"A Lonely Place Apart" August 6, 2017

Genesis 32:22-31 Matthew 14: 13-21 There is a routine to life. Sunset, sunrise, sunset, sunrise, Sunday comes once each week, which helps us maintain our balance and routine, order and schedule. Different from childhood, as an adult on vacation, I find I covet every day. But there come points in life, a birthday or anniversary, survival of trauma, loss and crisis that we find ourselves in a lonely place, apart. Not depression but self-examination. The Gospel of Matthew has a great deal more texture and emotion than Mark had. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus was Baptized, lived in the wilderness, ministered to by angels; when John the Baptist was killed, Jesus came out of the wilderness preaching “Repentance” carrying on the ministry of John. Matthew is different. According to Matthew, John was arrested and put in prison by Herod for preaching. John criticized Herod for having murdered Herod’s own brother in order to take the brother’s wife “Herodias” as his lover. Then Herod had a Great Banquet, a bacchanalia replete with excessive drinking, half-naked dancing girls, one of whom was Herodias’ own daughter, Herod’s niece: Salome, who so excited the Tetrarch that he offered her ANYTHING she desired, even half his kingdom, which as a puppet of Rome, with the reality of God, really was not his at all. At her mother’s request, Salome asked for John’s Head on a Platter. Some deaths hit us harder than others. My brother and I felt, when we reached the age our birth-mother had been when she had died, it was a very hard year. John being Jesus cousin, the mentor who had baptized Jesus; when he was executed as entertainment at a Banquet, Jesus sought to be alone… but the crowds followed. While all four Gospels tell the story of Jesus, with their own parables and teachings and miracles, even different naming of disciples, what they have in common is: Jesus’ Baptism, Feeding the 5000, Jesus’ Communion, and his death upon the Cross with Easter morning. I believe a shift happens here, for Jesus. In the 13 Chapters prior, Jesus has Called disciples and taught and sent them out to do great things. After this, Jesus will experience the Transfiguration, then go to Jerusalem, but in this moment, in this lonely place apart a miracle happens. There is a wonderful contrast in Banquets, between Herod’s Bacchanalia of excess, and Jesus’ Serving the 5000 men plus women and children. One is demonstration of satisfaction of our lusts even for death, the other is about serving others, care and compassion for others. The Miracle here is not that the Messiah used 3 loaves and 5 fish to feed 5000 people. This week, the Wednesday Bible Study glimpsed the Gospel of Thomas, with the Fabled Miracle that the boy Jesus helping his father the Carpenter, stretched a 2x4 to become as long as the other. If anything, instead of a multiplication of Loaves and Fishes, this is an example of “Division” because Jesus breaks the bread and gives it to them and they were balanced and satisfied. Over the centuries, preachers have come up with all kinds of explanations, many like Stone Soup where the listeners already had food hidden and were motivated to share. INSTEAD, the first MYSTERY of this, I Believe, is there is something glorious in the Breaking of the Bread… this is foreshadowing Communion and receiving and serving others, you are satisfied. I visited a man in the psychiatric ward several weeks ago, who was exceedingly agitated, the nurses said no medication they were giving him allowed him to quiet down and rest. But when we took bread, naming this as all the sins and brokenness of all the relationships of our lives and broke it, receiving, then took the cup as forgiveness and assurance of God’s grace; suddenly the man was calm. The Second Mystery here, is that in the Greek and Roman cultures, they believed that “The Gods” were either totally removed from human concerns and this world, or were vengeful and vindictive causing pain to people through flood, war, disease. YET here, the Son of God, our Messiah, has compassion on the crowd, he cares about their needs and does something about this. Related to this, he sends out his disciples to feed the people with this gift of grace and not only were they satisfied, they had an abundance of 12 baskets full left over. Which is the THIRD Mystery, that faith is not about knowledge, or understanding, myth or beliefs… FAITH is multiplied in acts of mission and compassion. As a church we functioned and did churchy stuff, even rebuilt the church in this community; but when we volunteered our time and resources in Mission trips serving others, when we began serving and sharing dinner at the Manor, when we developed relationships with the South Sudanese, it changed us. Mission has less to do with the good we do for others, than the fact, that doing mission changes us, changes the church and changes our faith. I love this story of Jacob. Because after 20 years of growing up in competition with his twin brother, growing up in competition for his parents’ love, where he literally was a HEEL, a USURPER trying to get ahead of those in his own intimate family by stealing their blessings; he has spent the next 20 years competing with Laban, tricking one another for who will win, how much they can get out of one another, teaching his wives to compete using everything at their disposal, their own good looks, their fertility, the fertility of their maids as concubines for Jacob, fertility drugs and myths; Jacob seems to have one last game to play. He is right back where he had had the dream of the Stairway to Heaven, and he learns that Brother Esau whom he always tricked is on his way with 400 men. Jacob divides up everything he possesses, sending half with one wife, and half with the other, even dividing these up into groups, so that if one is taken or destroyed, his legacy will live one. When after sending everyone ahead, Jacob is set apart in a lonely place. There is a subtlety, that in faith, to be “HOLY” literally means to be “Set Apart” so whether he intended this or not, Jacob is in a Holy Place, a Lonely place, Set Apart. Suddenly, in the dark of night he is jumped by a stranger, and they wrestle all through the night, competing to kill one another, competing for survival. Up until this moment, all the competitions of Jacob’s 40 years of life have been competitions to get ahead, but not competitions to live or die. So, like a great Mystery: we need to wonder, who is this attacker, the stranger, the Other? Is this God? Did Laban follow and attack him? Is the competitor: Jacob’s twin brother Esau? Could this be one of his wives, or concubines, or the eldest of his children? Everyone had MOTIVE to want to kill him. Everyone had Opportunity, with no alibis given. So who done it? Personally, having wrestled with this passage, I believe Jacob is finally wrestling with himself. Wrestling with whether he will admit to himself, he has been a HEEL, he been a USURPER stealing the blessings from those he loves, whether he will admit to himself the brokenness in his life and his need for forgiveness. And he wins, he walks away, with a limp, changed no longer ever the same. Different from Abraham and Isaac who know God and have relationship with God all their lives, for Jacob this is a catharsis of faith. God has been with Jacob, watching over him all his life, but now Jacob knows himself and God and goes out into the world.