10th Sunday after Pentecost

Calvary Evangelical Church has ministered to the people of this community for nearly 135 years now. Why is the church still around? Why does this congregation continue to exist? At the time when this congregation was founded it was located on Newport Hill, overlooking the B&O Railroad. Now it’s in Mt. Airy. Well, technically. We all know it’s really Woodbine.

This congregation saw the invention of the telegraph. The wall-mounted telephone has come and gone. It went from party lines and operators to private phones to multiple family phone lines to this day when everyone seems to carry their own phone with them all the time. Entertainment has gone from home-spun singing and storytelling to radio shows, to TV programs to on-line streaming of whatever you want to watch at whatever time is convenient. Transportation developed from the horse and buggy days to the family automobile to multiple vehicles in every driveway.

And yet, not a whole lot has changed about the life of a congregation. Sure, we’ve seen several hymnals come and go. The parish grape vine is now humming via e-mail, and we draw people from a larger variety of locations and back grounds; but the basic structure of church has not changed. And when you think about it, it sort of makes you wonder why?

We find one answer in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He writes: “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Paul wants the people to experience the love of Christ in all of its dimensions, its breath and length and height and depth. This congregation excels at demonstrating this kind of love. We see that kind of love in the hands that gather to pack grace bags for the homeless and in the hands that pass them out. We see that kind of love in the expressions of care and concern that people here receive when illness occurs or when there’s a death in the family. We see that kind of love being expressed in the fellowship that we share on Sunday mornings. We see that kind of love being expressed in our ability to welcome and effectively integrate new members into the life of the congregation. We see that kind of love being expressed in our passion for this church.

But it’s always been that way, hasn’t it? Time and again we see that it’s the people of God who express in a very real way the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love for us. That’s why we come to church. Because no iPhone or website can give us that kind of real, tangible, deep loving, hands-on care in the name of Christ.

Paul goes on to say: “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

He gives us a second reason as to why the church is still around: Gathered together as the people of God and willing to give what God has given us for the good of the church, we can accomplish so much more than we could on our own. Together we pool our resources, and we offer our gifts, and as a result we can do amazing things for the mission of God both here and around the world.

This also ties in with the story of the feeding of the 5000 the way John shares it with us this morning. How do you feed 5000 people? The disciples are clueless. And they didn’t have our kitchen crew on hand, either. But there is a little boy who steps forward to offer what he has: five loaves of bread and two fish. It’s not much. It’s not even a drop in the bucket of need with which the disciples and Jesus are faced. But Jesus can do amazing things with our small offerings if they are given from the heart and in faith. Miraculously, the whole crowd eats, and there are even leftovers.

The disciples seem to be having an awfully hard time wrapping their heads around what Jesus is really about. You would think that they would be starting to get it. But it’s because they don’t yet understand that the Gospel is about relationships. The disciples responded to Jesus’ instructions with excuses.

The first excuse was, “We don’t have enough money. If we had more, it would solve all our problems!”

The second was, “We’re in a bad location. We are out here in the middle of nowhere. Send the people into the towns and villages and let them find something there because we don’t have it to give.”

Their third excuse was, “It’s too late.” Simply put they told Jesus, “This is not a good time.” They found time for excuses but not for dealing with the problem. No matter what you do (or do not do), you expend energy. Deciding whether it will be spent productively or in vain is the real decision.

Over and over again, we see that it’s not the crowd or the crowd’s needs that get in the way of Jesus’ work, it’s the disciples who get in the way. Those closest to Jesus are the ones who stand in the way of the working out of the challenge and the unfolding of the miracle. But we also find, yet again, that it’s who God makes things happen. God doesn’t wait for things to occur.

The disciples are maintenance-minded. Jesus is mission-minded. What’s the difference? Maintenance-mindedness leads to tension and anxiety because you never know what’s going to happen or how you’ll have to respond. It leads to avoiding engagement and doing just enough to get by. Mission-mindedness, on the other hand, is proactive. It looks for things to do. Even though we may already be doing some things, mission-mindedness means being willing to do more, believing that since God is in the midst of all things/that God is present with us in all circumstances, God’s sufficiency will be greater than our apparent lack of supply.

Jesus made things happen by sending the twelve into the crowd. The disciples needed to be able to identify with the people and their needs, and the only way they could do that was to be up close and personal. Some of those people had wandered for days, thinking they had finally found the answer, only to find more problems. When we are doing well for ourselves, when our lives become comfortable, it can be easy to forget what it is like to be lost and spiritually hungry. It’s easy to forget what it is like to be part of that crowd that feels so lost. Jesus’ action says to the apostles, “The only way you will appreciate the crowd’s pain, identify with their lostness and lack, and find motivation to do something is to get out among them.” Maintenance-mindedness wants to be attractive. Its emphasis is on waiting for people to come to us. Missional disciples go to where the people are.

The passage says that the disciples, with nothing in hand, simply go. With God, it’s not so much about what we have to offer as it is about our availability and obedience in doing what God asks, even when we don’t understand all the dynamics and particulars.

Eight times, scripture tells us, Jesus was moved with compassion. He saw the crowd and was concerned about the well-being of the whole person, both physically and spiritually. Jesus simply could not leave them in the state in which he found them and had to do something to address their need. And he responded not out of obligation nor guilt, but out of love. He knew his solution to their pressing problem was temporary because they would need to eat again the next day. But for that day at least he was responsible for their lives and so did what needed to be done. He employed his disciples to connect with the community and to invite people into relationships with them and with each other.

Despite the passage of time between then and now, the work of the disciple remains the same. We continue to be called to connect with our community and to invite people into relationships with us and with one another. To do the work of the disciple, we need to learn to be comfortable being a disciple! In a spirit of love and compassion, we need to learn to share our own stories. Doing so has a two-fold effect: First, it helps us to better understand how God moves and works in our own lives. Second, it helps others to see that God is active in the world and that the community of love, joy, and compassion that only God can create is to be found here.

The passage tells us the disciples surrendered their wills, were obedient to Christ’s command, and turned over themselves and what they discovered to Jesus. They trusted him even if they didn’t really understand how it was going to work out. Jesus turned around and empowered them, by faith, to be what they otherwise could not be and to do what they otherwise could not do without him.

And the people had food in abundance—there was food all over the ground! There was so much that the folks didn’t need to be very careful about how much they grabbed to eat or how they ate it. The twelve baskets of leftovers indicate God’s extraordinary providence. The people didn’t have to understand all the dynamics to be recipients of God’s grace. They just had to be willing to receive it.

God calls us to believe that God wants to do great things, and that God wants to do them through us. Generations of the faithful have given their gifts to the ministry of God here at Calvary. The church still exists in its ancient form because there is no better way to express and experience the full extent of the love of Jesus, to work together for the good of all, and to contribute our gifts to the ministry God wants to accomplish here in this corner of Mt. Airy that’s really Woodbine. Together, as the people of God, we lift each other up. When we are weak in hope, others are here to strengthen us. When we are afraid, others are here to walk with us. When we grieve, others are here to comfort us. All that can only be done person to person, among the people of God, who still gather the old-fashioned way.

As Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church, we have strengthened each other throughout our collective history. We have survived the depression and numerous recessions by leaning on one another. Together we survived the pandemic. We have weathered a succession of pastors, hymnals, locations and buildings. This congregation has sought to grow with the needs of the church’s ministry as the community around us changed. And through all of it, God has been faithful to us, and we have been faithful to God and to each other. We have helped each other sing a song of hope and faith in all circumstances. My prayer is that this kind of community, this kind of faithfulness, this song of faith will be sung by generations to come, as we learn to share that song with those who do not yet know it. 

Amen.