July 31 Sermon

In the silence of the stars, In the quiet of the hills, In the heaving of the sea, Speak, Lord. In the voice of a friend, In the chatter of a child, In the words of a stranger, Speak, Lord. In the stillness of this room, In the calming of our minds, In the longing of our hearts, Speak, Lord. In this our service of word & sacrament, Speak, Lord, for your servants listen. Amen. [adapted from a prayer by David Adam]

The past few weeks we have walked together through the book of Genesis. It began with
· Testing of Abraham – near sacrifice of Isaac – the Lord will provide
· We then walked with his and Sarah’s son Isaac who married Rebekah and their sons Esau & Jacob, how Jacob gained Esau’s birthright, Jacob found two wives (Leah & Rachel)

In today’s story, while Jacob waited for his brother Esau to come (sending the family away), he waited alone; he got Esau’s birthright and now he feared Esau wanted his life. And then something happened near Bethel, Jacob wrestled with a man all night. When the man did not prevail, he put Jacob’s hip out of joint. I can only imagine the pain. But Jacob did not give up the struggle and wanted a blessing. Like his struggles with Esau, Jacob needed a blessing. But he got much more.

“You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.”

The man had given him a new name because of what he had done. Jacob asked for his name; but the man did not give it. And then Jacob now Israel was blessed. Who was that masked man? Jacob might of asked but he already knew.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.”

Jacob knew that he had wrestled with God. That God had given him both a name and life. Many people looking on this story would see the wrestling as a metaphor between God and all his people Israel, even all the world.

I first thought about this idea of wrestling with God when I read the works of Primo Levi in college. Primo Levi was Italian, a chemist, later he would become an author & poet; but what came to define his life was his Jewish heritage, which led to his being interred in a concentration camp in 1943. In 1944, all the Italian Jews in the camp were sent to Auschwitz, one of Hitler’s death camps. He would survive Auschwitz, barely, when the Soviets liberated what was left of the camp, mostly dying prisoners.

In several books, Primo Levi would recount his time in the death camp and his journey home. The books are not for the faint of heart. But the words that I still think of, is in another of his works when he considers why he and so many others were subject to such terror, cruelty and death. He walked away not believing in God but I think he still wrestled with God. And what he came up with, is that he was the other, the one in whom God did no bless. He would struggle with that and the horror that he witnessed for the rest of his life.

150 years before Primo Levi, Thomas Jefferson wrestled with God too. In the age of enlightenment and deism, he wondered about God and wrestled with the words already written. He was so distressed by what was written, that he considered most of it to be of no use, he created his version of the Gospels of Jesus so to get rid of all the error, so one could truly live the life that Jesus had meant. He wrestled with God and found that we had misread and misunderstood God. The feeding of the five thousand recounted in today’s Gospel does not appear in Thomas’ re-write.

We have always struggled, wrestled with God in our lives. People still try to understand God and our relationship with God. What does Jacob’s story of wrestling with God say to us & our relationship to God? Will God bless us as he did Jacob? These are questions we must wrestle with, if we want our faith to be alive. To wrestle with God is to honor our relationship with God. And that reminds me of a poem by Aaron Zeitlin:

Praise me, says God;
I will know that you love me.
Curse me, says God;
I will know that you love me.

Sing out my graces, says God.
Raise your fist against me and revile.
Sing out my praises or revile.
Reviling is also a kind of praise, says God.

But if you sit fenced off in your apathy, says God.
If you sit entrenched in: "I don't give a hang."
If you look at the stars and yawn,
If you see suffering and don't cry out,
If you don't praise and don't revile,
Then I created you in vain, says God.

This wonderful Yiddish poem is a reminder that we are called to praise and to struggle, like Jacob, with God. To wrestle with the words given to us in Scripture. To wrestle because we believe and there we may find blessings for our lives. But we should also remember Jacob’s injury and know that we may walk away with our own limp. Amen.

Sermon - A Love Supreme (Aug. 3)

“This album is a humble offering to Him. An attempt to say “THANK YOU GOD” through our work, even as we do in our hearts and with our tongues. May He help and strengthen all men in every good endeavor.” – John Coltrane

These words from John Coltrane written in the liner notes for his album, make clear that he saw his album as an offering to God, a work of thanksgiving.

“I would like to tell you that no matter what…it is with god. He is gracious and merciful. His way is in love, through which we all are. It is truly— a love supreme.”

Coltrane understood God as that love supreme that guided his life and no matter how he failed, that God’s mercy and love would be with him. His words are for us to hear today! That love supreme he talks about, is what I see in the actions of Jesus. And there is no better representation of the love that Jesus has for humanity, than in his feeding of 5 thousand people.

Jesus looks around the countryside and has compassion for all the people gathered there. Many healings took place. It became late. The disciples want to send the people back to the towns to find food and lodging. To let others offer hospitality. But Jesus tells the disciples that the people need not go, you are to offer that hospitality, you give them something to eat.

The disciples only saw their puny rations: 5 loaves and two fish. Barely enough for themselves, how was it going to feed so many?

And Jesus takes what they have, he blesses it, brakes the loaves and gives it to the disciples who in turn share them with the crowd. It is a scene reminiscent of Moses and the tribes with manna raining down from heaven, and everyone had their fill. Or when Elisha has a disciple of his feed 100 with 20 loaves of barley. And Elisha tells him, “Thus says the Lord, they shall eat and have some left.”

The point is all were fed, God’s mercy and abundant love helped feed the people. With Jesus, all were fed and had their fill and 12 baskets (like the 12 tribes of Israel or 12 disciples) remained. This act of love towards the people is like the love supreme with the bread and wine we share at the meal of the Eucharist, as Jesus had done with his disciples.

It is what we are doing this morning, with the music of John Coltrane helping us feel in worship that Love Supreme which we will taste in bread and wine in just a moment. And I think of this poem:

Bread of heaven, on thee we feed,
for thy Flesh is meat indeed;
ever may our souls be fed
with this true and living Bread;
day by day with strength supplied
through the life of him who died.
~Josiah Conder

Our souls are indeed fed with that bread and wine, but I think of Jesus words to his disciples in the midst of the feeding, you give them something to eat, and I hear those words directed at me. How do I help feed others today?

Often I get information from various Christian relief agencies. I actively support Episcopal Relief and Development, and help as I can the Karen Emergency Relief Fund, but most others get deposited in the circular file. Just too many!

But as I looked at the Bread for the World materials, I was struck by how they invited us not only to send in financial offering to aid the world’s poor but to use my voice and contact my representatives in Congress through an Offering of Letters.

"Bread for the World's 2008 Offering of Letters is pushing for more and better poverty-focused development assistance—funding for programs in the U.S. budget that give people in poor countries the skills and opportunities to break the cycle of poverty permanently. These include long-term investments in things like education, agriculture, nutrition, health and clean water. More and better poverty-focused development assistance is a critical component of the effort to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)."

It can be an act of love to raise our voice for those who have no voice and convince those in power, to help the less fortunate in our world, to give them the aid they need to live the fullest of lives. I invite you today or this week, to write a letter to your congressman or senators and let them know you are asking their support to help fund more and better poverty-focused development assistance. (see the post above this one)

You give them something to eat, Jesus says to us. As we celebrate the Eucharist today and give thanks to God and eat that bread wine given to us by Jesus, may we in turn remember the poor and hungry in this world and offer our love and letters in support of them so they may indeed have something to eat.

Let us pray.

Jesus, you blessed, broke and gave five loaves and two fish and a multitude was fed. Give us the conviction, to answer your call to serve and to speak out for hungry people. We believe that you are moving in our time to end hunger, and we are grateful that you include us as a part of this great liberation. We pray for the leaders of our nation—the decision makers who can change policies and redirect funding to create help and opportunity with the stroke of pen. Open all of our hearts, our eyes and ears, our hands, gracious and holy God. Let the multitude be fed once again. Let your Spirit move in our midst, O God, our love supreme. Amen.

(prayer adapted from a litany by Bread for the World)