The Lord's Prayer Sermon Series: Your Kingdom Come

“The Lord’s Prayer: Your Kingdom Come”
A Lenten Sermon Series 2/6
Matthew 6: 9-10
by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
February 25, 2018

‘Pray then in this way:
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. - Mathew 6: 9-10

Last week we began to dive into the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus begins teaching his disciples how to pray with a sense of child-like wonder for who God is. The gift of Jesus’ prayer nurtures tender relationships with God and one another.

Jesus teaches us that our praise of God’s faithfulness moves us to pray with a growing trust – a bold trust – of God’s kingdom that is present and is still yet to come.

Matthew’s Gospel says that God’s kingdom has already come through the birth of Jesus Christ, which Isaiah prophesied: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us’” (Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 7:14). Jesus was the promised Son who would come from the house of King David to establish God’s eternal kingdom. God told David, “I will be a father to him and he shall be a son to me” (2 Samuel 7: 12-14).

Our Savior is the ruler of God’s kingdom; a ruler who is like none other – One who is only armed with the strength of God’s love to shepherd God’s people (Matthew 2:6; Micah 5: 2, 4). Christ’s humble obedience to God led him to die on the cross to demonstrate the fullness of God’s unconditional love. At Jesus’ last breath, God’s love was let loose into the world when the temple curtain tore in half (Matthew 27:51). Nothing can or will ever separate us from God’s love in Christ (Romans 8:35).

Risen to new life, Jesus claimed all authority in heaven and on earth. Jesus called for the body of Christ to participate in God’s kingdom of radical love by making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded (Matthew 28: 18-20).

We follow Jesus’ instructions with a healthy sense of humility, grounded in God’s gracious gift of relationships. As we follow Jesus, our Lord teaches us what to be in prayer for – to pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

When we look at the world today we have a hard time seeing evidence of God’s kingdom with human eyes.

We see suffering that cannot be explained.
Violence casts the shadow of death and steals the promising future of young lives.
Poverty and homelessness persist. Children have big scars and deep wounds from being bullied in school.
Institutions chose to hide scandals of abuse instead of prioritizing justice and healing for victims.
The conversations in our households are never ending about what is wrong with the world.

And yet we are not called to be people of despair (which is the opposite of hope). We are called to pray with bold hope even in the face of great impossibility.

First and foremost, to pray for God’s kingdom reaffirms that God can do all things, no purpose of God can be thwarted; the Lord’s word shall not return empty for it shall accomplish Gods purposes (Job 42:2; Isaiah 14:27; Isaiah 55:11). This is the good news of God’s kingdom!

Secondly, to pray for God’s kingdom to break in humbles us to confess our need for control and our proneness to rebel against God. Jesus leads us to surrender our human will and our need to control life’s outcomes with human reasoning.

You and I know how often we are tempted to say we know how to resolve the world’s problems better than God! And yet Christ reveals our need to trust God alone for Christ says, “Not my will, but your will – not what I want but what you want” (Matthew 26: 39, 42).

Frederick Beuchner says, “We do well not to pray this prayer lightly. It takes guts to pray [The Lord’s Prayer] at all. We are asking God to be God. We are asking God to do not what we want but what God wants. We are asking God to make manifest the holiness that is now mostly hidden…To pray, “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven” is to say that if that were suddenly to happen, what would stand and what would fall? Which of our many precious visions of who God is and of what human beings are would prove to be more or less on the mark and which would turn out to be phony as three-dollar bills?” [1]

We must be very careful about claiming that we know the certainty of God’s will.

God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). “God makes foolish the wisdom of the world…God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:20c, 25). Discerning God’s will takes a posture of humility and an ongoing commitment for the Spirit to renew our minds to seek what is good, acceptable, and perfect in God’s eyes (Romans 12:2).

As Jesus tells us what to pray for, we must rely upon the whole of Scripture in order to recognize that God’s kingdom looks like.

God’s kingdom is marked by loving God and neighbor;
comforting God’s people;
caring for the widow and the orphan;
welcoming the stranger (refugee);
strengthening the powerless;
empowering the faint;
working for justice that brings right relationships and peace;
seeking the welfare of the city in which we live;
and prayer that puts faith into practice. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 22: 37-40, Mark 12: 35-37, Luke 20: 41-44; Romans 12:10, Romans 13:8; Exodus 22: 21-24, Leviticus 19:33-34, Deuteronomy 10:19; Isaiah 40:1, 29; Isaiah 32:16-17; Jeremiah 4:1-2; Jeremiah 29:7; Philippians 4:4-9).

David Bosch says, “We are called, therefore, to be "kingdom people", not "church people". Kingdom people seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice; church people often put church work above concerns of justice, mercy and truth. Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to work to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world.” [2]

And yet it is not the church doing the changing per se, but it is the church’s faithfulness to follow Jesus Christ.

If you read through Matthew’s Gospel, the kingdom of God is a treasure hidden within the ordinary places of life. It is here that Jesus Christ is shaping us to see God’s kingdom already present in his ministry, life, death, and resurrection.

The power of God’s kingdom takes root in our lived experiences to redeem and restore and renew us from the inside out. Just like seeds planted in good soil, yeast that is mixed into the flour, talents which are invested to yield growth - God’s kingdom is grace that is poured out beyond measure and hidden within our hearts to grow exponentially (Matthew 13:23; 13:33; 25: 20-21).

This amazing grace gives us courage and empowers us to follow Jesus’ example to work together in the fields of God’s generous love and to share it with others. Remember God’s treasure is meant to be freely given as Jesus Christ so freely gave it to us. The hope is that we may all behold God’s kingdom breaking in together.

No one knows the day God’s kingdom will come to completion. In the meantime, we are to be about the Lord’s business!

This second week of Lent be in prayer for the intersections of what breaks God’s heart and what is breaking yours. Ask Jesus Christ to help you trust that God’s love is already on the move to break into that brokenness to bring glory to God.

But here’s the tricky part if we are to really pray as Jesus taught…..

…..ask the Spirit to open our hearts to see the difference between God’s will and our will. The difference between seeking to be faithful (to God's will) and striving to be right (in our will) matters.

…..ask the Spirit to lead us to be kingdom builders. Later in the service we will sing these words about building God’s kingdom:

O for a world where everyone respects each other’s ways /
Where love is lived and all is done with justice and with praise.
O for a world where goods are shared and misery relieved /
Where truth is spoken, children spared, equality achieved.
O for a world preparing for God’s glorious reign of peace /
Where time and tears will be no more and all but love will cease. [3]

May it be so for you and for me.

In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Sources Referenced:

[1] Frederick Beuchner, “Listening to Your Life” (New York: Harper Collins, 1992).
[2] David Bosch, “Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission” (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1999).
[3] Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), hymn number 372 “O for a World.”

The Lord's Prayer Sermon Series: Our Father in Heaven

“The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father in Heaven”
A Lenten Sermon Series 1/6
Matthew 6: 1-13
by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
February 18, 2018

The season of Lent is spiritual journey. It is a time of 40 days and 6 Sundays to gaze inward upon the condition of our hearts. During our Ash Wednesday service on February 14, I asked each of us to consider what is blocking your spirit and mine from giving our whole heart to God?

It is a weighty question because as we look inward, we are also looking upward to the cross as God poured out his whole heart through Jesus’ compassionate ministry, death, and resurrection. What wondrous love is this, O my soul?

And so we are called to walk with Jesus as disciples on this journey to the cross. With each step we prayerfully reflect upon this gift of faith and Jesus’ costly grace.

Take in Jesus’ instruction to all those who gathered for the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6: 1-13……

‘Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.

‘So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Concerning Prayer

‘And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

‘When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

‘Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.

Jesus teaches that this gift of faith has long been used for pretense. He cautions us to pay attention to practicing our faith as if it were a performance. When faith is more like an act then we are mere pretenders; our hearts are insincere, and our actions are hollow.

Pretense is something that blocks us from giving our whole heart to God. The other side of pretense is being too full…allowing busyness, schedules, and obligations to get in the way.

Henry Nouwen says, “So often we receive nothing from our spiritual practices because we have not created any open spaces in our lives. We are too full. We may want to receive, but we certainly do not want anything to be taken away.”[1]

Jesus teaches that this gift of faith is to be opened for genuine relationships with God and one another. It is a treasure that is to keep our hearts pliable like Playdo, teachable to keep learning God’s newest thing, and humble for no student is higher than their teacher. And yet it can be a scary thing for our hearts to be open because it requires us to let our guards down in order to be vulnerable – or be real with God.

Jesus teaches how we are to keep our faith honest, especially in this season of personal and communal reflection. We keep our faith honest through prayer. And if we are to keep our eyes on our Teacher and walk in the steps of our Savior then Jesus shows us to pray as he did.

We say the Lord’s prayer every week. And yet how often do we think about the full measure of the words we are saying? The Lord’s Prayer so easily becomes rote, but Jesus offers some bold words that connect us to God, connect us more deeply with ourselves, and to others, as well as opening our eyes daily to see God at work. These next 6 weeks of Lent we will break down the Lord’s Prayer.

I love how Jesus begins his prayer: “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9b). Four words that seem so simple but the way Jesus orders them makes all the difference.

Jesus’ first words spill out with a sense of child-like wonder for who God is. God is like a loving parent who is trustworthy, filled with goodness, and cares deeply for us. That intimacy is primary for Jesus. Jesus knew how deep and wide God’s love is for Creation and humanity since the beginning; Jesus is equal to God and also grew up in God’s wisdom from that babe lying in a manger as God’s only Son.

God destined us for adoption as God’s children through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:5). We are created to live in relationship with the One who knit us in our mothers’ womb, the One who is acquainted with all our ways, the One who leads us, and holds us fast (Psalm 139: 13, 3, 10).

And yet this divine and loving parent who will never fail us is the same God who stretched out the heavens like a blanket of stars and spins the whirling planets. As the Psalmist says, “When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? (Psalm 8:3-4).

We behold the sheer wonder of God’s love to name in this human experience and yet we are limited to fully comprehend the majesty and glory of God. Jesus’ prayer, “Our Father in heaven” captures the biblical imagination about the nearness and distance of God.

It is within these two extremes that our hearts open to praise God’s name. To praise God is to remember that God is set apart or “hallowed.” God is revealed through the Word made flesh and connects us to the story of God’s steadfast love; shapes our identities; and gives our lives purpose in a fearful and broken world.

Just as God put on human skin and became vulnerable in the person of Jesus Christ, God lives in solidarity with us still. God weeps with us in our sufferings and pain. God’s love pumps through the veins of our faith to be our brother’s keeper so that we might see God’s compassion in one another.

God is also revealed in the world around us: the sun rises and sets in a different brushstroke of God’s blazing colors daily; the constellations are like tracing God’s creative shapes in the night sky; and the eclipse we most recently saw was a glimpse of God’s almighty power to govern the heaven and earth.

To pray to our Father in heaven is to open ourselves to learn who God rightly is and to enjoy the mystery of God’s love forever. Jesus implies that when we pray using his words as our guide, God is continuing to bring about the good work in us that God began for the sake of God’s purposes – even in the most trying of times.

Praying to our Father in heaven is to affirm the importance of God’s relationship to tether us to God and one another. It is a treasure that we carry in our hearts to order our whole lives in thought, word, and deed so that we may give God the glory that God alone deserves.

I love the way 15 year-old Katrina Troyer shares her prayer of what God means to her:

You turned my darkness into light,
You made everything all right.
You picked me up when I was down,
You turned my life around.
If I didn’t have you, what would I be?
A blessing is what you are to me.
When I needed you the most, you were there,
Even if it seemed like you didn’t care.
When I didn’t think I could make it another day,
You chased all my doubts away.
If I didn’t have you, what would I be?
A treasure it what you are to me. [2]

May we open our hearts to behold the treasure of God’s love. This treasure is not something we just store away and look at from time to time. But it is a treasure that is to be given away as Christ did so graciously for us.

In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sources Referenced:

Artwork "Our Father," painted by Jen Norton

[1] Charles Ringma, “Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen” (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2000), Reflection 13.
[2] “Listen for a Whisper: Prayers, Poems, and Reflections by Girls” (Winona: Saint Mary’s Press & Christian Bothers Publications, 2001), p. 66 What You Mean to Me, by Katrina Troyer.

Sermon: The Gerasene Demoniac

Favorite Bible Stories: “The Gerasene Demoniac”
Mark 5: 1-20
by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
January 28, 2018

We conclude our sermon series today with one of my favorite Bible stories and one of the most thought provoking of Jesus’ ministry.

As the Gospel of Mark tells the story, Jesus and his disciples get in a boat and sail across the Sea of Galilee. Within just a few miles of water they leave the Jewish world and cross over to the Greco-Roman world. The boat landed on the shore of Gergesa (or the town of the Gerasenes); one of ten cities of the Decapolis.

Bible teacher Ray Van der Laan shares the Decapolis had a Greek Helenistic worldview. The first century Greco-Roman world was very human-centered. What mattered most in life were one’s accomplishments, social status, accumulation of material wealth, and appearances. As a result, anyone who did not measure up to these values was held in no account and pushed to the very out-skirts of town, marginalized by society.[1]

Back across the sea of Galilee in Capernaum, the Jewish worldview was that one’s value was found in belonging to God. Value is tethered to God’s covenant love through Abraham. However Jewish tradition was particular about this covenant status of belonging. What mattered most was one’s ability to be and remain spiritually clean according to the Law of Moses. To be “unclean” or to associate with one who was “unclean” meant that one’s spiritual wholeness or purity was compromised. Marginalization was the result there too.

As Jesus and his disciples set sail for the town of the Gerasenes, the pot gets stirred among these two very different worldviews.

Keep this in mind as we hear Mark’s story in chapter 5 verses 1-20…..

They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when [Jesus] had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him.

He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones.

When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’

Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake.

The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid.

Those who had seen what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighborhood.

As [Jesus] was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.

He was known as the Gerasene Demoniac. The demons he wrestled had stolen his ability to accomplish anything in life. Whatever the chaos was that tore through him, it erased his former identity, it denied him the opportunity to be understood, it cut off his relationships with family and community, and it stripped away his integrity. The Greco-Roman world taught him shame; no one would ever love him for who he was. This worldview broke him down to dust and left him belonging to nothing more than hopeless despair.

It is no surprise that this ghost of a man ran to Jesus when the Rabbi got out of the boat. Even in Gentile territory, this man knew exactly who Jesus was. And as Jesus began to drive out the man’s chaos with authority to heal, the man begged Jesus not to torment him. He had experienced all the torment and division he could handle.

Our Savior saw a man who was more than the hopeless story that defined him. Our Savior saw a man who was in desperate need of God’s healing the jagged edges of his soul. What Jesus does is nothing less than amazing grace: he restored this man’s humanity. Jesus clothed this man in God-given dignity.

Jesus asked this man what his name is. Can you imagine not hearing your name called for a great length of time? That simple question created a space of fostering a relationship. It also opened a window of opportunity for the man to tell his story. Jesus’ empathy and compassion claimed this man in God’s never-ending love and restored this man’s identity as a beloved child of God.

Jesus freed him of the chaos, pain and isolation that once defined his life. This man’s new life was now filled with purpose for he was sent to go back home and tell his story. Jesus reconciled this man from the inside out and re-familied him to the ones who had known this man as a son, a brother, and a friend.

And yet this man, now healed and made whole, still felt the weight of human judgment. He feared no one would see him as Jesus saw him. It is in this moment that Jesus reinterprets two colliding worldviews.

Jesus’ actions confronted the Greco-Roman worldview. Jesus’ compassion and healing proclaimed God’s truth that everyone is a child of God, worthy of love and belonging. The source of this core truth is that we are all created in God’s image. The Gerasenes were so offended and threatened that they told Jesus to leave the neighborhood.

Jesus’ actions reinterpreted the Jewish worldview too. Jesus revealed God is willing to bend the rules of tradition for the sake of reconciling all humanity and creation back to himself. God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34).

The disciples were amazed and more than likely shocked. They sat in that boat as this all played out. I can imagine their jaws dropped as their Rabbi did God’s work in forbidden places according to tradition.

The disciples would continue to learn that following Jesus is risky business. You have to get out of your comfort zone to be about the Lord’s work of breaking down barriers to God’s freedom. At the end of the day, the only thing that counts is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

Mark’s story haunts me with the stark contrasts in the ways humanity is viewed by God and society. The Gospel says that no one too far beyond God’s grace.

I want for you to think about the children, individuals, and groups whom society says have no value today. Anne Lamott says, “You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”

Now try to see the ones whom society holds of no account through the eyes of Jesus Christ. Jesus not only draws near to those whom society casts out, but he lived and died in compete solidarity with the marginalized and all humanity.

Jesus too was judged by society as having no value. The Greco-Roman society and the Pharisaic tradition saw his only accomplishment as stirring up trouble. Jesus was stripped of his God-given dignity and was held of no account. He hung on the cross to be publicly humiliated and to die as a criminal. And yet it was in the tomb that God lifted up a beacon of hope that shined the light of new life in the darkness. That light still shines into the darkest parts of humanity; a darkness that will never overcome the light of Jesus Christ.

God does his best work among the most disparaging places of life. The fullness of Jesus Christ and the power of Holy Spirit reveal God does this for the sake of reconnecting us - re-familying us - back to God and to one another. We do not belong to ourselves but to God alone and we are our brother’s keeper.

We still live in that first century mindset where a person’s worth and belonging are defined according to human standards - accomplishments, social status, possessions, and appearance.

In a time of great division, it is imperative for the greater Church to reclaim Jesus’ examples of empathy and compassion. These virtues are central to the integrity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Empathy and compassion always begin with our perceptions. It starts as an inside job and first begins with the self. Our capacity to learn empathy starts within our first year of life as an infant. This potential is shaped by our home values, community of faith, and environment.

The first step is a humbling one. It is learning to articulate our feelings. As we grow older it is remembering the human heart is a roller coaster of emotions and emotional needs. In our moments of feeling lost and misunderstood, we are found by Jesus Christ. We all share a longing to be unconditionally loved and freed from our inner and external chaos. What an incredible moment to feel safely embraced and understood by the heart of our Creator! You and I are here today because we identify with the mystery of God’s grace.

The second step is no less humbling. It is to see through God’s truth that our marginalized sisters and brothers are the same kind of different as you and me. When we affirm our shared universal longing to be loved, it yields a deepening conviction that all have intrinsic value because all are made in the image of God. We do not earn our worth, rather it is God given.

This gives us courage to be empathetic towards others – to get out of the boat and commit to the Lord’s work of restoring God-given dignity to our sisters and brothers. The Spirit nudges us to draw near to those who are different and those who are on the margins and to be a beacon of light.

Empathy is a grace-filled space of human connection. Empathy requires us to seek to understand first so that we may come alongside another with compassion (willingness to suffer with another). These virtues are the ties that bind us together in Christian love. The only thing that counts is faith working in love.

What might the gospel look like in your life and mine if we strive to see through Jesus’ lenses of empathy and compassion? This question matters because if we call ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ then we are to be agents of God’s compassion. The Spirit is on the move to continue teaching us what we have learned and seen and heard in our Rabbi and Savior.

May we work for justice that heals and seek peace that reconnects us to God and one another in our homes, schools, community, nation, and world.

In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sources Referenced:

[1] Ray Vaner Laan “The Mission of Jesus: 5 Lessons on Triumph of God’s Kingdom in a World of Chaos” (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016), lesson 2 DVD, “Decapolis: The Other Side – Jesus and the Man from the Tombs”.

Sermon: You Give Them Something to Eat!

Favorite Bible Stories: “You Give Them Something to Eat”
Luke 1:37; 9: 10-17
by Rev. Carson Overstreet
Van Wyck Presbyterian Church
February 4, 2018

The story of Jesus feeding the five thousand people is a favorite story among this congregation.

As Tony shared in his children’s sermon, Jesus gave his followers strength that they were learning how to live into.

This truth is important for Luke’s Gospel. He begins chapter nine stating that Jesus gave the twelve disciples power and authority and Jesus sent them to use this God-given strength to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal (Luke 9:1-2).

Keeping that in mind, hear the rest of Luke’s story (Luke 9: 10-17) with fresh spiritual eyes….

On their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done. He took them with him and withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida.

When the crowds found out about it, they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured.

The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, ‘Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.’

But he said to them, ‘You give them something to eat.’

They said, ‘We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.’ For there were about five thousand men.

And he said to his disciples, ‘Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.’ They did so and made them all sit down.

And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.

Luke says because the disciples have been sent with God’s power to join Christ’s ministry they are now considered apostles – the sent ones. The marching orders which Jesus gave the apostles are based on Jesus’ servant leadership. Jesus did not ask them to do anything that he was not already doing. According to Luke, Jesus was sent by God for the purpose of proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God (Luke 4:43).

According to Luke, the kingdom of God creates life-giving reversals:

God’s kingdom lifts up the lowly and brings down the powerful (Luke 1:52; 18:14; 18:17; 21:3-4);

provides abundance in the midst of the world’s scarcity (Luke 1:53; 11:3; 12:28: 13:19);

reveals merciful love in the midst of fear (Luke 1:54; 6:27-28; 10: 25-37; 23:44-46);

creates the power of presence in the midst of distraction and loneliness (Luke 10:41-42; 13:21);

brings healing and wholeness in the face of illness and brokenness (Luke 4: 31-35; 4:39; 5:13; 5:24; 6:8,10; 6:18; 7: 9-10; 7:14; 9:42; 13:13; 14:4; 18:42; 24:1-12);

accomplishes justice that redeems systemic oppression (Luke 1:51; 2:34; 3:5; 6: 20-26; 14:13-14; 14: 21; 18:5-8; Acts 13:17);

proclaims the gift of salvation to deliver God’s people (Luke 3:6; 15:7; 15:10; 15:22-24; 22:19-20; 23:43; 24:26-27, 30-32; 24:45-49).

Jesus loved talking with others about the truths of God’s kingdom. The crowds were drawn to Jesus’s presence and the picture his words painted. They had an insatiable hunger and thirst for God’s abundant presence that redefined human existence. God’s kingdom always provides the MORE we are looking for.

And yet the ones who Jesus sent to reveal the hopes of kingdom living (the apostles) were the ones who told Jesus to send the crowd away. This large gathering was in a deserted place – a place of scarcity. And the “sent ones” told Jesus to send the crowd away to find their own provisions in the midst of physical lack. Doesn’t this sound ironic to you?

Maybe the twelve saw an impossible situation confronting them. Maybe they felt confident helping a few people at a time, but right now they worried and doubted their resources to live into their calling.

Days later Jesus would tell them, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear….Your Father knows what you need. Instead strive for his kingdom and these things will be given to you" (Luke 12: 22, 30-31).

But in this moment Jesus says, “You give them something to eat (Luke 9:13). And then Luke makes a point to state this is a teaching moment. Luke no longer calls the twelve “apostles” but now calls them “disciples,” – the ones who are to follow the Rabbi’s every move and learn to live into their strengths and calling.

How did Jesus show how to strive for the kingdom first? How did Jesus proclaim the kingdom to those 5,000 people and the disciples?

Jesus affirmed his complete dependence upon God and his trust in God’s provision. Jesus offered the resources which were given to him and prayed God would bless them to reveal God’s abundance. And Jesus gave the disciples the opportunity to extend visible signs of God’s invisible grace (Luke 9: 16).

God makes a way when there seems like no way. Nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37). As Tony shared in the children's sermon, God's favorite word is "impossible."

And yet just as Tony shared in his children’s sermon, our human tendency is to focus on what we are lacking. It is the narrative the world teaches. And it is discouraging to say the least. But remember the kingdom of God has great power to reverse the ditches of life.

Some family sized churches feel stuck in the ditch, discouraged when they compare their communal resources to larger churches. It is like comparing a 90 member church to a large church with thousands of members. The smaller church often feels like its resources are a few loaves and fish while the big church budget overflows with potential.

But let me tell you – never underestimate the ministry of a small church! My spirit is overwhelmed by your conviction of God’s provision and your reliance upon the Lord.

This church is open to listen for opportunities to follow Jesus’ command, “You give them something to eat!” “You give them something that reveals the kingdom of God!”

You are following Jesus and proclaiming the kingdom of God is near through our partnership with HOPE Food Pantry. Our food donations join forces in a communal effort to feed nearly 5,000 individual families annually who are in need here in Lancaster.

You are following Jesus and proclaiming the kingdom of God is near with our noisy offerings for Dimes for Hunger. In Lancaster alone, we are helping to feed our elderly homebound neighbors with Meals on Wheels, feed homeless guests at the New Hope Soup Kitchen, and glean local produce for those in need.

You are following Jesus and proclaiming the kingdom of God is near with Thanksgiving baskets overflowing with all the special holiday trimmings and Christmas gifts for families who would otherwise wake up to nothing. These local families in Van Wyck see God’s unconditional love and abundant presence and celebrate the gifts of grace with new hope.

You are following Jesus and proclaiming the kingdom of God is near through our ecumenical ministry of Back to School Bash. So many here washed the feet of children whose feet were bruised and blackened from wearing shoes too small. You told the children the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, and many of those children finished telling the story. You put new socks and shoes on over 800 children’s feet and they walked away knowing you love them for who they are and that God loves them too.

As followers of Jesus Christ, God is always presenting you and me with teaching moments. We are called to follow Jesus’ example of fully relying on God (FROG) and trusting in God’s provision.

We are to offer up the resources and strengths God has given us – no matter how small they might seem – and watch God do something amazing with them and through them! In doing so Jesus says that you and I are now the “sent ones” to give others something that reveals the kingdom of God is breaking in right here and right now!

May God’s Spirit continue to move among us to open our spiritual and physical eyes to see new opportunities to follow Jesus and proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal through the ministry of reconciliation.

May we jump in with all that we are and all that we have to join in God’s mission of transforming the world.

In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.