[Propertalk] Proper 15 b 2018 - part 3

[Robert P Morrison]

My post of part 3 was dumped, so let's try this, the final part of the
sermon, without listing the footnotes.
Bob

	 Of course, we CAN always say, “No, thanks,” to Jesus.
“That’s just a bit too much for me to swallow and take on in my
life, especially right now.” But that doesn’t and won’t ever
stop Jesus from keeping on inviting, or stop the Spirit from prodding
until we discover “something of the spaciousness of God’s meaning
and the wildness of God’s sense of time.” 5 

	 There ARE times when you and I forget how challenging it may have
been to commit ourselves to a pretty strange family, whatever the
makeup. There are times when we aren’t aware of the depth of
Jesus’ love for us and the commitment He seeks. In fact, there are
times when you and I may not be in sync with Jesus enough that we
don’t appreciate fully what it means to inhabit this life eternal
when Jesus offers. 

	 “Inhabit” is an interesting word, actually. We ask someone where
she’s from, for instance, and we can get all sorts of answers,
ranging from the name of a nation, to the name of a street in a local
city. The word, based on its roots, means what you and I have within
us – literally, what DO you and I have that’s so basic that it
defines and controls who we are. 

	 For a Christian, then, someone who’s made a commitment to follow
Jesus, to BE Jesus, who we are is more than someone on our street;
it’s more than someone who lives in Albany, or in Oregon. It goes
far beyond any national boundaries. You and I, as people who’ve made
a commitment to Jesus, and the love of Jesus, have decided to be
nourished and guided by Jesus at every step, every word, every thought
of our lives. Jesus “inhabits” us and we “inhabit” Jesus.
It’s such an incredible symbiosis which brings fantastic excitement
for all sorts of possibilities with our lives, and there’s no
telling where we‘ll be or what time it may be, when Jesus comes to
us to show us how Jesus guides and supports. 

	 Sara Miles, talking about church and about Communion with God, wrote
the simplest, the most obvious, yet most mind-blowing statement about
Jesus in our lives. She wrote, “You never know who’d be holding
the bread.” 6 It could be – absolutely anyone. And it needn’t be
restricted to one time or place. Even if you and I think literally
about bread, and about its transformational power, the bread, in
whatever form, brought by a server in a restaurant; the bread in this
room or the one down the hall; the bread sought by the tired and
hungry person who addresses you and me on the street – it’s ALL
Jesus. 

	 Jesus gives this Bread for the life of the world – the whole world
– and it is our vocation now to feed one another, to see that
everyone gets bread, that we give and give, just like Jesus, until He
comes again. 

	 “Anywhere there’s food, spirit and matter intersect. And the
power to feed – and particularly to share food with people outside
your tribe – always has the potential to transform lives.” 7 

	 What other reason is there for Jesus giving us Bread, if not to
transform? Why are we given Bread if it’s not to go out immediately
and to share it way outside our so-called normal circles, sharing not
just the Bread, but all the ways in which people can be transformed.
And how are people transformed? In ways we cannot begin to count.
“One afternoon,” wrote Sara, “I found a worn-out man kneeling in
the back of the church by an icon of Sophia, the Wisdom of God. I
offered to anoint him with some holy oil, fragrant with rosemary, from
a little container we keep in our shrine. ‘Ahh,’ he said,
receiving it. ‘That feels _so_ good.’ A few minutes later a little
kid came over, by the same icon, and handed me a toy fire engine.
‘Want to play trucks?’ he asked.” 8 

	 How much Bread do you and I need? 

	 Eat, smile, then leave to meet the rest of the world. __

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