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JESUS, JUST AROUND THE CORNER

11/30/2025

Sunday, November 30, 2025 – Advent 1
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© the Rev. Dr. James Campbell

Matthew 24:36-44

“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

A few months ago, a South African man named Joshua Mhlakela was interviewed on a religious YouTube channel.  And during that interview, he claimed, with absolute certainty, that the world as we know it would end on September 25, 2025.  Mr. Mhlakela said that he was certain of this date because Jesus Christ himself had revealed it to him.

Well, obviously the video went viral.  And millions of people believed what he said.  And so, in preparation for the end of the world they quit their jobs and sold their cars and gave away all their savings.  Some of them transferred the deeds of their houses to those they were sure would be “left behind” in an event called the Rapture.  Maybe you’ve heard of it.

The Rapture as it is popularly conceived is actually a relatively new 19th century theological idea.  Before that time and for the first 1800 years of the church’s history, no Christian person had ever heard of the Rapture or expected anything like it.

But be that as it may, many do expect it now.  In fact, this might just be the dominant view of how all things will end.  But it is not a view that I share, even though I grew up with Rapture theology.

It seemed that we spoke of little else.  And all of that “end of the world talk” used to scare me to death.  Even at church camp, when I was riding horses and learning archery, there were daily doses of this theology and the horrors that would be brought upon all those who were left behind.

In addition to literally scaring the hell out of me as a kid, this theology also had some other very negative and lasting effects.  It set up an “us versus them” approach to everything.  It divided the world into two categories: the saved and the unsaved.  And because we were so fixated on being saved and rescued out of this awful world, we had little time to even think about serving our neighbors, or caring for the earth, or simply enjoying the incredible blessing we call “being alive.”

But what of the passage we just heard?  Doesn’t it seem to describe something like the Rapture?  Matthew puts it like this: “Two people will be in a field.  One will be taken.  The other left behind.  Two women will be grinding meal together.  One will be taken.  The other left behind.”

What that means, exactly, no theologian can say with certainty.  It’s all a bit of a mystery.  But the conclusion of this discourse is startlingly clear.  Jesus said: “Therefore you must also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Now, it's very important for us to remember that when the disciples heard Jesus say that they all believed that they would be the ones who saw the return of the Lord in their lifetimes.  In fact, all early Christians believed that. These folks could have never imagined that 2000 years later we would all still be waiting.

This waiting so disturbed the second and the third generation of early Christians that it caused a serious crisis of faith.  We know that because we see it reflected in some of St. Paul’s epistles, as he tries to explain to people what it means to wait for the coming of the Lord when the Lord seems to be delayed.  And so, in every generation since then, we seek to explain what it means to still be waiting for the coming of the Lord.

Now, you might be wondering why we’re talking about such things in a sanctuary bedecked with garland and festooned with a Christmon tree, and at a time when you’ve already heard Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” at least a half a dozen times!

But if you’ve been around here for a while, you already know what the answer is.  You know that I’m one of those Advent sticklers.  And I don’t believe that Advent is just a run-up to Christmas.  Instead, Advent is a season of repentance and introspection, with a very specific purpose: to help us to see Christ when he comes.  And that takes preparation.

The first time he came, Wise Men first studied the stars and then traveled a great distance to find him.  The shepherds came in from their fields and scoured the streets to find him.  And to find him, you had to let go of your expectations about where he would be, for Jesus always comes amongst the poor and the humble and the outsider.

That was a scandal back then.  But 2000 years has a way of softening a scandal.  We are so familiar with the story at this point that there is no surprise left in it for us.  We know all the characters.  We know how it ends.  And it’s all lost in a vast sea of sentimentality.

But what we still do not know, what we can never know, is how and when Christ will come again to us.  Are we ready?

Back about 2019, our church sponsored a presentation about the humanitarian crisis at the southern border.  This presentation was not about the politics of how to handle immigration.  We all know that we do not agree about that.  Instead, this presentation was about those things Christian people must agree upon – that is, treating the outsider and the foreigner and the desperate with dignity, kindness, and mercy – just as Jesus taught us.

Part of this presentation was a slide show of some of the ministries that local churches were doing with the migrants as they waited: providing food and medicine and spiritual support; books for children, toys and crafts.

Amongst all those slides, there was one that really captured my attention.  It was a drawing by a little girl, attempting to illustrate the journey that she and her family had made from Guatemala to northern Mexico where they were waiting as they applied for political asylum in the United States.

This little girl had drawn the footsteps of her journey between the two places.  She had thrown in some colorful flowers and butterflies to signify the natural beauty she had seen along the way.  And then across the top, in her child-like handwriting, she had written this: “Todo lo puedo en Cristo que me fortalece.” Which translates, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

And in that moment, I knew that Christ had come again to that child on her long journey; that the Crucified One had walked with her every step of the way.  But I was also sure of this: that Christ had also just come to me in that moment.  His presence was as real as the folding chair I sat upon.  And once again I knew that Jesus will not be bound by a Manger or by our eschatological schemes.  Instead, Christ will come again and again, when we least expect him, in places we would never look, and to those who need him the most.

So much about our world makes it hard for us to see Jesus.  So much of our own opinions makes it hard for us to see Jesus.  But Advent is four short and precious weeks, given to us year after year, so that we may make ourselves ready to see him.

And so, I ask you: how will you prepare?  How will you make your heart ready to receive him?  How will you open your eyes to behold him?  For just as surely as he came to Bethlehem, and just as surely as he will come again at the end of the age, he will come to us in the faces and stories of the poor and dispossessed.  He will come among the dehumanized and the ill.  He will come in the lonely and the forgotten, the hated and the misunderstood.

“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

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THANK GOD!

11/23/2025

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Thanksgiving and Consecration Sunday, November 23, 2025
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© the Rev. Dr. James Campbell

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.” You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

Well, here we go again!  There will be parties and Secret Santas and food.  There will be visiting relatives and long, long waits at the airport… and still more food.  There will be twinkling lights and ubiquitous Christmas music and sweatpants in a larger size… and still more food.  Food, glorious food!  Wonderful food!  Marvelous food!

How appropriate, then, that this season of feasting begins with the grandest feast of them all.  Thanksgiving Day is for everyone.  It knows no particular religion or political persuasion, no gender barriers or economic stratification.  It is simply a day of joy and gratitude for everyone born!  And that makes it a foretaste of glory divine - that day when God’s Table will be set for the whole human family with food, glorious food.

I was interested to learn this week that food and feasting and the rituals that surround them are mentioned more than 1000 times in the Bible.  Take the Scripture lesson of the day, for example.  It is a detailed description about how food becomes an act of worship.  And although this ritual is thousands of years old, it has a surprisingly resonant message for us 21st century Americans.

Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible, part of the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses.  And Deuteronomy contains a collection of speeches that Moses gave to the Children of Israel just before they entered the Promised Land.

Moses was about to die.  And like lots of folks at the end of life, he had important things to say to those he loved.  And one of those things was about the proper way to celebrate a feast of harvest.

Moses began his discourse with this foundational idea:  He said: “After you have settled in the Promised Land, and that first harvest comes in, remember that the first fruits belong to God.”

The first fruits – not whatever is left over, not what you can spare, never as an afterthought, but whatever comes first.  This dictum was taken so seriously that it became the custom to tie a ribbon around the first branch that blossomed in the spring or the first stalk that poked its head above the soil, so that at harvest time it would be clear what belonged to God and what belonged to you.

Then Moses continued: “And you shall put that first fruit into a basket and take it God’s house and present it to the priest.  And then, when the priest takes it from your hands, you are to say the following.”

Now, this is where I need you all to play your part as God’s people.  I want you to turn to page 4 in your bulletins and read aloud with me all the words in the Scripture lesson that are underlined.  Are you ready?

"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.  So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me."

I asked all of you to say these words because these were the people’s words.  They were not spoken by the clergy, but by the farmers and the women who tended their gardens and the children who gleaned the fields.  And in the speaking of these words, the people were reminded of two essential truths that were to undergird their lives.

The first essential truth is this: when we sing: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” apparently, we’re supposed to mean it.  Now that might seem like a no-brainer, hardly worth mentioning - except that we humans tend to live as if this is not the truth.  We live as if we did all of this ourselves.  And I’ll admit, that’s easy to do, in a land of plenty and a place where we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.

But that’s where rituals come in handy.  The ancient Hebrews recited these same words after every harvest, year after year, as a reminder that everything we have comes from God.  And the people taught this truth to their children.  They whispered it on their deathbeds.  They inscribed it on their hearts.  “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

The second essential truth found in these words is about the importance of remembering where you came from.  Notice that the Hebrew people didn’t start by talking about how much their gardens had produced or how rich they were now.  Instead, they spoke about their ancestor Jacob, who fled the wrath of his brother Esau, and ended up in the land of Arameans, rootless and homeless.  They recalled that time when their people were slaves in Egypt and had nothing.  And thus, the liturgy always began: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor…”  In other words, my ancestor was a slave.  My people were homeless.  I came from nothing.

Now remembering where you came from can be a profound exercise, but it is ultimately meaningless unless you also find a way to remember those who continue to wander.

But that remedy too is built into this ancient ritual.  Verse 11 reads: “Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.”

You see, the Levites were a professional religious class that was forbidden to own property.  And the aliens were refugees – people running from war or famine, who also owned nothing.  And yet the bounty of the harvest also belonged to them.  So, you were commanded to share the feast with them.

So, what does any of this have to do with Thursday?  Well, the first thing is pretty obvious, although I suspect it’s far less common than it used to be.  Remember in the old days how we always said grace, at least at Thanksgiving?  Whatever happened to that?  Now I know that public prayer is a scary idea for some.  But I have heard through the grapevine that AI can write some marvelous prayers.  But if saying grace is not your style, how about just going outside or finding a quiet corner to pause long enough to say “Thank you, God; thank you for everything”?

And while you’re at it, remember where you came from; remember where this land came from.  Because no matter how far removed we might be now; we are all the daughters and sons of wandering Arameans who sacrificed greatly to give us this life.  Some were natives; some were slaves; some were free.  But they all came here and lived their lives and planted their hopes and watered their dreams.  On Thursday, remember them.  And on Friday, help someone who is still wandering.

The days of feasting and plenty are upon us.  Oh, I hope you enjoy them all.  But don’t forget where it all comes from.  Remember the ancestors.  Remember the aliens.  Remember the hungry.  Remember the Lord.  And then dig in!

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GAINING YOUR SOUL

11/16/2025

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Sunday, November 16, 2025
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© the Rev. Dr. James Campbell

Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray, for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.

“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified, for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes and in various places famines and plagues, and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and siblings, by relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Did you know that once upon a time, I used to be young!  Seriously.  I think some of you used to be young, too.

And I remember that when I was young, I had, like most young people, a feeling of invincibility and of endless possibility.  I was annoyingly optimistic, and I honestly believed that I could do anything I set my mind to.  Oh, it was a wonderful feeling.  Do you remember?

And in my case, that youthful optimism was coupled with a particular brand of theology.  My church taught me that if I just believed the right things and did the right things, then, in addition to my youth, I would have health and wealth and a wonderful life.

Well, I haven’t been young for a long time now.  And I haven’t consciously held that theology for a long time now.  But its roots are deep and the residual effects continued to linger, even when I was not fully aware of them.

So, it was quite a shock when, one day, my little sister was diagnosed with serious breast cancer.  And that wasn’t supposed to happen.  And then my nephew became disabled by severe epilepsy, and that wasn’t supposed to happen either.  And then my father was diagnosed with dementia, and that really wasn’t supposed to happen.   And cracks began to appear in the façade I had erected.

And then over this past summer, I had what was the first real health crisis of my life.  I am glad to report that I am fine and healthy, but in the midst of that experience of testing and waiting, I was more frightened than I ever had been before.  And the Temple of my invincibility and special protection by God wobbled and groaned and eventually collapsed.  At first, I felt alone and unmoored.  But then I began to ask again: what is my faith based upon?  Was it the promise of God’s material and physical blessings?  Was it the idea of a so-called “hedge of protection” around my beautiful life?  Or was my faith actually built on something far more enduring than the Temple I had erected?

One day, Jesus and his disciples were in the grand Temple of Jerusalem.  They had just watched a poor widow put her last two cents into the Treasury.  Jesus tried to make that a teaching moment about what faithfulness in the midst of suffering looks like, but the disciples were too busy sightseeing to pay any attention to some old lady.  They were distracted by grandeur all around them.

And who can blame them?  If you’ve ever been inside a truly grand space, then you know exactly why they were distracted.

Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, recorded his own observations about this marvel of architecture.  He tells us that the Temple’s retaining walls were made enormous stones that were 40 feet long.  Imagine that!  The stone platform upon which the Temple itself rested was twice as large as the Roman Forum and four-times as large as the Athenian Acropolis.  The exterior walls of the Temple were covered with so much gold that when the sun shone upon them, one had to avert one’s gaze or risk blindness.  Inside this grand edifice, there were 1000 priests all dressed in opulent vestments walking the halls, leading the prayers, making the sacrifices.

Everything about this Temple spoke of permanence and power.  And because it did, everyone assumed that it would be there forever.

But Jesus shattered their fantasies.  Instead of joining them in their admiration, he said: “Do you see all of this?  One day not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

And that prophesy was fulfilled in the year 70 of this Common Era, when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and completely destroyed the Temple in response to a Jewish revolt.

Well, once the disciples recovered from their shock at what Jesus said, they asked when this calamity would occur.  But instead of answering their question, Jesus launched into an apocalyptic speech about the end of the age.  Jesus said that before the end comes, there would be wars, insurrections, earthquakes, famines, plagues, and strange signs in the sky.  His followers would be persecuted and imprisoned.  Families would be ripped apart.  And some folks would actually pay with their lives. (Aren’t you glad you came to church today?!)

Now, when I first read this Gospel lesson, I groaned.   And then I called a pastor friend to see what on earth he was going to say about this passage, only to hear him reply that he wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.  “Life is hard enough right now,” he said.  “People don’t need the Apocalypse on top of everything else!”

True enough, I thought.  But the apocalypse is what we’ve got.  And our world feels just as fragile as the one that Jesus described.  There are days when it feels like this Temple of Democracy is about to come tumbling down.

And then, of course, there is the Temple of our lives – these carefully erected edifices.  And those can feel threatened too.  The pressures we all live under are so intense.  Youth fades.  Prices rise.  Bodies creak.  Relationships break.  And so, we look for any way to shore up the walls of our lives.  Some of us use religion as a way to try to protect this life that we have created.  We want God to keep our Temples upright.  But Jesus said: “Do you see these walls?  Not one stone will be left upon another.”

But did you notice, that in the midst of all of this apocalyptic doom and gloom, there is an odd little verse that seems almost out of place.  Toward the end of his discourse about wars and persecutions and suffering and death, Jesus said: “But not a hair of your head will perish.”

But how can that be in a world turned upside down?  In the midst of all that calamity, including the prospect of death, what difference does a strand of hair make?

Well, I think it makes all the difference in the world.

Since Jesus first spoke these words, we have learned a great deal about genetics and the marvels of something called DNA.  And at this point, the results are so precise that something as tiny as a single strand of hair, including the follicle, contains our nuclear DNA.  And our nuclear DNA carries all the instructions for our development, functioning, and traits.  In that strand of hair are the building blocks for everything that makes us, US - our essence, our essential selves.  And that, Jesus said, will not perish, come what may.

But Temples?  Well, they come and go.  Empires rise and fall.  We are born. We live. We flourish. We fade. We die.  And that can all feel tragic if we believe that the Temples we have erected are the sum total of our lives.

When I was a kid, we used to sing a Gospel song called “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand.”  And the refrain goes like this: “Hold on brother, to God’s unchanging hand.  Hold on sister, to God’s unchanging hand.  Build your hope on things eternal and hold on to God’s unchanging hand.”

What else can we do? What else should we do, but trust ourselves, body and soul, to our faithful Savior who has promised that we will not perish?

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CHILDREN OF THE RESURRECTION

11/9/2025

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Sunday, November 9, 2025
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© the Rev. Dr. James Campbell

Luke 20: 27-38

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally, the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed, they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.”

What do you think of when you hear the phrase “family values?” Does it make you feel like an insider or an outsider?

The folks who first came up with that phrase were trying to emphasize a traditional and relatively modern view of what makes a family.  And they often pointed to the Bible as the basis of their definition of what a traditional family should look like.

But if you read the Bible seriously (which, by the way, I highly recommend), then you are going to hard pressed to find family values that are even remotely related to what we understand today.  Instead, in the pages of our holy book, we find God’s people engaged in things like plural marriages, relations with concubines, daughters bought and sold like property.  Those were their family values.

Those values are front and center in the Gospel lesson of the day.  And like today, folks on one side of the argument were using their definition of family values to score major political points.

But before we get there, we need to understand who the players are.  In the Judaism of Jesus’s day, the clerics were divided into two major parties: the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  The Sadducees were the priestly class who controlled the Temple rituals.  They were sticklers for proper liturgy and worship.  And when it came to what books they viewed as the word of God, they were very conservative in their approach.  The Sadducees only accepted the first five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.  Collectively these five books are known as the Pentateuch.  And since the Pentateuch makes no mention of life after death, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection.

The Pharisees were the scholars of the Law, parsing its meaning and seeing to its application in daily life.  And the Pharisees did accept other books as being part of  Scripture – books like the Prophets and Psalms.  And since those other books do refer to a life beyond this life, the Pharisees believed in the concept of Resurrection.  And so did Jesus.

And this made the Sadducees nervous because Jesus was very popular.  People traveled great distances to listen to Jesus teach.  And so, the Sadducees decided to lay a theological trap for Jesus and to expose him in front of the adoring crowds, and thus to score one for their team.

In a sly move worthy of any modern politician, the Sadducees got Jesus into a public place.  Then they posed what they thought was a difficult question and waited for him to misspeak so that they could pounce.

They referenced a Law of Moses that states that if a man dies childless, his brother should marry the widow and have children with her.  In that way, the dead brother’s name would live on, and the wife would continue to be provided for.  It’s not exactly a modern feminist model but remember that childless widows were often left to fend for themselves, having no rights to their dead husband’s estate.

So, the spokesman for the Sadducees said: “Rabbi Jesus, there was a woman who had a husband, but one day the husband died and there were no children from the union.  So, according to the Law, the husband’s brother married the widow.  But he died too, and there were no children from that union either.  Then the third brother married her and died, same story.  And on and on it went, all seven brothers marrying her, all dying childless and then finally the woman died.” (Probably from exhaustion!)  “So, Jesus,” he said, “in the resurrection, whose wife will she be, for all seven had married her?”

The crowd fell silent.  This was the moment of truth.  All ears were tuned to hear what Jesus would say in regard to family values and the age to come.

But Jesus was very adept at slipping out of other people’s traps.  And instead of answering the question they posed, Jesus told them that they didn’t even begin to understand what they were asking.  He told them that they were using the Scriptures to justify what they already wanted to believe – which is never a good way to use the Bible.

“So, Jesus, whose wife will she be?”

And Jesus replied, “No one’s!  Because in the age to come marriage will be superfluous.  In the age to come, people won’t marry, and no one will be given away in marriage.  It will be beside the point because we’ll all be like angels, children of God, children of the resurrection.”

Well, what on earth was that supposed to mean?

Well, first of all, we must remember that in Jesus’ day, a woman had no rights.  A woman was a second-class citizen at best.  Women were bought and sold.  Women could not inherit money or property.  And everyone assumed that this was the will of God.

But Jesus turned their whole worldview and their sincerely held religious beliefs on their heads.

“This woman won’t belong to anyone,” Jesus declared.  “Instead, she will be on equal footing before God.  No one will own her.  No one will give her away.  She will not be called by her husband’s name.  Instead, she will have her own name; her true name: a child of God, a child of the resurrection.

Well, I’m not sure that Jesus changed any Sadducee minds that day.  Political arguments rarely change anybody’s mind.  Have you noticed?  But maybe Jesus wasn’t even really talking to the Sadducees at all.

Maybe all of this political theater was for the benefit of that one woman, on the edge of the crowd that day, who before that very moment had never considered herself as having any worth on her own.  Or maybe Jesus was talking to that widow right there in the front, dressed in rags, who had been left on her own to beg and to borrow just to survive.  Maybe Jesus’s words fell on the ears of a disabled man who would never get married because of the way he was born.  Or maybe those words were for that childless couple who had lost all hope of ever having a family.  Or maybe it was the gay man in the crowd that day, or the foreigner, or the outsider.  Maybe, for all of those folks, this was the first time they had ever thought of themselves as individuals, and as having invaluable worth.

What happened that day was a manifesto of the values of the Kingdom of God.  And what Jesus said that day is the message of his church.  Because friends, this world is still full of people on the edge, on the margins, excluded, unseen unheard.  Maybe you are one of them.

And if the church doesn’t tell folks who they really are, who will?  If the church doesn’t speak and work and sacrifice for the full humanity of every single human, who will?  If the church does not march and protest and use our considerable influence for the good of the least, the last, and the lost, who will?  Who will tell the people that they are Children of the Resurrection?

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LOST AND FOUND

11/2/2025

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Memorial Music Sunday – November 2, 2025
First Congregational Church of Cheshire
© the Rev. Dr. James Campbell

John 6:1-14

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated; so also, the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So, they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

This church, like most churches, has a de facto Lost and Found.  And you wouldn’t believe the things people actually leave behind.  Some are very common, like umbrellas and coats and ink pens and water bottles.  Others are expensive, like cell phones, jewelry, or designer sunglasses.  And then there are the odd things, like prescription drugs, packaged food, and once a small appliance.

We hold onto these things for a while in our Lost and Found.  But truth be told, mostly it’s just a Lost department.  It’s a collection of things that people almost never come back to get.  And so, eventually I load those things into my car and take what I can to Goodwill.

I’m always glad to think that these things will have a new home.  But I’m also sad to think that something someone once chose and treasured and perhaps even loved, isn’t missed enough for the person to search it out again.

And so, it’s odd to me that we speak of the dead as being lost.  “We lost them,” we say.  It’s odd because if there’s anything we would come back to look for; anything we would seek to retrieve, it’s those we have loved and who have died.  In fact, we never stop looking for connections of any kind: a photo, an old shirt, a funny story.  We think about them, dream about them, long for them.

Our loved ones are not really lost, but they are gone - at least from us.  And that can make us feel lost.

At the end of a long day of teaching and healing, Jesus had sailed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee for some rest and rejuvenation.  But the crowd followed him all the way around the periphery of the lake because they were desperately looking for what they had lost: health, relationships, faith.

And apparently, in their excitement about seeing and hearing Jesus, they had all left home that morning without packing a lunch.  And so, by this point in a long day, they were hungry.  And somehow Jesus knew that.  So, he asked Phillip where on earth they could buy enough food for everyone.  “Forget where,” Phillip replied.  “How about HOW, since we don’t have the money to buy that much food!”

Andrew overheard this exchange, and trying to be helpful, jumped in: “Well, there is some food,” he said, “a little boy over there has five barley loaves and two fish.”  It was one of those things you say in the excitement of the moment that you immediately regret.  And all the other disciples just rolled their eyes, and said: “There he goes again.”

But Jesus had an idea.  “Tell the people to sit down,” he said.  “And then go and ask that boy for his lunch.”

We don’t know anything about this boy other than this one moment in his life, but no matter where else his life might have taken him; no matter what other decisions he might have made, he is enshrined for us as a generous and trusting soul.

Jesus took the barley loaves and fish, blessed them, broke them, and gave the pieces to the disciples to distribute to the people.  Theologians tell us that this action was a precursor to the Last Supper: Jesus blessing and breaking the bread and feeding hungry souls.

Well, lo and behold, from those five loaves and two fish somehow everyone had enough.  5000 people had enough!   And that was, indeed, a miracle.  But then again, so was what came next.

After everyone had eaten all they wanted, Jesus, sort of like my mother, was not about to waste any food.  And so, he said to his disciples: “Now go out there and gather up all the leftover fragments, so that nothing may be lost.”

Those six words, “So that nothing may be lost” are so easy to ignore, but I am convinced that they are the whole Gospel in miniature.

This passage ends with this statement: “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”  The most obvious meaning of that statement is that they were thankful for their full bellies in a world in which they were often hungry.  But I wonder if at least some of them saw the miracle of a prophet who was not willing that even one crumb would be lost.

The Gospel declares that Jesus Christ came into this world to seek and to save that which is lost.  Sometimes, we’re lost.  And when death shatters our world, then everything can seem lost.

But 2000 years ago, in some cool green grass, Jesus showed us the God who refuses to leave anyone behind.  This God walks in the fields of our lives looking for every fragments of our broken hearts – every broken dream, broken hope, broken love - and gathers them into a safe place.

And one day, when the time is right, we will be gathered too.  And everything we have ever lost, including ourselves, will once again be found.

Thanks be to God.  Amen.

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