Pr. Joseph Crippen

God is able to do, by the power at work in you, abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine: what if you learned to trust and expect that?

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 17 B
Texts: Ephesians 3:14-21; John 6:1-15

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

“I pray that God may . . . strengthen you in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit,

and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend . . . the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ, . . . that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

That’s Paul’s prayer for you. For all God’s children. What if that could truly happen?

But it’s hard to be filled with God’s fullness, to know Christ’s love dwelling in your heart, when you’re starving to death.

Paul’s hope is much easier to find if you have a full stomach, shelter over your head, clothing and other necessities, and a life of justice and freedom. If we proclaim the love of God in Christ in our words only, we’re not going to reach people. The letter of James says “If [one of God’s children] is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (James 2:15-16)

So, Jesus made sure that the thousands who’d come to see him got dinner that night. Christ comes to offer life and hope, to proclaim God’s reign. But if you’re hungry or oppressed or afraid or attacked or marginalized, how can you trust God’s love with those desperate needs unmet? This is a simple story of Jesus seeing a great physical need and suspending his teaching and calling to make sure that physical need is taken care of.

So, if we are bearing God’s love in the world, we start with caring for our neighbor’s needs.

People need food, shelter, a living wage. Wars need to be stopped. Justice needs to happen. Real needs need to be addressed before any other good news can get through.

But Philip shares our concerns today: we don’t have enough money to feed these people, he says. Likewise, the problems of hunger and homelessness, injustice and discrimination, hatred and violence are so great, we fear our resources aren’t going to make a dent.

But Jesus operates with a power and abundance Philip doesn’t yet know. And Paul promises that God, by the power at work in us, “is able to do abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.” We despair at the intractability and overwhelming nature of the world’s problems, but Paul says we haven’t even begun to imagine what God actually can do through the power of Christ’s love at work in us.

So let’s try imagining. Let’s definitely ask. And let’s learn to trust that the same power that multiplied bread and fish and that broke the power of death will be at work in us to accomplish even more than we can dream in this broken, suffering world, and bring real life.

But it’s also hard to imagine, to dream, to ask to be a part of God’s mission, when your heart is starving to death.  

Just as lots of things contribute to physical hunger and suffering, lots of things keep our hearts from being open to Christ entering and living within us, so we can know God’s fullness and love. Our stubborn pride or deep-rooted shame. Our inability to honestly look at our biases and prejudices. Our fear and anxiety. Our struggle to confess and seek reconciliation with each other. Our easy hate and anger toward others we disagree with. So many things starve our hearts to death.

And isn’t that the problem with our country? Yes, all the physical needs need to be dealt with. But what prevents that happening is hearts filled with fear and hate and anxiety and selfishness, spirits warped and crushed. Our nation has a heart and spirit problem, and until those are healed and transformed, we’ll continue with our polarized, unjust society, our oppressive structures and ways, our destructive path.

So, if we’re going to bear God’s love in the world, God must first open and heal our hearts.

Help us unclench from what we’re clinging to, pick out the seeds of fear and anxiety from our hearts, and pull the thorns of hatred. The Spirit needs to help us be open to our own failings and biases and prejudices, our struggles to be honest about who and how we are.

If God’s going to transform the world, this has to go beyond those of us in this room today. But right now, in this moment, in this room, we at least need God to start on us. On you. On me. Start to heal our hearts and spirits so we’re ready for God’s fullness to live in us, ready to know and comprehend the deep and abiding love of God in Christ for all of us and all God’s children. Then we’ll be ready to bear Christ in the world.

“God, by the power at work within us, is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”

That’s Paul’s promise.

There are enough resources on this planet for all to be fed and sheltered and cared for. God’s abundance knows no limits except those we place on it. There’s enough love of God in Christ for every child of this planet, including you, for every creature, every thing in creation to be filled with God’s fullness. God’s abundant love knows no limits except those we try to place on it.

Thousands of people suddenly had all they needed to eat. Millions of people have been transformed by the love of God dwelling in them. God can do abundantly far more than all you can ask or imagine.

What if you trusted that?

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

You and I are called to follow Christ, proclaim God’s love with our lives, and we help each other both hear that call and live it.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 14 B
Texts: Mark 6:1-13; Ezekiel 2:1-5; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

As recruiting pitches go, these stories are pretty bad.

If God’s Word today means to call us to serve God, follow the path of Christ, and proclaim God’s love with our lives, these stories are pretty counterproductive to that goal.

Ezekiel is called to speak God’s Word to people God calls “impudent, stubborn, and rebellious.” There’s a good chance, God says, they won’t listen. Paul today says his service to Christ is filled with “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities.” Seriously, he was stoned nearly to death for proclaiming Christ. And Jesus, with a near total rejection in his hometown that limited his divine abilities, sends out followers in pairs to do the same job, clearly instructing them what to do if they’re also rejected.

It’s important not to oversell a recruiting pitch. But you and I could be excused for walking away from today’s readings thinking, “thanks, but no thanks. Not the job for me.”

But we could also say we’ve not heard a call as clearly as these.

When was the last time you heard God’s actual voice calling to you, as Ezekiel did? Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus, who set him on his way. And these initial twelve were sent out by Jesus himself, God-with-us. Maybe they faced hardship and rejection, but at least they heard their calls clearly.

Those of us who’ve been Christian our whole lives, and maybe even those who came to faith later, likely say in this age that our sense of faith isn’t attached to God’s direct voice calling. Most of us don’t get visions. We rarely claim to hear God’s actual voice, and these days that might lead you to seek medical care rather than the road of discipleship.

So are these readings at all meaningful to us today? Since most of us don’t share a call story like these, and most haven’t had major setbacks and persecution because of our discipleship, maybe we’re off the hook.

But God is supposed to speak to us through Scripture, to lead us to faith and life in Christ. So don’t climb off that hook just yet.

Maybe it’s a question of how we listen for God’s call.

What are you looking for? What do you need to feel God has called you to follow Christ and proclaim Christ to the world in word and deed?

Now, this may actually distract from that question. But my call to ordained ministry was nothing like these calls today. In high school I thought medical school might be a path. But then I considered what I was good at and loved to do. I wanted to help people, and had gifts for that. But I felt I’d struggle if, as a doctor, I couldn’t save someone. I loved my church and serving in the liturgy, and the whole community of faith. I found theology exciting. I was good at public speaking. So simply on practical terms, I decided I should be a pastor. It wasn’t until years later I could say with confidence it was a call from God.

Here’s why that’s distracting: we’re not talking about career calls today. My call to Word and Sacrament ministry is no different from calls any of you have received that led you to a certain career path or life choice. All jobs, paid or not, are holy vocations, Luther taught us.

What God’s Word today is asking is much more important: how am I called, as Joseph, to be Christ in the world, beyond my paid job? And how are you called that way?

But I shared that story for the process.

I didn’t expect nor receive a vision. I didn’t think I’d hear God’s voice speak aloud. It was just practical.

And maybe that’s how we could think about our life in Christ God might seek in us, since most of us won’t have a dramatic experience like so many in Scripture.

What do you see in yourself? Are you good at some things that others aren’t? Are there things you understand and care about more than other things? Are your passions drawn to certain problems in the world? Do you have wealth you could share? Some way that you might weigh your wealth against the needs of the world, as Paul talked about last week? Do you have time that you could give to something? What if you put all this information together, along with anything else you can think of? What do you then hear from God?

Theologian Frederick Buechner describes it this way: “The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. … The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”[1] The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.

So each of us has some listening to do.

And let’s at least address the poor recruiting pitch.

It’s true that if you live as Christ you might get pushback from others, feel threatened, have to let go of things you’ve clung to tightly. Jesus never said that we’d have it easy. He talked about sacrificial love. He modeled vulnerability to others, even those who are evil. He called us to love our enemies and pray for them. If you and I listen, and hear, and then follow, sure, there will be hard consequences.

But since when is this an easy world to live in? We’ve got setbacks and challenges of all kinds. Not being Christ in the world doesn’t change that. Playing it safe with our wealth or time, holding onto prejudices and biases, ignoring the pain of our neighbors, doesn’t ensure a safe and happy life.

But the witness of people of Christ through the ages is there is a joy and peace and hope that comes with following, even in adversity. A sense you are part of God’s healing love that leads you through all circumstances. Following Christ might be hard, but living in this world is hard. And in following, the joy of the Spirit lives in you and fills you with peace from God and hope for the world.

And remember: we’re in this together.

We help each other listen, and see gifts and abilities in each other. We don’t serve Christ alone. None of us has all the answers we need, all the resources, all the patience, all the endurance and strength, all the vision. But in this grace of our community, together we can be a wonder of Christ’s healing in this world.

So listen for where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. And let’s each help each other listen, because God is calling. Together, we’ll also help each other live into that calling, until God’s hope for the world’s healing comes to be.

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

[1] Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC, Harper and Row, 1973, pp. 118-119.