Living Lent (week 2)
Compassion can look like bringing comfort to the hurting, but it can also sound like a young man’s biting critique of kings and holy cities. When Jesus is approached by religious leaders bearing a message from the local king, his response is strong, and born of a deep compassion for those who had been long-forgotten. Let’s talk about the layers of compassion, and how it can lead us to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Compassion can look like bringing comfort to the hurting, but it can also sound like a young man’s biting critique of kings and holy cities. When Jesus is approached by religious leaders bearing a message from the local king, his response is strong, and born of a deep compassion for those who had been long-forgotten. Let’s talk about the layers of compassion, and how it can lead us to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
We Belong To Each Other: Belong
Can we see each other’s stories, each other’s pain, each other’s full humanity, each other’s full brokenness? Can we choose each other, time and again, especially when it costs us something? Can we come to the realization that Jesus is calling us to: that my healing is bound up in your healing, my redemption is bound up in your redemption, my hope and fear and joy and pain and dancing and grieving is all bound up with you, because we are bound up with each other by the love and mercy of God?
When we adopt eyes of belonging, we see everyone with the eyes of God, as beloved siblings worthy of dignity, love, and life.
Can we see each other’s stories, each other’s pain, each other’s full humanity, each other’s full brokenness? Can we choose each other, time and again, especially when it costs us something? Can we come to the realization that Jesus is calling us to: that my healing is bound up in your healing, my redemption is bound up in your redemption, my hope and fear and joy and pain and dancing and grieving is all bound up with you, because we are bound up with each other by the love and mercy of God?
A 5C Church: Creative
When you start to live in the reality that God is making all things new, then you start to see the pattern, you see the new thing coming from the rubble, you see the stump of the tree to be sure but you know to look closer and you see the shoot of new life coming through.
A 5C Church: Creative
When you start to live in the reality that God is making all things new, then you start to see the pattern, you see the new thing coming from the rubble, you see the stump of the tree to be sure but you know to look closer and you see the shoot of new life coming through.
So you can trust what is coming next - you look back and you grieve what was and you feel the pain of what is not there but then you turn to your imagination and you trust that something new is going to come out of even this.
I will tell you in February last year when the General Conference of the United Methodist Church doubled down on discriminating against LGBTQ+ persons, I was so deeply sad: this is not the church I know, not the Wesleyan theology and tradition we are about It was the darkest time in United Methodism I have experience but then the Spirit hovered over our congregation and what emerged is our conviction and courage to not just say we are inclusive but to show it through our actions by voting to open up our altar to same-gender weddings and it has made us an even greater witness for Christ’s love.
You Can't Stop The Beat
You can’t stop the beat…you can’t stop the Spirit sweeping over the waters, you can’t stop the new thing God is doing making all things new. What is to prevent the beat? Absolutely nothing.
You can’t stop the beat. You can’t stop the Spirit sweeping over the waters. You can’t stop the new thing God is doing making all things new. What is to prevent the beat? Absolutely nothing.
What I know for sure is this: there is this dance party of grace and justice and joy going on all the time and you are invited to come and dance. Yes, you.
You who have been to the dance party before and you who have never been or never thought you couldn’t come, come and join in the party, you who think you are too old to dance, or too out of shape to dance, come to the party…
You who have been watching everyone from the sidelines, come to the dance floor, come all you saints and all you sinners, come all you who don’t know a thing about dancing and you who thought you knew but are learning new steps, come: the lord of the dance invites all to this dance party of grace and justice and joy and I don’t want you to miss it.
What is to prevent you from being a part of the movement of the spirit in the world making all things new, including you?
Absolutely nothing.
Feed The Birds
Will we actually take actions and make decisions and live in a way that shows the reality we are living in - the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord of our life and we live like him, we live with his values and his way of seeing, which means we live generously.
George Banks can see there is an alternative reality, if only he can see he doesn’t have to live the bank values. If only we can see there is a better way to live, too.
We can see there is a better way. Because of Jesus the Christ we see there is an alternative vision of reality, a vision of generosity over greed, kindness over arrogance, compassion over consumerism, the question is no longer do we see the difference between the bank values and the cathedral values, the question is will we choose the cathedral values, will we choose to live our lives according to the teachings of Jesus Christ?
That is our baptismal covenant, we say the words, we make the promise, we actually reaffirm this commitment to live according to Christ every time we do a baptism, but words are just words until they are supported with actions.
Will we actually take actions and make decisions and live in a way that shows the reality we are living in - the reality that Jesus Christ is Lord of our life and we live like him, we live with his values and his way of seeing, which means we live generously.
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?
Look, if you think you can’t change your mind, scripture makes two things clear: first, yes you can…you can change your mind, yes with God’s grace we have the capacity to change our minds, and second: the faithful God-fearing thing to do is to not be the one to exclude someone from the table because in the words of apostle Peter: Who are you to hinder God?
I have had several folks come to me in recent months and say to me something like: I just don’t think I can change my mind about gays getting married in the church. I’m just…fill in the blank: I’m too old to change my mind or I’m too influenced by my evangelical childhood or I’m too concerned about breaking the rules, I’m just too much of a rule-follower…if that sounds like you and you just don’t think you can come around on this issue, if it just feels like too much to ask.
This story about Peter is for you, it is for any of us who have ever felt challenged to change our mind about something and wonder if it is possible for us to change.
Look, if you think you can’t change your mind, scripture makes two things clear: first, yes you can…you can change your mind, yes with God’s grace we have the capacity to change our minds, and second: the faithful God-fearing thing to do is to not be the one to exclude someone from the table because in the words of apostle Peter: Who are you to hinder God?
Watch the video shown in the service…
Seven Baskets Full
You see Jesus does not call the disciples to change their minds about the Gentiles, he doesn’t just want them to have a new way of seeing God, he wants them to see that God’s grace and mercy is for all.
The Bible, which is this collection of material written by people who are articulating their understanding of God in a particular time and place - this library shows how we humans have come to see God over time. It shows how we have changed our minds over time. How we have come to see a new vision of God in which God is not just for some but for all. God is not just for us but for all. God’s mercy is not limited to one group but God’s mercy is all encompassing. There are not exceptions to God’s love.
This passage is often titled “Jesus feeds the 4,000” but that’s not really what happens.
“The disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” Jesus asked them, “How many loaves have you?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
Who actually feeds the crowds? The disciples do.
You see Jesus does not call the disciples to change their minds about the Gentiles, he doesn’t just want them to have a new way of seeing God, he wants them to see that God’s grace and mercy is for all.
Jesus wants the disciples to change their minds about their power and their responsibility to share the message of God’s love with everyone. He wants them to see that they are the ones to reach out to those they once considered outsiders, to those they once considered enemies and offer them bread and a place at the table.
Watch the video used in the sermon.
Read The Full Sermon
So there was no typo...you heard it right, in the passage that was read, Matthew 15, the number of people in the crowd is 4,000...the text says there were '4,000 men there that day not counting women and children,' give me a break by the way not counting women and children please, good thing we are totally over that now and count women the same as men and pay them the same, and…
Anyway, the number is 4,000...so maybe you are like me and the first time I heard this I was like: what? I thought Jesus fed 5,000, that's what I remember learning in Sunday school, Jesus feeds 5,000...so what's the deal with this 4,000 number. Our sermon series is “A Place at the Table”...exactly how many places where there at the table...Was it 5,000 or 4,000...was a preacher counting because if so it was probably recorded as 5,000 but it was actually 4,000…
Here’s the deal, it turns out it’s both. Jesus feeds 5,000 in Matthew 14 and 4,000 in Matthew 15...there are two nearly identical stories back to back, so why would the gospel writer include the same story back to back...was his editor out on vacation or something...?
The stories have the same set up: a lot of people have followed Jesus out of town, they are hungry...the same thing happens with Jesus in both stories: he is moved with compassion for the crowd...Jesus does the same thing in both: he takes what the disciples have; some bread and fish, and he blesses it and gives it back to the disciples and the same miracle happens in both: a small amount of bread and fish becomes enough to feed everybody…
I mean was Jesus just out of clever miracle ideas to do the same one again so soon...or what is really going on here.
So to understand why Matthew would include two nearly identical stories of Jesus feeding the multitudes one right after the other, we have to go back to the Old Testament...and we have to start with this very problematic thing in the Old Testament...there is a heck of a lot of violence in the Old Testament.
And not only that...there is a heck of a lot of violence done by God...God is clearly on one side, with one group, and God inflicts violence on those who are on the other side, in the other group, there is clearly an ‘us’ and ‘them’ in the Old Testament and the message that is communicated through the text is that God is for ‘us’ and God destroys ‘them’ on our behalf...
There is some really brutal stuff in the Old Testament, like in Deuteronomy 7 where God commands Joshua to slaughter the seven Canaanite nations. It’s like God says: no mercy for them.
So what do we do with that? Now some folks who read the Bible literally will say well it’s in there and so it must be true that God favors one group over another and God blesses one group over another and even condones or commands violence in some cases.
But that doesn’t work for me, doesn’t work for my experience of God in the world, and it’s just flat out not morally acceptable today...so there’s this major point to be made here about the Bible.
The thing about the Bible is it teaches us a lot about what human beings who wrote the Bible thought about God at a certain time…
So we can clearly see through these texts that in the ancient world, many people sincerely believed that God takes sides and that God was on their side.
We see that kind of thinking infused throughout the Bible...God is on our side...and let’s just say it right here, that kind of thinking still exists today…
We are so divided and the ideology on both sides is: we are right and they are wrong…so we can empathize, we can understand why the ancient writers wrote these texts in the way they did, in their thinking, God protected ‘us’ by harming ‘them’…but there is another way to see God, a better vision...
So follow me here, on the screen.
Deuteronomy 7. God commands Joshua to slaughter the 7 Canaanite nations.
Joshua is the leader of the Israelites; God is clearly on the side of the Israelites. God has no compassion for the Canaanites. God has no mercy for them.
Matthew 14:13-33. The feeding of the 5,000 in Bethsaida, near the Sea of Galilee.
The crowds gathered that day were all Israelites. This is the region they occupied, Jesus is moved with compassion to feed the Israelites...this is consistent, God is on the side of the Israelites so of course Jesus, God with us, would be moved with compassion for the Israelites and take care of their hunger.
After the feeding of the 5,000 Jesus leaves that region and heads into Gentile territory...
Matthew 15: 21-28. A Canaanite woman asks Jesus for mercy for her daughter.
Isn’t it interesting that Matthew identifies the woman to be a Canaanite woman...at the time there were no Canaanites left in the area, so Matthew is doing something really clever here, he is responding directly to the text from Deuteronomy 7...the way of thinking about God has changed since then and he wants to offer another vision of God...so:
Matthew 15: 21-28. A Canaanite woman asks Jesus for mercy for her daughter. Jesus says yes and the daughter is healed.
Jesus gives mercy to the Canaanite woman. What Matthew is saying is: God’s mercy knows no sides. God is on the side of mercy...the new way is mercy for all.
Jesus goes on to heal people from that area who are not members of his religion, they are not part of his tribe, he heals them all...the new way is mercy for all.
And then comes our text today.
Matthew 15:32-39. The feeding of the 4,000 in the region of the Gerasenes.
The region of the Gerasenes is the region of them, they are the Gentiles, they are the outsiders...and Jesus is moved with compassion for them in the same way he is moved with compassion for his fellow Jews.
Jesus repeats the same miracle for all those who are considered outsiders.
So you see why even though the disciples have already seen the miracle of the loaves and fishes once, they would have been shocked to see it again, to see Jesus offer it to the Gentiles too...up until this point, they thought Jesus’ mission was only for the Israelites, only for those who had the same religion and culture as they did...
They thought their work as Jesus’ disciples, their mission and message of God’s love was exclusive, that it was only for the people who were just like them...no...no, Jesus makes it clear: God’s mercy is for everybody. Everybody is welcome to the table. There is a place at the table for everybody.
You see, the disciples have to change their minds, they have to change their way of seeing God and their way of seeing their calling to serve God, they are to be servants of all, extending God’s love and mercy to all, welcoming all to the table.
So do you see how the Bible, which is this library, this collection of material written by people who are articulating their understanding of God in a particular time and place, how this library shows how we humans have come to see God over time…
How we have changed our minds over time...how we have come to see a new vision of God in which God is not just for some but for all, God is not just for us but for all, God’s mercy is not limited to one group but God’s mercy is all-encompassing...there are no exceptions to God’s love.
This passage is often titled “Jesus feeds the 4,000” but that’s not really what happens. Let’s take a look at verses 33 to 36:
“The disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” Jesus asked them, “How many loaves have you?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
Who actually feeds the crowds? The disciples do.
Jesus could have fed the crowds but he doesn’t do that. He could have said, “Give me those fish and that bread and I will feed them.” He could have said: I am the one who will feed the Gentiles, y’all can take five. I am the one who will show compassion and mercy, y’all don’t have to, I know it’s hard for you to change your minds about them. He could have said, I am the one who has the power, I got this.
No: Jesus gives the bread and fish back to the disciples and they feed the crowds.
You see Jesus does not just call the disciples to change their minds about the Gentiles, he doesn’t just want them to have a new way of seeing God, to see that God’s grace and mercy is for all…
Jesus also wants the disciples to change their minds about their power and their responsibility to share the message of God’s love with everyone...he wants them to see they are the ones to reach out to those they once considered outsiders, to those they once considered enemies and offer them bread and a place at the table.
We have the power and the responsibility to share the message of God’s love with everyone...which may mean changing our minds about someone or whole groups of people and changing our actions, we are the ones to reach out and offer mercy to all in the name of Jesus the Christ, who gives mercy to all and calls us to do the same in his name.
Speaking of call, I want to share this video sponsored by Verizon, they worked with PFLAG to connect families who had not spoken in years…
What you are about to see is the feeding of the 4,000 today in which families change their minds about their LGBTQ+ child and reach out to offer them a place at the table again and welcome them back into the family.
Let’s watch:
https://vimeo.com/340500513?fbclid=IwAR1hDCy2WMrojar-yj2MESwxNCbMF1jWr1adEKjyYsX89THaCbOzSieHJ9Q
Did you hear what she said at the end?
Speaking of her mom, she said with tears in her eyes: she just wanted to call and tell me she loved me and that she’s proud to have me as her daughter.
If you haven’t heard that from a parent, I want you to hear it today from Jesus the Christ who says to each of us: I love you and I am proud to have you as my daughter; I love you and I am proud to have you as my son.
Now, who needs to hear that message through you today?
The disciples didn’t think the crowd that day was worthy of a place at the table but Jesus changes their minds about that. The disciples didn’t think they had anything to offer but Jesus changes their minds about that, too.
He took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full.
Seven baskets full. Seven. Seven days of creation, the beginning when all was as it should be. Seven, the number that represents completeness.
We will not be complete until all are welcome at the table. So may it ever be.
Podcast: A Place At The Table w/ Eric Markinson
Pastor Blair Thompson-White sits down with Chaplain and Grace UMC Member Eric Markinson to talk about what it means to be LGBTQ+ and a Methodist.
Pastor Blair Thompson-White sits down with Chaplain and Grace UMC Member Eric Markinson to talk about what it means to be LGBTQ+ and a Methodist.
Trinity Sunday Testimonies
On Sunday, June 16 (Trinity Sunday) we had three testimonies from Kenton Self, Rev. Sungmoon Lee and Aaron Manes. Each of these testimonies begin with a scripture read by Rev. Blair Thompson-White.
On Sunday, June 16 (Trinity Sunday) we had three testimonies from Kenton Self, Rev. Sungmoon Lee and Aaron Manes. Each of these testimonies begin with a scripture read by Rev. Blair Thompson-White.