When I was growing up Hee Haw was one of the more popular shows on television.  I've seen a lot of reruns the last couple years, and one of my favorite sketches was also the one where Grandpa Jones would be pretending to wash the windows and a large chorus would ask, "Hey Grandpa, what's for supper?"

He would then go then give a long rambling list with everything from cornbread, to black eyed peas, to peach cobbler, to whatever he could come up with, and the end the chorus would say, "Yum, yum." 

We love our food.  We all have certain things that we eat, that just make us feel good.   We share meals with each other, because there is just something special about gathering around the table and sharing.  In our society we are in such a hurry all the time we are grabbing our food and going, and we often miss the connection that comes from being with people and sharing with them.  

I think Jesus understood this concept of sharing in a meal.  I believe his motivation in John 6 wasn't just to feed hungry people, or to show a miracle to those who gathered.   I think Jesus also understood that if feed the crowd that would mean that they would share in a meal, an experience, that would enhance community and engender conversation. 

Jesus us wants us to do more than just eat and be filled.  He wants us to share in a way that binds us together into his story. 

THE END OF ALL FLESH!!!  

Sounds like a the total of either a really good, or really really bad horror movie.  The line just jumped out at me today as I was reading and preparing for this week's sermon.  I remember when I was growing up ___ years ago and there seemed to be prophets at every turn telling us that the end of times were near.  Doomsday was coming.   Judgement was coming.  The cold war was surely going to end with a nuclear holocaust.   Personally, I always enjoyed the Planet of the Apes movies, but I digress.

Christians, and people who called themselves Christian, were constantly looking for signs of the imminent return of Jesus, and doing their best to cross reference current events with the books of Daniel and Revelation, and predict how it will all end.  BUT, here is the truth, decades, even centuries have passed and we are still here.  We have no way to know when the end will come, nor in what form.  We do not know when Christ will return, we only know that he will.  

We also know that when the time comes, those of us who know Jesus really have nothing to worry about anyway.  

This week we are going to look closer at the story of Noah.  We are going to look at that time when God said,  "I have had enough, time to start over."  We are going to see deliverance through one man and his family.   We are going to be reminded that someday God is going to say, "Enough"   And we are going to be reminded that we have already been delivered, by the sacrifice of one, we are going to have a life in a place where there is no more crying or pain.  

With all the pain I deal with sometimes in dragging this body around, and armed with the knowledge that Jesus is coming again to take those he knows home with him,  THE END OF ALL FLESH is not something to be feared, but something to be anticpated.

So this past Sunday I got done speaking and looked at the video from the sermon and saw a run time of 42 minutes, which is a long time for me.  Of course I immediately checked with a couple people and they gave me the requisite, “Well is sure didn’t feel like it was long, it was really interesting.”   I’m always grateful for people who are smart enough to say such things.  

Still, sometimes we find ourselves in the position where things just seem like they are going to go on and on forever.  I’ve felt this way in staff meetings, and in church services, and piano recitals and all kinds of places, and when it finally ends, it’s a feeling of great relief.

Sometimes, however, when the waiting ends, things just get more and more intense.  Imagine the people living in the city of Jericho when the people under the command of Joshua came against the city.  For six days the people of Israel got up every morning and marched around the city.  He priests went in front and the the rams horn were blowing.  I can see it, on the first day the people inside the city were probably thinking, “What the heck are they doing?”

Day two, “Really?   Here they go again.”

Day three, “This is getting a little old already.”

Day four through six, “Is this ever going to end”

Day seven, “Once, twice, three times, how many times are they going to do this today?   How long will this go on?”

Then all of a sudden, after seven times, there was a shout, and the walls came tumbling down.

​We are going to look deeper at this story this coming Sunday.  We are going to look it at from the standpoint of the people in the city, and from the one of the people marching around the city.  What we may find is that God’s timing is the only timing that matters.

Over sixteen years have passed but I still remember the details like it was yesterday. Jenny and 1 had hit a few snags, to say the least, in our attempts to leave Madagascar and head to the states following our wedding there.  We had not idea when we were going to be able to get out, of if the US Embassy would ever approve her visa.   Then the call came in on a Thursday afternoon telling us to be at the embassy the next morning.  

We went and within a couple hours we had a visa for the US, which was a great thing, because our tickets were going to expire that evening, and if we didn't leave that day we were going to have to spend thousands more for new tickets, if we ever got the chance to leave.   By the time we left the embassy it was already afternoon and our flight was scheduled just before midnight that night.  We went back and began to pack.  We had to leave the house around 8:30 or 9:00 to get to the airport.  The sun went down around 6:30 as usual.  Then at 7:30 the power in Antananarivo also went out.

We packed ALL of Jenny's life into suitcases that were way overweight in just a few hours in the dark.  She also had to say goodbye to all of her family in those moments.  I remember being there and getting things into the van, and having to physically take her by the hand and separate her from her family, from her life, from everything she had ever known, as the tears flowed down her face, to get her to an airport for a flight a to a new place, a new culture, a new language, knowing that her chances to see her family again would not be many.

In sixteen years she has only been able to go back twice.  We simply cannot afford it. Her sacrifice is great.  Her sacrifice is a choice that she made and I still find myself in awe of that sometimes. 

This week we come to the story of Ruth in our study called STORY.  Ruth made an incredible choice to go with Naomi and leave all that she knew behind.  She utters beautiful words in the first chapter that echo through time:

 For wherever you go, I will go;
And wherever you lodge, I will lodge;
Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me
Ruth 1:16-17 NKJV

God honored Ruth's decision.  I encourage you,  Go read the rest of the story. 

In February of 2001 I decided to accompany the swim from Asbury College (I was Director of Athletics for the school) to the NAIA Championships at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia.  My flight took me through the Seattle airport where I was to meet one of our assistant coaches and we would drive to Vancouver from there.  While waiting airport I walked into a gift shop that featured a lot of hand crafted glass items all over the shelves.  

Suddenly there was this noise, kind of like a low rumble, that started to move through the room and airport.  The noise grew and I looked down and suddenly the floor was rolling.  The items on the shelves began to come off and shatter in the room.  I moved toward the door of the shop and the main terminal, and as I stood in the door way a piece of the ceiling of the terminal fell onto the floor about 15 feet from me.   I finally just decided to stay put and ride out the earthquake, my first one. 

This past week two earthquakes rocked California within a couple days of each other.  They are always unexpected, and the aftermath and clean up is never something to look forward to.  I will never forget the sights and sounds from my day in the airport.   For me it's a rare event, for others they've experienced many in their lives. 

This week as we conclude the series entitled INCEPTION in our Sunday morning services, we come to the second half of Acts Chapter 4.   We find in there a verse that says:

31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

This moment is the second one where they are assembled together and the place where they are is shaken.  There is a noise, a loud rushing wind, and the place is shaken.  I can relate to their fright, to their wonder.  When you experience something like that it changes you and effects you.  For the early church it was a key moment as they left that place and spoke God's word with boldness. 

We all could use a good shaking from time to time, especially one that gets us to go out and speak God's word with boldness.