Give & Forgive, Get & Forget - Redeemer Episcopal Church

 John 6:24-35

So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.


This sermon is going to be a lot better if you listen to it rather than read it. But even then, it's not my favorite sermon. But here it is. Listen to it here. 


God of miracles, open our eyes to the ways you are working in this world. Provide for us the bread of everlasting life, through the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Last week we heard the story of Jesus sitting the crowds down and feeding them, despite starting the story with not actually having enough food for everyone. By anyone’s standards, it was a miracle, it was a “sign” from God, that Jesus was the real deal. And surprising no one, even more people began following Jesus— literally following him around everywhere. That’s where the story picks up this morning. Jesus and his disciples had left after feeding them and the crowd goes looking for him. 

Once the crowd catches us to them, Jesus quickly says that the people are not following him for the right reasons. They are following him because they were fed by the bread and the fish. Now, I don’t really blame them for that. Think about it— imagine following a leader that could always provide enough food for you and your family. Even today, I’m thinking about how much grocery money that would save me every week. In that time, if you weren’t the richest of the rich folks in town, your entire life was pretty much preoccupied with making sure you had the resources to feed yourself and your family. So the allure of someone being able to provide that to you— for free— would be quite strong. 

So the crowd catches up to Jesus and the scene then goes back and forth between Jesus and the crowd, with the crowd asking questions and Jesus giving cryptic insight into his work and purpose in the world. 

It’s obvious that the crowd isn’t really understanding anything that Jesus is saying. They keep asking the wrong questions. Even the very first question “when did you come here?” isn’t the right question. But when Jesus says that the work of God is to believe in him who God has sent, the crowd really doubles down on their nonsense and silly questions. 

“If we’re going to believe, you’ll have to give us a sign— what kind of work are you going to perform? Give us a miracle, Jesus! Prove that you’re the one who God sent.” Just yesterday they witnessed and benefitted from the miracle of more than enough food for the whole crowd and today they ask, “well, what else ya got?” God gives and forgives, while God’s people get and forget. 

We heard another story this morning that is a warning of what happens when we forget about what God is doing in the world. Nathan is sent to set David straight after what he has done to Uriah and Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. Nathan reminds David of all the things God has done for him: anointing him king over Israel, rescuing him from the hand of Saul, giving him a house and wives, and the whole kingdom. I give and forgive, God says. 

But none of that was good enough for David and he was jealous for his soldier’s wife and even sent his soldier to die so that he could have Bathsheba for himself. David got and forgot what God had given him. 

How often do we do this in our lives? We start bargaining— “okay, God if you really want me to keep believing, then I’m going to need a miracle or a sign that you’re still around!” And usually it has to do with our resources, not our faith. We want to get this job promotion or win the bid on this house, we want to be just a little more financially secure or a bit healthier. Show us a miracle, a sign that you are definitely real, and we will definitely come back to church, God. 
We completely forget about the ways God is showing up in our own lives or we point to the ways God has showed up in other people’s lives— THEY seem to have it easy, why can’t God give me THAT? How often do we get and forget? 

We’re not really any different than the crowd in this story, and perhaps we aren’t too far removed from David either. We receive blessings upon blessings, God continues to show up because God is continually faithful to us. And yet, we only understand the language of “more.” 
The crowd witnesses and incredible miracle and then holds out their hands for more signs, more miracles, more proof. And if this weren’t an offensive suggestion to Jesus in the first place. The crowd then says, “well, MOSES gave the people manna from heaven. Can you do that?”

It’s a bit ironic that they would point to Moses and the manna in the wilderness because God sent manna because the people were so ungrateful after God delivered them out of slavery. God had just done this big huge, amazing thing in leading the people out of the hands of the Egyptians and they forgot so quickly. Just like this crowd— they were given enough food to eat their fill with so much left over, yet they look to Jesus ungratefully and say “well, what kind of miracle can you do for us?” God gives and forgives. And God’s people get and forget. 

The crowd is too focused on the past and what God has done before for other people, that they miss what God is doing right now and the miracles and signs they are witnessing right in front of them. If they had been able to focus on the present, on what they were witnessing in the person of Jesus, they’d have seen that Jesus wasn’t like Moses providing the manna at all— he WAS the manna, sent from heaven, to be nourishment and give ever-lasting life. 

Oftentimes, we can get caught up in the past. I know I keep hearing myself say things like, “before the pandemic” and the phrase “pre-pandemic” is repeated in conversations all day long. I long for it, I know you long for it too. It’s difficult to even remember sometimes— I think about how casually I’d shake someone’s hand or reach out for a hug when greeting someone. 
And there are bigger losses too— the way I could just jump on a plane with my kids to visit family, sharing fellowship with my students and being present with people when they are sick. We might look back fondly on that time before the pandemic, but we also must look at what God is doing now— entrusting us to be kind to one another, to protect one another, and care deeply for one another. We have the opportunity to pay attention to the blessings that God is providing for us today, instead of dwelling in the past. 

Churches particularly like to dwell in the past, don’t we? We LOVE to point to that time when our congregation was large and the pew where filled with people. But God is doing some incredible things RIGHT NOW in this community and we can pay attention to that, rejoice in that. The sustenance that God is providing, the miracle that we are seeing today looks like the food pantry that continues to thrive, the campus ministry that has adapted and continues to minister in different ways to our community. We can take notice of things like the Sacred Ground program, and know that God is at work here, leading us into the future of God’s kingdom. And, perhaps, one of the most important things God is doing right now, is leading us toward our next bishop. But we have to be paying attention.

This morning, as we eat the body and blood of Jesus at this table, be reminded of how God has provided for us. Notice what a miracle this is, a miracle that we have the privilege to witness and benefit from every single week. 

When we tune our ears to Jesus and we begin seeing God’s provisions as miracles, we will see that God gives and forgives. Over and over again, day after day, out of God’s abundant generosity and love for us. Now let us not get and forget. Amen. 

Unnoticed Miracles

Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

A sermon for the 4th Sunday in Advent, preached at St. James Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina. 

It’s a miracle! This is it! The virgin conception! This is what we’ve been waiting for this whole season! We’ve been waiting for this big miracle— the miracle that the angels proclaim, the miracle that prophets had been writing about for centuries. It’s finally here! 

We like to get caught up in the big miracle stories of the Bible — and the virgin conception and birth is one of our favorites to tell and speculate about. How did God do it? Was it real? When did she find out? 

We love these big, important miracles in the Bible like the flood, the manna, plagues, parting of the Red Sea, the feeding of the thousands, the healing stories of Jesus' time. 

We get so caught up in waiting for the big miracles that we forget to look for the smaller, unnoticed miracles in the story. In this case, Joseph’s side of the story is full of little miracles if we look a little bit closer. 

Here we have Joseph who finds out about Mary’s pregnancy. And of course he would think that she has committed adultery. 

Doesn’t expose her to the authorities, so he decides to divorce her quietly. 

Which at first doesn’t seem like such a righteous thing as the text tell us it is. 

But we know from the law that any woman who commits adultery will be stoned to death. 

So Joseph essentially chose to spare Mary’s life by divorcing her quietly and possibly infringes on his own honor and status in society. Even before the angel shows up in his dream, he is already planning to do something unexpected. It just shows the kind of person Joseph was — he was kind, compassionate, and a little bit subversive. 

And God uses this man to further God’s mission. God sends an angel to his dream and the angel tells him not to be afraid. “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” the angels says. The angels says, “she’ll have a son and you’ll name him Jesus.” 

And he did. He took Mary and married her — despite the ridicule that he would get. Despite the risk to his reputation and status in society. And what’s more — he takes the word of God and he raises Jesus as his own son, giving him a name, a home, and a trade. A miracle. 

That’s what a miracle is after all — when God, in all of God’s glory, opens our hearts to lean closer and listen more clearly and love more fully. But those kinds of miracles aren’t flashy. They aren’t always exciting. The in-breaking of the Kingdom of God is actually quit hard sometimes. 

Which is why we would rather wait for God to act, wait for God to do something explosive and amazing. 

We do the same thing with the stories in our lives, don’t we? We are always waiting for the big miracles, the ones we can turn into TV shows or movies or Facebook posts. 

We spend a lot of our lives waiting for miracles like this one. Searching for where God is breaking into the world to save a loved one from a disease or bring two estranged people back together. We are waiting for miracles all the time. 

But we want the big kind of miracle — we want the kinds that really knock our socks off with how amazing we are. And we sit and we wait for them, hoping and praying that they happen soon. 

But, I think, when we sit and wait passively for miracles to happen to us and for us, we forget that miracles -- the little ones, if there are such things as little miracles -- really are happening around us all the time. They might go unnoticed to most of the world, but that doesn’t make them any less significant. Because from what I have noticed, God tends to work through the small miracles. God tends to work through the everyday things and relationships we have with people. 

Just recently I heard a story about a young pastor and his wife: 

A man was locking up the church one evening when he finds two little boys - about 2 years old and the other 7 months old - almost naked in a pile of trash outside of the church - they were only wearing diapers. 

Unsure of what to do, he called the pastor of the church and the pastor and his wife rushed over immediately. As the pastor arrived and they talked about what to do, the parents of the little boys came out of the woods near the church and told the pastor and his wife that they were homeless and cannot take care of their children. 

The pastor asked if he might take the boys home to clean them up and keep them warm for the night. The boys were covered in bug bites, when they pulled the shoes off the older boy some of his skin came off with it. They were so filthy, the pastor and his wife bathed them once, drained the water, and bathed them again. 

The pastor and his wife came back to the woods the next day to talk to the homeless couple about their situation. After a few weeks of taking care of the boys, the homeless couple asked if they might sign custody over to the pastor and his wife. The pastor’s wife says they barely hesitated, “of course,” she said. The pastor and his wife already has three children, but without hesitation they invited two more little boys into their home, and eventually adopted them. 

This is the kind of every day miracles God works through. And if we had the courage to look around us, we would be able to see these things happening in our lives and the lives of other every single day. 

Just this past Thursday, we had one here in the church - A group of men from Grace Lutheran Church drove about five hours to deliver all of the hurricane relief supplies. Then a group of people from this church took time out of their days to come and receive donations those donations. It was an outpouring of love that was beautiful to behold. 

It’s these kinds of miracles that God works through. We like the big ones — the ones that they make into movies, like the ones where children die and meet God and come back and tell everyone about it. God works in those miracles, there’s no doubt about that. And those are the kinds of miracles we long for, aren’t they? The big kind — the kind we can post pictures and a Facebook status about. The kind that make it into the newspaper. 

But the most important and incredible miracles this world has ever seen came not in all the flashiness of Hollywood and not with thousands of pictures documenting the moment. It came in the birth of a baby we call Immanuel, God with us. The most significant miracle in all the world came into the world as a baby because God wants so badly to be in relationship with us that God actually became one of us. So that through him we might find salvation and become a part of God’s work in the world too. This miracle lives on as the body of Christ, and we are taken up into that miracle every Sunday as we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ together in the Eucharist. We become a part of this miracle. 

So that we might be a participants in and recipients of God’s incredible in-breaking of the Kingdom of God. So that we might point to the miracle that is Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.