Prayer in times of darkness

O Lord Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things. By Saint Ignatius of Loyola

Politics of Sin

The glamour and the bright lights and the politics of sin,The ghetto that you build for me is the one you end up in,The race of the engine that overrules your heart,Ooh, I can't stand it, I can't stand it,Pretending that you're so smart.-Dead man, Dead man-Bob Dylan: http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/dead-man-dead-man

Bob Dylan once said that, "politics is the instrument of the devil." Sometimes I tend to agree. I have a love/hate relationship to politics. You might say, "Being a pastor-preacher is like being a politician." Well, if you are Mike Huckabee, John Hagee and Pat Robertson then you are right-on. However, a Pastor's role according to Historic Lutheranism and most Catholic and Protestant churches is to preach the Word(gospel),adminster the sacraments, provide pastoral care but also like Hebrew prophets speak out for justice and defend the poor and voiceless. This is where it gets political and dangerous especially if you are in a middle or upper class congregation. There is an old saying "Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable" that is what pastors are called to do and if you are a Christian and follow Jesus expect the same if not worse.

Ok I'm chasing rabbits and kind of getting off subject here. Politics! Yeah right like Republican, Democrat, and Independent. Who does God favor? Anybody with any common sense knows that God does not have a political affiliation. Wait a minute I remember as a child there was this group called the Moral Majority which later became the Christian Coalition that proclaimed Christians were Republicans and the Democrats were not. They not only brought us Ronald Reagan but the two George Bushes. There are now Christian Libertarians and can you believe there is a Religious Left. You can blame them for Obama. Ok we can blame you for Bush.

To be honest this political infighting is tiring me out. I'd rather preach the gospel and just retreat on issues of race, poverty and such. The main message of Christ is that he is the Way, Truth and the life but it seems like many don't really believe that and we can't even talk like brothers and sisters in the faith because we disagree in politics.

44Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' 45Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these,(AC) you did not do it to me.
Matthew 25:44-45

The Gospel of Hate

I turned on Am radio and heard Rush Limbaugh say that Obama is an angry black man but the only anger I hear is from white guys on my radio and tv. What's with this? I turned on the religious AM station and John Hagee, pastor of Cornerstone says that we need to get back to the God of the Old Testament where there are no second chances only one chance and zap you are burnt up with his huge congregation loudly applauding with handclaps and amens.

I see more Fred Phelps "God hate fags" stickers than God loves stickers. This is the gospel of hate.

Question: Why Ecumenical? What's that?

I know I should just put the word "Christian" but sadly when people see that they wonder if I'm one of those type Christians and there are all those stereotypes of the religious Right and hypocrites. You put "Ecumenical Christian" then you are labeled a liberal and that is a dirty word in our society even though we have a liberal president. This is not about politics though. Ecumenical according to Websters means 2 a: of, relating to, or representing the whole of a body of churches b: promoting or tending toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation.
Christians are not supposed to be sectarian but sadly many are. If you don't believe exactly like their group does then you are going to hell. This is why yes I'm Lutheran but I'm an ecumenical Christian meaning I have brothers and sisters of all types.
I also will not make a judgment on those of other faiths or no faiths that is God's business. God has some pretty big shoes to fill and I'm not going to attempt to fill them even though many have tried to.

I can't sleep blog and sermon.

It's late Saturday night and I can't sleep. I'm a lite sleeper. I hear every nook and cranny in this townhome and the wailing cat doesn't help. I don't want to wake Shelia so I go downstairs after swallowing an aspirin and get on this computer. Maybe I'll get tired and go back upstairs.

Oh yeah, the sermon for this week was John 6 about Jesus feeding the five thousand and miracles.

That old song by Jefferson Starship is going over and over in my head. "If only you believe in miracles like i believe, I'll get by or something like that. I could use a miracle right now. it's called sleep. well here's snippet of my sermon:

The gospel of John is often called a book of signs. You see a lot of Jesus’ miracles there. The first sign was the wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. There’s also healings and there is this unbelievable feeding of the five thousand. This is the only miracle story recorded in all four of the gospels sometimes it occurs two times as in the gospel of Mark so you know the early Christians thought this was important.

A large crowd was following Jesus. What were they looking for? More signs, more healings. They were hungry for physical food but they needed more. They needed a miracle. In today’s world you have two extremes those who scoff at any idea of a miracle. Everything must be proven by scientific inquiry. There is no room for mystery...there is no room for wonder...There is no room for creativity or imagination.. There is no room for a God. Everything must be labeled and studied like it was in a science lab. There is the other extreme that looks to God as a slot machine, a genie. One who will give you what you want and grant your every wish and desire. They follow a god of health, wealth and positive thinking not the one who suffered and gave us his life. There is no take up your cross and follow me in their thinking only the pursuit of personal happiness and self-fulfillment.

Miracles do happen. Many times we take the smallest miracles for granted. CS Lewis says miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story, which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see. Do you believe in miracles? Do you think the birth of a child, a person coming to faith, when a baptism is performed, when we are gathered around a a holy meal or when we are gathered around other believers in prayer, song, or word that a miracle is happening. When you look at creation and realize that God is here. Isn’t that a miracle too?

People were following Jesus because they knew he did miracles and they were hungry. This miracle happened at the Sea of Galilee or the Roman name sea of Tiberius. What is most interesting is this was in the time of Passover. God-fearing Jews went to the temple during Passover. This sounds like a Passover-Exodus story but there is no Moses. The Passover was a festival of national liberation from Egypt. There are feasts originally associated with the sacrifice of a sheep or a goat in the community and unleavened bread to be eaten usually from a barley harvest. Barley was the food of the poor and was needed for substenance. The slaying of the Passover lamb recalled God’s action in protecting the firstborn of the Israelites and the eating of manna recalled God’s nourishment of Israel in the wilderness regarded as bread from heaven. Here is Jesus, the Passover lamb the bread of heaven crossing the sea and on the mountain like Moses when he gave the law. The people did not go to the temple during Passover they came to God’s temple-Jesus-the one prophesied as the prophet who would come that was greater than Moses-fulfillment of all the promises of God-The messiah-God in the flesh.

This is similar to the story of Elisha who fed a hundred people with twenty barley loaves and there was leftovers. Here Jesus fed five thousand with five barley loafs and a couple of dried fish and there was left overs. When I mean left overs- I don’t mean Aunt Sally’s little container of left over cole slaw but an abundance. More leftovers than a Lutheran potluck or any church potluck.

In this story Jesus asks an obscure disciple a question. He asks Phillip who is not known to be a real close disciple like Matthew, Mark, John, or Peter. It says Jesus tested him with a question. Don’t confuse this with tempting but Jesus questions, challenges Phillip. See all these people coming? Where are we going to buy bread to feed them? God challenges us today in the Word as well. Are you listening? Phillip sees the crowd and responds like any rational person would. We don’t have enough money. We can’t pay for that. Sound familiar? Sometimes we just give up and say it can’t be done but with God all things are possible. Maybe we can’t do it but we can tell other people with the help of the Holy Spirit the love of Christ by sharing and finding solutions to their hunger and needs.

Simon Peter’s brother Andrew says, “Well, there’s this boy with only five barley leaves and two fish and just maybe we can give to some.” I can imagine all the others say that’s not enough- oh yeah right. However, Jesus told them to sit down. This was almost like the first Eucharist-holy communion. Jesus fed them. He gave them himself as he feeds us and gives us himself. Jesus took the loaf, gave thanks, then gave it all. They all ate, they were satisfied. There was more of enough. There were left overs-an abundance.

In our society abundance usually means a sign of inheritance or hard work or good luck but here it is a sign of God’s free gift-the miracle of God’s presence- Jesus is more than enough.

If you read on you realize not only does the disciples not get it but the crowd tried to make Jesus into a political celebrity king but he would have none of that. No TV show named after him. Well not yet. The disciples saw him walk on water and were afraid. They don’t get it and they don’t know what to do.

The scripture shows us the way we really are. The word of God is like a sword that cuts and reveals our inner thoughts and feelings. We are exposed, We are just like the disciples and the crowd. We don’t get it and we don’t know what to do with ourselves and what we have. Give it to God. You might not think its much like five barley loaves and two fish but Jesus will bless it and use whatever you have. God is calling you to bless others by what you have. This is the miracle.

Listen to the words of this prayer that spoke to me:

Jesus, all the people came to you

Hungry for your words of life

You took the little they had

Blessed their gifts

Multiplied them and fed the crowd.

They had more than their fill much and many were left over.

O Christ

Please take our small offerings

Bless them, multiply them, make them holy

Use us and the gifts you have give us to care for this needy world.

Amen

I'm a bleeding heart Lib-Lutheran-Christian

What does your heart bleed?

Blogs

The blogs to the right are better bloggers. Some are Artists, Writers, Pastors, Poets, and Musicians. I like blogs that make me think, ask questions, and also ones that remind me that I am dust among dust and we all share this human condition. We all depend on God for life and meaning.