What reality are you living for?
I
have read that one of the reasons toddlers are given the name “terrible twos”
is because they have a terrible time communicating what they want. They have developed to the point where they
know what they want but they can’t quite articulate what they want in a
coherent way.
Therefore, when these
terrible twos don’t get what they want, they resort to theatrics by screaming
and lying out on the floor with flaying limps in what amounts to them looking
like a fish out of water except, unlike a fish, they manufacture a noise that sends
shivers down your spine. And it is at
times like these when I wish I was trained in the art of exorcism!
But Jamie and I are
enlightened parents, you see. We saw
first-hand all the other parents out there who had trouble with their toddlers,
and we mumbled to each other that we weren’t going to let our child act like
that in public. We read all the books and thought ahead. We were prepared for the terrible twos.
One way that we thought
we would minimize the impact of the terrible twos was by teaching Mary Katherine
sign language. After all, babies learn
to use sign language before they learn to speak so we thought this would give
her the ability to communicate more clearly thus reducing her temper tantrums
later on down the road.
Thanks to our good
friend Anne who is trained in sign language, Mary Katherine became very good at
making signs. It became apparent very
quickly that her favorite word to sign was “more.” For some time, this did, I believe, minimize
the impact of the terrible twos and she did seem to pick up on speech pretty
quickly. However, a part of me wonders
if the only thing we really did was give her more ammunition.
In other words, in
addition to signing the word more, she soon began to say the word more. And in her mind, you had to say the word more
every time you signed the world. Because
when we taught her to sign the word more, we taught her to sign more multiple
times. So Mary Katherine sort of turned
into a broken record that would not stop saying and signing more until, of
course, she got what she wanted. But
unlike a broken record, the volume of her demand only got louder.
(Mary Katherine-age 2)
I believe I have
digressed a little bit but the point of the story is to illustrate in a most
primitive of ways the human need for more.
We always want more. And no
amount of enlightenment is going to satisfy that hunger. No amount of training ourselves or others will
quite satisfy the need for more and sometimes that training only makes things
worse.
In today’s gospel
lesson, we see the consequences of Jesus feeding a group of 5,000 people who
have no concept of an eternal reality.
After the people eat and have their fill, they want more. So they go out looking for Jesus but he is nowhere
to be found. They travel across the sea
and find Jesus and his disciples in a place by themselves.
In response, Jesus
says, “you haven’t coming looking for me because you saw the signs but because
you ate and had your fill of loaves.” In
other words, the people see this mass feeding as more of a magic trick to
satisfy their temporal hunger rather than a sign that points to the eternal
truth of God. They are so focused on material
things they cannot open their eyes to see that Jesus is giving them something spiritual.
This point is
emphasized when the crowd refers to the great prophet Moses and how he was able
to rain down manna from heaven on demand.
But Jesus gently reminds the crowd that it was God who gave the manna
and even then the expiration date on manna is very short.
Again, Jesus is telling
this group that they are looking for satisfaction in things that have a shelf
life instead of seeing how the eternal truth of God gives them something that
lasts forever. Jesus is basically
asking, “Don’t you want something that lasts?”
“Don’t you want something that keeps you full even when all the material
things have run out or let you down?” “Aren’t
you tired of asking for more?”
This past Wednesday the church calendar
recognized sisters Martha and Mary of Bethany.
The story tells of when Jesus visits Martha and Mary in their home. While Martha is working away in the kitchen
getting dinner ready, Mary sits at the feet of Jesus and enjoys his
company. Martha is very upset by this
and demands that Jesus tell Mary to get in the kitchen and get to work.
However, Jesus tells
Martha that Mary is doing the better work.
Jesus says to Martha, “Mary is doing the better part, which will not be
taken away from her.” This is kind of shocking
isn’t it? What do you mean Mary is doing
the better work? Martha is the one working
hard in the kitchen while Mary just sort of lounges around in the den. Mary is the lazy one, not Martha! Again, Jesus is speaking to an eternal truth
while Martha is tending to things temporal.
As human beings, it is
easy to tend to things temporal because that is the reality we are faced with
most of the time. We wake up and the
moment our feet hit the floor it is do, do, do.
Get breakfast ready, get the kids ready, get yourself ready. Go to work, run errands, pay the bills. Wait on the cable guy, the electrician, the
plumber. Get dinner ready, take a run,
walk the dog, pay more bills. Finally,
go to sleep. And then, we wake up and do
it all over again…Will we ever get a break?
No wonder we have such
a hard time with the concept that God is giving us a world that has nothing to
do with what we have done and everything to do with what Christ has already done. Because so much of our daily lives are spent on
the go or on the run, because much of our lives are spent securing our physical
shelter, food, safety, and comfort, we often forget to remember where true life
and health and salvation come from.
And when we forget to
stop and remember God’s spiritual reality then we often try to satisfy our
spiritual hunger with material things and the result is devastating. Like the crowd does in today’s lesson, we end
up asking questions like, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” When we forget to stop and consider what God
has already done in Christ, we forget that our number one job is to follow the
one who has already completed the reality we are all hungry to know.
Jesus says, “This is the work of God, that you
believe in him whom he has sent.” Really? It is that easy? All we have to do is believe? In my experience, believing is harder than doing
the work. After all, Jesus is calling
us to see something pretty radical and ultimately beautiful. Jesus is calling us to see a world where no
one is hungry. Jesus is calling us to
see a world where the dignity of every human being is valued and essential. Jesus is calling us to see a world where
scarcity is not a part of the vocabulary—only abundance.
I know to envision this
world seems overwhelming and like Martha, sometimes it is just easier to be
distracted by temporal matters and keep our heads down and focus on what is
right in front of us, and even more, sometimes it is easier to just complain.
But the problem with
Martha’s world is that she will never be completely satisfied. If we are looking for reality in things
temporal, then our lives will consist of disappointment after
disappointment. Like the crowd, we will
live in a terrible cycle of going from having too much to having almost nothing
at all. We will exhaust ourselves with
emotional highs and lows. We will spend
our entire lives being frustrated and distracted by many things.
However, there is good
news. God is giving us a way to be
satisfied even when the material and physical reality around us looks dark and
gloomy, even when the work that is supposed to be getting done isn’t getting
done. More specifically, the good news
is that God has given us a vision of what true life looks like right now.
Through the risen Lord,
through the one who defeated the cross and the grave, God has given us a vision
of life beyond even the detour sign that says, turn around and go home. In fact, Jesus is telling us that home is
beyond the detour sign, beyond the sign that tells us that it is impossible to
go any further.
Friends, God’s dream of
new life beyond the impossible is available now—not through our own doing but
through the One who is risen from the dead, through the one who has already
completed the reality we all desire to know.
Not only is God calling us to trust his new vision where life is
abundant for all, God has already laid out that of abundant life vision through
his Son Jesus Christ. God’s Master Plan
is complete. And our work is to trust
God’s Master Plan given in Christ.
So I invite you to
consider where God’s dream is being born in our community. And remember God’s dreams usually come from
unexpected places. Where do you see
seeds of new life on the verge of sprouting out of the soil? How is the True Bread feeding you and giving
you the vision to see how God is transforming our physical reality with
spiritual food?
Once you see this
world, once you trust this way to life, then you won’t be asking for more
manna, instead, like Mary Katherine unwittingly does at the communion rail, you
will be asking for more communion bread, like the crowd who wants this true bread
always, you will be asking for more of that nourishment that gives you the fuel
to see more and more how God is feeding us with a spiritual reality that can
satisfy our hunger now and forever.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment