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One of my favourite traditions around this time of year is all the fall fairs,
exhibitions and expositions that take place. While we didn’t go every year, as child and young adult, I always enjoyed the opportunities to go to the CNE, or the Rockland World’s Fair, and now that I’m here, of course the Comox Valley Exhibition. I think one of the reasons I love going is because these events are steeped in traditions. I don’t spend much time, if any, throughout the year on a farm but I love seeing the 4H club livestock. I don’t
normally pay much attention to equestrian sports but I’ll sit for an hour or two watching the competitors at the ex. I don’t gamble, ever, and I never pay attention to where chickens poop but I am obsessed with chicken poop bingo! And if you have never heard of chicken poop bingo…it is pretty much what it sounds like. A chicken is placed on a board with squares and numbers, people pay for a square and if the chicken’s poop lands on your
square you win a prize. I’m not kidding when I say it’s probably my favourite part of the CV Ex. I am told it is a tradition that has been around nearly as long as the Ex, 147 years this year. Traditions can bring out the best in us. They bring us comfort because they are familiar. They provide us with stability because they are part of the routine. They make us
feel safe because we know that what we’re doing has been done for many years. Traditions can also bring out the worst in us. They can be exclusionary. They can become idols. They can distract us from the real reason for such traditions. That is at the heart of what Jesus is
saying to the Pharisees and Scribes in today’s passage.

Discussion around traditions has been top of mind for me of late, particularly as we look to a return to full in-person worship. A year and half ago many of our traditions got overturned and disrupted. It didn’t feel great- in fact it was a pretty big struggle- but throughout we discovered some incredible gifts. The gift of re-connection with members
of our congregation who had moved away because everything was now available on line.
The realization that we have more people “participating” in worship when they can do so on their own schedule rather than only at 10:30am on a Sunday. We have more people participating in our Bible studies then ever before and they come from all over the country.
As we look to returning to the familiar, it is an imperative that we also look at ways in which the work that has started over this past year continues. Because, our traditions even our doctrine, do not dictate who we are, God does.
Now,as we look at the critiques of the Pharisees and Scribes I do want to point out that it is still very good practice to wash your hands and food before you eat it. In someways I can see why the Pharisees are questioning the disciples’ behaviour- because I would be too- but at the root it is not so much about washing hands before you eat but that word, “defile”. The greater issue who they are eating with. Also, in his rebuttal Jesus isn’t saying that we should get rid of the traditions rather that the traditions are part of a much larger context. Jesus is pointing out that our traditions are meaningless if they do not include genuine words or actions.
The Pharisees point to scripture to help them prove their point. The disciples are not following the laws as laid out by God through Moses, and the Levites, and the elders of the past. But Jesus throws scripture back in their faces and quotes from Isaiah 29: 13 which raises the concern that God’s people have neglected the foundation behind these laws, of love and mercy. They are consumed with getting the human traditions right at the
cost of neglecting why God put them in place in the first place. Commentary writer Darrel Bock says, “Part of the Jesus’ defence of his disciples’ not washing their hands before the meal to prevent ritual uncleanness was to accuse the Pharisees of majoring on minors and adding to the law, while hypocritically honouring God with their lips but not with their
hearts.” They have turned the law and traditions into idols.
I recently had a conversation with a friend and she asked, “When did the church become the pharisees?” I think at the root of the question was the fact that many of us can get wrapped up in our traditions rather than the purpose behind them. I can point my finger at other churches and say, look they require you to become a member before you take communion, that’s wrong. But the truth is, that used to be one of our rules too. As
moderator of the presbytery I have had to say to other sessions and search committees and ministers, you can’t do it that way because it is against our polity, as if the polity is the be all and end all. Of course most of these guidelines are supposed to help us, just like washing your hands before a meal makes good hygiene sense, but often our rules and traditions can become stumbling blocks to faith. If we use our traditions as a way of
keeping others out than we are indeed more like the pharisees than the disciples.
In our reading we skip over some of the details to find ourselves at the root of what Jesus is really saying, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
While it appears that our traditions have power, it is really our words and actions that show our true feelings. For example, the tradition of praying a prayer of intercession during worship is meaningless if we do not live the prayer we are praying. I am not arguing that as we return to some form of what we knew before the pandemic that we should get rid of all of our traditions. I am however, suggesting that we need to look at why they are
important, why do they matter to us, and why do they exist. Jesus was not telling the
Pharisees that their traditions no longer matter but what he was saying is that the traditions are meaningless if they do not promote the love and mercy of God. A little further in this passage Jesus lists what defiles a person, evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. Now, I am not about to confess that I have been driven by everything on that list, I can say with certainty I have never been driven to murder…yet…but in reality I bet we have all experienced greed, or pride or foolishness. We
are all defiled in some way. Chicken poop bingo is definitely a foolish tradition- and one I’m not ready to give up. However, what all those things listed have in common is that they all damage relationships. If our traditions help to build or bolster relationships then they are doing God’s work. If they destroy or damage relationships then we need to reconsider.
Thankfully, God wants to have a relationship with us. I’m not one to normally declare in a sermon we are all sinners and therefore need Jesus to save us. But that is the truth. Yet as defiled as we are, through Jesus Christ, we our reconciled. That my friends needs to be at the heart of our traditions. Amen

Over a year ago, just as we were beginning to understand that this pandemic was going to affect us all in very tangible ways, not only did we experience shortages of toilet paper, but also flour and yeast. We may all laugh about it now but at the time, with so many people at home, having lost jobs or working from home, a sourdough baking craze reached most households, particularly if you lived with a millennial. I was very intrigued by this trend. Nearly everyone I knew of my age was baking bread. Journalist Emily
VanDerWerff had a theory, she wrote, “Bread baking is a thing we do in a crisis, perhaps because bread is one of the very foundations of human civilization, and perhaps because it has been marketed to us as life-giving. In the midst of quarantine, we have turned, seemingly collectively, to techniques from the past, like coaxing yeast out of the air, the
sort of sufficiently advanced technology that is indistinguishable from magic. We have learned to create something from nothing.” I warned you a couple of weeks ago that we were about to embark on a month long discussion on bread, more specifically, Jesus as bread. Jess will likely touch on this even more in the coming weeks. But my experiences over the pandemic and hearing VanDerWerff’s perspective, makes me think about Jesus’ claim to be the bread of life and bread from heaven in a new light. In some ways Jesus is “marketing” himself as life-giving as bread. It is also demonstrating that part of the foundations of human civilization is also faith.

Remember, Jesus has just fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fish- setting the stage for all this bread language. Then last week we heard a short story in which Jesus walks on water and declares “I AM is with you; do not be afraid.” setting the stage for all this “I am” language. It is now the next day, presumably people are still talking about the incredible miracles that took place the day before. It also appears based on our introduction that they all just spent the night on the shore waiting to see what would
happen next. It must have been a cold night with all that wind! When it appears that Jesus and his disciples aren’t going to show up the crowd decides to go to Capernaum.

Nowadays there is a very well travelled road that goes from Tiberias to Capernaum. It takes 20 minutes to drive from one place to another. Back then, the fastest way to travel was by boat, so they get in and go.
They find Jesus and begin to ask him questions. This morning we jump over 15 verses in which Jesus kind of chastises the crowd for following him with the expectation of more free food. Jesus says, don’t look for food that perishes but for food that endures.
From the get go the crowd has trouble understanding literal versus allegorical meanings and it get’s even more complicated as they realize that some of the crowd know Jesus’ parents. How can he claim to be bread from heaven when they know he grew up in Nazareth as a carpenter’s son.

This is where our passage comes in. As modern readers we can see that the crowd has completely missed the mark but I think that’s in part because none of us grew up with Jesus. I mean, yes, many of us grew up in the church and hold to the reformed idea that Jesus is our friend and king and lives in our hearts but I mean, none of us knew the earthly
Jesus. We didn’t watch him grow from a four year old to a trouble making twelve year old. We didn’t see a young 30 something year old blossom into a wise rabbi. Imagine if one of your friend’s children or grandchildren started claiming to be from heaven rather than from their parents. It gets complicated! This crowd knew too much about Jesus’ personal life to allow his words to ring true. Ironically the crowd also seems to know too little about Jesus’ authority and ability and power despite having witnessed two pretty impressive miracles.

The crowd is presuming to know something about Jesus which sadly clouds their understanding of who Jesus really is. Biblical scholar Brian Petersen calls this “theological irony” because the crowd professes to know Jesus’ father and mother but that only reveals a total ignorance of the Father who sent Jesus. The truth is not found in knowing the human parents but rather the truth is found in knowing that Jesus has come from the Father in Heaven. The crowd’s self-assured “knowledge” blocks their ability to
know the truth. I would argue that we, certainly me, have this problem also. We have difficulty seeing beyond what we “know” to be true and therefore we are unable to see the divine truth amongst us. I know I am right about certain things which means I am no longer learning new truths about this knowledge. The crowd knows who Jesus’ parents are and therefore they cannot move beyond his earth-liness- if only they could look beyond to
discover that they are actually experiencing the divinity God- right in front of them.

Jesus doesn’t loose patience- not yet at least- because he explains that the only way to be drawn into faith is by the Father. In Greek the word means more than to be drawn, a better translation might actually be, “to be dragged”. Essentially no one comes to Jesus without the Father’s pull. It is a two way relationship. We do not sit idly by waiting for God to open our eyes but God also doesn’t wait for us to finally see the truth through
our own merit. This is challenging for us to understand because, as Petersen puts it, there is paradoxical tension in this text between the call to faith and the declaration that faith can only come from God. But this is also not a paradox that is to be unwound, it is simply the mystery of faith. God pulls at us so that we can hear and believe Jesus’ words and have faith. This bread from heaven not only nurtures our souls but also reveals our hearts to
new possibilities and with God those possibilities are endless. Like pulling yeast out of the air to create something from nothing, God pulls us towards Jesus to make us something from nothing.

Jesus presses on with this image. Jesus is indeed bread from heaven but unlike the manna that nourished their ancestors in the wilderness Jesus is LIVING bread. This is not about their ancestors but about the here and now. Our passage closes with Jesus foreshadowing what this really means. It is not the end of the conversation; the crowd will challenge, dispute, and grumble amongst themselves for a while longer as they try to
unpack what Jesus is saying. However, what we hear as the closing to this particular section is, Jesus saying “The bread I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” While Jesus may have been speaking allegorically in reference to being the bread from heaven, here Jesus is being literal. They just don’t know it yet. Jesus is promising to give up his life for the world.
As complicated as they are Jesus words are supposed to provide nourishment.
Jesus is declaring that he, not our own understanding, is the source of our strength and faith. Jesus is stating that God pulls us, drags us, draws us to Christ. VanDerWerff said that bread is one of the very foundations of human civilization and this is likely why we turn to bread when we need comfort. It’s not the easiest thing to make, it takes time, patience and strength, but the pay off is pretty great. I would argue that there is nearly nothing more delicious than a slice of fresh baked bread. It may not be the easiest thing to
trust Jesus or understand his words. It may take time and patience on our part to see the ways in which Jesus has been raised to life. It may require us to have a strength of spirit that involves perseverance, and much like kneading dough it requires molding and pulling. Only then can we feel full, nourished by God. Like baking real bread its a bit complicated, understanding needs patience and wisdom needs strength. But the pay off, is worth it. Amen

You may not know this but I’m a big fan nature documentaries, whether it’s Blue Planet or Planet Earth or more recently A Perfect Planet, all featuring Sir David Attenborough or The Nature of Things or NatGeo, if Knowledge Network has it on you can bet I’m going to try at tune in. I find stories about God’s strange and wonderful creation super engaging. I recently watched an episode of one such show that featured the Common Basilisk, it’s a little brown lizard found in Central and South America and other than a strange protrusion on the heads of the male lizards they are generally quite unremarkable. That is, until they are being chased by a predator on water. The Common Basilisk is nicknamed the “Jesus Christ Lizard” because they are able to run on water. They have these large hind feet with scaly fringes on the sides of their toes. When on land these fringes are compressed and not used but when it senses danger it can jump into the water, flail it’s fringes against the water’s surface and lift it’s body so that it is on the surface of the water. They can run about 10-20 meters without sinking.  It is fascinating stuff and I’d totally recommend that after this service you look up Jesus Christ Lizards on youtube and watch in awe as it scampers across the water. It would be quite fitting to watch such a clip following today’s theme. What interests me is not so much the name of the lizard or it’s ability to run on water, despite the fact that walking on water is exactly what we hear Jesus does,  but the fact that this lizard only runs on water when it is afraid or feels threatened. Today we really focus in on how fear can affect our behaviour.

Usually this brief version of Jesus walking on water is included as part of last week’s reading of the feeding of the five thousand. While it seems a bit incongruous the truth is that both stories are an attempt on the part of the author of the Gospel of John to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” We heard last week that by feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish during passover that Jesus is creating a link between himself and God’s salvation. Next week we continue the theme of Jesus as the bread of heaven, a theme which continues for many weeks. This morning’s passage actually has more in common with this theme then it first appears as it too demonstrates who Jesus is. Both stories involve shocking miracles, miracles that go beyond Jesus’ traditional healing miracles and for John they are both signs that Jesus has divine power and authority.

Jesus gets in and out of the boats belonging to the disciples on a regular basis however, this story has the disciples getting into their own boats and beginning to cross the sea of Galilee without Jesus. John says something strange at the end of verse 17, “It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.” John is foreshadowing right away what is about to happen. Despite the fact that the disciples are in their boats without Jesus, Jesus will show up!

It’s dark. It’s windy and they are about three or four miles from shore. Even if we are not seasoned sailors we know that this is a bad situation. There is great risk of striking something just off the shore or rolling into rocks. The disciples are scared. What could be scarier then being in a boat, in the dark, in rough waters, about 3 miles from shore? Honestly, seeing a figure, approaching the boat, walking on water. I bet that in that moment, the disciples have enough adrenaline coursing through their veins that if they jumped out of the boats they too might be able to run on water. But by showing up Jesus is transforming the disciples’ fear.

Unfortunately there is something lost in most English translations of what happens next. Both the NRSV and NIV state that as Jesus approaches the boat he declares, “It is I, do not be afraid.” This is because in English that is the sentence that makes sense. However, in Greek what Jesus actually says is, “ego eimi” which means “I am”. The story of Jesus walking on water now connects the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand with all the passages regarding Jesus as the bread of heaven because Jesus will say “ego eimi” another four times in this chapter all referring to Jesus saying “I AM the bread of life or living bread or bread from heaven.” But in this moment Jesus simply says, “I Am, do not be afraid.”

Of course this may cause us to reflect on the first time the words “I AM” are uttered in reference to God in the Bible,  when Moses asks God who he shall say has sent him to Pharaoh and God responds tell him I AM has sent you.  Theologian Ginger Barfield has a hypothesis on why we need to remember that Jesus declares “I Am” to the disciples in this moment. She writes, “A simple understanding of the “I Am” statement  [is needed] in this context. It is as if one were to open the door to enter a dark room where another is present. There is fear over who is entering the room if the identity is not announced. A simple, “hello, it’s me” suffices as a voice recognition to calm the ear over who the intruder is.” Meaning that Jesus is aware that the disciples are afraid and he simply says, “I Am” as a way to say, “Hi, it’s me….God, don’t be afraid.”

In this moment Jesus recognizes that the disciples are afraid. In their fear, they need Jesus. They needed Jesus because he wasn’t with them. As Barfield says, “Their need came out of Jesus’ own absence.” Their fear was dominating how they were handling the situation, much like a few weeks ago when we heard about Jesus calming the storm by rebuking it and he then chastises the disciples for letting their fear get the best of them. This time, however, Jesus shows up to calm their fears. Jesus shows up and says, “I’m here. Stop being afraid.” Like a parent, who rushes into a child’s room while they are experiencing a nightmare. Jesus shows up, embraces them and says, I’m here. It’s ok. Don’t be afraid.

Put side by side these two signs, his feeding the five thousand and his walking on water,  show us something about Jesus. Sometimes Jesus can awaken needs and feed our souls with sustenance similar to what Jesus does with the feeding of the five thousand. But sometimes Jesus can provide us with reassurance by simply being present. Ego eimi. I AM is with you, do not be afraid. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid in some fashion of the future- it’s unknown, it’s unpredictable, it’s unclear. But then I hear Jesus’ words ego eimi, and instead of jumping up and running away I feel better prepared for the future. Jesus is active through grand miracles, sure, but also through simple presence. It might be rocky, windy, dark,  and a little turbulent at times but just by being present with us Jesus brings us to safe harbours. Amen

Devotional:

I want to tell you about a little boy named Tony Hudgell. For those of you who follow news out of the UK this boy’s story might be familiar to you. Certainly many of us have heard about Tony’s hero, Captain Sir Tom Moore, the centenarian who raised over 33 million pounds for the NHS covid relief by walking the length of his garden 100 times. Sadly Moore succumbed to complications from Covid just 8 months after being knighted. But this story is about Tony. As a baby Tony required amputation of both his legs. His surgery took place at Evelina London Children’s Hospital. At five Tony is learning to walk on his prosthesis. It’s not easy but he is a determined little boy. Inspired by Captain Sir Moore, Tony decided that he would raise 500 pounds for the Children’s hospital by walking 10 km in the month of June last year, a big feat for someone just learning how to walk.  But just like with Captain Moore, Tony surpassed his goal of 500 pounds and managed to raise 1.5 million for the hospital that saved his life. At the beginning of May this year Tony decided to raise more funds for Evelina Hospital, in part in memory of his hero, and walked 100 steps unaided by crutches, another big step towards his own recovery and an incredible gift to the hospital. All because a little boy was willing to step up, do something small,  and help others in a big way. 

I would argue that the feeding of the five thousand is one of the most familiar stories in the New Testament. This is in part because it is one of the few stories that is told in all for Gospels. What makes John’s version stand out is two-fold.   First, it is a very clear attempt at answering the question, “Who is Jesus?” In the introduction it says that a large crowd kept following Jesus because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Meaning, that people were very curious about Jesus’ gifts and ministry and they wanted to learn or experience more. Second, in John’s version this story sets the stage for a very lengthy section on Jesus as the bread of heaven. Seriously, this starts us on a month long look at this theme of bread and Jesus. I suspect that the lectionary collaborators chose to focus on this section during the summer because they expect people to be away, both preachers and parishioners, so for about five weeks the theme is the same to make sure that no one misses the point. Don’t worry, I’ve mixed things up a bit to make it a little more interesting this year. Next week we will hear a short interlude between the feeding of the five thousand and further bread imagery but we will find out that this interlude is answering the same question of “who is Jesus?” John uses these stories to answer that very question and in answering the question takes a deep dive into the image of Jesus as the bread of life. 

Learning who Jesus is does not come all at once, but we catch glimpses of it as this story unfolds. The introduction is only four verses but it hints at what is to come. Verses one to three describe the scene. Jesus has just defended himself against naysayers. He leaves to go to the other side of the lake, this time it appears not in a boat but on foot, and following behind him is a large crowd because they have seen Jesus perform signs. John often refers to Jesus’ miracles as signs. This is because, for John, these miracles are not just showing off Jesus’ power and authority but rather proof of Jesus’ divinity. For the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) Jesus is usually portrayed as a man, a very special gifted man, but a man. Whereas John really holds onto the divinity of Jesus. 

The next verse in the introduction, verse four, tells us the time of year and while it seems like an irrelevant detail it again speaks majorly to who Jesus is. John places this passage at the time of the Passover. As a result it links this meal on the Galilean hillside with the story of the Exodus, with the story of God saving the people from slavery and providing for both their physical and spiritual needs in part through Manna, miraculous bread from heaven. This tiny detail about the time of year is actually at the heart of the entire chapter. For the next 68 verses we will hear how Jesus not only nourishes but redeems, saves the people of God, much like the people of God were saved in the Exodus.

Another detail that makes John’s version stand out from the others is that when Jesus sees this large crowd Jesus is the one who asks, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” John claims that Jesus is the one asking the questions as a way to test Philip because in truth, Jesus already knows what he’s about to do.  In our Gospel story Philip answers that it would take an enormous amount of money to buy bread to feed all these people. Philip relates it to cost and thus establishes the mind-set of scarcity. It would cost way too much to feed these people so let’s not even try! I’m sure you can think of times in which the church has functioned on a scarcity model.

Andrew pipes in mentioning that a boy has brought with him a small supply of food but that such a small amount is worthless among so many people. This small boy’s offering is just a drop in a bucket- there’s no way it can make a difference! I’ve often wondered, did this boy offer up his loaves and fishes? Did this little boy step up, and hope that what little he had to offer would help others in a big way? How many of us look at a situation and say, it will cost too much, it will take too much time, it will be too much work, so we might as well not even try. Yet Jesus takes this small amount and nourishes the people, literally. The crowd was looking for a sign and they got one! Jesus fills their stomachs and their hunger. And all it took was something small and seemingly insignificant to make a big impact. 

Next week we will hear how a little bit of fear can affect an entire situation but today we hear that a little bit of effort and hope can change an entire situation. Too often I measure need, quantify my inadequate resources or gifts and resign to hopelessness.  Yet, I hear stories like Tony’s a five year old twice amputee who is re-learning how to walk and manages to raise funds, major funds, for a good cause and I realize that I have nothing about which to be hopeless. Jesus is standing on the shore amongst all of that need and hunger, with nothing but a few loaves of bread and a couple small fish, demonstrating that when we work with God, we have to expect the unexpected and trust that it will work out. Trust that small acts will show big results. We have to take what little we do have, funds, talents, efforts and step up because through the divinity of Jesus we have been redeemed, our small efforts may seem tiny in comparison but big things can happen when God feeds our souls.  Amen

Devotion: 

My husband Mike likes to ask people on their birthdays, what is your favourite childhood birthday memory? It’s amazing to see people’s faces light up as they recount stories about a surprising gift, or a hilarious party or a meaningful tradition. We all seem to have birthday memories that make us smile.  Mine, by the way, is that every year, even into adulthood, my mom would make an angel food money cake, wrapping dimes, quarters and eventually loonies and twoonies in cellophane and tucking them into the cake before it was iced. That is my favourite birthday memory. I don’t think today’s scripture passage is anyone’s favourite birthday party story but it is probably one of the most well known birthday stories in the Bible. It has been the subject of incredible art, infamous operas, an Oscar Wilde play and a prime example of how perverse, vile and salacious Herod II’s kingdom really was. Trust me, I thought long and hard about picking a different scripture passage. This is a shared service, after all, surely I could preach on something a little more “lite”, but then, that’s what makes the discipline of preaching the lectionary so important to me. We encounter and tackle uncomfortable stories.

Many scholars point to this passage as the end of innocence for Jesus’ ministry. 

Personally I think that the end of innocence happened the minute Jesus called fishermen on the sea of Galilee. Jesus was a disruptor, a boundary crosser, a whistle blower, and an agitator as well as a rebel. There was nothing “innocent” about his ministry. Jesus not only calmed storms and called out demons but pointed to the ways in which religion and society had strayed from their relationship with God. And Jesus garnered quite a reputation. We know this from the opening line of our text. King Herod had heard of Jesus because his name had become known. But that doesn’t make this passage any easier to preach!

Mark does some strange things by including this story. It needs to be treated as an interlude between two stories about Jesus.  What perhaps we forget is that this interlude, between Jesus sending out his disciples two by two (which is described just before our passage) and the feeding of the five thousand (which happens immediately after)  is actually a story about an event from the past.  It harkens back to Mark 1:14 when, without any further words, Mark states, “Now after John was arrested…” For six chapters readers have been left hanging, wondering what happened to John, it just so happens that Jesus’ ministry was deep in development, so many of us forgot that the early prophet has been in limbo. Now, Mark uses this gruesome story to fill in the details. Mark also uses this story to foreshadow the disciples’ and Jesus’ future in ministry. 

Before we get the details of this strange and frankly disturbing birthday party Mark tells the readers what others thought about Jesus. Word is spreading fast about his radical teaching and healing. People are baffled by Jesus and thus they try to explain Jesus by explaining who he might be, some say John the baptist, raised from the dead (the first indication that John has died), others say Elijah while others still think he is a new prophet like the prophets of old. We will hear similar words in Mark 8 when Jesus asks the disciples, “who do people say I am”, and then, “who do you say that I am?” Peter then confesses that Jesus is the Messiah and thanks to these short words in Mark 6 we now understand how profound Peter’s statement is. Jesus’ work is so outside the “normal” actions of religious leaders that people had trouble placing who he really was. We have had to adapt to “new normals” a lot in the last year and a half. At times it has been confusing, baffling, or bewildering. I have heard numerous theories that try to explain or rationalize what we have been through. But just like how people had trouble explaining Jesus and so claimed he was John raised from the dead or Elijah or a new prophet, sometimes by seeking explanations we miss the truth. 

The truth is that John’s fate foreshadows Jesus’ fate. It stands to reason that if John was arrested for his words against the people in power, then Jesus will be too. If John was beheaded based on fear or a whim, then Jesus’ life is in danger too. Herodias, Herod’s sister-in-law and now wife, feared John because John wasn’t afraid to speak out against their marriage. John wasn’t afraid to speak out against the corruption and hedonism found within Herod’s kingdom. And please remember, this is Herod II, the son of the Herod who had all boys under the age of 2 murdered due to his own fear about Jesus’ birth.  Because John wasn’t afraid, that made Herodias afraid of John. Fear can make us do irrational things. Fear can make us hold grudges. Fear resulted in John’s beheading, and fear is what put Jesus on the cross. 

To be fair, not that I want to be fair to Herod, but Herod wasn’t really “afraid” of John. Herod’s original intent was to just keep John locked up. Verse 20 has a fabulous line, “Herod was greatly perplexed” by John. Like the others who are perplexed by Jesus’ teachings and abilities, Herod is perplexed by John’s words. But this perplexity is not necessarily fear but more bewilderment because Herod likes listening to John. Again, I suspect that many people, despite being baffled by Jesus’ actions and words, still liked listening to him.  I think that the church can be a really baffling place. I have had many conversations with friends and strangers who say that they don’t want to come to church because they don’t know the rules, they don’t want to stand when they should be sitting or kneeling when they should be standing. They are baffled by our rituals. That has been one of the grace-filled gifts of this pandemic that people can just tune in without being worried about whether they are doing the right thing or not.

If I could pick a word for this week’s passage it would be “perplexing” because I find the whole passage perplexing. The people were perplexed by Jesus, Herod is perplexed by John and Herod is perplexed again when his neice/step-daughter asks for the head of John on a platter. Herod’s actions foreshadow Pilates’ reaction to the crowd asking for Jesus’ crucifixion. Herod wishes to “satisfy” his stepdaughter’s request just as Pilate, who washes his hands of the crucifixion, wishes to satisfy the crowd and orders Jesus’ death. This whole story is baffling but it is also setting us up with the knowledge that Jesus will go through a similarly horrendous and baffling event. And yet, out of that confusion, bewilderment, perplexity comes the story of the resurrection. God works through perplexing and baffling situations to expose the truth. 

This is a birthday party that no one will forget but it is part of a greater story of grace and renewal and discipleship. John and Jesus spoke truth to power and that put them in precarious situations that perplexed people. But God broken through all the confusion and bewilderment to reveal grace, truth, love, and salvation. I’m still perplexed by a lot of things God does but instead of responding with fear it is important that we open ourselves up to that race, truth, love and salvation! Amen

I’ve shared many times how I attempt to be a gardener. I openly admit that I am a great accidental gardener. Whenever I garden with intent and expectation it is a big flop. I end up with a really low yield. But if I just randomly plant without much expectation or hope things blossom. And of course I have great success with volunteer plants that pop up due to my neglect in dead heading the previous year’s growth. I don’t even know how I ended up with strawberry plants, parsley, or dill in my backyard garden. It appears that the minute I try to plan a harvest, reading all the books of companion plants and seed spacing those plants fail…majorly! I suspect that this has something to do with how I build up expectations. I expect plants that I’ve planned out to do well while I don’t expect plants I haven’t planned to succeed. Expectations can be like that, plans can be like that, life can be like that. 

Today Jesus delivers two brief parables about growth to describe the kingdom of God. We know that Jesus liked to use parables as teaching tools. It says so, at the end of our passage. Mark is clear that there are numerous other parables that Jesus shared that the author did not record. Not only that, Mark states that sometimes Jesus didn’t explain the intricacies or lessons of the parables except to his disciples in private. This fact, that we don’t always get explanations, used to really irk me. But I’m currently reading a textbook in preparation for a summer course I will be taking entitled “The Surprising Wisdom of the Parables” and author Amy-Jill Levine says, “The Gospel writers, in their wisdom, left most of the parables as open narratives in order to invite us into engagement with them. Each reader will hear a distinct message and may find that the same parable leaves multiple impressions over time…Reducing parables to a single meaning destroys their aesthetic as well as ethical potential. ” Levine also argues that one of the reasons Jesus spoke in parables is because they helped with auditory memory. We remember a good story far better than an intriguing lecture. Jesus used the parables so that people would remember his preaching. Something for a contemporary preacher to think about!

In the first parable Jesus compares the kingdom of God to seed being scatter on the ground that sprouts and grows while the gardener is asleep. I can appreciate this kind of gardening. I don’t know how my volunteer strawberry plants got in my garden but I’m currently reaping the benefit. To my knowledge, I had nothing to do with those plants getting to where they are now. That speaks a lot to my understanding of grace. There is nothing I have done to deserve the grace of God- in fact, if anything, I don’t deserve it, yet it is still offered. Yes, the gardener scatters the seed but the gardener does not have control over the growth. Yet, the gardener will be the one who gets to enjoy the harvest. There is really a sense of lack of control when it comes to the kingdom. We don’t control it, God does.

As much as I like to be in control of all aspects of my life- I have to acknowledge that there is much I do not have control over. The farmer scatters the seed but it is not the farmer who makes it grow, the farmer doesn’t even fully understand how it grows. Sure, we have a lot of wisdom and knowledge, science and experience that can teach us how something can grow but ultimately we are not in control. Jesus is stating that when it comes to the kingdom of God, the power and nature and will of God, we are not in control. Since God is the one who is in control of the kingdom then there is also mystery to it’s growth.

Jesus then builds on this theme of growth with a follow up parable that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed- a small seed that becomes the greatest of all shrubs. First of all, a mustard seed isn’t all that small nor is a mustard plant, all that great of a shrub, and mustard is my least favourite condiment. As a kid I hated it so much that I would tell people I was allergic. But there is wisdom in this parable as well and for all the times I have read and studied this parable, for the first time I realized it’s not just about the seed that grows into a shrub. The parable ends with, “so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” I couldn’t believe it, as an amateur birder, how could I have never thought about the symbolism of the birds in this parable. Levine points out that when commentators do focus on the birds, the modern take is to connect the birds to gentile nations. If God’s kingdom is symbolized as a small seed that grows into large shrub and the birds represent all the people who will flock to the kingdom, than God’s kingdom includes an array of birds! Or, another take is that the birds also represent the kingdom, because in most translations it is not “birds of the air” as we heard it in the NRSV but rather “birds of heaven” that make their nests in the shade. Levine says, “[This parable is about] the ability of God’s creatures- feathered or flesh- to survive, to make do with whatever is available.”

These two parables insist that the full manifestation of the reign of God will blossom gradually, unavoidably, unexpectedly, in all kinds of conditions, culminating in a state of completion. Jesus is stating that growth is inevitable. That no matter how scattered we humans become in our actions and distractions, the growing conditions will be ripe for God’s kingdom to come. We can plant all kinds of seeds and we may never know or come to realize what growth happened in our lifetime but we can be assured that God’s kingdom will come. I can bet that many of the saints of old, the people who influenced the church and us, had no idea that we would be providing ministry on line. Both parables teach me that we should never be daunted by the small things, never ashamed of modest beginnings, not be discouraged when things seem to be taking a long time to grow- because we are not the ones who control the final destiny or the ultimate growth.

It is our job to scatter that seed but also to reap the harvest. We must see where the soil is ready for growth AND we must not be afraid to take our sickles and harvest when things are ready. Otherwise, we run the risk of having the fruit spoil. Ok- maybe these growth and plant metaphors are getting out of hand so I will say it bluntly. If we have funds or land or resources or ministries that are ready to be harvested- ready to be used to benefit the kingdom of God or manifest the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, then it is our imperative to harvest those things. Building up funds for a rainy day serves no one. Only having our ministries available to inner circles is not reaping the harvest. Having a property that is underused is misuse of the harvest. It is true that we do not know what growth will take place, that’s out of our control, but we can have the confidence that God is in control. And whether our expectations of growth are met or not, whether we planned the planting perfectly or discover volunteer plants in places we didn’t expect, the growth of the kingdom happens, gradually, unavoidably, unexpectedly, in all kinds of growing conditions. Amen 

Last November, Canadian actor Michael J. Fox was interviewed by People magazine. It is not often that I am drawn to these kinds of interviews but the fact that I grew up watching Fox on Family Ties and in the Back-to-the-Future movie franchise made me pause to read the headline. Then the highlighted quote, “My gratitude is deeper now, from having gotten through the darkest times” got me hooked on reading the rest of the article. At the young age of 29 Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. In this interview, however, he discussed how a tumour was developing on his spine and he needed surgery which would render him temporarily paralysed. Over a four month period he learned to walk again- but he was still unstable. He fell and badly broke his arm. He said, “I was leaning against the wall in my kitchen, waiting for the ambulance to come, and I felt like, ‘This is as low as it gets for me.’ It was when I questioned everything. Like, ‘I can’t put a shiny face on this. There’s no bright side to this, no upside. This is just all regret and pain.’ “The interview was due to the fact that he released his 4th memoir entitled, “No Time Like The Future: An Optimist considers mortality.” Fox turns 60 this month and despite his failing body, optimism helped him have hope. He says, “Optimism is sustained when you keep coming back to gratitude, and what follows from that is acceptance. Accepting that this thing has happened, and you accept it for what it is…Then see how much the rest of your life you have to thrive in, and then you can move on.” I am so moved by the fact that Fox could be angry that his body is falling a part and yet he turns to optimism, gratitude and acceptance instead. I have trouble doing that with my minor aches and pains. I don’t know if Fox is a man of faith. But his experiences and wisdom can help us in understanding the message underlying Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians.  

To say that our passage this morning from Paul is only about failing bodies does not give it the power it is due. However, when Paul says, “Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day” I could help but think about the various conversations I have had with so many of you about ageing. About how our bodies and minds don’t always do what we want them to do. About how we can have genuine frustrations and emotional pain because our bodies are changing. And Paul’s words can give us hope when he says, “this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure!” In this I find the optimism when it comes to failing bodies. 

But as I mentioned this passage isn’t limited to Paul’s feelings about physical bodies. Really, the entire passage speaks to Paul’s confidence in the power of God. I’ve noted before that the church in Corinth was a troublesome church. Paul’s letters talk of not only external pressures but internal disagreements that risked splits within the church. The church was often influenced by the Greco-Roman culture that surrounded it and Paul was constantly trying to bring them back from the secular or the profane to the sacred and the holy. I actually think that the modern church could likely identify best with the church in Corinth. And as our denomination begins to meet for General Assembly, to discuss the possibility of full inclusive of our LGBTQ+ members I acknowledge that our denomination is risking a split that could decimate us. But no matter how troublesome the church in Corinth was through these letters we are provided with an abundance of blessings because their troubles, inspired some of Paul’s best work. We would do well as a denomination to return to his words of wisdom.  Wisdom which rests assured in God’s eternal power!

So whether it is referring to our frail bodies or our frail denomination Paul is saying, that our suffering should not deter us from testifying to God’s power. And Paul knows a thing or two about suffering. In fact, at the beginning of this letter Paul says that he experienced some affliction in Asia (2Corinth 1:8). He says that he was so utterly, unbearably crushed that he despaired of life itself. Later on in the book Paul will recount beatings, shipwrecks, and other near death experiences.  So we know that Paul has endured some dark moments since he last wrote this congregation. Underlying all of this is the faith that Paul has in his calling and confidence in God. It is this certitude that gives Paul strength, and likely optimism, to face hardships. But it is also Paul’s certitude that all of these hardships are only slight momentary afflictions compared to the eternal weight of glory beyond all measure. 

At the beginning of the pandemic one of the mantras shared was, “This is not forever but this is for now.” At the time, most of us definitely thought that the “for now” time frame would be only a couple of weeks or months- but we now know it’s longer than that. Yet, we all still have hope, and the science backs us up on this, that it is not forever. Paul’s words help us do something with this anticipation that our current circumstances are not forever. Paul starts this passage by saying we believe and we speak. None of our current restrictions prevents us from doing these things. We believe in a power over our lives that is greater than a pandemic. Note that I am NOT saying this means we compromise the health of others because we believe that our rights have greater power rather, because we believe in a greater power we speak to the hope that is found in life, eternal life, with Jesus Christ. We speak to hope.

New Testament professor, Carla Works actually touches on how this hope is manifested in Paul’s life. She writes, “For Paul, hope is worth allowing oneself to be exposed to hardship in order to proclaim the good news of God’s acts of redemption…Paul can express hope in the midst of adversity…The Spirit’s very presence is his assurance that God is at work creating life and redeeming creation.”

Paul is asking the church in Corinth, and conversely asking us, to think it terms of God’s heavenly realm. Paul refers to an earthly tent versus the building from God, human creation versus God’s creation. And I believe this is what we need to do, focus ourselves on God’s creative power. However, I will also say, that if we are unkind, or intentionally destructive to this earthly tent then what makes us think we are entitled to God’s heavenly building. So, a focus on God’s creative power does not mean ignoring the suffering or need around us. What it does mean is that we speak to the hope found in the salvation story. 

Through communion both our physical bodies and spiritual selves our nourished so that we can speak and believe in the good news of God’s creative power of life over death. Whether it is our bodies or our institutions, or both,  that are experiencing frailty we must refocus ourselves on the optimism found in hope. God is absolutely at work in our mortality so that eternal glory may be made known. Amen

Pentecost is my favourite season in the church. Yes, of course I love the
anticipation and excitement of Advent and Christmas and I always feel deeply moved by the meditation time that Lent and Easter allow but honestly Pentecost is my favourite. This is likely based on the fact that in Sunday school this was the time of year when we could be playful with our lessons. Often we were given pinwheels and told that, just like how we
can’t see our breath we can’t see the holy spirit but it is clearly making the pinwheel turn. I will never forget the year we had a full on birthday party for the church with cake, hats and party games. Or one year we took red tissue paper and half the class danced around pretending to be flames resting on the rest of the class. As an adult this passage often elicits a little chuckle when it comes to the part where the disciples are accused of being
drunk and Peter’s response is, “they can’t be drunk because it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning.” I find Pentecost to be a playful story and most of you know me well enough to know that I like to have fun. There is also a familiarity to this passage that is both a blessing and a curse. It is one of the few passages in the entire Bible that is the same every year no matter what rotation we are on in the lectionary. Which can definitely make it the
hardest Sunday to preach because you hear the same passage every year. But this year, that playfulness of Pentecost was overshadowed by the fact that we are still enduring a pandemic. Throughout this passage it talks about how people were gathering together.
How on earth can a passage like that speak to us in our current context? But then I realized, perhaps our current context can help us see something new in this oft familiar passage.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. Ok, so the first line doesn’t appear to totally help in this manner. Except that, while it says they were gathered in one place, this place doesn’t seem to be very specific. It doesn’t say, they were gathered in a grand cathedral or a country church- those aspects of Christianity didn’t exist yet. The Holy Spirit, burst on the scene without the need for a dedicated building, it
just showed up where the disciples were. Within the first line of this passage we realize that after over a year of not being able to come together to worship in our church building we can still be the church because the Spirit doesn’t need a specific building to come alive.
The location in this passage is incidental. In fact, it is important to note that as the Spirit gave them the power to speech they clearly left the “one place” where they were gathered and went outside evangelizing to the astonished crowd. And I know, crowds are a bad idea too.
The next line says, “and suddenly from heaven”. While the book of Acts was
written by the same person who wrote the Gospel of Luke we feel as if this part could have been written by Mark with all this immediate and sudden language. But this also tells me that the Spirit doesn’t need to be awaken exactly at 10:30am on Sunday morning. The spirit shows up, when the spirit shows up. So, some of you are watching this on a different day- that doesn’t mean that the worship has any less value. Some of us, like me, need the
discipline of timing to ensure that we make space for worship but the spirit can flow at any time.
It really is the Spirit who is on display for the bulk of this passage. I think this is another reason why this is a favourite season. Rightfully so we spend a lot of time unpacking the words and actions of Jesus. As one who studied Hebrew I like to delve into the Old Testament and the expression of God that is found there but at Pentecost we really get to know this strange aspect of the trinity, the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit is a calm, quiet nudge, but in this story it is a violent wind with tongues of fire, that empowers
the disciples to speak words they could not speak just week’s ago. The Spirit brings hope to the otherwise troubled and scared disciples. The Spirit helps the disciples harness the courage to speak up. The Spirit inspires renewal.
We are exhausted by covid. We are worried about a still unknown future. We are troubled by some of the things this pandemic has exposed like inequality and chasms in our health care. The disciples were tired, concerned, and anxious too, when suddenly they are given
the ability to be bold through the renewing Spirit. There are things about this covid time that we will want to harness. We have learned a lot about worship and ministry and technology and community. Renewal in a lot of ways is afoot.
The spirit’s renewal is also universal. The passage lists a whole bunch of places that most of us don’t know how to pronounce properly. But the reason it lists a multitude of places is because the Spirit wants to ensure that no one is left out. This is a message for people all over the known world from Jews to proselytes, Cretans to Arabs. I will point out
that the festival of Pentecost existed pre-Christian church. Within Judaism it is the festival of Shavouth, a festival that celebrates the harvest- it is a big thanksgiving festival. We have renamed it Pentecost because it happens 50, “Pente” days after Easter. But this is  why so many people were in Jerusalem. They were there to give thanks for the harvest, to
give thanks for the physical nourishment they have received. Little did they know that their spirits would be nourished as well.
Then it is Peter’s words that demonstrate just how expansive this message really is. A reminder that fifty-two days earlier, not even two months, Peter did not have the courage to admit he knew Jesus let alone followed him. Peter went away sulking and ashamed. One commentary says, “The Spirit had emboldened him to fulfil the potential which Jesus had always recognized in him. Are we letting the Spirit embolden us to fulfil
the potential to which we are called both as individuals and as the church?” Are we letting the Spirit help us to fulfil our potential as individuals and as the church? The follow up question in my mind is, if we aren’t, what is holding us back? Are we continuing to live huddled together in one place because we are afraid of what the renewal might bring? Are we perplexed because it is still a mystery to us? Are we worried that we’re going to appear
drunk?
Peter than quotes from Joel which does demonstrate the indiscriminate nature of the Holy Spirit. The young will see visions, the old will dream dreams (and let’s be clear when we are talking dreams we aren’t talking flights of fancy but bold visions), slaves and free, men and women, will receive the gift of the Spirit. There are no societal barriers that
the Spirit can not break. There is an inclusivity to the spirit that no one can deny. If a denying fisherman can become the rock upon which the church is built then any and all of us can harness the playful power of the spirit.

This is such a rich example of what the church should be- not stuck in one place- physically or spiritually, not restricted to who can participate or not, not cowering at injustices. This is a church that allows themselves to be emboldened through the Spirit.
That preaches hope and seeks renewal. Look, I get it, I am not always up for the challenges that the Spirit places in front of me. I have had my fair share of temper tantrums. Trust me, there are lots of times when I don’t know what I’m doing. But I need the playfulness of Pentecost to help me find my voice, to have the energy to be bold, to see where the the spirit is blowing. And that’s when the fun begins! Amen