I want to do something a little different today:
And invite any children to come up front with me.

We’re going to go “back to basics.”
Which isn’t just for kids:
But is helpful for all of us: regardless of age to go back to every once in a while.
And what better time, to go back to basics,
Then at a baptism!


Anybody know what kind of sign this is?
What does it mean?

When we see this shape on the side of the road, we know that we need to stop.

That’s what a symbol does.

With one simple shape we create a sign,
And a symbol communicates a specific meaning.

Signs and symbols are really important for us,
Because they help to communicate something that is sometimes hard to understand.

Sometimes its hard for us to put our faith into words,
And so God gives the church important signs to offer to people so that we might know that God loves and forgives us.

In the church, we call these important signs, “sacraments”
They are holy symbols that Jesus gave us to help us recognize God’s action in our lives. 

One sacrament is baptism.
And we are going to experience and celebrate that sacrament today.

In baptism we take a little “bath”
And God cleans us up,
And reminds us how much he loves us.

Another sacrament is communion:
And we’ll experience and celebrate that sacrament today too!

In communion, 
We eat the bread and the wine,
Which are symbols reminding us that Jesus gave his entire life to us.
When we eat the bread and the wine,
We are putting Jesus into our bodies,
So that we might become more like him:
It’s a reminder to us of how much God loves us,
And how much God wants us to love others.

But lets go back to baptism:
The church has lots of symbols for baptism.
One is (of course) water.
And another one is the shell. 
In the early church,
Christians often used a shell to pour water over the heads of people being baptized.

The shell also represents the protection that baptism gives us as we travel through life:
Much like a shell protects creatures in the sea.

Jesus told the first disciples that those who believe and are baptized will be saved.

In other words, Jesus told his followers to use water to symbolize that those who trust in him are washed clean, and are given new life: Forever.

So for us:
Seeing a symbol for water, or the shape of a shell,
Is kind of like seeing a stop sign.

When we see these symbols,
We can stop.
We can think of our baptisms,

And remember how much God loves us.

So today,
I’m inviting everyone to take home a seashell:
As a reminder to you of the symbols that God gives us to recognize and remember his love.
And the seashell is the perfect symbol:
Not just because of it’s relationship to water.

But every single shell is unique.  No two are exactly alike.
Just like us.
Each one of us is unique:
No two are exactly alike:
Yet we are all children of God,
made in God’s image:
And God loves us ALL.

Stop!
And don’t ever forget that.


Dear God, thank you for giving us ways to recognize your love.  Help us to stop and remember that your love cleanses us like water.  Amen. 

​

​May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, Oh
Lord our strength and our redeemer.

Hunger and Satisfaction.
We find this tension in ourselves every single day.

People say that you shouldn’t go to the grocery store when you’re hungry.
You’ll end up buying things that you don’t need.
Things that wont actually satisfy your hunger.

Or: If I go out to dinner:
And eat an appetizer, salad, and the main course meal:
I usually feel worse:
Even if I was REALLY hungry.
When I over-fill: I can’t even function for the rest of the evening.

Shoveling it all in when you’re hungry wont actually satisfy you.
And you’ll just be hungry again…

We have a hard time stopping when we’re satisfied:
When we’re feeling Just right.
We have a hard time just sitting with “enough.”

We meet Jesus in today’s gospel just after he has fed the multitudes.
We pick up right where we left off last week:

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The people were hungry, there was limited food:
And so Jesus turned a few loaves of bread:
And a few fish:
Into enough for thousands to eat.
For thousands to be filled.
There were even baskets full of leftovers.

Everyone had their fill of bread and fish.
They had the pleasure of eating enough.
They supposedly ate until they were satisfied:
Or at least satisfied for a brief time:
They had enough:
For a brief time.

Funny thing about “enough.”
Just what is “enough”?
“Enough” for us humans:
Is rarely enough.
We seem to always want more.

And even for the multitudes:
Enough wasn’t really enough.
Because the people weren’t merely hungry for food:

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The people Jesus had fed wanted a guarantee that they would always have
enough.

Jesus’ provision of plentiful bread seemed to them something they wanted more
of.
They wanted Jesus to continually give them more.
So they pursued him.

They thought if they could have him, they could have bread –
limitless, wonderful, unending bread.
They thought, if they could just find Jesus: they would have enough.
But enough would never be enough:
People will always want more:
Yet not the “real more”
Not the more that will truly and actually satisfy.

Jesus fed hungry people.
He knew that people need to eat.
He told his followers to feed people, real, physical, tangible, nutritious food.
But he also promised that he himself would be enough.

He didn’t want to be just a provider of physical bread.
To do miracles, so that people could eat a lot of food, from a little.
He wants to be our bread –
our sustenance, our nourishment, our daily strength, our source of satisfaction.

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Physical food alone cannot satisfy our whole hunger.
The multitudes thought that they wanted unlimited food and drink:
They searched for Jesus—wanting him to give them more food:
And Jesus redirects their quest:
Telling them what they don’t really want to hear:
Yet it is an extreme word of Hope:

Jesus says: “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the
signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”
Its as if he’s saying: You just want more food: But that will never satisfy you!!

He goes on to say: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that
endures for eternal life.”

The people want the food:
And Jesus redirects them: by giving them himself.
His very self:
The only food that will ever really last:
The only food that will ever really satisfy.
The only food that we ever REALLY need.

Jesus is bread, but he wants to fill the hunger of our hearts and not just our
stomachs.
He wants to fill the gnawing, aching emptiness that we try to fill with lesser
things:

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That emptiness that we try to fill with that appetizer, salad, and full course meal:
Or with junk food on a hungry trip to the grocery story.
Or with money:
Or with big houses:
Or with big churches:
Or with power:
Or with worrying about having enough of anything.

None of those will ever be enough.
None of those will ever satisfy:
They will only possess us.

Jesus invites the multitudes,
And us:
To allow ourselves to fall into the hands of the one for whom we were made:
To be fully satisfied and fed by the only one who can truly feed and satisfy us.

Jesus is daily sustenance.
He is bread to be savored, gathered around.
Bread to inspire thanksgiving, to remind us of the wonder of life, to strengthen us.

We can contemplate him thoughtfully, chewing slowly, pondering:
But we will be satisfied: If we come to him:
Open to whatever he places in our outstretched hands.

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And trusting that whatever He places there:
It will indeed be enough.

As a matter of fact:
The verb used in John’s gospel for believe:
Can also be translated as TRUST.
And I wish we read it as TRUST.

When Jesus urges the multitudes to strive for real satisfaction:
Through believing in God:
He’s also telling them to TRUST.
To TRUST that God is enough.
To TRUST that God alone can satisfy the hunger.
To TRUST that our abundant God has graciously given us everything we need:

And those other things:
That we cling to in hunger:
Are the things that will never satisfy as God does.

Jesus was taken, blessed, and broken.
He is to be shared.
He is enough to satisfy our every hunger:
He IS the bread of life: Whoever comes to him:
Whoever trusts in that truth: Will never be hungry.