Proper 12 -- II Kings 4: 42-44; Psalm 24; Ephesians
3: 14-21; John 6: 1-21
A
homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given
at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon,
Pennsylvania, on Sunday, July 26, 2015.
“MEETING
OUR NEEDS”
(Texts: II
Kings 4: 42–44 & John 6: 1-21)
Two of our Scripture readings for
this morning have to do with feeding large groups of people with meager
resources...in our Old Testament reading, we hear that the prophet Elisha is
able to feed a hundred people with just some barley loaves and a sack of fresh
ears of grain. And in our gospel
reading, we hear that Jesus is able to feed a large crowd of some 5,000 people
with just five barley loaves and two fish.[1] In each of these cases, there is food left
over after everyone had eaten their fill.[2]
One of the great themes in the Bible
has to do with God’s providing for His people’s needs. For example, God provides safety for His
people by leading them through the Red Sea into freedom. He provides water from the rock for them in
the wilderness. He rains down manna on
them from heaven in that same wilderness.
He rescues them from captivity in Babylon. He opens the way to eternal life by raising
Jesus from the dead. We could cite many
other examples that are found in the Bible.
Jesus seems to underscore the
importance of our basic, daily needs in the model prayer that He gave us, that
is, the Lord’s Prayer. In one of the
petitions, He teaches us to say, “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Our daily bread.
He
specifies that our need for bread be supplied daily: “This day”, He says, adding the words “daily
bread”.
The Lord’s mention of bread brings
to mind a much broader range of meanings than the matter of bread itself. For example, bread is used as a metaphor for
shared company, as in Psalm 41: 9, which reads, “Even my close friend in whom
I trusted, who ate my bread, has
lifted his heel against me.” Similarly,
Acts 2: 42 tells us that the early Christians “devoted themselves to the
apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and the prayers.” In
another sense, eating bread may equate to living one’s life, as when the priest
Amaziah tells the prophet Amos to return to his home in Judah, and to “eat bread there, and to prophesy there.”
(Amos
7: 12)
If we are correct in equating the
Lord’s instruction that we are to pray that God will give us our “daily bread”
with God’s supplying of our needs on a daily basis, in order that we might live
our lives, then two questions arise:
- What do we need exactly?
- Does God supply those needs in order for us to do something in return?
Let’s attempt an answer to both of
these questions.
Our needs consist of those things
that sustain our spiritual and physical lives. These two areas of concern are
intertwined.
On the spiritual plane, we are in
need of hearing God’s word, and we are in need of being fed by the bread and
the wine of the Holy Eucharist. That’s
what we are about when we gather together, as we are doing this morning. We are following the example of the early
Church by coming together to share in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in
the breaking of the bread and in the prayers, as Acts 2: 42 tells us.[3]
On the physical plane, we are in
need of food (bread), clothing and shelter.
We also need social interaction with others.
As those needs are met, we are able
to proclaim God’s goodness by what we say and by what we do. In addition, as we come together as a Church,
we are able to unite in common purpose for meeting the physical and spiritual
needs of others in the world who do not have an active relationship with God. Meeting these very practical, everyday needs,
is an essential part of being able to share the Good News of God as we have
come to know it in Jesus Christ. The
Letter of James states this reality quite well.
In James 2: 15, we read, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and
lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘God in peace, be warmed
and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is
that? So also faith by itself, if it
does not have works, is dead.” As has
been said, “The Church is the only institution known to humankind which exists
for the benefit of those who are outside of it.”
We are called by virtue of our
relationship with God, a relationship that is supported and strengthened by
hearing and meditating on God’s holy Word and by regularly coming together in
worship to receive the Body (bread) and Blood (wine) of Christ, to go out in
witness to the world. The strength we
receive from our communion with the Lord enables us to do these things that God
has called us to do.
A wonderful collect states these
truths quite well. It is the prayer that
the Bishop prays over someone who has just renewed their commitment to Christ,
and it may be found in the Book of Common Prayer on page 309. It reads this way:
“Almighty God, we thank you that by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ you have overcome sin and brought us to yourself; and that by the sealing of your Holy Spirit you have bound us to your service. Renew in these your servants the covenant you made with them at their Baptisms. Send them forth in the power of that Spirit to perform the service you set before them; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
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[1] The feeding of this large crowd must have
been very important to the early Church, for all four gospel writers record
this incident in their accounts.
[2] Another account of a miraculous provision of
food can be found in I Kings 17: 8 – 16, where the prophet Elijah and the
family of the widow of Zarephath are fed with a jar of flour and a jug of oil
for an extended period of time.
[3] The baptismal covenant in the Book of Common
Prayer, 1979, repeats the words of Acts 2: 42 exactly. See page 304.
