Try it and see how it works...

Apologies for using the same illustration at the beginning as last week. It was preached in a different church ! 

Theologians can sometimes seem to over complicate things at times – important as their work is, it sometimes doesn’t help us to get personally closer to God. 

However having said that, there is a parable written by the theologian Soren Kierkegaard  about a community of ducks waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher, and this is one that is pretty easy to understand. 

At the service, the duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly. With these wings there was nowhere the ducks could not go. With those wings they could soar high into the sky. Shouts of "Amen!" were quacked throughout the duck congregation and there was real excitement at the wonderful gifts that God had given them. At the conclusion of the service, the ducks left commenting on the wonderful and amazing message… and then they waddled back home – but they never flew.

Using the gifts of God to the full is not easy – it takes trust and faith and it takes courage. The ducks never saw the full possibilities of flying because they never tried it. 

When I looked at the readings for today I was rather surprised in the gospel to see more about bread (John 6:35,41-51) ! Last week the gospel reading thought about bread in quite a bit of detail, and today with the gospel this point is being really hammered home, as Jesus continues to talk about him being the bread of life, the living bread, the bread which we must eat to inherit eternal life. 

I don’t think for a moment that Jesus was talking about communion here – certainly in the form we have it today, the communion meal was a long way off – he was talking about that need for spiritual refreshment and strengthening, about the need to trust, to have faith, and to exercise courage. 

In the Old Testament we heard an account of Elijah (1 Kings 19:4-8), and it’s a pretty depressed Elijah in the bit that we heard. He has done what he believes to be God’s work, and yet he has found himself chased away fearing for his life. Tired and discouraged he turns to God with a plea to take his life. 

And just as Jesus did when he fed the 5,000 and then fed them spiritually, so God does this with Elijah. Recognising his depression he first allows him to eat, and he provides water to drink, and then encourages him to get up and go on – to go on to Mount Horeb, a sacred place where God had given Moses the laws for the people – like Moses before him, and Jesus after him, Elijah wouldn’t eat or drink for 40 days and 40 nights, but strengthened and sustained by God, he would get to the mountain and from there he would continue God’s work. 

It’s a great lesson in trust and courage for us… Then, we heard from Paul writing to the Ephesians (4:25-5:2). He pleads for unity, he asks that the Church there cast out all of the things that are hurting God, and hurting the members of the Church, and he emphasises the need to concentrate on the characteristics of God, to imitate Jesus himself in our lives. 

In Elijah and in Paul we hear of people who have given up everything to take up what is really important. For them, the bread of life meant a relationship with God, and whatever was called for in that relationship, they would do. Today the Church needs similar commitment and courage – the Church needs the faith to push out and to start to see what God can do…

But in that phrase, I think we have the biggest problem, and that is that too often we judge God’s boundaries and capabilities on our boundaries and capabilities. To see and trust God completely we have to see someone who is bigger than anything or anyone we can ever understand. 

Too often we can recite creeds which talk of a virgin birth, of a miraculous life, of death and resurrection; we can hear stories of miracles done by Jesus and his followers, and forget that these aren’t things of the past, but things that God can do today, and that he can do today using us ! 

After physicist Richard Feynman won a Nobel prize for his work, he visited his old school. While he was there, he asked to look up his records. He was surprised to find that his grades were not as good as he had remembered them. And he was also a little surprised to find out that his IQ was 124, not much above average. Feynman said after that he always assumed that he had a much higher IQ. 

And he then speculated about what he would have achieved if he had known he was really just a bit above average in the IQ department. He wondered if he would even have had the confidence to launch the unique and creative research experiments that would eventually win him the greatest recognition the scientific community can give.  And he concluded that perhaps he wouldn’t – he could have fallen short of his potential just because he would have lacked the confidence to use the gifts he had. 

God gives to each one of us gifts – they may be in all kinds of different things, far too numerous to consider in general, but we must seek them out, to find what God is wanting from us, and we do that through prayer, through Bible study, through fellowship with others who may encourage us or guide us, or simply through seeing opportunities or challenges which are put in front of us, and taking them. 

When people look at the Church in this country today, they often see an institution limited by boundaries so often put there by us, an institution which doesn’t really look as though it believes in miraculous growth – God knows no such boundaries – indeed, as it’s been said before, if we can understand God and his purpose then our God is too small – God knows no limits, no boundaries, and wants to do incredible things through us… 

And it is with that thought in mind that we, as individuals making up the church, can move forward with confidence – we can move forward to our Mount Horeb, a place where we seek and find God’s will, and are strengthened to achieve what he wants us to achieve… We can live in unity, not afraid of differences, but approaching everyone in love – Paul, in that letter to the Ephesians has a couple of lovely phrases. He calls us all to be ‘imitators of God’ and asks us to ‘live in love’… 

And then of course we always have the promises of Jesus who just invites us to come closer to him – to be changed, to become more like him…. 

And when we do these things – move forward with confidence, displaying love for all and trusting in Jesus as our guide and strength we can do incredible things…. 

Going back to the beginning of my sermon today we too are left with a choice in our lives – to be like the ducks as we speak of the wonder of God, of his incredible nature and power, and do nothing about it – or we can choose to see what God does for us and fly ever higher in his service as we enjoy and share his promises forever… AMEN