Genesis 32:22-31
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21
NUCC
Pentecost 11
July 31, 2005
As I read the three Bible texts for today three words came to the forefront:
- Struggle
- Compassion
- Abundance
1. Struggle
What did we read this morning? Jacob struggled with God in a mighty wrestling match. Paul struggled with his lack of success in convincing other Jews to join his “Jesus Core.” Jesus struggled with disappointment and sadness. He had just come from his hometown where people rejected him. Then he found out that his cousin John had been executed by King Herod. All he wanted to do was get away and be left alone.
Struggle. It was a part of life for so many people in the Bible and it is part of life for so many people today.
Personal Issues:
This week some of us have struggled with various health problems. This week our friend Penny Vande Burg has struggled with the death of her husband. This week some of us parents have struggled with our children, and this week some of us children have struggled with our parents!
Community Issues:
This week the world has continued to struggle with the threat of terrorism. This week Congress struggled with a decision on trade with Central America. This week school boards continued to struggle with providing a quality education with limited resources.
We struggle, but in the struggle we learn that God is acting. A couple days ago I received a general email from Chuck Marohnic, a church jazz musician in Arizona. He told about waking up and hearing this statement in his head:
“This is your God moment. Suffer it wisely.”
Suffering a God moment? Yes. Over and over again we learn that God is still speaking to us, particularly in the struggles and challenges and problems of this life. We’re uncomfortable. We’re conflicted. But then we act out of a deeper sense of who we are and where God is leading us. That’s what the people in our lessons did. And this brings me to the second word.
- Compassion
Did you see any compassion in our Bible texts today? At the end of his wrestling with the stranger, Jacob’s hip suffers an injury, even as he receives a new name. Jacob, now Israel, is deeply changed. He will be more….compassionate. Paul agonizes for his people Israel. He is both passionate and compassionate! But Jesus. Well, Jesus just wants to get away from it all, but he sees these people with needs. And he decides he cannot leave them. He offers healing. Then when his disciples want to send the people away, Jesus says: “You give them something to eat.” And eat they did. All 5,000 plus of them.
Compassion. Compassion coming out of struggle. That is what we witness. Compassion. This is what God, through Jacob, Paul, and especially Jesus challenges us to practice. Have compassion, says God. When you take the word apart you know better what it means. It means suffering with someone. It means being there for someone in the darkest moment. It means reaching out to someone in need. What is it that my friend Chuck heard? “This is your God moment. Suffer it wisely.”
Suffering with one another. We do that. Don’t we? When we go to the funeral home we are suffering with one another. When we visit the sick bed we are suffering with one another. When we struggle with the immense challenge of reaching out to the people of Africa we are also suffering with one another. When we challenge ourselves and our government to make sure a new trade agreement with Central America benefits the workers of both Honduras and Wisconsin more than the giant multi-national corporations we are also suffering with one another.
Compassion is what Jesus had when he reached out to that crowd and ordered his disciples to feed them. Compassion is what each of us has learned since the first day we started Sunday School. We learn that to be a Christian is to be compassionate. That’s what it’s all about. And this leads me to my third and final word for the day. The result of compassion is….
3. Abundance
Think back to the story we read in Matthew this morning. The disciples were worried. They didn’t have enough. They didn’t believe they could feed everybody. They lived out of a philosophy of scarcity. Jesus, on the other hand, lived out of a philosophy of abundance. He knew there was enough. The disciples saw only the scarcity of their own resources. Jesus challenged them to trust in God’s abundance.
What did Jesus do? He did something we will do later in this worship time during our celebration of Holy Communion. He took. He blessed. He broke. He gave. This is what we will do when we take the bread and the cup, bless them, break the bread and pour the wine, and give them out to one another. Ordinary elements of life to provide extraordinary grace for living. Whether in fish and loaves, or bread and wine: all may eat, all may be filled.
Today, during our celebration of communion, we will experience the abundance of God’s graceful love. Then as we leave this church and go back to our homes and work places we will be challenged to continue living out this abundant life style.
Of course, here in the United States we live with great physical abundance. Just this week I received a belated birthday card and generous gift from my Swiss exchange brother Andy. Last summer we visited him. The summer before that he visited us here in Neillsville. Each of us lives in great physical abundance.
Now our challenge is to also live in great spiritual abundance, knowing that we are graced in our living by a loving God and sharing with compassion the love we have received.
My friends, this is the good news for us on this last day of July in 2005. God has created us and this world. God struggles with us to show us a way of compassion and sharing in our abundance. There is more than enough to go around. That is exactly what we are going to sing right now. Join me.
