Morton Presbyterian Church

Although crowds of people followed Jesus at first, almost everyone left him. They didn’t understand him, and they were disappointed that he did not do what they wanted him to do. When he asked the remaining twelve, “Do you want to go away, too?” Peter answered, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of everlasting life.” They chose to stay. In times of pain and uncertainty, when we are dismayed and disappointed with the way things are and even disappointed and angry with God, we can make the same choice: Lord, we don’t understand, but where else can we go but you? Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.

Jesus invites all is disciples to come away and rest a while. We need to do it for our own sake, for Jesus’ sake, and for the sake of the needy crowds that await us.

The power of anger transformed becomes the power of compassion, the power to act creatively and constructively, and the power to persevere in seeking justice.

The infinite love of God is the root of life itself, of our lives, of our life together, and of our faith and how we practice it. The message and manner of Mister Rogers proclaim this enormous love.

Jesus certainly does care about our need for daily Bread, but he offers us something we need even more: the bread of life, which is a connection to the living God who loves us beyond all telling.

Jesus called his disciples to follow him and engage other neighbors. That means actually talking face to face with our neighbors, much as people used to do on their front porches.

It wasn’t just he memory of John the Baptist’s head on a platter that haunted Herod. It was the recognition that God cannot be silenced. God cannot be stopped. God is plotting resurrection.

God’s Holy Spirit is the breath of life. The Spirit is the power behind hopes and dreams. By this power, dry bones and dead communities live. By this power devastated people in exile discover new hope. By this power, the tiny, traumatized community of Jesus’ disciples discovered new hope and a new call. By this power the church hopes, dreams, and lives now.

At his ascension, Christ Jesus stood on wounded feet and raised his wounded hands to bless his people. All of his human experience, scars and all, was taken up into the life of God. He has taken our life into the heart of God, and calls us to take the life of God into our hearts and live it out here. We are his body, his hands and feet here.

Jesus creates a society of friends who are connected to him and to one another through him, like a vine and branches. The society of Jesus’ friends embodies his self-giving love. Friends lay down their lives for one another. This divided, hurting world desperately needs the society of Jesus’ friends.

God is a master gardener who shapes and prunes us to bear good fruit, a life lived with great love, manifest in justice and righteousness. We can cooperate with the gardener by actively clinging to Christ the Vine, and letting Christ’s word shape us.

Jesus is our Good Shepherd, but we are not his only sheep. He has many more that he is seeking to bring into the fold, and they include sheep that have been turned out of other folds.

God loves us all long before we can know or do anything to respond. We are all much-loved children in God’s arms. We love because God loved us first. (Meditation at the baptism of a child.)

Jesus’ hour was at hand. The showdown between Jesus and the authorities was imminent. To illumine the meaning of what was about to happen, Jesus told this parable: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” The way of the seed is Jesus’ way: letting go, being broken open, dying. A great harvest of new life is the result.

While others were caught up in arguing about the situation, the anguished father of a boy with uncontrollable seizures poured out his heart to Jesus. He showed more faith than all the arguers. He even trusted Jesus with his lack of trust. When evil spirits seem to rule the day, and answers to desperate situations aren’t forthcoming, we can follow the father’s lead in raw prayer. We may then be given the wisdom and will to do what we can do. Our inability to do anything in response to the epidemic of gun violence in the United States is a case in point. An evil spirit is driving the violence and paralyzing an effective response.

The experience on the mountain of Transfiguration was a moment of astounding clarity. What Jesus saw and heard gave him confirmation and assurance for the hard journey to the cross. It called his disciples to deeper listening. Moments of clarity like this one help sustain us in times when God’s big picture and our place in it is hard to see.

Although there was still much to do in Capernaum, Jesus led his disciples to neighboring villages as well. He called them to broaden their circle of concern. He also returned to Capernaum and continued his ministry there. His ministry moved in both directions: outward towards the ends of the earth, while still caring for the home folks.

Just when the kingdom of darkness had claimed yet another victim, John the Baptist, Jesus burst in the scene announcing the good news of the invasion of the Kingdom of God. His call was urgent: turn now, trust the good news, and live as citizens of the Kingdom. He quickly added, “Follow me.” The call was urgent then, and it is urgent now. When the shadows fall now, how can we sit on the good news and let the bad news go unanswered?

In the Gospel of Mark our first glimpse of Jesus is not as an infant in a manger, but as a grown man striding deliberately through the wilderness to the Jordan River to join sinners in the waters of baptism. Sinners and all people on the edge were his priority, and remain his priority. He is in solidarity with us.

In scripture God is often imaged as a great farmer of vines. God expects those who work in the vineyard to bring forth the fruits of justice and righteousness, namely wellbeing and what is right for everyone. Jesus revisits the image in parables. In this parable the tenants refuse to produce the fruit. This is a challenge to God’s vineyard workers in every age to listen, learn, repent, and act when God sends messengers to help us bring forth a good harvest of justice and righteousness.