Sermon - 8-4-24

Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song and Praise

It has been an exciting time here at the Son Games 2024 VBS program. We have had a great group of kids, a wonderful staff, and we not only partnered with St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, but had people from other churches, too. This is what church is about.

You heard our mottos, Join In, Team Up, Get Strong, Keep On, and Celebrate. This is all in the back drop of the Olympics. When we think of Olympics, they are competitions made up of diversity. This is from every country. All colors, cultures, orientations, almost everyone is represented.

Paul talks about this in his letter to the Ephesians. He tells us that unity consists of one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God. It is not about everyone looking the same or thinking the same or doing things the same way. I believe unity happens when we can celebrate diversity.

It is not necessarily how something gets done. Each one of us may do something different. The challenge is to affirm the person regardless of how it gets done. Celebrating diversity is still very difficult for many people. Instead of being able to celebrate it, there are many who fear it. As a result, those who are different from a person often get rejected and told they are not wanted.

Discrimination is real. We hear many slurs on the news. People often find a way to justify it. It is wrong and it is not the community that God is looking for. In our 2nd lesson today, Paul reminds the Ephesians and each of us that we have been given gifts to support and upbuild people and not tear them down.

Paul says that we are to grow up and not be blown around by every wind of doctrine. The body of Christ is about everyone working together to build each other up. The challenge is to find the things that we have in common and stick to them.

Even though we may not hear love in the news and other media outlets, we are still called to love. It may mean muting ads, which I have been doing. To find out true information, one needs to look elsewhere. We are called to speak the truth in love.

This is very difficult to do at times. In our Gospel lesson today, we hear the crowd asking for it and Jesus offering them as well as us, the bread of life, in order to be strengthened and connected to him. When we are seeking the bread of life it makes us stop and remember that it is not about us, but actually about we. We being God and our neighbors in all of their diversity.

The crowds were not getting who Jesus was. Who is Jesus to us? Our Gospel lesson end with Jesus making a statement that he is the bread of life. Whoever comes to him will never be hungry whoever believe in him will never be thirsty. This is what we will explore next week in the sermon.

Today Jesus offers us the bread of life to be strengthened, to give us eyes to see and ears to hear that we may celebrate diversity to create unity. Join In, Team Up, Get Strong, Keep On, and Celebrate God’s beloved community.

Let us pray: God of unity and diversity, You call us to celebrate diversity. You offer us you, the bread of life, to strengthen us and help us to see each other as gifts. May your Holy Spirit help us to receive you and continue creating unity as we celebrate the diversity that you have created. In Jesus name, Amen.