OPEN YOUR EARS
February 26, 2006
sermon given at Camp Casey for a weekend youth retreat
Last week, I had a long conversation with a born-again Christian. She had a lot of questions for me, and we quickly zeroed in on the big difference between us. For her, Scripture -- the Bible -- is supposed to be the only authority in her life. For me, it's one of several influences.
What is the Bible to you? Does it inform your faith, or is it just words on a page?
Have you ever had a hard time focusing in church? Church is where we hear from the Bible the most. But our minds can wander, and that's especially true when the Bible feels like just words on a page. Your life, though -- that's not words on a page. Your life is where you play out your faith every single day. And if you open your ears to the stories in the Bible, you may actually find them helpful.
The
Gospel story we just heard is a pretty famous one: the Feeding of the Five
Thousand. And you may be tempted to wonder, "Did that really
happen?" Good question. But I'm not sure it's a helpful question.
In the
panel discussion game we played last night, what were the three rules?
1) No hesitation.
2) No deviation.
3) No regurgitation.
So let's think about this. The minute we ask, "Did this story happen?", we open up discussion about whether Jesus could really perform miracles. Well, if Jesus was God, then this miraculous feeding would have been easy for him, right? And if that's the case, then it's no surprise, and there's no amazement in it. But if Jesus was human and did this, it would be like a magic trick. And look at that -- we've broken the rule of deviation. We're not really talking about the story; we're talking around the story.
So forget about whether this really happened. Instead, ask, "What is this story for?" Enter into the Feeding of the Five Thousand.
Why do we tell this story? Not because it belongs on an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. We tell this story because it tells us what God is like in our lives and all the time.
When was the last time you walked into a situation with serious doubts about the outcome? Maybe you weren't even sure about coming here this weekend. You may have thought that not enough of your friends would be here, or that there wouldn't be enough nice weather or fun things to do. If you came late, you may have wondered why you were bothering to come at all.
Well, how did the weekend turn out?
With God, there is always plenty for all -- plenty of fun, friends, food ... everything.
So read the Bible. But don't read it like a schoolbook; read it like a storybook. Then use the other parts of your faith -- tradition and reason, that is, your own experience -- to enter into the story and make it your own!
I tried to explain the "three-legged stool" to my born-again friend: that, as Episcopalians, our faith is informed by Scripture, Tradition, and Reason or Experience. Well, she got the part about Scripture. But she was suspicious of Tradition -- largely because of some anti-Catholic propaganda she'd been exposed to. And Reason or Experience? She just figured that, since we're only human, our own experiences are too limited not to lead us astray. And, in a way, she's right.
But God gave us minds to think, hands to serve, and hearts to love. God wants us to use them -- even when we fail. We learn when we fail. We learn by being part of a church tradition. And we learn when we make the stories in the Bible our own stories, when we let them sink into our hearts and minds.
Let the Feeding of the Five Thousand become a part of who you are. Then, let the abundance of God put you to work. Amen.