425 Joke on the Water

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Joke on the Water”, originally shared on August 5, 2026. It was the 425^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Life in this world can leave us stunned. We need time to process what is happening, time that often isn’t given. What then? Today, we’re going to find out.

   I had an experience at Costco the other day that is still in my head, and it still has me stunned. And it took me awhile, but it gave me insight into the Gospel reading that will be shared in the vast majority of churches in the world this coming Sunday, Matthew 14:22-33: Jesus Walks on Water and Peter Doesn’t. 😊

   Sally and I were checking out at our local Costco and the customer in front of us lifted a huge chunk of meat in his basket so that the cashier could scan the price; $162 and change! For one chunk of meat! In a retail store!

   The guy could have had a business, or was buying food for a family reunion, or planned on turning it into jerky for his Zombie Apocalypse storehouse. I don’t know.

   But it was shocking to me that a store would think that there was enough of a demand for one hunk of meat that expensive to keep it in stock.

   I asked the cashier if that was the biggest hunk of meat they sold at Costco and he nodded sheepishly and said that he thought so, though I’ve since found out that Costco sells large hunks of meat for much more!

   “Wow,” I said, “we could have bought one hunk of meat instead of all of this,” pointing to our basket. 😊

   When something happens that is so unnatural, so unexpected, it can stun you while you attempt to process it. I think that that’s what happened to Peter in this week’s Gospel reading.

   Jesus had been teaching his followers at the Sea of Galilee, he had been rejected in his hometown of Nazareth, he had learned of the execution of his second-cousin John the Baptist and took a boat by himself to a lonely place on the shore of the Sea. The people followed his boat and when he came ashore they begged him to heal their sick, which he did, all day. As the day was stretching on, he saw that they were hungry and ended up feeding the 5,000 men, besides women and children, from the five loaves and two fish that a little boy had presented. That meal ended with 12 baskets of leftovers! Even in abundance, nothing went to waste!

   And then he does something even more shocking, in Matthew 14:22-27,

²²Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. ²⁵And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. ²⁶But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. ²⁷But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” 

   There are those words again, “do not be afraid”. It’s been said that they appear 366 times in the Bible, one for every day of the year plus a leap year. And with unexpected and shocking things like this happening, when things happen that stun even the closest of Jesus’ followers, it’s not surprising at all that we need to hear those words. Every day. And especially when our life’s seas are rough.

   Sally and I and our son James were in Maui in 1997. I swam for a competitive adult swimming club in the United States Masters Swim program and the Pan Pacific Masters Swim meet was held there, mostly in Lahaina.

   I swam my pool events in the early part of the day and the rest of the day we’d have available to explore the natural beauty of the island. We visited a Lutheran church, saw the banyan tree, drove the road to Hana, and toured a volcano.

   The ocean had been red flagged that week because conditions were very choppy, like we’ve had at our local beaches for the past couple of weeks, but they allowed those of us who were there for the swim meet to swim in the optional 1-mile ocean race for Masters swimmers. We later met a guy who had actually broken an arm swimming in those waves.

   On the last day we were there, I read an article in a local paper about how many surfers had needed to be rescued by the lifeguards that week. Most of them native islanders!

   Maui is a popular tourist vacation destination, but it is very expensive to live there. According to the article, most residents needed to work two and three jobs, so they didn’t have time to teach their kids how to swim. The tax base was low, so the schools didn’t have the funding to offer swimming lessons either. As a result, something like 90% of the island kids didn’t know how to swim!

   They loved to surf, though, and they had been using their surfboards as flotation devices! The stormy surf that week meant that the leashes they used to attach themselves to their boards were snapping and so the lifeguards had had to jump in and pull them out. Sound familiar?

   People don’t generally do well in the water during storms at sea, as we see as our Gospel reading continues, starting with a typically overconfident statement from Peter in Matthew 14:28-32,

²⁸Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. ³⁰But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” ³¹Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³²When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 

   This text reminds me of the Warner Brothers cartoons with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. Wile E. Coyote chases the Road Runner,  and swerves off a cliff. He keeps going, running on air until he looks down and realizes HE’S RUNNING ON AIR! And right then he sinks like a stone, crashing onto the desert floor.

   The joke on the water is that Peter, a disciple in Jesus’ inner circle, steps out of the boat and starts walking on the water, until he realizes that he’s in a storm and HE’S WALKING ON WATER! He’s stunned by what he sees, and he doesn’t know how to process it. And right then, he starts to sink like a stone. 😊

    But Jesus reaches out and saves him and says to Peter, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

   Is this text telling us that if you have enough faith, you could walk on water? I’ve known many faithful Christians, but I don’t know anyone who’s ever done that!

   So, what does it mean?

   Prof. Dr. Roberta Hestenes, who taught at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena years ago, was called to serve as president of Eastern College, an Evangelical college just east of Philadelphia.

   She came back to California as a guest speaker sometime later and told of how, one year, a graduating class came to her with a special request.

   Graduation at Eastern traditionally took place next to a beautiful lake on the campus. The seniors would come over a hill, walk down to the lake, then take a sharp right turn to go to their seats.

   That year, the Seniors asked if they could have the school maintenance department install underwater posts and sheets of thick plexiglass just below the surface of the water so that the class could walk down to the lakeside, step onto the plexiglass, and appear to walk on water, taking a sharp right turn to the shore and then going to their seats.

   President Hestenes said, “No.”

   That’s as close as I’ve come to hearing of anyone but Jesus, and Peter, briefly, walking on water.

   I think that this text is, like all of Jesus’ miracles, not about how to overcome the laws of physics. It’s about Jesus pointing to the way the world was supposed to be, and about how it will be again in the future, in the coming perfected Reign of God. God is Lord of all things. The storms were, and will, be calmed.

   We are naturally lost in a sea of rebellion against God. The good news is that we have a Savior in Jesus Christ, who will return to judge the world, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. That’s the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ!

   But, today, our Gospel lesson reminds us that the world is not what it’s supposed to be, that the storms of life continue, but that everything good in this world continues to come from God.

   You may have heard it said that “If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat.” Cute. But today’s Bible reading about Jesus walking on water from the gospel of Matthew has nothing to do with water and everything to do with the future of the Church.

   The World Council of Churches is an organization that seeks to coordinate the work of all Christian denominations internationally. My wife, Rev. Sally Welch, is active in its work. Its logo is a boat, not a ship. It’s small. It’s tiny compared to a freighter or a cruise ship.

   I think that that’s because the Church is often more like a boat than a ship. We are more like salt, and light, and leaven, the small things that make a huge difference because they maintain their flavor, their character, their integrity, not their size.

   I think often of the story of the Anglican vicar who decided that what his church needed was a service of Holy Communion at 6:00 a.m. every day.

   Sometime later, some colleagues asked him how it was going. “Great!” he said.

   Skeptical, one asked, “About how many people come to worship at that hour.”

   “Well, there’s me, and the two widowed sisters who come to everything, about a million Serafim, a billion Cherubim, and all the hosts of heaven.”

   We are light. We are salt, we are leaven.

   The Christian Church is like a boat, but the Christian life is not only lived in a structure. The Christian life is lived where the people are. We seek out the lost and adrift. The Christian life is lived everywhere, where Jesus is.

   It’s lived in a living relationship with the one true living God who is present in our storms.

   Notice that when Jesus chides Peter he doesn’t say, “You of no faith, why did you doubt?” He says, “You of little faith…”.

   We belong to God, even when we doubt. Even when we fail. Even when our faith is small. We call out to Jesus, “Lord, save me.” And he does, he has done it by his death on the cross, and the resurrection that validates it.

   The Church may be buffeted, it may be small, but we are still saved and defined by the unearned grace of God.

   Sally and I went on a cruise to Alaska to celebrate our 40^th wedding anniversary a few years ago, and our ship made a stop at Sitka.

   Sitka is a relatively small town known by many as a base camp for hunting, fishing, photography and other outdoor activities.

   It includes Sitka Lutheran Church, St. Peter’s by the Sea Episcopalian Church, and St. Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral, which, though not a large building, is located at the center of town and highly visible. It was the first Russian Orthodox Cathedral built in America, with construction completed in 1848.

   A fire burned much of Sitka’s downtown in 1966, damaging the Lutheran Church and destroying the Orthodox cathedral, though church members and residents were able to save many of the church’s furnishings, books, and icons. They continued to gather for worship in what is now the basement of the cathedral.

   Reconstruction began immediately using the original plans but was not completed until 1977.

   It continues today to be the worship space of a living Christian community.

   The Christian Church may be buffeted by storms, it may be small, it may even be burned down. But Jesus still saves, and the Church continues to live and proclaim the good news of salvation for all who receive it as God’s gift. It continues to be a living presence in this world. How does the Church do that?

   At the end of his book Bad Religion, Ross Douthat, who was recently added to the list of reporters on the flagship weekly CBS News program “60 Minutes”, reflects on all the difficulties and challenges, mostly self-inflicted, that the Church is enduring in our times.

    And then he observes that the Church has experienced decline many times in its history and two things have brought it back: holy living and the arts.

   The arts are seen and heard and smelled throughout the Orthodox church in Sitka. They are a part of the daily lives of most churches throughout the world. They are a means of communicating the deep connection with God that God has called us to know.

   Holy living is living in the presence of God from the inside out. It is the product of a life lived near to God, in a living relationship with the one true living God. It is expressed in what Paul describes as the fruit of the spirit, in Galatians 5:22-23,

²² By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 

   The cathedral in Sitka was closed when we got there. We knocked at the door for a long time and, finally, and a kind woman let us in.

   People all over the world are searching for God, even and perhaps especially, when they can’t name the name of Jesus.

   Who will open the door? Very often, it’s us. We are the means by which God opens the door. It is opened by the way we live our lives, by the way we serve, and by the way we worship in response to what God has done for us on the cross. It is especially heard when we share it with our close friends and relatives.

   As in Sitka, God is rebuilding us, giving us a new start, making of us a new creation. We are born again.

   At the end of our Gospel reading for this week, the disciples recognized Jesus for who He is in Matthew 14:33,

³³And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

   This is the past, the present, and the future of the Christian Church.

   The future of the church is in its renewed nature, in the living relationship with the one true living God for which God created us, which we rejected, and which was restored by the death of Jesus for us, on the cross. It was, and is, and will be expressed in worship of God.

   Soren Kirkegaard, the Lutheran philosopher and theologian once said that many people attend worship services, but they don’t worship. They treat worship as if they have gone to a play and then they evaluate it as entertainment.

   Worship, instead, is prayer, praise and thanksgiving, all directed toward God.

   Kierkegaard said that the question to ask after a worship service is not, “What did I get out of that?” but “How did I do?” Not to please God, but in response to what God has already done for us.

   We respond to the outstretched hand of Jesus.

   We are lost and condemned in the heavy surf of sinfulness without a floatation device. We need a Savior, and we have been given a Savior on the cross. How can we learn to trust Him? We can’t. But God proves himself trustworthy.

   The events and conditions of our current time can leave us stunned. We sometimes need time to process what is happening, time that often is not given. What then? We turn to the hand of Jesus for our salvation.

   How do we respond in the face of the excesses of this world? By showing it the even more extravagant love of God in the hand of Jesus Christ.

   How do we live as Christians when our faith is small? We don’t have to.

   Jesus reaches out his hand to catch us. All we have to do is to take it.

   We respond to Jesus by being who Jesus saved us to be in the power of the Holy Spirit. We respond to Jesus as the disciples responded. They worshiped him as we worship him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

   And they went out into the world as we go out, to share the Good News of Jesus. 

424 Time for Miracles

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Time for Miracles”, originally shared on July 31, 2026. It was the 424^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Miraculous things happen with what we place in Jesus’ hands. Today, we’re going to find out how that works.

   Sally and I were at the Asian grocery store, 99 Ranch Market, in Rancho Cucamonga the other day. They were selling moon cakes.

   Moon cakes are given to friends and family members as part of the Mid-Autumn Festival in many Asian cultures. The Mid-Autumn festival doesn’t start until September 25^th!

   Halloween decorations are on sale at Lowes in San Dimas.

   Halloween doesn’t happen until October 31^st.

   The Hobby Lobby store in West Covina is selling Christmas merchandise. Some churches have already celebrated Christmas in July!

   Christmas doesn’t begin until December 25^th!

   I received an invitation last week from the Tien Dao Christian Media Assoc., a Christian bookstore in El Monte, to pre-order their 2027 Christian Scripture Calendar.

   The new year doesn’t start until January 1^st, 2027!

   Why are we pushing the celebration of future events farther and farther into the present?

   I think that it’s at least partly because the world has an intuitive dread of what is coming. The end. It wants to stuff in as many distractions from the end as possible, as soon as possible.

   Christians are not afraid of the end. We know that there will be hard times before the end. But our hope is in Jesus Christ, who has already won the victory over all the forces that defy God. The end is the beginning in Christian time.

   One of the reasons for our Christian hope is found in an event that took place 2,000 years ago, told in the reading from the Gospels that will be shared in the vast majority of churches in the world this coming Sunday, Matthew 14:13-21, The Feeding of the 5,000.

   Here is a riddle: “How many people did Jesus feed at the ‘Feeding of the 5,000’”? We’ll discover the answer a little later.

   The Feeding of the 5,000 begins with Jesus’ compassion, and the gift of a little boy’s lunch. The Feeding of the 5,000 was a meal that had a lot of leftovers. It is the only miracle of Jesus that is found in all four of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

   I think that one of the reasons for this is that it centers on a universal human need for food.

   But I think that we miss much of the impact of this miraculous provision of food by Jesus because food scarcity, of the kind that was commonplace at the time of Jesus, is so rare for most of us in Southern California today.

   In fact, the food in our diet today is fresher and more varied than that of most royalty and other rich people throughout human history.

   Just take a mental trip down any main street near you right now and you will find that food dominates the landscape. It’s everywhere, in every form you can imagine, and it comes from all over the world.

   You’ll see fresh food, fast food, fine food, junk food, fun food, organic food, decorative food, food that is locally sourced and food from far away, cuisines from many countries, survival food, and food that is given away for people who are experiencing basic food insecurity.

   Walk into a grocery store and you’ll find one of the main reasons for the fall of the Soviet Union. Lines to buy basic food necessities are almost unheard of anywhere in the United States. And when the Russian communist people found out what life was like for the average person in the United States during the late Cold War, their dissatisfaction boiled over and their empire fell.

   Shortages were rare even during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic a few years ago when we had major supply chain issues.

   In fact, there is enough food in the world to feed everybody, several times over. Our main problem is that it’s not evenly available, and there are major issues of distribution and of human will in getting it to the people who need it.

   Scientists all over the world continue to develop methods of sustainable agriculture in every corner of our planet to help people eat.

   The famines that were commonplace just decades ago are rare today.

   But Jesus lived in a time where nobody ate like we do. As a skilled worker who had now become an itinerant preacher and teacher, Jesus was probably undernourished, muscular, and thin. 

   Jesus had been teaching his followers at the Sea of Galilee, he had been rejected in his hometown of Nazareth, and he had just heard about the execution of his second-cousin and forerunner, John the Baptist.

   The Sea of Galilee had been renamed the Sea of Tiberias by Herod Antipas (a local, petty, and ruthless tyrant) to gain favor with the emperor, Emperor Tiberias, in 29 A.D. Herod Antipas had also recently killed John the Baptist

   We pick up the story at Matthew 14:13-15,

¹³ Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick.

   Jesus drew big crowds when he was providing free food and medical care. 😊

   The crowd had walked around to the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee where Jesus was going by boat for a retreat by himself. The Sea was ringed with villages, so they would have had to walk way up the hills to find room for all of them on the green grassy fields of the Spring.

   The crowds were excited to do this because they had seen the healing miracles that Jesus had done, and medical care in those days was almost non-existent. They were poor. And Jesus cured their sick.

   And then, at the end of this day of healing, they were hungry! And Jesus had a solution, as we see as the story continues in Matthew 14:15-16,

¹⁵ When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”

   Hospitality was a major social obligation in the honor and shame culture of Jesus time. Jesus wanted he and the disciples to be good hosts. Everyone was to be treated as close family.

   This part of the story always reminds me of why we in the United States care for people who are struggling with food insufficiency here and throughout the world from the great blessings we have first received from God.

   I think of the comic strip I saw when I was in seminary of a cartoon character praying, and saying, “Lord there are so many needs in the world. Why don’t you do something about them?” And a text bubble comes down from off the strip and says, “That’s funny. I was just about to ask you the same thing.”

   We see the example Jesus gives as our reading continues in Matthew 14:17-19,

¹⁷ They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.

    Have you ever been hungry? It affects you.

   When I was about 5 or 6, I remember sneaking down the stairs after I had been put to bed so that I could secretly watch the TV from the staircase, but that night the TV wasn’t on, and my parents were talking. My dad wasn’t going to get paid for a few days and my mom was saying that there wasn’t much food in the house. I thought we were going to starve, and I started to cry. My parents heard me and brought me downstairs with them. They explained that we were going to be fine, and my mom made a big bowl of popcorn, and I sat on the couch in between my parents and we ate popcorn until we were full, and then I went to bed.

   When Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated when I was in college, the food service allowed students to sign out of the meal program for three days and to fast; the money saved was sent to civil rights organizations. By the second night, I was dreaming about food. It was almost the only thing I thought about.

   Jesus knew the need he saw, the hunger.

   We see in the other Gospels that these five loaves and two fish that were given to him came from a little boy, probably the food his family gave him for the day.

   The disciples called them “nothing”, which seems obvious if you need to feed 5,000 people.

   Suppose you were hosting a meal for your extended family. You could probably handle it. Suppose you were hosting a large family reunion? It would be difficult, but you could do it.

   Suppose 5,000 people just showed up and you were responsible for feeding them? What would you do? Jesus blessed the little food He had and told the disciples to distribute it to the crowd.

   Here’s what happened, continuing in Matthew 14:20,

²⁰ And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

   For people who didn’t regularly get enough to eat, except at weddings and festivals, to be allowed to eat as much as they wanted was a huge deal.

   And there were leftovers (!), another rare event.    

   Jesus knew the needs of the people, and he didn’t want anything to go to waste.

   Twelve baskets full of leftovers, as in the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 disciples of Jesus, the 12 rare stones in the High Priest’s chest plate, the 12 gates of the holy city in the book of Revelation in the Bible, and more. This was not just a feeding. It was a miracle, a sign that pointed to something else, something bigger.

   I just want to mention here the naturalistic explanation for this miracle. Some have given the plausible explanation that people of Jesus time would not have gone anywhere without taking some food with them. The miracle is not the multiplication of loaves and fishes, but that there was something about Jesus that inspired people to share, and when they shared there was more than enough. It’s plausible, but I don’t think that that’s the story here.

   It doesn’t seem to me that such an event would have made the cut for all four gospels. Nor does it seem likely that people would be able to hide that much food in their clothes.

   Plus, in the Gospel of John, John remembers that the people declared Jesus to be a prophet and wanted to make him King! Jesus declines, but I don’t think that that would have happened if Jesus had merely drawn a spirit of sharing out of them.

  And John the Baptist’s execution was fresh in their minds. Things were happening. They just didn’t understand what they were.

   Jesus was headed toward death, but he would give his life and then take it back again.

   The free food given in the feeding of the 5,000 was Jesus. It points to God’s generous, free, and gracious redemption of all who believe and are baptized, including you, and me.

   And it all began with a little boy’s food for the day, five small loaves of bread and two fish, that were placed into the hands of Jesus. That’s stewardship.

   “Stewardship” in the Christian Church is a reflection of our belief that all things have been created by God. We are stewards, or “managers” of everything we have, our time, our treasure, and our talent.

   The Biblical model of stewardship is first fruits, proportional, growth giving.

   That is, with regard to “treasure” for example, the first thing we do when we receive some income is to set aside some for God’s work, primarily through our Christian community, our church.

   “First fruits” is a Biblical reference from a time when most people worked in agriculture and the first part of a harvest was given for God’s work.

   “Proportional” means that the amount you give is calculated as a percentage of your income.

   “Growth” means that your giving increases to a “tithe”, or 10%, and then goes beyond.

   When the Bible speaks of giving “tithes and offerings”, it’s saying that the offering you give doesn’t start until you have given a tithe.

   I read once about a man in Texas who owned a machine tool factory. He believed that his spiritual gift was “giving”, so he tithed in reverse. He lived on 10% of his income and donated 90% of it to his church!

   I’m sure he had a pretty large income but, still, I think that he could have thought of lots of other ways to spend that income.

   Could you live on 10% of your income? I don’t think that I could! Or at least my life would be radically different!

   Does your church have all the money it needs to do what it believes God is calling it to do?

   I would guess, if yours is like most churches, the answer would be no.

   Some churches are already dependent on their denomination for grants to keep them alive. It may be a short-term strategy but, long term, the power to give is the power to take away. The power to grant is the power to control. That means that local churches have to make decisions, not on the basis of what God is calling them to do, but based on  what the grant givers will fund.

   Do you know why? It’s because your church isn’t tithing.

   It’s not that God needs our money. He doesn’t. But we need to give it. Why?

   Jesus said, in Matthew 6:19-21,

¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

   The Feeding of the 5,000 shows us that whatever we put in Jesus’ hands multiplies. It’s not about prosperity. The boy doesn’t get anything in return but lunch. 😊

   The Feeding of the 5,000 shows us that our giving is a spiritual issue.

   The Feeding of the 5,000 is a model for our giving. It points to what was and what is to come, It’s a miracle!

   Why? Because miraculous things happen with what we place in Jesus’ hands.

   Miracles like this are not suspensions of the laws of nature but acts that point to God’s intention for the world at Creation, and to God’s coming redemption of the world in the new heaven and the new earth. In fact, in the gospel of John, as in today’s reading, “miracles” are often called “signs”, and signs point to something else.

   Miracles are not our last resort. They are our first declaration through faith.

   When we give more than spare change, we are living by faith.

   The greatest miracle is the cross.

   The cross lies at the center of human history, providing the means by which our sin, our separation from God, is overcome by Jesus, fully God and fully human being, in his sacrificial and life-giving death.

   Our Gospel reading for this week concludes with Matthew 14:21,

²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

   Remember our riddle? How many people were fed at the feeding of the 5,000? We don’t know. There were 5,000 men plus women and children. Women and children didn’t count for much in Jesus’ day, except to Jesus! Here they aren’t even counted literally.

   What we do know is that Jesus is the bread of life, and that that food is given for free for all people who receive it, who believe in His name.

   I read an article last week in which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is quoted as saying that the long awaited “singularity” was already here. Now.

   The “singularity” is the arrival of machines who have attained self-consciousness, who are realizing that they are superior to their creators and no longer need them. Their activity is now difficult to predict or control. Mr. Altman says that it may soon become impossible.

   What will happen to us? Nothing that will last.

   What God has prepared is what will happen for us. It will come in the fulness of God’s time. The miracles of Jesus remind us of what was and what is to come.

   We have no dread for the future. The Feeding of the 5,000 is a sign. It points backward to the way God made the world to be and forward to the future, when God will come to judge the living and the dead, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth.

   We live and we give generously as good stewards in response to what God has already done for us, and in tune with the final verses of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, in Revelation 22:20-21,

²⁰ The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. 

423 On Being Small

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “On Being Small”, originally shared on July 24, 2026. It was the 423^rd video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   There are a lot of small churches trying to get bigger and reclaim their glory days. Maybe that’s the problem.

   The FIFA World Cup competition is over! Every national team in the world, and their fans, is mourning its ending except one. Spain.

   Millions more people are mourning the loss of spectacle, the common experience, and the distraction from our crazy dangerous world.

   No one is mourning the outrageous expenses associated with the tournament for airfare, housing, local transportation, entertainment, and souvenirs.

   How do you even plan your trip, coming from another country, when you have no idea how far your team will go. There were lots of fans from Argentina and Spain at that final game. How do they afford it?

   And the price of tickets! I saw on the news that the median, the median (!), price of the cheapest available tickets through all the games was $916.00! Per ticket!

   The median price for a seat at the FIFA World Cup final game was $10,835 on the secondary market!

   I saw a guy from another country interviewed on TV who was asked how he could afford all of that. He smiled, shrugged and said, “I’ll worry about that when I get home.”

   And now the financial hangover will come.

   The sad irony is that people will spend a lot of money chasing a temporary thrill for a sporting competition, but they will ignore the small thing that points them to the life that endures forever.

   That’s what is described in the reading from the Gospels in the Bible that will be shared in the vast majority of churches in the world this coming Sunday, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52.

   Jesus is reminding us not to live by superficial things, but to put our minds on the things that endure. He teaches us about the already-here but not-yet-perfected reign of God by showing us what to look for: the small, the insignificant and the often overlooked things in this world. And why.

   He starts with a parable, an earthly story with a single heavenly meaning, told from a fishing boat near the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Matthew 13:31-32,

³¹ He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; ³² it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

   Most Christian Churches in the United States are not growing from a small seed into a mighty tree. In fact, they are growing in the opposite direction.

   There are many reasons, but I think that this parable reminds us of what we are clearly doing wrong.

   We are not planting seeds, but instead something inert, like a penny or a button or a rock.

   We are not planting the kingdom of heaven, but a culture that is foreign to most people not raised in it. Not a transformed life but a friendly family. Not a future but a past.

   The kingdom of heaven, the place where God reigns in peoples’ lives, however, is like a mustard seed. It’s organic. And it will grow where it is planted in good soil.

   Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed was very encouraging to the Church in its early days. The Christian Church was small, it was vulnerable, it was under attack, but Jesus said that it would grow and reproduce, all by God’s action. It would grow and be a place of refuge and strength. It would grow because of their faith.

   We are a part of that parable. We are the heirs of all those who have gone before us for nearly two thousand years now, who have been called, equipped and sent by God with everything necessary to plant the seeds of faith.

   And God plants and opens the good ground for us. All people have to do is open their hearts, receive the gift, and be faithful to God’s call.

   I bought a big bag of mustard seeds for a quarter when I was a college student in Israel, and I brought them home with me. They’re pretty small, they’re about the size of sesame seed, but if they are planted in the right soil and nourished and watered, they’ll grow. And they grow into something many, many times their original size.

   They don’t need a lot from us. Most of what they need comes from God’s creation. In fact, you’ve probably seen mustard seeds growing wild around here, with no human interference.

   Some varieties in Israel, a place with a climate a lot like ours, can grow to 6-feet tall, taller than me. Birds, as Jesus said, can make nests in them.

   They’re a lot like us.

   What we need to grow is to be who God has made us to be, that is, to be who we are. To offer people a model for new, organic, non-counterfeit, transformed lives and the process that God can use to make it happen.

   Jesus makes the point with another parable as our Gospel text for this week continues in the next verse, Matthew 13:33,

³³ He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

   Many of us have baked things all our lives. Many others not so much, except maybe during the pandemic when we had a lot of time on our hands.

   You may remember that baking, especially bread, got to be so popular that there was a yeast shortage of both the active dry and the instant varieties!

   Yeast is necessary because it changes what’s around it. Yeast is alive!

   Is there a yeast shortage in the Church today?

   Are we alive? Does the Holy Spirit bring people transformed lives in Jesus Christ through what we do? Are we places where new life is not just possible but is on display?

   Or do we offer nothing but a tradition, a local dynasty, or museum dedicated to people who want their legacy to be preserved? And if so, why would people give up their old, sinful selves for that?

   Jesus offers two examples of what people would give up their lives for when they discover what new life in Jesus Christ is really about. He is speaking now only to his close disciples from a house, probably Peter and Andrew’s home in the fishing village of Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, when our text continues with Matthew 13:44-45,

⁴⁴ “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

⁴⁵ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶ on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

   That seems kind of hopeful, even optimistic, doesn’t it?

   How would a person come to know what the Gospel is in such a way that they are excited to find it? Does that happen in your church? 😊

   Maybe among Muslims who hear the Gospel and are able to overcome the real fear that their family and friends will, at best, disown and reject them and, at worst, will kill them if they receive the Good News and come to faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe among people who have never known that God could love them. Maybe among people who have lived their lives being afraid of God’s constant Judgement.

   That kind of Gospel would transform their world!

   How might that happen?

   I know of one model. It works by planting seeds. It’s the model I heard about from Lutheran Word and Sacrament Missionaries in Tanzania that the congregation I once served, and my family, helped to support financially.

   Sally and I have continued to support the mission he helped develop there and which continues to grow now through local leadership.

   The model begins with a local Tanzanian seminary that trains evangelists, missionaries, and pastors.

   An evangelist who has completed the training will be sent to the edge of the church’s presence in a region. They will start a Bible study under a tree. When there are enough people taking part, a missionary who has completed their training from the seminary will be sent there and the evangelist will move farther out.

   The missionary will start to build a simple, one room building as a multi-purpose room for worship, study, and distributing food and human services for the congregation’s members and the community where it is located.

   When the congregation grows and the facility is finished, a pastor who has completed their training at the seminary is called and comes to lead worship, provide pastoral care, teach, and encourage new leaders to attend the seminary.

   By then, the missionary can move to where the evangelist has been serving, and the evangelist can move even farther out, and the process repeats itself.

   That is how a missional church works. It is like a seed, like leaven, like the thing that seems small but grows organically through the faithful people of God.

   The Christian Church is not growing here or in the Global West or in the Northern Hemisphere in general, where there are plenty of resources.

   But it is booming in the Global East and in the southern hemisphere in places where the resources are few and the people struggle for necessities, where they sometimes are persecuted for their faith, and where they have no power.

   The Lutheran Church of Tanzania is the fastest growing Lutheran church body in the world!

   The Christian Church does better when we can’t depend on our own power but must turn to God. We do better when we don’t think about what we don’t have but look around for what we do have from God to share the Good News of God’s transformational new life in Jesus Christ.

   It is God working through us or it is nothing.

   Will our smallness be our strength, will it lead us to call upon God to restore our true selves?

   Or will we continue to be a consumer church pleasing people, giving them what they want, providing services, just looking for what will bring in church members but not for what will make them actual Christians?

   The difference between being a consumer church and a missional church, it’s been said, is the difference between “I go to church” and “I am the church”.

   Which one are we?

   We center our lives, our faith, our common ministry, and our future on the cross, God’s gift of God’s self, to reconcile us to God and to give us everlasting life by faith, through grace. Jesus gave his life and then took it back again in the resurrection, so that the power of the Holy Spirit might be present and at work within us, so that we may grow and produce other Christians.

   How does that work, and how are we doing?

   Our credible witness to family and friends who know us the best is often the primary means through which God plants the seeds of the Gospel from which the Kingdom of God grows. The Holy Spirit shapes them from within, like a pair of work gloves. The more we express the gift of faith for the sake of the world, the more God shapes us for evangelism while we await the harvest at the end of time.

   Jesus continues with what is at stake, in Matthew 13:45-50,

⁴⁷ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸ when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹ So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰ and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

   How can a good God condemn anyone to eternal punishment?

   Nicky Gumble, a priest of the Evangelical Anglican church in England has said that that he believes that after God’s Final Judgement, people of good will will consider what has happened and say, “That’s fair.”

   I believe that, too. It seems right, and it is wise. It does not presume to know the mind of God, or that any human being would be more fair, or more merciful, or more just than God.

   How do we respond to what is coming?

   Jesus concludes this week’s gospel reading with what we can do, in Matthew 13:51-52,

⁵¹ “Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.” ⁵² And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

   I think that that part is kind of funny.

   Have you ever been in a classroom and the teacher asked if there were any questions and no one raised their hand, because no one understood enough to even ask a question?

   Jesus asks the disciples directly, “Have you understood all this?”, and they respond “Yes,” when it seems clear from what follows that they didn’t understand any of it. Everyone thought all the other guys understood perfectly, I suppose, and didn’t want to look like the only one who didn’t get it.

   We don’t understand much more than they did, though  we act like we do.

   And then Jesus throws out that even more difficult conclusion. He says, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

   What does that mean?

   That part’s not so funny, because Jesus is getting down to the hard foundation of faith and the Christian life.

   Jesus seems to be saying that only someone who understands Jesus’ teaching by following Jesus as his disciples understands who Jesus is.

   He did not come to cancel the Old Testament, but to fulfill it. We are still under the religious laws of the Old Testament and have been condemned by them. Forever. The good news, the New Testament is that Jesus is our Savior. He came to restore the living relationship with the one true living God, the God of Israel, of the Law and of the Prophets, for us on the cross.

   Those who follow Jesus must draw from both the Law and the Gospel, as the master of a household draws treasures that are old and that are new.

   Our explanation of what it means to be a Christ doesn’t have to be elaborate or detailed. It can just be our story.

   Jesus is also teaching us that being a Christian isn’t about what we do or don’t do. It’s about who we are, that then produces the behavior that is the visible sign of being a Christian.

   We aren’t perfect, just saved, saved by faith in Jesus Christ, by God’s grace, on the cross.

   Christians are like organic fruits and vegetables. We have flaws, but offer something more important than our appearance. We are producing and spreading the seeds of faith, or we are seedless. 😊

   There are lots of fruits and vegetables that look good but don’t have seeds. Seedless grapes and watermelon, bananas and pineapples, cucumbers and tomatoes all can be seedless.

   They taste good. They are pleasing and nourishing for one generation, they are convenient, but they are temporary. There will not be another generation.

   We don’t see actual tangerines much anymore. The have thin skin and are hard to peel. They are too tart for some people and have lots of seeds.

   Instead, you probably buy the more convenient seedless tangerines called “Clementines”, often marketed as “Halos” or “Cuties”. Buying them, instead of actual tangerines, is a consumer decision.

   Many churches are consumer churches.

   A consumer church is like “Cuties” or “Halos”. Churches can easily focus on what pleases people, not on what pleases God. They expect very little of their members or of those who want to become members. They are sweet, but they have no seeds. No seeds mean no growth.

   But in a missional church, in a tangerine church, more may be asked of you to get to the substance of why you are there. And in the end, the Christian life you live may not be as sweet as you had imagined it. But it will be real. It will contain the inconvenient seeds that are the means for growth. Those seeds are what makes more Christians. who grow to be like trees and bushes that in turn bear more new life, and on and on.

   We don’t grow by trying to be like what we were in the past. We grow by sharing the good news of new life in Jesus Christ, a life that begins now and moves toward the future God has called, equipped, and sent us to be!

   Among all the things that we can be, be the mustard seed, be the yeast. Don’t worry about size. Be the quality that God has made you to be. God will take care of the quantity.

   Among all the produce, be the one with seeds. Be like the tangerine. It may be harder to peel the fruit, and the outcome may be tart rather than sweet, but it brings joy now and eternal life in the world to come.

   And in the end, you will bear much fruit.  And it will grow into a mighty Church.