Eyewitnesses to God’s Faithfulness

Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

We've got a lot of moving parts tonight. Everybody. Um, our new members, we’ve got worship. We've got an annual meeting that's a little bit earlier than we normally have it. So we're all, um, we've been all doing a little bit of scrambling. I think we got this, right? What did you say on your text day, Maggie? Together we got this. Kind of our team motto these days. Together we got this.

But hey, we are continuing in the book of Mark and I am going to keep it tight and go quick tonight because of the annual meeting, but also there's a lot of text. So hang in there with me because this will mean something. This will matter. I promise you.

We're in Mark 8. We're going to start in verses 1-10: In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and he said to them, I have compassion for the crowd because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat if I send them away. Hungry to their homes though faint on the way. And some of them have come from a great distance.

His disciples replied, how can one feed these people with bread here in the desert? He asked them, how many loaves do you have? They said seven.

And he ordered the crowd to sit on the ground and he took the seven loaves. And after giving thanks, he broke them and he gave them to the disciples to distribute and they distributed them to the crowd. He also had a few small fish and after blessing them, he ordered that these two should be distributed. They ate filled and they took up the broken pieces left over seven baskets full and now there were about 4,000 people and he sent them away and immediately he got into the boat with the disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha.

Well this is a familiar story, right? Two more loaves, a thousand less people, a longer timeline, and five fewer baskets left. We have heard this story before, just two chapters ago, which probably made it a few months ago when Jesus fed the 5,000 similar but different. The difference is the length of time that the crowd was there. This crowd was there for three days. And unlike the other story, there were no villages nearby that they could go and buy some bread.

But I think the biggest difference was the audience. 'cause we knew in the feeding of the 5,000 that the audience was Jewish. But here it's likely because of the Gentile territory they were in because of all we heard back in chapter seven that this crowd was bigger than the typical Jewish crowd. That this crowd included the Gentiles. That this was all part of Jesus' mission to reach out further and expand the gospel mission to the Gentiles.

Now the sim similarities remain right Jesus', compassion for the people, the miraculous feeding and the disciples, him engaging the disciples and feeding the people. And what Mark is doing here is he's setting the scene for us. He's setting the scene for the ongoing theme of the di, the disciples inability to grasp exactly what Jesus is doing and maybe even exactly who Jesus is. And all along Mark emphasizes the feedings as well as the healings in ways that identify Jesus as this messiah that they have waited for for so long.

Mark 8:11-13: the Pharisees came and began to argue with him asking him for a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit. Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation. And he left them and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side.

And even though Jesus had just fed 4,000 people, remarkable signs, the Pharisees seemed blind to it all. They demanded more. And what was happening was a refusal to see the evidence that was actually right in front of them. The evidence that had been given in this these few little verses, they're ironic as well as climactic.

And they're ironic because in the feeding of the 4,000, Jesus has just given a pretty significant sign parallel, paralleling the bread from heaven. Remember the story, the manna from heaven that the Israelites were given when they were in the wilderness and it's climactic and that it's the last time in Jesus' Galilean ministry that he will be in any controversial situations. This oddly abrupt episode 'cause that's what it feels like, right? But what's interesting is it's framed by boat trips, it's framed by boat trips.

They feed 4,000, they hop in a boat, they cross the street, the sea, they have this conversation with the Pharisees. Jesus expresses deep frustration, he refuses their demand and then immediately they get back in the boat and they cross back over to the sea.

Mark is reminding his readers, he's reminding us of the Pharisees opposition to Jesus and he's preparing us for this text that I'm going to read right now:

Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread and they'd only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them saying, watch out, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod. And they said to one another, it is because we have no bread.

Becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many basketfuls of broken pieces did you collect? And they said to him, 12. And the seven for the 4,000, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect? And they said to him, 7. And then he said to them, you do not understand.

We just came out of this scene right where the Pharisees are trying to test Jesus demanding a sign for God. And we're reminded that the Pharisees lack of faith is what makes them unable to see God's reign in the midst of where they are.

And here it's not about the disciples testing Jesus, but the similarity is that they're almost as blind. Their problem is lack of trust focusing on the wrong things. So I want to put this together, let's put all this together.

So immediately following this impromptu picnic, feeding 4,000 with a few loaves of bread, a little bit of fish, there are two responses from the Pharisees. They're saying, give me a sign from the disciples. They're saying, I don't have enough bread.

And what are Jesus's responses? With the Pharisees? He sighs. And with the disciples he gives them a warning. “Immediately, immediately Jesus warns the disciples about the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.” And the funny thing is the disciples sort of take that literally you can tell by the responses they continue to talk about bread, but Jesus is speaking metaphorically and he reminds them of both the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 that had actually been done in their presence.

I think we need to talk just a bit about what Jesus means by this yeast. The Greek word here, zymes, literally means leaven. Most of the more modern translations flip that out for yeast, it has the same effect. But leaven refers to a small batch of dough that's left over from the previous week that they put in to the new dough this week. And it helps the dough rise.

And to be aware of the yeast of the Pharisees of Herod means pausing, paying attention and becoming aware because yeast is this very small grain that you need a microscope to see. But once it starts rising, it's easy to see.

And so what characterizes this yeast that Jesus is talking about and warning the disciples to be aware of? And here's the thing, the yeast of the Pharisees, the yeast of Herod is their need to defend their influence and their power to hold on to their authority, to their position. And Jesus and his teachings are a threat to all of that. And he warns his disciples to be aware of this human desire that seems to be built into all of us to maintain our religious authority, our position, our power.

Here's what Jesus is saying about all this to them and to us today. If we spend our life defending what we think we know, guess what friends? We miss it. We miss Jesus in our presence. We miss what's right in front of us. If we spend all our time defending what we think we know and Jesus is telling the disciples, wake up. This is a warning. You are dangerously close. You need to pay attention because the leaven, the it's, the leaven is blindness to Jesus's identity and opposition to the kingdom of God. And that's equally true of both Herod and the Pharisees. And this, this yeast could lead the disciples astray.

And it's funny when you look at this text because even the disciples aren't listening or they truly are missing it. All that the disciples could focus on was where they were going to get their, their next meal. How much bread that they actually had on board.

And you can hear Jesus's frustration, his exasperation. Do you fail to see? Do you fail to hear? Do you fail to remember? Do you fail to understand? Did they not just see Jesus feeding 4,000 people with some bread and a little fish? Actually they helped him.

And here's the other thing, this is the third time that they're on a boat with Jesus. Remember the first two times he calmed a storm and he walked on water. And despite these very up close and personal experience of at of Jesus in action that he still don't understand what Jesus is talking about, they still don't understand who Jesus is because they're way too busy worrying about their next meal.

Funny when you look at these texts, 'cause we sort of have this benefit, right? Like we know what's heck going to happen. We know what's coming. It's easy for us to sit back. Even some of the commentators literally described these disciples. They used words like obtuse, dull, um, short on the uptake. Like these guys just simply were not getting it.

But let's be honest about our own human nature. How often do we focus on the size of a problem and the lack of resources that we might have to meet that problem? All that we forget that Jesus is in the boat with us. I talked about this last time that Jesus is in the boat with us and there's something, some reality in our human nature that we forget. We easily forget.

How often do we as individuals or communities look at present obstacles, future uncertainties. And we worry and we fear and we forget that God has provided for us. We forget how God has provided for us all the way along.

It made me think about the story of the table and some of you who've been with us from the beginning, 'cause there are a handful of people who've been with us from the beginning. You know the story. Others who have been here for a while know parts of it. I know for sure there's some who don't, don't know the story. 'cause this week twice I had different people say, how did the table start? How did you guys land here?

Well, guess what? Tonight you're going to get to hear it. Whether you've heard it before, whether you've been part of it before. But the table story is a story of obstacles, story of fear of the future of uncertainties. It's a story of God's provisions over and over and over again.

There's a pre-launch gathering at one of our homes. So here's a story. Friends, like for years our table team was like, we feel like God is calling us to launch from Christ Presbyterian Church under their umbrella. And let me tell you, it was way easier being there. We never had to think about finances, about nice microphones, about anything. We just showed up and did our thing.

But there was something, the spirit moving in our team saying, I feel like we could flourish. I feel like we'd open the doors to more people that might feel more comfortable coming in if we weren't at Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, which is a wonderful place. Not at all, anything about them.

Um, three years into this conversation, we'd bring it up every three months we had a team meeting at my home and at this team meeting, we literally had one last conversation. Patti, you were there. I think it was Patti, Christian, Me and Matt; Maggie, you weren't on the team yet. And we said, let's put this conversation to bed. We are staying put, we are staying put within the doors of Christ Presbyterian. We're going to embrace it. We're going to love it. We're going to do it. Yep. Great.

Everybody left my house. I shut the door, I walked over to my kitchen counter. I flipped open my laptop and the first email was from an old preaching professor that I hadn't talked to in two years. Debbie, how are you? I've been thinking about you and Matt and the table, wondering how your space is going over there at Christ Presbyterian Church. Not one bit of exaggeration in that story.

Called Matt, get a meeting with him. We met with him next week and the process started. And guess what? The process wasn't easy. There were hard conversations, there were broken relationships, but we kept stepping through the next door into the next conversation. 'cause it felt right.

And we started having these pre-launch gatherings and we started gathering people together. And we were freeing people: You stay if this is your home, but come with us. And what ended up happening was we landed at Knox Presbyterian Church.

Here's some of our kids. We had little tiny kids and we kicked off in 2017. The table community. There we are. There were some people hanging off that roof, hanging that up. Two weeks before we started, two weeks before we started, we sort of went, oh, we do have six preschoolers and a couple babies. What are we going to do?

I happened to be having coffee with a woman named Martha North, who'd been a pre-K teacher over at Christ Presbyterian Church. She was in transition. I was just getting some ideas from her and spirit nudge. And I said, any chance you'd come work for us? Two weeks later, Martha North for the next two years is our pre-K teacher. Exactly the right person at the right moment.

And once again, in the midst of fear and uncertainty and not knowing what the heck we're doing, God provided. And then we step into Knox Church and all these amazing things are happening. And we were, you know, now we're worried. We have this amazing board led by Jonathan Keller and all these talented people, Rachel Garton who are on there, others here in the room.

And we started like creating, um, creating our statement of faith and doing all these big things. And then we were like, wow, we have got to care now about our finances. Coming up a little bit short, there was a group of women at the table that put, I don't know if you already passed that one Patti, but put together a garage sale. And we raised money to keep us afloat while we were going.

And as time went on, we began to flourish and we saw how God was working. But then all of a sudden we were outgrowing Knox Church. We were outgrowing Knox Church. And so we put together a team of people to start looking for another space.

Three days later I walked into a cookie exchange party at Christmas that I had never been to. I'd been invited for 20 years, but I always ran a grief group. And uh, first year I could go. I walked inside next to me, her my friend's neighbor walked in who happened to be the senior pastor here. First time she could ever go in 20 years, walked in together. Hey, I think I know you. I think I know you. How are things going for you guys? I think about you sometimes down at the table. How's your space over there? No kidding. God's provision in the midst of obstacles and uncertainty.

I I think our team showed up the next week here [Bethlehem Lutheran] and we got the ball rolling and we got ready to move here. It's been an amazing journey and there's been lots of bumps on the, in, on the road. And so as we're getting ready to move, Covid hits.

And so we're still at Knox and we start doing things online and the day we are moving during COVID to um, Bethlehem Lutheran. And I still remember loading the trucks with a bunch of people and uh, it was in the middle of all the aftermath of George Floyd and needing desperately diapers and formula. And Matt and I were in the parking lot and said, Hey, let's just stick out on Instagram. Like we'll put a pallet out and if anyone wants to donate that stuff, great.

You want to talk about feeding the 5,000! those pallets?—you guys, I checked an hour later I ran back 'cause our home was nearby—overflowing! We had to rent a huge like moving truck that we filled several times with diapers and wipes and formula there. It's look, it was crazy. God provided in the middle of all that.

And in the middle of Covid when things were hard and we were trying to figure out how do we connect, how do we stay in community? And we're doing everything online. We do all sorts of crazy things like book drop offs and standing apart in our front yards. And we did funny, um, Wednesday night gatherings with lots of technological problems, but we kept on going. We kept on doing it. And this community not only stayed together, but we actually added new members during that time.

God provided, remember the outdoor worship services? We had so much fun at those outdoor worship services. God continued to provide and we continued to thrive despite the hard stuff. Despite the s despite the grief and loss over the last few years. We got to embrace a lot of the joys and sorrows as well.

When there's obstacles, when there's fear and uncertainty about what's ahead, we can look back and we can remember how God has continued to provide for us in this community and how we continue to flourish and grow and evolve. Beautiful thing.

Three months ago I stood up here and it was hard 'cause I shared with you guys that Matt was taking a sabbatical for three months to get help for mental health and addiction. Obstacles, uncertainty about the future. And while Matt's been gone, the beautiful thing is he's getting healthy and things are good and we've continued to grow and thrive and we're doing okay too.

And Matt and I had a chance to sit down together for a few hours on Wednesday and he was able to share with me in tears that having the time to actually pause and reflect and pray over these last three months, he's realized that this is time for transition for him. That this is a time to move on to another chapter. That the call to be a pastor isn't his anymore.

That's a mixed bag. There is grief and there is loss. Feels a little bit like another obstacle. Little uncertainty about the future. Here's what we have: We can look back and we can remember that it's God that leads us, that it's God that continues to provide, it's God that is at the center of this community.

On June 2nd. Um, we are just having a celebration service at five o'clock that night. And Matt will be here and we'll have a chance to celebrate and tell stories and say thank yous and goodbyes.

I'm going to leave you all with that because during the annual meeting I'll give a little more detail and an update on Matt, but I did want to share that as soon as we knew it. I want you to know that it comes with great joy and hope for the future. 'cause it is the right thing. It's the right thing for Matt and I trust that it's the right thing for the community, but it also comes with some grief and someone will hold those things together and we'll do it together and we'll celebrate.

Well, the way that God has worked through Matt and has been so much a part of who we are. One of the things I love about tonight's text is that despite Jesus's own challenges, despite the opposition of the Pharisees, despite the disciples, I mean they miss the point all the time. He doesn't give up on 'em, forgives up and Jesus will continue to speak to his opponents. He'll continue to teach the disciples all the way up to the cross and yep. His question in verse 21, do you not understand? Yep.

That is rebuke the disciples then and his disciples today. Also an invitation. It's an invitation to all of us to keep the faith to trust when we can't fully see the full picture. And Mark eight reminds us that when Jesus is in the boat with us, we don't have to worry. Instead of being distracted by fears and uncertainties, we'll keep our eyes on Jesus. We'll pay attention to God right in the midst of us, and we'll continue to trust that the Spirit will move beyond anything and any way that any of us could ever imagine. We've been eyewitnesses, God, and all we have to do is remember that. Amen.