The Good News from Fox Hill - June 11, 2020

The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

1 Kings 19: 4-8                                                                   Ephesians 4: 25—5:2                                       John 6: 35, 41-51

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

FREE MEAL

So, it is true that faith really matters here in Fox Hill, Wisconsin, my hometown. Here, in the upper Midwest, the weekends are especially quiet in the summertime when everyone in town heads out to their camp around Lake Madsen. And once they’re settled in at camp, there’s nothing that will lure a fisherman away from his dream hooking of a walleye. So the quietest place on a Sunday morning is Fox Hill Lutheran Church. On a beautiful summer Sunday you could shoot a cannon through the pews of the church and not hurt a soul.

The Lutheran Church has a new summer intern to work with Pastor Martin. She is a third year student from the seminary in Gettysburg, PA. They give the title “Vicar” to a student intern. Vicar Lena hails from that part of New Jersey where a tornado would cause one million dollars’ worth of improvements. She has no experience of the traditions and habits of the folks from Packer Country. She can’t understand how the church can be so empty. Pastor Martin has tried to explain to her that the city folk from Milwaukee try to flee the hustle and bustle and the locals from Fox Hill try to flee the gossip and keen eyes of their neighbors. The lake camp is their refuge and escape.

But Vicar Lena has all sorts of ideas to try to bring them all back to town for Sunday worship. “How about an outdoor picnic service?” she asked her supervisor. “How about a hymn sing?” Last Saturday, she tried an evening service at the lakefront park, singing camp songs with her guitar, and only a vacationing pastor and his wife from Pewaukee attended. Then 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.

                She knew that once a week, during the bitter Wisconsin winters, the people of Fox Hill Lutheran were known for their free, hot dinner every Tuesday night for the community. They would set up the tables in the church hall and then a rotation of community organizations would provide the hot dish. Our Lady of Desperate Hope Roman Catholic Church would provide spaghetti, of course. The Community Youth Group would provide a tater tot and ground beef casserole with a jello salad.  The Grange would cook up Swedish meatballs. An average of 150 would attend, except when the Viking Lodge brought lutefisk in white sauce.

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 Gabriel Ortega had already hiked seven miles when he arrived in Fox Hill at about the time worship had started at the Lutheran Church.  He was hungry and thirsty and the sign out front offering 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 from the Midwest to travel with him to Israel to fight the final eschatological battle of Armageddon verses Satan and his demons.

                I think Chad had a few demons of his own to deal with. He sat down in the last pew, usually occupied by good Lutherans, as Vicar Lena began her sermon, figuring this must be like the Salvation Army where you get fed a sermon before you get fed a meal.

                Vicar Lena was still 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, just beginning her ministry, she was going through the lectionary readings, dealing 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. Why, her mother in New Jersey did that every Sunday!

                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.  Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyer don’t do that on your TV screen.  You can’t do that isolated 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 study to be a pastor was to no avail.  But, even as she preached that Elisha miraculously fed 100 and 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 Gabriel Ortega went by the name of Peter because he believed it to be a holy name.  Peter was a disciple’s name.  There was no disciple named Chad or Gabriel, even though that was at least an angel’s name. And he kind of liked the name of Peter Gabriel. He liked his music and, well, who doesn’t), “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 Martin and Vicar Lena.  “Hello,” he said, “You can call me Peter.  I came for the free meal.”

                “Yes,” laughed Vicar Lena, thinking he got the joke, “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 Vicar Lena, ‘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.

                Vicar Lena quickly realized how disappointed Peter seemed.  While feeding the soul is done every Sunday at Fox Hill Lutheran Church, she knew that feeding the body was ministry also.  In the summer, at Noon every Tuesday the church serves hot dogs and macaroni and cheese to the poor children in town who have no camp to go to.

                “Come on downstairs with me, Peter,” invited Vicar Lena, “we can whip you up some macaroni and cheese.”  From the dozen of boxes on the counter Pastor Lena grabbed one and mixed up the ingredients and cooked it in the microwave.  Peter ate until he was stuffed and Vicar Lena joined him in the meal.  And there was still plenty left over.  The young Vicar 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, instead of just she and Peter.

                Refreshed and full, Peter got up to leave and continue his journey.  Vicar Lena refused his invitation to go to Israel with him, saying she would take her chances with the end times, staying right there in Fox Hill.  This time Peter shook Vicar Lena’s hand gratefully and said, “I’m really glad your sign out front wasn’t lying.  Thanks for the free meal – both of them.”

                And that’s the Good News from Fox Hill, where faith really matters for every single man, woman, and child; oh, and the married ones too. AMEN.

Rev. James Slater

Emanuel and St. Luke’s Lutheran Churches

Stuyvesant Falls and Valatie, NY

August 9, 2015