• Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign  John 6:35, 41-51   (see below)
  by Rev. Karen A. Goltz 

• BEING WHO WE ARE, Ephesians 4:25 – 5:2, by Rev. Rick Thompson 
   

• Directions or Direction? Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2, by Rev. Randy L. Quinn
   

• Divine Anger?  Ephesians 4.25-52, by Rev. Frank Schaefer
   

• David in Recovery 2 Samuel 15 -18, by Rev. Thomas Hall
   

• We Know Who You Are, John 6:35, 41-51, anonymous
   

• The Goodness of Anger, Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2, Jim from B.C.

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Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
based on John 6:35, 41-51
by Rev. Karen A. Goltz

            There are so many different types of signs, and we’d be lost with out them.  Signs on buildings that tell us where we are, signs on roads that tell us where we’re going, signs to tell us when a business will be open or closed, so we can plan our lives accordingly.  To quote a verse from the 5 Man Electrical Band, “Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind.  Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”  The signs the singer encounters give him information about where he is and is not welcome. “Long-haired freaky people need not apply,” “anybody caught trespassin' will be shot on sight,” “you got to have a membership card to get inside,” and then finally, “Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down and pray.”

            Signs are a big part of our lives, bigger than we realize.  We have no trouble with printed signs, like the ones on the road and on buildings, the ones that give us needed information.  Some of us may check the fortune under our astrological sign in the newspaper or on the internet, just out of curiosity, not really expecting that there’s any truth to it.  But when we read of people like the ones in today’s gospel lesson, the ones who ask Jesus, “What sign are you going to give us, so that we may see it and believe you?” we have a little trouble relating to them, wondering why they need a sign when Jesus so obviously is who he is.

            The thing I really wonder about them is: what kind of sign are they looking for?  At the beginning of last week’s gospel lesson we read that the large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.  After he fed the five thousand with the five loaves of bread and the two fish, we’re told that, “When the people saw the sign he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’” (John 6:14) So the multiplying of food must have been interpreted as a sign.  In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus says to the crowd, “You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”  And after he tells them that the work of God is for them to believe in the one whom God has sent, the crowds ask him what sign he is going to give them so that they might see it and believe his words.  I read that and wonder, are they blind?  What more do they want?

            And then they make it worse for themselves by going on to use as an example the manna Israel received in the wilderness when they were following Moses out of Egypt.  They could recognize the bread from heaven as a sign, but they couldn’t see the same thing in the incident with the bread and the fish the night before?  I don’t get it.

            I think part of the problem might be our understanding of ‘sign.’  For the most part, we understand a sign to be something printed that gives information.  Only occasionally do we use it to mean something like a symbol that indicates something has happened or is going to happen.  Like in the movie Sleepless in Seattle Meg Ryan’s character is trying on her grandmother’s wedding dress in preparation for her own wedding, and the sleeves rip right out.  Skeptical Meg Ryan is suddenly frightened and says, “It’s a sign,” perhaps realizing for the first time that she may not be marrying the right man.  Her mother reminds her that she doesn’t believe in signs.  Signs like that are taken with a grain of salt in our culture and society.  Maybe some people believe in them, but it’s certainly not something objective and irrefutable, like the sign out front that proclaims to the world that this is indeed Trinity Lutheran Church.  Belief in that is non-negotiable.  Belief in what it may or may not mean that we’ve had lousy luck getting that sign lit up at night is entirely optional. [continue]