I had the opportunity to speak on the Feeding of the Five Thousand this Wednesday at the Focus service.  I’d certainly do some delivery things different, but I enjoyed the process.  Below is my manuscript.

Introduction

Mankind is a hungry being. We come into the world hungry.  I wake up almost every morning hungry.  In the middle of the afternoon, if I haven’t eaten anything, I’m hungry.  Satiating our hunger is one of the most basic, and I would say holy, experiences in God’s creation.  Depending on how hungry we are, we can sometimes go to interesting lengths to curb it.  I’m reminded of some of the things I’ve seen on the show Man vs. Wild – things like eating live bugs – not for a dare or for money, but to simply stay alive on the journey.  When my hunger gets bad, really bad, I do my own version of Man vs. Wild and walk into the cafeteria.  Sometimes I wish I had a survival host to point out the good from the bad in there.  In all seriousness though, our cafeteria, in an odd way, has the potential to be a holy place where holy meals are shared.  If satiating our hunger is one of the most holy experiences in creation, then starving to death has to be one of the most glaring disfigurements of God’s created order.  The early church father Basil describes this marring of God’s intent when he talks about the effects of a famine happening in his area.  He says:

“The pain of starvation, from which the hungry die, is a horrible suffering.  Of all human calamities, famine is the principle one, and the most miserable of deaths is no doubt that by starvation.  In other kinds of death, Continue reading →

Yes, I grew a beard in conjunction with Lent. I’ve avoided answering the questions 1) why are you growing a beard 2) when are you going to shave and 3) have you given up shaving for Lent. In part, because it’s hard (for me) to explain without getting mired down in a discussion about the development of Lent in the early years of the church, independent Christian church people celebrating the major seasons in the church year, and some small, insignificant chatter about the Industrial Revolution. I love having these kinds of conversations, but usually my inquirers have not signed up for this impromptu seminar class; and they tend to find the conversational excursion longer than expected.

Here’s why I did it and how it helped me focus on the story of Christ’s journey to death and resurrection.

• I don’t like beards, they irritate my face when they get too long and it bothers me. In an odd way, I hoped this constant irritation (much like a fast) would focus my attention on Jesus’ journey. It did.
• It’s a visual reminder that I’m forced to look at many times a day. I hoped this would continually turn my head toward Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem and help me keep this in the front of my mind for the season. For the most part, it did. I didn’t have a spiritual moment every time I looked in the mirror, but it did flip my gaze back toward the right direction several times during the last six weeks.
• I wanted the same kind of visual reminder after Easter (the loss if the beard) that would help me focus on the resurrection. We’ll see how that goes.

I also spent my entire commute each day (about 75 minutes total) in silence. It was great. I’m still trying to unpack that one. More later.

For now, a few de-bearding pics. My favorite is the Fu-man-chu.