Every culture and nation of humans has a ceremony of naming our young.  The name of the child is announced, and introduced to the entire community.  For Christians this may be a baptism ceremony, christening, or dedication, others may call the ceremony something different, but in each case the ceremony is designed to welcome the new child to the community, announce the chosen names, make promises and commitments to the child, as well give opportunity for other adults to take responsibility for assistance in raising the child. Those who help may be godparents, sponsors, an entire congregation, or perhaps an entire village. 

We identify people by using names. Many cultures believe that an individual’s name indicates the type of person one is to be.  Human beings are unique in creation in that we challenge ourselves to be good humans.  We are concerned with whether we are truly living our lives to the greatest extent, and in the greatest way possible.  Many a person reaching the middle of life is challenged with discovering where life has brought them and planning where they may go with the remainder of life.

Another time when names have been traditionally been announced is at marriage.  A new union is formed and often one or both of the individuals in the union decide to change their name to identify with this new union.  Once again, promises and vows are made, and others witness and promise to help in this new relationship.  It is a time of celebration of a new identity as a part of a new kind of relationship. We must work to make sure that recognition of loving partnerships continues to grow.

Our lessons for this week, the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost in the liturgical year tells us stories of naming.  The Old Testament lesson explains how Pharaoh wanted all the males of the descendents of Israel to be killed at birth, however, the midwives disobeyed the evil ruler.  Moses was placed in a basket that was made waterproof and hidden.  Pharaoh’s daughter found the infant floating and adopted him as her own.  She named the child Moses which means “to draw out” because she drew him out of the water. 

As an adult Moses drew his people out of Egypt in a sense.  He intervened and facilitated the rescue of the descendants of Israel from slavery and led them toward the Promised Land.  Moses lived up to his name and fulfilled the plan of God for his life.

Our Gospel lesson this week also involves naming.  In this instance, Jesus asked the disciples who people say that he is.  They responded that some people believe he is Elijah, Jeremiah, or John the Baptist.  It is interesting that all of these people were dead at the time and the people must have believed that he somehow possessed the spirit of these dead prophets, or was somehow identified with what the prophets accomplished.

Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter answered you are Christ, the Son of the living God.  Jesus is often referred to in Scripture with the surname Christ.  Christ means the anointed one.  The nation was looking for someone to come and redeem them from the bondage of Roman rule.  While Christ did not take up political leadership and facilitate Israel being set free from Rome, he did facilitate a new kind of spiritual domain. 

In response to the conversation Jesus reminded Simon of the name he had given him.  Jesus named Peter the rock and said, “Upon this rock, I will build my church.”  Theologians have argued about what this statement means. Does it mean that Peter is the one upon whom the church is built, or is it the declaration that Jesus is the Christ that is the rock upon which the church is built?  There can be no doubt that Peter was a leader of the early church and he contributed greatly to the formation of Christianity.

I doubt that Jesus had anything like the organizations we have today in mind when he made these statements.  The word church means called out ones, or separated ones.  The church is those who are separate from the rest of the world because faith in Christ brings us hope in this life and in the life to come.  It is not membership in an organization or institution.  While organization may be needed to help us structure what we do, Jesus merely wants people to find the hope that comes from faith in Christ. 

There are two primary metaphors used for the church in the New Testament.  One is the Bride of Christ; those who love and are in relationship with Jesus regardless of whether we are male or female.  The second is the Body of Christ.  We are united with Christ and accomplish the task of living the Good News every day so that the whole world can find hope.

Our reading from Romans reminds us to not allow outside influences to dictate our relationship with Christ or how we live our lives.  The Phillips translation of this passage from Romans reads, “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.”  We are not to be conformed to the restraints of the world, which is filled with greed, lust and selfishness.  Instead, we are to live lives of generosity, love and acceptance.  The lesson from Romans calls us to be true to ourselves and to be who we are.  We are challenged to live up to the name of Christian by being true to ourselves, the way God made us to be.  We are not called to be clones or robots.  Instead, God calls the church to be a great diversified wave of humanity who are devoted to Christ’s love and have found the hope that comes from knowing Jesus. 

Moses led the Israelites from slavery.  Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of God.  Peter was the rock to make sure that the good news didn’t die in the first generation.  Christians are people of love and hope who live as God made us.  Each of us is also individually named, that we might be special unique individuals gifted to bring hope to a world that often loses its way. 

Exodus 1:8-2:10

Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20

Henry the Hand wants all of us to know that we should wash our hands.  So does the Mayo Clinic.  A web site called kidshealth.org reports that washing hands is the first line of defense against germs.  Hand washing prevents many common communicable diseases like Strep, e-coli, flu, and Hepatitis A.  Most of us grew up with grandmothers, or some other adult figure telling us to remember to wash our hands often, and especially before meals.

Those who lived in the first century weren’t aware of things like germs and bacteria.  Instead, they had a practice of ceremonial cleansing.  A person was considered to be unclean for multiple reasons, including simply being outside.  This was a religious custom, not a matter of one’s health.  This week’s Gospel reading, for the 14^th Sunday after Pentecost begins in the middle of a dispute Jesus was having with religious leaders over the washing of hands.

They complained that the disciples of Jesus did not wash their hands before eating.  Jesus condemned the religious tradition of hand washing by saying that it is more important to worry about what comes out of our mouths.  “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him unclean, but what comes out of his mouth,” Jesus said.  Christ pointed out that while they required everyone to follow the religious customs of the day they allowed some to curse their parents and not take responsibility for helping them.  Christ was quick to condemn hypocrisy.

It is the words that come from a person’s mouth that reveals what is on the inside of that person.  What we say reveals a great deal about our inner thoughts and feelings.  Our words, and how we use language to exert what ever amount of power we have is extremely important.  While Jesus condemned unhealthy speech, he never actually defined which words are healthy and which are unhealthy.

The Bible provides a good number of examples of times when words can be very unhealthy and harmful.  The Scriptures condemn vain words, irritating words and hasty words along with speech that is irreverent, enticing, flattering, insincere, proud, or malicious.  There are other words that can have a healthy and positive impact.  These are words that are honest, pleasant, appropriate, gracious, inspiring, comforting, and unforgettable. 

The Bible has so much to say about the words that we speak because words are a creative force.  We are told that God spoke the world and all of the cosmos into existence.  The words that we say have an ability to influence responses in others.  Words of comfort and encouragement can sometimes change a difficult situation very quickly.  However, words of anger or malice can have just as much of a detrimental effect.  Diplomats must learn to choose their words wisely in order to make sure that they convey exactly what they intend to convey.

There are some who think that we must be so careful with our words that we say nothing at all.  Fear of offending someone else has often resulted in nothing being accomplished.  While we shouldn’t live our lives trying to offend others, we should also be free to express and challenge ideas whenever they are presented to us.  Without the freedom to confront, we do not grow and develop our thinking.

A great example of the ability to use words in a powerful way is given in the remainder of today’s Gospel lesson.  A woman who was not supposed to speak with a Jewish rabbi dared to challenge him anyway.  Jesus was confronted by a Canaanite woman, one who was not a Jew.  Christ’s understanding of his mission at that time was that he had come to bring the Gospel to the Jews.  The fact that this woman was of a different ancestry than Jesus did not mean that she cared any less for her daughter who was believed to be possessed with a demon.  She loved her daughter so much that she used the power of her words to confront Jesus and ask for a miracle.

Interestingly, Jesus responded to her in a troublesome way.  He ignored her at first.  She didn’t give up, but called out louder for Christ to heal her daughter.  Jesus responded to her with his theological understanding that his ministry was to the Jews and not to her.  He even compared her to a dog.  Rather than be swayed by his response, or even be offended at his words, she made a rational argument on behalf of her daughter.  “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table,” she said. 

Jesus saw her great faith.  He realized that he was limiting the grace of God, and healed the woman’s daughter. 

The church has held that Jesus was fully God and fully man.  This passage of Scripture shows us both sides of Christ.  He was fully God in that he healed the woman’s daughter miraculously.  Yet, he was also fully human and was able to learn and change when needed.  In his humanity, Christ developed a vision that stretched beyond the Jews.  By the end of his life on earth, he was able to tell the disciples to preach the Gospel to the farthest part of the earth.  The Gospel of Christ is for everyone. 

Words can be very important.  It is not always best to be silent.  We must be free to speak up and advocate for ourselves and those we love.  Jesus was able to reach beyond his religious tradition and respond to an outcast; someone who was considered unclean.  He broadened his approach to include more than his previously limited understanding allowed. 

The challenge for believers today is to learn to not be limited to our old traditions and ideas.  We must see beyond our previous theologies and prejudices and reach out to include everyone in the Grace of God’s love.  Loving others can become as automatic as washing our hands.  We can have hope because this brave woman argued with the master and grace prevailed.  We pray the church can learn to be as gracious as Christ.  

Genesis 45:1-15

Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

As parents know, there is no owner’s manual that comes with a child.  The reason parents have to be adaptable is that every child is unique, and they are constantly changing. One technique does not work with different children in the same way, and often doesn’t work with the same child consistently.  Being flexible in how we perceive our children and how we nurture and support them is crucial to any family’s success.

Our Scripture reading from Genesis this thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost shares the account of a father who definitely had problems raising his family.  The Patriarch Jacob had a son when he was older with the wife he loved the best, named Joseph.  Although Jacob is a biblical hero, his family would not pass the litmus test of “traditional family values” many people try to say the Bible narrowly supports.  Jacob had two wives, two slave/mistresses and thirteen children with the various women; talk about a dysfunctional family!

Jacob not only loved his first-born son with Rachel more than all the others, he very freely let it be known to the others that he preferred Joseph.   The story of Joseph is a great drama on par with the great Greek ironies.  Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob.  His story if one of great betrayal and tragedy, and also one filled with ultimate strength of character and irony.   Joseph’s story is one that takes multiple chapters to tell.  It is such a distinguished story that it has been made into motion pictures and a great Broadway musical.

One of the first things we often remember about Joseph is that he was given a robe of many colors.  Actually, the Hebrew is very vague about exactly what type of robe this was.  It has been variously translated as of many colors, of significant ornamentation, and as a robe with sleeves.  One thing we know is that the robe would have been flamboyant and set Joseph apart from the rest of the family.  This was not a robe worn by someone who worked.  It set Joseph apart as wealthy and was most likely perceived by the brothers as an indication that Joseph was to receive the inheritance causing them to be jealous.

Another thing we remember about Joseph was that he was a dreamer.  He dreamed strange dreams.  Since dreams were often seen as messages from God, rather than an expression of internal emotions and stimuli, Joseph shared the dreams with his family.  Interestingly, Joseph never interpreted his own dreams in the Bible narrative.  His father and brothers interpreted the dreams to mean that Joseph would one day rule over his brothers and they would bow down to him.

When he was about seventeen years old Joseph was sent to check on his brothers who were herding the family sheep some distance away. What was Jacob thinking? Here the plot thickens.  When the brothers see him coming they are tempted to kill him to prevent their interpretation of his dreams from coming true.  One of his brothers came up with an alternate plan.  Rather than kill him, they would sell him as a slave.  This way they made some money and didn’t have to kill their brother.  They took his ornamental robe and dipped it in the blood of a goat to show their father that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.

They obviously had no idea what they were doing.  It was through their betrayal that Joseph was taken to Egypt, where he eventually gained power. After Joseph died all of their descendants ended up being slaves to Pharaoh. 

Joseph was betrayed by the people who were supposed to love him.  Being different is not an easy thing to be.  Joseph was an extremely attractive young man.  He wore clothes that were different from his brothers.  He was more domestic than they were and hung around at home a lot.  His brothers perceived the fact that he was different to be privilege. For some reason human beings tend to lash out at those who are different.  If an individual or a minority group is different it is easy for the majority to betray, bully, and abuse those who are the minority.

 This appears to be true so often among adolescents.  Those who are slowly becoming more independent from their parents tend to gather socially with those who are most like themselves.  When someone different is present, rather than try to understand and accept the differences, the pack will frequently become quite cruel.  The memories of growing up being called sissy, queer, faggot, or much worse remain painful throughout our lives.  If the taunting becomes physical, or it is done by those who are supposed to love us, the emotional and spiritual wound can grow deep roots in our psyche. 

The story of Joseph doesn’t end with him being betrayed and sold into slavery.  According to the story, God works through Joseph to literally save the lives of the family that betrayed and failed him so miserably.  Joseph finds the ability to forgive his brothers and they become reconciled.  Yet, there can be no doubt that the scar of past pain reminds us of our wounds and continues to sting throughout our lives.

We however, have a choice as to what we do with the sting of betrayal.  We can allow ourselves to become victims and dependent on the mercy of others, holding on to the hatred of the past.  Or we can become survivors and allow ourselves to be stronger as a result of our past betrayals. 

In our Gospel lesson this week, the disciples are in a boat without Jesus with them and they become afraid.  When Jesus came to them walking on the water, Peter called out for proof that it was Christ by asking to walk on water himself.  Some say it took great faith for Peter to walk on the water.  Perhaps it did.  However, I think it takes more faith to know that God is with us as we go through the hard times of life. 

God was still in that boat with the disciples while the winds beat at their boat and they were afraid of dying.  God was with Joseph when he was taken naked from all that he knew and loved toward a life of slavery and servitude.  God is with us as we face the betrayals of those who should be supportive and know the sting of persecution for being queer.  God has promised to one day wipe away every tear.

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28

Romans 10:5-15
Matthew 14:22-33

Some experts say we are in a recession. Other experts say we are in a depression.  Some will only admit to an economic slowdown.  Still others say it is only a temporary adjustment.  We hear a lot of different words to describe the state of the global economy today.  It is a new day for those who are players in the realm of high finance.  Never before have we experienced the collapse of financial institutions, the number of people losing their homes to foreclosure, the devaluing of the American dollar and the high cost of oil and transportation all at the same time. 

No matter what we call it, and regardless of the reason, more people are losing their homes, and more people are having trouble buying food than we have had in the recent past.  I watched recently as a large red truck pulled into a gas station in front of me. We were both there to but gas. The owner went into the store and purchased a gallon of milk.  He had a little over a dollar left in his pocket after buying the milk, and he asked for that to be credited to the gas pump.  I wondered whether a dollar’s worth of gas would have actually got him home with his milk.

For those of us in relationships that are unfairly not recognized by the government we have extra tax burdens to add to the stressors, along with concerns about whether our spouses will be able make use of the resources we have collected together if something should happen to one of us.  A medical doctor I know planned to retire this year, but says he has had to put his retirement on hold until the market turns around and he regains some of the losses he has experienced over the past year.  Often, our best made plans can easily have to be abandoned because circumstances change.

In contrast to economic failure, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jo Leigh auctioned off the pictures of their newborn twins to a magazine for between ten and fifteen million dollars this week.  To the couple’s credit, the last time they sold baby pictures for 5 million, they gave the money to charity.  They report they will do the same with the money from this auction.  Mr. Pitt’s efforts with a project called “Make it Right” to help rebuild the lower ninth ward of New Orleans after the floods of Hurricane Katrina show that he has good intentions and plans to help others.

Into this strange economic time we are confronted with the story from today’s Gospel lesson for the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost.  Matthew records the story of a large crowd of people who have been so excited about the teaching of Jesus that they have followed him to the wilderness.  Matthew places this story right after the beheading of John the Baptist, and reports that Jesus went across the Lake to a region not governed by Herod to pray, but ended up healing the sick and teaching the Good News.  The large crowd of five thousand men, and perhaps many more women and children were so excited that they followed him without concern for how they were to eat that day.

The disciples asked Jesus to send the people away so that they could fend for themselves and perhaps go find something to eat.  Instead, Jesus told the disciples to feed them.  “But we only have five loaves of bread and two fish.” they argued.  Surely, this would not be enough to feed so many people.  Yet, Jesus blessed the food and told them to sit down in groups and start passing out the food.  Once everyone had eaten, not only were the people full, but there were twelve baskets of pieces of bread left over. 

Where did all that food come from?  The answer to this question is one that theologians and ministers have attempted to answer ever since the Gospels were written.  There are four predominant ideas used to interpret the feeding of the crowd. 

The first perspective is to simply recognize that a miraculous event happened in the life of Christ where at least one huge crowd was fed through a supernatural intervention of God.  While it cannot be explained rationally, the bread somehow expanded to the point that everyone was able to have all they wanted and there was plenty left over afterward.  The actual quantity of food was miraculously multiplied.

A second perspective is that this was a sacramental event that Jesus planned for.  There was enough bread for everyone to begin with, and this was a public act of communion that preceded the last Supper in Jerusalem, where Jesus blessed the bread and wine for the disciples as his body and blood.  It was a spiritual participation in the giving of the body of Christ for everyone. The miracle was the sacramental nature of communion and connection with Christ and one another.

A third perspective of this event takes a more rational approach.  Most of the people had planned a journey and brought food along.  It would not have been unusual for those going out into the desert to take some bread and dried fish or figs along for the trip.  The miracle is that the people became unselfish and shared with one another following Christ’s example. As Jesus and the disciples were wiling to give their food away, so others began to give of what they had and the total quantity was more than enough for everyone to eat and be satisfied.

A fourth perspective is that this event is symbolic of Christ’s work as a whole.  In human destitution, God provides for everyone’s needs in abundance.  In this perspective it is irrelevant whether the event actually took place, what is important is to recognize the Christ message in the story.  That God redeems, satisfies, and provides abundance for humanity.

These are stressful times.  The future is uncertain.  While many people continue to have great abundance, many more are concerned about their homes, livelihoods, and sometimes even whether there will be enough nutritious food to meet the need.   May we be reminded from the story of the feeding of the crowds that God is our true source!  The sustenance and abundance that we have is because of God’s wonderful design.  We can remind ourselves that our hope is in God.  Markets may fail, we may have to endure consequences of our very human mistakes, but God is the source.  Our hope and our trust must first be placed in the security of knowing that God provides, satisfies the need, and even brings abundance.  Those of us who have more than we need, have a responsibility to share as we are able to help meet the needs of those less fortunate. 

Genesis 32:22-31
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21