The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
1 Kings 19:
4-8
Ephesians 4:
25—5:2
John 6: 35,
41-51
Grace, mercy
and peace be unto you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. Amen.
Well, it has been a quiet week
in Lake Wobegon, MN, my hometown. And
the weekends are especially quiet in the summertime when everyone in town heads
out to their lake camps, and once they’re settled in at camp there’s nothing
that will lure them away. You can’t lure
fishermen; they know all the tricks when it comes to hooking a walleye. So the quietest place on a Sunday morning is
inside of the Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church.
On a beautiful Sunday morning you could shoot a cannon through the pews
of the Lutheran Church and not hurt a soul.
Pastor Liz is from that part of
New Jersey where a tornado would cause one million dollars worth of improvements. She has no understanding of the traditions of
the folks from the land of 10,000 lakes.
Whether fleeing the hustle and bustle of the Twin Cities or the gossip
and keen eyes of their neighbors, the folks of Lake Wobegon find refuge and
escape in their lake camps. Pastor Liz
has tried everything she can think of to bring them back to town for Sunday
worship – picnic services, hymns sings.
She even tried a Saturday night service at the lakefront park using her
guitar and singing camp songs, but only a visiting Lutheran pastor and his wife
from Bemidji attended. She put up a sign
on the front lawn of the church advertising “Free meal every Sunday morning.” Maybe people would think it clever and come
on in.
Last Sunday, after spending the
night on a park bench in Millett (which if you know Millett you know that is
luxurious accommodations!) anyway – Chad Michael Orozco had already hiked seven
miles when he arrived in Lake Wobegon at about the time worship had started at
Lake Wobegon Lutheran. He was hungry and
thirsty and the sign out front offing a free meal seemed like a sign from
God. God had been miraculously providing
for him all during his crusade to raise up soldiers for Jesus to travel with
him to Israel to fight the final eschatological battle of Armageddon verses Satan
and his demons.
He sat down in the last pew,
usually occupied by good Lutherans, as Pastor Liz began her sermon, figuring
this must be like the Salvation Army where you get fed a sermon before you get
fed a meal.
Pastor Liz was in a funky
mood. All her creative evangelism
efforts weren’t working, except for this one suspicious looking and sounding stranger. The few in the pews all turned their heads to
stare at him. Plus, now in her fourth
year of ministry, she was going through the lectionary readings a second time,
dealing again with a month of Sundays on the Gospel of John, chapter 6. I mean, how much more could she say about the
feeding of the 5,000? Especially when
hardly anyone was there to be fed. For
her, it was more like the feeding of the 15, and that didn’t seem like much of
a miracle.
In her mind it was inconceivable
that people could go a whole week without being nourished at the table of the
Lord. Corporate worship is that unique
opportunity to be fed both by the Word of God in song, scripture, sermon and
prayer; and fed by the Word of God in bread and wine, the very presence of
Jesus in flesh and blood. We call it Holy
Communion because we commune with Jesus and with one another in community. In the sharing of bread and wine, Jesus
promises to be with us and to feed us just as he miraculously fed the
5,000. You can’t do that watching Joel
Osteen or Joyce Meyer. You can’t do that
alone at your summer camp. It is the
essence of what it means to be the church.
There have been times when she
has come this close to giving up, feeling that all her work as a pastor was to
no avail. But, even as she preached that
Elijah had the choice to give up and die or to get up and eat, so she wasn’t
about to give up and she surely didn’t want to die. So she would continue to get up and eat and
to live in the promise of the living bread from heaven.
So also thought Peter (Chad
Michael Orozco went by the name of Peter because it was a holy name. Peter was a disciple’s name. There was no disciple named Chad or Michael,
even though that was at least an angel’s name), “I have also come close to
giving up and dying. And now, I really
need something to eat.”
People began to stand up and
form something like a serving line, so he got up and joined them. Kneeling with the others at the altar
railing, he was disappointed to get a small wafer of bread placed in his hands
and a tiny shot glass of wine. But then
he thought, “Ah, appetizers! Cool.” But just then everybody got up, went back to
their seats, sang a hymn and then they were done.
Following the others out down
the center aisle, he was greeted by Pastor Liz.
“Hello,” he said, “You can call me Peter. I came for the free meal.”
“Yes,” laughed Pastor Liz, “Thank
you for joining us today.”
Peter stared at her for an
uncomfortable moment and finally broke the silence, “So, when do we eat? I’m starving.”
“Oh, no,” replied Pastor Liz, ‘The
bread and the wine, that’s the meal of Holy Communion which Jesus gives to us
freely by his grace and love. It’s not
food for the stomach that fails after a few hours and then you’re hungry
again. It’s food for your soul. Jesus is the living bread that comes down
from heaven. When we eat his body, that
is the bread, and drink his blood, that is the wine we are fed for eternal
life. That’s why we gather every Sunday
to share this holy meal.
Pastor Liz quickly realized how
disappointed Peter seemed. While feeding
the soul is done every Sunday at Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church, she knew that
feeding the body was ministry also.
Every Tuesday in the summer the church serves hot dogs and macaroni and
cheese to the poor children in town who have no camp to go to. And they host a free hot dinner every Tuesday
night during the grueling Minnesota winter to anyone who wants to come.
“Come on downstairs with me,
Peter,” invited Pastor Liz, “we can whip you up some macaroni and cheese.” From the dozen of boxes on the counter Pastor
Liz grabbed one and mixed up the ingredients and cooked it in the
microwave. Peter ate until he was
stuffed and Pastor Liz joined him in the meal.
And there was still plenty left over.
Pastor Liz then realized that she had just witnessed a true miracle of
divine providence. She only wished 5,000
people could have witnessed it as well.
Refreshed and full, Peter got up
to leave and continue his journey. Pastor
Liz refused his invitation to go to Israel with him, saying she would take her
chances staying right there in Lake Wobegon.
This time Peter shook Pastor Liz’s hand gratefully and said, “I’m really
glad your sign out front wasn’t lying. Thanks
for the free meal – both of them.”
That’s the news from Lake Wobegon
where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking and all the
children are above average. AMEN.
Rev. James Slater
Emanuel and St. Luke’s Lutheran Churches
Stuyvesant Falls and Valatie, NY
August 9, 2015
