Food for the Body & Food for the Soul

Deuteronomy 8:3 Moses said, “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”

Lord’s Prayer- Give us this day our daily bread…

So much of Thanksgiving revolves around food. I know that we try hard to remind our kids, our friends and everyone that it’s more about being thankful for all kinds of things, not just food. But food is a big part of the day. It’s the visible, tangible, delicious part of expressing our gratitude. We over-indulge in some of the richest foods we ever eat. Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, bread, and don’t even get me started on the deserts. Food for the body.

As we gather with friends, family, neighbors and strangers around this food, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is there with us. He puts the part of the body together in such a way that no one else could. I mean really, look at those who gather at your table. What a strange group of people that God decided could fit together. Sometimes they fit together in odd ways and sometimes we struggle with how they fit, yet there they are. And there, Jesus is among them, as we gather in his name. Food for the soul.

Food for the body and the soul. It all comes from God the Father. I know it may seem simplistic to think along these lines, but it is what it is. It all comes from God. He is the creator of all things. The food that we eat comes from God. But… this all comes with some caution. Because we can forget that the food comes from God and begin to think of the food as god, or of ourselves as god because we either grow, work for or purchase the food. What God has provided, we so easily appropriate as our own. How easily does Thanksgiving become about the menu and what people will think of us, our home, our hospitality and soon, “oh, yeah, it’s about God too.”

God has a reminder to remember in Deuteronomy 8. Why did the Israelites go hungry in the wilderness? Because God wanted it that way. Why? Because they were getting too big for their britches and life became all about them. God, the creator of the universe decided to humble them and remind them of who He is. They went hungry. Now this isn’t to say that all those who go hungry are being humbled by God. Sometimes people go hungry because others don’t share. Sometimes people go hungry because they don’t want to be fed. For the Israelites, they went hungry because God wanted it that way. God was starving their bodies and souls for a reason.

Then comes the manna. Then comes the word. God wants the Israelites to know that all that they have comes from Him, but it’s not enough to simply live in the body. God provides what they need to live in body and soul. Food for the body, manna. Food for the soul, the Word of God. Food for now, manna. Food for eternity, the Word of God. You have to be hungry first to know what it means to be truly fed. He let them be hungry in the body so they could know what it meant to be fed by manna. He let them hunger in their souls so that they would know how He feeds them his life giving word.

Food for the body and for the soul. Our bodies get hungry. Our souls get hungry. In the midst of our indulgence, we are still hungry. Our plates may be overflowing, but our souls are wasting away. They waste away because of our sin, because of our lack of gratitude and it’s into that hunger that God sends His Word. His Word comes in the form of Jesus, and it’s Jesus who feeds our souls. It’s Jesus who gives us forgiveness for those sins and feeds our souls for eternity. We are not god. It’s helpful to remember that. We are children, in the wilderness, unable to fend for ourselves and we need that Word, Jesus, to sustain us.

Jesus is food for our souls. Through the Holy Spirit, he brings us together and nourishes our souls. We are fed, not only for ourselves, but also in order to feed others. God gives us abundantly more than we could ask so that we can share it with those in need. We gather our offerings today so that we can share with Lutheran World Relief. We gathered food for the Food Bank in order to share with our community. It is the working of the Holy Spirit that feeds the soul, giving us the energy necessary to care for the “least of these.”

So, go ahead, eat until your pants don’t fit. God has indeed been good to us and continues to feed us in body and soul. In humble gratitude we gather around a full table, sharing in the lives of those around. In the same manner, we share the abundant blessings of body and soul with those who are in need. For indeed, we do not live on bread alone, or turkey alone, or stuffing alone, or cranberries alone, but always and forever, we live on that which comes from the mouth of the LORD.

Amen.

Desperation

Jeremiah 37:20 “Now hear, please, O my lord the king: let my humble plea come before you and do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, lest I die there.”

Jeremiah’s prayer of desperation. He had been put in prison for prophesying against the king. While in prison, he was horribly mistreated and beaten, then neglected and forgotten. It was a place of darkness, loneliness and pain. “Don’t send me back there.”

Jonah’s prayer of desperation. “When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple.” Jonah was in the belly of the fish, a place of darkness, loneliness, and death. “Save me, dear God, from this place.”

Paul’s prayer of desperation. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul was in the place of darkness in his own body. He was crying out from a place of darkness and war, mind against body, soul against nature. “I want to do the right thing, but I can’t seem to do it.”

Jesus’ prayer of desperation. “ ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” On the cross, Jesus cries out into the darkness, from a place of absolute isolation, excruciating pain. “Where are you Father? Why have you left me here, all alone?”

What is your prayer of desperation? What do you cry out to God when you are in the dark places, whether physically, emotionally, psychologically? Cry out to God. He hears your prayers and knows your state. He promises to hear and answer our prayers, according to His divine will and knowledge. I can’t promise miraculous deliverance. I can promise the assured presence, forgiveness and steadfast love of God, through His son, Jesus, our Lord and through the Holy Spirit. Know that he is there with you, wherever you are. You are not alone.

God, help me!

Fixing the Floor part 3

When you know the floor is creaky and unsafe, you call in an expert to give you an estimate on what it will take to fix the floor. Back in October, we had such an expert come in. His name was Les Stroh. In two short days, he guided us through part of a process to evaluate the floor and find the weak spots. He also helped us to begin the process of restoring the floor, even building a new floor, if that's what it takes.

So together with several people who comprise the leadership of Zion Lutheran Church in Fairbanks, we worked to evaluate the floor, test the weak spots, and imagine a new floor. The new floor has the potential to look fundamentally different than the old floor. It's kind of like replacing carpet with hardwood. Though it may only seem cosmetic, foundationally, these floors are different.

The work has begun and we are beginning to address one of the weakest spots of our floor: Our Core Values. We've never really talked about them, as far as I know. What is it that we truly hold dear here at ZLC? Why do we think God has put us here? Because this spot has been weak for so long, other parts have been weakened as well. We're not sure why we're here, so we're not sure what we should be doing. Since we don't know what we should be doing, we just do stuff. Any stuff, in the hopes that something comes out of all of the doing stuff.

We're not to the doing stuff part of our floor work yet. We're still working on the foundation of the floor. We're rebuilding the joists that hold us up. It's going to take a while, but it's worth the work in the long run. Les Stroh uses the terms "Core Values and Critical Targets". We're addressing the core values. I'll let you know what we come up with and where we go from here.

Calling all carpenters!

God With Us

Jeremiah 23:23 “Am I a God at hand,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?”

Did you know that there are video cameras all over the place keeping watch over the citizens? I don’t say this in order to cause paranoia, but only to help us remember that because of security reasons, we are constantly being monitored. It’s really a strange feeling, knowing that we are being watched.

Some people feel that way about God. They see him as a distant, divine police officer waiting to catch us slipping up. Then, when the day of judgment comes, we’ll sit in a room and he’ll play back all of the tapes. What a sickening feeling! Can you imagine having to relive all of the highlights, lowlights and horrible-lights of your life while God sits there with crossed arms and raised eyebrows?

But that’s not who God is. He is a God-at-hand. This means that he is here and now, as well as then and later. There is no place that you can go that he is not. He’s everywhere. That could be a scary thing, but, for me, it’s extraordinarily comforting. There is no place that God is not. That means wherever I go, He is with me. He’s not with me with a divine checklist like a driver’s ed instructor. He’s with me as a guide and comforter. He is with me as a protector and provider.

He is a God-at-hand. He is a God made flesh. He is a God with us. Immanuel. Jesus. He is a God who knows our every need and has promised to provide daily bread. He is a God who in every way is as human as you and me, yet is without sin. He is a God who died on the cross to be the final sacrifice and He is a God who rose again to life everlasting.

God promises to you and me that when our sins are forgiven, he remembers them no more. He forgives and forgets. So he keeps no record of our sins. Will you sit in a room and watch your life in replay? No, because a life lived is a life lived. God does not keep your sins on tape.

Heavenly Father, what a comfort it is to know that you are at hand. You are not a God who is far away, but one who is right here with us. You showed yourself to us in your son, Jesus. Through his life, death and resurrection, you keep us close to you. In the Holy Spirit, you are nearer to us than we are to ourselves. Thank you for your forgiveness and your promises. In Jesus’ name, amen.