“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?”
~John 6:9

What are they indeed? What do the gifts we have to offer matter—especially given the width and breadth and height of the challenges we face? A pandemic that rages unequally throughout the world despite highly effective vaccines. Climate change patterns that rage even in wealthy countries. Work-life patterns that seem not to work for anyone at this point in time. And yet we see little momentum toward real change that could help us to recover our human connection and well-being. We face adaptive challenges with no real consensus of how to fix them. We know of other real solutions to real problems but cannot find the will to overcome our division to address them.

It all feels beyond our control. Indeed, it is. But it is not our work to control it. We are the servants. We have other work to do. Who, this day, will we serve? What are our gifts among so many people? Leave that last question to the one says again and again, “Do not be afraid.”​
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Enter into worship. 

We continue to keep our financial commitments to our mission partners and staff. If you are not yet able to join us, thank you for remembering to send in your financial pledges and offerings or donating here. ​

And ​wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
~Mark 6:56
 
Even the fringe…
 
It doesn’t take much when such power and promise is present, does it?
 
Case in point: the event that feuled the frenzy preventing even a few hours off for Jesus and his disciples can be traced back to a singular event—the healing of the tormented man who had previously lived among the dead in Gennesaret. He called himself Legion (Mark 5).
 
Healed by Jesus, he is told to return home to the friends who had come to fear him: “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.” And he does: “he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed” (Mark 5:19-20).
 
Fast forward one chapter. Now the region that couldn’t get rid of Jesus fast enough can’t get enough of him, bringing their sick to him, begging for the healing Jesus provides before he even steps off the boat. Oftentimes the Spirit shows up in places that (at first) scare us, breaking norms and taboos, unsettling our tired assumptions and compromised systems. Yet, where God’s Spirit dwells is good news and healing and hope. What stories do you have to tell? Where do you see the Spirit? Let us go there. Rush to it!
 
Enter into worship. 

We continue to keep our financial commitments to our mission partners and staff. If you are not yet able to join us, thank you for remembering to send in your financial pledges and offerings or donating here. ​

​David danced before the Lord with all his might
~2 Samuel 6:14
 
It wasn’t that [Jacobo] refused to bow to the lust for power; he refused to bow to nonmeaning. He somehow knew that, fragile as our existence may be…there is nevertheless something that has more meaning than the rest
~Foucault’s Pendulum
 
To practice religion is to engage with questions of ultimate power and purpose. The gospel text finds us at a dinner party deep in the inner circles of power. Politicians, military brass, community brokers who have come to this table by virtue of many bartered choices that both empower and now constrain them. Choices have consequences. Some heads are going to roll.  
 
Mark contrasts this supper with others that play a different tune and create a different kind of dance all-together.
 
As we welcome new leaders this Sunday into our always-expanding inner circles, the question of what choices make for the kind of life together we crave, the kind that represents the freedom of a kindom not of this world, but very much in it is very much on the table. Come and dance with us!

We continue to keep our financial commitments to our mission partners and staff. If you are not yet able to join us, thank you for remembering to send in your financial pledges and offerings or donating here. ​

Our King is the best! Even when he is long gone, Israel waited for his return or for someone just like him, for David’s story is a nation-building story. Even when his humanity was present in full force, and Israel saw that he was not a perfect man, the nation of Israel adored him. It doesn’t matter what was the truth; what they believe about him was what was important. Remember, when Israel wanted a king, God reminded them what a king would do. “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: He will take...and take…and take…(1 Samuel 8:10-18).

On one of our biggest “nation-building” days, we might understand this even more than ever. On July 4th, our big day, it may be easy to think of the United States of America as being God’s favorite. But our God is not one to be mocked. Even Jesus could not be “the one” to his own hometown.

No political, social, or economic system is perfect. What we can be thankful for is the idea of forming a “more perfect union” which reminds us that we are not perfect. We can be better. Just as we pray for God’s reign on earth, and confess our own ways that put up roadblocks, it is a time and a day to approach, with as much honesty as we can bear, who we are and to whom we belong. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Come. Let us enter into worship.