Much has been given, therefore…

July 7, 2024

Scripture: Mark 6:1-13

It seems as though there is no escaping it…everywhere you turn it seems like someone is lamenting the current state of affairs in our country…or even worse, predicting all sorts of doomsday scenarios in light of recent decisions and developments. You don’t know who to listen to, or who is telling the truth, and worse, what the truth really is, concerning a whole range of issues that really are important, and which have a real chance of affecting the future for all of us. No matter which side you are on, no matter whom or what you choose to believe, almost all of it carries a real element of uncertainty tinged with fear over what tomorrow may actually look like.

And yet…our faith in God does no allow us to become despondent or to lose hope…it just does not allow us to give up and stick our proverbial heads in the sand, ignoring the plight of so many who are so in need around us, hoping they will just go away, and that somehow, all of the turmoil and wringing of hands will prove to have just been a momentary or temporary inconvenience.

Our faith in fact, is all about preparing us for moments just like the one we are in now…all about making us ready to walk through and emerge from all the noise and struggle as those who still have faith, as those who still have hope, as those, who by the example of their life lived in community, call others to hold on, call others to not lose hope, but rather to stand fast in the middle of the storm, to stand against hopelessness and untruth…

…to stand as those who sound and act like the one who went before us…the one feeding the hungry, healing the sick, comforting the lonely, visiting those held captive, and giving a drink of cool water to those who thirst so deeply.

Yes, we are they who are called to take a stand for righteousness, to act in and for the cause of love, to seek first the kingdom of our God in our midst…even if it is our sacred task to begin revealing it.

For by grace, and in the power of the Holy Spirit we will succeed in weathering this storm…and we will become known, as those who knew the answers…

For years now I have been told, usually in a kidding tone, but always with a kernel of truth behind it, that, ‘if it all goes to heck’…or, ‘when everything falls apart, and the day comes in which we can no longer rely on any of our previously commonly held social norms to protect us…then I want to be with you david, I want to be your friend…I will find you!’

Now, truthfully, I have lived an incredibly wonderful life. I was raised by wonderful parents who encouraged me to explore, to really explore all that the world had to offer. I was blessed at an early age to move here, to what was then a very rural place. A place with cows, woodchucks, rabbits, deer, and so much else living literally in my backyard. Truly Patterson in the mid-1960’s was a young boy’s paradise…an ever unfolding adventure to explore and learn from. And I was blessed to have been able to take advantage of so many of the opportunities that were placed in front of me.

And early on, me and my four siblings were given the opportunity to work at our church camp for the summer. A position I stayed with for all of eleven summers in a row, learning so much, and developing fast friendships, many of which continue as dear friends even to this day, including the one I met and fell in love with at first sight who agreed to journey along beside me now for over 40 years. Aside from spiritual growth, I was also able to learn a vast array of skills and understandings at the camp which I have carried through to this day.

And on to getting married and having the rare privilege of raising three sons within the environment of a working farm where they not only learned the true value of a dollar, but the rewards of a good day’s work as well. And all along the way, I discovered and developed many gifts, as well as an ability to make my way through whatever challenge arose before us.

And then on to ‘gardens’…oh so many gardens…from the huge family one my father insisted we plant in the backyard of the church manse, to multiple rock gardens and formal perennial flower gardens I was responsible for as an estate caretaker, all of which prepared me for the creation of a vast organic farming operation and farm school in the late 1990’s, the legacy of which we are still very much involved in as a congregation. I learned so much…along the long and winding road I was so blessed to travel upon in the company of my Lord.

I have been given so much…and therefore, as the scripture tells us in Luke 12 and verse 48, ‘Therefore of me, much is required’. I have been given, therefore I must use those same gifts I have received for the benefit of others…and all of it as the Spirit so leads. Indeed, I have been given much, and honestly, so have each one of you!

Today’s gospel reading tells of the disciples being sent out two by two…taking nothing with them, other than who they were…equipped with nothing more than their faith, and the experiences they had had to date traveling alongside of Jesus…they were called, and commissioned to go and to spread the good news. And off they went!

So, getting back to the current state of affairs today…one has to wonder, given all the promises made in the scriptures…can God’s good will possibly be thwarted? Can it be set aside or held back? Perhaps it can…at least for a time. But that does not lessen our responsibility in the least to strive together to be a light of hope and promise right in the middle of all the chaos.

Jesus sent those pairs of his disciples, those men and women out in a very uncertain and chaos-filled time as well, a time when the twin forces of the oppressive and overbearing Imperial force of Rome, and the constrictures of a Hebrew faith practice that was close to, if not just as paralyzing to the spirit of those whom it was supposed to set free. And into the middle of that ‘muddle’, Jesus said ‘go…heal, teach, love, and live the gospel’.

As those who have received so, so much…as those who are also multi-gifted and talented in so many ways, as those who have truly received so much…much is required as well. We too must be those, who by our lived example as the community of faith, as the family of our Lord in this time and place, become those whom people want to be around, when and if everything falls down around us…

We don’t often talk about it…in truth, we don’t want to even think about the possibility that life and society as we know it, is as fragile as it is. But we are surely seeing cracks forming in the social fabric upon which we have long relied…as truth becomes harder to distinguish from falsehood, and as real goodness becomes harder to discern from bad intent dressed up either in ‘fancy talk’, or ‘sheep’s clothing’.

We don’t often talk about it, and yet, here we are! And it is from here in this place, with the gifts we have, and the gifts we are, that Jesus is also calling us to go out…to go out into the middle of it all and to live as witnesses of a better way…to live as those who choose, in spite of all that is contrary, to live vulnerably…to live as those who claim, that love is, and always will be the greater force…and ultimately, that true godly love, is the only answer to hatred, bigotry, and wicked intent based in greed and the thirst for more or greater power!

Is it easy? No it is devilishly hard…is it fun? It can surely be so if we hold on to one another tightly, and remember who it is that is calling us to this task. Is it possible? Surely it is if we remember and choose to use all of the myriad gifts that are on the table when we all come together…whenever we choose to work with common purpose and steadfast intent towards the goal of living fully, such that others might fully live!

We have been given so much, we have so much…even if we do not take along with us what we are so sure we must have in order to do this work…‘no extra bag, no bread, no extra tunic’…

…even if we only take each other, and the blessings we have been given to date, we have so much more than we will ever need to accomplish any task that is set before us.

This is the calling we share, this is the task we must pursue, for if we do not, then who will?

We must find the courage, the strength, and indeed the faith to stand as those who truly do know the answers…to be those whom others truly want to be with in that day…for within this work…within this common purpose, lies the true meaning of life itself…all else is mere existence, and endless repetition.

…come, let us be who we truly already are…

…amen