Tag Archives: Trust

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on July 26, 2015
Tags: , , , , , , Trust   

Where? — Rev. David J. Schreffler

July 26, 2015
Sunday

“When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.”  John 6:5-10a

“The story of the feeding of the 5000 appears in all four gospels, but only John’s gospel says the loaves and the fishes came from a boy. Like the New Testament widow who put her last two coins in the treasury, like the Old Testament widow who used the last of her meal and oil to make bread for Elijah, this young boy gives all he had. These three people are nameless, yet their acts of faith, trust and generosity are still remembered.” “Thoughts by Pastor Lisa” website March 24, 2011

“Gandhi used the spinning wheel as both physical embodiment and symbol for radical change. Today, the foundation for social justice is healthy food — our “spinning wheel” for the 21st century.” Francisco Ramos Stierle

Jesus said to his disciples “Where…?” Where will the bread come from? Where will the food come from? Where will we find things for all of the needs that we have? Where? Where? Where? The answer for the feeding story comes in the form of the least likely source they could have thought of. Surely an adult, one of the disciples, or even a leader in the Synagogue would have an answer. Why did they not consider someone from the crowd? Because sometimes the most likely answer is right in front of us and we miss it — because it just doesn’t seem possible. But G*d is in the business of doing the impossible — one day’s oil lasting eight days — five loaves and two fish feeding 5000+ people. With all of the things that we do and don’t have, G*d can still work miracles — we just need to be willing to listen, and follow.

Pastor Dave

Unknown's avatar Rev. David J. Schreffler 4:44 am on July 7, 2015
Tags: , Trust   

The Grand Baker — Rev. David J. Schreffler

July 7, 2015

O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
O fear the Lord, you his holy ones,
for those who fear him have no want.
The young lions suffer want and hunger,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 34:8-10

Locally we have a growing experience where local restaurants allow people to gather and taste a sample of their cooking. My wife and I attend one of those events at our local high school. It is a way for the school to raise some money for one of their foundations, and the local restaurants get the opportunity to do some advertising – hands on advertising.

Following a recipe and preparing a meal have some similarities to living our lives. Some of the ingredients of a recipe are not very tasty in and of themselves. For example, would you want to take a spoonful of flour and eat it? Or maybe you would like to open a box of baking soda and take a quick taste – a big mouthful of baking soda. Taking most of the ingredients of a recipe, and taking a taste of each one of them on their own can hardly be considered a wonderful taste experience. But when we mix them all together, when we blend them into a single whole, and then subject it to the cooking process, the result is a wonderful gastronomical experience.

Isn’t this the same when we talk about the recipe of the experiences of our lives? Some of them, when considered on their own, were or are “hard to swallow”. Many of them were not pleasant. And yet, when we look at the process of mixing all of the events of our lives together, they form the wonderful experience of what we call the “singular whole of our lives”. Mixed together are the good with the not so good – the joys with the sorrows – the gains with the losses.

We can not live without tasting the good with the bad. But the Lord allows us to experience all of these, and mixes them into the whole that each one of us calls “our life.” Remember, if you are in a bad place right now, you couldn’t have gotten there without the many joys, the many gifts of G*d. All of our experiences, the good with the bad, the joys with the sorrows, the gains with the losses, all mix together to make you – you — and me – me. The grand baker is G*d, who is the epitome of all good. Taste and see that the Lord is good — it is how we can live our lives in totality, appreciating what the Master is mixing in each one of us.

Pastor Dave