Transforming the Mundane

Proper 12b.09/ St. Peter’s
Today’s Gospel lesson tells of Jesus taking
a small amount of food, blessing it,
and turning it into a feast for thousands.
It’s a central story in the New Testament, the only miracle
recounted in all four Gospels.
It’s obviously super important but what does it mean?

When Jesus did something miraculous
it wasn’t to hear the crowd gasp and then applaud
like at a magic show.
He was trying to show us something.

The next time Jesus saw this crowd
he challenged them for just eating the bread
but not seeing the sign.
They had missed the point.

Mark’s account of this story is close to John’s.
Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes.
That night he walks on water to help the disciples
when they are having trouble on the sea.
When he gets in the boat, Mark says,
“They were dumbfounded because they had
not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant.”

So what does this miracle mean?
It’s a story of transformation, change,
miraculous change that happens by God’s grace.
The point is not to get stuck at the material literal level.
It isn’t about changing a little bread into a lot of bread.
It’s about changing hearts trapped in scarcity
into hearts of abundance.

It’s like the Eucharist.
One liturgical scholar reminds us
“The Eucharist isn’t about changing bread;
it’s about changing lives.”
Just so, Jesus’ miracle of the loaves
is an outward and visible sign
of inward and spiritual grace.



Let’s stay with the food situation and bring it up to date.
963 million people live with daily hunger.
Each year, 3 million children die of malnutrition before the age of five.
A child dies of hunger-related causes every five seconds.

But there is already enough food to feed everyone.
The cost of eradicating world hunger is less
than the United States and Europe spend on pet food.
The problem isn’t our capacity to produce food.
The problem is with our hearts.
Hunger is a spiritual issue.

Senator Mark Hatfield said,
“We stand by as children starve by the millions
because we lack the political will to eliminate hunger.
Yet we have found the will to develop missiles
capable of flying over the polar ice cap and landing
within a few hundred feed of their target.
This is not innovation.
This is a profound distortion
of humanity’s purpose on earth.”

We don’t need more food, more houses,
more of any material thing.
We need more love, more grace, more generosity.

St. Paul’s prayer in our Epistle lesson
describes the kind of change of heart
the miracle of the loaves represents.
It’s the same change of heart the Eucharist represents.
He prays that God “out of the riches of his glory” will bless us
in these ways:
That we might be strengthened in our inner being
with the power of the Holy Spirit;
That Christ might dwell in our hearts;
That we might be rooted and grounded in love;
That we might comprehend the depth and breadth
and height of God’s grace;
That we might know the love of Christ
which is beyond the reach of human understanding;
That we might be filled with God.



Brothers and sisters salvation does not just consist
in what happens to us in the afterlife.
Salvation is becoming radically changed
right down to the core of our being
– not someday – now, today.

Is that possible?
The resounding answer of Scripture and our faith is Yes!
Paul’s lesson concludes by reminding us
that this isn’t something we do.
It’s something God does.
And, in Paul’s words, “God’s) power working in us
can do infinitely more
than all we can ask or imagine.”

There is no limit to what God can do.
Remember what Mary said to the Angel Gabriel
at the Annunciation? She said,
“ How is this possible?’
And the angel said, “All things are possible for God.”


God acting though an illiterate peasant girl in Galilee
brought forth the savior of the world.
Do you think God can do anything less in you?
Do you think God cannot touch your heart
and change your life?

What are our lives about, Friends?
What do we spend ourselves on?
“Getting and spending we lay waste our powers,”
Wordsworth said.
And it’s true. We slog along through lives
that are beneath the dignity of human nature.

But God can change that.
God wants to change that.
God wants to transform us
– to transform each individual heart in this room
– and to transform us together into agents of change
in this darkened world.



God did not want 120 children to die of starvation
during the time of this sermon.
God wants to change that – but he’s not going to do it
with a magic trick.
He wants to eradicate hunger though changing us,
through opening our hearts to compassion and mercy.

Christ wants to live in us.
The Holy Spirit wants to empower us for abundant life
and bold action.
Are we willing?

God can do anything,
but some things God will not do.
God will forgive us whether we like it or not.
God will love us whether we like it or not.
But God will not change us without our consent.

When we receive the Body and Blood of Christ today,
will we receive it as sustenance only
– or will we be transformed?

Are we willing to live a larger life,
a life that will not tolerate the cruelty and injustice
of this world?
Are we willing to undertake a mission
that is beyond our human power
so that we have to rely on God’s power?
Are we willing to be transformed into the likeness
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?

How long will we live in his exile?
How long will we tolerate the desolation
of a routine, respectable, mundane life?
When will we become the people our Maker
intends us to be?

That is what salvation is.
Salvation is becoming whole.
Salvation is coming into our own,
being transformed into our true selves.
When will we be saved?


Paul answered that question for the Corinthians.
He wrote: “(God) says, ‘. . . In the day of salvation I helped you.’
I tell you,” Paul says, “Now is the time of God’s favor,
Now is the day of salvation.”

God speaks to us in the now.
Now is the time to become a new being,
a child of God, worthy of our parentage.
Now is the time to be strengthened in our inner being
and invite Christ to dwell in our hearts.
Now is the time to be rooted and grounded in love;
so that we comprehend the depth and breadth
and height of God’s grace.
This is the day to know the inestimable love of Christ
and be filled with God.
And before the sun sets, “God’s) power working in us
will do infinitely more
than all we can ask or imagine.”
Amen.

Priest Sermon 4

Ordination: James the Apostle/ St. Peter’s
Carl Jung said, “There are no coincidences.”
When two events come together,
it means something.
So what does it mean that Kim and Mike are here
to be ordained on the Feast of St. James the Apostle?

James bar Zebedee was one of the brothers Jesus called
“the Sons of Thunder” suggesting they were rather
forthright with their views.
We could use a little more thunder
in the Episcopal Church.
I don’t mean more bombastic tirading.
That doesn’t do a bit of good.

I mean some volume for the gospel.
I mean proclaiming the all inclusive, radically welcoming
love of God in Christ Jesus.



The tone of public discourse today
is mostly loud and mean-spirited.
I was at Java Detour this week watching a so-called news program.
The sound was off but just by looking at the faces
of the men talking, you could see
it was the usual small minded viciousness.

Usually, that small minded viciousness is so loud.
The voices of reason and mercy are so soft, so timid.
William Butler Yeats said,
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

It’s time for the best to get some conviction.
It’s time to turn up the volume of truth.
We could use a little thunder right now.
We could use a little boldness of word and deed.
We could use some clergy leadership
to claim the name of Jesus for social justice.
We could use some clergy to claim the whole Bible
for what it is, a complex story about simple mercy.
We ordain Kim and Mike tonight to turn up their volume,
to hear them speak the truth
for God’s reign in our time.

There is more to learn from James about tonight.
James did just not take a notion he wanted to be an apostle.
He heard a call.
It started out so simply.

James and John were mending their fishing nets
when Jesus came by and said, “Follow me
and I will teach you to fish for people.”
James got right up and left his nets to follow Jesus.

Kim and Mike didn’t get here by applying for a job.
They got here by following Jesus.
This is where it has led them so far.
God only knows where it will lead them in the future.



We call that trust. We call that faith.
We follow Jesus without knowing where we are going.
We just know we are going with him.
It’s a different way of being in the world.
We don’t have a feasibility study for the Christian life.
We don’t have a strategic plan for salvation.

We follow Jesus.
When our clergy do that,
they model the courage of Christian life.
They invite all of us to go on an adventure of faith
– faith that the transformation the Holy Spirit
works in our individual hearts and in our community
is for good, and not ill.

As James followed Jesus,
their friendship grew closer each day.
Along with Peter and John, James was one
of Our Lord’s closest friends.
Many times, Jesus drew apart to be with just them.

They were there when he went to pray on Mt. Tabor,
so they alone saw him transfigured into glory.
They were there when he went to pray in Gethsemane,
and were the ones closest to him in his anxiety
and despair.

To others, Jesus was the wonder worker.
But to them, he was a vulnerable, all too human friend.
Brothers and sisters, most people don’t know Jesus at all,
and many of those who do, know only the wonder worker
– the Jesus who meets our needs.
But it is friendship with the Jesus who is just as human today
as he was then, it is friendship with him
that enlivens our souls and humanizes our hearts.

I didn’t know him very well when I was ordained.
Kim and Mike, I hope you know him better than I did.
But this kind of friendship takes time.
And time enough, there will be.


You have answered the call to follow Jesus.
If you simply do that, follow Jesus
– not the latest manual on church leadership,
not the hot new book from Alban Institute –
just follow Jesus and you will know him better each day.
You will find a friend who will change you to your core
as no ideology or spiritual technique ever could.

The Lord called James to friendship -- and to mission.
The mission was to fish for people.
Before we start fishing for somebody,
we better make sure they are in the water.

If someone is faithfully following another religious tradition,
and it is blessing them with inquiring and discerning hearts,
they are encountering the awesome beauty of the divine,
and they are growing in compassion and delight for the world,
then they are not in the water.
They are just on another boat.
Leave them alone.

But if someone is struggling to make sense of life,
or if they are in anxiety or despair,
or if their hearts and hands are not engaged
in tikkum olam, the healing of this broken world,
or if they follow a religion or philosophy that stifles the mind
and intimidates the spirit,
then they need some help
and it is our duty to offer it.

The Lord called James to fish for people.
Legend has it, he went to Spain to spread the gospel.
He sowed faith in the land that was to give us Sts. Lawrence of Rome,
Theresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Ignatius Loyola,
and Francis Xavier who took the gospel to Asia.

Just so, Kim and Mike, you are to tell your story
and the story of Jesus,
which will become more and more intertwined.
Some who hear will believe
and who knows what God may do through them?

But first, you must tell them your story.
Faith comes through hearing.
That means you are called to speak.

James got it wrong sometimes though.
He and his brother had their mother ask Jesus
to give them the prestige seats of power
in his kingdom.
It was probably back door maneuver to out rank Peter.
They thought Jesus’ kingdom was about rank.
They thought it was about power and prestige
like an earthly system.

Over the years I have watched people
scheme, stew, manipulate, work tirelessly,
lie, cheat, steal, and betray
all to become kings of some absurdly small hills.
Some of them have been church hills.



But if the church is a hill, it already has a king and it’s none of us.
We don’t do ministry to fortify our egos.
We do it because God is profligate with grace.

We come to God as an empty vessel,
about a gallon worth of empty vessel,
longing to be filled.
But God gives grace only in 10 gallon units.
God pours 10 gallons of grace into our one-gallon emptiness.
God’s grace overflows and we have to share it
with someone else.

For example, Kim and Mike, you will receive grace tonight.
You will, by grace, receive authority and power.
But authority and power to do what?
Not much in yourselves.
You get to dress funny in church and get to say the straight man lines
while the congregation says the main part.



But the authority you get that matters
is the authority to authorize others to do ministry.
The power you get is to empower others to do ministry.
You are called to call others into ordained, licensed,
and commissioned ministries, to be the Body of Christ,
a robust body,
a team in which all players are on the field
and in the game.

You are called to call others.
So turn up the volume of your gospel truth,
follow Jesus, become his friend,
and invite as many people as you can
into this life.

It’s isn’t an easy life but it’s a human life.
It will break your heart – break it open to the world.
That’s when the joy and wonder begin.
Amen.

Deacon Sermon 1

Ordination.Diaconate.09 St. Paul’s, Elko
Ordination means ordering.
Ordination places a person in a particular order of ministry.
Order is shape.
The orders of ministry are the shape of the Church.

Today’s ordination is, hands down, the most important thing
that has happened since I have been in Nevada
to get the church in shape.
The Church is meant to be shaped like God.
It is meant to be shaped like a holy life.
It is meant to be shaped for our mission.
Getting the Church in shape is deeply important.

So what is the holy shape of the Church?
I have come here directly from Camp Galilee.
For generations, campers have ended each day
with Point Prayer.
They gather in a circle around a rough cross
set into a mound of stones near the shore.
They hold hands, give thanks for the day’s blessings,
say the Our Father, and sing,
“The day thou gavest Lord now is ended.”

As they pray and sing, they cross their arms across their chests
to hold hands so that they can end the prayer
in a special way.
While still holding hands, they each turn 180 degrees,
so instead of facing inward with arms crossed,
the circle faces out with their arms open Christ-like
to the world.
When the church is truly being the church,
that’s what it looks like
– circling in toward each other for prayer and mutual support
-- then circling out to share God’s love with a hurting world.

The church is the shape of Christian spirituality.
Spirit is breath. We breathe in. We breathe out.
Breathing in. Inspiration.
We come into the church to be inspired, rejuvenated.
We inhale grace.




Then we breathe out.
We extend God’s life giving, healing, energizing Spirit
outside these walls into the world.
We exhale grace.
Our mission to the world is as essential
to our own spiritual health
as breathing out the air we breathe in.

Grace has to flow.
We let it enter us; then we have to pass it on
to make room in our hearts for the next grace
God wants to give.

In First John, Christ says, “if we love one another,
God’s love is perfected in us.”
“Perfected” means completed. The circuit is closed.
God’s love is like electricity.
It only flows if you complete the circuit:
God to the Church to the world and back to God.
If we don’t actively spread grace in the world,
the grace we have received gets stale.
We get stale and spiritually atrophy.
Christianity is just this: Breathing in. Breathing out.
To preserve and balance this spirituality,
we have leaders for both movements.
The priest leads us in. The deacon leads us out.
The priest calls us to prayer. The deacon calls us to action.

Prayer and action must both be there to make the church work.
They must be there and they must be balanced.
So what does it say if most of our churches have priests
but do not have deacons?
What does it say if I have ordained 7 priests in my short time
in Nevada – but today is my first time to ordain a real deacon
and if I have 3 more priests lined up to ordain this summer,
but there won’t be another real deacon until April?

It says the church is misshapen.
We are trying to breath 10 full inbreaths
to one good outbreath.
We clearly cannot be healthy doing that for long.
We are too focused on getting our own spiritual needs met
to engage in service to the world.
The tragic irony is that self flocus keeps us
from getting our spiritual needs.
We have to pour out some grace
to make room, to create a capacity within ourselves,
to receive grace.

The church has been out of shape for way too long.
The balance of prayer and action, inreach and outreach,
is there in the Bible.
That balance was preserved and practiced in the Early Church
for hundreds of years.
But in the Middle Ages, the church changed.
The clergy hierarchical,
manipulative salvation sellers.
The laity became passive dependent spiritual consumers.

We are struggling mightily
to get the church back in shape
and we are not there yet.
We will not be there until a parish without a deacon
feels as incomplete as a parish without a priest.
We will not be there until parishes are as concerned
about feeding the hungry on weekdays
as they are concerned about being fed on Sundays.


Today’s ordination is the most important thing
that has happened since I have been in Nevada
to get the church in shape.
We are ordaining a deacon to lead St. Paul’s
in service to God’s world.
Jews call it tzedeq, meaning righteous action;
or tikkum olam, healing the broken world.

Whose job is this ministry?It is first and foremost the ministry of the laity.
Kens’ job is not to do the ministry.
It is to inspire, encourage, and if necessary nag
you to do the ministry.

If Ken does something for a hurting person,
he has served that person.
But if he gets you to do it,
he has served you both, because you will be the better for it.
You will have passed on the grace you have received,
thereby opening your heart to receive new and stronger grace.


This ministry can take many forms.
Broadly speaking, it takes acts of mercy and words of advocacy.
It should be both local and global.
It should be an investment
of both your time and your money.
But the specific mission projects are up to you to discern.

Ken has already begun making connections between St. Paul’s
and the local Communities in Schools program.
He is doing this because it is simply not acceptable that only 44%
of our children graduate from high school.

We can argue about whether or to what extent
any particular adult is responsible
for their own poverty
– but there is no room for argument when it comes
to children without shoes in September or coats in November,
children who go hungry on the weekends,
children who have no one to read them stories
or help them learn to read.
A deacon can lead St. Paul’s into being Elkos’ premier church
that cares about the children.
Ken has connected St. Paul’s with Bread for the World
-- that’s a voice of advocacy to alleviate hunger
and disease around the world in the name of Jesus.
Human nature is to take care of our own.
But Christian nature is care for all God’s children,
including the ones dying of malaria
whose lives could be saved by a $12 mosquito net.

Ken’s job is to find the needs of the world
because those are the places open to grace.
He is to find world’s wounds and bring them
to you for healing.

The holy shape of the church,
the mission of the church
depends on a team.
The best quarterback in the NFL can’t win
if the line doesn’t block and the receivers
don’t receive.

Mission in the world depends on a complete team
with players in each position.
The mission will fail without
Christian education programs, fellowship,
stewardship, evangelism, hospitality, preaching,
and pastoral care.
People cannot give what they have not received.
Your ministries to each other are the foundation
for your mission in the world.

You already have a lot of that going at St. Paul’s.
You have a lay pastoral care team.
You have good inquirer’s classes – and more.
That’s a great start but it is only a start.

We move forward by equipping
more and more people
to lead more and more ministries.
When we are not moving forward,
time will drag us backward.


Today is the beginning of new stage of the journey into mission.
It will be an exciting journey.
You have had a long history of good ministry here,
but all of that was just the forerunner
to the best ministry.
It isn’t here yet, but it is coming.
And today is a milestone on the way.
Amen