Jesus went away. The crowds followed him. Jesus cured them. Jesus took the disciples away for a little rest. The crowds followed him. Jesus fed them. Jesus went away. The crowds followed him. Jesus always had compassion for them. Jesus met the needs of those who came to him in faith. Jesus worked miracles to bring some to belief. Everything he did was to bring people to belief that he is the Son of God so that we can have everlasting life in his name. Jesus is our True Savior.
This past week, Monday through Friday the church was filed the the sounds of young disciples having a great time. We put on a Vacation Bible School that had a national Park theme it was called Sonrise National Park. All week the kids sang and danced and learned from the stories of our faith. Each Day they were introduced to a new promise of God. They learned that in God we can find true peace; true riches, true power, true love and true hope. Two hours a day for 5 days these young ones came and got excited about our faith. For 5 days volunteers were here to tell the stories, lead the music, prepare meals, clean up big messes...for 5 days we invested a little time and a little money and a bunch of kids had a great time learning about our true Savior Jesus Christ. I read an article recently that questioned the value of Vacation Bible School in our contemporary culture. Well if you were here you could see the value. And rather than do less of that sort of thing I would think we would want to do more.
Vacation Bible School is just the beginning. VBS is just the open door. It gets kids asking questions about God. What does it mean to trust God? What does it mean to have faith? VBS starts conversations. Parents want to know what their child was doing for two hours at that church on the corner of Morton and Kinney. They want to know why they were so excited about going back the next day. Vacation Bible school builds relationships. I met some pretty great servants of Christ from the Scottville church that came and worked in the kitchen all week feeding us. I met some of your grand kids that I had never met before. All these new people in our lives have gifts from god to share. We all strengthen each other. Hopefully our community will grow so that there will be a greater diversity of gifts in this gathering to Honor and glorify God.
That is why we come. We come to Honor and Glorify God. We come to worship God. We come to serve God. Sometimes, though we get a little mixed up. Sometimes we think that our purpose for coming is to get something. To “recharge our battery” or to “fill our tank” and when that doesn't happen we get disappointed and frustrated. We get disappointed and frustrated because we hear the promises of what Jesus can do. We know part of what he is capable of and we want part of it. But as we see in scripture when the crowds follow him only to receive, Jesus has compassion and meets their needs but only to teach them to have faith in Him then he withdraws from them.
In scripture Jesus does wonderful things but he doesn't let the attention remain on the miracle. The wonderful things he does is a pointer toward who he really is: The son of God, our true savior.
He told the crowd flat out, “you came looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate all the loaves of bread you wanted.” The crowd tracked him down because they wanted another hand-out. He said don't do that. He said You are working for food that will be gone. You are focusing on the temporary. You are focusing on the earthly. You need to get your mind, your attention on what's important. Jesus wants us to work for the nourishment that will last forever.
Did you know that Jesus doesn't NEED you to to follow him? Jesus is complete. Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus was the one through whom you were created. If you don't follow Jesus He will still be ALL THAT...and much much more. Jesus doesn't need to be needed. Jesus is the one making the offer. Your aren't doing Jesus any favors by accepting his grace/his love.
One time, a long time ago back when I was first dating my wife she said something to me that, at first, I thought was hurtful and mean. She said, “You know something....” She had her finger pointed right at me. “You know something, I don't need you.” I thought she was saying that I was expendable, that I had better watch my step. Until she said this: “I am here with you because I want to be not because I have to be.” What I thought was hurtful turned out to be honoring and loving. Men and women don't complete each other. God makes us complete. Your children don't make you complete. Your job doesn't make you complete; the only one that completes you is the one that created you. If you need to be needed or if you are with someone who needs to be needed you need to spend some time at the foot of the cross offering yourself to God so that He can begin the work he started in you.
Jesus loves us because he wants to love us. He defeated death for us because he loves us. We are not doing Jesus any favors by accepting his love.
He offers it without price. He offers life everlasting. He offers life in abundance. He will do wonderful things with you. But if you go chasing the blessing. If you go waiting on the miracle and refuse to work for the bread that lasts for ever. Jesus may just withdraw for a time. He may go off like he did in the scriptures to be alone with the father, to be alone with those who have dedicated themselves to following him and obeying him.
Okay Jesus, how do we work for the bread that lasts for ever? That's the question the crowd asked when he called them out on chasing him down for some more bread.
Jesus said, “This is the deed God requires- to believe in the one whom he sent.”
They didn't quite get it yet. They started asking for a sign. Apparently they missed the big meal they had the day before that came from only 5 loaves and two fish. Jesus started talking about the true bread from heaven. “For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread all the time!”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty.”
he said it to them as plain as can be. Yet still some complained and did not believe. But Those who do believe receive the extraordinary gift of everlasting and abundant life. Today is a remarkable day because we have a little one who's parents are going to commit to raising her in the christian faith. In the sacrament of baptism God's mysterious grace is poured out not because we have merited it but because this is what God desires to do. In this we commit to our participation in God's work as a community of believers to be vessels of his will. Today we will also share Holy communion at God's table where we give our selves as holy and living sacrifices to our God.
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