"The Church" July 19, 2015

2nd Samuel 7: 1-14 Mark 6:30-34 & 53-56 Could those who went to Boston this week as Apostles come and take these breads out to feed people? Our youth are returned Apostles, commissioned and sent out into the world together to minister. There is a temptation, that we want them this Sunday, having just returned, to share everything they experienced. We will have them do so next week, but before they do, there is a need to reconnect. There are those among us who travel for life... Personally, when I have experienced life differently, it has taken a while for me to acclimate, not only to the timezone, but to who we are in this place, to reflect, which is one place where prayer comes in. When I was in an intense learning experience, the professors described “You are going to need to let this steep, like a cup of tea, let it soak in! Mull over the experience against all you know.” At the time I thought this a strange comment, but there is need to absorb experiences, to step back from that moment in order to figure out what we choose to remember. This time of summer, my father would always say, “We need a few days at the lake, to rest, to reconnect, to sail and soak your head.” We regularly try to connect to other sources that do not feed us, to change experiences or connect to what we want when it is convenient, or when totally overloaded to “Go off the grid”. What the Gospel points out is that we never really get totally away, and the faith connection is not a lonely place but with feeding people. Increasingly we live in an Electronic, Virtual, Cordless World, where everything needs to be charged and recharged and few if any remember how to recharge, or that we need Spiritual recharging. We have computer chargers, telephone chargers, cordless phones, cordless toothbrushes, cordless lawnmowers, remote control garage door openers, and cameras, even remote controls for the Fireplace, everything with a separate cord and recharger which do not work on anything else. And miraculously the charge is only able to go one way, if you over charge, it is not like water that overflows, the charge does not flow backward, it goes from the source through the charger to the appliance. The response of God through Nathan to King David is, “To remember You are not God. At best all we can try to do is build a house of cedar and cypress and gold. God is God, and God can build a house, a lineage, a heritage for ever, out of our lives.” The other day I was talking with a family who had a baby recently, and the father described what a thrill it was for him to cut the umbilical chord. In that moment to transition from being a part of his wife, connected and completely dependent, to being a breathing, independent separate human life they shared. Suddenly, we become cordless. Throughout life, whether as infants, toddlers, children, teens, adults or older, we all are searching for Connection, for food and touch, for who and what is going to recharge us, to make us whole. At the APPLE Store, and the BATTERY Store and RADIOSHACK, they have cords and cables for everything, every different kind of appliance has a different kind of plug and charger, but have you ever seen one made to fit a human bellybutton? In the Garden of Eden, when Eve and Adam cut their connection to God, they suddenly were aware as never before, that they were alone and naked; and perversely they hid from the source of life. They no longer recognized the One who is the Source or their need for connection, for meaning, for faith. That is the way of it for us as well, we try every different possibility for what will satisfy: a new partner, a new job, a new home, a new car, new shoes, a different soda, carbs and candy, instead of seeking out that place where our needs are met, the source of life and faith and meaning. I am told that in the ancient catacombs beneath the Vatican there are drawings on the walls dating back to the Early Church. What is interesting is that in Rome, there are drawings of boats for the early Church and clearly being before the invention of motors there were no Wooden CrisCraft boats, but also the boats were not Roman Galleons with oars and slaves for propulsion, but sail boats. Sailboats are dependent on the wind, and as we have named before: the Word for Wind, is the word for Spirit, for Breath of God. But also, in sailing, you cannot make the boat go where you desire, you cannot go into the wind, and one of the least effective directions is to have the wind pushing you from behind. The most effective, is for the boat to maintain contact with the water and cut back and forth across the wind, changing even reversing your direction to keep connection with the force of the wind. Someone told me that sailing is like shooting watermelon seeds, with the pressure from beneath and pressure from above and behind. This is what King David (and on first impression, Nathan) forgot. Simply because he was King, because he had the time and resources to build a house for God, did not mean that David could do so. Never before had God been identified in A Place. The Tent of Meeting traveled with Moses through the Wilderness. God could be found on the Mountains, in the Valleys, at the Shore, not in a place with a lock on the door. When I researched my Doctoral Thesis I followed a number of different congregations dealing with many different problems, and discovered that in order to resolve their problems, in order to change they needed to have the resources and the authority to spend them, they needed to have resolved their levels of conflict to where they trusted each other, but more than anything, they needed to embrace being The Church, not a Building, not a set of Committees, not a nice group of people doing good work in the world, but Spiritually to be The Church which touches peoples lives, and people hug and hold hands, and kiss, and feed one another. In the same way, the Apostles tried to go with Jesus to a place apart. Yet, the people are continually seeking them out. The Lectionary which appoints the passages we read from, skips over that when they arrive on the other side, Jesus recognizes the need of 5000 and teaches and preaches, then provides the feeding of the 5000. Remember that just before this Herod held a Feast, inviting ONLY the most powerful people, where here Jesus feeds All the people. At Herod's Feast there is lust after his own daughter, there is murder of John the Baptist; while Jesus satisfies needs with bread and fish. Now recall the last several weeks. Jesus called and gathered the 12; taught them parables of patience and the growing of seed, of the abundant sower who scattered seed everywhere; then they crossed the sea when a storm came up and Jesus quieted the wind and hushed the chaos. Now when the 12 have been sent out and returned, with experiences: casting out demons, preaching the Word, they get into a boat cross to the other side and what does Jesus do “He preaches and teaches the people which is food for their souls.” And they return in a boat, and they see Jesus WALKING on Water, and are they filled with faith and assurance? NO they were filled with fear, failing to recognize Jesus. Will there come a future point in the Gospel where the disciples do not recognize Jesus? At the Resurrection, in the upper room, on the road, and on the shore. Are there times when we do not recognize God in our lives? These are not times for panic, but to trust and believe. The place of connection, where we recharge, is not when we are all alone in a lonely place apart from life. The Place where we meet God is with other people and most often over food, at least over that which nurtures and sustains. So Family meals, a Campfire during the summer, these are where we share stories and our connections and life-stories are re-enforced.