Daily Devotions

When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. Jesus said to them, “Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They said to one another, “It is because we have brought no bread.”

And becoming aware of it, Jesus said, “You of little faith, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How could you fail to perceive that I was not speaking about bread? Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!”

Then they understood that he had not told them to beware of the yeast of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matthew 16:5-12

Every interaction between Jesus and his disciples is an opportunity to place ourselves right in the middle of the story. We, modern day disciples, easily find ourselves fitting right in. That helps us listen well to this chapter from Matthew.

The disciples forgot to bring lunch as they crossed the lake. Someone told Jesus. “Sorry about that. I guess we forgot to bring any bread.” Oops. Then Jesus throws them a curve, “Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” The disciples didn’t know what to make of that. What does that have to do with all of us going without lunch today?

Jesus reminds them of the miraculous feedings that they witnessed, and benefited from. Of course God cares about food for your bellies! God provides daily bread. But God also cares about the ideas that you allow into your mind. God cares about what you believe just as God cares about what you eat. The ideas put forth by the opponents of Jesus are deadly. The ideas put forth by Jesus are life giving.

The most obvious false teaching promulgated by the Pharisees and Sadducees is that Jesus is a charlatan. Just another would be Messiah figure who is destined both to lead his followers into spiritual ruin (a key idea for the Pharisees) and into conflict with the Romans (a key idea for the Sadducees.)

What neither of Jesus’ opponents admit is the threat that he poses to their own livelihoods. The Pharisees benefit from their role as spiritual authorities within the lives of the people. The Sadducees benefit from their cushy relationship with the Romans which allows them to run the Temple like a profit generating family business. Jesus threatens both of them. If Jesus gets his way, if he turns the hearts and minds of the people away from the power structures that undergird the Pharisees and Sadducees, then they will be the ones scurrying for daily bread. They can’t allow that to happen. So they reject Jesus. Ultimately they will kill him.

“If you really are who you say you are, then turn these stones into bread.” That was one of the great temptations posed to Jesus by the devil in the wilderness. Jesus fended him off with a reminder, “Man does not live by bread alone.” We do well to heed those words.

If all we care about is bread for our bellies, if all we care about are the material wants in our lives, we are in trouble. We open ourselves to accepting all sorts of ideas, willing to then do all sorts of immoral and unjust things, that promise us material success. “I want mine and I don’t care about you” is no way to build a common life.

If we trust that God will provide us daily bread, that doing our part according to our skills and abilities will result in everyone getting enough, then we will truly know freedom. It is the self-giving stance toward life that separates Jesus from the self-seeking, self-gratification stance toward life of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, we do care about our daily bread. We have to. We need to eat. But you know that we need much more than that. Expose the selfishness and self-seeking ideas that drive us away from you and away from one another. Remind us anew that you provide what we need and that sharing, giving of ourselves out of love for our neighbor, is your path to freedom and life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Jesus they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” Then he left them and went away. Matthew 16:1-4

Today’s reading opens in a very unsurprising way. The Pharisees and Sadducees, the two competing voices for spiritual authority in Israel who would normally be opposed to each other in knee jerk, reactive, ways, are strangely aligned in their rejection of Jesus. Once again they seek to attack him, to test him. They ask for a sign from heaven. No surprise there.

Jesus points out the obvious. They “see” what they want to see. They are capable of interpreting meteorological data. Red sky at night, sailors’ delight; red sky in the morning, sailors’ take warning. That’s easy. It is an old saw based on observable atmospheric conditions and long life experience, taught to the youngest of children. There is nothing new there. But then Jesus throws in the first of two shattering pronouncements – you cannot interpret the signs of the times, quickly followed by no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. How do we hear this today?

Psychologists have long known that people are susceptible to what they call a “myside bias.” That is, we are quick to support our own point of view and eager to find evidence to support what we already believe. Conversely, we are quick to reject alternative points of view that challenge our biases. My sense is that Jesus picks up on this in pointing out how the Pharisees and Sadducees are incapable of interpreting the signs of the times. Jesus is standing right there in front of them but they can’t see him. Their myside bias is blinding them to the obvious.

We saw a clear case of that last week. A public official equated the suggestion that a 32 year old man accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with a 14 year old girl is no different than an adult Joseph and a teenaged Mary becoming parents of Jesus. He used Jesus to apologize for behavior that, if true, would be criminal! Ludicrous, blasphemous, and utterly appalling. How can any follower of Jesus not find that disgusting?

Beyond that, how is that comparison any different than if Devin Kelley was still alive and arguing that what he did in that church is not a whole lot different than what Samson did with the jawbone of a donkey since both behaviors began with anger triggered by a scene of domestic disturbance and his frustration with his father-in-law? (Read the story in Judges 15.)

Yet where was the outcry from evangelical circles who support that now 70 year old man’s quest to become a senator? Where were the voices of indignation and cries of “heresy!” from the many organizations that have long been far more Republican than Christian? Silence. Equivocation. Justification. Myside bias.

What is the sign of Jonah? We will discover that as we continue to read through Matthew 16, a chapter when Jesus draws several lines in the sand, inviting us all to declare who we believe Jesus to be, even as Jesus guides us toward what it means to follow him.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, we all fall prey to myside bias. We defend ourselves, our ways of looking at the world, often in irrational and knee jerk ways. Just as your opponents couldn’t see you, we too often see only what we seek to see, blind to the realities that would reshape our perspective, change our minds, and open our hearts. Keep working on us! Heal us in our blindness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

After Jesus had left that place, he passed along the Sea of Galilee, and he went up the mountain, where he sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the mute, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he cured them, so that the crowd was amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel.

Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.” The disciples said to him, “Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” Jesus asked them, “How many loaves have you?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.”

Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish; and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all of them ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Those who had eaten were four thousand men, besides women and children. After sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadan. Matthew 15:29-39

What can we expect after a blockbuster Hollywood movie makes a ton of money? A sequel. Maybe a whole series of sequels. Maybe even a prequel after a whole series of sequels ala Star Wars. So it is that the story of the feeding of the 5000 (plus women and children), which is the only miracle story recorded in all four gospels, is followed up by the feeding of the 4000 (plus women and children), which appears in both Matthew and Mark.

The key elements in each story repeat. Jesus helps people. Jesus recognizes their need to eat. Jesus calls upon the disciples to feed them. The disciples don’t see how they can do that. Jesus asks for whatever resources are available. He breaks the bread, gives thanks, and everyone gets more than enough to eat. Including women and children.

In a world where getting enough to eat on a daily basis was a real struggle, this story of plenty would never be forgotten. In a world without the insight and capacity of modern medicine, physical infirmity was doubly painful as it also carried the stigma of being forgotten or cursed by God. The healing ministry of Jesus was then doubly wonderful – physical healing also meant returning whole to community.

“Your reputation precedes you.” I don’t know who first coined that phrase but it fits Jesus like a glove. Word of mouth – still the most powerful and effective form of advertising – said that, when Jesus shows up, good things happen. Over time the crowds just kept growing and growing. People heard about miraculous healings. They heard about the crowds being fed. Why wouldn’t people want to get in on that action?

John’s gospel calls the miracles of Jesus “signs.” I always try to remember that. Signs don’t exist for their own sake, they only exist to point beyond themselves to a destination yet to come. Signs are helpful in getting us to where we want to go but they aren’t the point. So it is with the miracle stories of Jesus. They point beyond themselves, they are not ends in themselves.

We could very well be initially attracted to Jesus because we want to “get in on that action.” We want the good things that we have heard Jesus delivers. And trusting in Jesus does deliver good things. But that isn’t the point. Like signs, the love of God which comes to us is always meant to go through us. We might show up as a guest, as a consumer, but then God walks with us toward maturity and we begin to see that God calls us to be a member, a teammate, a producer, of good in the world.

The feeding of the 5000, then the 4000, teaches us that following Jesus means being people of compassion who recognize the true hunger stealing life from the world. Compassion that translates into action, action that is magnified beyond our own capacity, in a holy, godly way. This is good news to everyone, including the easily marginalized women and children.

Let us pray: Gracious Lord, we remember stories of the marvelous things that you did. You teach us, in those stories, what it means to follow you. Encourage us to see beyond our own limitations to your infinite power and love. Encourage us to see through and beyond the signs which you put in our path, that we might follow you to the very end. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”

He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”

She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly. Matthew 15:21-28

This story has always been a bit troublesome for me. It comes up every three years in the Sunday readings so I have written several sermons on it. I’ve looked at the story from many different points of view. It remains troublesome.

Clearly the woman is an outsider. A Canaanite. But that ought not be a problem. Jesus welcomes outsiders. Jesus welcomes women. The woman at the well is one of my favorite stories. But, in this story, there is no getting around it, Jesus is a jerk.

Well, I do remember one sermon when I suggested that we might hear the story very differently if we were there. What if Jesus had a big smile on his face? What if Jesus was joking? I didn’t buy it myself but it was an idea. Jesus still comes across as a jerk.

Why a jerk? Because everything I know and believe about Jesus is that he came to throw open the doors to the kingdom of heaven to all people who come to trust and follow him. Gone are the days when God was the exclusive possession of the people of Israel. Now all of humanity was grafted to the tree of Israel (Romans 11:17-24). This Jesus came PRECISELY for this Canaanite woman. And for you and me and every other Christian not born into a Jewish family.

God’s love doesn’t exclude Jews, it includes everyone else.

I’ve wondered before if Jesus was just having a bad day. I’ve wondered if the anti-Gentile cultural prejudice of Jesus’ earthly tribe had sunk under Jesus’ skin in ways that even he wasn’t aware. The story remains troublesome for me.

But then it turns on the insistence of the woman not to be rejected or ignored. She is there on purpose – her daughter is sick and needs help. She is not going to let a crowd of men dismiss her or the insults of the man in charge distract her. Every time I get to this turning point in the story I want to cry out, “YOU GO GIRL!”

This anonymous Canaanite woman becomes a hero to every woman who has felt the demeaning and dismissive attitudes and actions of a male dominated world. Every girl ever told that “girls don’t do things like that”. Every woman with a great big glass ceiling bump on her head. She is persistent – “Lord, help me.” – and she is smart – “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” She transforms Jesus’ attitude before he acts on her behalf. She gets what she needs. Her daughter is healed.

This has always been a troublesome story and that is a good thing. We don’t put them on greeting cards. We don’t reduce them to pithy aphorisms. Troublesome stories require us to wrestle with them. They require our imaginations. We need to engage them. As we do that, they reveal more and more.

This morning what I am seeing for the first time is that, when Jesus commends this woman’s faith, he is commending both the faith she demonstrates in Jesus AND the faith she demonstrates in herself. In her own value and worth. In her own capacity to push through the crowd and be heard. In her own intuition that Jesus can be helpful, he can be the answer, even to her daughter. “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

Let us pray: Dear Lord, you healed the daughter of a woman who persisted in coming to you for help. She was undeterred by those who told her to go away and even by your failure to immediately welcome her. May she be our model of faith today – that we might entrust ourselves fully to you and that we might trust ourselves enough to hang in there and be patient in the face of things we cannot control or change. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.” Matthew 15:15-20

Most of us live our lives on auto-pilot. We’re not aware of that…because we are on auto-pilot. We do what we do because it is what we do. We think what we think because it is what we think. We react instead of act even as we fool ourselves into believing that our actions are thoughtful and reasonable when, in fact, they are just knee jerk auto-pilot reactions.

The key word in that last sentence is “believing.”

Few of us slow down long enough, few of us dig down deep enough, to thoughtfully and prayerfully consider what really are the core beliefs which drive us. Because that is how we work.

Our lives begin in our belief systems. Our feelings are generated by a simple equation – what we believe + what happens in our lives = how we feel and thus, how we act.

Ritual washing was an important part of the daily spirituality of a Jew. And a Muslim. And quite a few other religious traditions as well. It was tied to a belief system that says there are certain behaviors that God expects from us. These behaviors draw us closer to God. They identify us as people of faith. They are a visible sign of our devotion. To wash correctly is to please God. To please God means that good things will happen to us. To displease God means that bad things will happen to us. Thus we need to faithfully and diligently ritually wash.

That is the belief system that drives auto-pilot religious devotion. Beliefs about God. Beliefs about how God acts. Beliefs about what triggers God’s actions toward us. Beliefs which lead to feelings of fear, comfort, hope, and peace. You can well imagine how it drove the Pharisees crazy to see Jesus’ disciples display such a casual disregard toward their time-honored practices. To them it meant that the failure to wash their hands was like spitting in God’s face.

But it didn’t seem to bother Jesus. Why? Because he was driven by a different set of beliefs. For Jesus, God was ever-present and ever-loving. God was merciful and inclusive, not mercurial and tribal. God was vitally interested in relationships among and between people. God wanted people free to enjoy the fullness of life as God created life to be lived. Jesus clearly saw how religious practices could be twisted into a smokescreen that diverted us from God rather than a window to help us more clearly see God.

So Jesus redirects the Pharisees away from the superficial to the significant. He attacks them at the level of their belief system. He draws their focus from what they put in their mouths to what comes out of their hearts.

All of the destructive behaviors that Jesus lists here – evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander – are behaviors that begin out of faulty belief systems. If we believe that “I am the boss of me” then we set ourselves free to do pretty much whatever we want. If we believe that there is no God, there is no divine order to life, there are no ultimate consequences, we set ourselves free to do whatever we can get away with. If we believe that we are fundamentally flawed, broken, and hopeless, beliefs which carry great emotional pain, then we will behave in any manner that helps us feel better.

But, if we believe that God is good and God is loving, if we believe that God loves us and wants the best for us, and that God wants the best for others through us, we might experience a very different set of feelings. We might even behave in very different ways.

Religion and spirituality need not be smokescreens. But, unexamined, and either blindly followed or blindly rejected, they can be the darkest smokescreen of all. They blind us to the real beliefs that drive us, the real auto-pilot settings of our lives.

Jesus wants to cure our blindness and heal our hearts. We do well to remember that those who are truly blind are those who refuse to see.

Let us pray: Dear Jesus, you see into our hearts. You see us more clearly than we see ourselves. You see how we treat ourselves and others. How we look at the world around us. You see our blind spots and our misguided beliefs and our destructive attitudes and behaviors. Be our mirror. Open our eyes. Draw our hearts to you. Heal our blindness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”

Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”

He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” Matthew 15:10-14

Those poor Pharisees. We know that they meant well. They really did see themselves as the protectors and defenders and champions of true, authentic, heartfelt devotion to Yahweh. They didn’t run for the hills and disassociate themselves from life like the Essenes. They didn’t cast their faith aside for political expediency like the Herodians. And they certainly didn’t sell themselves out as pawns of the state like the Sadducees. They really did mean well.

They meant well when they offered their strict interpretation of the law to the people. When they warned the people of the judgment to come, the final resurrection, where a good life on earth would take you to the bosom of Abraham and a bad life to the lake of fire.

They meant well when they cautioned the people against pinning their hopes on all of the obviously false messiahs who were peddling their misguided ideas in the marketplace. They opposed them in the name of their old time religion that was good enough for their forefathers so it was good enough for them. Tradition! Tradition!

Those poor Pharisees. They meant well. They certainly had the ear of the people. But when it came to Jesus – who he was, what he taught, what he meant for the world – they were dead wrong. They were blind guides. Blind because they could not see. Blind because they refused to see. And dangerously blind because they led those who followed them into the very pit that they were trying so hard to avoid.

Today the issue is eating kosher. Dietary regulations. Understand that those were traditions that reached back as far as anyone could remember. But they were not rules rooted in good health. They were arbitrary traditions rooted in tribal identity. We are who we are because we are not like other people. No bacon for us! As long as we stick to our rules, we will be OK. The rules are what matter because there is nothing more important than tribal identity. We are not like those dirty Gentiles, we are the people of God. We are special. We are chosen.

It was exactly that mindset that drove the Pharisees to oppose Jesus because of the threat that he posed to their whole system. The same mindset that allowed them to create all sorts of self-serving legal loopholes to twist the faith to their own advantage. They could cling to their precious principles regardless of the havoc that might have created in the lives of people.

Yes, it is hard to admit when we are wrong. It is hard to admit that we have bought the wrong farm, polluted our minds with the wrong ideas, let our hearts follow the wrong loves that led us into holes rather than into wholeness.

Those poor Pharisees. Can we see them? Can we see how they saw the world? Can we see them within us? Or are we blind to the many ways we do the very same things? For the see Jesus clearly means we also see the Pharisees within us clearly as well. If we don’t, then we will channel Jesus through our own self-serving lens and we too will stumble into the pit.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, who should we trust? Where should we turn? What should we follow? How should we change our minds, alter our behaviors, adjust our attitudes? Dozens more innocent people were killed in a hail of bullets this past weekend. Your people. Our brothers and sisters. What voices will lead us out of darkness of blindness and despair into the light of hope and promise? Give us answers and direction, and open our hearts and minds to follow. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.”

He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that whoever tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,’ then that person need not honor the father. So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God. You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’” Matthew 15:1-9

Let’s start with the delicious irony that the religious leaders attack Jesus because they have noticed that his disciples aren’t studiously observing the rules of ritual washing before they eat. Obviously they have been watching the disciples like hawks. Watching to catch them breaking even the slightest of rules. Just waiting to say GOTCHA!

Can you imagine what it would be like for a police officer to take it upon himself to follow your car all day, ever ready to write a ticket for even the slightest infraction? Following you from home to work to the errands you might run during the day? Rolling through a stop sign. Failing to use your blinkers to change lanes. Riding 1 mph above the speed limit? I doubt there is a driver in America – and certainly NONE in Houston – who could make it to 2:00 PM without enough tickets to require a lawyer.

But the point of traffic laws is not writing tickets. The point of traffic laws is to allow traffic to flow safely. The rules of the road are meant to help drivers safely cooperate with one another so that everyone gets where they need to go. And yes, the point of tickets is to punish those drivers who break those laws. But the whole system depends, not on the ability of police officers to write tickets but on the willingness of the drivers to follow the rules.

Now suppose you were a government official with the power to tell police officers what to do. And suppose you wanted to intimidate someone into doing what you wanted them to do so you planted a police officer in front of their house. Someone who would follow you all day long, writing tickets for every minor infraction they saw, just to mess with you. That is exactly what the Pharisees were doing with Jesus. They were abusing their positions and their power.

But they were messing with the wrong guy. Jesus wasn’t going to be intimidated and he wasn’t going to back down. He got right in their faces. He pointed out how they twisted the rules to benefit themselves. How they ignored the deeper godly purpose of the law so they could serve themselves even as they held their noses in the air and publicly displayed their religiosity. The very definition of hypocrisy!

Self-serving, self-dealing leaders are charlatans. Loopholes are just legalized cheating. Just because you can doesn’t mean you ought to. You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can never fool Jesus who sees your heart with utter clarity.

Let us pray: Dear Jesus, you know how prone we are to selfishness and self-centeredness. You know how quick we are to cherry pick which rules we follow and which ones we ignore. Forgive us our hypocrisy. Set us free to do the next right thing, which always turns out to be the loving thing, and the just thing. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. After the people of that place recognized him, they sent word throughout the region and brought all who were sick to him, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed. Matthew 14:34-36

Today will be a big day in Houston. The Astros finally won a World Series and today there will be a big parade through town. They even called off school today so that families can join the festivities. (I remember skipping school back in the 1960’s to watch the World Series when they used to play day games. Go Twins!)

Kelley and I watched all the playoff games this year. They were the only games we watched all year. They were also the only televised sporting events I can ever remember watching with Kelley. She did crack me up though – she immediately spoke of the Astros in the most personal of terms. “Are we ahead?” “How are we doing?” I poked a little fun at her until she reminded me that she is a native Houstonian and that the Astros have always been her hometown team. I have to give her that. She also uses “we” for the Texas A&M football team even though she pretty much still doesn’t quite get how the actual game works – but she is an alum and thus has earned the right to use “we”.

Much has been said over the past weeks about how sports can excite and unify a city. Since Houston is one of those places most devastated by the recent hurricanes it is a touching story to know that we got a little diversionary space while watching the Astros fight through the playoffs, and now an emotional pickup to celebrate their win.

I DO value sports, maybe too much. I DO believe that the lessons that kids learn by playing sports can benefit them for a lifetime. I DO believe there is something real about team spirit, something laudatory about doing your best and working hard and playing to win. But there is also a dark side to all of that, just as there is a dark side to everything.

For every coach that teaches her girls that there is no “I” in team, there is another one who points out that there IS an “I” in win. There lies the tension.

Does the fact that the Astros won the World Series this year mean every other team is a bunch of losers? Of course not. Does it mean that Houston is suddenly the best and most important city in the world? Of course not. Does it mean that all of those people who will line the streets today for the big parade have actually accomplished anything that matters in the real world? No. It is fun but it isn’t a whole lot more than that.

Someone once said that people are quick to jump on a band wagon and equally quick to jump off a sinking ship. It’s true. People are fickle that way. Houston is suddenly full of people who might not have watched a single game all year but now cry “I have loved the Astros my whole life and it is the greatest thing in the world to know they are champions!” Fickle.

So it was the Jesus sometimes drew quite the crowds. They came from all around to get the goodies that he promised. Oh, just to see him! Oh, just to touch him!, Oh, just to brush up against his robe! They showed up in droves. They lined the streets. A parade in every town.

But people are fickle. Today they line up to cheer him, hoping to get something good from him. Another day would come when they would line up to mock him, to humiliate him. From band wagon to sinking ship.

Don’t let the crowds fool you. What matters most about Jesus won’t always attract attention nor will it attract much support. But it is the hope of the world.

Let us pray: Gracious Lord, we come to you with our hopes and our hurts. We come to you seeking your wisdom and your guidance. You are our champion, our Savior, our Comforter. You help us make sense of the world. May your eyes be our eyes, may your heart by our heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray.

When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Matthew 14:22-33

For better or worse, for whatever reason, I don’t live with the idea that I have to “prove” Jesus to the world. There was a time when I felt a responsibility to engage in arguments with those who don’t share my faith. A time when I sought to convince people about Jesus. A time when

I felt pressure to “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence.” (1 Peter 3)

Over the years, I have come to a look at all of that from a different perspective. We are not called to “prove” Jesus, we are called to follow Jesus. That is a much healthier, holier, and even more productive, way of being.

If we come at life seeking to “prove” Jesus then our focus will be on the weight of our arguments, our logic, our persuasiveness. We turn the faith into a head game. Our goal would be to convince others to see things differently, to believe things differently, and maybe, in the end, to act differently. The measure of our faithfulness would be the number of people we were able to influence to join the team. We turn the faith into a contest.

When we realize that we don’t need to “prove” Jesus, only to follow him, then the focus shifts from a head game to a way of life. A way of being in the world. A way of thinking about life that changes how we act toward others, how we perceive problems and imagine, and work toward, solutions. We then let God be God as we focus on doing our part as active participants in a community of faith and the new world God is creating in our midst.

As long as Peter thinks it is up to him, he sinks. When he keeps his eyes on Jesus, he walks on water too. As long as the disciples focus on the wind, the waves, and the challenges before them, they are stuck in fear. When they let go and let God, Jesus calms the seas.

This reminds me of a great golf tip I once heard. The teacher said that the goal of golf is not to hit the golf ball, the goal is to get the ball into a cup. So he invited me to set up for a swing and then to think about, to visualize, where I wanted the ball to go. Then, in my swing, rather than focusing on the ball, forcing it to go where I thought it ought to go, I should swing freely, imagining where I wanted the ball to land, and then getting out of the way so it could happen. Imagine my surprise when it actually worked.

Let us pray: Dear Lord, help us keep our eyes on you. In the midst of the chaos and uncertainty, the challenges and the obstacles of our lives, keep our eyes fixed on your presence, your power, your purpose. And when we falter, and when we sink, reach down and take us by the hand. Draw us ever nearer to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.

When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”

They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. Matthew 14:13-21

Can you imagine living in a world without instant communication? For the vast majority of human existence, that is the way it was. People lived their lives with little to no idea of what was happening in the wider world. There are still people who can tell stories about what that felt like.

I’m not that old but I remember life without TV. I remember finally getting a TV but we only got three channels. We had one phone in the house. We had the same telephone number the whole time I grew up. If we weren’t home, we missed the call. If someone else was home, they took the message. If Huntley, Brinkley, or Walter Cronkite said it, it must be true.

But today we are overwhelmed with information. We have voices in our ears from every direction, all clamoring to pitch a story to catch our attention, all talking at us but looking beyond us to the ratings and advertising dollars that keep them high on the hog. And we react to that stuff! Immediately! Viscerally! It moves us!! Well, for a few days…. and then we move on… to the next BIG STORY. It is crazy making. I’m thinking, intentionally crazy making. And right around the corner from crazy making is money making and crazy sells so they keep it coming at us.

Jesus lived in a different day. A different age. News still got around. He got word about what happened to John the Baptist. It was too much. He needed time to process it. He needed what we all need when we’re feeling overwhelmed. He needed to get away for a bit. He went off, by himself, to a deserted place.

When is the last time you did that? When is the last time that you turned off the phone, stepped away from the computer, left the TV screen black, let the newspapers pile up, and found somewhere quiet to just sit. Think. Remember. Pray. Wonder. If Jesus needed time like that, don’t you think it would do us a world of good as well?

But there is a reason why only one of seven days gets to be the Sabbath. Disconnection has its place but life is about connection and engagement. Jesus had his cares and heartaches but so did the world and they couldn’t stay away from each other for long. Pretty soon the crowds found him and they wanted what he had to give.

Here Jesus teaches us two important lessons about life. First, he channels his own pain into a stream of compassion toward the world. He didn’t have to. He could have gone with rage and anger and retribution and violence. But he came out of his time in reflection from a place of compassion.

And second, he teaches us that we all have certain basic needs, the most important of which is each other. The crowds needed teaching and healing but they also needed dinner. Whatever else might be said of this story, in the end, the disciples learning something about what it means to partner with Jesus in feeding the world with what matters. Deserted places become community centers. Hunger becomes satisfied. Scarcity becomes abundance. As my Mom used to say during the best of our meals, “Eat up, there’s more where that came from.”

Ironic, isn’t it? To live in a day with more communication but less community. More information but less transformation. More awareness of need but less willingness to work together to address it.

Maybe we would do well to take more time for reflection.

Let us pray: Come to us, Lord, in our hunger, and feed us with what truly satisfies. Come to us, in our fears, and comfort us with the willingness to befriend our enemies, to love those who challenge us, to see as you see. Come to us in our brokenness with broken bread that unites us. Bring us to that place where we know what it means to have enough. In Jesus’ name. Amen.