Sermons
Common and Yet Still Blessed
Link to sermon video: Common and Yet Still Blessed - V Rossi
Blessed Broken Given, Week 1: Your Life as Bread
[CONNECTION]
Is there anything more ordinary than bread
Everywhere you go in the world, there is some version of bread. The French have baguettes and croissants; Latin countries have tortillas; Indians have naan; Chinese cultures have doughy buns. And Americans have sliced white bread. Although I only eat wheat bread. White bread to me is like eating a wet piece of cardboard!
Bread is the building block of a meal, a staple in most diets. How many times have we gone out to eat and bread is brought to the table? I always have kidded Deb about her being of Hungarian decent and that is why she wants bread with most of her meals. But I do know that all of us like a slice of warm buttered bread at our meal. One of my memories of growing up was the smell of bread baking that permeated throughout the house.
Mom would make homemade bread and I always asked for an end piece with melting butter.
In New York City we had a beagle lady that would make fresh beagles and sell them on Saturdays.
It was this way in the world of the Bible too. Bread was a common, ordinary meal.
In fact, the word bread is used 361 times in the Bible. 280 times in the OT and 81 times in the NT.
It is the very commonness, (if that is a word), of bread that makes it the perfect metaphor for our lives. If we’re honest, most of what we do is ordinary. We get up, go to work—paid or unpaid—mess around at our hobbies, and try to do our best. We shuttle kids around, mow the lawn, and shop for groceries.
For the most part, nothing about our daily lives sets us apart from the people around us. It’s just life. Like bread, it’s ordinary.
Maybe that’s how you see yourself. Maybe you’ve settled for a life that may not matter that much; you accept it because you have become comfortable, or you find yourself grasping and grabbing for something that always feels just out of reach. Maybe you’re wrestling with unkind thoughts,—the ones like; I just don’t matter, or, I’m “less than” and “never enough.”
I have good news for you. There is more to this life than what we see.
Throughout Scripture, we discover that nothing is as common as it seems, not even bread. A type of Bread fell from heaven as a sign of God’s provision;
bread became a metaphor for the law of the Lord. Jesus fed the multitudes with loaves of bread, and referred to himself as “the bread of life.”
Then, on the night that He was handed over to suffering and death, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples as a picture of His body being given for the life of the world.
Luke records three stories in his gospel about Jesus taking bread in His hands, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it. I want us to look at the first of those stories today. We certainly could look at all three but that would take a couple more sermons.
[TEXT]
Luke 9:10-12 (CEB)
‘When the apostles returned, they described for Jesus what ,they had done. Taking them with him, Jesus withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida. 11 When the crowds figured it out, they followed him. He welcomed them, spoke to them about God’s kingdom, and healed those who were sick. 12 When the day was almost over, the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so that they can go to the nearby villages and countryside and find lodging and food, because we are in a deserted place.” ’
We can see several things here. First of all, the needs of the people are overwhelming. Secondly, resources are in short supply. The impulse to send the people away is not uncompassionate; it is, in the minds of His disciples, practical.
If we’re honest, this is how we feel when we see the needs of our friends, family, and neighbors. It can all feel overwhelming at times. Turn on the news, and we’re bombarded by more tragedies and hardships. Scroll through Facebook, and you see the difficult doctor’s diagnoses or unexpected losses that people you know are dealing with. A simple ‘sad face’ emoji won’t cut it. You may reply and say you’re praying for them, which is a great thing to do, but what else can you really do? It’s just too much sometimes. And on top of that, you’ve got your stuff to deal with. There are times that your own life is no walk in the park. Deb & I have had some really tough times this past year. We are still reeling and trying to adjust. With so much going on we may just throw up our hands and say,
“Send them away, Jesus”, all of us may want to say the same at times.
But Jesus won’t let his early disciples—or us—off the hook.
Luke 9:13-17 (CEB)
‘He replied, “You give them something to eat.” But they said, “We have no more than five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all these people.” 14 (They said this because about five thousand men were present.) Jesus said to his disciples, “Seat them in groups of about fifty.” (That’s at least 100 separate groups! How many women and children were there and needed to be seated as well?)15 They did so, and everyone was seated. 16 He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. 17 Everyone ate until they were full, and the disciples filled twelve baskets with the leftovers.’
Jesus blessed the bread. Jesus broke the bread. Jesus gave the bread. Could He have been setting a theme for them to grasp?
Those three actions changed the whole story.
A “desolate place” became a place of abundance.
A desert became a banquet.
A story that began with “not enough” ended with there being more than enough.
This is what happens when Jesus takes something that we think is just ordinary—bread in this case!—and blesses it, breaks it, and gives it.
I think those three words can change the story for all of us as well!
Jesus took bread, blessed it by giving thanks to the Father, broke it, and gave it.
Bread in the hands of Jesus is blessed, broken, and given. And so it is for you and me. (Hear is our main point this morning.), Our lives, as common and ordinary as bread, in Jesus’s hands becomes something more.
AMEN TO THAT?
In the hands of Jesus, our lives become blessed.
Thus the title to our lesson this morning, “Common Yet Blessed!”
This blessedness is not about accumulating or achieving more. It’s not like that often-seen bumper sticker, “He who dies with the most toys win.”
That bumper sticker has been answered by the oft used phrase, “You never see a U-Haul in a funeral procession! Jesus answers this as well Luke 9:25 – “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?”
Blessedness is about having our true calling revealed. It is to be given new identity. Once we were a sinner; now we are a saint. Once we were far off; now we are a cherished family member.
In the hands of Jesus, your life becomes broken.
But in a new way. In a Good way! There are several different kinds of brokenness. There is a brokenness that comes from our frailty— our limitations. There is a brokenness that comes from our own failure—our sin.
But all these kinds of brokenness can be placed in Jesus’s hands.
When we place the brokenness of our failure, frailty, and suffering in Jesus’s hands, we become open to the grace of God.
This brokenness is not about wallowing in our sin which seems so easy to do, but opening our hearts and minds to the grace of God to humble us, to lead us into vulnerability with others, and to transform our heart. Brokenness becomes openness in the hands of Jesus.
After all, bread that is not broken cannot be shared.
In the hands of Jesus, your life becomes given.
You realize you are not here for yourself. Life with Jesus is deeply personal but never private. The openness that comes from being broken is meant to lead us outward. President Jimmy Carter while visiting Africa met a gentleman that although he didn’t have much did a lot. Pres. Carter asked him what is his key to success. The gentleman thought for a moment and said, “ I love God first and anyone that is standing in front of me!” His love for God gave him a love for his fellow man. He had turned his brokenness into openness.
We are to be the city set on a hill and a light to all. There is a hunger in the world around us, a deep longing for something more. When our life becomes blessed and broken in Jesus’s hands, He gives us purpose for the life we will have in the world. We become the way others find the “Bread of Life”. But to be that way, we must first experience the blessing and embrace the brokenness—only then will we be free from what holds us back, consecrated, set apart to bring change in powerful ways.
Luke 9:16 (CEB)
“He took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.”
One of the remarkable things about this story is that Jesus gives the bread back to the disciples. If He did the miracle of increasing, surely He could have done the miracle of distribution? Why involve the disciples at all?
Because that’s what God does. God made human beings in His image to reflect His rule into the world.
From the beginning, God chose to involve humans as His collaborators, His helpers.
Jesus had told the disciples to give the people something to eat (Luke 9:13). They wanted to send the people away. The disciples saw the crowd as the problem; Jesus saw the crowd as the disciples’ responsibility.
And now, because of Jesus’s miraculous blessing, what was not enough has become more than enough. And weary disciples who were willing to be the bearers of bad news to hungry people now become the carriers of good news to those same people.
That's what Jesus does: He blesses us and takes our brokenness and turns it into something that can be for the good of someone else. Our Purpose is restored!
Blessedness and brokenness are for the sake of givenness.
The text opens by showing us how Jesus responded to the crowd following Him to this remote place.
Luke 9:11 (CEB)
“When the crowds became aware of this, they followed him. He welcomed them, spoke to them about God’s kingdom, and healed those who were sick.”
Jesus welcomed the people.
Jesus taught the people.
Jesus healed the people.
Jesus fed the people.
Jesus prepares the Feast.
Not only is Jesus the one who welcomes the people, Jesus feeds them. With Jesus, there is always an abundance. More and more and more. Grace is always more.
Romans 5:20; “And the law came in that the transgression might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”
Luke 9:17 (CEB)
“Everyone ate until they were full, and the disciples filled twelve baskets with the leftovers.”
Jesus turned a desolate place into a place of abundance.
That’s what Jesus does! And so the question is, Do we see it? Do we see the world as Jesus sees it? Do we truely Love God and anyone standing in front of us? The disciples of Jesus really saw their location as a remote and deserted place. Jesus seen it as an opportunity of blessing and fullness and glory of God?
This is all Jesus’s work!
And that’s really good news. You don’t have to be profound or lead a massive production. You don’t have to be spectacular.
You can be bread. Just as bread seems common and ordinary, but is actually crammed full of glory, so your life is actually holy. That’s what happens when Jesus takes us into His hands.
Our surrender makes us bread in the hands of Jesus!
[INVITATION]
In just a couple minutes we will be led in an invitation song. That is your opportunity to make your descision to place yourself in the hands of Jesus!
The Hebrew poets and prophets talked about the relationship between God and His world like this:
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,
the world and those who dwell therein,
for he has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the rivers. (Psalm 24:1–2)
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth! (Psalm 57:5)
And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3)
The whole earth is full of God’s glory. God, the holy God, the God who is above and beyond everything and everyone else—His glory is filling not only the heavens but also the earth!
Think about that for a minute. God is holy and His glory fills the earth. God is not only above and beyond His creation; He is also somehow within it. God is holy, and He is filling the common with glory.
Sometimes we glimpse something. It may simply be a spark, a surge of joy, or a flash of awe.
We ponder the mystery and wonder of it all. Our imaginations are awakened. And we see it: God is here. God has been here the whole time. The heavens are open. The whole earth is full of His glory.
That’s not just a dinner with friends; it’s the joy that only God can grant, reminding us we’re not alone. That’s not just the sound of a baby crying in the night and robbing us of sleep; that is the evidence that your child is loved, that she believes you will care for her. These are all gifts from God, ordinary yet extraordinary.
Someone put it this way:
“Sure, things can be reduced to technical descriptions, just as a great symphony can be explained as a mathematical sequence of sonic intervals. But music is more than math, and life is more than a sum of its events. In each moment, in each breath and thought and act, something more is going on. It is not merely ordinary.”
Surely the Lord is in this place—the place where we are right now—do we know it?
It’s true: The whole earth is full of His glory. We may feel as though we are in a desolate place void of anything useful, but God is there and because He is, it is holy!
Place your life in Jesus’s hands.
Your ordinary can be crammed full of glory.
Your not-enough-ness can become ‘more than enough’.
Your everyday can become full of purpose.
To those that have been a child of God for a while, pray the Lord rekindles that spark of awe in your life. May we all be humbled before Him.
To anyone that has yet to accept Jesus as Lord of your life, now is the time to begin your walk with the Lord.
Here is a shot video that shows what the Lord has done for you and the good news that it established!
As bread Jesus wants to bless you, and heal your heart, and give you direction and purpose. As we all stand and sing this invitation song, come forward and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and thus become a child of God. God wants to fill your basket, your life to overflowing. Your just one small step away.
Let us sing!
