Exodus 16:2-15; Psalm 145:10-21; Ephesians 4:1-16<\/p>\n
John 6:22-35 +++<\/p>\n Homily<\/p>\n \u201cLittle things\u201d in our lives matter. This statement need not contradict another short and important adage, that states, \u201cdon\u2019t sweat the small stuff.\u201d That statement is true, too. But it is also true that, in some ways, \u201clittle things\u201d can really matter.<\/p>\n Years ago, in my first congregation as a pastor, I learned of an important relationship of a father and his daughter. Before I arrived in that parish, the family of three \u2013 Mom, Dad, and the 8-year-old daughter \u2013 unfortunately had broken up, and Mom and Dad divorced. But the dad said, \u201cWherever my daughter is, that\u2019s where I will be. It doesn\u2019t matter in what conditions I have to live or what I have to do for a job: wherever she is, that\u2019s where I will be.\u201d Years later, I was invited back to that congregation for an anniversary, and that daughter was all grown up, graduated from college and law school. In the midst of socializing after the worship service, I recalled to the young woman the words that her dad had said many years before, and I asked, \u201cDid he continue with that commitment as you grew up?\u201d To which she replied, \u201cWhen I was living miles away and in law school, he would drive 3 hours just to come have supper with me, and then turn around a drive back home.\u201d In the grand scheme of things, that\u2019s a \u201clittle thing;\u201d it’s not particularly „heroic“ such as the dad putting his life in grave danger or donating an organ; in a sense, his actions were \u201csmall.\u201d But such deeds and commitment were not <\/em>insignificant!<\/p>\n Many of you have likely heard the story of a whole town without power because there was something wrong at the power plant. The power-plant workers and managers looked and looked and investigated the throughout the power-plant and ran all kinds of diagnostics trying to figure out what the problem was, and they couldn\u2019t solve it. Finally, one of the workers remembered that there was a retired, elderly fellow who worked at the plant years before; he had worked there for many years and was part of the team that built the power plant. Someone exclaimed: \u201cCall him to come look at this thing and see if he<\/em> can figure out what\u2019s wrong!\u201d So, they called him. He came to the power plant and calmly walked around, finally came to a spot, took a screw-driver from the side pocket of his over-all, leaned down, tightened a screw, and everything at the power plant turned back on! It was just one little screw, and just one person, retired, almost forgotten; but both of those relatively \u201clittle\u201d things were so very important. (That story, by the way, often concludes with the retired fellow sending the folks at the power plant a bill \u2013 for $1,000\u2026 $1 for turning the screw, $999 for knowing which screw to turn!)<\/p>\n And there are other \u201clittle things\u201d in our lives that matter\u2026 a favorite baseball glove; a favorite pair of socks; a favorite spatula for cooking; a favorite drinking glass or coffee mug; a favorite pair of shoes; a car; and especially, a pet<\/em>: in the great scheme of things, it is one out of a thousand dogs or cats, but that\u2019s your<\/em> beloved puppy or kitty, who makes a tremendous difference in your quality of life.<\/p>\n At the university where I was campus pastor we had a theology professor who was a „mountain of a man“ \u2013 in height, and in character and personal strength. One of the two times during our 40-year friendship that I ever saw him become emotional was when his long-time colleague, a political science professor, had a heart-attack on campus. The theologian and I accompanied the stricken professor to the ambulance and afterward, my theologian friend said to me: „Every morning I call him on my phone as I drive to work and we talk for about 10 minutes. We don\u2019t socialize after work, we don’t have lunches together; it\u2019s just that: every morning, 10 minutes, on the way to work.\u201d That relatively \u201c<\/strong>little thing\u201d \u2013 a 10 minute daily conversation \u2013 made so much difference in that professor’s life.<\/p>\n A favorite blanket or stuffed animal: I\u2019ve seen 18-year-old college students move into the dorm carrying one. They don\u2019t take them to class or walk around campus with them, but they have them in their room. Is that childish or immature? Some may say so; but maybe it\u2019s something with lots of precious memories attached, similar to a photograph of the family that a military young man or woman wants to have in the pocket even on the battle field.<\/p>\n There are \u201clittle things\u201d in our lives that can really matter\u2026 they may not be important to anybody else, but they matter to us. Other people don\u2019t see \u2013 can\u2019t<\/em> see \u2013 the importance of this \u201csmall, little thing\u201d we think, feel, is precious. But, indeed, to the individual who sees that \u201clittle thing\u201d in a precious way it is loaded with meaning. The meaning attached is enormous; it really matters.<\/p>\n Among Christians, so it is \u2013 can be \u2013 with simple bread\u2026 especially small, \u00a0prepared „wafer-looking“ bread. Just small, simple bread; but to some people, with the eyes of faith, it is loaded with presence and meaning. It is „the bread of life.“<\/p>\n Perhaps some of you know this story about Bishop Oscar Romero, in El Salvador, who was killed by assassins in 1980. During war in El Salvador, military guerrillas had taken over a church and had set-up a military base in it. Bishop Romero showed up at the church to go in to retrieve from the tabernacle the Reserved Sacrament. The soldiers told him he could not go in. Romero responded: „This is a church; I am the bishop; I will go in!“ A soldier blasted the altar area, the candles, art, and the tabernacle, with machine gun fire, and the Reserved Sacrament went flying everywhere around the altar. Romero marched down the center aisle to the chancel, and the soldier opened fire again. Romero got down on his hands and knees and, dodging bullets, gathered up in his hands and arms what some people would call \u201csimple bread,\u201d \u201cwafers,\u201d but to Bishop Romero, to anyone with the eyes of faith, it was something so much, so very much, more: in these little, small things, is the very presence of Christ.<\/p>\n God can be present in very small things. The Bible, and the Church, enable us to say, for sure, particular places where God-in-Christ certainly will be: e.g., in water, bread, and wine. But there are other places where, certainly, God may<\/em> be, even though the Bible doesn\u2019t say so. In the voice of a nurse or physician, comforting a frightened patient in the hospital; in the voice of a school teacher, offering guidance to a confused student. And certainly in the voices and examples of parents and grandparents guiding their children.<\/p>\n Small, little things in our lives, matter. God works that way; he, himself, can come to us in small, seemingly insignificant moments, through small, seemingly insignificant things. In a short while, through things that appear small and simple, we will receive an enormous, immeasurable gift: the very presence of God in Christ, coming to us in small portions of bread and wine.<\/p>\n Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n Pastor Andrew F. Weisner, Ph.D. The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost | August 4, AD 2024 | John 6:22\u201335 | Andrew F. Weisner | Exodus 16:2-15; Psalm 145:10-21; Ephesians 4:1-16 John 6:22-35 22The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,480,845,157,853,108,110,250,349,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-20146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-johannes","category-11-so-n-trinitatis","category-andrew-f-weisner","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-06-chapter-06","category-kasus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20146"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20148,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20146\/revisions\/20148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20146"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=20146"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=20146"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=20146"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=20146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n22<\/sup>The next day the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there. They also saw that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23<\/sup>Then some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24<\/sup>So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25<\/sup>When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, \u201cRabbi, when did you come here?\u201d 26<\/sup>Jesus answered them, \u201cVery truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27<\/sup>Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.\u201d 28<\/sup>Then they said to him, \u201cWhat must we do to perform the works of God?\u201d 29<\/sup>Jesus answered them, \u201cThis is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.\u201d 30<\/sup>So they said to him, \u201cWhat sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31<\/sup>Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, \u2018He gave them bread from heaven to eat.\u2019\u201d 32<\/sup>Then Jesus said to them, \u201cVery truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33<\/sup>For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.\u201d 34<\/sup>They said to him, \u201cSir, give us this bread always.\u201d 35<\/sup>Jesus said to them, \u201cI am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.<\/p>\n
\n
\npastorweisner@gmail.com
\nPastor, New Covenant Lutheran Church
\nMorganton, North Carolina, USA
\nFaculty, North American Lutheran Seminary, Ambridge, PA, USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"