Another good sermon

Another good sermon today. And the timing of it was remarkably perfect for me. It was about stress. And I've been pretty stressed lately. The scripture was the story of the feeding of the 5000. Pastor Rick commented that for a lot of people, the story is about sharing. And how God can multiply the gifts that we have to offer. Like a big Methodist pot luck dinner.

And although I agree that is certainly a legitimate message to take from the story - I appreciated his take on it today. Jesus was tired. His cousin John the Baptizer had just been beheaded. The stress was overwhelming. Jesus wanted to get away to a quiet place. But the crowds followed. They still wanted to hear more of what he had to say - and to be healed physically and spiritually.

After he had preached until evening his disciples came to tell him that it was time to disperse the crowd so that they could go into town and find food for themselves. Jesus just said "you feed them". The disciples reacted in the same way that most of us would "what are you talking about? We don't have the resources for that!"

I've always related to the disciples. They were remarkably dense for folks who were in the presence of Jesus. He told them things in every way possible...stories and illustrations...parables about vineyards and farming and fish. They just didn't get it most of the time. I find that reassuring - because I realize that I just don't get it a lot of the time either. And the disciples were always freaking out! "There's a storm - do something!" "There's a possessed man - do something!" "The people are hungry!"

Well - that time...Jesus beat them to the punch. He said "You do something!" And they freaked out a little more! "All we have is this boy's lunch of loaves and fish..." And so Jesus calmly took control of the situation. He had all the people sit down - and he did something.

I try not to freak out when confronted with the challenges that life brings. And at work, I freak out less than I used to. Just like Jesus - my leader at work will sometimes say "you'll figure it out." I'll try in the future to calmly take control of the situation and sit down - and then do something.

It was a really good sermon. I'm hoping that it will be available online - but I have been informed that we have some small problem with the sound recording from today. Yet one more area that falls under my umbrella of responsibility. But instead of freaking out - I'll work with my team, regroup, troubleshoot...and then do something to fix the problem.

Just like Jesus did.