Christ Episcopal Church Sermons

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15, Psalm 78:23-29, Ephesians 4:1-16, John 6:24-35
The Rev. Ron W. Griffin
“Disciples Embrace the Wind”

Good Morning! When I was a little boy, I lived in Dayton, Ohio. I went to public school, and almost all of my classmates were from air force families at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Everyday, as the bus carried me from home to school I passed the huge runways for the B52 SAC Bombers.

Wright Patterson was also home to the Air force Museum. It had every kind of airplane and rocket from the Wright brothers all the way to the space age. I loved learning about the barn stormers, wing walkers, crop dusters, dive-bombers, dog fighters, and the test pilots, but I especially remember Orville and Wilber Wright and their dream to fly.

Like me, they liked to fly kites.

Anyone here not seen Mary Poppin’s? Toward the end of the movie, the father re-establishes his relationship with his children by taking them kite flying.

(Sing)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g89NxTTycxc

Let’s go fly a kite Up to the highest heights Let’s go fly a kite, and send it soaring. Up in the atmosphere, Up where the air is clear, Let’s all go . . . fly a kite.

Charlotte bought me several wonderful kites when we lived in the mountains and now we have moved to a great place to fly them. Hannah and I have flown them at the beach. As simple as a kite is, my spirit always soars when I’m flying a kite.

This week I was reminded not everyone likes kites. In addition to the news of the budget for California, and continuing speculation into Michaels Jackson’s untimely death, the health care debate is starting to get some traction and so it is starting to get intense, and tense.

This past week an unnamed Congressman was told by another member of Congress to “Go fly a kite.” While that sounds pretty good to me, I know that Congressman meant “go away”, “stop bothering me”, or to use another twisted phrase, “Go Jump In The Lake.”

And as we have been following the thread of discipleship for some weeks now; today our gospel continues with this thread by reminding us of what will feed our spirits and cause them to soar, and give us the spiritual and life giving strength to thrive in a “stop bothering me, go jump in the lake” kind of world.

As our scripture begins Jesus is not where a lot of people who are said to be looking for him and are expecting him to be. There is a hint in John’s gospel that the crowds are growing because of his supernatural celebrity status and are quickly adopting a lobbying position with God. I give to you so you will give to me.¹

Our first reading today is the account that is referenced in today’s gospel. The crowds want more signs, more reasons to believe. And in this gospel the crowds are hoping to push Jesus into action. Jesus shifts from what they want (more bread to sustain them another day) to what Jesus believes they need; the recipe for “enduring” food.

It is a simple, one-step recipe: “Believe in Him whom He has sent. It is the difference between a temporary solution and eternal solution.” It’s a distinction that Paul captured in his second letter to the church at Corinth: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Maybe that’s why I am so drawn to flying a kite. Flying a kite is more than the invisible wind to lift it up, and keep it in the air. In order to stay aloft, it has to be grounded, with a sturdy string, tethering it to the ground. The higher it soars, the more connected it needs to be.

Let go of the string and what happens; the kite might make a few impressive free-swoops and spins, but before long the kite will crash. Without guidance, it’s a goner.

Total freedom is another word for crash-and-burn. A free-for-all leads to a free-fall. It takes the freedom in the invisible wind, coupled with the anchoring of the string, to give a kite its life.

And the way we experience the exhilarating freedom, the complete joy Jesus talks about, an unbounded life, is when we bind ourselves and stay connected to the one God has sent – and trust in Christ as the true bread of life, and through discipleship in a relationship of faith.

Our scripture reminds us today there are never enough signs until there is faith. And faith isn’t initiated by signs because faith is based on a relationship, not on evidence. And that relationship is established in Christ, the Bread of Life.

Every service we take time, the most important time, to come to this table, for spiritual nourishment, refueling our spirits, with Christ. With this sacramental symbol we are reminded, without spiritual nourishment we will starve.

When John Calvin was asked to explain the Eucharist, he said that he would rather experience it then to understand it. Once our hearts and souls connect to Christ, we can take off without fear on the most daring flights, on the most exciting excursions. And the bigger your dreams, the more you want to soar above the haze of life, the more tied to Christ, the more tethered to the Word, you need to be.

You might call it “kite theology:” Turning over the kite string to Christ puts us in the sure hands of a master flyer. When the winds come up and the going gets gusty, we have only to ask to be held tighter. The Stronger our connection to Christ, the further we will soar. It is the invisible connection of faith, trust, and love in the person of Christ Jesus that allows us to take flight, to fly without fear. Even when the storms of life come on the horizon… even when everyone is whirling in the wind and everything is spinning out of control, Disciples go out to meet the storm. Disciples embrace the wind.

It is my prayer to pastor a lot of kite flyers, I want you to go fly a kite. Turn to the person next to you and say: Go fly a kite

This week, when you see one another or call each other, or email one another, let your closing be, “Go fly a kite.” ²

(Sing)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g89NxTTycxc

Let’s go fly a kite Up to the highest heights Let’s go fly a kite, and send it soaring. Up in the atmosphere, Up where the air is clear, Let’s all go . . . fly a kite.

1. Feasting on the Word, Westminster John Knox Press, David Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor editors, p295.

2. Leonard Sweet Commentary, Christian Globe Networks, Inc.,

Collect of the Day

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Gospel – John 6:24-35

The next day, when the people who remained after the feeding of the five thousand saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”