we need. So we need to think more carefully about what we ask for from God. We need some wisdom.

In our 1 Kings 2 reading, Solomon, King David’s son, was his designated successor, likely because Solomon cared more about God’s will than the other sons did.

Solomon gave a great sacrifice to God, and God came to Solomon in a dream and asked him what he’d like to have.

Solomon had just won the lottery. Solomon had just had the rich father die, and now God was going to grant him his deepest wish.

Does this remind you of the other stories you’ve heard? Aladdin and the lamp with the genie with three wishes? King Midas who asked for the golden touch, that everything he touched be turned to gold?

There is something about our human nature that we want the opportunity to have it all. And there is something about us which keeps us from asking for the truly good things, and compels us to ask for the less important things of life.

There is the story of the wealthy man who died, who had always loved his money. Sometime before he died, he was visited in a dream by Peter. Peter said, “If you will give a third of your wealth to the church, you can bring to heaven anything you put in the casket when you die, but you will die within a month, so you need to make your preparations quickly. Knowing that death was coming to him soon, he put a third of his money in a trust account for his family, gave a third to his church, went to the undertaker and took along two thick sheets of gold, each worth several million dollars which he had bought with the final third of his money. He said to the undertaker, “you can have one, but put the other underneath me in the casket so I can lie on it and it will got to heaven with me.”

Well, the man died, and the undertaker did as he was asked. (It was the last funeral the undertaker conducted – he was last seen headed for Key West to buy a vacation home...)

Meanwhile, at the gates of Heaven, the wealthy man appears in his casket. He climbs out, only to meet Peter at the gate. “Pete, can you get me a couple of guys to help get my stuff out of the casket and inside to my mansion?”

Peter walked over to the casket, looked in, and said, “Pavement? Why did you choose to bring pavement?”

When we deal with God, we should always leave the ideas of the world behind. Perhaps this is the definition of wisdom – learning what life is truly like in a Universe where our loving Father is active in our life – rather than pretending that God does not care about our daily – even hourly decisions.

So what do we begin with when asked to make important decisions?

First, God created this Universe and us – and cares deeply about each of us. God made the ballpark, set up the rule book, hired all the players, is the umpire, and owns all the equipment. God built the stadium, sells the tickets, owns our contract, can fire us, can put us at bat, and controls the opposing team as well. Furthermore, God can change the weather, God can change the rules, God can kick you out of the game – or God can choose to walk you at will. But thankfully, God wants each of us to be the best player we can be.

So remembering that God runs and owns things in this game we call life is a good, wise place to start.

So many people don’t. They look at the game and they become convinced the game is completely under their control – or they take the other view and say the game of life is rigged. Our culture in this world is constantly telling us three lies: 1) The ball park that we call life is all there is. 2) We are in completely control when we come to bat. And if we don’t like the outcomes, it’s because someone was cheating against us.

But we Christians know the reality. Life is not all there is. This world is just a little piece of reality. We aren’t really in control of much, and God – who is in control – is rooting for us, trying to make us all MVP’s.

Sometimes, we have just enough wisdom and insight to get started right. As the Psalmist wrote: 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight.

Solomon knew he was a young man without any experience. And Solomon’s earthly father had taught him to respect his Heavenly Father. So when God asked Solomon what he wanted, Solomon asked God to ”give Your servant an obedient heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil.”

God was impressed. “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to understand justice, I will therefore do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.

In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor, so that no man in any kingdom will be your equal during your entire life. If you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”

Solomon chose to seek a kingdom that was just – the kingdom of God. Solomon wanted to be a good judge, a righteous judge who had God’s righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And all these things will be added onto you. Solomon received riches, honor, wisdom, and a long life because he had sought to obey God, to discern between good and evil – he had chosen to make the attempt to follow God, and asked God’s help in doing this.

Solomon began wise – and God gave him much more wisdom.

There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. It has been said that “knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” (Miles Kington)

Knowledge is the collection of facts that we learn over the years. We know, for example, that Solomon was King David’s son. We learn, for example, that David had Bathsheba’s husband killed after David got her pregnant. We learn that Solomon was immensely rich. We learn that a glowing stove eye has a temperature near 500 degrees.

But wisdom is when we recognize the terrible time in David’s life after his sin, and how that might apply to our life. Wisdom, you see, is knowing how to live, anticipating consequences, being able to choose the good path and avoiding the wrong paths, especially when there are only subtle differences between the near-term rewards and punishments of those paths. Wisdom is knowing not to touch the glowing stove eye.

Knowledge is learned through books, through videos, through lectures, through discussions, through classes and sermons. Our entire educational system is designed to teach knowledge to students, so each person growing up will have a common base of knowledge, concepts we can share. “All men are created equal”, “Mountaineers are always free”. 2 plus 2 equals 4. Atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons. Romeo and Juliet both died.

But we aren’t so good at teaching wisdom.

Wisdom is learned in three very different ways.

Most people learn wisdom by living life. You touch the glowing stove eye and pull away a burnt finger and you get a little bit wiser. One day, you touch a dark stove eye and pull away a burnt finger. You are learning the wisdom of always checking the temperature of a stove eye before touching it. Most people learn most of their wisdom this way. It is a painful way to learn, but that’s how most people choose to learn wisdom. They learn not to drive fast on snow-covered roads, to wait for the second deer to show itself, to stay back from the gravel-loaded dump truck.

People learn how to pick a trustworthy boyfriend or girlfriend, not to antagonize big, powerful drunks, that Aldi usually has the best prices, and that traffic will be backed up if you try to go to Bridgeport at 5 o’clock in the evening during a heavy rainstorm.

A second way to learn wisdom is by watching our elders and listening to their stories. Mom says not to play with the mousetrap because it will snap on your fingers. Big brother doesn’t listen. SNAP! You learn by watching him cry because of the mousetrap. We learn other lessons as we drive by the car wreck, as we listen to the tales of divorce from our friends, as people tell us about the man who climbed over a barbed wire fence carrying his loaded gun. Many people learn wisdom this way – that is, people who watch and listen learn wisdom this way. That’s an advantage of sitting in Bible studies with white-haired people – they’ve probably already faced the problems we are facing, and they’ll tell you what they learned, if you ask and listen.

Still another way to learn wisdom is from God. We read and listen to Scripture, and we can find out about wisdom. We listen to sermons and there is wisdom there. And if we are truly listening to God, to the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit, we will learn to react properly when that gentle whisper says, “don’t do it!”

How many times have you heard someone talk about a premonition, a voice, a whisper in their ear or mind that says, “Don’t do that. Do this!” and they did this instead of that, and they survived? It is the Holy Spirit speaking to you.

I once was looking for a job. I had taken 24 hours of graduate education courses, and I now had my teaching certificate. In January, I applied to the community colleges to be a part-time professor. Then, in March, all the school systems around announced lay-offs for the upcoming year. In April I applied to Wood County Schools for a job at Williamstown High teaching Physics and Chemistry. No answer. In June, I applied to Simonton Windows as a financial analyst. No answer. Later, I applied and got an interview with an automation company. As I drove there, I thought, “this is an ideal job! I’ve got ten years experience in the industry doing this work. The only thing better would be full-time ministry.” At the interview, they told me they’d be making their decision in a week or so.

After the interview, when I got home, I got word that Parkersburg Catholic was looking for a math teacher. I called and got an interview the next morning, which was Thursday. The principal asked me if I’d be comfortable praying with students, and talking about my faith with them. “Full-time ministry” rang out in the back of my mind as the Spirit spoke to me.

Friday, Simonton called for a telephone interview. The pay was almost twice as much as the school was offering.

Monday morning, Catholic called and said I had the job if I wanted it. I said yes. An hour later, Williamstown called and asked me to come for an interview at more money. It seems they’d had a new principal who took some time getting up to speed. I declined the interview. An hour later, Simonton called and asked me to come in for an interview. I declined. An hour later, WVU-Parkersburg called and asked me if I could teach two evening courses beginning around 4 pm. I accepted. God had filled in the money with those evening courses, but had already tested me to see if I’d follow the leading of the Spirit.

There’s more. The automation company never called back, and laid people off in October. Simonton laid people off in December. And in May, several teachers left Williamstown because of their experience with the new principal. Listening to the Spirit and seeking first the Kingdom leads to everything else good.

There are two books of the Old Testament and three books of the New Testament that are completely devoted to passing on Wisdom. In the Old Testament, there is the Book of Proverbs, which gives bite-sized hunks of wisdom, just the right size to read to your children at breakfast and discuss. Warning: Some deal with adult issues, so read them ahead of time!

There is also the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is commonly thought to have been written by Solomon late in his life. Read that book, take time to think about what Solomon says, and look to apply it to your life.

In the New Testament, the three books of I and II Timothy and Titus are called the pastoral epistles. They are letters written by Paul giving Timothy and Titus advice on how to behave as young church leaders, how to interact with older, wiser folks, how to live life.

About this time, you may be thinking, “Pastor, I have trouble understanding the Bible when I read it.”

Now there are a couple of reasons for this. But the most common reason that people have trouble reading the Bible is that they have chosen the King James Version, or KJV. Sometimes, it’s called the “Authorized” version. We select it for many reasons, but no one ever selects it because it is the easiest to understand. After all, it was translated from the original Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic of the Bible at the same time in the early 1600's that Shakespeare was writing his plays just down the street. If you love Shakespeare, the King James Version is for you.

Today, there are many versions of the Bible to choose from. There is, for example, the New King James Version – the NKJV. It was translated in the 1980’s. It drops the thee’s and thou’s, and uses modern punctuation. Words which have changed their meaning over the centuries have been updated. For example, did you know that when “meat” is used in the old King James, as in “they sat down to meat.” The word meant “a heavy meal”? There might not be any animal flesh at all. In the same way, when “corn” is used in the old King James, it means “wheat” or “barley”, never maize or Indian corn, because that plant did not make it to the Old World until after Columbus. Similarly, the word “meek”, did not mean “timid”, but meant “strength under control”, as in a fine stallion that was well-broke in as a farm horse.

So look for these versions. The New King James Version from the 1980’s or the Holman Christian Standard Bible, translated about ten years ago. Both are good and conservative translations.

The New International Version is pretty good and easy to read. There are actually two versions of this – one copyright 1986, the other copyright 2011. I prefer the older version, but it is getting harder to find. Of a similar nature is the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version. The newer versions of both these Bibles hold to a more liberal slant in their footnotes, and have let politics creep into those footnotes and in their choice of words, for example, translating the word usually translated as “brethern” as “friends”, “men” as “people”, “mankind” as “humankind”. You may prefer this - or you might not prefer this. It's your choice.

For easy of reading, The Message, the Living Bible or the Common English Bible (CEB) are very easy to read, but give up a bit in the precision of the translation, preferring to paraphrase in modern English rather than use word-for-word translation.

There are also three major styles of Bibles. There are the traditional Bibles with verse and chapter numbers, with the occasional footnote. There are study Bibles, which have extensive articles and many, longer footnotes which explain words, places, and events in greater detail. And there are “reader's Bibles”, which drop the notes, drop the verses, and maybe even the chapters to allow you to smoothly read through the Bible without getting distracted.

Which should you get?

It depends upon what you’re looking for. To check out the different versions, go to Biblegateway.com and try reading different passages with different translations. There are over twenty different translations of the English Bible on this website, as well as over a hundred translations into other languages.

For different styles, a reader's Bible is best to just get an overview of the Bible. For personal study, a study Bible is clearly best. And a regular Bible is good for daily quick reading. Of course, you can always download a copy for your phone or Kindle for free or a few dollars.

Now, sometimes, people ask me, “Which is the most authentic version?” And I’d have to say, the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament. But I suspect you don’t read Greek or Hebrew. So today, I’d buy a Holman Christian Study Bible if you want a good solid translation in today’s language, which paid attention to the precision of the words.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And we understand that fear, that respect that is due the Lord when we move into the habit of reading our Bibles a bit every day, for that is how we learn God’s character. Would you like the wisdom of Solomon? You must first seek Wisdom. You must study God. It takes time, time which will come back to us as we grow wiser and more holy because the Word of God will abide in us.

If you need to seek wisdom for some event in your life, or if you have a friend, a neighbor, a family member that needs wisdom, take a moment to pray.

Popular Bible Versions

KJV – King James Version, sometimes known as the “Authorized Version. Translated in 1604 to 1611, uses Shakespearean English. The KJV is majestic, but difficult to read and understand. Excellent for very formal occasions, like white tie and tuxedo or a ball gown, but not very practical anymore for everyday use. 12th grade or college reading level.

NKJV – New King James Version, published 1982. Follows the style of the KJV, but updates with modern punctuation, drops “thee & thou” and updates the vocabulary.

HCSB – Holman Christian Standard Bible, published 2009. Largely an update of the NKJV, it uses “Yahweh” as the proper name of God in many places to better reflect the original languages instead of LORD. Very literal in the translation.

RSV – Revised Standard Version, 1952. Developed as one of the first “standard” bibles by the National Council of Churches, to be a bible that could be used by many denominations.

NRSV – New Revised Standard Version, 1989. Generally has a liberal slant to the translation, tries for “functional equivalence”, is preferred by academic scholars. Has removed gender-specific language in most places.

NIV – New International Version, 1986 and 2011. The older version was very popular. Dis-satisfaction with 2011 version – degendered and liberal slant – led the Southern Baptists to move for the HCSB translation. 8th grade reading level.

CEB – Common English Bible, 2011. Very easy to read, functional translation, seventh grade reading level, sometimes graphically explicit language.

ESV – English Standard Version, 2001. Very literal, 8th grade reading level.

The Message – Paraphrase, 2002. Paraphrase in modern language. Useful for getting a new look at old passages, but not for serious study. Gets the attention of young/new Christians/seekers.

NASB – New American Standard Bible, 1971/1995. Literal version, includes apocryphal books.

Bible Styles:

Reader’s Version – no verses, no footnotes, maybe no chapters.

Traditional Bible Style – footnotes, verses, chapters, some cross-references.

Study Bible – Extensive footnotes, articles, maps, cross-references.

A Father's Love

In our Old Testament reading today from 2 Samuel, we see the outlines of the story of Absalom. Absalom was the third son of King David. Absalom had broken with his father when he killed David’s oldest son Amnon, revenging his sister Tamar – Amnon’s half-sister, whom Amnon had taken against her will. For five years, David and Absalom did not talk. Finally, David let him come to his palace and forgave him.

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33; Psalm 130; Ephesians 4:25-5:2; John 6:35, 41-51

But Absalom did not honor David. In fact, he began to build up a personal following. After four years of this, he went to Hebron, built up the conspiracy more and had himself declared king. Then, he began to march to Jerusalem.

David retreated from the city well before Absalom arrived. And after a couple of more days of intrigue, we come to our reading, where David has assembled his troops. Once again, the reading skips. The people urge David not to join in the battle personally because his abilities as a leader and as a symbol to fight for are said to be worth 10,000 troops. So David stays at the small town where they have assembled, but he commands the leaders of his divisions, Joab, Abishai, and Ittai to “treat Absalom gently” for David’s sake.

In the battle against Absalom’s troops, David’s army completely defeats Absalom’s troops. They scatter, many running into the forest. Absalom is one of these. He’s riding his mule in the forest when his head gets stuck between some branches, the mule keeps going, and Absalom is left dangling. The original Hebrew says, "between heaven and earth".

Joab, David’s long-time very practical general, always thought that David was too weak, too sentimental, too likely to forgive and forget. Joab considered that loyalty was extraordinarily important, and traitors were deserving of death. Immediate death as soon as practical. When told that Absalom was hanging in the oak tree, Joab asks the messenger “why didn’t you strike him to the ground right there?”

The messenger told him, “No way. The king commanded you to protect Absalom.”

Ever practical, ever angry, Joab took three spears and thrust them into Absalom’s heart while he was still alive, still dangling from the oak tree. Then the 10 young men who worked for Joab surround Absalom, struck him, and killed him. Joab had dealt with the traitor. Another problem was solved. Permanently.

You may notice that Absalom died while hung in a tree. Christ also died on a tree. While on the tree, Absalom was struck by spears. Christ was also struck by a spear. But most importantly, both had fathers who loved them tremendously.

When David hears the news, David is struck with grief. He famously wept and cried, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”
When we look at the life of David, there are many of his actions that are not good actions. He committed murder and adultery. But we are repeatedly reminded that David was a man after God’s own heart, for we see in the Psalms that David recognized his sins, he asked God to forgive him for his sins, and he ultimately always tried to walk on the path of holiness, even if he stepped off the path sometimes.

And we see in the story of Absalom that David truly cared for his sons – all his sons – even if Absalom could not see this, even if Absalom and Joab both read his love as weakness. And this is where David's heart most matches the heart of God the Father.

It is a difficult thing for fathers and sons. Infant boys are cute and cuddly, just as infant girls are. Most fathers look at their newborn sons and want to protect them. They give hugs to them freely. They hold them and keep them safe. They play with them as they begin to toddle, and they teach them as they begin to speak.

But there is a point where young sons need discipline and correction – and fathers are usually the providers of that correction, for most men understand that what is cute in a four-year-old becomes dangerous and causes trouble when that four-year-old becomes fifteen or sixteen or twenty-five. And so discipline and correction are applied when the child is young in the hope that when he is older, he will have less discipline and correction applied by society – employers, friends, his wife, the police.

Yet there is another difficult transition to come, for as a boy becomes a teenager, the father must begin to back off from his stern demeanor and become a good coach to the young man. We’ve all known of the families in which the father never relaxed, in which the father demanded military-like obedience from his sons, and in which the fathers and sons did not speak in a civil manner to each other after the son was big enough and tough enough to take on his father in a physical fight.

But we also know of the families where there is mutual respect between father and sons, where the father cherishes the gifts of each of his children and they recognize the wisdom the father has.

I’ve seen that this second group of families tends to occur when the father truly has been concerned about the well-being of the sons more than his own well-being. And one way that this is demonstrated is with Scripture.

There is one thing which a father can do for his sons which is worth more than anything else, any training in sports, any driver’s training, any employment training, any discipline. That is to teach his sons the reality of God the Father and God the Son, to teach his sons the sacrifice that the Father and Son made for the Father’s earthly sons – you and I – and to show his sons how to read and understand Scripture by themselves, how to learn holiness from that Scripture, and how to practice two-way prayer with God, asking of the Father and then listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit.

We are so good at teaching our sons the importance of the things of the world, the things of the world’s culture. We teach our sons that Ford trucks are better than Chevy’s or vice versa. We teach our sons how to play football, basketball, and baseball. We work terribly hard to improve their skills so they can become stars of the team. We teach them how to work hard, how to be self-sufficient, how to be courageous and tough.

But when it comes to teaching them about the one thing in their lives which has eternal consequences – because of our culture we pass the buck. “Go to church with your mother”, we say. Or we tell mother, “He’s twelve years old. If he doesn’t want to go, don’t make him.” And we say this on Sunday morning while we plan our trip to see the Steelers or look at the baseball schedule. In the single most important life lesson, we fathers often pass the buck to others.

Our sons and daughters learn from us and our actions what is important in life. This is how we each directly affect the culture around us. If we don’t miss a Friday night football game or a Mountaineer game, they learn that this is important. If we tell our children “I never understood math, but I’ve done pretty well”, we’ve just told them math isn’t important to learn and they probably won’t put in the effort to get much past arithmetic. If we choose to take them to soccer games instead of church, they will teach the same to their children. And at the end of time, some, even most of them will not be joining us in Heaven with our Heavenly Father.

Our modern American life is filled with all the times when we say, “I’m too tired.” It is filled with those times we’ve said, “I don’t know how. Can we find a teacher for her?” But a hundred and fifty years ago, we used to respond: “If we want it done well, we need to do it ourselves.” We got off the couch and we worked and we taught the kids.

I’m not sure where this tendency to pass the buck to others came from. I’m tempted to say it happened when first the radio, then the television began to take time from our personal at-home work and family teaching hours. I remember when I was a teen putting a roof on a newly constructed outbuilding with my father one October, listening to Mountaineer games on a battery-powered radio while we worked. It led me to go to WVU for college – but I also learned the value of hard work, consistent work with my father – and how to put shingles on a roof.

Were we experts? No. But we did it well enough that the building’s roof didn’t leak - until the tornado came and blew up the building about five years later. We did it because my father had decided that working with his son and putting a roof on that outbuilding were worth doing. (The rebuild was paid for by insurance, so we let the professionals do it that time. We'd had our experience together.)

A hundred years ago G. K. Chesterton, a British Christian author who wrote many good things worthy of being read, said that "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."

If a hole in the ground is needed, it doesn’t have to be pretty. If a fence is needed to keep in the cows, it doesn’t need to have beautiful black posts – locust poles will do. If we want our children to get to Heaven, a bit of Bible read to them every day and a talk about God’s forgiveness will usually do the trick. We don’t need to be Billy Graham in our homes.

Here today, though, in our culture says that only near perfection in anything is all that is worth doing. We walk out of the restaurant if a couple pieces of lettuce are wilted – even though we’d thrown them away if we fixed the salad ourselves. We complain and return the burger that is overdone even though we ate the crispy burgers we left too long on the grill last week because we were distracted by the phone call. We fight over the couple of drips of paint the professional left on the molding, even though we left plenty when we repainted the downstairs last year.

When Saundra and I were first married, we soon moved to Medina, NY, halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, NY. (We spent a decade there that winter!) I had a good job and Saundra was alone at home that summer. She likes to sew, so she bought some wool fabric and decided to make me a three piece suit, beginning with the vest. I came home and vest was beautiful. She’d even made a small welt pocket in the vest, the type that you put a pocket watch into. But that day I focused on the slight wrinkle that happened because the outside of the pocket was about a tenth of an inch longer than the back of the pocket. She gave up the project. I learned a valuable lesson.

I would have loved to have had that suit that my wife made, wrinkle and all. But I had not learned the lesson that an imperfect suit is better than no suit. And so I did not get that suit. Ever. Later, I had to buy one for hundreds of dollars – and it did not have the love in it that that imperfect vest did.

When we lived in Atlanta, we decided to home school our children. Why we made that decision is a long story – I’ll save it for another time. But there were certain things we wanted to teach our children, things that we felt that, imperfect though we were, we simply could not delegate to others. And we were mostly successful teaching them what needed to be taught. 

Even though we are imperfect, we can do a "good-enough" job of leading our children to Christ.

In our culture today, there is a tremendous shortage of fathers. There are many baby-daddies – but few fathers. Our culture encourages our young men to remain boys until they are in their thirties. But our culture wasn’t always that way.

In the 1800’s in America, most young men married in their late teens. Even as late as the 1950’s, the senior prom was in reality a pre-engagement dance. It was the night when most young men and women made their final selection of the one they planned to marry for the rest of their lives. Untold millions of Americans became engaged on prom night, and were often married a month or two later. A year later the first children arrived.

But today, we have mixed up the order of things. Where it used to be marriage, sex, then children, it is more likely to be sex, children, then a marriage several years later – if at all.

I have seen articles congratulating American for a declining divorce rate. Yet the articles don’t mention the big secret – the reason for the declining divorce rate is because couples don’t tend to get married until they have lived together for several years. The breakup rate if these homes is still well over fifty percent. They just don't call it divorce because the breakup happens before the marriage.

And the reason is because of a misunderstanding of what love is. Is love sexual desire? Is love what we feel for a sleeping baby? Is love that caring feeling between two brothers or two sisters? Can we truly love someone who is a stranger, our neighbors?

The ancient Greek language of the New Testament did not have this puzzle, for ancient Greek had four different words for love.

There is eros, the intense love of a man and woman.

There is phileos, the love of two brothers, as in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

There is storge, the affectionate love of grandparents for grandchildren or vice versa. It is the love for a good horse, a fine dog, a faithful servant.

And there is agape, the unselfish love of a Christian for a neighbor, a love which is there even if unrepaid. It is the love of a father, The Father, for his children. It is the love of a mother for her children.

David had the agape love of a good father for his sons. They did wrong, but that did not change his love for them. One was a rapist, the other a murderer and traitor. David still loved them both.

And this is where we see the love of God the Father for us. This is why David's heart was much the same as God's heart.

We each have done wrong, yet God the Father and God the Son were so in tune with each other and their love for all of us, God’s children, that God the Son died to restore the relationship between us and Father.

God the Father tore part of Himself off and sent Him to earth as the Christ, to become the God-man Jesus, to teach us, first by words, and then by the example of being sacrificed on the cross. He taught us just what a Father’s love, a Father’s agape love, can truly be.

Would you do the same for your children? Would you voluntarily die a terrible death to rescue your children from death?

Any good father would do this for his children or grandchildren. Many mothers would quickly make this sacrifice, but a good father understands that when the time comes for sacrifice, it is up to the father to make that sacrifice, for the children need their mother to survive. It is an old-fashioned view, but we are talking about an old-fashioned view of fatherhood, the father who acts as a father, and not simply as the oldest child of the family.

To be a father means to be mature, taking on the responsibility of leading the family, of determining what is right and what is wrong, of deciding what is important and what is not important – not in isolation from his wife, but in consultation with her – yet making the hard decisions himself, for that is what it means to be a godly man. When the tough decisions need to be made, a godly man says, "I will take the blame, right or wrong, and make that decision, and live with the consequences."

A godly man, you see, voluntarily takes on the leadership of the family – not to dominate his wife, but to relieve her of worry, to remove stress from her, to set a positive example of male maturity for his children. But our culture today would have men remain large, overgrown children, focusing on sports, on bars, on toys and video games, on play, while turning over their decision-making to those on television, those in politics, and those who are the “experts”.

Yet, a godly man prays. A godly man knows that there is not supposed to be anyone between Him and God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. The godly man sets the spiritual tone for the family, knowing that each person’s relationship with Christ is the most important thing. A godly man leads his family to Christ.

Would you sacrifice yourself for your children? Would you voluntarily die a terrible death to rescue your children from death?

Then why will you not give up your time to teach your children, your grandchildren, and your neighbor’s children about how to avoid eternal separation from God, how to gain eternal life, and how to be with Christ?

The Bread of Life

On the edge of the desert in northeastern Jordan – a family of hunters stopped for the day. The hunting had proven poor that day, and so the women of the family looked around and gathered the grass seeds that were on the grasses all around them. One of them decided to rub them between her fingers, and a fine flour fell into a piece of pottery she was carrying. Perhaps a bit of water slopped into that bowl from her water jug – we really don’t know what happened. But we know that the dough that formed was baked on a fire, and here is the first evidence we’ve found of bread being baked.

Early bread was always yeast-risen bread. In fact, the closest thing we have today is sourdough. A bit of the dough from yesterday’s bread was kept unbaked, and mixed into today’s bread. The yeast spread throughout the dough, allowing it to rise. If by some chance a family lost their starter dough, they would take the foam that comes from fermenting grape juice into wine. That foam contained yeast which was perfectly fine to mix into the new dough. Bread-making and wine-making were closely connected through the yeast that was essential for both products.

Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15; Psalm 78:23-29; Ephesians 4:1-16; John 6:24-35 

As rice is to southern China, bread is to the Middle East – and all the cultures descended from the Middle East – Europe, America. It is only in the last hundred years or so that we have developed the concept of a meal without bread. But still, we have bread at almost every meal: Have you noticed the different kinds of bread?

Sliced bread, hotdog buns, hamburger buns, toast, biscuits - all made from flour and water. Even PASTA! – spaghetti, ziti, macaroni, lasagna, ravioli, linguine, penne. Breakfast foods like schnitzel,   Poptarts, cereal. Even the coating on breaded fish, fried chicken, pot pies, pizza, cake and pies!

About the only things we have that truly replace bread in a meal are potatoes and rice.

In ancient Israel, there was less variety of style, but a bit more variety of grain. Barley was native to the area, as was wheat. Both could be grown over the winter, with the spring barley harvest coming first. So barley loaves were common. Wheat was more tolerant of very cold weather than barley, so it gradually replaced barley in Europe, but both were grown in ancient Israel.

There were other crops the people ate – raisins, dates, pomegranates, onions, leeks, and garlic, and some green vegetables, but for their calories, the people relied upon meat and bread. Everything else was luxury.

And so, when the Israelites who fled from Egypt with Moses found themselves in the desert, it was bread and meat that they were missing. In fact, the ancient Egyptian term for barley has come down to us: “eat” Add a Wh sound and you get Wheat. Add an M and you get meat.

So the Israelites were in the desert and they complained to Moses. “Take care of us – give us bread and meat!” they said. After all, they had all been raised as slaves – their masters had supplied them with food instead of paying them wages. Would Moses do the same?

No…but God would.

After God spoke to Moses in front of the Israelistes and promised them meat and bread, a huge flock of quail came to the camp that evening – and everyone had roasted quail that evening. The next morning, when the dew lifted from the ground, they found a little flaky substance like coriander seeds. The people looked at it and called it “manna”, which means “What is it?” The manna was edible and nourishing.

For forty years, manna appeared at the camp. For forty years, God fed the people. For forty years, until the day they crossed over Jordan into the land near Jericho, into the Promised Land, God fed the people with manna. 

And so centuries later, Jesus fed 5000 men, plus women and children with five loaves of barley and two fish. And people followed Jesus across the Lake of Galilee to find him again.

Now, I don’t know about you, but if someone gave me a choice between working on a farm with hand tools in a near-desert land, suffering from the uncertainties of farming - and handing me bread just for being there, I think I’d probably be one of the people who followed Jesus from the feeding of the 5000 to where He was near the Lake of Galilee.

But Jesus points out to the crowd: “You are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”

We often give away food and other items to entice people to church. Once, when I attended a German Lutheran church in Ohio a couple of blocks from a college, we had an admin council meeting during which we seriously debated whether or not to give away free beer at Ocktoberfest to attract the college students. (Lutherans are about beer like Methodists are about grape juice – its part of the culture in many of the churches.) But eventually we decided not to offer the beer.

You see, Jesus points out the problem with giveaways – whether it be of food or of anything else: The people came looking for the bread that Jesus had given away – not because they believed He was the Son of God. And we can have that problem also when we focus too much on our giveaways and not on the spiritual advantages of finding out about Christ. Jesus gave advice:

"Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal of approval on Him.”

Now this is one of those things Jesus said that sounds good, but now we have to sit and think and figure out what the practical implications are of this. Not work for food? In those days, that command meant not to work the farm. But if you don’t work the farm, you’ll starve, right?

And then, after a while, you’ll die.

And now we get to the crux of the question of the Christian life.

Jesus tells us to work, not for food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life which Jesus will give us, because God the Father has approved Jesus. Don't work for food, work for Jesus.

In essence, we are being asked to leave the farm, to leave our jobs, to leave behind the world culture’s definition of success and how everything works – and turn to work for Jesus, and Jesus will take care of us.

Notice that Jesus is not asking this of people who have just met Him. He's not asking this of people who just walked in off the street. Jesus asks this of people who have seen what He can do. The people He is talking to are those people who just a day earlier saw Him feed 5000 men and many women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish. They have seen definite proof of His Divinity. They had seen what Jesus can do!

Have you seen what Jesus can do? Have you decided down in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, God Himself walking on this earth? Have you decided to follow Christ because Jesus is the Son of God and everything He says is God speaking? Or have you decided to follow Christ because you've bought into the idea that you'll be financially better off by following Jesus around?

Following Jesus and working for Jesus is a difficult decision for people who are caught up in life’s details – raising children, paying off the truck, fixing up the house, working toward a promotion at work. Perhaps that’s why there are two types of people most likely to go into ministry – those in their late teens or early twenties, and those in their fifties. The first haven’t yet been sucked up by the vacuum of the world’s culture and the older people have learned what is important.

There was a time when we felt that someone my age, late 50’s, was just about ready to retire, to slow down, to stop working and go fishing. But today, someone who is 70 years old can expect to live another 20 or 25 years and stay active until the last few years. Seventy is the new fifty. Perhaps we can think about what we should do as we age – we raise our children, we become grandparents, and then perhaps we begin teaching young people what we know about Christ, about God, about the Holy Spirit and the important things of life. We stop teaching so much about how to earn our ordinary daily bread, and we begin teaching about the Bread of Life.

For if we do not teach about Jesus, Hollywood will. Do you trust Hollywood to get it right? If we do not teach about the way of living Jesus taught, television shows will. Do you trust television to teach the commands of Christ? We can no longer count on the school system to support us like they did in the fifties and sixties. In fact, the school system is likely to teach more about other religions than about Christianity.

But if you were to volunteer at the school – who knows how much influence you might have on young people. If you were to join in developing a church children’s program – who knows what a difference it would make. If you were to become a grandparent to one of the young couples who lives just down the street from you, teaching them life lessons and lessons about the Bread of Life – what difference would it make in ten or fifteen years as their children grew up in your neighborhood.

Many of you already have pensions and social security coming in. You have no need to work for the bread that perishes. Instead, drop by this week, give me a call, send me a message – to discuss how you could work for the food that lasts for eternal life that the Son of Man provides.

Do Not Be Afraid

In our Old Testament reading this morning, we encounter the prophet Elisha and begin our first of two encounters with barley loaves. But it wasn’t the first encounter the people of God had with the interaction between God and bread.

Audio Version

We all remember the manna in the desert, how the Israelites were in the desert without any food, how in their fear they complained to Moses, and how Moses prayed to God. God sent them manna, a form of mysterious bread that lay on the ground every morning. The manna kept them from dying of starvation in the wilderness.

2 Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145:10-18; Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-21

In 2 Kings, chapter 4, there are several miracles in which Elisha is involved. (Don't confuse Elisha with Elijah. Elijah passed on his prophetic mantle to Elisha, and in many ways Elisha was much greater even though he isn't as well known.) 

In this case a man comes to Elisha with 20 barley loaves during a time of famine. There are many families that Elisha is leading at the time – the families of the sons of the prophets. Elisha tells his servant to feed the people with these 20 loaves of bread. There are a hundred men to feed, so Elisha’s servant is worried that there won’t be enough. He’s afraid. Elisha tells him that God has already said there will be enough, with food left over. Elisha said, “for this is what the Lord says: ‘They will eat, and they will have some left over.’ And that is exactly what happened. God’s Word changed space and time and the bread, and there was enough for everyone with pieces left over. God’s Word can change space and time.

Have you ever wondered about how words can change space and time? Consider the effect that Winston Churchill had on the British when they stood alone against the Germans after France had fallen and before America joined the war. The men who had escaped Dunkirk had left everything behind except their rifles. The Germans had their tanks ready to invade. The British were afraid. So Churchill spoke: “We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them on the landing grounds, we shall fight them in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight them in the hills, we shall never surrender!” No invasion ever came. Words can indeed change space and time.

And now, let’s zoom across the years to the time of Jesus.

Today’s Gospel reading is sandwiched between the two parts of last Sunday’s readings. You’ll remember that Jesus had tried to have a spiritual vacation and retreat with his disciples, but people ran around the lake and met them where they came ashore. And Jesus taught them many things...

A large crowd of people came toward Jesus. Here they were, out in the middle of nowhere, in the early spring before the Passover festival.

Now, in our modern days with supermarkets and freezers and canned goods and trains and airplanes that move fresh fruit and other food to us from all over the globe, we rarely recognize the changing of the seasons in our diet outside of some seasonal fruit changes – strawberries, then blueberries, then watermelons, then peaches, then apples, and finally pears and pumpkins.

But in Jesus’ day, March was a difficult time. The old harvest was almost gone and the spring harvest was just beginning, the time when barley grain, then winter wheat was ready for harvest before the green vegetables of spring were ready. You know how we eat ramps in March and April? It’s because someone was starving to death and decided to pull up those little wild onions because they were better than nothing.

It was March in Galilee. Food was in short supply.

And so, when Jesus sees these people coming, He knows they’ll be hungry. And so He asked Philip – where will we get food to feed these people, Phil? There’s no supermarket around, no McDonald’s, no Wal-Mart, not even a farmer’s market. It would be pretty bad press if a bunch of people went hungry listening to this rabbi’s teachings, wouldn’t it?

Philip takes a look at the crowd, gets afraid, and pulls out his calculator. There are 5000 men. Give each man a fish sandwich. 4 oz of fish for each person means 1250 pounds of fish. 2 slices of bread each means about 250 loaves of bread. Now lets quadruple those amounts to account for the women and children present. 5000 pounds of fish, a thousand loaves of bread. That’ll cost about $20,000 in 21st Century money, or about 200 days pay. A denarius was a silver coin worth a day’s pay. Which is what Philip declares – 200 denarii just of bread to feed everyone.

Philip puts away his calculator.

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother wants to be helpful. “There’s a boy here trying to sell five loaves of bread and two fish – but that wouldn’t be nearly enough, right?”
Jesus has had enough fun testing His disciples. So Jesus tells the disciples to have everyone sit down. He takes the loaves and fish and thanked God for them. Then, he broke the bread and fish and distributed them around, “as much as they wanted."

When they were full, He told His disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” So they collected them and filled 12 baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.

The people were so impressed they said Jesus was the predicted Prophet that would arrive. They were about to take Jesus and make him king by force, but he slipped off back up the mountain.

The people recognized the echo of the deed of Elisha that day – only Jesus had done much more. The fact the bread was barley loaves was critical to understanding the connection. But there was more to come. Much more to come. 

That evening, the disciples had hit the boat and were rowing against a strong wind across the lake. They had left Jesus behind - and then Jesus came walking across the lake to them and they were afraid. "It is I. Do not be afraid!" Jesus said.

Months later, on the night that Jesus was betrayed, Jesus once again took bread, gave thanks for that bread to God, and broke the bread, sharing it with his disciples. That evening, He took the bread of the Passover meal, the bread of affliction, and he shared it with his disciples, saying, “Take. Eat. This is my body which is given for you.”

And a few minutes later, He took the third cup of wine of the Passover meal, traditionally called the Cup of Redemption, and they passed it around, all of them drinking from the same cup which was given to them by Jesus as He said, “Drink from this, all of you. This is my blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

Jesus spoke of blood being shed. And the disciples were afraid.

And so began the ritual we call Holy Communion, or Eucharest, or the Lord’s Table. We have this once a month, but why? What’s it all about?

What is the meaning of Communion?

There are three common views.

Jean Calvin was one of the great leaders of the Protestant Reformation, and influenced many groups, including the Presbyterian Church, the Puritans, and much of the Baptist movement. His view is that Communion is simply a time for friends of Jesus to remember His sacrifice. To Calvin, Communion is an ordnance, something which is commanded, but it is not particularly sacred. Thus, in most of these churches, it is an optional occasional service, far lower in importance than the reading and preaching of Scripture.

In the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox view, there is nothing more important in our worship than the Lord’s Table. In their view, dominant in present form since about the third century, when the words of consecration are said, the bread and wine turn into the very body and blood of Christ. We may not be able to see, smell, or taste the difference, but it has happened. And thus, in a Catholic service, the offertory is when someone brings forward the bread and the wine – not money – and that bread and wine is then turned into Christ’s body and blood and then re-sacrificed for us once again on an altar.

But the Methodist view is something in between. We believe that Christ is present in and around the elements in a spiritual way, that when we receive the elements of bread and juice we are taking in not only physical food, but spiritual food. We believe that through the elements we receive grace from God once again – perhaps the eternal life of Christ is shared with us through those elements, and, over time, the eternal body and blood of Christ replaces our mortal body as we eat and drink in Christ.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, argued that Communion was not only an ordinance commanded by Christ, but also a sacrament, a special ceremony in which God's presence changes us. 

Wesley gave the Methodists three General Rules. The first was “do no harm”. The second was “do all the good you can do.” The third was to "attend upon all the ordinances of God; such are:

The public worship of God.

The ministry of the Word, either read or expounded.

The Supper of the Lord.

Family and private prayer.

Searching the Scriptures.

Fasting or abstinence. "

The Supper of the Lord to Wesley was a critical way of receiving God’s grace. What more grace can you receive than being fed by God’s Son Himself? As you approach the Table, can you imagine a great waterfall of grace pouring down from Heaven, washing over and around you, removing your sin once more, pouring love and hope into you, knowing once more that the Creator of the Universe loved you enough to die for you and give up His spirit to feed you and clear your sin debt? Can you understand that Christ did not die for all of us, He died for each of us, if everyone else in the world were right with God except you, He would still have died, going to the cross just to put you back in good communion with God the Father? Can you imagine that waterfall of Grace? Nothing to be afraid of. Christ is here.

And so that is why we come forward. Unlike some groups who remain in their seats, if we are physically able, we must leave the comfort of our ordinary life, our comfortable pew-seats, and approach the Table for the family meal that our Father has provided. We come forward to signify that this is something important to us. We come forward to demonstrate we aren’t afraid of God – or each other.

Unlike in some groups, we believe that all of us are welcome at the Table – everyone who walks or rolls or is carried through that door is welcome. It is not up to us to be part of a particular group, or to be particularly good – for everyone of us has already sinned today and many times in the past, none of us are good enough. There is no need to be afraid.

As Wesley wrote: “You are unworthy to receive any mercy from God. But is that a reason for refusing all mercy? . . . Why do you not obey God’s command? . . . What! unworthy to obey God?” That’s the point – Jesus died for us while we were each still sinners, and that proves God’s love for us.

A few years ago, Saundra and I were ministering to a group of international students at a college. Several came to church with us. One young lady, listening, understood that the Table was open to all who are trying to get closer to God, and realized that she was indeed trying to get closer to God. After taking the elements, she said to us that she wanted to become a Christian. A couple of weeks later, she was baptized. It is possible for people to come to Christ in the Communion line.

That tells us the what of Communion. Let’s spend some time on the how.

As we approach the Table, there are certain things which we have found help us have the best experience.

First, the servers may be anyone in the congregation. The servers will wash their hands with hand cleaner. Do you need special training? No. Simply repeat the words as said to you. “This is the body of Christ, broken for you.” Or if you are holding the cup, “This is the blood of Christ, shed for you.” There is something about repeating these words over and over that sends God’s grace deep into the soul of the server.

The Methodist Church prefers we use a single large loaf unless we need multiple large loaves. This loaf reminds us that we are one body in fellowship, and that body of Christ is broken in front of us. We aren’t individuals getting our little bit of sanitized bread. The single cup that we dip the bread into once again signifies that we are in fellowship and unity with one another, and that we trust in each other and in God’s protection. We use unfermented grape juice instead of alcoholic wine because of the historic Methodist connection to the temperance movements of the nineteenth century, believing that our communion should not be a case of testing or temptation to those who suffer from the illness of alcoholism.

The server is to break a decent-sized piece off the loaf and lay it in the hands of the recipient, who approaches with hands together, palms up. As the server does this, he or she says, “This is the body of Christ, broken for you.” This approach, receiving communion rather than taking communion, reminds us that God gives us grace at God’s choice – not because of our grasping at God. The one receiving may say, “Amen”, to signify that you remember and agree that this symbolizes the body of Christ.

With the bread in hand, we dip the piece into the juice. The one holding the cup says, “This is the blood of Christ, shed for you.” Notice that no one’s hands touch the common cup – the hygiene is preserved. Don’t be afraid. Once again, the one dipping may say, “Amen” to signify agreement with the symbol.

After all have been served, those who cannot make their way to the Table because of health reasons are served. And after the service, anyone may also take Communion home to someone who is unable to attend because of health reasons. See me for more details on how to do this. I may hold a brief one-hour teaching about this if several people would like to do this on a regular basis.

The elements are returned to the Table and covered up, as respectfully we should the body and blood of Christ.

That’s a lot about the how of Communion, but now we need to spend time on why. Why did Jesus make Communion so central to Christianity?

God’s goal in sending Christ to earth was to draw all people to God. In order for us to come closer to God, God had to make the first move, because our natural inclination is to have things the way WE want them, to do things the way WE want to do them, to be little gods walking around the Universe with everyone else – including God and Christ - serving us because we are so superior to others – that is the natural human soul speaking.

And so, once again, God showed God’s superior wisdom by serving us – on God’s terms.

You see, in our culture, when one person serves another person in our natural state, we serve the other because we need something from that other person. A waitress serves a customer to get a wage and a good tip. The neurosurgeon serves a patient in return for both the wage and the satisfaction of knowing that their superior knowledge and ability was recognized. Our culture bases our exchanges on the principal that specialists can give superior service in their specialty, whether the specialty be neurosurgery – or automotive mechanics – or cooking – or cleaning. We inherently believe in our culture that everyone needs others – and others need us - because of our need to exchange services.

We offer our services in exchange for wages, with which we buy goods made by others and services provided by others. All is equal and democratic – and we believe in this principal so much we get upset when we find that someone is paid a huge amount of money for something we don’t value – like a Major League pitcher being paid thousands of dollars per pitch, a musician being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for writing a song, an inventor/entrepreneur being paid billions of dollars for creating a company with a new idea. Yes, our culture rebels against the idea that anyone’s services should be able to be of much greater value than another’s value. And we are often afraid we don’t measure up.

Yet, God showed us overwhelming service. God created us, God provided a Universe in which to live, God provided an environment around us, systems of food and water and air, God even went so far as to send God’s Son to earth to die to pay for all of the rebellion that we gave God – and continue to give God. And many of us still believe that it is simply enough to acknowledge God’s existence and all is well. “Believe in Jesus and ye are saved!” Don’t be afraid to believe!

Yet simple belief in the existence of God is not enough, for Jesus is God’s Son. As the Apostle John wrote, Jesus is the Word of God that has existed since the beginning. Through Him everything was made. But even belief that Jesus is God’s Son is not enough, for Jesus says twice “Believe in Me!” and some eighty times Jesus says “Follow Me!”

His leading disciple said, “Believe and be baptized!” And this is a start. And we may be afraid to start. But it is only a start, as the first step onto the sidewalk outside your home begins the journey across the continent. It is necessary to continue the journey every day, every week, every year, just as a journey to California does not continue unless you walk, you drive, you ride some more and some more each day. But that first step onto the sidewalk is necessary to begin the journey. This is baptism, the first step at the beginning of the journey. Don’t be afraid of that first step.

But we need food for the journey. In our spiritual journey, we need an ongoing connection to our spiritual food, an ongoing connection to the life energy that will sustain us eternally, an ongoing connection to Christ and the Holy Spirit. We needed something that was very regular which would energize us to follow Jesus down the road of holiness.

And so, the night before He voluntarily sacrificed Himself for us, the Word of God through which all things were made, made Himself into spiritual food for us by announcing, as He broke a single loaf of bread and drank from a single cup of wine that though this, His followers would be eating His body and drinking His blood – not in some cannibalistic orgy – but because He and the Father are One, therefore, with the power of God the Father behind Him, Jesus was reminding us that Jesus, the Word of God, was truly connected ever so closely to the Father who created the Universe, and we, we unhappy fearful mortals that we are, we could be connected to the Father for eternity, becoming immortal by sharing the bread and drink the Father and the Living Word of God had created just for us. In the Gospel of John chapter 6, Jesus said this was critical beginning in verse 48:

48 I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”

...

53 So Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves. Anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your fathers ate—and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

The Word of God spoke these words – and the laws of space and time were changed forever. There is now nothing to be afraid of.

And so, as often as you break the bread and drink the fruit of the vine – remember the overwhelming service of the One who died so we could live, the One who did more than simply die on the cross for our sins, but also created and provided His body and blood as an ongoing sacrament to bring us all together – You. Me. Jesus. Holy Spirit, and our Almighty Father. Don’t be afraid, for God loves us.

Next week, we will share the bread and the fruit of the vine. Next week, when you see the elements in front of you, remember that you would not be receiving this bread and this drink unless Jesus and God the Father had not loved us enough that Jesus not only sacrificed Himself for us – but the Word of God changed the laws of the Universe that we might eat and drink – and be with God forever.

And He Began to Teach

Years ago, my parents decided that they would invest in a new piece of technology for our home. The device was fairly new to the market, but it was selling rapidly. All the leading stores were trying to make money off this new technology – Sears, Montgomery Wards, J.C. Penneys, even Western Auto and department stores like Dils Department Store. There were also local specialty stores that were selling this new technology, for each unit sold for hundreds of dollars – and a hundred dollars in those days was worth a thousand dollars today. After all, new cars sold for only two or three thousand dollars and nice homes sold for twenty thousand dollars.

My parents, you see, had decided to get the best educational tool available. They bought a television set.

At the time, all televisions were black-and-white. In this time before cable, long before home satellite receivers, our location on top of the hill behind St. Marys, just east of the Ohio River valley, meant that we could receive a bunch of stations with our antenna – Channel 7 from Wheeling. Channel 8 from Charleston, Channels 3 and 13 from Huntington, Channels 5 and 12 from Weston and Clarksburg. Although Parkersburg had Channel 15, we couldn’t receive that because Channels above 13 needed a more expensive TV set. So we had six channels, while most of our in-the-valley neighbors only could get a couple of channels. And late at night, if we carefully turned our antenna, we could get stations from Columbus, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh- about ten channels altogether! NBC, CBS, even the new network, ABC! We had a monster system!

But other than watching the Disney show on Sunday evenings, the evening news, and the occasional rocket launch, it was difficult to say that our TV lived up to its educational tool billing. Entertainment and the sales of products was always what most of the shows were about. PBS wasn't around...the BBC was something you watched if you were in Britain...cable didn't exist.

Oh, I learned that the cowboys wearing the black hats were bad and the ones wearing the white hats were good, especially if they owned the Ponderosa ranch. I learned that Marshall Dillon always got his man and fell in love with Mary Tyler Moore. I learned that robots could say “Danger, Will Robinson”, but could be outrun by any seven-year-old. I learned that Gilligan was always going to sabotage any hope of rescue from the desert island. And I learned that Jed Clampett knew more about life than his banker, Mr. Drisdale. Trivial education, a lot of entertainment.

And that, my friends, is also the state of the church today – and the state of the synagogue in Jesus’ time. Plenty of entertainment, but little education. But that wasn’t what Jesus intended.

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 

Just before today’s Gospel reading, Jesus had sent his disciples out to villages to preach repentance, for the Kingdom of God was coming near. You will notice that Jesus was not the only one doing the preaching – his followers also were learning to preach. Knowing how to preach to many or teach to one or two is a necessary skill for a follower of Christ. Some will always be better than others, but we should almost all be capable of teaching a friend, neighbor, or family basic idea about Christ, for a key point about spreading the Gospel is that it is about teaching a new way of looking at life.

These disciples returned. They came back from going into the villages. And they were all filled with stories of what had happened, for there is nothing that makes your day like talking to someone about Christ and His kingdom and having people sit up and listen and be transformed by the hearing of the Good News. And you want to tell others how great it was.

So they came back, and Jesus said, in effect, “There’s too many people around here. We need to go off to a quiet place, rest, tell our stories, and see what worked and what didn’t work. We need to have a spiritual retreat.”

And since at least four of them were fishermen, they loaded up the boat and sailed on Galilee - a remote shoreline of the Lake of Galilee.

But they didn’t sail quickly enough. Some of the people saw where they were headed and ran along the shoreline even faster and so when they got there to their lovely peaceful vacation spot, hundreds of people were waiting on them.

Have you ever gone on vacation to get away from work, away from the people you work with everyday, away from all those demand? So you rent a nice, quiet condo down at Myrtle Beach in a nice quiet part of the beach, say in North Myrtle Beach – and it seems like everybody you work with, including your boss, has booked into the very same building? Plus, you didn’t realize it, but this is Bike Week at North Myrtle – and there’s a convention of Shriner’s in town, too!

All Jesus and the disciples wanted was a lonely stretch of beach, a chance to catch some fish and roast them on a fire, a chance to eat and talk quietly together for a day or two.

So you check into the condo...and if you’re Chevy Chase, there’s your wife’s cousin Eddie and all his extended family staying across the hallway!

I don’t know about you, but I’d load back up and try to find a room on the Outer Banks.

One way I like to study Scripture is to ask myself – what would I have done or said in the same situation, and how did Jesus react. Did he load the boat back up and take off like I would have? No.

Jesus did the right thing instead of the easy thing. Mark says “Jesus had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd and began to teach them many things.“

Yep. That’s Jesus, we say. He’d always do the right thing, not the easy thing. But we aren’t Jesus.

Hold on. Aren’t we supposed to be followers of Jesus?

Doesn’t that mean that we are to imitate Jesus as much as possible? Does that mean we have to teach people?

Yep! Following Jesus means following Jesus. Just like a group of would-be Green Berets, disciples don’t get to bypass anything on the obstacle course just because you don't like it. We all need to learn to teach people.

"But Pastor, I can’t teach! Some people are born teachers and others aren’t!"

Did you teach you child to go potty? To ties shoelaces? To eat with a spoon and fork?

Ok – you can teach. Stop thinking so much like a 21st Century American, who can only do certain things because “some people are born that way and others aren’t.”

Instead, think like a follower of Christ, a man or woman or child who has the power of the God who created the Universe behind you, supporting you anytime you do something that will help God's mission!

About three hundred years ago, a great Christian philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, was walking through a cemetery because it was a pleasant place to take a walk. From behind a hedge, he heard a very old man talking to a young man about the life and death of his son – the boy’s father. A grandfather talking to his grandson. And the old man talked a lot about God and Christ and heaven and generally the truth of the Gospel. It made a great impact upon Kierkegaard, and he realized it was because he was overhearing the Gospel rather than being lectured to directly about the Gospel. It was an effective way to teach.

So let’s put this in a modern context…

You’re walking around the neighborhood and you meet up with your old friend Jim. Jim’s grandkids are in town, at Jim’s house, and they’re milling around a bit – you know how kids are – You know how they walk when they're looking at their phones.

Now, you can beat a hasty retreat and go check on your friend Bill, but that’s acting like an ordinary person, a person who is controlled by our culture. It’s not acting like a disciple, much less acting like Jesus.

So here’s what you can do. You can let the kids overhear the Gospel...

In the same room as those kids (who are still staring at their phones), you can start talking to Jim. You can say, “Jim, we’ve got a new preacher.” And Jim may come back with “Yeah, what’s he like?” And you can tell Jim that he’s kinda funny looking, short and fat, but then you tell Jim a bit about this sermon or another sermon. And it doesn’t even matter if that was one of my sermons, or the last pastor’s sermon, or something you heard from Charles Stanley on television. You talk about Jesus and God in front of those kids, those kids who still have their heads in their phones.

In fact, you can get them engaged. You can talk about the Ten Commandments, say you can’t remember each of them (as you wink toward Jim) and ask one of the kids to Google what the Ten Commandments are on their phone. And pretty soon one of them will give you the list and then you can begin talking about that first commandment, the one that says to worship only God and how that means not to bow down to anyone or anything else. And you know something?

You’ve just made a difference in those kids lives.

Oh, it’ll be frustrating because if you have four kids in the room, only one will actually talk with you. But those other three are hearing EVERYTHING you and Jim say. They’ve learned how to work their phones at lunch in the cafeteria at school and hear everything their friends say around them. And they just overheard something about Jesus and God and Christ because of you.

You’ve taught them something spiritual.

And the best way to teach someone something spiritual is to ask them questions as they get involved in the discussion. Take something I teach you and ask your friend or some kids or your grown children what they think I meant. That’s the way Jesus did it. Here's an example:

Now, it appears to me from reading this passage that lots of people were interested in seeing and hearing Jesus. Now just like last week our passage once again skips a section. This was when Jesus fed 5000 people from five loaves of bread and two fish. We’ll talk about that in more detail some other time, but you might want to figure out how much bread and fish it would have taken to feed all of those 5000 people a fish sandwich. Estimate it! How many loaves and how many pounds of fish? 

Notice how the question gets you involved, getting your mind working on the problem the disciples faced. And many of you will keep thinking about that question until you work out just how many loaves and how many fish are needed. Questions will hook you into the Gospel story.

After those people were fed, Jesus and the Twelve jump back into the boat and head again to the other side of the lake. They land at Gennesaret, which is on the northwest shore of the lake. And Mark tells us that “As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized Him.”

Everybody recognized Jesus and brought all sorts of people who were sick to the marketplaces of the villages so Jesus could heal them.

And we begin to nod off because Jesus is always healing people. But reading closely tells us something:

[They] begged Him that they might touch just the tassel of His robe. And everyone who touched it was made well.

There is something odd going on. Mark is making the point that Jesus did not have to actively touch people and pray over them for the healing to happen. Instead, people were healed who just touched the tassel of Jesus’ robe.

So was His robe special?

We don’t know, but we can speculate.

Perhaps whatever God-stuff Jesus is made of wore off on His robe. Perhaps His life-giving power just soaked into that robe. But notice, it is the tassel of the robe that appears to be important here.

Let me connect this with another Jesus story, from Mark 5:25-34

You are all familiar with the woman who had been bleeding for years, who had spent all her money on doctors and they had only made her sicker? How she waited for Jesus to walk by so she could touch his robe? How Jesus noticed when she touched his robe and stopped and waited until she came forward?

Did you notice what Jesus says at that time?

“Daughter, your faith has made you well.”

Not: “I’ve made you well.”

Not: “My robe has made you well.”

But: “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”

Folks, we often think that our culture has overcome superstition. We think in our culture that it is completely foolish to believe that the magic of touching the tassel of a robe can make someone well. Yet our culture, in many ways, has simply changed the belief in one form of magic for the belief in another form of magic.

“Give me an antibiotic and I will get well.”

“Give me an antidepressant and I will be happier.”

“Tell me what is wrong with me and I can be treated.”

Folks, antibiotics don’t cure viral infections. Rigorous, scientific studies have shown that sugar pills cure depression just as often as Prozac. Doctors have learned to give a Latin-based name to some problem and many people will be much happier.

I went to my doctor friend because I had a rash on my leg a few years ago. He examined it closely, checked a few things, even looked on the Internet at some photos. Finally, he told me I had idiopathic dermatitis. I said back to him, “so I have an unknown irritation of the skin. He said, “That’s right.”

Sometimes it doesn’t pay to know Latin. Dermatitis means “skin irritation”. Idiopathic means “self impassioned”, “spontaneous”, or “of unknown origin”. My doctor friend had told me in Latin that I had in irritated skin and that he had no idea of the cause. Not really much help.

We think there is magic in the drugs or magic in the name. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome means “You’re always tired.” Neuralgia – "nerve pain." Our faith in the drugs and in the diagnosis makes us feel better.

But for that woman who bled – something really happened. She stopped bleeding.

“Daughter, your faith has made you well.”

In another place, Capernaum, the town He lived in as an adult, Jesus could do little in the way of miracles because, the Gospel writer says, “They had little faith in Him.” 

Why this requirement of faith?

I have noticed through my readings of the Bible, that time after time, our God is polite. People ask – “Why does God send some people to Hell?” God doesn't send people to Hell; God simply allows our wishes to be fulfilled – the people who had said repeatedly throughout their lives that they wished to be left alone by God are eventually left alone by God for eternity.

God does not make us followers of His Son by the sword. He gives us a choice. He asks us voluntarily to believe, to have faith in His Son. He asks us voluntarily to do something mildly uncomfortable – baptism – before He reaches into our hearts to insert His Holy Spirit. And He asks us to voluntarily follow His Son, to have faith in Him.

Is it possible that God respects you so much that God's goodness means God cannot or will not act upon your body, mind, or soul in healing without your permission – your faith that God loves you and wants to do good for you at all times? And is it possible that God knows your will even deeper than you do?

C.S.Lewis, the author of the Narnia books – The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe – was a good friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit. Another book that Lewis wrote is call The Great Divorce, a story of some people who live in Hell being given a day-long bus trip to Heaven.

In Lewis’ book, in Heaven, there is an angelic being talking to a man who is on the bus trip from Hell. The man has a hideous, ugly creature wrapped around his neck and back, with claws holding onto his very heart. We can see through the man because the people from Hell are so insubstantial, almost transparent. The angel says “I can remove that for you.”

The man says, “I’m not sure I want it removed.”

And so it is with sin. So often, we do not truly want to be free from our sin. We do not want to be with God. We like our sin, we enjoy it having hold of our heart. We don’t want Christ to take it away – or we really don’t believe He can take it away. And so we are not healed, because we don’t have faith that the goodness and power of God will overcome the loss of our sin...or our depression...or our weakness.

What did Jesus teach that day on the lakeshore of Galilee?

We don’t know His words from that day, but this is what He taught through His actions:

Five loaves and two fish can feed 5000 people – if you allow the power of God to work through you.

People will always look for and recognize a person who can heal them of suffering – physical, mental, emotional suffering. And once again, it is the power of God working through Christ that heals.

People who have faith will find a good life. Not always an easy life. But when that faith goes away, or turns away, mistakes will be made. Let me show you:

When Jesus got off the boat at Gennesaret, everybody recognized him.

After the Resurrection, on the way to Emmaus – two disciples did not recognize Him at first. Resurrection morning – Mary did not recognize Him at first. And we know in both cases, they had lost their faith in Him – they thought He was truly dead, even though He had said He would rise up again.

If we are to recognize the face of Jesus, we must have faith. And to get that faith, we must study who Jesus was, what He did, what He liked and what He did not like. We must move from being an acquaintance of Jesus – to being a best friend of Jesus, a follower.

For when a teacher teaches, it is like rain falling from the sky. If you are thirsting for wisdom and knowledge, you must catch the drops and drink them deeply. Will you act like domestic turkeys, sticking your head up to look at the shiny drops falling, and hoping a few drops will fall into your open mouths? – or will you gather rain like humans, putting out tarps and building systems to intentionally learn, to hold and capture the knowledge and wisdom rain? Will you intentionally study your Bible, study it with others, come to mid-week Bible studies and discussion groups?

And so, what did Jesus teach?

Many things. Many, many things.

Learn them. And then teach them to others.

For your eternal soul – or the eternal souls of your friends, neighbors, and family may depend upon your decision to study.