Ichthys (Fish)

Matthew 14:13-21

Ichthys is the ancient Greek word for fish.  Fish is important to the early church.  Not only the feeding of thousands with a few fish, the first disciples were fishermen who Jesus told would fish now for people. The resurrected Jesus makes a coal fire breakfast of fish, when he tells them to cast net on the other side of the boat and they miraculously catch 153 fish, and Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him, and tells Peter to feed and care for His Sheep.  Today the cross has become the greatest symbol of Christianity, but in the first century it was still in use to kill criminals, including Christians.  The fish became the most used symbol.  The story of Jonah was also very important to early Christians and my favorite was the idea that followers of “the way” were little fish because they were born in the baptismal water.

Those reasons above would be enough to use ichthys as the symbol of the movement, but it was also an acrostic for Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior (in the ancient Greek).  To remind you an acrostic is a word that the letters of the word are the first letters of the words, and in this case a wonderful saying that demonstrates who is Jesus.  This was known and thus when they saw a fish they knew that others believed Jesus Christ God’s Son Savior, just as we now see it on the back of cars and business cards. 

As for this scripture, Jesus has the disciples feed over 5,000 people.  Amazing.  I would love to had been there, but I did have an experience that makes me understand what the disciples were feeling and thinking.  I will share with you that experience.  I was in Jamaica leading a short-term mission trip.  Our goal was to develop relationships with other Christians as we helped their church.  Specifically put a new metal roof on top of their grade school, tile a bathroom, create a playground, and run a 5 day Vacation Bible School. 

Each day after the VBS we would have lunch in the fellowship building, where we had the children.  We would clear the room of anyone that was not of our mission team.  We had to, we thought, we had limited resources for lunch and we especially had to make sure all of our team was well fed and well hydrated.  The first two days we easily cleared the room of everyone but the team for lunch and we dined on either pork, chicken, or curried goat.  However, on the third day the kids asked if we could perhaps try Jamaican Patties and sure enough someone arrived early with enough for our team to have 1 1/2 patties.  However, the room was not cleared at that time, in part because lunch arrived early, I and the other leader were tired, and the people were more confortable with us.  The other pastor and I tried to clear the room, we wanted our team to feel confortable as they ate and we had less food then other days.  But someone forgot to cancel the orders of pork, chicken, and curried goat, which arrived at the normal time.  Well us pastors kept on our perceived duty we were supposed to protect the mission team.  Now we had our lunch and the addition of a patty (and a few extra).  We wanted to help these people but we thought it was important for our team to be well nourished.

Well then there was Dylan.  Dylan was the youngest member of our team, whose father was on the roof each day.  Dylan though decided to be part of the VBS team, and in reality he was the only American participant of VBS.  He would help when you told him something specific to do, but he was generally just one of the kids (which if you remember our goal was to create relationships, and he was doing just that).  Well Dylan got up and grabbed one of the Styrofoam containers of chicken and offered it to a woman, who was just hanging around but was not asking for food.  Dylan heard Jesus say, “you give them something to eat.”  Dylan knew Jesus can feed 5,000 plus with just five loaves and two fish, that we could certainly feed all the people in that room.  We realized that we leaders were resisting the the command “They need not go away.”  And while I have had many confusions on mission trips with food, I never had a third lunch arrive, but sure enough on this day another greater amount of patties arrived.  We needed to find people to take this food. 

What a wonderful lesson that experience was, and I know who Jesus is via the acrostic of Ichthys, yet I need to remember what it means to be a Christian who follows Jesus the Christ God’s Son [our] Savior, so I remember an acrostic for fish; Fully I Savior’s Helper.  I know who Jesus is and I realize that I need fully give myself and He will provide.

Sound the Trumpet

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

There are five parables in this scripture.  The last one about fish talks about the end of the age, and how there will be a judgment.  However, these parables are not about the Kingdom of Heaven coming only at the end of the age, rather that it has come near, now.  While it is true that it is all set with the knowledge of the escahton, that is not the key to the Kingdom.

The first two parables demonstrates the power of the Kingdom of God and how it only needs a little to create is large dominion.  The parable of the leaven that is put into three measures of flour (about 50 pounds), demonstrates the power of God.  The end result is bread, which is what sustains us here on earth.  According to this parable the Kingdom of Heaven is a large quantity of bread, created with a small amount of yeast.  It is a miracle that feeds.  The mustard seed is sowed in the field and grows into a tree that reflects the following Hebrew Scriptures:

The tree that you saw, which grew great and strong, so that its top reached to heaven and was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and which provided food for all, under which animals of the field lived, and in whose branches the birds of the air had nests (Dan 4:20-21)

On the mountain height of Israel
   I will plant it,
in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
   and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
   in the shade of its branches will nest
   winged creatures of every kind. (Ezekiel 17:23)
All the birds of the air
   made their nests in its boughs;
under its branches all the animals of the field
   gave birth to their young;
and in its shade
   all great nations lived. (Ezekiel 31:6)

The large tree that represents the Kingdom of Heaven is a home to many.  And even beyond the realm of Israel.  It is a home for everyone now.

The second two parables are about how one comes about experiencing this Kingdom of Heaven that has come near.  The first happens upon it in a field, the second is searching for the greatest pearl, either way, both give their whole financial selves to the field or pearl respectively.  One gives there whole selves when they either stumble on or find what they were searching. 

I have a wonderful story from my life about finding the Kingdom of Heaven, on earth.  This leavened bread, this tree, this treasure, this great pearl, but I don’t know if I was searching or if I stumbled upon it.  I will share the story with you.

I was talking to my dad on the phone when he told me that me nephew was interested in playing the trumpet.  Well I knew there was a trumpet of my dad’s in the attic of his house, I put it there.  See 30 plus years ago my dad brought the trumpet home from his childhood home when I was 7 or 8.  I was excited about it and learned how to blow it some.  Well as a young boy I also found that a marble could be kept rolling around the horn with centrifugal  force.  Often the marble would shot out across the room, but twice it went into the horn.  However, only once did it come out.  I tapped on the trumpet, blew on it, used a long stick, and put a lot of valve oil down all in an effort to free the little white marble from the trumpet.  I did not go to my parents, especially my dad, but I did know how to open the attic and I placed it in the attic.

A few years later I was in fifth grade and all the students were encouraged to be part of the band.  They had older students come and demonstrate the different instruments and we were to write down the three we were interested in.  I put down trumpet, for it what I wanted to play, but I was scared.  I did write down drums as well for I was interested in percussion as well.  The third I put down was sousaphone, because the school provided the instrument, and I could keep the attic door shut.   Well the next week the band leader called me in and asked if I was serious about the sousaphone, apparently it is not popular.  He got me excited about playing that large horn, and I could keep the attic closed. 

Back to the phone conversation with my dad.  He told me he got the trumpet down from the attic and it did not seem to work.  So I said to him, look inside you should find a white marble.  He said “white marble” with me as he must have turned the horn around and then asked, how did you know it was white?  I then shared the story I have shared and we laughed and laughed.  See I was scared of my father when I was young.  I was not abused but I was scared.  He was not always around and I projected his judgment and he certainly provided some.  It was even how I thought of God, for a while.  My relationship with my dad matured greatly, from work we both did. 

Finding that great marble was stumbling on something I knew, that the Kingdom of God is found in the relationships, not our wealth and success.  During the week I was preparing this sermon, a congregant sent me this link:  http://churchwhisperer.com/2011/04/19/41911/

The writer, Blake Coffee, uses the metaphor of the church as a quilt.  A wonderful metaphor that seems to emphasize Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12:12 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”  I have used that metaphor as well but what Blake adds is about the stitching.  For a quilt is not simply many pieces laid out in as an image, they are connected by thread.  Those represent our relationships.  What I really enjoyed was the analysis that when an issue hits the church we worry more about the weight of the issue rather than the strength of our relationships.  I should have had confidence in my relationship with my father when I was young, apologized and asked for forgiveness.  I am sure I would have been sounding the trumpet. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is found in those relationships.  We search and stumble upon those relationships and give our whole selves.  Forgiving and being forgiven or in a work Love.  For it is not simply about the end time, or a future time, it is now.  Even if you lost 30 years you can still find the Great Pearl (Marble) in your attic.