Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

We live in a “collector’s world.” It’s like, even though we’re adults, we never quite grow out of the standard kid’s mentality of always needing to have more for ourselves.

Have you ever watched children play or interact with each other? Of course you have and so have I. This is a typical scene, repeated time and time again. Two children are sitting at a table coloring. Between them they are supposed to be sharing a huge box of crayons, many more crayolas than were ever in a box when I was a kid. Despite the undisputable fact that there are more crayons than either one of them could ever possibly use for their project, one child inevitably throws a fit when the other child tries to reach across the table and take another crayon.

Even though our bodies grow, it sometimes seems that we don’t outgrow that fear that we won’t have enough if others share in our goodness. Our fear, it sometimes seems, is that someone else will get something before us or that someone will get something that we think we should have.

That seems to be what happened that day along the lakeshore [Matthew 14:13-21]. The disciples came to Jesus because they were concerned about the large crowd that had gathered around Jesus. What exactly were they concerned about? They weren’t concerned about crowd control. They weren’t concerned about their own personal safety, or even about Jesus’ safety. They weren’t concerned about possibly infringing upon the privacy of the neighbors. They were concerned about feeding all those people. “Jesus,” said the disciples, “It’s time to send these people away because it’s almost supper and all we have are these five loaves of bread and these two little fish.”

The disciples seemed to be expecting Jesus to say, “You know, guys, you’re right. Quick! Let’s grab that food and eat it ourselves before ‘they’ discover what’s going on.” Instead, what did Jesus say? “Have the people sit down and pass out the food.”

Despite the disciples’ protests of “But, Jesus,” Jesus in that one moment fulfilled the words first expressed through the prophet Isaiah [Isaiah 55:1-5]: “Come, all you who are thirsty. Come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat!”

Jesus’ fulfillment of that prophecy did not just happen at a Galilean lakeside some 2,000 years ago. I know that because the writer of the Book of Hebrews tells us that “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever” [Hebrews 13:8]. The God who originally voiced those words of welcome and invitation through the prophet Isaiah is the same Jesus Who multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish in order to feed 5,000 men plus women and children. And that is the same God Who, through the power of His Holy Spirit continues to desire all people – including those in our 21st Century world – to come unto Him and to receive from His own Hands the ultimate feast without cost and without limit, a Heavenly “all you can eat buffet” of His love.

I’ve had a lot of “down time” this week, time that has given me the opportunity to just sit and think. I’ve thought not just about our own congregation of some 200 people but I have thought a lot about a lot of Christian churches. I’ve had a lot of time to think about the Christian Church spread around our entire world. We have Jesus’ Great Commission to go and to make disciples of all nations. But so many churches, our own congregation included, often fall short in fulfilling that Great Commission. Why is that? That’s the question I’ve had the opportunity to particularly ponder this week.

We really should have an easy task because we have such a wonderful message. We have the message about God’s great love for all people. We have the message proclaimed by the angels: “peace on earth; good will to all” ‘[Luke 2:14]. We have the message about the full and free forgiveness of our every sin because of Jesus’ atoning death and powerful resurrection. There’s no doubt about it – every single Christian church should be scheduling multiple worship services to return thanks to such a wonderful God and find that every one of those services filled to overflowing. When a new, hot, exciting product is released, people line up hours and even days in advance. When a store advertises a good sale, people change their daily schedules to make sure they take advantage of that great sale Why, with an even better message, an even more exciting “product” are so many Christian churches today empty and struggling? It can’t possibly be a problem with the message. God’s got that covered adequately. It’s got to be a problem with the messengers – with you and with me and with all Christians. I’ve thought about that a lot this week.

I believe one contributing issue to this problem might be that we’re too much like the disciples. We’re afraid that if we start passing out the bread and the fish that Jesus gives us, there might not be enough for us. We’re maybe like little kids, afraid that someone else using the crayons might mean that we might be deprived of them ourselves.

But I also believe there is a bigger contributing issue to this problem and that is that we may have lost the passion of St. Paul. In the early days after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, there were overall fewer ears to hear in this world, but there were still plenty of ears, many of which were often captivated to listen about Jesus for hours on end. Despite the fact that he could set up shop just about anywhere and drawn a large crowd himself, St. Paul carried a special, heavy burden on his heart, a special passion [Romans 9:1-5]. That burden, that passion was for his own people, his own brothers, his own flesh and blood. That burden and that passion was for the people of Israel, those originally chosen by God over all the other people in the entire world to be THE recipients of God’s undeserved love. Despite all they had going for them, they, like many others in their world, turned a deaf ear to God as He spoke to them through the Word, Jesus Christ. If St. Paul were living today, he’d might do what the Christian Church often does today and say, “Oh well, I tried,” and move on to another person or, even more likely, just give up trying altogether.

But that’s not what St. Paul did, is it? No, it’s not. That burden never left his heart. His passion for his own people never waned. In fact, I don’t think it would be an understatement to say that burden and passion made St. Paul physically ill at times due to the “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” in his heart. I think he was always trying to reach just one more person. And I believe in his dying moment, he asked God for just one more moment to speak of His love shown to the world in Jesus Christ so that one more person might hear and so that one more person might come to saving faith in Jesus. St. Paul knew that there was MORE THAN ENOUGH of God’s love to go around, that he could give away as much as he possibly could and still find more than ever to give away, and more than enough of God’s love even for himself.

My friends, I ask you today to search your heart as I am searching mine. In that search, pray that the Holy Spirit would sweep from your heart the fear of giving away too much of God’s love. Pray that the Holy Spirit would assure you beyond any doubt that there is MORE THAN ENOUGH of God’s love and forgiveness and peace and joy to go around. Pray also that the Holy Spirit would plant an unquenchable thirst in your heart, a passion not only to speak about Jesus but also an undying burden that those who are nearest and dearest to us would allow the Holy Spirit to bring them to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

“Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for loving us and for loving the entire world that You entered our time and space to carry our sins and suffer our death. Thank You for conquering death, for conquering the devil. Thank You for entrusting the message of Your love to us. Forgive us the times we’ve hoarded that message. Give us the passion of St. Paul to rise and to shine as Your people until every knee bows and every tongue confesses You to be Lord and Master and Savior. In Your power we stand and in Your Name we pray, Amen.”

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena