Mama Cats' Bread

Then Jesus took the 5 loaves, and when he had given thanks,

he distributed them to those who were seated;

so also the fish, as much as they wanted.

When they were satisfied, he told his disciples,

“Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”

(from John 6:1-21)

Rev. Dr. Tracy Blackmon tells the story of her “most holy” of Holy Communions.

Dr. Blackmon tells of being fed by Cathy “Mama Cat” Daniels.

Mama Cat had been serving Sunday meals to demonstrators outside the Ferguson Police Department’s headquarters nearly every week since Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014.

In Mama Cat’s words, “These [sic] our mothers, and fathers, and brothers, and sisters, and nieces and nephews.

It’s our people, so when we say black lives matter, we need to know that we need to include every last one.

I can’t sleep at night knowing people is laying out in the cold. I spent the night out here two days before Christmas because you got to understand what they going through. You know? That’s what motivates me to keep on going,” she said.

Feeding these people is a characteristic of God’s presence and grace.

God, by grace, abundantly fed the Israelites manna in the wilderness wandering.

God, by grace, abundantly fed a large crowd from 20 loaves of barley bread through a miracle performed by Elijah.

Jesus, by God’s grace, abundantly fed 5,000 from a boy’s five barley loaves and two fish.

These three stories remind us that Jesus brings abundant life in the middle of dire human circumstances.

The stories are also about Jesus’ power to save.

As God freed the Israelites from slavery to freedom, so Jesus frees us.

As Elijah stood against abusive authority, so Jesus speaks with power and authority.

Our Christian faith tells us that our relationship with Jesus’ life-giving power opens to us that same salvation.

Entering Deserted Places

The apostles gathered around Jesus,

and told him all that they had done and taught.

He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place

all by yourselves and rest a while.”

(From Mark 6:30-34)

Sometimes I just feel like I need a Creemee (Google it) to take me back to the beginning of my pastoral ministry in Vermont.

I feel a need to get grounded as I reflect on the road of my pastoral ministry and where I am still traveling.

Like the disciples, I have worked and taught faithfully in each parish and the Lord’s work in retirement.

I’m experiencing the world in a precarious, ever-changing situation politically, nationally and globally with continuous brutality and new challenges.

Jesus call to the disciples to “come away to a deserted place” seem like just the place to go.

Deserted places are critical places, places to get re-grounded.

Significantly, the Gospel of Mark begins in a deserted place: a wilderness of forty days.

Jesus is baptized in the Jordan, the heavens are opened, the Spirit descends on him and a voice says “You are my Son, the Beloved.”

This is the beginning of Jesus ministry to the broken, oppressed, marginalized people and where Jesus calls disciples to follow.

Here in Mark 6 Jesus in reminds the disciples of who will be there and what is necessary to remember as they build the Kingdom of God.

Come with me to a deserted place, says Jesus, and get grounded on your work.

I could drive 3hr. 30 min. and 202 miles to the nearest Creemee stand to get grounded again.

Grounding, it seems to me, has more to do with reflecting the Gospel’s beginning and Jesus standing with me as I continue building God’s Kingdom.

The Lord Will Speak Peace

Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,

for he will speak peace to his people,

to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.

(from Psalm 83)

Friday, July 12, was a day in which I felt a sense of deep peace gently surrounding me. 

One place was sitting on a bench alongside a quiet pond surrounded by trees a view of nearby mountains with billowing clouds above.

Another was the peaceful singing of Psalms by a small group accompanied by acoustic guitars.

Psalm 85:8–13, portrays the abundant life that God wills for all people in all times and in all places.

Later, into this pastoral scene of deep inner peace burst the exterior scene of violence at a political rally leaving physical and spiritual wounds.

In Psalm 83, the Lord speaks peace to his people by summoning and challenging his people “to look for and pray for” the abundant life that God wills and to work toward that abundant life for all.

The basic challenge is to shape a world where everyone is fed, clothed, and cured. 

That challenge has been around a long time Amos, for example says;

 “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:21-24)

From Matthew comes ‘

 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

There is food enough to feed everyone, yet 10 percent of the world’s population is daily plagued by hunger. 

The first United Nations Millennium Development Goals is to end poverty and hunger, and Psalm 85:8–13, Amos, and Matthew summons us to do precisely that.

Jesus Confronting the Unimaginable

"Jesus took her by the hand and said to her,

'Talitha cum,' which means, 'Little girl, get up!'

And immediately the girl got up

and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age).

At this they were overcome with amazement."

(From Mark 5:21-43)

There’s a song in the musical “Hamilton” called “It’s Quiet Uptown” sung after Alexander and Eliza Hamilton’s firstborn son Philip is killed in a duel.

It begins like this:

There are moments that the words don’t reach
There is suffering too terrible to name

You hold your child as tight as you can
And push away the unimaginable.

 Unimaginable.

That had to be the parent’s feelings sitting by their son’s hospital bed.

He had attempted suicide, it failed, and now he was on life support, his parents facing the hardest, most heartrending decision possible.

I stayed with them, sometimes silently, sometimes in prayer, sometimes offering what felt like inadequate answers to difficult questions.

What do you say to parents with feelings of grief, loss and guilt?

The mother sat there finally saying “My son is dead. Unimaginable.”

There’s a story in Mark about Jairus’s 12-year-old daughter who just died.

Mourners are there expressing the intense grief they all feel.

Everyone hoped for a miracle, that Jesus might show up healing their daughter, but it is too late.

Along with grief, loss and guilt, comes disappointment because she is close the age of marriage.

If only Jesus had been there, she might not have died.

Everyone’s there, Jesus shows up saying, “Talitha, cum,” which means “Little girl, get up.”

Miracles recorded in the Gospels were signs of God’s hope for people facing unimaginable suffering.

The Gospel’s miracle stories plant seeds of hope for people wondering if they are condemned.

But most importantly, the miracle stories tell of hope in Jesus’ power to overcome the unimaginable with the indisputable healing in God’s kingdom.

A Sunday Pilgrimage Song

"As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,

as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

so our eyes look to the Lord our God,

until he has mercy upon us."

(from Psalm 123)

My way of "observing the Sabbath to keep it holy" (Ex.20.8) is by attending church somewhere on Sunday. 

When I am away, I usually locate a nearby United Methodist Church, or occasionally a Baptist, Presbyterian, or Episcopal church to experience the Spirit moving differently within them.

I make this Sunday Pilgrimage out of two needs, the first is by looking to God helps me focus on heaven where God is crowned as creator and ruler over all the earth.

Just as the servant and maid look hopefully to the master for providing, so I look hopefully to God for providing a sign of divine mercy as God completes God’s purposes for the world.

The second need comes from seeing a world filled with contempt by people in authority looking down on those around them.

The arrogant looking at the servants and maids in contempt and only look out for themselves and lack mercy and grace.

Psalm 123 is a Song of Ascents.
A Song of Ascents was used by the ancient Israelites going on a pilgrimage to the temple to worship.

The Songs of Ascents songs they sang as they traveled expressed their faith at a deeper level trusting God’s mercy.

I am at Sunday Worship, I am gathering with other faithful Christians that understand their pilgrimage in life is a gift from God and trust in God’s mercy.