One Faith, Many Gifts

In our Second Lesson today and the Gospel from last Sunday and the follow up conversation we hear in the Gospel today, we have some of the most memorable passages in scripture.

Over the generations, we have returned again and again to ponder and marvel at Paul's words....one Lord, one faith, one Baptism...as a primary text pointing to Christian unity, and to the feeding of the 5,000 as the model story of how Jesus gives us good gifts.

This morning we see and hear how the Good News in the one passage flows into and supports the Good News of the other passage.

We'll say it this way:

There is one faith and many gifts.

There are many gifts with one objective.

The one objective involves many people.

The many people are called by the one Lord, who offers us many opportunities.

One faith, objective, and Lord.

Many gifts, people, and opportunities.

Paul means to be clear.

There is one faith, not different ones taught by each evangelist that comes down the road.

There can be different approaches to talking about the faith,

speakers can say things that are simply wrong,

there can be misunderstandings of all sorts,

but there is only one faith and one Lord.

The one Lord is the source of many gifts, different for the varying persons and situations.

It is a gift that some persons are apostles, other are evangelists, and some are pastors and teachers, as Paul says.

Two weeks ago we heard Jesus having compassion on the crowd that followed him around the lake-shore area of Galilee, so that he gave them the gift of knowledge and understanding.

For they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he taught them many things.

And last Sunday we heard of the other gifts that Jesus gave, bread and fish, that he multiplied from a boy's lunch into more than enough for all.

He knows that the people need not only spiritual food of his teaching, but also food for the body, so that they do not grow faint.

The miracle here is the miracle of creation – that causes all this is to exist.

In this case it happens faster than is the usual manner of things, but fast or slow, the miracle of creation is still God in action, giving good gifts to his people in need.

How many gifts? --more than we can count.

Several weeks ago when Katy and family and Spanish friend Adriana were here, we were up to visit Sean in Wellsboro, and took a car out to the Grand Canyon of PA.

It is one thing to hear about the place, but is one satisfied with just that?

Then after the 8-mile ride over hill and dale, one arrives at the parking lot and sees the entrance gateway.

Are we satisfied with getting that far?

On the basis of the experience to this point, are we able to predict exactly what lies beyond?

No, it is a very different thing to finally step onto the viewing platforms and see for oneself the beauty and the scope of that valley.

The stories that have been told may have been enticing, the photographs may have been intriguing, but they are very different gifts than the culmination of all of the gifts in the experience of actually being there.

Catching the connection?

There is one faith but many gifts within that one faith, only some of which we know now, and some that will only be revealed to us in the fullness of time.

Paul also wants to be clear that there is a single objective for all of these gifts:

...building up the body of Christ until all of us come to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God...

All of God's gifts,

from the rising of the sun to its setting,

from our first breath at birth until our last,

all of them have this objective of bringing together all of humanity to acknowledge the lordship of Christ Jesus.

And it will finally all be put together when we come face to face with the glory of God in the fullness of heaven.

The preparatory stories are nice,

the snapshots we have in Holy Communion are very helpful, but they cannot take the place of the full experience that awaits us in the fully revealed presence of God.

That is no great surprise to anyone in the church.

We've known that all along.

The problem is that we get stuck when we try to live that way.

We get wrapped up in ourselves and our own little problems and have great difficulty remembering that God constitutes the center of the universe, and not we ourselves.

There are lots of hucksters out there who want us to feel good all alone, and think that the present moment is all that matters.

Here is one such hucksterer, by the name of John E. Bradshaw:

I came into this world for me.

I am unique.

I am wonderful.

I shall be myself.

I love me because I am so eminently loveable.

The message is clear: the only thing wrong is when we think there is something wrong with ourselves.

That attitude is about as far away from what our lessons are saying as is imaginable.

John Bradshaw wouldn't want to talk about God's gifts, but rather about his own feelings of the moment and his rights.

Christians must simply reject his approach, because Jesus' objective of gathering all peoples around himself is not centered on John Bradshaw but on the Christ Jesus who calls a great many people to work and to worship now and to all time to come.

Bradshaw of course has to have a crowd, but unlike a Christian, his constant subject is himself.

His god is himself, with the adoring crowd taking the place of the chorus of heaven.

There is room for only one Lord, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and at length, that will be made known.

The First Commandment is still First in the list and first in importance: I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other.

And that brings us to another step in the path for today.

The one Lord provides for us many opportunities.

He does not just give good gifts to us, he also gives them through us.

We can become so busy in thinking how richly God has blessed us that we tend not to ask the next question: “What shall we do with these blessings that we have received?”

There are clues in last week's portion and another in today's reading.

After everyone had enough to eat, the disciples were instructed to pick up the remaining amount.

How much was there? 12 baskets!

Did Jesus goof and create too much by accident? No.

He gave them an opportunity to do something with the rest of his gift of food.

Scripture doesn't tell us; we can only hope that they caught on, and shared those 12 baskets of bread pieces widely, so that nothing was wasted.

Symbolically, Jesus intends it for the whole people, all 12 tribes, but the decisions of how, and where, and when it shall be shared he leaves to the disciples to work out.

Jesus gives the gift, and the opportunity. What will they do with the bread in their hands?

In the verses we read today Jesus says

“I am the bread of life. Whoever believes in me will never be hungry....”

This is a matter of not only hands but also of heart and head.

Where do we put our trust?

Where will we feel confident to drive in our tent peg, trusting that it will hold when the harsh winds blow?

The Bible leaves open these challenges to heart and head and hands, and they are open for us, also.

To God belongs the miracle of creation.

To us is given the responsibility of trusting God's promises

To us is given also the task of proclaiming his promises and sharing his gifts for the body and the spirit,

Those who receive the gifts through us

may see them as life-giving miracles.

What shall each of us do individually?

What shall we do together?

Too often folks throw up their hands and say that they can't do anything.

The other day I was serving as vacation substitute for the Shepherd of the Streets.

[A 2-hour shift is quite enough!]

A poor man came in needing $2 for a co-pay for a prescription.

As I talked with him, he described a bizarre illness I have never encountered, and the doctors gave him 5 years to live and he is at the end of the 4^th year.

We talked and prayed.

It would be easy for him to feel useless.

I asked him why he thought he was still around, and what his job was today.

“To get those pills,” he replied.

“Oh, much more than that,” I said, “your job today is to teach me about this strange disease and help me pray with you about it. Today you're an educator and prayer leader.”

And this poor, sick man's face crinkled up and he laughed and straightened a bit as he left with his $2 co-pay, for he had served his Lord when he thought he had nothing and could do nothing.

Long ago Jesus used 5 loaves and 2 fish to work wonders for many.

What will he use in our lives today?

With opened heart and opened hands, we'll find out. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.