I am sure many of you are familiar with the movie Forrest Gump.  If you know the story, you will remember the part where Forrest begins running.  As he runs and runs and runs, a crowd begins to follow him, and the people cannot seem to get enough of what they see as they watch him continue to run.  Then, at one point, Forrest simply decides he is done running and it is time to stop and go home.  When that happens, one person in the perplexed crowd asks, “What will we do?  What will we do?”

What will we do?  This is the question we find in today’s gospel reading.  Today’s gospel passage, the feeding of the 5,000, is the only miracle story found in all four of the gospels.  And, it is found twice in two of the gospels.  So. that means it is quite important and this question is significant.  In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, when faced with the perplexing problem of feeding so many people, the disciples are the ones to ask Jesus the question, “What will we do?”  But, as we read John’s version of this story, we discover there is a major twist in the tale.  In John’s gospel we hear Jesus asking Philip, “What will we do?”

 Jesus has been continually moving through Galilee doing the work of ministry – teaching, speaking words of hope, and healing people.  The crowds begin to follow him around because of the miraculous healings they have seen.  And, in today’s story, 5,000+ people follow him up a mountain wanting to see more of his astonishing healing power.  Jesus surveys the crowd and, already knowing what he is going to do, he is the one who asks Philip this test question, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?  They are hungry.  So, what are we going to do?”  Jesus is the one who asks the disciples and, by extension, asks the likes of each one of us, “What are we going to do?  How are we going to deal with this problem of hunger?”

Hunger is a universal experience.  From the moment we enter this world we are faced with hunger.  Hunger is something we all know and understand.  We all feel it when our bellies are empty.  We all know what that incessant feeling is like when hunger always returns, and our bodies need nourishment.  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once said, “The belly is an ungrateful wretch, it never remembers past favors, it always wants more tomorrow.”  Hunger propels us to that which gives us life, that which we quite literally cannot live without.

Well, when Jesus asks Phillip this question, Philip responds quite logically and rationally.  He begins to calculate how much money they would need to buy supper for all five thousand plus people.  He replies, “Half a year’s paychecks won’t do the trick.  Our budget just is not big enough.  Our resources are just too few.”  However, Jesus knows that conventional, logical answers are not what is needed and called for in this situation.

Then, Andrew looks around, and he does a practical survey of the situation to figure out what is available.  He comes to Jesus saying, “Well, there is someone here, a kid with five barley loaves and a couple of fish.”  The very sensible Andrew tells Jesus that what is available is the lunch of a boy, someone who is not a power broker, someone who has no social rank or standing.  We know this because barley flour is the flour that poor folks used to make their loaves of bread.  The rich did not use barley.  In Andrew’s words we get the sense that real needs are not necessarily filled by the folks to whom we often look for help, those who have much.  And, as John continues to tell this story, it becomes very clear that Jesus himself is the only One who can end real hunger – hunger of every kind, not just the sort of hunger that makes for growling stomachs at lunchtime.  John makes this very clear because in his telling of this story, this miracle takes place near the time of Passover and Jesus, himself, becomes the host of the meal.  Jesus is the one who distributes the food.  In the other gospels, it is the disciples who take up the work of distributing the food, but in John, something else is going on.  Jesus, himself, is the one who feeds the 5,000 plus people.  And, in John’s telling of this story, after Jesus feeds the crowd he tells the disciples, “Gather up the fragments so that nothing is lost.”  This is important.  The Greek word used for lost really means perishing.  Jesus’ real purpose is to keep people from getting lost, from perishing, and to provide nourishment that lasts and keeps us truly alive. 

John’s placement of this story near the time of Passover where Jesus serves as host is very intentional because it is Jesus himself who will become the real food.  In fact, in just a few verses, the verses we will hear in next week’s gospel, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.  Those who come to me will never hunger.”  Jesus is saying, “I am the real food, the most important food.  Don’t spend your lives on food that spoils.  Don’t stock the shelves of your life with perishables.  Put me there instead.  Make me your staple, the food that is going to last.  When you are hungry, reach first for me.” 

I have no doubt that you will experience some form of hunger today.  And, I have no doubt that many of us have a gnawing hunger within that food alone will not fill.  We try to fill that void by shopping and buying more stuff.  We try to fill that hunger through travel.  We try to fill that hunger by striving for success.  We even try to fill that hunger by pushing our kids to achieve extreme success so they can then push their kids to do the same thing – and the cycle spirals on and continues through generations.  We try to fill the emptiness within through a whole variety of addictions, whether it be alcohol, drugs, video games, food, sex, gambling, or whatever. Even those who have more money than anyone else in the world and seem to have everything they could possibly need have this deep hunger.  So, they try to fill that hunger by doing absurd things like compete with the other richest people in the world to fly into space, all for their own personal pleasure.  However, everything we human beings do in our attempts to fill that void within is always, always, always going to leave us empty and starving again. It really is all futile and will never fill the emptiness we feel.

So, I ask each of you, what are you really hungry for?  How are you hungry?  And, how are you trying to fill the emptiness within?  God really cares about your answers to these questions.  God cares about your hunger and God is calling you to Jesus’ table of life where you can feast on this bread called Jesus, a food that is very strange indeed.  It is strange because we consume this Jesus food and take it into ourselves as ordinary bread.  We digest this Jesus food, and it becomes part of us.  But this bread, this life of Jesus, does something that ordinary bread does not do.  You see, when we consume this bread, Jesus begins to consume us.  When we consume the bread at this table, the broken body of Jesus makes us a part of himself.  And, when we consume this bread, we become food for a broken world – we become broken, living loaves of bread. 

People of God, Jesus, the one who became broken and went to the cross out of love for this world, stands before us and he is saying to each one of us, “What are you gonna do?  Feed on me, feed on my very life.  I am the real food that matters, and I am the one who will truly satisfy your hungry heart.  I am more than enough and there is abundance as I give you my very life.  Come and feast on my banquet of life!” 

In June of 1990, I had the privilege of traveling throughout Europe while performing in several countries.  I accompanied the Mona Shores Choir, directed the Handbell Choir, and gave organ recitals in St. Petersburg, in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and The Netherlands.  It was a remarkable experience for which I am deeply grateful. At one point during that tour, we took the ferry from Denmark to what was then East Germany. It was just days before the borders came down. We made our way to Berlin and, while we were in Berlin, the borders that had divided East from West did come down.  During our stay in Berlin, we were also able to chop down our own piece of the infamous Berlin Wall.  My own little chunk of that memorable, insidious, dividing wall now sits on a bookshelf in my kitchen as a reminder of that trip and our historic experience.  When I look at my piece of the Berlin Wall, it reminds me that walls of hostility, whether concrete or metaphoric, are created because of fear and they ultimately divide families, communities, and nations as the Berlin Wall did for so many years.         

When the Berlin Wall came down and when the borders between East and West Germany dissolved, I had so hoped we as a people were entering a new place and time in the history of the world.  However, when we look at the past few years, it seems we cannot learn from history because we now live in a time of epoch wall-building – walls that are seen, unseen, figurative and literal.  And, it seems we always develop such absurd arguments as we attempt to justify our wall building efforts.  We say we build walls because they will keep us safe.  Because we are afraid or in danger.  Because we feel threatened.  Because we have been hurt by others.  Because we are protecting what is ours or what we have.  But guess what, all these justification projects and arguments show no grace, no attempt to understand those considered “other,” and they serve to create divisions and hostility between people.  To move beyond this, to learn to live as builders of the household of God and not builders of dividing walls, we must change the way we look at those we consider “other.”  And, we can learn something about this in all of today’s scripture readings.

In our reading from Jeremiah, the prophet gives us a window into his world, one that can enable us to look out upon our world with clearer insight.  In a nutshell, things are not good in Jeremiah’s world.  The shepherds, the rulers of the land, those in charge of leadership at every level throughout the land, are not shepherding.  The sheep, the people, are scattered and, when the people are scattered, fear and walls of hostility develop.  Shepherds are called to care for and tend the sheep.  However, the rulers, those charged with leading justly and caring for the people, those charged with making sure that no one gets lost, those charged with helping the flock find the green pastures and still waters, those charged with helping the sheep revive their soul and find the right pathway are NOT attending to the sheep.  In fact, they are destroying the sheep.

Through the prophet, Jeremiah, God is addressing not just individuals.  God is addressing the whole nation, most especially those who hold power of any kind at any level.  God is not happy with the state of civic affairs in Israel or Judah.  So, the God of Jeremiah proclaims these words of judgement and hope: “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, oh you shepherds who have not shepherded, I will attend to your evil doings.  Then I, myself, will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.  I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing says the Lord.”  You see, the people were like sheep in need of a loving, caring, justice creating shepherd. After pronouncing words of judgement regarding the evil doings of the leaders, Jeremiah speaks of the righteous Branch who will be raised up, the one who will reign as king and deal wisely and execute justice and righteousness in the land so that Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in safety.  I think we can all look at the past few years of our lives and gain some insight from Jeremiah’s words.

There is just so much in today’s readings and, as always, these readings speak to us and tell us about ourselves.  In Ephesians, we hear words addressing two groups engulfed in hostility, the Jewish people and the Gentiles.  The Gentiles are getting a little too puffed up and the writer of Ephesians reminds them that they were once outsiders looking in.  They were once strangers to the promises of God.  The Greek word used here for outsiders is xenos, as in xenophobia, as in fear of the stranger.  You see, they were once considered aliens, those literally alienated, estranged, from the commonwealth of Israel.  And the Greek word used for this sense of commonwealth is politeia, which is about the administration of civic affairs. (Think back to the administration of civic affairs Jeremiah addresses.)  This word used in Ephesians describes how we structure our society together as people, and it is the same root that gives us the world “politics.”  These stories and our stories are so connected!!  You see, the writer of Ephesians says the Gentiles, who held a lot of power in that society, were once “without hope, without God in the world.”  And, there was hostility, animosity, and enmity between those who were called “the circumcision” and those who were called “the uncircumcision.” With these words we find a little biblical name calling – “the uncircumcision” – the ultimate “not us!”  Now, just think about this. Who are the “not us” today?  Who are the groups in opposition?  Who are the groups engulfed in hostility?  Where are the binary groupings of us vs. them? When we look back at our reading from Jeremiah, there are the sheep and the shepherds. Then and now, we find those at the economic top of the ladder and those who cannot even get on the first rung. There’s management and worker.  Citizen and undocumented.  Black and white.  Men and women.  Gay and straight.  Politician and constituent.  Republican and Democrat. Liberal and Conservative. Urban and rural.  Advocates of gun control and advocates of gun rights.  There are the socially elite and those who do not know what silverware to use when you get past a fork, knife, and spoon. There are Christian, Jew, and Muslim.  There are people of faith and professed atheists.  Quite honestly, we could go on and on.  Doesn’t it kind of make you long for just two – “the circumcision” and “the uncircumcision?”  We can find so many ways to slice and dice the world into “the us” and “the not us,” the us vs. them, and, when we do this, we always continue building dividing walls!  It really can be despairing. 

However, we can only build walls between us and others if that is all we see – someone who is “other.”  That which is not us.  Not-me.  Not-us.  Not-one-of-us.  As long as we define everything and everyone else in the world as not-ours and not-us, we will continue to build dividing walls, create supposed enemies, and throw bombs, both metaphorically and literally.  But, if we can see others as Jesus the Good Shepherd sees all others, if we see with compassion, if our stomachs literally turn over with love for those we see as the Greek word describes Jesus’ compassion in today’s gospel reading, we will not be able to build walls that divide.  If we see the names, the hearts, the lives that struggle as we do, and if we see God’s face in all others, then we cannot make the “other” less than us, less than God’s precious children. You see, they too are God’s precious children!

People of God, yes, we do need to build.  But, instead of building walls that divide, we can build together.  We can build to strengthen lives, build to serve, and build to love others.  The writer of Ephesians tells us, “You are no longer strangers and aliens, you are citizens… and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.” 

People of God, Christ is our peace. Christ has broken down the dividing walls of hostility between us. Live into this truth.

This is special music from the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran church as they sing "I've Got Peace Like a River."

This is a special presentation of Down to the river to pray by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir. 

I was ordained on the evening of Thursday, August 30, 2012, at St. Ansgar Lutheran Church in Portland, ME.  In that same service, I was installed to serve as Associate Pastor to the people of St. Ansgar.  I vividly remember my ordination, and I vividly remember the weight of the questions Bishop Margaret Paine asked me during that service.  When pastors are ordained and then installed to serve in a congregation, they are asked to promise to teach and to preach according to the scriptures and the theological tradition of the Church.  I remember feeling the awesome responsibility communicated in those questions and the gravity of the promises I made.  The congregation is also asked to hold the pastor to those promises and to question the pastor when it is not clear he or she is doing that.  When talking to the congregation about their roll in receiving a newly installed pastor, I like the comments one Assistant to the Bishop often makes.  He says, “At the same time, the congregation is also to remember that it is not the preacher’s calling to tickle our ears with pleasant things we want to hear; it is his or her calling from God, to rightly preach the word of truth – AND to challenge us to grow in our faith and godly actions.”

His words are fitting as we look at today’s readings.  Today, I am not called to tickle your ears with pleasant things you want to hear, but I am called to speak the truth.  And, the truth often calls us to turn around and be open to change that enables us to grow more deeply in our understanding of faith, to be open to being changed and being made new.  

In our Old Testament reading, the prophet Amos was not thinking about changing the world, let alone changing himself, when his life was suddenly changed. God called Amos to leave his family and friends, leave behind his occupation of caring for sycamore trees, and even leave his country, to prophesy to the people of the Northern Kingdom.  Amos was called to speak truth to power, speak against idolatry and social injustice, and call people to live justly and return to a faithful relationship with God.  He was called to warn the people of Israel that they had not met the standards – the plumb line – God had set for them, and consequently they were going to be invaded and destroyed. Now, war and conflict were not something new to the Israelites – but to lose a war, and their country, and independence, was unthinkable. Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, did not like what Amos said, so he created a conspiracy theory and told King Jeroboam that Amos had conspired against the king and the very center of the house of Israel.  Wow!  Isn’t it interesting the way these Bible stories are our stories, even to this day?  Anyway, Amaziah then told Amos to go away and return to his own country.  Amos answered that he was not prophesying because he WANTED TO – he was prophesying because of God’s call, and he was doing what God had asked of him.

God called Amos to address the social injustice in the northern kingdom and call the people to change their ways.  And, in today’s gruesome, grotesque story from Mark’s gospel, we find that God also called John the Baptist to address the injustice present in people’s lives and in the life of King Herod, the reigning Jewish monarch. Through the prophet John, God was calling Herod to turn around, change his ways, and live into a life of faithfulness.  You see, Herod had taken his brother’s wife, Herodias, while she was still married to his own brother, and Herod married her himself. John had been warning Herod that he must change the way he was living – that he must repent and seek forgiveness from God.  Well, this made Herodias livid! She was shocked that Herod would allow someone to say such bad things about him and especially HER – and she wanted John to be killed. Herod on the other hand, was puzzled by John – he did not like what he was told but, at the same time, he was intrigued and wanted to know more. The more he heard, the more Herod was drawn to John and his teachings. However, Herodias ultimately conspired with Herod to have John killed.  Here we have another conspiracy that developed in reaction to truth that was spoken, reaction to John’s words when he had spoken truth to power and privilege.  It is interesting that, when Herod finally had John the Baptist beheaded, “The king was deeply grieved.” It is also interesting that Herod was someone who was truly seeking to know all that John had to say, believing just enough to keep him up at night, but NOT enough to change his way of living.

Both stories today have something in common.  In our story about Amos, we discover nobody wanted to hear him. The priest threw him out of Bethel. The priest threw Amos out of the house of God because the priest did not want to hear the words of truth Amos spoke.  The priest did not want to hear what God had to say, and he did not want to change his way of thinking or his way of living.  And, like the priest of Bethel, Herod and Herodias did not like what John the Baptist said about them either. In what was probably a drunken stupor and rash oath by Herod, with Herodias conspiring and working in the background, John was beheaded because Herod and his wife did not like what they heard, and they were not ABOUT to change. In fact, the very THOUGHT that they might need to change made Herodias extremely angry.

Sometimes WE are not totally happy with ourselves.  We realize that we have “weaknesses” but, for various reasons, do not really make the effort to change. Yet, the truth is that God, out of God’s overwhelming love for us, is always calling us to change, to turn around and turn back to God, to grow more deeply in faith, and to be made new.

There was once a missionary in China whose name was Ellenita Zimmerman.   Ellenita once defined the Gospel this way.  She said, “God loves you just the way you are. AND God loves you too much to let you stay that way.”  Yes, God loves you just the way you are. AND God loves you too much to let you stay that way.

As I remember my ordination and the promises I made and, as I remember the service in which I was installed to be your pastor here at Faith Lutheran Church, I also remember that I am not called to tickle your ears and always simply speak words that make you feel good.  Sometimes, like today, the Bible readings call us to speak and proclaim hard truths. Today’s readings, especially the gospel reading, are difficult to hear. However, they call us to turn back to God. They call us as people to let go of defensive, relationship breaking conspiracy thinking. They call us to hard truth, to be truthful with one another, to share our concerns and to call people to live lives of justice in which we truly love the Lord God with all of our hearts and minds and souls, and we love our NEIGHBORS as ourselves.  That means we are always called to make decisions that always show love and care of neighbor over our own self-interest.  Decisions like getting the Covid vaccine so our neighbor can be protected.  Decisions like probably again wearing a mask as the Delta variant grows and becomes more prevalent.

As we begin to regather, I know we are called to have hearts and minds open to being changed and made new.  And, I am reminded that the Bible, the pastor, and each of us as members of the body of Christ, remind each other of these two basic truths – God loves you all just the way you are, AND, God loves you all too much to let you stay that way!  It is when we open ourselves, when we listen with our hearts as well as our ears, when we want and ALLOW ourselves to change, that we are ultimately transformed into the image of Christ.  And, God loves us so much that God does with us that which is impossible for us to do by ourselves. God makes us NEW creatures - changed and transformed from within. God loves us so much that God will never, ever let us go.  Yes, God loves us that much! Thanks be to God!

I mentioned in last week’s sermon that, while I feel joy as we regather, I am also feeling a certain kind of grief and sadness.  I grieve because I know the church is not going to be what it was pre-Covid. This is proving true across the board for churches of all denominations, not just us. As we begin the process of regathering, I am fully aware that the post-Covid church is going to be different.  And, quite frankly, this change can be seen as a bad thing or a good thing.  This can be seen as a real opportunity for the church.  Just maybe, all the challenges the church now faces present a real opportunity for the church to be reborn, reshaped and made new.  Just maybe, God is calling for faith communities to become truly prophetic, to proclaim and live the gospel good news in fresh and innovative ways!  If that is the case, we need to be open to the change, and ready and willing to face the same challenges all prophets throughout time have faced.  And, as always, today’s readings are life-giving for us in this present moment because they speak of three “prophets” – Ezekiel, Paul, and Jesus.  All three of these men were called to stand up on their feet, prophetically call the people to faithfulness, speak truth to power and privilege, speak a word of warning, speak a word of comfort, and proclaim the good news that God’s life-giving power is breaking in and present in this world.  And, as has happened to all prophets throughout time, all three of these figures faced elements of significant rejection.

In today’s first reading, we hear Ezekiel’s call story. God literally picks Ezekiel up off the ground where he has fallen prostrate because he knows his own unworthiness before God. God then prepares him to speak God’s message to the people of Israel.  That preparation includes warning Ezekiel about rejection as God says, “I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.” One commentator summarizes the Ezekiel reading this way:   

Perhaps the people will listen, but perhaps they will not. Ezekiel has the task of speaking the truth without regard to the response…. Authentic ministry speaks the truth regardless of response. God calls us to faithfulness and obedience, not success.

Yes, faithfulness and obedience, not success.  These are simple guidelines, but…they are so counter-cultural for us because we live in a highly success driven culture. Success is our society’s proof of value, and failure is only forgiven after the fact, that is if we can turn it into a life lesson that empowers our eventual success. Every system in which we function elevates winners, and judges everyone else.  We judge people caught in poverty, we judge the uneducated, those struggling with disabilities or addictions, the unpretty, the unloved.  Our success-addicted culture tells us that, if we cannot rise above and find a way from rags to riches, we are not worth much.  And, friends, it’s not just secular culture that communicates this message. The church has also bought into this idolatry of success and power. Ever since the 4th Century, when Emperor Constantine decided to use Christianity as a unifying tool in his empire-building, the golden calf of Christendom has seduced the religion of Christ-followers with the offer and prospect of power. Over 1600 years have taught us to see power, success, influence, and large gatherings of people as the marks of blessing on our ministries, and – conversely – to see any diminishment of Christianity’s central place of privilege as persecution.  However, friends, followers of Christ, disciples of Jesus, were never promised power! We were never promised favored treatment. We were never promised success.

No, we were told that God chooses to be known in weakness. That what we need is NOT success, but rather grace. Because, as Paul tells us today in our second reading, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) This is the weakness of sometimes having our witness rejected. This is the weakness of the one we follow, this Jesus, the one who hung on a cross.  But, it is in that place of supposed weakness where we truly find the GRACE of God.  Friends, God is not interested in our success because chasing success is the opposite of grace. Success is depending on ourselves to prove our own worth. Grace is about knowing that our worth comes always and only from God.  Grace is not about power, or acclaim, or increasing numbers of people, or “winning” in any of the ways we are taught to think about success. Grace is about knowing the One to whom we belong and receiving the gift of faith that makes God our only benchmark.

This message comes through loud and clear in our gospel reading for today.  The second part of our gospel reading tells us about Jesus sending the disciples out on their first mission assignment to spread the good news. His instructions are very unusual:

Don’t take anything with you – not extra clothes, not food, not money… just a walking stick (because you’ll be doing a lot of walking). You will have to depend on the hospitality of strangers. But don’t take anything that’s not freely given. Some people are going to reject you. They will refuse to take you in or to listen to what you have to say. When that happens, just shake the dust from your feet and move on.

These instructions are NOT very encouraging for beginning disciples!  And, they sound even worse when you consider that they have just witnessed Jesus’ first “failure.”  They sound even worse because the first half of our reading tells us how Jesus, after all the crowd-drawing success in his travels around Galilee, is rejected in his hometown. The people there admit to his amazing deeds of power and his authoritative words of wisdom… but none of this really matters. They know Jesus’ humble beginnings and they get offended by his claims to power and authority. And because their hearts are hard, Jesus cannot do much there. Except for a few healings, he faces major rejection.  And it is after THIS rejection that Jesus decides to send his disciples on a mission to experience some rejection for themselves. I must ask, do any of us who are so focused on success and numbers, see this as a prescription for success and growing the church?  Do we see this as making any sense?  Probably not.

When Jesus sent the disciples on their mission, they were to proclaim a message of repentance. The Greek word for repent in this passage is metanoeo, which literally means “to change one’s mind, to turn around.” This was the message Jesus proclaimed as well. He called the people to repent and believe – to change their minds and trust in the gospel of love and grace – the good news of God’s forgiveness and love. And, with that message in mind, it makes PERFECT sense that Jesus would tell the disciples to go without provision and expect some rejection. You see, they could not preach repentance if they didn’t change their minds first – change their minds about what success looks like. They needed to know the grace that is not about power, or acclaim, growth in numbers, or “winning” in any of the ways we are used to thinking about success. Grace is about knowing the One to whom we belong. Grace is about receiving the faith that is all gift, the grace that makes God the only criterion we need.  The disciples’ mission is not about success. It’s all about grace. It’s about understanding and knowing our true identity as a beloved child of God.

As we begin to regather while facing challenge, we are not competing in this world’s system for measuring success. That’s not our frame of reference. Our identity and our values are grounded in God’s grace. We are loved, and we are called. That’s what it means to be a Christian – a disciple of Christ.  We are loved by a God who does not require us to be successful according to worldly standards, because our worth has never been about what WE do – it has always been about God’s choice to show us grace.  It is about God’s decision to love us while we still were sinners, and to call us to be part of God’s work in this world, with full knowledge that we will sometimes fail. What we are called to do is share God’s GRACE.  Like prophets of old, we are called to stand up on our feet, call the people to faithfulness, speak truth to power and privilege, speak a word of warning, speak a word of comfort, and proclaim the good news that God’s life-giving love is breaking in and present in this world and in people’s lives.  And, yes, we might face rejection. It happened to Jesus, so chances are it will happen to us.  But, that also makes us faithful disciples.