September 30, 2007<\/strong><\/p>\n Rennie Regehr<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It’s simply not possible to hear the stories this morning without an overwhelming sense of the extraordinary; something huge<\/strong> is going on here. Isn\u2019t it almost too much?\u00a0 Ridiculous in fact?\u00a0 Almost to the point of being gross? \u00a0<\/p>\n Just close your eyes and imagine:<\/p>\n 1) These fishermen<\/strong> watching their two boats struggling to stay afloat under the weight of this remarkable catch of fish.<\/p>\n 2) And what about all those lunches<\/strong>.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get the picture here.\u00a0 A young kid brings 5 loaves, and 2 dried fish presumably enough for him to eat and, in front of everyone, something happens, goes off the charts. Think about the numbers for a second; 5000 men, plus spouses and kids. Let\u2019s say, conservatively, there were another 2500 people there.\u00a0 If our young lad was going to eat 5 loaves how many loaves would 7500 people need?\u00a0 Close to 40,000.\u00a0 And then 2 x 7500? \u00a0That\u2019s15,000 fish!\u00a0 And then the leftovers!\u00a0 This is non-linear growth, to say the least.<\/p>\n 3) Then there is the wedding.<\/strong>\u00a0 Guests should have been finished, but for whatever reason, the wine was gone.\u00a0 And here, all of a sudden, another 150 GALLONS (!) of wine.\u00a0 That\u2019s 600 bottles!!\u00a0 AFTER they had too much to drink already!\u00a0<\/p>\n 4) Then the Mustard tree.\u00a0 Large as a house, offering the birds of the air a place to rest, shading the passersby, providing us with its unique pungency.<\/p>\n This is what we see in our stories this morning.<\/p>\n What do we see around us here and now?<\/strong><\/p>\n We also<\/strong> are lavished with this same kind of over-the-top generosity.\u00a0 How many species of birds are there on our planet? Each different.\u00a0 With how many wild colours are they plumed?\u00a0 How many species of fish? How many different kinds of plants?<\/p>\n \u2018And God said, \u201cLet the water teem with living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth\u201d\u00a0 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their (28,000) kinds, and all the winged birds, according to their (10,000)kinds.\u2019<\/p>\n “I give you every one of (285,000) different kinds of seed-bearing plants on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. (I read Wikipedia, therefore I know<\/em>!)\u00a0 They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move on the ground\u2014everything that has the breath of life in it\u2014I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.<\/p>\n God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.\u2019<\/p>\n I have long been amazed by our body’s capacity to take this all in.\u00a0 We have 120 million little rods and cones in each eye to observe our visual world.\u00a0 Many of us, \u2018grey-out\u2019 what we actully see simply because the colours are too vibrant for our conscious mind to handle at ‘face value’.\u00a0 One would think that all we really need to see is the basic colour of our food, and whether or not we\u2019re going to get run over by a bus, but we have the capacity to perceive so much more.\u00a0<\/p>\n And what about our ability to hear?\u00a0 Most of our spoken and aural communication takes place within a very narrow band-width, within few hundred cycles per second which is a tiny fraction of the spectrum of 20-20,000 cycles per second of which our ears are capable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n There is just so<\/strong> much around us.\u00a0 The INCREDIBLE care in the way we are created in order for us to be able to take it ALL in, is simply astonishing. We have been given so much more than what is\u00a0 necessary simply for survival.\u00a0 Its like God has SOOOO much for us to enjoy; nuance, shading, richness of taste, colour and sound.\u00a0 He really outdid himself!<\/p>\n Back to our stories <\/strong>: Why did He do this?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n To feed a crowd of hungry people? As a one-off?<\/p>\n To bail out a wedding where the host didn\u2019t plan?\u00a0 \u2013 Or made the mistake of inviting a crowd of heavy drinkers?\u00a0<\/p>\n To put some denarii in the pockets of his fisherman friends?\u00a0<\/p>\n These events, which rank among the great stories of human history, are much bigger than that.\u00a0 They are signs.\u00a0 They give the bystanders a real, tangible, graphic, experience of Jesus Himself \u2013 the embodiment, the incarnation of the Love and Extravagance of the Father.\u00a0 The same wild excessiveness that God lavished on us all at the beginning of time is alive in the Person of His Son, who is announced to the world in a powerful and compelling way.<\/p>\n Which is exactly how John puts it.\u00a0 \u2018This was the first of his miraculous signs.\u00a0 He thus revealed His glory, and his disciples put their faith in Him.\u2019<\/p>\n What we don\u2019t see<\/strong><\/p>\n Isn\u2019t it interesting to recognize what it is we don\u2019t see \u2013 at first?\u00a0 Or what we don\u2019t see because we see it all the time.\u00a0 It\u2019s so ordinary, so mundane.\u00a0<\/p>\n The fish, presumably, were down there the whole time, but no one knew where.<\/p>\n The \u2018wine\u2019 was hidden in the nearest well, then migrated to 6 unremarkable, ordinary stone jars.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dinner for the masses was hidden in a little boy\u2019s lunch bag.<\/p>\n The mustard seed is so small as to be virtually imperceptible.\u00a0<\/p>\n Transformation<\/strong><\/p>\n But herein is the secret.\u00a0 These are stories of transformation<\/span>.\u00a0 Whereas the Sea of Galilee had confronted our fishermen with its emptiness the night before, at Christ\u2019s command it yields a catch of fish that is overwhelming.\u00a0<\/p>\n At Jesus’ command, the water destined for a washbasin becomes the means of joy and celebration at the wedding.\u00a0<\/p>\n And then there is the young boy with his meagre lunch of 5 loaves and 2 dried fish.\u00a0 At Jesus’ word, out of this, the most elemental of life\u2019s barest necessities \u2013 a feast for thousands \u2013 happens.<\/p>\n This is definitely not the same old, same old.\u00a0 Our way, the disciples\u2019 way of seeing the world, is simply not prepared for the abundance mentality that Jesus seems to want his disciples to learn.\u00a0 \u201cWhy don\u2019t you feed them?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThrow your nets out on the other side.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIf you ask, there is nothing I will withhold from you.\u00a0 Just ask.\u201d\u00a0 Even with the benefit of 2000 years of hindsight and insight, I am not sure that I am capable of thinking in His magnanimous way.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure I can think anything beyond the obvious, the linear.\u00a0 Sure, we can feed you, but only if we brought enough with us.<\/p>\n \u00a0 I wonder what would it might have been like to be there?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s one thing to read about these events.\u00a0 But as we try to put ourselves back there as close-range observers, I can imagine that, for these folks, there was a strong visceral response to all this.\u00a0 Even at a distance of 2000 years, can’t we feel it too?<\/p>\n Can\u2019t we identify with the puzzled amazement of the steward, who wondered where all this wine \u2013 and of such quality \u2013 had come from?\u00a0 And what about the servants?\u00a0 They<\/span> knew what they had poured into these jars.\u00a0 And now?????\u00a0 What\u2019s THIS?<\/p>\n Can we get inside the skin of our stressed and frazzled disciples, running, yelling, organizing, trying to settle down this crowd of hungry, unruly Jews, distributing 7500 dinners from an impromptu Galilean version of Meals on Wheels.\u00a0 Experiencing that crowd energy, the force of those milling people, must have left them with a powerful reaction.\u00a0 How could it not?<\/p>\n Think about being in these sinking boats, standing thigh-deep in this mass of cold, wet, slimy, smelly, slithering fish up against your bare skin!<\/p>\n This is elemental, primal, visceral, powerful stuff \u2013 and \u2013 scary.\u00a0 Like \u2013 whoa.\u00a0 What is this? Isn\u2019t Peter\u2019s response telling?\u00a0 \u201cHe fell at Jesus\u2019 knees and said, \u2018Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man\u2019.\u00a0 For he and all his companions were astonished.\u201d<\/p>\n Terrified might be closer, in fact.\u00a0 Had anyone ever<\/span> seen anything like this before?\u00a0 A few hours after this event, they had another encounter with him, in the dead of night, in the middle of the lake.\u00a0 What was their reaction? \u00a0They, his friends, colleagues, followers, believers \u2013 were petrified.\u00a0 How could one EVER get used to this?<\/p>\n Access<\/strong><\/p>\n These stories are history.\u00a0 They happened back then.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0<\/p>\n Was Jesus making a point?\u00a0 Getting their attention?\u00a0 Yes, He was.\u00a0 Are the dynamics of these events a one-time thing, an aberration, out of character, contrary to His character, out of alignment with the laws of the Cosmos?\u00a0 NO.\u00a0 And again\u2026.\u00a0 NO.<\/p>\n I think there is, then, a relevant question for us: How do we<\/strong> access this generosity, claiming it for ourselves, bringing it into being, experiencing and participating in God\u2019s generosity within the framework of our relationship with Him and His relationship with His World?<\/p>\n I see the answer to that question in 3 parts:<\/p>\n Our part \u2013 Part I<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t think there is any other way to read Scripture except to believe<\/strong> that there is much more around us than meets the eye.\u00a0 God\u2019s incredible bounty is there<\/strong>, and He wants to share it with us<\/strong>. \u00a0He created this incredible world in which we live in order for us to live fully inside it, and enjoy being His children.\u00a0 To live well, contentedly and joyfully, to have meaningful work, pursuing the Vocations that Call us, enjoying satisfying relationships, sharing love in our marriages and families, and living in peace in the world.\u00a0 This is His intention for all of us.\u00a0 All 6 Billion of us.<\/p>\n So, I see the first step of faith here as simply opening ourselves up so that we can receive His generosity fully, adopting His abundance mentality as our own, and living gratefully, lovingly in response.<\/p>\n Our part \u2013 Part II<\/strong><\/p>\n To access this power, to bring it about, to manifest this abundance in their lives, the disciples had to act<\/span> on it.\u00a0 They really had to exert themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n They had packed it in for the night.\u00a0 The nets were already washed.\u00a0 What a pain, to have to unravel them all again, schlepping them out to the boat \u2013 again \u2013 and head back out to sea.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t imagine it was easy thing to settle down a mob of 7,500 hungry Jewish peasants at the end of a day with everybody\u2019s blood sugars well depleted.\u00a0 This took work.<\/p>\n The wedding was already well under way, it was the end of the day, and\u00a0 the servants would have been tired.\u00a0 Imagine hauling 1000 lbs. of water out of a well \u2013 and those jars were not made of Kevlar! \u00a0I am sure there was just a bit of grunting, heaving, sweating, cursing?\u00a0 I can imagine more than a few eyeballs rolling just a bit!<\/p>\n But they did it.\u00a0 And here I want to make a point.\u00a0 Even while rolling their eyes, they would have gone into it with a kind of openness and a sense of expectancy \u2013 however small \u2013 and, obedience. (Obedience isn’t exactly a word I like, but there it is.)\u00a0 They had to assent, to say yes, to working WITH Jesus in manifesting this abundance.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t have happened otherwise. \u00a0And in that step of obedience they declared their faith, however conceptualized.\u00a0 And, in fact, that faith, the size of a mustard seed, was planted.<\/p>\n Our Part \u2013 Part III<\/strong><\/p>\n At the end of the day, this story is not really about us.\u00a0 The disciples did not become rich and horde what they had just pulled into the boats.\u00a0 Yes, we do receive this incredible bounty and generosity, but it cannot remain there, sitting in our pockets.\u00a0 In order to ratify <\/strong><\/span>God\u2019s <\/strong>generosity<\/strong><\/span> Seen as symbols, these gifts are for the whole world.\u00a0 We are a part of Christ\u2019s body, sustained by the bread and fish, energized by the Spirit symbolized in the wine, in order to offer sustenance, nurture, joy, and the Spirit of life for the entire world.<\/p>\n Paul connects into this in his letter to the Ephesians.\u00a0<\/p>\n I paraphrase:<\/p>\n \u2018We, as various members of the body that this spirit and bread sustains, have been given all these gifts so that the body of Christ can be built up, so we can do His reconciling work in our world.\u2019<\/p>\n ‘We have been created in Christ Jesus \u2013 to do good works, which He has prepared, in advance, for us to do.’<\/p>\n The symbols<\/strong><\/p>\n Don’t you find it enormously significant how these 4 elements of our exploration this morning have become the great symbols of the Christian faith?\u00a0 I believe that one of the reasons for this is because of the power inherent in these elements themselves. They are vibrant and compelling.\u00a0 They are NOT inert.<\/p>\n The bread<\/strong> as the body of Christ, and<\/p>\n The wine<\/strong> as the life and Spirit of Christ<\/p>\n are the symbols that have been at the core of Christian faith and life since the very beginning.<\/p>\n Mustard:<\/strong> The smallest seed that Jesus could think of, one that a farmer could hardly grab a hold of, becomes a huge tree.\u00a0 It falls into the crack of a rock and breaks it apart.\u00a0 It has a powerful flavour, not insipid.\u00a0 This stuff we get in a jar and smear on our hamburgers has got character, substance, and impact.<\/p>\n Yeast and leaven<\/strong>, which itself is the core ingredient in the baking of bread, has become, along with the tiny mustard seed, the symbol of faith itself.\u00a0 A little bit works its way through the bread and transforms it.\u00a0 It rises, gives texture, and makes it palatable.\u00a0 Yeast is also at the heart of the fermentation process in the production of wine. \u00a0This is powerful stuff.<\/p>\n The sign of the fish \u2013 Ichthys<\/strong> \u2013 Greek for fish, but also the Greek acronym for Jesus Christ, Son of God.\u00a0 In the time of persecution in the early church, this was the secret sign Christians would draw in the sand, on the doorways of their places of meeting, so that they would recognize each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n The stories this morning are foundational to our faith, to the Kingdom of God, to the living body of Christ, of which we are a part.<\/p>\n In conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n The concepts of meager, miserly, stingy, and scarce are not a part of God\u2019s world; these words will not be found in His lexicon.\u00a0 He is generous to excess.\u00a0 The words lavish, abundance, extravagant, plentiful, heap, profusion<\/em> are strewn throughout the Bible with reckless abandon.\u00a0 I hear in these stories this morning the Call to accept in faith that God\u2019s wonderful world, and all that is in it, is a part of our birthright simply by our being here.\u00a0 There are 6 Billion of us who share this birthright.\u00a0 And there is enough to go around.\u00a0 Even though many of those 6 Billion are not participating in this bounty, its NOT because God was stingy with His creation.<\/p>\n We too are manifestations of God\u2019s own imagination and generosity.\u00a0 We are His bounty, His gifts to the world.\u00a0 We need to access His generosity to us, and at the same time help others access it as well.\u00a0 We are others\u2019 entry point into the unfathomable richness and abundance of God.\u00a0 In the same way that Jesus is the Bread for the world, we as His Body also participate in being those loaves, those fish, that wine.\u00a0 This is powerful stuff; it is not inert, and must be handled with great care.\u00a0 And that means passing it on.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t, the ferment and energy of God\u2019s Kingdom will turn on us, turning rancid, devouring us from the inside.<\/p>\n I think its important that we recognize that we as Christ\u2019s body are His Presence in our world.\u00a0 But it is He, in the end, to whom we point. God\u2019s abundance points to Him.\u00a0 We worship the Giver and not the gift.\u00a0 He is the Vine.\u00a0 He is the Bread of Life.<\/p>\n Symbols for us<\/strong><\/p>\n I must say that this sermon gestated around a picture I had in my mind.\u00a0 I had imagined a kind of communion, but an expanded one, that took into account the 4 elements of this morning.\u00a0 Yes, the bread and wine; but not in the usual context of a memorial.\u00a0 This is the bread of life, the wine of the Spirit.\u00a0 Life, yeast, ferment, faith, nourishment, the Spirit of God.<\/p>\n But also the fish, representing the life and bounty that exists, waiting to be discovered and accessed under the surface of the deep, in the darkness and stillness of the night.\u00a0 The fish, an embodiment of the primal, visceral, seething, overwhelming mass of subterranean life force, that is caught, and multiplied, giving sustenance and nourishment to a world that needs it so profoundly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mustard:\u00a0 Pungent.\u00a0 Powerful.\u00a0 Packing a wallop.<\/p>\n So I had a picture of little mini-sandwiches: bread, a morsel of fish, a dab of mustard, and a little shot of grape juice.\u00a0 I wanted a way to have these images, and the character of each one of them accessible to us in a tangible, even graphic way.<\/p>\n We have a couple of plates at the back.\u00a0 So if you like, please have one.\u00a0 I hope there are enough!\u00a0 (Sorry, but the wine will be represented by grape juice \u2013 that is unless Someone decides to overturn me!)\u00a0 So as we share a simple, small morsel, I trust that we can experience, even in a tiny way, a sense in our very beings of the confluence of the life forces that fill us as God\u2019s people, and compel us to fill the world with the Presence and Power of the One who is inviting us to believe, to accept \u2013 and follow Him in faith.\u00a0 Our world \u2013 His world \u2013 is depending on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fish, Feast & Ferment September 30, 2007 Rennie Regehr \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 It’s simply not possible to hear the stories this morning without an overwhelming sense of the extraordinary; something huge is going on here. Isn\u2019t it almost too much?\u00a0 Ridiculous in fact?\u00a0 Almost to the point of being gross? \u00a0 Just close your eyes and imagine: 1) These fishermen watching their two boats struggling to stay afloat under the weight of this remarkable catch of fish. 2) And what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-a-worship-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tumc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n to us<\/strong>, we must <\/strong><\/span>pass <\/strong>it<\/strong><\/span> on<\/strong>.\u00a0 The bread and fish were for the crowd.\u00a0 The mustard tree is for the comfort and refreshment of birds of the air.\u00a0 The wine was for the guests.\u00a0<\/p>\n