Fairfax Community Church, UCC - Church Services Audio:

ÐÏà¡±á>þÿ HJþÿÿÿGÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿì¥Á5@ ð¿FbjbjÏ2Ï2 (TXXõ=ÿÿÿÿÿÿˆ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¸ 8T ` $¸¶ "² ² ² ² ² ² ˜šššššš$ÏR!¾¤¼² ² ¼¼¾¤¤² ² Ó¼v¤² ¤² ˜¼˜<¤¤<² „ Âøƒ±Ã 2f<˜é0<'˜p'<¸¸¤¤¤¤'¤<\² 0â " œ² ² ² ¾¾¸¸d ¸¸ Mark 6:35-44 And when the hour had already grown late, his disciples would approach him and say, “this place is desolate and it’s late. Send them away so that they can go to the farms and villages around here to buy something to eat.” But in response he said to them, “Give them something to eat yourselves!” And they say to him, “Are we to go out and buy half a year’s wages worth of bread and donate it for their meal?!” So he says to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look.” And when they find out, they say, “Five, and two fish.” Next he instructed them all to sit down and eat, some over here, some over there, on the green grass. So they sat down group by group, in hundreds and in fifties. And he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to the sky, gave a blessing, and broke the bread apart, and started giving it to his disciples to pass around to them, and even the two fish they shared with everybody. Everybody had more than enough to eat. Then they picked up twelve baskets full of leftovers, including some fish. And the number of men who had some bread came to five thousand. And when the hour had already grown late, his disciples would approach him and say, “this place is desolate and it’s late. Send them away so that they can go to the farms and villages around here to buy something to eat.” But in response he said to them, “Give them something to eat yourselves!” And they say to him, “Are we to go out and buy half a year’s wages worth of bread and donate it for their meal?!” So he says to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look.” And when they find out, they say, “Five, and two fish.” Next he instructed them all to sit down and eat, some over here, some over there, on the green grass. So they sat down group by group, in hundreds and in fifties. And he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to the sky, gave a blessing, and broke the bread apart, and started giving it to his disciples to pass around to them, and even the two fish they shared with everybody. Everybody had more than enough to eat. Then they picked up twelve baskets full of leftovers, including some fish. And the number of men who had some bread came to five thousand. This story, the story that we call “the feeding of the five thousand” is the only miracle story that appears in all four of the gospels. We can imagine that it was a very important story for those in the early church --- and with good reason --- because it is likely that something very much like this actually happened during Jesus’ time of ministry. This story is interpreted a number of different ways --- I’ve preached on it several times myself, giving different ‘spins’ on it each time. It’s so hard to imagine that Jesus really took just five loaves of bread and two little fish and fed that many people, with leftovers, even! Of course, we don’t get to know what ‘really’ happened, this is the only piece of the story we have. No follow-up story, no side-bar explaining the miracle in scientific terms. So we just have this story --- and it is a story of feeding people when there doesn’t seem to be enough. Jesus and his disciples have been traveling around, teaching to the eager, growing crowds that kept appearing wherever he showed up. The people had heard that this Jesus was a man of God....someone who taught with energy and integrity....and who brought a feeling of Spirit and Compassion wherever he went. Jesus had just heard that his cousin, John the Baptist, had been killed – and we can imagine this news was especially hard on him because the death had been at the whim of a dancing girl. So Jesus maybe wanted to be alone a bit, and yet there was always this crowd, eager to be near him, to hear whatever he had to say. So he got into a boat, pushed out on the lake, and went a ways down shore....maybe hoping to find a quiet place to absorb this awful news. But when he arrived, there was the crowd, waiting for him in anticipation. I want to tell you that I have some little sense of what that crowd was feeling. Last week, I got to meet a Tibetan Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche.....I have never experienced anything like him. He is a ‘high Tibetan Lama’....he is a truly enlightened man. I was told NOT to miss this opportunity to see him, that he is very kind, very wonderful, not to be missed. So I went to the place where he was to be, waiting with a crowd of his followers. Everyone was very excited. We waited for maybe an hour and a half....and finally he arrived. As it happened, I was standing right where he got out of the car. We all waited with our Katas.....these are ceremonial scarves.....draped over our hands. He got out of the van, walked right up to me, and asked my name. Suddenly I felt extremely happy.....and mumbled my name as he took the scarf and put it around my neck. He held my head and lightly bumped his head into mine, which is a Tibetan form of greeting. He was saying something in Tibetan, I didn’t know what of course. This all took maybe half a minute...and then he moved on...but by then I was grinning non-stop. I couldn’t stop smiling. The whole evening was like that. Everyone was giddy, laughing and smiling a lot. This is what it’s like to be around an enlightened being, and I got a feeling for what it must have been like for people to be around Jesus...... So....the crowd was waiting to hear from him, and from somewhere deep within, Jesus summons his reserves of energy and begins teaching them, knowing they are hungry to hear about the Love and Compassion that he says is the nature of God. He teaches all afternoon – probably telling them stories and illustrating how we are all interconnected, we are all held in the Love of God, no one is to be excluded from God’s compassion. As the afternoon wears on, the disciples realize that not only is Jesus needing a break, but the people are going to be hungry soon – the hour is late and they’ve not had anything to eat. So the disciples hit upon a plan – send them away, so they can go hunt up some food, maybe from local farms or taverns. Jesus looks at the people, who have come to him because of their spiritual hunger....and knows they will not leave just yet, there is more feeding to be done. So Jesus tells the disciples, no, we’re not sending them away, you need to give them something to eat! Now, if you were one of his disciples.....how would you be feeling right about now? Do you begin to wonder if he’s really gone off his rocker? What can he be thinking? Look at all those people out there? Does Jesus even stop to think HOW MUCH BREAD they’d need to feed all these folks? Who’s got that kind of bread? Nobody’s even got the money to go buy it if it WERE available somewhere. How can we feed this many hungry people? The disciples would really rather just send them away. But Jesus tells them to go see how much bread they do have. Does this sound at all familiar to you? This past week, there was an article in the IJ which reported that 41% of low income families sometimes don’t have any food to eat. 41% is a LOT of families. That really touched me deeply. I want to do something to help....but I don’t know where to begin. There is so much need in the world, and we have so few loaves of bread.....what can we do? I want to share with you a story from a sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor, one of the foremost preachers in this country. She tells a story of a group of 240 teenagers from 5 different states who gathered at a Navajo reservation to help repair homes there. Our daughter Tesia took part in this kind of event. When this particular group arrived on the reservation, they discovered that very few of the agreed upon arrangements had been made....because the tribal officials had not believed this group would actually come to them! Barbara says “we went with half a dozen paint brushes and some other assorted tools, most of us with only a vague notion of how to paint a house or build a flight of steps. We went, in other words, with something less than five loaves and two fishes, and the Navajos knew it.” So the Navajos hadn’t bought the supplies, because they had been disappointed by Anglos before....they just wanted to wait and see. And who they saw arrive was not a group of experienced house builders or plumbers or contractors, but a bunch of sleepy, skinny, confused-looking kids. Barbara says that the whole community seemed to drive by the school where they were staying to check out this sorry bunch of folks....”Five crummy loaves and two little dried up fishes” she says. But the next morning, the work crews got busy....working on forty different homes...they were given tasks they didn’t know how to do, so they just started doing them. I remember Tesia saying her crew learned how to pull of old roof tiles, one year they redid a bathroom floor....they learned how to do it with the energy and enthusiasm they brought to the job. Barbara says “The Navajos were amazed at our industry, and we had lots of visitors who came by just to watch us work.” Then, she says, after two days work, many of the crews felt their projects were so small, they didn’t know why they had come. There was so much that needed to be done, they felt their efforts would not make a dent in the Navajos’ sixteen million acres of need. She continues... “Then halfway through the week, a funny thing began to happen. Navajos who had been watching us from the sidelines began to pitch in. Old Mr. Hart, who could not walk without a cane, patched the sheetrock in the room where we were working. Larry Silversmith worked all day long on his grandmother’s house with another crew and then continued long after they left each night, finishing up whatever they had left undone. At a third work site, a whole crowd of young Navajos showed up to help rebuild Annie Begay’s Hogan. If a bunch of Anglo kids would come all the way from Vermont to work on old Annie’s house, they said, they guessed the least they could do was help. There were so many of them they almost put our teenagers out of business....but Annie said to let them work, that it was a miracle. She said she had been praying for the day those boys would wake up from their sleep and do something for someone else. She said it was an answer to her prayers. At the end of the week, forty-two out of the week’s forty-six projects were complete. The reservation was dotted with new roofs, new paint, new corrals, new tile, new stucco, new porches. The Navajo youth organization gave each kid a Navajo Nation flag, which she said made them honorary Navajos. Through her tears, the youth representative said they loved these new friends, and would never forget them. That kind of miracle happens when people go beyond what they think they can do. Opening ourselves up to give to others makes miracles possible. We can’t be part of making a miracle happen if we stay closed and hold tight to what we think belongs to us. Or if we hold tight to what we think we can do. If we are willing to open our hearts, our minds, our arms to embrace those who need our help, miracles can happen. I’d like to share with you a practice that I do almost every day, which helps me be more open and giving.....it helps me believe I can do more than I think I can. I learned this practice from Buddhists, but I am certain Jesus was speaking of something similar when he told the disciples to see how many loaves they had to share. There are also similar practices in many indigenous cultures — sometimes known as giveaways. The actual practice that I do really only serves to open my mind to the idea that I can offer everything I do for the service of others. That is what Jesus did when he taught people even when he was dead-tired.....when he helped find a way to feed them when there wasn’t enough food.....it’s what Lama Zopa Rinpoche does when he stays up VERY late, teaching, because he wants to help everyone reach enlightenment. The practice is water-bowl offering. Offerings are very big in the Buddhist tradition....and I want to just say something about the idea of making offerings. I used to have the idea that one made an offering to a God or Diety to please them so they wouldn’t do anything bad to you. It has taken me quite a while to understand this concept, so please don’t feel you need to completely buy what I am saying....I will try my best to make it make sense to you. Offerings are made to help open one’s heart to giving. Think for a moment how it feels to give a wonderful gift to someone....whether it is a gift of something material, or a gift of your time, or even just the gift of telling someone how much you love and appreciate them. You know how that makes your heart feel.....it’s a wonderful, expansive feeling. Makes you glad you made the effort, and sometimes makes you want to give even more! Now think what it feels like when you have something you treasure.....something you consider really valuable, and you really love it and want to keep it. You might even worry that it will get stolen, so you insure it. Or lock it up. Or at least you think about these things. You might give someone something LIKE it, but no way are you going to give this thing away to anyone. How does your heart feel under those circumstances? Tight, hard, closed. So, the offerings are made to help promote the opening, giving heart....because it is the giving heart that overflows with love.....and that feeds the world’s biggest need.....the need to know love. A heart overflowing with love is capable of finding, noticing, and sometimes even performing miracles. We make offerings to help keep us open to the possibilities that are only available to open, generous hearts. (Demonstrate Water Bowls) Water bowl offerings work for me. But you don’t need to do that practice to discover the joy of offering yourself for others. Try this – the next time you do something in your home, say, sweeping the floor.....think to yourself....I offer this cleansing to all those who can’t do it for themselves. Just try that. Or if you are serving a meal, think “I offer this meal to all those who are hungry”. Now, of course, this isn’t going to actually result in hungry people getting a meal that day.......but you are opening your heart to the possibility of feeding hungry people......who knows what action this might trigger in you? Some Buddhists when they sit down to eat a meal, say a prayer in which they imagine the food turned into a blissful nectar that is then offered to all living beings. They do this with everything they eat or drink. So you can imagine the mindset becomes one of giving. Always giving to others. I’ll close my Reflection with the closing of Barbara Brown Taylor’s sermon, with gratitude to her: Stop staring at the crowd....go look at your loaves. How many do you have? Any answer will do....Take what you have, whatever you have---take it into your hands and hold it lightly, very lightly. Then bless it---thank God for what you have and make it holy by giving it away for love. Then break it----sorry, but you have to tear it up to share it, there is no way to keep it all in one nice piece. And finally, give it---to whoever is standing in front of you, beside you---spread it around, and never mind that there does not seem to be enough for everyone. IT is not up to you to feed the whole crowd, to solve the whole problem, to fix the whole world. It is up to you just to share what you have got, to feed whatever big or little hunger that happens to be standing right in front of you. The rest will come......for now, for your part, how many loaves have you? Go and look. 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