Ephesians 4:16 (NRSV)

Once, I came across a cartoon featuring two fleas wandering lost and bewildered in a forest of dog hair. One flea says to the other flea, “Sometimes, I doubt there really is a dog!”

Such is the predicament of humankind. I hope none of us ever becomes so confident in our faith that we no longer can empathize – feel with – a young man known only as “Michael,” at the end of his rope because he thought life was meaningless and that, in the grand scheme, his existence didn’t matter. He concluded that if there was a God, He was horribly strange, and if there wasn’t a God, then life was utterly fleeting and empty.

Likewise, I hope we as a church never become so comfortable that we lose touch with what is happening to humanity on a world-wide scale. Someone said to me last week that he sees humanity at the end of our collective rope. I hope our faith never dulls our awareness of that – or dampens our will to be in ministry together in such a time.

Some years ago, one of my bishops reminded us that ours is a “Great BIG God.” We see that throughout the Scriptures. In the beginning, God’s Spirit brooded over the vast, unformed soup of the universe – loving Creation into being. God is Love. God is bigger than violence. God created humanity in God’s own image – with male-ness and female-ness. God is a God of relationships. God placed these humans in a world where all they needed was provided. “[With one exception] you may freely eat [of everything here],” God said. God is a God of abundance.

The humans soon disobeyed God. So God had to discipline them – but clothed them rather than wiping them out and starting over. God is a God of compassion and care. Then when their son Cain committed the first crime, murdering his brother Abel, God did not prescribe capital punishment. Instead, God sentenced him to be a fugitive and a wanderer – but marked him so that no one would harm him. God is a God of protection and mercy.

Later on, God made a covenant with Abraham, saying, “I will bless you … so that you will be a blessing.” God blesses us with love, relationship, compassion, care, protection, mercy – all so that we might be those things to others in concrete ways and in God’s name.

When God saw his people enslaved in Egypt, he freed them. God is a God of power and strength. God does not want us to be slaves. God is a God of freedom.
When the people’s stomachs started to growl and they grumbled and complained, God heard and provided sufficient food for their wilderness journey. This is a God who listens, hears and responds. A God of life. A God of sufficiency (not excess, though).

All this just barely scratches the surface. My bishop was right: We worship a really, really BIG God. But how to connect all that with humans who are feeling like those fleas wandering lost in a forest of dog hair? How to connect all that with the Michaels of this world who suspect that if there is a God, He is horribly strange, and if there isn’t a God, then life is utterly fleeting and empty? How to connect all that with those who see no solution to the problem of violence except more violence? Ah, those are the really big questions for us Christians! Because …

Making those connectionst is our Christian calling and responsibility. At our Baptism, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. At our Baptism, we were pledged to live in Christ – sharing in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers of the Church. At our Baptism, we were pledged to persevere in resisting evil; to be ambassadors for Christ in word and deed; to serve Christ by serving all those around us; to love our neighbors as ourselves; to strive for justice, peace and universal human dignity. These are not just nice words to say over a little baby. They are words of covenant making. At our Baptism, God made a covenant with us like the one He made with Abraham -- blessed us to become a People who live to bring God’s blessings to this lost, bewildered, hungry, hurting world.

The words spoken at our Baptism are meant to be taken literally. To be made concrete. In today’s Gospel, Jesus sees that people have come to him, not because they saw signs. Not because they were impressed by a miraculous multiplying of a few loaves and fish into many baskets full of leftovers. No, people come to Jesus because they were hungry and he fed them.

In the most recent issue of Time Magazine, there is a letter from a priest in South Carolina who grumbles that Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop-elect of The Episcopal Church, failed to mention either God or Jesus Christ in an interview published a few weeks ago. But, excuse me; he’s mistaken. I checked. She did speak of Jesus in that interview. She spoke about ministries of feeding the hungry, education, healing and sustainable development. She said that, for Christians, Jesus is our vehicle to the divine. And then she referred to Isaiah 61 – which Jesus read in the synagogue in his first public act of ministry – a passage about being anointed to “bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” She certainly did talk about Jesus. She spoke of the Christ in whom we were set apart for ministry at our Baptism.
Baptism is a covenant – to be taken literally and lived concretely. Many of you know I put a lot of time and energy into pursuing the goal of universal access to affordable, quality health care. This is very personal for me. My son is one who suffers with serious health problems and no health insurance. But the fight for universal health care is much bigger than that. It concerns millions of human beings who are without ready access to health care. This is about serving a Great Big, compassionate God who loves every one of them – including, of course, my son.

But there are many other ministries besides that one; to name only a few: Peace-making. Dampening down the violence of our cities. Coming to grips with racism. Feeding the hungry. Educating our children. Seeking justice in our tax structures and immigration laws. Working to confront and change the structures of injustice. There is so, so much to do. And Christ needs all of us to do it. None of us can do all these things by him/her self. But we can do them together. In the words of an old hymn, “Christ has no hands but our hands to do his work today.” If we do not do these things, who will? Jesus needs us to do his work today. So, please pay attention to today’s Epistle:
Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body … [grows and builds] itself up in love.
-- Eph. 4:16 (NRSV)

Jesus, our Redeemer: At our Baptism we became new creations in you. At your Table you feed us with the Bread of Righteousness. Teach us to be your bread today, broken by the pain, faithlessness and violence in our world. Restored by your grace, empower us to challenge the status quo and effect change in your Name. May we be your wine today, spilling forth your love and mercy in the face of hatred and injustice everywhere we go. Amen.