God Loves Leftovers
John 6:1-21
July 26th, 2015
FBC|WJ
I don’t like today. I don’t like that this is my next to
last Sunday with you all. Also, I don’t like leftovers, ask my family or my
bread breakers small group and they will tell you I don’t do leftovers. But
isn’t it funny, how God takes us precisely where we do not wish to go, and
meets us there.
Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.
These words have shown up in Scripture where the person or people receiving
these words should probably have been quite afraid. Abram was told not to be
afraid, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Zechariah, the
Virgin Mary, Joseph, shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by
night are all told not to be afraid. We’re in good company with today’s
lectionary reading.
Today we hear two very distinct
stories in the Gospel of John. We hear of the five loaves and two fish, and we
hear the disciples getting in a boat and having to face Jesus amidst the sea
and the storm. Jesus says to them in the sea and wind and the rain, “Do not be
afraid.” Now the funny part of it is, he says it while walking on water.
Jesus walking on water telling
people not to be afraid; I wonder what he was telling them not to be afraid of,
the storm or the fact that there was a human being out in the middle of the sea
walking towards them. Do not be afraid. I think that’s easy for Jesus to say, I
think it’s easy for the angels to say to those they encounter with news that
changes the course of human history. But as with anything it’s a lot harder to
be on the receiving end of that do not be afraid nonsense, right. In fact, if
you tell people do not be afraid it might actually create more anxiety and fear
in the culture in which we live.
So I wanted to ask you today, given
the text we just heard what scares you most? What scares you the most in life?
Is it death? Is it loss? Is it depression? Is it something that is too dark to
even speak its name in this place? How have you dealt with that fear and
anxiety and unrest in your life? These are all questions that we face on
sometimes a day-to-day basis. And I think we can face them with dignity and
with grace by weaving these two seemingly unrelated stories together.
12 baskets left over. That’s an
abundant amount of leftovers. And I love how Jesus commands in verse 12 of the
lectionary that we heard today, “Gather up the fragments leftover, so that
nothing may be lost.” Nothing may be lost. God loves leftovers, and frankly
these emotions of fear and anxiety and defeat over our earthly lives are things
we’d like to leave in the leftover pile. But that, my friends is where God does
God’s best work.
You see the funny thing about fear
is that it has power over us, it controls us, it manipulates us into the thing
that fear wants us to be or to feel. But there in the moments of the stormiest
night the disciples had faced thus far Jesus comes and says to them, “Do not be
afraid.” Jesus takes control of their fear by calling it as it is. And in so
doing he frees the disciples to experience the warmth of his presence.
We too, experience this same
phenomenon. We too experience the warming presence of a loving God in our most
fearful moments. For in our most anxiety-ridden experiences God is showing up
saying, “Do not be afraid, it is I.” God takes the fear that we’d like to leave
behind and God confronts it head on. We too must do the same and follow in
God’s footsteps
Now you might say to yourself that
certainly can’t be true, preacher. I’m not sure about this God stuff anyway but
to say that God meets us in our fear is preposterous. I hear what you’re saying
because I too feel that sometimes when I am most scared I couldn’t be farther
away from a living and loving God. But then I just have to remind myself to let
Jesus walk on my water. Let Jesus trample out the fear and the despair and the
heartache, and yes even death itself.
I’ve wondered about all the times
I’ve been told not to be afraid. Certainly after car accidents and hospital visits
warrant the normal exchange of encouragement not to fear. But I’ve also had to
say this phrase, “Do not be afraid.” so many times this past week in every day
affairs just to myself. You see this past week I’ve had to come to terms with
my time coming to an end in this place and in Boone. I’ve been crossing off
Boone Bucket list items with friends such as going to Tweetsie Railroad one
more time and eating one more time at the Daniel Boone Inn before we all go our
separate ways. I’m having to come to terms with leaving Stephanie here in Boone
while I head to Durham, I’ve had to come to terms with saying goodbye to my friend Natalie who is moving to San Antonio, I’ve had to come to terms with saying
goodbye to you all here in this place two Sundays from now.
But the other day as I was cleaning
out and getting ready for the move I found a piece of paper that has been my
guiding light for some time. I received this piece of paper around the time my
friend Abbey died years ago and to this day it keeps popping up when I need it
most. It has words such as these, “Do not look forward in fear to the changes
in life; rather look to them with full hope that as they arise, God, whose very
own you are will lead you safely through all things; and when you cannot stand
it, God will carry you in his arms. Do not fear what may happen tomorrow; the
same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you then and
every day. He will either shield you from suffering, or will give you unfailing
strength to bear it. Be at peace and put aside all anxious thoughts and
imaginations.”
Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid
dear people of God because God loves leftovers like you and me. God loves
leftovers because there is room for everyone at the table of grace. And there,
at the table of grace we are more than leftovers, we are welcomed guests at a
banquet fit for the children of God.
Do not be afraid. You all know how
I have to deal with extreme anxiety. Ask Stephanie or my parents or anyone
close to me and they know that even the slightest thing can set me off. But I’m
learning, quite literally to practice what I preach and not fear the future or
the past but to relish the moment we have been given. When we let Jesus walk on
our water, it changes everything. It changes our perception of grace and that
is precisely what we need. We need to see Jesus on the water for it is there
that we realize that the Savior of the world can face the worst the world can
throw at him and he can take it. Even if that means going to a cross Jesus took
the brunt force of everything we could give him and shrugged it off three days
later. So we can face our time and our place with faith and without fear
because Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed.
When I was
in middle school I went to a private conservative Christian School where my
classmates felt it more fun to mess with this crazy Methodist church nerd than
it was to play on the playground. One girl in particular had it out for me. She
wanted to prove to me that everything that I knew to be true about a loving God
was wrong. And I’ll never forget one conversation she tried to have with me.
She told me it was a sin to fear. She argued that in Philippians, Paul commands
us to not worry or fear anything. Now obviously I’d like to say I won that
theological argument but I didn’t have an answer for her. I just thought she
was right and that fear is something that should be avoided at all costs.
That was
until I realized Jesus himself experienced fear. Jesus knew what it was like
the night before he gave himself up for us when he went to the garden alone. So
Jesus knows and Jesus meets us in our fear and
Jesus feeds our fear, with faith. Just as he fed those hungry masses millennia
ago we are fed too. We are fed with the words and with the comfort that we are
not alone. We are God’s. And in belonging to God, we are no longer leftovers
but a chosen and cherished people. So maybe now, I can like leftovers, maybe
now, I can appreciate today. Do not be afraid, do not be afraid. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment