The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for Sunday, July 26^th
2Kin 4:42-44
Ps 145:10-18
Eph 3:14-21
Jn 6:1-21

The Shepherd’s Voice

Ollie was about to turn 21. He was told that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all walked on water on their 21st birthdays.

So, on his 21st birthday, Ollie and his good friend Sven headed out to the lake to see what kind of a man Ollie would be. Ollie insisted “If they did it, I can too!” So Ollie and Sven arrived at the lake, rented a boat and rowed out to the middle; Ollie stepped off of the side of the boat … and sure enough he almost drowned.

Furious and somewhat ashamed when Ollie arrived back at the family farm and asked his grandmother for advice. “Grandma, why can I not walk on water like my father,
and his father, and his father before him?”

The granny took Ollie by the hand, looked into his eyes, and said, “Your father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were great men, they were all born in January … you my son were born in July.”

Some things in life can be easily explained. Jesus feeding a large crowd, 5000 in all the text says and walking on water, some not so much. The Sea of Galilee doesn’t freeze.

One of the first things we learned in VBS this past week. When Moses watched a bush burn but not be consumed he knows something is happening here he doesn’t understand. He is afraid, but God said I Will Always be With You. Our opening VBS song tells us when we are swamped by fear, God is always with us.

The disciples did not understand their situation very well. They had gotten into a boat rowed 3 or 4 miles offshore, apparently they didn’t have a very good GPS so they weren’t too sure where they were. But when the waves came up to swamp the boat, Jesus walking on water came near them and they were terrified. It’s not clear if they were terrified by seeing Jesus walk on water of if they were afraid of the rough sea, never-the-less they were afraid.

So the setting is scary, the winds are strong, and the waves are whipping the boat about. The disciples did like we all do when we are afraid, they cried out for help. Jesus arriving on the scene and says, “do not be afraid.”

Jesus not only told them “do not be afraid” when Jesus got there the waves died down. The waves and the storm were very powerful, but God is more powerful still.

You may be struggling with life right now, maybe you’ve lost a job, finances have become difficult, maybe your mate is unhappy with you, or maybe you feel like you don’t have any problems at all. Know that in all circumstances God is always with you and because he is able to quell the storms of life we know God is powerful.

In the first part of our gospel story Jesus sees a large crowd kept following him. The large crowd was coming toward him, they hadn’t eaten and one to the disciples was concerned saying where can we buy food for all these people. Jesus had asked Philip a question about buying food. “He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.”

The story unfolds with the five barley loaves and two fish. Again, the disciples were worried about how were these meager portions going to feed 5,000 people.

Isn’t that story our story? We are afraid because we feel alone, we are in trouble, the winds of life are blowing strong and we don’t have the answers we are looking for or the answer we want. We may not have the answer, but know God does. God is always with us and God is powerful.

Jesus knew what he was going to do to feed the five thousand, the disciples didn’t. When we started talking about this year’s VBS program, I have to say I was skeptical, I was concerned, I was fearful we would not have the volunteers, the children, the money to undertake such a major effort.

Volunteers came, support came, children came, and God blessed the endeavor in a real and meaningful way. God is good and God does what he says he will do.

Paul in his letter to the church at Rome (Romans 8:1-17) said that if we live in the Spirit of God we are blessed by God. He says, “in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” This is all part of having faith to live as God wants us to live.

David the psalmist knew this – (Psalm 8:1) says……
“O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.”
David had an early life of difficulty. There were tragedies, lions would attack the sheep, but God was always with him and God gave him power to overcome all things.

After David became king he sinned by committing adultery (2 Samuel 11:1-15) with Bathsheba and then he had Uriah her husband killed to cover it up. He wanted to ignore his sin yet God would not allow that. The Lord sent the prophet Nathan, he is confronted and he was reminded of the sin. David confessed his sin, he repented, and turned back to the Lord.

David did this because Nathan reminded him that ‘God Gives Us Life!’ God restores our soul, God gives us hope, even after we have sinned and fallen away from God still cares for us.

The last day of our VBS we had the children pretend they were walking through the path God created in the Red sea when the Israelites were being chased by the Egyptians. They discovered God was with them, God was more powerful than the situation, God gave them a path to freedom because God does what he says he will do.

We could have a God that doesn’t care for us, who ignores us, who laughs at us, but we don’t. We have a God whose true character is one with us. Our God is always with us, our God is powerful, Our God does what he says he will do, our God.

Our God gives us life just as he did for the Israelites, for David the king, and Moses. God does this because he cares for us.

God, in the form of Jesus showed the crowd, the 5,000 that he cared for them by providing them with food. He didn’t need to do that, he could have sent them away, but he didn’t.

When the disciples were out on the rough waters of the Sea of Galilee Jesus was there demonstrating God’s power. God’s true character should be obvious to all of us at this point.

• God is always with us – God is omnipresent, transcendent always available, always accessible.
• God is powerful, omnipotent – God can overcome any trouble, any difficulty, any hardship.
• God is trustworthy, always sovereign – God does what he says he will do.
• God gives us life. Jesus calmed the sea, saved the disciples. God saves us. All we need to do is believe and accept God’s redemptive love.
• God is caring. God’s grace unfolds to us in Christ’s love as Christ died and rose again. With out a doubt God wants the best for us. It’s God holiness, God’s caring nature, God’s righteousness that gives us hope in this troubled world.

Does this mean that we won’t ever have any problems in our life in the future, NO! But the good news is that God’s true character always comes through in the end. God is with us, God is powerful, God is trustworthy, and God gives us new life as we daily die to sin and live a new life each day.

Know that today God cares for you let’s life his name on high in all that we do.

Amen

Podcast (audio_feed): Play in new window | Download