James 3:14 - 4:8a; Psalm 1; Mark 9:30-37

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the hearts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen

I spent considerable time last week considering the meaning of the gospel that we just heard. In particular I was concerned about the second half of the reading - that portion that deals with disciples rather heated discussion about who among them was greatest and with Jesus' response to their bickering and arguing: "Whoever wants to first must be last of all and servant of all."

I found myself making a common mistake in interpreting this scripture, a mistake that is easy to make because it is a comfortable mistake, the kind of mistake that in the long run lets us off God's hook.

The text seemed to say to me, as it as said to millions before me, that I should be beware of personal ambition, that I should not seek to put myself first, that true greatness lies not in self promotion, but in self-denial.

It said to me that greatness is not measured by the power and influence we obtain over other people, but by how we serve others.

In fact the meaning of the passage was so clear that I planned on speaking to you of each of us should strive for greatness in our own lives by striving to love and serve others to the very best of our ability - and I was going to sink the hook on that thought by challenging you to consider Christ's greatness - how his glory came to him not by his seeking to be first among all people, but by his self-giving upon the cross.

I think you will all agree that this is a good understanding of Jesus's words about what we should do if we want to be "the greatest among us", if we want to "be first"; yet, despite this instant reaction I had to today's gospel, I felt something was lacking in my grasp of the passage, and in particular with what Jesus said and did after he had gathered the disciples together and said: "Whoever wants to first must be last of all and servant of all."

Recall with me what happened next. It goes like this:

"And then Jesus took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes not me, but the one who sent me."

Why, I wondered, did Jesus associate the act of receiving a little child in his name with being first in God's eyes? With being greatest?

After all - children are wonderful are they not?

We love them and care for them. Politicians and leaders of all kinds win votes by hugging and kissing babies and by receiving entire groups of young children at rallies and greeting and paying attention to our youth at various public events.

No one really has problems with children do they?

The more I thought about - the more I wondered - just what was going on that day in Palestine when Jesus spoke to his disciples about greatness and then used welcoming a child as an example of what it means to be great in the kingdom of God - as an example of what it means to welcome him.

You all know that Jesus normally turns things upside down when he speaks to people. He returns questions instead of answers to other people's inquires. He tells stories instead of giving the straight goods to people who try to pin him down. And above all - he defies conventional wisdom about how the world operates and suggests that we need to do things that are the exact opposite.

"They would save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their live for the sake of the Gospel will save it."

"They would be first, must be last of all and servant of all."

"Whoever receive a little child like this, receives Me."

How does that last statement, about what is a apparently a very natural kind of act, fit? Especially in a discussion of greatness?

Where is the upside down effort that Jesus normally demands of his disciples?

Where is the going of the second mile when someone forces you to walk one? The giving of the shirt when someone takes your jacket? The turning of the other cheek? The act of giving so that you might receive? And of dying so that you might live?

To me the passage only makes sense if children are somehow less important to us. It makes sense only if to receive a child is to somehow lower oneself in the world's eyes and to be considered foolish because of it.

And that is, of course, the case, or rather I should say, it was the case - in Palestine, and most of the world, during the time of Jesus.

Children were loved in the time of Jesus - as they are now - but they were not as important as they are today. More than half of them did not live to be adults. Many children were killed at birth (particularly girl children). Others were simply put out in the field to starve to death. In times of shortages of food, children were fed last. None of this was intended to be cruel. These were rather things people did because they felt they had to do them in order to survive. Moreover children had no rights. Parents could do to them whatever they thought necessary to make the children obedient or to force them to work for the family.

It was not a good time to be a child. Children, along with tax collectors and sinners were considered to be second-class citizens. They ranked last in the consideration accorded to persons - even lower than women. Children were chattel, and as nice as they are - as unproductive, as burdensome, as simply another mouth to be fed.

In some ways that attitude persists to our day - in some nations Girl children in certain countries are still killed shortly after they are born. Male children, if they become too numerous, also suffer the same fate. Does that sound horrible - unbelievable? Think about our own society - and about how children are most unwelcome in certain circles - how the unborn are often aborted because they are regarded as a hindrance, as a drain upon the emotional and economic health of upwardly mobile married couples rather than for any true and compelling medical or psychological reason....

"They would be first, must be last of all and servant of all." "Whoever receive a little child like this, receives Me."

In this light - Jesus' words about greatness and about welcoming a little child begin to make sense.

They make sense because, as usual, Jesus was calling his disciples to a radical new vision of what the Kingdom of God is all about - a radical new vision of how life can actually be.

What room is there in that kind of life, that kind of kingdom, for bickering about greatness, about status and prestige and power and knowledge.

It is time to get down on the floor to play!

It is time to forget about is convenient or inconvenient, and relish the natural joy of a baby being goochy-goochy-gooed.

It is time to forget about what might drain the pocket book or make it fat and full, and to listen to a child speak about how wonderful it would be to share supper with the poor people down the street or over in that country over there.

The kingdom of a child has no real slaves or real princes - it has joy and delight and magic and power and everyone prospers - and all evil is vanquished. To receive a child is to receive a vision - if we have but eyes to see.

All this reminds me of a story.

Once upon a time these was a Squire who longed to be a knight. He wanted to serve his king and be the most honourable and noble knight who ever lived. At his knighting he was so overcome by dedication that he made a special oath. He vowed to bow his knees and lift his arms in homage to his king and him alone. This knight was give the task of guarding a city on the frontier of the kingdom. Every day he stood at attention by the gate of the city in full armour.

Years passed. One day as he was standing at attention guarding his post a peasant woman passed by with goods for the market. Her cart turned over spilling potatoes and carrots and onions everywhere. The woman hurried to get them all back in her cart. But the knight wouldn't help the poor woman. He just stood at attention lest he break his vow by bending his knees to help pick up the woman's goods.

Time passed and one day a man with one leg was passing by and his crutch broke. "Good knight, sir, reach down and help me up." But the knight would not stoop or lift a hand to help lest he break his vow.

Years and decades passed, the knight was getting old. One day his grandson came by and said, "Grandpa pick me up and take me to the fair." But he would not stoop lest he break his vow to the king

Finally after many, many, years the king came to visit and inspect the knight. As the king approached the knight just stood there at attention. The king inspected him as he stood there, but then he noticed that the knight was crying. You are one of the noblest knights I have ever seen why do you cry? Your majesty, I took a vow that I would bow and lift my arms in homage to you but I am unable to keep my vow. These years have done their work and the joint of my armour are rusted. I cannot lift my arms or bend my knees.

With the loving voice of a parent the King replied, "Perhaps if you had knelt to help all those who passed by, and lifted your arms to embrace all those who came to you, you would have been able to keep your vows to pay me homage today."

Jesus embraced a small child and said, "Whoever receives on such child receives me and the one who sent me." Most people would overlook a child, but not Jesus. If we want to receive the kingdom, we must receive the King. This king is not received by pomp and circumstance. He is received by humility and servitude - he is received by "self - forgetting.".

Being number one in God's kingdom is not about conquering or overcoming another. It is about putting others first. It is about the love of an almighty God who stoops to a sinful world to be beaten, mocked and killed so that a lost one like me might be found - so that a broken one like me might be made whole - so that a wanderer like me might have a home to go to.....

Greatness is achieved in Jesus's eyes, not just by the fact that we serve others, not just by the fact that we pour out our time and our talent for the sake of others. Greatness in the eyes of Jesus is found in the willingness of his disciples to receive, to accept, and indeed to really welcome those they would normally consider unreceivable, unacceptable, and unwelcome. To welcome others as a child welcomes others before he or she is taught to discriminate between friend and foe....

That is what Christ did when he lived and died for us and for the Creator above. He reversed the usual nature of things. He made that which was unholy, holy, that which was sinful - clean.

He welcomed us and he asks to welcome others - and that my friends is something far different than mere acts of sacrifice and of service, far different from acts of charity and being a person who is "civic minded".

What does Paul say about this?

"If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. If I am last of all and serve all, but do not have love, my acts mean nothing."

Who do we find to be less than ourselves this day? Who in our family do we feel superior to? What brother or sister do we regard as somehow less acceptable than they ought to be? What relative do we turn away at the door because of some real, or some imagined offense? Who does our community scorn and reject? Who is looked down upon for reasons of class, or colour, or religion, or economics, or culture?

Who is greatest among us? Who is the one who has the presence of Christ in them? The one who bears God to our very doorstep and then knocks and asks if he or she can come in?

Let's get with the program people - lets hug the children, let's hug one another, let's hug God.

May those who have ears, hear.
May those who have eyes, see.

Blessed be God - day by day. Amen

Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 19; Mark 8:27-38

Bless thou, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they be of profit to us and acceptable to thee, oh our rock and our redeemer. Amen

If you have a bible with you today, I would ask you to turn to Mark, chapter Eight if you would like to follow along. We will look particularly at verses 31-35.

Most people react to the Cross of Jesus Christ in a negative fashion; they recognize the face of suffering and of death in the cross and so, even when they know about the Resurrection, they want to avoid all talk about the cross.

Most people, in other words, react to the cross like the Apostle Peter reacted to Jesus when he spoke for the first time to the disciples about what was going to happen to him.

We hear those words in verse 31 of today's reading:

Jesus began to teach his disciples saying: "the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again."

"What is this" - Peter must have thought. "A good man - an innocent man - a man of faithfulness - a man who is my friend - must suffer and then be killed!"

Peter felt that this was wrong! And so he argued with Jesus!

We read in verse 32 that he took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him - and while we do not know what he said, we can well imagine it - can't we?

Don't talk this way Jesus - it's wrong! No one who is good should have to suffer.

God rewards the righteous and punishes sinners, and you - you Jesus - you are not a sinner!

You are the Messiah - the promised saviour of Israel. You should not have to suffer, you should not be rejected and killed!

But Jesus - as we read in verse 33, looked at Peter and the other disciples and then he rebuked Peter, saying to him

You are not thinking like God, you are in fact speaking like Satan would speak - trying to get me to avoid what I must do, trying to corrupt me into thinking only of myself and my own survival.

And then - then as we see in verses 34 to 35 - Jesus turns back to the disciples and to the people assembled there with him and says:

If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

How this must have been heard by the disciples is not recorded, their reaction is unknown, but we do know that the early church took these words of our Lord very seriously - so much so that it was believed from the very beginning - from the time of the stoning of Stephen - that if a person was killed because they were spreading the gospel of Jesus that they were blessed above all people, and that they would go straight to heaven and live forever with Christ, that they would have seats of honour at his side for they would have done as Christ himself did - offering their lives for the lives of others.

A new word was coined for these saints who were not only willing to die, but actually did die because of their faith in Jesus: it is the word MARTYR - which literally translates as the word "witness".

So many believers, during the first 200 years of the church's history wanted to be witnesses, martyrs for the faith, that the church passed a law saying that no one would be considered a martyr who actively sought their death - that seeking to die for Jesus was not the same as being killed because of one's faith in him!

Incredible isn't it? The church had to pass a law to stop people from taking up a cross and following Jesus to his death!

But what about today?

What do Jesus' words: "If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow me", really mean for us who want to be his followers?

I believe that it is fair to say that most of us are not called upon to suffer and die for what we do in Christ's name today.

While in some parts of the world people are being killed because of their faith in Christ - because of their belief in the liberating word of God, most of us are not called upon to make this sacrifice.

So what does denying ourselves and taking up our crosses and following Jesus entail for us?

Well - it involves primarily how and why we make our daily choices.

It involves whether or not we choose things on the basis of what is convenient and easy and self-serving or on the basis of what is right and good and loving.

I want to use a single example to illustrate what it means to deny oneself, to do as 'the good news version' of the bible says, and "to forget oneself" and to take up the cross and follow Jesus.

I know of some children that are criticized a lot. It happens everywhere unfortunately - there is nothing unique about this situation.

The kids are looked down upon because of how they are dressed, which is not very well, and for what they have to eat, which is very plain by even the plainest standards, and for the home they live in, which is far from glorious; and because they cause trouble by fighting... and they do fight - with both fists and words.

While most people who are into this judgement game blame the parents for what the kids eat and what they wear and, depending on the age of the children, for how they behave, they still tend to avoid the kids and have their children avoid them.

Very few people stop to think that these kids need some special loving, and that the major reason they fight is because other children tease them - and that those children who tease them get their critical and unloving attitude from their parents - from the stray comments and remarks that they overhear their parents make about the kids and their family.

To forget oneself here and to follow Jesus is to give up judgement and to ask instead:

- what can I do to help these children
- what can I do to make things better,
- what can I do to nurture and care for these kids.

To take up one's cross here means to forget one's own opinions about things and about people, to forget one's own righteousness and goodness, and to do what Christ would have done, to do what he did on the way to the cross, and take into one's arms all the lost and lonely little ones and to bless them.

It is so simple - yet it can be even harder to do than to actually die for Jesus.

To die for Christ you see is relatively easy - the issues in the case of being told you will be killed if you continue to worship Jesus and to tell others about him are pretty clear.

But to simply be in a situation where we must choose either to follow Christ's example or not - the Christ who was rejected because he was good to prostitutes and tax collectors, and other sinners and outcasts, well that is often much harder.

We are kind of attached to our opinions - that's why so many of us spend so much time telling others what they are; and most people would rather choose to let others know who causes problems in the community and who should be avoided and who is not quite "up to snuff" than do anything loving for them. They would rather pass comment upon others than do even something as simple - and as transforming - as pass time in prayer for them.

It is so easy to slip into the ways of the world, into the ways of the those who walk in darkness.

No lights flash when you are in a situation where you must choose Christ or yourself. No bells ring when you are faced with either judging someone or by loving them.

It is easy to go along with what others are saying, or to let it go by for the sake of their so called friendship, it is easy to choose to save your own life - all you have to do is go with the flow.

The way of the cross is - by and large much harder - for it is a way that contradicts the easy way of the world, a way that often earns you the hatred of those who are evil, and calls upon you the hostility of those who do not like the light to shine upon their acts.

The way of choosing to deny oneself is difficult because our self is reluctant to die - reluctant to allow God to work in us and through us - reluctant to trust that God can and will work a wonderful work in us when we follow in his path.

This is the cross that most of us are called to carry each and every day. This is, for most of us, what is involved in denying oneself and choosing to follow the master: to give up our own opinions, our own selves, and, if need be, our friends, for the sake of caring for the children - both young and old - that others judge.

Do you see how this talk about denying oneself and picking up the cross and following Jesus works?

It is not about being the kind of martyr who was killed by the Roman authorities for speaking about Jesus. It is not even about going from door to door telling people about Jesus and asking them if they are saved - as did the evangelists and the apostles.

No, it's about being the kind of witness to the faith who strives to forget his or her opinion of who is bad and who is good, and instead strives to treat all people with love.

It is about being the kind of witness who risks the disapproval of his or her friends because he or she will not listen to their judgements, but instead seeks to bless those being criticized.

It is about giving to strangers and to people on welfare and to convicts the same kind of love you give to your coffee buddies and card partners and travelling companions.

It is about choosing to follow Jesus, knowing that you will have to change, that you will have to forget yourself and what is easiest for you and remember instead what is the good and true and loving thing to do..

But the marvel of it all is this - just as Jesus received a new and glorious life on account of his faithfulness, just as the Martyrs who were burned at the stake and fed to the lions in the Coliseum are seated at Christ's right hand, so those who forget themselves in the little ways I have described - those who pick up the cross of Christ and follow in his path - receive a new and glorious life, one in which the Son of Man is not ashamed of them - but rather shines brightly through them.

Thanks be to Christ - who denied himself, and picked up his cross, and followed in the path of God - the path that leads to resurrection and eternal life. Amen

Deuteronomy 4:1-9; Psalm 15; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-8,14-23

Let us Pray - Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, You who Redeem us and Sustain us: speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

Earlier this past week I read a little joke which I would like to share with you today. It goes like this:

A father is in church with three of his young children, including his six year old daughter. As was the family custom, they sat in the very front row so that the children could properly witness the service.

During this particular service, the pastor was doing a baptism of a tiny infant. The little six year old girl was quite taken by this, observing that he was saying something and pouring water over the little one's head.

With a puzzled look on her face, the little girl turned to her father and asked, "Daddy, why is he brainwashing that little baby?"

When I read that story I happened to be thinking of today's scripture readings - that part where Jesus says to his disciples: "Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'" and it struck me that there was something quite profound about the little girl's question; that indeed what is required by each of us is that we allow our brains to be washed - our brains and our hearts as well.

Today's readings speak about laws and regulations and about purity of heart, mind, and soul. About what makes for cleanliness in the eyes of God and what does not.

Some Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gather around Jesus. They are interested to know what it is that he is teaching. They noticed that some of his disciples were eating their food with hands that were ritually unclean, that is they had not washed them in the way the Pharisees said people should, and they complained to Jesus about this saying:

"Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with 'unclean' hands?"

The Scripture goes on to say that the Pharisees had many rules about such things, about what was the proper way to prepare food, to wash cups and pots and bowls and indeed one's very self if one was to be regarded as "clean" in the eyes of God.

Jesus responds to them in what seems to be an unduly harsh manner - calling them hypocrites and telling them that they worship God in vain because they follow the traditions of men instead of the laws of God.

I said that it seems to be an unduly harsh response because the important thing to understand about the rules and traditions of the elders that are mentioned in today's Gospel reading is that each rule, each tradition, was devised to help people be in closer relationship to God. To keep them pure and holy in his sight.

Ritual cleanliness and traditions about what one could or could not do on the Sabbath, or who one could or could not talk to or associate with, or what one could or could not eat or touch were devised for the good of the people, for the good of their relationship with God as individuals and as a called and chosen people, a called and chosen community of faith.

Each such rule - each such tradition was based upon Biblical passages, just as today, in some churches, regulations about divorce, advice about how you should raise your children, and information about how women should be subject to their husbands, are based on Biblical passages.

The difference between the rules and traditions of today's elders and the elders of Jesus' time is only this - the traditions of our modern day elders are based on New Testament passages instead of Old.

The traditions of Christianity do not require us, as the traditions of the Pharisees required the Jews, to worry about how we wash before eat, nor do they prohibit us from walking over a mile on the Sabbath, but they can be just as restrictive, and ultimately just as meaningless as those kinds of rules were in Jesus' time.

Some of today's traditions claim that a person is not a true Christian if they do not believe in the literal wording of the Bible, or if they have not had a particular kind of "born again" experience, or if they do not speak in tongues.

Some state that a person is unclean if they associate with unbelievers, or if they take a drink, or if they do not believe that God did not create the world and all that is in it in six days and nights some thousands of years ago.

I said that Jesus seemed unduly harsh in his response to the pharisee's criticism of his disciples, but - perhaps - after having thought about in the terms I have just outlined to you - maybe not. Perhaps Jesus was not harsh enough!

The net effect of the traditions of the elders in the day of Jesus, and the traditions that are found today in so many churches today, is to misdirect people - to misdirect them by turning righteousness - by turning cleanliness - by turning holiness - into matters of how well we adhere to the external rules and understandings of our faith rather than to the law that God writes upon hearts that are open to him.

How is your heart?? Are you trying to conform the laws and the traditions of our faith - but inwardly are empty??

Suze Orman, financial planner and author of "The Courage to be Rich", tells of her successful career that went through a period when it was unsuccessful.

During that time she struggled to save face, to maintain an image of success. She continued to entertain her friends at fine restaurants and to drive her luxury car to keep up the image of a successful professional. The truth was that every dinner, every car payment, every tank of gas was taking her deeper into debt.

Many people who believe in God are like Suze. They look good. They keep up the appearances. But inwardly they are impoverished - and the more they try to conform on the outside to what is supposed to come from inside the worse off they get - and in the end those around them are worse off as well.

What defiles a person are the unclean things that originate from within a person, not those that come to us from without.

What defiles a person is not what it is we eat, nor who it is that we eat with, rather it is our anger, our pride, our refusal to listen to others, our sense of superiority, our sense of our own righteousness.

And what makes a person pure and holy is not who or what we avoid in the outer world - though there are things that we should avoid, but whether or not we allow our insides - our hearts and our minds and our souls to be washed in the love of God. And having been washed, to bring forth from inside us those things that Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

I want you all to take special note of that today.

The things that are good, those good things that come from within us are the fruit of the spirit that is within us.

Our acts of goodness and love arise out of what we allow God to do within us.

Our gentleness, our faithfulness, our kindness grow not according to our attempts to keep some eternal law about how we should be faithful, kind or gentle, but rather they grow out of the word that is implanted within our hearts and minds by God.

And joy and peace and self control, things that are the marks of holiness and purity, come about not through constant striving to follow some regulations that are meant to help us be that way, but through meditating upon what it is that God has done for us - and is doing for us - and allowing God to direct our steps with all this in mind.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above," writes James, "coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. God chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created".

Holiness, purity, cleanliness is a gift from above. One that we should aspire to.

But in aspiring to it we need to remember that it has nothing to do with that which is without us and everything to do with that which is within us.

And that which is within us can only be changed by the power of God's word at work within our lives - it can only be changed as we take that word inside us and allowing it to rule us.

"Do not merely listen to the word", James writes, "and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does"

What we need to learn is that the word that is heard in this church, the word that God has given us in the Scriptures, the word that God puts into our hearts so that may meditate on it day and night, must be lived out.

This can occur only if we welcome the word, if we let it take root and then allow it to prompt us to action.

If we don't then like some of the pharisees and scribes who gathered to hear Jesus we will end up being critics of those who are seeking to follow him faithfully - rather than helpers, rather than friends, rather than brothers and sisters who seek to build one another up in love.

We need to allow a place for God to work in our hearts, a place where we in fact listen to God - as well as ask things of God, a place where we listen and then we allow God to direct our actions, our deeds, in the world beyond us.

It is God who makes us holy and it is God who wants us to be holy.

Receive His word into your hearts each and every day. Listen for it as you worship with your brothers and sisters, and then, putting aside those emotions and feelings and thoughts that would lead you astray, and praying in everything that God will lead you and help let God's word come forth from within you and shine about you in acts of love and compassion, and in deeds of patience, understanding, and mercy.

Blessed be the name of the one who washes our hearts and our minds and makes us acceptable in God's sight, both now and forevermore. Amen.

Ephesians 6:10-20; Psalm 84; John 6:56-69

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath into us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen

Today's gospel reading concludes our series of readings from the sixth chapter of the gospel according to John.

It marks a turning point in the response of the people to Jesus, it marks the point where most of the people who come out to see Him turn away from him, the point where even most of those who have followed him from the beginning, those who had considered themselves his disciples, abandon him.

Up to this point Jesus has been a popular man. He has been the hero of Galilee - the star from Bethlehem, the miracle worker who saved a wedding by turning water into wine, the healer who gave health the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, the wise man who is able to see into a woman's heart and bring her new hope, the man so close to God that he is able to feed over 5000 men, women and children with only five loaves of bread and two fish.

But now - now after telling the people that all he has done is but a sign from God that they should believe in him - after telling them that the bread and fish that he gave them to eat only will only satisfy them for a day, but that his flesh and blood will satisfy them forever, that he is the bread of heaven God has prepared for them, they leave him.

And as they go from him , as they abandon the one who gave them bread to eat, the one who healed their sick and showed them the power of God - they say to one another and to themselves: "This teaching is too difficult - who can accept it?

Indeed it is a difficult teaching to accept, this teaching that Jesus is the bread of heaven and that through him comes eternal life for all who believe in him, all who follow him.

But is this the reason that crowds left him? Is this the reason that most of his disciples departed from his side?

Or is as Jesus said, in verse 26, after they had all followed him across the lake to Capernaum?

"Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."

Not too long ago I asked the question - what do you seek? Today I ask the question - what are you prepared to pay for it?

God is extraordinarily gracious and kind. He created us in his own image and bestowed this world upon us to care for and to cherish to enjoy. God has bestowed upon us as well a perfect freedom to do as we will - to love as we want to love, to live as we want to live, without interference - without restriction.

How God works is absolutely marvellous.

God makes his sun rise on both evil and the good, God sends rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous, God cares for all that has made and gives everyone every chance that they need to get things right.

And in return?

In return all God hopes is that we in fact do come to love Him with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength and all our minds - and to love our brothers and our sisters as we love ourselves.

God loves us - God is committed to us - and in that commitment, in that love, God doesn't give up on us, not even when we give up on him, not even when we go our own way.

God has never abandoned his world or his people.

- not even during the time of Noah when the whole world was corrupt;
- nor even later when his chosen ones strayed from the path of truth and justice and righteousness, and oppressed their own people and worshipped other gods.

God has always made it possible for us to approach him - to be with him - to enjoy Him. Indeed God gives - freely - liberally - and without asking much at all of us; only that we accept his gifts and try to follow in the path that he will show us the way he has revealed to us in the law and the prophets and in his chosen one - the one we worship today - and that we be committed in that - that we not be double minded - that we not be the hypocrites that the world accuses so many of us of being.

It is not much to ask is it? Especially it is not much to ask, is it, when you consider what the stakes are? When you consider what it is that God freely offers us? And what it is that the other side, the dark side, offers us - when you consider the question of Peter in today's gospel reading, "to whom else can we go?".

I think we understand that there is earthly food - which never completely satisfies and that their is heavenly food that endures forever.

And I think we want this heavenly food...but, sadly, all too often our want lacks something, all too often it lacks passion, and conviction, and will power.

The reason for this - on the one hand, is that we are all too often not hungry enough, we haven't been really tested and tried and discovered that there is no answer within us or within our human wisdom and our human institutions; and on the other hand - all too often it turns out that all we really want is a free lunch - a material lunch - bread and wine for today - good times without cost -and yes- if we can get it for the asking - we'll take that thing called eternal life as well.

And this is a problem - a problem for those in the world - for those who think in worldly terms, and for many who are "believers" - the kind of believers who believe with their minds, but not with their hearts - those kind of people for whom faith is "three impossible things before breakfast" instead of a life of trust - a life lived in relationship with a real and personal God.

Too often we find people who have the words of faith well planted in the brains - but no conviction, no passion, no commitment in their hearts.

They have the outward form of faith, but none of the substance - none of the power.

An unknown author wrote these words:

You call me Master and obey me not.
You call me Light and see me not.
You call me the Way and walk not.
You call me Life and desire me not.
You call me Wise and follow me not.
You call me Fair and love me not.
You call me Rich and ask me not.
You call me Gracious and trust me not.
You call me Noble and serve me not.
You call me Mighty and honour me not.
You call me Just and fear me not.
If I condemn you, Blame Me Not.

Christ had an All or Nothing Message - a message about receiving life - or not receiving life through him. A message about commitment - the kind of commitment that does not compromise, but holds true for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health...

Some might say at this point - this is not fair; this is not good news. But think on it for a minute.

There are absolutes in life - electrons have either a positive spin or a negative spin, circuits are either open or closed, there is either light or no light, statements are either true or false.

As Jesus says in another context in the gospel of Mark - those who are not for me - are against me.

We are not called to be a people who follow Jesus only when it is suits their taste, their understanding, or their desires. We are called to be with the Lord and to serve him - and to be blessed by him - in good times and hard times - in the times that are easy - and the times when it is not easy. There is no respect ever shown in the scriptures for people who - when things are not going in a way that suits them pack their marbles and go home - as did those in today's gospel reading..

Let me tell you a story:

At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1924 the sport of canoe racing was added to the list of international competitions.

The favourite team in the four-man canoe race was the United States team. One member of that team was a young man by the name of Bill Havens.

As the time for the Olympics neared, it became clear that Bill's wife would give birth to her first child about the time that Bill would be competing in the Paris Games.

In 1924 there were no jet airliners from Paris to the United States, only slow-moving ocean-going ships. And so Bill found himself in a dilemma. Should he go to Paris and risk not being at his wife's side when their first child was born? Or should he withdraw from the team and remain behind.

Bill's wife insisted that he go to Paris. After all, he had been working towards this for all those years. It was the culmination of a life-long dream.

Clearly the decision was not easy for Bill to make.

Finally, after much soul searching, Bill decided to withdraw from the competition and remain behind with his wife so that he could be with her when their first child arrived. Bill considered being at her side a higher priority than going to Paris to fulfil a life-long dream.

To make a long story short, the United States four-man canoe team won the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. And Bill's wife was late in giving birth to her first child. She was so late that Bill could have competed in the event and returned home in time to be with her when she gave birth.

People said, "What a shame." But Bill said he had no regrets. After all, his commitment to his wife was more important then, and it still was now.

The story of Bill Havens is a story of how one man paid a high price to fulfil a commitment to someone he loved.

In a sense it is a story that illustrates the kind of commitment that God in Christ has to us - and it is certainly a story that illustrates how we should be committed to him in return.

In the sixth chapter of the gospel of John we see people who leave Jesus because they wanted free food - a free lunch - and not some vague sounding spiritual food that would do nothing for their hungry guts.

Others leave Jesus - because they can not believe that God would send spiritual food through a person as plain as Jesus - through someone they knew and had grown up with.

To them - the spiritual could not be contained in the profane - in the common - in the familiar - but must always be accompanied by smoke and fire and lightening and thunder and other grand displays.

Still others left Jesus because they understood exactly what he was saying and they did not want God to get that close to them. They wanted to run their own lives - rather than let God live and work through them. Like so many today - they did not want to give control of their lives over to God because they think that God, for some reason, might ask them to do something they don't want to do....

Have you left Christ?
Are you present only in body to him - but not in Spirit?
Are you committed to him - our do other concerns take up most of your time and energy?

Does your TV schedule preclude time for prayer? Does your love of football take priority over taking some time for listening to God's word. Does your ambition prevent you from taking time to care for the family that God has given you to love? Do your prejudices and your judgements about others get in the way of your doing God's will? That is - until you want something from Him? Until you are in a danger of your own making and hope to be rescued? Until you hope to get some favour or other and figure you better butter Him up first? Does your spending on your lotteries and your luxuries prevent you from returning to God the full tithe? The first fruits he asks from all his people that it might be put to use in his service?

Jesus asks us for a commitment; He asks us to be faithful to Him as he is faithful to us - in the good times of our lives - as well as in the bad.

In his asking, Jesus does not compromise. He does not water down his message so that it will be easier for us. He does not go chasing after the people who walk away from Him as did the crowd at Capernaum. He does not change the truth so that His disciples will not leave him.

No - what Jesus does is proclaim what he came to proclaim, He comes to offer to us, as God has always offered us - a choice, the choice to live with him - in his care and under his love, or to live without him and without the peace, the joy, and the strength that a relationship with him offers.

There is a sequel to the story of Bill Havens.

The child eventually born to Bill and his wife was a boy, whom they named Frank. Twenty-eight years later, in 1952, Bill received a cablegram from Frank. It was sent from Helsinki, Finland, where the 1952 Olympics were being held. The cablegram read, and I quote it exactly:

"Dad, I won. I'm bringing home the gold medal you lost while waiting for me to be born."

Frank Havens had just won the gold medal for the United States in the canoe-racing event, a medal his father had dreamed of winning but never did.

There is a sequel to our acts of commitment as well, our commitments to one another, and our commitment to God.

When we stand firm, when we refuse to compromise, when we sacrifice for the sake of the promises we have made, for the sake of those to whom we have pledged our love, for the sake of our relationship to God, we reap the abundant harvest of righteousness - we reap a harvest of joy and peace that endures forever.

Those who confess that Jesus is the Holy One of God, those who realize, as Peter realized, that there is no one else to whom we can go, and who listen to the words of eternal life that Jesus speaks and walk in his way, will see his glory.

They will witness Christ returning in the way he went - on the clouds - and in triumph, and they will rejoice!

Blessed be God - day by day. Amen

Isaiah 56:1-8; Matthew 15:21-28

Let us Pray: Breathe on us, O God, that we may be filled with your Spirit - and led by your living word - Jesus Christ our Lord. Bless the word of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. We ask it in his name. Amen.

Every now and then, rather than doing a what I call an ordinary sermon where I take the Bible passages for the day and attempt with God's help to find in them the Word that we need to hear, I instead take the Bible passage, generally a story, or a parable, and retell it as a story.

In doing so I ask myself - and hope that you will ask yourselves what was the event like? What were the people in it thinking about? What happened and why did it happen that way? How is God found in the story?

Stories help us to use our imagination, they help us to hear what God is saying to us, and when we listen and wonder as did our ancestors by their fires and in their temples and synagogues, the Holy Spirit helps us to hear what it is God is saying.

Today - I offer to you such a story, and, prayerfully, you will hear in it the word of God for you this day.

It is the story which I call Crumbs From the Table. Relax and listen.


She didn't belong there. I knew it and the rest of us knew it.

We were just sitting down to dinner when she barged in.

The dogs woke up immediately and from their place under the table they began to bark.

One of the children started to cry as the woman frantically looked around the room.

I was startled and I stood up immediately. I could feel myself beginning to get angry as I look at this dishevelled and dirty woman.

John and James, who had been sitting near the door had leapt up at the same time I had - and they were already reaching out to stop from the woman from coming closer to the table when she spotted the master.

"Lord, Son of David" - she cried out as they moved in front of her, "Have mercy on me! My daughter is sick. She is suffering terribly from demon possession..."

The master must of heard her over the noise of the two dogs and the child, but he never said a word.

He didn't even look up from his plate.

By this time not only John and James, but I and three others had surrounded the woman and we began to hustle her out the door. She was interrupting not only our meal, but the time that Jesus had specially set aside for teaching us about the Kingdom he was going to establish. We had no intention of letting her get in the way of that.

The woman struggled a bit, but she didn't have a chance. Hauling fishing nets gives a person a lot of strength, and she was outnumbered. We got her outside even more quickly than a bouncer gets a drunk out of a tavern.

But let me tell you, once outside, she caused just as much trouble as a drunk does.

She was loud and insistent. She tried to get by us and to get back inside. She kept on saying to us that she had to see the miracle worker, that her daughter was in a terrible shape, that she needed help.

She must of clutched at and grabbed each and every one of us as she pleaded.

I tell you, she was a real pain. I just wanted to get back inside for dinner.

James tried to reason with her.

"Look", he said, "You have no right to be here. You've got no right to bother the teacher. You are a foreigner, you don't believe in anything we believe in, your people are gentiles, they are heathens, and your behaviour shows that you are too. There is no way the master is going to help you, so please go away."

"I've got to see him", she said, "I know he can help me. He has done so much for others."

"That may be", James said, "but he's not going to do anything for you. You are not only a woman, you are a Canaanite, 7ou don't go to the synagogue, you don't obey the law of Moses, you are unclean, you eat forbidden food. To make matters worse... you have absolutely no respect. Jesus is trying to eat. He is a guest in another man's home, and this is supposed to be a special time for us all, and you just barge in and start demanding help! Listen! Please! Go away! You are not going to get help here."

You know what she did?

That wretched woman just shook her head and said: "I know he will help me, he's got to help me!"

John butted in, "Look", he said, "Go away. We've told you that you are not welcome here. We've told you that Jesus isn't going to have anything to do with your type. So why don't you just get lost."

I tell you she was a crazy woman. She didn't know her place, that's for sure. The more we said to her, the louder and more persistent she was. She cried, she begged, she screamed. There was no reasoning with her.

After a few minutes of this I got the idea of asking Jesus to tell her to go away. I figured that if he said something to her she'd get the picture and stop her infernal racket.

I mentioned the idea to a couple of the others and they agreed that it was the only thing to do if we were going to have any peace.

As soon as I opened the door to go in the dogs began barking again. Someone hissed at them to be quiet as I went over to Jesus. He was sitting with the child who had cried earlier and eating and talking with our host.

Our host looked a little embarrassed. He was trying to pretend that nothing was going on - but the woman was standing just outside the open door where my two mates were waiting for the word and the noise level was none too low.

"Excuse me", I said to the Master, "could you please tell that woman to go away. She is really pestering us with all her crying and carrying on."

Jesus look at his host, then at me, and said - "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

I tell you, Jesus was really frustrating at times. He never seemed to give a straight answer to a simple question. But even so, this time he was backing us up.

It was like he had heard everything we had said to the woman, so I turned to tell the wretched woman that the master had told her to go away.

Just as I was turning around, she squeezed by the guys at the door and ran over to right beside the master, and fell on down on her knees at his feet.

"Lord, help me", she said.

I didn't do a thing.
I was tired.
I figured after what he had said Jesus would handle it just fine.
And he did.

Jesus looked at her at his feet.

She bowed her head and looked down.

Then he looked around the room for a moment.

The child beside him was busy eating a piece of bread as if nothing untoward had happened. The dogs were nuzzling around under the table. Our host was staring at him, no doubt wondering what Jesus was going to do to get rid of this problem. John and James and the others were all inside by this point. They were still standing, waiting to see if they were going to be needed again.

It became very quiet in the room as the master looked around, the only sounds were those of the flies and of the child eating.

Then Jesus looked down at the woman and said to her

"It is not right to take the children's bread and to toss it to their dogs"

A couple of the disciples smiled.
I must confess that I grinned too.
It was such a well turned phrase.
The kind that only Jesus seemed to be able to come up with.
It made the point well.
As far as I was concerned, it certainly disposed of her and all of her kind.

I caught James looking at me and began to nod my head at him. As I did so the woman looked up at Jesus and stared him in the eyes.

"Yes Lord", she said to him in this incredibly calm and clear voice, and I swear to you she had this little smile on her face,

"Yes Lord", she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table."

I was stunned. The woman really was too much. Lippy, rude, obnoxious, unclean, disrespectful, I could go on!

Anyway - do you know what Jesus did?

He smiled at her, as if it was all some great contest of wits and he said to her

"Woman, you have great faith, For your reply, your request is granted. Go home, you daughter is healed."

I just could not understand it.
I mean why in the world did Jesus do that?
She did not belong there.
She was not one of us. She was nothing but a Canaanite
Jesus knew it, I knew it, and the rest of us knew it.
I just don't understand Jesus sometimes.
I just don't understand....

May God's name be praised day by day! Amen!

I Kings 19:1-8; Psalm 34; John 6:41-51

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen The Story of Elijah is an interesting one - he was one of the first of the great prophets, a prophet to the nation of the Northern Israel - to the people who would later become known as the 10 lost tribes. Like us, Elijah is on a journey - a journey of the Spirit - a journey that has led him to a confrontation with the priests of Baal - the god of Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab - on that journey Elijah has earned the hatred of Jezebel - which, given her "charming personality" was a very easy thing to earn - and she wishes him dead - and so he flees from the city of Jezreel to Beersheba - and then - he goes out into the wilderness about a day's walk, and came to a solitary broom tree in the midst of this wilderness, and sits under - and asks God that he might die. There are times, are there not, when people we know and love despair to the point of wanting to die. Perhaps there have been times when we ourselves have thought death a sweet alternative - an alternative - as it was to Elijah - to being a solitary voice - an alternative to the stress of being under attack from those who were once our neighbours - an alternative to the loneliness and fear of being the odd person out, the person who has done what was right only to find that all who have stood with him or her have vanished away - and every hand seems set against you - an alternative to feeling that perhaps - just perhaps - you are no better - and perhaps even worse than those who have gone before you - no better even than those who are against us. Our journey through life takes us through some very dangerous country, our pilgrimage can leads us into some very desolate wilderness.. And so Elijah prays that he might die: "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." And then he lies down under the broom tree and falls asleep, a sleep that I know that each one of you here today understands - the sleep of exhaustion - the sleep of stress so high and the energy to go on fighting so low that it sweeps over you - and normally is too soon gone - the new day comes too quickly. And in the night - something happens. Some answer to his prayer. An angel comes and touches him - wakens him - and tells him to "get up and eat". And there is food - a Cake of Bread upon a hot stone - and drink - a jar of water set near to hand. And he eats and he lies down again, till again - some time later - the angel returns and touches him once more, and says: "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you." And he rises, and he eats and he drinks - and then, the scriptures say, he went forty days and forty nights to Horeb - the mountain of God - the place we call Mount Sinai - and there he comes to cave and spends the night there. Other interesting things happen to Elijah while he is at the Mountain of God. At the end of this journey through the wilderness he is granted a vision of God - and given a message of hope for his own life and for the nation - and he is given a disciple - one who will keep him company and help him on his journey - and at last take his place as prophet over Israel when he grows old - the young man Elisha. But, with me, think of the words of the angel to Elijah, the words "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you." To survive on our journey, to have the strength to go through the barren places of life, those places where we are alone - because of divorce, or illness, or death - we need to eat to drink the food and the drink that God has prepared for us: the food that he grants each one of us in the sacred stories of this holy book and in the newer tales told by people of faith who enter our lives from time to time. We need to cry out to God when we are in need, when we are in despair, and then heed the tap that comes upon our shoulder in the middle of the night - the voice that whispers in our inward most ear - and tells us to believe, to trust, to rise up and take the bread and the water that will be there for us and to eat and drink - and to eat and drink again - and go forth to complete our journey. Are you running on empty? Do you sometimes feel that you do not have the strength to travel onward for another day? let alone another 40 days or 40 years? Perhaps it is time to eat. The food is all round us - especially in this place - and in the people who sit beside you - people who have faith - people who know the story and who know where God is to be found. God is here - God's angels hover round us. God is here - in the truth that we proclaim - in the bread that has been passed around this sanctuary - in the light that enters through the windows - in the water that flows in the rivers and seas outside these doors - in the ordinary things - the daily miracles that so many take for granted - the rising and setting of the sun, and the moon and the stars, and the ever changing mountains and the rhythm of the seasons - in the breath that comes in and out of our lungs each minute - in the crying of a baby and the laughter of a child and the care of a lover. God is here in the Christ, the son of Joseph - whose parents indeed we do know; in Jesus, the carpenter with whom we are well familiar - God is in the one who says: "I am the bread of life" and again "I am the living bread that came down from heaven - whoever eats of this bread will live forever." God is in the one who said to his disciples and to us: "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Solid food is available my friends, food that will sustain us on our spiritual journey. It is a great tragedy not to take it up and eat it - a tragedy that can so easily be avoided if one but takes the time to look around, and to think about what will truly satisfy. Jean Pierre Caussade writes in the book "Abandonment to Divine Providence" "God speaks to every individual through what happens to them moment by moment." He goes on - "The events of each moment are stamped with the will of God.... we find all that is necessary in the present moment." Again: "We are bored with the small happenings around us, yet it is these trivialities - as we consider them - which would do marvels for us if only we did not despise them." Bread - ordinary bread - bread simply for the eating. Rich and filling - something we know well - something that endures when other more exotic foods are not available, or proves - as so much of the food that we eat in this society does - to lead to death instead of life. Ordinary stuff. Stuff we know. Stuff that is so familiar to us that many of us fail to understand it - and either try to make it out to be more than it is - or despise it for being less than they think it ought to be, for being ordinary - familiar - common: rather than magical, powerful, immaculate, glorious, and wondrous beyond even the ability of Cecil B DeMille to portray in a movie. But the ordinary is powerful, it is magical - it is immaculate and glorious and wondrous, for those who have the eyes to see - those who seek God - and are willing to get up and eat and drink what he has provided. God has provided us with food for our journey - take and eat that you may be strong in him and so reach the place he is calling you to. Let us Pray a prayer by Janet Cawley: God of the way, you are the road we travel, and the sign we follow; you are bread for the journey, and the wine of arrival. Guide us as we follow in your way, holding on to each other, reaching out to your beloved world. And when we stray, seek us out and find us, set our feet on the path again, and lead us safely home. In the name of Jesus, our Companion we pray. Amen. Blessed be God - day by day. Amen

Exodus 16:2-15; Psalm 78:1-16; John 6:24-35

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen I would like to begin today by telling you an old Japanese story - a fable actually - about Tasuku - a stonecutter. Tasuku was a poor man who cut blocks of stone from the foot of a mountain. One day he saw a well-dressed prince parade by. Tasuku envied the prince and wished that he could have that kind of wealth. The Great Spirit heard Tasuku, and he was made a prince. Tasuku was happy with his silk clothes and his powerful armies until he saw the sun wilt the flowers in his royal garden. He wished for such power as the sun had, and his wish was granted. He became the sun, with power to parch fields and humble people with thirst. Tasuku was happy to be the sun until a cloud covered him and obscured his powerful heat. With that, he had another wish, and the Spirit complied. Thereafter Tasuku was a cloud with the power to ravage the land with floods and storms. Tasuku was happy until he saw the mountain remain in spite of his storm. So Tasuku demanded to be the mountain. The Spirit obeyed. Tasuku became the mountain and was more powerful than the prince, the sun, or the cloud. And he was happy until he felt a chisel chipping at his feet. It was a stonecutter working away - cutting blocks to sell to make his daily living. How many of you know people who seem to be driven - unable to relax - unable to find satisfaction for more than a few moments at a time? There are people, a majority actually, who are constantly seeking something - they work or they play, they build or they drink, they join clubs and societies or they party, hoping to find in these activities some form of peace, some form of inner quiet, some form of satisfaction. - yet, despite all they do, they continue to hunger and thirst. What are you looking for??? What will make you happy?? What will set your soul at rest?? Tasuku never found out - even though all his wishes were granted by the Great Spirit. Nor - it seems did the people of Israel after they were led by God out of bondage in Egypt. They demanded water at Marah - and what was once bitter was made sweet. They demanded bread and meat in the wilderness of the desert, complaining to Moses and Aaron that God had brought them out of the security of their bondage in Egypt only to kill them with hunger - and manna was provided - and meat - enough each day for each day. Yet within a few days the people were complaining again to Moses and Aaron, complaining that God was trying to kill them, and their children and their livestock. What were they looking for? They prayed and God answered them. What would have made them happy? They complained, and God responded. What would have set their souls at rest? Their wishes were granted - yet they still were unsatisfied. What is it that you desire? Is it that which will allow you to "let go? That which will allow you to trust? That which help you to face life with all its uncertainties? Or do you seek that which will only lead you to want more? Or to want something different? Do you seek the things of God? Or the things of this world? When Jesus fed the crowd of 5000 with five loaves and two fish all ate and all were filled - all had as much as they wanted. And they hailed Jesus as the prophet who was to come into the world. And they sought to make him king - for they realized that he could satisfy their hunger, - that he could free them from Roman control, - that he could put their nation on easy street. Yet Jesus was not flattered by their interest in him when they sought him out after he crossed the sea. He knew what would last, what has the ability to truly satisfy, and what - by its very nature - is only temporary and passing, quick to wither and fade. "Very truly, I tell you", said Jesus, "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." There is another kind of bread, another kind of food - and to come to realize this is not to despise the things that we already know, the things we need for our daily existence, but it is to discover a balance and a harmony to life, it is to find oneself, to discover the possibility of a lasting peace and an enduring happiness, to uncover the hidden connectedness of life - that connectedness that satisfies the hunger and quenches the thirst. The well known comedian, Richard Pryor, was critically burned in an "accident" some years back. When he had recovered sufficiently, he appeared on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". In his conservation with Carson, he said he learned that when you're seriously ill, suddenly money isn't that important any more. Then he said, "All I could think of was to call on GOD. I didn't call the Bank of America once!" Some things are more satisfying than those things which money or success can bring you. It is often said that health is one such thing. But the discerning realize that even health is a passing thing, that we will all die, and they claim that instead VIRTUE is that which should be sought, that honesty, integrity, compassion, a forgiving spirit, a kind heart are of greater and more lasting value than large houses, new cars, and large bank accounts. But the bread of heaven that Jesus speaks of in today's gospel is more than honesty and integrity; it is even greater than a compassionate and forgiving heart, it is even better than virtue - and striving to lead a moral and upright life - because these things too may perish, or at the very least be confounded by our innate sinfulness, our innate selfishness. Virtue is ever mixed with baser instincts, and less noble actions often mingle with our more noble ones - confounding our righteousness, and showing us just how far from perfect we really are. LISTEN, my brothers and sisters! HEAR the Good News! When Jesus spoke of the bread of heaven - of the food that endures - of the drink that satisfies, he did not speak of what we should or should not do each and every day. He did not preach about our leading a more noble and more righteous life. He did not recommend particular behaviours and condemn certain others. No - when Jesus spoke of the bread of heaven, he spoke of himself, and of belief in him and of faith in God. "What must we do", ask the people after Jesus tells them of the food that endures for eternal life, "What must we do to perform the works of God." * And he replies - "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." * That is, in some way, too much for the crowd around Jesus to accept, and they ask Jesus to give them another sign so that they may believe him, a sign like that which Moses gave their ancestors in the wilderness, and finally - at the end of it all - when Jesus tells them that the bread that their ancestors ate in the wilderness came not from Moses - but from God, they ask NOT that Jesus might help them believe, but that he might always give them the bread that gives life to the world. Like so many people today, including all too many people in the churches of this world, they missed the point of what Jesus says. They refuse to do the work that Jesus says that they need to do if they are to eat and be satisfied - if they are to drink and find that their thirst is quenched. They refuse to simply believe in him! They seem unable to simply trust in God. Instead, like their ancestors, they grumble and complain, and suggest to one another that Jesus is a hoax, a fraud, a person who is either mad or a blasphemer; a person set on leading them astray and causing them to perish. But my friends - this was and is not the case - Faith in Christ has satisfied many a person. Trust in God has quenched the thirst of many a thirsty soul. Belief in the Lord has filled many a hungry heart. There is a greater world, a greater reality, than the physical world we live in. And this reality, this world, is within, and all around the physical world, it enters our time and our space, and it endures beyond it. The sun and the moon and the stars that we see at night, are greater than we, yet even they will perish. But God, who made them all, will not perish; even as his chosen one, his messenger, his son, did not perish when he died for us on the cross, but rather passed through death into eternal life. We are connected to this greater world, to this greater reality. We are linked to it, and to the God who made it, because God wants it to be so for us. The power, and the beauty, and the peace, and the joy, of God's realm is accessible to us when we believe in Him and the One whom he has sent; when we trust in Him and the One who calls us to eat and drink of the bread and the wine he provides. Say now in your heart "Yes Lord - Yes - I know that there is more - and I thank you for offering it to me. I thank you for offering it freely, without regard to my virtue or reference to my sin. I thank you for showing me where my home is, where my hope is, where my future is. Say YES each day to God, YES each day to the one who said: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." And then SHARE the Good News with others, the news that in the midst of the hunger and thirst of our world there is a drink that satisfies and a bread that endures; that God rains it down upon his people like dew upon the morning grass. Each morning, my friends, that food it is made new. Each day, as it is gathered, it gives life to those for whom it is meant, those who embrace its sender and believe in his goodness., Blessed be God - day by day. Amen

II Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145; John 6:1-15

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your life into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us and better love and serve you and one another. Amen Today's readings present us with the story of two different miracles: the story of Elisha, who in the midst of a famine feeds a hundred men with 20 loaves of barley bread, and the story of Jesus, who when faced with a great crowd of hungry people, over 5000 men, women, and children according to the other gospel accounts of this story, feeds them with five loaves and two fish. Both stories share certain things in common. Elisha's servant, on being told to feed the men with the offering brought by the man who came from Baal Shalishah, does not think it possible and complains to the prophet saying: "How can I set this before a hundred men?" And with Jesus too, as with Elisha, there is a servant, a disciple, who does not think it is possible to feed the people with what is available - the five loaves and two fish offered by the child that Peter's brother, Andrew, had found in the crowd. And in both stories - despite these small beginnings, the hungry are fed, and there are leftovers - indeed in the story involving Jesus there is an abundance of leftovers - there is more than when the feast first began. The feeding of the great crowd, as John calls it, is the only miracle that Jesus did that is described in all four gospels. For this reason, if no other, we need to pay close attention to it. We need to ask ourselves - why is this so? What is it about this miracle - unlike all the other miracles performed by Jesus - that so catches the attention of the gospel writers. I think it has to do with at least three separate things. The first is the fact that this story tells us that Jesus is used of God - that like Elisha he has God's favour and is able to feed the hungry - much as the people of Israel were fed by God in the wilderness with Manna. In fact John goes on after the telling of this story to speak of Jesus as the bread of heaven come down to earth - the one who is not only able to satisfy the physical hunger of his people - but their spiritual hunger as well. Jesus has, and is able to use, the power of God to feed the hungry. The second thing is that the story shows us not only God's power at work in Jesus, but also God's care. God reaches out through Jesus to meet the needs of those who are following him - much as God reached out through Elisha to meet the needs of the men who had followed him into the wilderness. Jesus cares for those who seek him out. He wants to meet their needs, and he wants to see their needs met. The third thing is that the story shows us is that Jesus is able to take what is offered to him and to multiply it - so that where there first seemed not enough ends up being more than enough. It is this latter point that I want to focus on for the remainder of the sermon. It has been talked about a lot, this miracle of feeding the great crowd of people, and perhaps more than any other miracle, people have tried to figure out how Jesus did it. Most people more readily accept the healing stories, they understand that the mind has a strong effect on health, that faith can in fact bring about healing. But multiplying loaves and fish? To many people this seems more incredible, more difficult, and so theories have arisen to explain how it was done. The most notable theory is that when the boy who had the loaves and fish shared them with others his example inspired others to bring out what they had brought with them and share as well. I can't say how it the loaves and the fish multiplied nor do I want to try. But I do want to stress to you the fact that they do, much as does the offering made to Elisha by the man from Baal Shalishah. I think that we really need to meditate on that fact. We really need to consider how too little becomes more than enough when it is offered to God. Recall once again the context of the stories we heard this morning. Think of the story about Elisha. A man comes to bring the prophet an offering during a famine in Gilgal - some bread made from the first ripe grain of the season. It was a faith offering, the type recommended by Moses in the Torah. And Elisha, after receiving the offering, says to his servant "give it to the people to eat" give it to the hungry ones here with me, eed them, for they need it. And what does he get in return - what is said to him? He is told that it is not possible, that there will not be enough to go around. Let us not doubt that assertion. There was not enough to go round. In the four gospel stories about the feeding of the great crowd we hear something very similar. Jesus is teaching on a hillside - there are over 5000 people there, and when evening approaches the disciples become concerned, they fear that the crowd will go hungry, and their solution is to ask Jesus to send the crowd away. But Jesus says to them - you feed them, and he asks Philip - who was from the region in which the story takes place, "where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" Philip replies "eight months wages would not buy enough bread to for each one to have a single bite" Immediately afterwards Andrew, who has found a boy with 5 loaves and two fish among the crowd, pipes up about his discovery - and then adds - "BUT how far will they go among so many." How far indeed. The scene is set then for us and for our meditation upon it. There is a great need. And there are not enough resources to meet that need. It all sounds so familiar doesn't it? You can hear words like this just about anytime, especially when there are social or political problems that require an infusion of resources. - How can we help with what little we have? We don't even know how we will we make do ourselves. - How can we feed so many? How can we fund so many. We have so little and the need is so great. - What we can do is only a drop in a bucket. We don't have enough money to help out. We don't have what it takes. And we can also hear the same tune about our emotional and spiritual resources when confronted with problems of caring for those who are lost and alone, those caught up in guilt and despair, in doubt and confusion. The chorus goes something like this, doesn't it? We don't have enough time. We don't have enough energy. We aren't smart enough. We aren't wise enough. We haven't the training we require. We aren't professionals. There aren't enough of us to make a real difference, there aren't enough of us to get the job done. But Jesus, like Elisha, didn't listen to this from his disciples, rather, like the prophet, he took that which was offered to him in faith, blessed it, and handed it back to his disciples so that they might distribute it. Just as Elisha commanded his servant to give the twenty loaves of bread that he had received to the people anyway, saying, "They will eat and have some left over", so Jesus, after giving thanks to God, divided the five loaves and the two fish, and begins to feed the crowd. And there was enough to go around. And there were leftovers - so many that there was more than there was to start with. What voice do we listen to in these stories? The voices of the disciples - the servants - who say, when told to feed the crowd - there is not enough - it is impossible. Or the voice of the one who tells us "feed the people" and who takes what we have to offer and makes it enough? Mark, Matthew, and Luke all begin their account of the feeding of the great crowd by saying when Jesus saw the crowd he had compassion for them, that he cared for them. Jesus ask us to do the same - he asks us to care, to have compassion, and to go out into the world, and teach, and heal, and feed the people. That is part of the great commissioning found at the end of the gospel of Matthew - that portion we so often quote in our baptismal services which says "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you", and that is part of the commissioning Jesus imparts to Peter just before his ascension saying "Do you love me Peter?" and when Peter says "Yes Lord, you know that I love you.", he says to him "Feed my sheep". We are called to be like Jesus - - we are called to feed those in need, to feed them with both the bread of heaven and the bread worked upon by human hands. And we are not left alone in the doing of it. God's power is promised us in it. All we need to do is to do is bring what we have, as did the man of Baal Shalishah to Elisha and as did the boy on the hillside to Jesus. To bring it with thanksgiving - as Moses commanded. To bring it with joy - as the boy must surely have brought Jesus his meagre offering. To bring it - not with regard to what it might or might not be able to do - but with regard to the one to whom we present it, with regard to God and God's love. The story of the loaves and the fish show us that Jesus is used of God, that he has the power of God and it shows us too that God cares. It also shows us that what is small and insignificant in the face of this world's need can, when offered to God, be multiplied and provide for the world what is needed. Miracles all have beginnings, and almost always those beginnings are to be found within us. Many years ago I heard the story of a man named Paul. Paul had received a special pre-Christmas gift from his brother. It was a beautiful new car - fully loaded and ready to go. On Christmas Eve, when Paul came out of his office, a street kid was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it. "Is this your car, mister?", the kid asked. When he replied that it was., and that his brother had given it to him for Christmas, the boy said, "You mean your brother gave it to you, and it didn't cost you anything? Free? For Nothing? Gosh, I wish..." The boy hesitated, and Paul knew what he was about to say. He had heard it many times over the past few days. He was going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the boy said shocked Paul. "I wish", the boy said, "I wish I could be a brother like that." We can be a brother like that. Or a sister like that. All it takes is that we offer ourselves and what we have to God. All it takes is that we cease to worry about how little we have and begin instead to think about what it is that we can offer. Praise be to God who multiplies that which is given to him, day by day. Amen.

II Samuel 7:1-14a; Isaiah 60; Ephesians 2:11-22

Let us Pray - Bless, O God, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they may be acceptable to thee, our rock and our redeemer. Amen There is an story that comes out of Poland from many years back - it was during the Second World War. It happened that in a particular village there was a man who was well known for his care and compassion for others and who was deeply loved because of it. He was not a particularly wealthy man, nor was he a native of the village, nor did he attend the village church. In fact he was not even baptised and showed little interest in rectifying that situation. But both before and during the War he was known for his good works within the village that he had adopted as his place to live and work. If a stranger came to the village and needed a place to stay, this man would offer a cot in his little home. If a village family ran out of food, he was among the first to offer a loaf of bread or some flour from his meagre supplies. If someone was in trouble with the authorities, who by and large oppressed the citizens of that nation, or if the Germans or, later the Russians, were performing a sweep of the village to collect up the young men for either imprisonment, or to force them into the army, or worse, he would help hide the would be victims in the woods outside town or in some other way. He was loved very much by the villagers on account of all these things and many more. Finally the man died from some cause or other - what it was the story doesn't say. The villagers prepared his body for burial and proceeded to the village church where they asked the Priest to perform the burial service and to bury the man in the church cemetery. The priest, who knew and loved the man as much as did the rest of the villagers agreed that he would conduct the funeral service - but he insisted, despite many pleas from the villagers, that he could not bury the man inside the church cemetery because he was not baptised. "I cannot bury him in our cemetery", the priest said, "It is hallowed ground. He must go where those who are not baptised are buried. Those are the rules of the church and I cannot change them." The villagers appealed even more earnestly to the priest, saying that the man was a good man and surely loved by God as much as any of the baptised, perhaps even more on account of all the good things that he had done. The priest agreed with them regarding the virtues of the man, but insisted that the rules of the faith were clear and could be not be broken. Finally he came up with a compromise that he hoped would satisfy everyone. "In recognition of your love for him - and his love for you and all of God's people in this village", he said, "I will bury him on church land, near to those who have gone before him - those whom he has loved, but it will have to be beyond the fence that surrounds the consecrated ground of our cemetery." And so it was. On the appointed day a grave was prepared just outside the fence that surrounded the church cemetery, and the body of the man was processed by all the villagers to the site where the priest conducted the ceremony - and then the grave was filled in and a stone placed before the night fell. During the night something very beautiful happened - something that became apparent when the priest went to the church next morning to conduct morning mass. The fence that surrounded the cemetery had been moved by some of the villagers - so that it now took in the grave in which the man had been buried.... I first heard that story some years ago now in a sermon at a church I was visiting. I don't recall who the preacher was - but it impressed me then - and it impresses me still to this day. For me it captures something of what Jesus was all about - something of what the good news is all about - namely inclusivity. As the villagers expanded the fence which enclosed hallowed ground to include the grave of the man whom they loved - so God, through Christ Jesus, expands the boundaries of the sacred to include both those whom the rules of our religion would exclude - and those that the ways of this world would exclude. Robert Frost once wrote, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." That's good news for us because we live in a world of walls. Dividing walls are everywhere we look. Consider our every day language. How often we call others "those people", or use the term "they", and "their kind" in our conversations. We say, "Those people come over to Hong Kong and expect...." or, "They just don't appreciate hard work." or "Their kind always have their hand out" and so forth. "They" most often are the strangers in our midst, people from another country, with accents, a different shade of skin, different customs of religion and food, and different ways of being family. But often too they don't come from another land, but live in a different part of Hong Kong and attend other churches - or no church at all. Whoever "they" are, they are different than us. Perhaps they are gay. Or on welfare. Perhaps they are pro-government, or democrats, or Catholics, or fundamentalists. Maybe they are environmentalists or people who care nothing of the environment. Perhaps they are people who are body piercers or people who think casual is loosening one's tie when the weather is hot. The walls that we erect take many forms. Some related to our culture and to our way of life and of earning a living. Some related to what we believe to be true about God or about Jesus. It seems that we persist in building walls to keep away those who don't share our understanding - our way of doing things. That's one reason we have so many denominations. One reason why I believe that Christ cried out when he looked upon Jerusalem, saying, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" We are all in need of the reconciliation spoken of by Paul in today's epistle. We are all in need of a fresh look at just who we are in the eyes of God - and where we fit in the family of God. What was read this morning contains the heart, the key message in the entire letter to the Ephesians. It comes from a section of the epistle that speaks of the benefits offered to both Gentiles ("the you that is found in the passage") and Jews ("the we") through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. The writer seems to be aware of a prophecy from Isaiah (57:18-19). The prophet says that God notices that his faithless people are suffering from their infidelities, that they are exhausted from their rebelliousness against him. God saw their ways (Is. 57:18) and withdrew from them, but not has mercy on them. "Peace, peace to the far off and the near." the Prophet proclaims. God, through the prophet, was addressing the Jews in exile (the "far off"), but the author of the epistle applies the image to Gentiles who have accepted the Gospel message. Just as blood sacrifice reconciled the Jewish community in covenant to God, so the blood of Christ has reconciled us to each other and to God - making of us one spiritual house wherein God may dwell. The rituals and regulations of the Law that were given by Moses that were meant to give the people of Israel as a way to respond to God's gracious initiative toward them are by no means cancelled for them - but the use to which they had been put in separating the chosen from the un-chosen is considered to be of no account. All are called in Christ Jesus to be one - both Jews and Gentiles - for through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. The barriers of hostility, the walls of division, are broken down. God has seen our human condition and come to our help in Christ, whom God has made "one new humanity in place of the two". A new creation has occurred, a new people of God has been made from people who formerly ere enemies. What saves us then, is not that some have kept all the rules and done the right things all their lives while others are or were oblivious to God and have no "track record" of Church attendance or observance of religious custom. What saves us, Paul reminds us, is that we all have access to God because we believe in Christ. Race, sex, culture, biblical knowledge, conservatism or liberalism, and heritage have no part in our salvation - for all are chosen by God and all are loved by him. God longs to gather all people together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings - and in Christ God has acted to do so. How far are we from God? Not far at all, the epistle reminds us, thanks to Christ. How far are those whom we label as different from us from God? Not far at all, the epistle reminds us, for in Christ the walls that divide are broken down. So, how goes our living response to the unity God has achieved for us? We need to look again at those we call "strangers". We need to see them not as different from us, but as essentially the same. Paul invites us to look at ourselves and others in a different light, a light created by God. We need to look at the barriers we have set up, or that are part of the local and larger world in which we live. Barriers are not to exist between us. We are called to consider how we contribute to those barriers, how we add bricks and mortar to their construction and to ask God to help us remove them and to build a new house in our world, one without walls. Think of the racial, economic and social barriers that mark the terrain of our daily lives and determine whom we see, touch and share our lives. These walls direct our footsteps, where we go and whose terrain we avoid. Think of the gender barriers between us, how we think and talk about each other; how we relate to one another at work and at home. Think of the way we classify each other at church; the liberals and conservatives, the "old timers" who built the church and the newcomers - and let go of these things and let God build in their place a new thing. When people are shunted aside because they are different, we need to offer them hospitality, some space of welcome in which they can be themselves. Hospitality means people don't have to conform to our ways, but that they can be themselves in our presence. It doesn't try to change people but enables them freedom and space to change at their own pace in their own way - as God leads them individually and collectively - just as God has done for us. David wanted to build a house for God says our first reading this morning. But God stated that he would build a house for David an everlasting kingdom - a place where God's chosen might dwell - and that one of his descendants would build a house for God's Name. That house is not just the one built by Solomon - and rebuilt later by Erza and Nehemiah - nor even is it just the last and by far the greatest house built by Herod - which was destroyed in 70 AD. Rather it is the house built by David's eternal Son - the one whose kingdom is truly everlasting, the one whom God calls over and over again, "my son". Listen again to what Paul says of this chosen one of God - and of the house - the temple - the church that he would build. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. (18} For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. {19} consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, {20} built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. {21} In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. {22} And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Gays and Straights, people from Mainland China and Welfare bums, Liberals and Conservatives, Catholics and Jews, are all called to be part of the house that God builds - and are all made part of that house by the Spirit of God. A house without walls in a kingdom without end. That is what we are supposed to be about. Let it be so. Let God do the judging. Let the Spirit of God do the convicting. Let us do the loving and so proclaim God's glory.

Exodus 34.1-10, Psalm 103, Ephesians 4.25-32, John 8.1-11

They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. I remember a scene in a movie that I watched sometime ago. In the movie, one of the character said: “If you cannot say anything good about anybody, you just come right over here and sit next to me.” Do you know what a lot of people do when it comes to someone else’s sins? The way it works is actually very simple. I know of something wrong that you have done in the past, even in the very distant past. Now, whenever I look at you, I will see you through the lens of that particular mistake. I will forever hold you in your sin, because your sin is now the filter through I will forever relate to you. You are the young lady who once had an abortion when you were sixteen years of age, although you may be thirty years of age, however, that is what I will always remember you by. You are the man who was caught cheating on your examinations some forty years ago; you are the man who was caught cheating on your wife some three years ago. You are the person who once had a drinking problem. I just cannot let go of your past, your sin, your indiscretion, or your weakness. As a result of not forgetting your past, your sin, your indiscretion or your weakness I will hold you in your sin forever. Many people in public office do not always declare everything that has ever happened to them, this is not because they are trying to be dishonest. They simply know that what some people in this world or society of ours will do with some things. Even though debts may have already been paid in full. Even though mistakes have already been corrected a long time ago, to some people, it does not matter. What really matters to them is that once some people know something of your past mistakes, they will never let go of it. We often had to keep our sins hidden because we know that if they are not well hidden they will be held against us. We keep our sins well hidden because we know that if they are not well hidden they will be used against us someday or other. Skeletons are often kept in the closet because we know that some people will hang them up on the porch for us. People who hold public office don't always declare everything that has ever happened to them not necessarily because they are trying to be dishonest. They simply know what some people will do with some things. Even debts that have been paid. Even mistakes that have been corrected. It doesn't matter. What matters is that once some people know something about you they will never let go of it. We hide our sins because we know that if they are not hidden they will be held. Skeletons are kept in the closet because we know that some people will hang them on the porch. Then the only access to who we are will be through the dead bones of our mistakes. It is why many people move away from where they are known. People who do not know them cannot hold them in their sins. Negative gossip. It is hard to resist. "I heard that Jack once . . ." "Apparently, Marg used to . . ." It passes the time. It is flattering to the ego. At least you're better than that pathetic mess you've just put under the microscope of public scrutiny. Holding people in sin is the perfect accompaniment to lunch. Until it is you who are held. I'm not sure why the story contained in John 8.1-11 is not proscribed even once in the three year Lectionary cycle. I do know it is a mistake not to include it; for it is a story about all of us and a story for all of us. It is a portrait of Jesus at his best, the teacher with a difference, the man who puts words and actions together in a way that encounters people and invites them to change. It is also a highly symbolic, literary invention with layer upon layer of meaning. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand before all of them . . . The scribes and Pharisees are doing what they do best: catching, surrounding, staring at, holding - the special gift of the self-righteous; and they are good at it. Sin sticks. Ask anybody who has been made to stand there. However, there are some people who hold people in their sin for a living. They think of nothing else; and they are single-minded about it. "How can I use this about her in order to get something on him. " Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say? They said this to test him. They have nothing on Jesus; but they are after something so that they can hold it against him. Jesus says nothing about Moses and the law. Instead, he performs a symbolic act. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and said to them. "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. It is not important what he wrote. What is important is that he wrote with his finger, that he wrote it on the earth and that he wrote twice. In the book of Exodus we are told that the ten commandments were written on stone tablets with the finger of God (Exodus 31.18) and that when Moses found the Israelites committing infidelity (adultery) with another god, he threw the stone tablets at them in fierce judgment. So God had to write the commandments a second time and told Moses to hide himself in a rock while he passed by so that Moses would see something he had missed the first time (34.6). "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children's children, to the third and fourth generation." It is this revelation the scribes and Pharisees have forgotten: that God's glory is steadfast love and endless forgiveness. There is no judgment in God. There are no sinless ones, and, therefore, no one who can cast the first stone. Holding others in their sin while holding yourself innocent is delusionary and only perpetuates the cycle of sin for everyone. There is an alternative to the holding stare of the self-righteous and Jesus is trying to demonstrate it. He bends down and stands up, then bends down again. He does not stare. He refuses to hold the Pharisees in their sin. He is inviting them into a new way of being: the land of mercy. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders . . . "Heard" does not mean Jesus spoke loud enough. It means they got it. Jesus' answer was so well-aimed that they had nothing left to say. The revelation to Moses was an invitation which they had forgotten - an invitation to be as God is: merciful and gracious. But they refused it and walked away, beginning with the oldest. How hard it is see yourself in a way that contradicts that well-polished image! How hard it is to let go of someone you have enjoyed holding in their sin! The longer we live in the land of judgment, the harder it gets to embrace the alternative. . . . and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, sir." And so the one who was caught-brought and made-to-stand-there is left only with one who honours her by calling her "Woman". The one who refuses to hold people in their sins reminds her of her dignity and life-giving power. Although this woman, known as "the woman caught in adultery" has only one line in the story, it is an important one. The circle of accusers has left; and it is to be hoped her "no one" includes herself. Judgment is nowhere to be found. Only mercy. "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again." In this season of spirit, we would do well to ask ourselves: what does it mean to live in Jesus' spirit? When we have his spirit what do we do that is distinctively him? In one of the Easter texts, Jesus tells us when he says to his disciples, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you hold people's sins, then they are held. If you let let them go, then they are released." (John 20.23) This is not a formula for ecclesiastical power. This is the condition that characterizes our communal life. We can hold each other in our mistakes or we can let each other go. We can be a prison to one another or a source of release. Any bets on which option Jesus prefers? The next time you come upon someone's failure and are tempted to bend over and pick up a stone, remember that you also have the power to let them go. And when you come upon someone else's failure and are again tempted to bend over and pick up another stone, remember that you also have the power to release them. And when you come upon someone else's failure . . . and feel like picking up another stone . . . Living in the land of mercy is not easy, is it? We gravitate easily to holding in sin. We have to work at letting go. Joining the human race is not as easy as it looks. Most of us do it only under duress. Thank God for the memory of the man who bent down and wrote twice.