WEEKLY MESSAGE: "GOD GIVES US WHAT WE NEED FOR VICTORY" Fifth week in the Time of Galilee

• As we form our ministry this month, we face a very difficult few years ahead of us. The immigration issue is dividing the nation – or rather it is being used by Trump and the Republicans to divide the nation. The debate in Congress this month is really a debate on where the line will be drawn among the undocumented. Some will be safe while the others will be defined by ICE as targets for arrest and deportation and by an angry, racist mob as fair game for violent attack. We must form our ministry with these conditions in mind.
• Today, in this place of many miracles, you stand on Holy Ground where you can taste the Kingdom of God because Jesus sacrificed to establish communities of faith. Francisca Lino, by her sacrifice, has given you a taste of the kingdom. Miguel Perez, by his sacrifice, has given you a taste of the Kingdom. When you organize your family, your friends, your people, in groups and share what you have tasted with them you connect the dry bones and God will breathe life into them., then you become a true disciple. What we need today is for everyone here to be a disciple.

You see someone on the street you know. You smile and they smile back and say hello. Everywhere you go, to shop, to work, you know people. It is your community. You have made it your community. Yet there are those who would take that from you; those who would send men with guns to arrest people and rip families and friends apart. Fear and suspicion would take the smiles of recognition from your lips. They would have you pass each other without speaking. That is what happens when they target a community for suppression. They do it to tie together a force of hate against you. They would place you in the valley of the dry bones, disconnected, killing joy and killing spirit. Today we say no!

We are in the season of the formation of our ministry for this year. We are growing our four churches, so they will be the spiritual centers of our movement, organizing Familia Latina Unida around each of these churches. We are reorganizing the FuerZa Juventud with four pillars of focus: the fight against the 20-year death gap in health care, the fight against drug violence and mass incarceration, the fight to stop deportations and the fight for education that matters. As we seek to breathe new life into these ministries we know from our experience that the leadership we need must come from families and individuals who renew their own spiritual lives, their relationships and their commitment to their people. We say that the success of our ministries depends on those who seek to be disciples, who seek to perfect their faith, every hour, every day.

We are in the fifth week of that season as we follow Jesus in the formation of his ministry and the development of his disciples. We have seen that Jesus taught both by his teaching and by his example. He taught that the Kingdom of God was near. He taught that people should not settle for lives lived in injustice and compromise because the justice and love and creativity of the Kingdom of God could exist among them NOW. He showed them the Kingdom and by his sacrifice he let them taste it!

He showed the disciples how to heal the scars and sickness among those who were discriminated against and how to call out the demons that oppression had planted in some. He has been showing the disciples how to renew the spirit and the faith of the people, one by one. He had to struggle with the disciples to get them to understand that they could do these things themselves if they believed in what God had planted in each of them. This struggle with the disciples is our struggle. Each of us can be a disciple, an example for our people, for our next generation, if we set our eyes on perfection each day and refuse to accept compromise in the way we live.

Today in scripture, we find Jesus teaching in a field in Galilee. Word of his message and his miracles has spread and 5,000 have gathered to hear him. He speaks wisdom and inspiration from his heart and the Spirit is strong in him. As the hour grows late and the sky becomes dark the disciples approach Jesus and try to convince him to end the meeting and send the people back to their homes. They tell Jesus that the people are hungry but they do not have enough food to feed them or enough money to buy food for them.

Imagine what Jesus is thinking about the disciples – and know that Jesus is thinking the same thing about us. “When will they have the faith to carry on this ministry?” he wonders.  “Here are the people, hungry for a new vision, hungry for justice, hungry for new relationships, hungry for a relationship with God – and you guys want to send them home because you don’t have enough food for them? Wow!”

Jesus turns to the disciples and tells them to organize the people in groups of fifty and one hundred. Then he asks them what food they have. They say we have only a few fish and a few loaves of bread. Jesus says, “Feed the people.”

Through the years people have debated the miracle by which all 5,000 were fed and 12 baskets were left over. So let’s talk about that.

I tend to believe that the people then, mostly compesinos there with their families, were like us when we go to a meeting. They all had prepared food for the trip. Some had tamales. Some had corn. Some had tortillas and carne asada. When the disciples went among the people sharing what they had, then the people shared what they had with each other. What was needed was the willingness to share what they had and the decision to organize the people in groups of fifty and one hundred so that they could work together – so that they could share what they had!

Remember that in the Bible, “bread” is not only food but it is the word of God. When the Israelites had left Egypt and were crossing the desert, they became desperate and discouraged and wanted to turn back to lives of slavery. From the heavens came “Manna”, something they could eat together. Moses taught them not to gather more than they could eat each day and those who tried to take more than their share found their manna grew rotten.

When we celebrate communion today we will recall the words of Jesus at the last supper. Taking the bread, he broke it saying, “Take, eat, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Jesus is the LIVING word. He took the words of justice, and love, and put them into practice in his life, making the ultimate sacrifice. The bread the disciples handed out was the living word, the way of living that plants the Kingdom of God among the people, the way of living which encourages those around them, that refuses to give up, that refuses to become bitter and selfish. That is the miracle of the fish and the loaves!

What was the disciple’s problem? Why couldn’t they see that what they had to offer was sufficient to feed the people, to stimulate by their example the people to share what they had? I believe the disciples then, like most of us today, just didn’t feel that they had enough to share, that we don’t feel like we have enough knowledge or authority or hope to share. We think that what the government decides will happen and nothing can be done.

As we form our ministry this month, we face a very difficult few years ahead of us. The immigration issue is dividing the nation – or rather it is being used by Trump and the Republicans to divide the nation. The debate in Congress this month is really a debate on where the line will be drawn among the undocumented. Some will be safe while the others will be defined by ICE as targets for arrest and deportation and by an angry, racist mob as fair game for violent attack. We must form our ministry with these conditions in mind.

We are blessed with the remnants of last year’s struggle. This week Miguel began a hunger strike, bringing the humanity of the green card veterans to the light. Francisca Lino remains in sanctuary, bringing the humanity of the parents of U.S. citizen children and the parents of DACA recipients to the light. Through the struggle of Luis Pedroza we are in court defending those excluded from DACA by the criminalizing gang data base. We are connected with four thousand DACA recipients whose applications we filed. We have dreamers in our congregation, ready to fight for their mothers and we have U.S, citizen young men like Saul Arellano, well known nationally for his fight against the deportation of his mother. We have families reunited in hard crossings of the border from Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala, even as Trump demands an end to family reunification. Finally we are connected with two thousand high school students and college students, committed to close the 20 year death gap caused by the exclusion of millions from healthcare. In our four churches we have the believers that form the spiritual center for our struggle.

The ministries we have been given are the way we are given to “organize the people in groups.” What I am saying is that we have the loaves and the fishes to have an effect far beyond our numbers. The way we must organize, the defenses we must develop, the tactics we must make use of – these things will grow from what we already have if we have the faith that Jesus demonstrated – that Luis and Francisca and the others have demonstrated.

As Jesus told the disciples, our first task is to bring our people together in groups so that they can know each other and share the struggle with each other. Add everyone you know, everyone you meet. Then we must go among them with the truth that no human being is illegal and with the conviction that God has planted a people here to become a force to transform the Americas.

I have faith that we can meet the challenge we are given. I just don’t believe that those our ministry has touched will sit by while others they love, others we are connected to, are picked apart by a wave of hate. If a mother is hunted by ICE I am sure that you will defend her and hide her. If another of these is incarcerated, we will visit them and fight for their freedom! If one is sick, in need of a transplant like Maria, I am sure you will join to get her the health care she needs.

The politicians will discuss strategies – as will the community organizations. We will listen and learn. our strength will not come from strategies – it will come from the faith and commitment of each of you. Jesus is calling for disciples. He is showing the way disciples must live. He is challenging you with love. He is telling you that the Kingdom of God is not far, that a commitment to survive these years and create the foundation for victory over hate is near, that God’s Justice and God’s Love can exist among us. You don’t have to live in fear and compromise. You can live in the Kingdom of God, in Kingdom communities. He has always been with us and he is with us now!

If you think you can’t do much, then you will not do much. If you think you can only take care of yourself, then you will send the people away like the disciples did. But Jesus says, “You have enough, you are enough, to move mountains.”

God has prepared us. Fifteen years ago we had few allies outside of our community. Communities of color were divided against each other. After 9/11, out of fear, the majority could be turned against us. If Donald Trump had become the President then, unleashing the wells of racism in this country, we would have been in deep trouble. Yet many have struggled. A new generation now rises in a sea of unity between people of color, surrounded by a growing majority of those whose hearts and minds have been opened by the wickedness of this administration -and a new movement of women has responded to that wickedness with an inspired solidarity.

In a similar time, the prophet Ezekial found himself as in a valley of dry bones and heard himself commanded by the Lord. “So I prophesied as I was commanded,” he said. “And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.” We are in the valley of dry bones and the Lord has commanded us to join the people together.   

The dry bones of a people mobilized for justice are laying in the valley. Start with you family, your friends, your school, your work. Start with yourself. Join the dry bones together and God will breathe on them and they will become one flesh.

When the people say, “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off”, tell them that the Lord says, “My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them.” Now what is needed is for each of you to share the bread of hope with thousands, to be a disciple.

Today, in this place of many miracles, you stand on Holy Ground where you can taste the Kingdom of God because Jesus sacrificed to establish communities of faith. Francisca Lino, by her sacrifice, has given you a taste of the kingdom. Miguel Perez, by his sacrifice, has given you a taste of the Kingdom. When you organize your family, your friends, your people, in groups and share what you have tasted with them you connect the dry bones and God will breathe life into them., then you become a true disciple. What we need today is for everyone here to be a disciple.

Why don’t you be his disciple? Why don’t you choose his way every day? Why don’t you just wake up every morning and choose the way of Christ? Take what you have and feed your family, feed your friends, feed your people, every day, every hour. God has given you what you need and what you have is sufficient - if you have faith.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES FOR THE 6TH WEEK IN THE SEASON OF GALILEE

Ezekiel 37:7-12 The Valley of Dry Bones

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore, prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel.

Mark 6:32-36 Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (1)

So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

Mark 6: 37-44 Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand (2)

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.