Episode Transcript
Hello friends and welcome to this week's episode of Gertz and the Gospel.
My name is Reverend Katie Griffiths and it is good to be with you today on this ninth
Sunday after Pentecost.
I tried my best to wait for a time when the kitten would be subdued and I'm beginning
to think that that's never going to happen again.
So we're going to try this today.
Baby is a delight and a joy and so much fun to watch, but she's also a menace.
And so we around here, the dogs and I just do the best we can until she grows up a
little and decides to calm down.
In the meantime, it's just wild and woolly around here.
So we will see how this goes.
I appreciate your patience, your kindness and your understanding for all of God's
creatures and for my very last nerve.
Let us come together now in a time of worship.
The Lord be with you and also with you.
Today's lesson from the epistle is from the book, the letter to the Ephesians.
The third chapter, verses 14 through 21, hear now the word of the Lord.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and
on earth takes its name.
I pray that according to the riches of his glory he may grant that you may be
strengthened in your inner being with power through his spirit and that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
I pray that you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is
the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ
that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly
far more than all we can ask or imagine.
To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.
Amen.
Thus ends the first reading of the prayer to the people of Ephesus.
Let us come together now and remind ourselves of those things of our faith that bring us abundant life.
Friends, what do we believe?
I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried.
The third day he rose from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Amen.
Let us pray together.
Dear Lord, make us vessels that overflow with your abundance, abundance of love,
abundance of grace, abundance of light and joy.
Let us live lives that are brave and fearless so that we can be your vessels to all who
witness your love in us.
Hear us now as we pray those words that your Son taught us to pray.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the
kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
Today's gospel lesson is from the gospel according to Matthew the 14th chapter
verses 13 through 21.
Hear now the story of the feeding of the 5,000.
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by
himself.
But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion for them and cured
their sick.
When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, this is a deserted
place and the hour is now late.
Send the crowds away so they may go into the villages and buy food for
themselves.
And Jesus said to them, they need not go away.
You give them something to eat.
They replied, we have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.
And he said, bring them here to me.
Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, taking the five loaves
and the two fish.
He looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to
the disciples.
And the disciples gave them to the crowds and all eight and were filled.
And they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, 12 baskets full.
And those who ate were about 5,000 men besides women and children.
The word of the Lord, for us, the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Would you pray with me?
To Lord, as we come to you to ponder and to think about and to be thankful
for the abundance that you show us in this world and in our own lives, we
give you thanks.
Let the words of my mouth and meditation of all of our hearts be
acceptable in thy sight, oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.
Amen.
Born in France in 1903, Anais Nen eventually became a dual citizen of the
U.S.
She is known for her essays and novels, among many other things, and
here are some of her ideas of the creation of art.
You have not yet discovered that you have a lot to give and that the more
you give, the more riches you will find in yourself.
It amazed me that you felt that each time you write a story, you gave it
away, you gave away one of your dreams, and you felt the poorer for it.
But then you have not thought that this dream is planted in others.
Others begin to live it too.
It is shared.
It is the beginning of friendship and love.
You must not fear, hold back.
Count or be a miser with your thoughts and feelings.
It is also true that creation comes from an overflow.
So you have to learn to intake, to imbibe, to nourish yourself, and not
be afraid of fullness.
The fullness is like a tidal wave which then carries you, sweeps you
into experience.
It is the way that you are.
It is the way that you are.
It is the way that you are.
It is the way that you are.
It is the way that you are.
It is the way that you are.
It is the way that your spirit carries you, sweeps you into experience
and into writing.
Permit yourself to flow and overflow.
Allow for the rise in temperature, all of the expansions
and intensifications.
Something is always born of excess.
When I think of the abundance of what God accomplishes in us,
which Paul speaks of in his letter to the Ephesians,
I cannot help but picture in my mind's eye an overflowing clay jar.
That same idea that Anais Nin speaks of in her writings.
Those verses 18 through 21 are so important for us personally, for the church,
and even for educators and students that we will be celebrating on Sunday in our congregation
as they start a new school year. Remember what was read earlier,
I pray that you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints that is the breadth and length
and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now, to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more
than all we can ask or imagine. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations
forever and ever. That idea that love and knowledge and can I add beauty and art
should be seen in the world as overflowing from us.
But it starts with filling our own jars. It starts with God's love and understanding
being full in each of us. It begins with each of us having a full relationship with
God before we can begin to overflow. It takes a lot of forms in my own life.
It takes finding Sabbath and rest to fill my own vessel. It takes a good therapist
so that I can work on filling the cracks that leak from my own clay jar before I
can even begin to think of helping anyone else. It is a good reminder none of us can do this
alone. We have to have faith and help and for me a team of people helping me
before we can be whole enough to be a vessel for God's abundance.
It is not the cracks that cause the real harm. Everyone has cracks.
It is neglecting those small cracks in our jars that can cause them to break apart altogether.
It takes God working within us to make us whole and bring us abundance.
God helps with resources and prayer and love for each of us to be ready to hold the abundance
far beyond anything we can dream of ourselves. We can see it in a lot of the things
we've been talking about these past few months. God inspired John Wesley to his ideas of grace.
The idea that God is there from the very beginning for each of us to help fill us up
and love us and show us abundant grace that we don't have to ask for or earn.
God has shown us his power and might in the Zephaniah text when he is our warrior and
protects us from the things that try to destroy our fragile jars. God gives us the beauty of
nature to help inspire and fill us with joy like the trees clapping in Isaiah.
And even 1st Timothy can show us the things that can come and crack us into pieces from
within the church. Things that people use as weapons that were never meant to harm generations.
And notice Paul does say in this passage that it is the abundance and the glorious
accomplishments and a Christ-centered church that he wants to go on for generations,
not harm and destruction. I think one of the things that spoke to me most about the essay
from Nin is that idea that we cannot let fear hold us back from the abundance life can bring.
We cannot be afraid to step out and try new things. We cannot be afraid to see
opportunities to live into that abundance that God puts in front of us. And sometimes
that takes a big leap of faith. It takes believing God is doing good work in and
through us to do the different or hard things. My congregation is about to celebrate their second
year of existence and I can't help but think how much belief and courage it took to do the
abundant thing that you can hardly even imagine at the time. We can let fear stop us from
doing things differently in the community that we are called to. People let fear of the
different and unknown stop them from being that abundance that God calls us to be as a church
and as a believer. We've all heard it around town. I've talked about it before. We are
criticized by the neighbors that are supposed to love us for a lot of different reasons.
Because we're welcoming to everyone. Because we are a missional church. That one still
confuses me. Because we dare to have a woman preach. Because we help our neighbors and
partners with people across lines of race and denominations. But God wants us to do all of
those things. He wants his abundance to be something that people can see through us.
She wants us to be filled with her love and have a beautiful relationship with her
so that others can find ways to do the same. He wants the other to be filled with
him. He wants the others to feel like they are not. And those ideas and ways of being a
congregation are not always popular. And it's usually because of fear. Fear of the unknown.
Fear of doing something different. Fear of making yourself an other by being loving to
the wrong kind of other. I love the way Nen phrases it.
You must not fear, hold back, count, or be a miser with your thoughts and feelings.
It is also true that creation comes from an overflow. So you have to learn to intake,
to imbibe, to nourish yourself and not be afraid of fullness. And if I could take some
license with her idea, nourish yourself so God can create from your overflow.
Something is always born of excess. We will be having our back to school blessing today.
Starting a new school year can be exciting and full of possibilities and even a little scary.
New classes, new teachers, new routines. And for the kindergarten teachers, fear of the
tiny humans. Or at least it would be for me. But any fear of the new and different
should be washed away with the overflow of excitement for knowledge and abundance
of experiences and growing and filling your jars to overflowing. I love the Matthew
passage we read today. In the familiar story of the loaves and fishes, Jesus gives us
a miraculous example of what it can look like when we let God fill us to abundance.
The end of the passage says this. And all ate and were filled and they took up what was
left over of the broken pieces. Twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about 5,000 men
besides women and children. Oh Matthew, with five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus fed 5,000
men. And that is miracle enough if you've ever tried to feed a man. But it's really much more
than that. Besides the women and children could easily double if not triple that number.
And after all of those people were fed, there were leftovers.
Twelve baskets full and don't you wonder what they did with all of the extra. Don't you hope that
someone in the crowd, probably one of the mothers, suggested that they take the leftovers,
make casseroles, and feed the poor in town. Abundance overflows and reaches far beyond
our imaginations. Do you think that small boy who gave Jesus the five loaves and two fish
would have ever imagined that we would still be inspired by his story? Do you think that the
people who received the nourishment of the 12 leftover basket casseroles would have imagined
that God would have provided for them that day? Do you think the disciples would have imagined
that when they fed the five, all of those people, more than 5,000, there would be enough
to go around? Do you think they saw the lesson that Jesus was teaching them?
One that was far beyond food? There is always enough. There is always abundance, not just
with food, but with love and kindness and grace, Nen says. But then you have not thought this
dream is planted in others. Others begin to live it too. It is shared. It is the beginning
of friendship and love. We just have to be brave enough to take care of our own vessels.
We have to be brave enough to do the right thing, even if it is not the believable or
the popular thing. We have to be brave enough to show others what friendship and the love
of God look like. And if we can be brave, God will take what we have and make it abundant
beyond our wildest imagination and make enough for everyone to have overflowing vessels
when she is done. Amen. As you go throughout this week, first of all, be in prayer for
all those students and teachers and staff members and administrators and custodians
that will be starting this school year. That their abundance will be clear,
their knowledge and love and kindness and laughter and joy will overflow. And then
go take it out into the community so that God can do amazing and unimaginable things.
Because in life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
