Pentecost 14, Year B

Proper 17 -- Deuteronomy 4: 1–9; Psalm 15; James 1: 17-27; Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church’s Annual Parish Picnic at Greenwood Furnace State Park, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, August 30, 2015.

“THE HOLY ONES, THE UNHOLY ONES, AND GOD’S GRACE”

(Homily text:  Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

Who are the holy ones, the truly holy ones? Who are the most righteousness ones?

And, if there people who are truly holy and truly righteous, we might also ask:  Are there those who are unholy?  Are there those who are unrighteous?  And, are these unholy and unrighteous ones permanently unholy and unrighteous? 

In other words, is there such a thing as a religious caste system, in which some are at the top of the holiness scale, and are there those at the other end of the scale who are “untouchables”?

Today’s gospel reading describes the actions and the concerns of the scribes and the Pharisees, and as we consider the practices and the attitudes of this group of lay persons, we can see that, indeed, there was in Jesus’ day a caste system, a system of classifying people according to their worthiness before God.  The self-made “holy ones”, the scribes and the Pharisees, would be very glad to tell you that they were at the top of that class system….They were there by virtue of their own actions, their own faithfulness to the slightest detail of the Law of Moses.  They were “self-made” men of faith.

At the bottom, according to the estimation of the scribes and Pharisees, were the “untouchables” of Jesus’ day, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and other “sinners”.

The picture we have of these two groups in the gospels isn’t a very pretty one.  Today’s reading portrays some of their concerns:  They are concerned about physical cleanliness.  They insist on the washing of pots, they insist on washing their hands prior to eating, they insist on washing of other cooking utensils.

But while these scribes and Pharisees seem to be clean on the outside, they are anything but clean on the inside.  The Lord says of them that “this people honors me (God) with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.” (From Isaiah 29: 13)

Apparently, these scribes and Pharisees are into putting on a good, outward show.  Elsewhere, the Lord will warn people to beware of the people, for they are the ones, He said, that like to walk around in their long robes in the marketplaces, they like to have the best seats in the synagogue, and they like to be greeted by their honorific titles.  (See Matthew 23: 1–7.)  “They do all their deeds to be seen by others,” the Lord said. (Matthew 23: 5)

Two issues deserve our consideration as we think about the idea of a religious caste system:  1. Is there such a thing, in God’s eyes, of a scale of higher and lower holiness?   2.  If there is, then is a person’s place on that scale permanent?

These two questions figured prominently in the Lord’s earthly ministry, and they figured prominently in the early Church’s existence.

Let’s examine the Lord’s approach first:

·       A religious caste system:  Even a quick glance at the gospels will reveal that Jesus did not accept the self-assessments of the scribes, the Pharisees and the priests of His day that maintained that they were on the top of the scale of holiness and righteousness before God.  His comments, heard today, confirm that explicitly.  He debunks the notion that outward observance of the Law of Moses, or of the many additional requirements that the scribes and the Pharisees dreamed up, could ever serve to bring a person into favor with God.  Moreover, the Lord deliberately sought out the “untouchables” of His day, the tax collectors, prostitutes and other sinners, showing them that they were deserving of God’s love and God’s forgiveness.  An essential point arises at this juncture:  When a person encounters Jesus Christ, that encounter is meant to bring a person into a new and more blessed place than they were before.  So the lesson we can take away from the Scriptures is that, with Jesus, there is no caste system, and there is no way that a person can make their way up the ladder, so to speak, to become acceptable to God, on their own merits.  (More about this last point in a moment.)

·       Is a person’s position of acceptability before God permanent?:  In a sense we’ve already answered this question.  Jesus’ desire to be in close and ongoing relationship with the outcasts of His day shows that He believed that they were worthy of God’s love and God’s acceptance.  Jesus never leaves a person where He finds them, if the encounter between the Lord and the individual is a genuine one.  Certainly that is true of some of Jesus’ disciples whom we know by name:  Mary Magdalene is a very good example of that…her encounter with the Lord and her love of Him and of God the Father changed her life completely and permanently.

The early Church was plagued by the idea that people’s place in relationship to God was fixed and was immoveable, and by the idea that, if people could improve their lot, they could do it by their own efforts.  The challenges to orthodox belief arose in two of the major heresies of the early centuries.  We would do well to look at each instance:

•      Gnosticism:  This early heresy,[1] which arose out of Greek pagan philosophical thought, brought into its belief system from that philosophical background the idea that there were three types of believers:  1. The truly enlightened ones, 2. The spiritual dullards who were never going to be able to grasp the secrets of God, and 3. Those in between who, if they really tried hard enough and long enough, could become part of the enlightened group.  This is deterministic thinking, a way of regarding people and their relationship to God by categorizing them and by putting them into spiritual cubby holes.  It is also fatalistic thinking, fatalistic in the sense that it saw people’s place in the scheme of things as being something that had been pre-determined.
•        Pelagianism:  This fifth century heresy (which was named for its chief proponent, a monk named Pelagius) maintained that human beings were essentially capable of improving their spiritual lot by their own means.  The great western theologian, St. Augustine of Hippo,[2] struggled against this understanding by clearly stating that human beings’ sense of righteousness and of sin has been so deeply stained by our own tendencies to be able to sin that we are unable, absent God’s grace, to lift ourselves up from the depths of unrighteousness we find ourselves in.

In own our day and in our own lives, we can benefit from the two lessons which arise from today’s gospel reading: 

1. There is no such thing as a religious hierarchy, a scale of most holy, somewhat holy and unholy persons.  All of us begin our journey with God starting from an unholy place.  We are born in a state of loved by God, but of being unholy by virtue of the stain of original sin, that ability we all have to be able to do bad things.  But we become holy and acceptable to God by the grace and the goodness of God toward us.  Grace being defined as “God’s goodness and love expressed toward us, even though we don’t deserve it.”  As we pass through the waters of baptism, we die to our old, unholy selves and we arise (as St. Paul says in his Letter to the Romans, chapter six) to a new life in a resurrection like the Lord’s.
   
2. Upward mobility is the goal of God’s grace toward us.  God calls us to shed our old, unholy ways and to take hold of God’s grace.  No one is beyond God’s reach and God’s grace.  No one is permanently condemned to live in the place where God finds them.  Everyone has hope through Christ.  God’s work of reforming and remolding us begins on the inside of us, in our hearts and in our minds.  (This is, of course, one of the great mistakes the scribes and the Pharisees made:  They thought that everything had to do with outward actions.)  Then, God’s work of redeeming and reforming works itself toward the outside of us, showing the proofs of God’s redeeming love by the things we do and the things we say, by the way we treat others with genuine, Christ-like love.

So may our prayer be that God’s grace will convict us of the power of God’s love and God’s ability to offer a new life, a life that destroys any notion that we are unworthy of that love and that grace, a life that demonstrates that it is God’s power alone that lifts us up from our place of alienation from Him.

AMEN.

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[1]   The earliest forms of Gnosticism arose during the New Testament period, perhaps sometime in the first century.  It effects lasted into the fourth century.

[2]   Augustine was Bishop of the north African city of Hippo who lived from 354 – 430 AD.  His feast day is August 28th.  He is regarded as being the foremost theologian of the western Church.

Pentecost 13, Year B (2015)

Proper 16 -- I Kings 8: 22–30, 41-43;  Psalm 34: 15-22; Ephesians 6: 10-20; John 6: 56-69

This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, August 23, 2015.

“OUR ADVANTAGE IN BELIEVING AND KNOWING”

(Homily text:  John 6: 56-69)

           Let’s consider the advantage that we, as Christians who live after the Lord’s resurrection, have over those original witnesses to the things the Lord said and did.  Specifically, this morning, let’s consider the ways in which we come to believe in the things that Jesus did and said, and in the ways that we have come – as a result – to know the truthfulness of Jesus’ witness and the power He is given by God.

           These two aspects, believing and knowing, arise out of our gospel passage for this morning.

           Since we have been making our way, Sunday by Sunday over the last month, through the very lengthy and rich sixth chapter of the Fourth Gospel, let’s take a moment to review where we have been:

         The feeding of the five thousand:  The sixth chapter opens with an account of Jesus’ feeding of a very large crowd with five barley loaves and two fish.[1]

·         “I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (Verse 35):  In the wake of the feeding of the crowd, a conversation ensues between the Lord and some in the crowd.  Jesus begins a teaching discourse, seeking to widen the understandings of those who had been fed.  This “I am” statement about the “bread of life” is but one of many such “I am” sayings which are found throughout John’s account.

·         “…The bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (Verse 51b):  In response to the Lord’s previous statement, His hearers begin to grumble among themselves, asking how He can give them bread.  After all, they say, they know His mother and His father, so how can this man say, “I have come down from heaven,”?  The Lord expands the meaning of His teaching with the connection between  “bread: and “flesh”.

·         “Truly, truly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…” (Verse 53):  The Lord’s teaching expands still further, and now His statements are blunt, connecting the importance of eating and drinking. The eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood.  But the Jews of Jesus’ day often think in strictly literal terms, and they are horrified at the literal meaning[2] of what Jesus has said, for the Law of Moses strictly forbids contact with blood.

Their shocked response to Jesus’ comments appears in this statement:  They said, “This is a hard saying, who can listen to it?”  And John goes on to tell us that, from that point on, many of the disciples[3] no longer went with Jesus.

Jesus then turns to His inner circle of the twelve disciples, and He asks them if they, too, also want to go away, which prompts Peter’s wonderful response:  “Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Notice the two words “believe” and “know” that flow from Peter’s lips.

These two words summarize the journey of faith, for the original believers, for the early Christians in John’s faith community, for Christians down through the ages, and for us.  All of us begin by coming to faith in the things that God has done in Jesus Christ.  We come to believe, in other words.  And as we come to a deeper and deeper belief, our convictions are affirmed and solidified, so that we come to know the truths of God as they are found in Jesus Christ.

For Christians living in the decades after Jesus’ resurrection, and for us, there is a sense of perspective that allows them and us to make sense of Jesus’ statement, “I am the bread of life.”  After all those early Christians – and we ourselves – have witnessed the institution of the Lord’s Supper, and we have come to believe and to know in the power of God made known in the raising of Jesus from the dead on Easter Sunday morning.

In retrospect, all of what God was doing in the sending of Jesus Christ makes sense.  Perhaps all that God does makes the best sense in retrospect, as we look back over our shoulders to see how the truths of God made known in Christ work themselves out in people’s lives, and in our lives.

It is much easier to face the future, armed with a rich and reliable past, than it is to face the future with little basis for believing and knowing.  That, of course, was the problem that Jesus’ original hearers faced:  They knew that God had fed their ancestors with the bread of manna in the wilderness, but they were not equipped to fully understand what God was doing in sending Jesus to be the bread of life.  They had not yet experienced the Lord’s Supper.  They had not yet seen the risen Lord on Easter Sunday. 

Those who stayed with the Lord, not only the Twelve, but the others were remained faithful, were eventually rewarded with the fullness of understanding and meaning that came with a perspective that was aided by time and by the miraculous event of the resurrection.   Their faith solidified into the certainty of knowing that Jesus’ words were true, and that He had been sent by God to open the way to eternal life.

As we make our way forward on the pathway of faith, may we rely on the strength of the Lord’s words and actions as we find them in the pages of Holy Scripture, and may we be fed with the heavenly food of the Eucharist, by which the Lord seeks to become one with us in the communion of bread and wine.  For this is the heavenly bread that came down from heaven, bread which gives life to the one who partakes, bread which bears us up to the throne of God until the day when we stand before that heavenly throne in eternity.

AMEN.

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[1]   This miracle is recorded in all four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark and Luke, in addition to John’s account.

[2]   For Christians living in the Roman Empire, the literal sense of the words of the Eucharist (“This is my Body, this is my Blood”) caused problems, for many who were outside of the Church thought that Christians were practicing cannibalism.  Their suspicions were heightened due to the fact that Christians met secretly, which added to the mistaken belief that awful things were taking place during their meetings.

[3]   This group refers to a larger group of Jesus’ followers, not to the Twelve, whom John is careful to identify differently in verse 67.

Pentecost 12, Year B (2015)

Proper 15 -- I Kings 2: 10–12; 3: 3–14; Psalm 34: 9-14; Ephesians 5: 15-20; John 6: 51-58

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, August 16, 2015.

“THE EUCHARIST: LIVING IN TWO WORLDS”

(Texts:  I Kings 2: 10–12; 3: 3–14 & John 6: 51-58)

Imagine a drawing consisting of two circles, which overlap one another.  (OK, if it helps you to visualize what I have in mind, it looks like the symbol for a well-known credit card.)

The one circle represents the world that we live in, day by day.

The other circle represents the world which is eternal, that world in which God dwells -- in other words, eternity.

The place where the two worlds, the two circles, overlap is the place where we live our lives with God:  We are citizens of this present, everyday world, but we are also citizens of God’s kingdom, a kingdom which has broken into the world we have been born into.

The holy meal of the Eucharist is a place where we concretely experience both worlds, at the same time.

To get to the place of understanding how this works, permit me to trace the idea a bit.

The world we have been born into has had a beginning at some point, and that same world will have an ending.  Again, we must say, “At some point,” for none of us knows God’s plan for the ending, even as we cannot be sure of the exact timing of its beginning.[1]

And yet, there is the world of eternity, where time as we know it does not exist.  This is the world of the timeless time of God, sometimes known by a Greek name:  Kairos. 

We enter this world at birth and begin our journey through life.  At some point, known to God, our life in this life will end.

At our baptisms, we are claimed by God as His own, unique and dearly loved child.  Baptism is God’s action in claiming us, not our action in saving ourselves.  In a very real sense, our baptism constitutes our “spiritual birthday”. Our baptisms begin the journey of life in which this everyday world meets God’s eternal world, and the fruits of baptism create an indelible mark on the soul which will last through all eternity.

At the same time, one of the guarantees of Jesus’ resurrection is that, once this life is over and through, we will live for ever, as the Lord tells us when He says, “Whoever believes has eternal life.” (John 6: 47, heard in last week’s gospel reading).

At various times, God has broken into this world in some concrete, noticeable way.  One example would be God’s provision of manna, the bread that fell from  the sky in order to feed God’s people during their wanderings in the Sinai Desert, as they may their way from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land.  The Lord mentions the giving of manna in last week’s gospel reading.

Another way that God has broken into this world is by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who left heaven and the presence of His heavenly Father to take on our humanity, being born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We call this process by which God took on humanity the Incarnation.  God has come in the person of Jesus Christ, and by His coming, He has opened the doors to the eternal world of God in way previously unknown.

The Lord has left for us a tangible expression of His love for us in the holy meal we call the Eucharist, or the Last Supper, or the Holy Communion.  In today’s gospel reading, the Lord says, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,[2] you have no life in you.  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6: 53b – 54)

In the Eucharist, heaven meets earth.  The tangible elements of bread and of wine are the concrete expressions of eternity:  “This is my Body, this is my Blood,” the Lord said.  And because of Jesus’ rising from the dead, they are the guarantee that that same Lord Jesus can assure us of our place in eternity.

The holy meal of the Eucharist is meant to assure us, to feed us with the Lord’s own body and blood, and to empower us to live the holy life that our baptisms call us to live.

King Solomon prayed to God for wisdom.  May we, like him, wisely discern God’s presence, breaking into our everyday lives, transforming everyday demands and tasks, and fitting us for God’s kingdom.  May the sacred meal we share with God and with one another strengthen us for service to God and to others.

AMEN.

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[1]   If science is right, and the earth is billions and billions of years old, then what must that say about the God who surely created that world and everything in it?  If the conclusions of science are more or less correct, then that creator God must be an awesome God, whose ability to create something over a span of so many eons of time is matched – on a small scale – with an infinite and penetrating love for each individual human being.  But, I risk digressing from the thrust of the thoughts I wish to develop here.

[2]   As we remarked last week, Jesus’ description of eating His flesh and His blood, which appear more than once in chapter six of the Fourth Gospel, are as close as we come in John’s gospel account to a description of the Eucharist.  In chapter thirteen, John tells us about the Last Supper, relating Jesus’ washing of the feet of His disciples.  But John, unlike the other three gospel writers, does not tell us about the institution of the Lord’s Supper.

Pentecost 11, Year B (Proper 14)

Proper 14 -- I Kings 19: 4-8; Psalm 34: 1-8; Ephesians 4: 25 – 5: 2; John 6: 35, 41-51

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker given at  St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, August 9, 2015.

“REFLECTIONS AND BACKGROUND OF THE READINGS”

(Texts:  I Kings 19: 4-8; Ephesians 4: 25 – 5: 2; John 6: 35, 41-51)

Introductory Remarks

As on July 19th of this year (Pentecost 8), an actual homily won’t be delivered today.  Instead, the congregation was given three readings in advance, so that they may, if they choose, develop questions concerning one or more of the readings, or to share insights and comments on them.

I Kings 19:4 – 8

SETTING and BACKGROUND

Our reading from First Kings outlines part of the prophet Elijah’s struggles in dealing with King Ahab, who was king over the Northern Kingdom of Israel from 875 – 853 BC, and Ahab’s Phoenician wife, Jezebel.  These two persons had encouraged the Cana’anite pagan worship of Ba’al and of the Asherah (a pole-like idol).  Jezebel had gathered a large following of the prophets of these two pagan deities, 450 prophets of Ba’al and 400 prophets of the Asherah. In the passage immediately preceding this morning’s reading, we learn that Elijah had defeated the prophets of Ba’al at Mount Carmel by bringing down God’s fire on the altar which had been soaked with water.  Subsequently, these prophets of Ba’al were eliminated, causing Jezebel to go after Elijah, threatening to kill him.  In response, Elijah flees southward, and we find him in this morning’s reading at Be’ersheba, which is about 120 miles south of the Northern Kingdom, in the very southern part of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

REFLECTIONS ON THE PASSAGE

Elijah, whose name in Hebrew is Elijahu (which means “My God is YHWH”) is in the wilderness, where he despairs of his situation.  He is fleeing from Queen Jezebel for his life, and despite the success he had had at Mount Carmel in defeating the prophets of Ba’al, he feels alone and defeated.  In I Kings 19: 14, he says, “….I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”  In contemporary parlance, we might say that Elijah is having a “pity party”.  So Elijah lays down, perhaps out of sheer exhaustion, and falls asleep.  But the Lord’s angel awakens him and provides food for him to eat.  Then, the Lord’s providence looks ahead to the journey that He has intended for Elijah, for the angel returns a second time and says, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”  I Kings tells us that Elijah will go on the strength of those provisions for forty days and nights, making his way to the mountain of God, Horeb (which is in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula).

The significances that might strike our attention are these:  1. Not one but two miraculous feedings are given to Elijah.  The purpose is to give Elijah the strength he will need to make his way to Horeb.  There, Elijah will find himself on the very same mountain where God revealed Himself to Moses, giving the Law to God’s people.  God will reveal Himself to Elijah as well on this very holy spot (see I Kings 19: 9 – 13);  2. God has more work for Elijah to do.  In order for that to happen, God will have to overcome Elijah’s despair.  That seems to be the reason for God’s self-disclosure of His glory to Elijah.  The food given to Elijah supports God’s wider purposes for him.

Ephesians 4: 25 – 5: 2

SETTING and BACKGROUND

We continue making our way through St. Paul’s letter to the early Christians in the city of Ephesus, which was a major port city on the western side of Asia Minor (now the modern country of Turkey).  Ephesus was the place where the pagan goddess, Artemis, had a shrine, and the place where silversmiths made images of her for sale, which bolstered their incomes.  The early Church in Ephesus was, most likely, composed of Jews and Gentiles, as was the case with many of the early churches.  The Church in Ephesus figures prominently in importance, for tradition tells us that it was the place where the Beloved Disciple (traditionally, John) settled after the resurrection.  Tradition also tells us that Jesus’ mother, Mary, lived out the remaining years of her earthly life here (following Jesus’ instructions to the Beloved Disciple from the cross, that he should take care of Mary….see John 19: 26 – 27).  Living the Christian life within the culture of the first-century Greco-Roman world was both easy and difficult, all at the same time.  It was easy in the sense that, to live by Christian values and virtues made a person quite easy to identify as a Christian.  On the other hand, such a distinction caused friction with others in the community, a distinction that would become more and more hazardous to one’s well-being as time went along.  Eventually, Christian refusal to make sacrifices to the emperor at the pagan shrines and temples was regarded by the Roman authorities as treasonous behavior, and it was on this basis that some of the persecutions were promulgated.  At this early time in the Church’s history, however, the Christians’ situation had not yet deteriorated to such an extent.  The Book of Acts recounts Paul’s work in Ephesus (see Acts 19: 1 – 41), where he ministered for about two years.

REFLECTIONS ON THE PASSAGE

“How does one live the Christian life?”  I think that’s the basis of St. Paul’s instructions to these early believers in Ephesus.  We might rephrase the question and ask it this way:  “By what actions will people know that you are Christians?”  In the verses immediately preceding this morning’s selection, Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that they are not to “live as the Gentiles do…” (verse 17)

So Paul offers some very basic advice:  Christians are to deal honestly with one another; they are to remember that we are interrelated to one another by virtue of their faith in Christ; that they are to work at a respectable occupation, always with the view that we are to have something to share with those who are in need;  that they are to set limits to our anger; that they are to be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving, and to be imitators of God, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

The goal here is to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ (as our Baptismal Covenant states it….see the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, pages 304 – 305), so that others will see what a difference being a Christian makes.  Looking at this truth from the other perspective, the point seems to be that, if there is no difference in being a Christian, then why become one?  Being a Christian is supposed to make us different from the ways we might have been before coming to faith in the Lord.

John 6: 35, 41 – 51

SETTING and BACKGROUND

We continue, this morning, making our way through the marvelous sixth chapter of the Fourth Gospel.  (We have three more Sundays to enjoy making our way through this rich and revealing chapter, finishing our journey on August 23rd.)  Recall with me that this chapter began with the recounting of the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 people (an event that all four gospel writers record).  Now, in this morning’s passage, we read of the continuing interchange between Jesus and those who had been fed with the five barley loaves and two fish.

In John’s gospel account, a recurrent pattern emerges:

                Event….(Conversation)….Discourse (teaching)

So this morning, we are moving away from the original event, and we are moving into the discourse/teaching phase of the conversation.  We hear Jesus begin to turn the conversation away from the physical act of His feeding people with bread and fish, toward a deeper and more enduring meaning.  His goal is to enlighten His listeners (and us), so that we come to see Him not only in a human way, but as God Himself.  It is obvious, however, that Jesus and His hearers are on very different wavelengths (as is often the case), for they make this remark about Him, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?”

REFLECTIONS ON THE PASSAGE

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus says.  A prominent figure in John’s gospel account is the repeated record of Jesus’ “I am” sayings.  Most often, we read these “I am” sayings with an object at the end of the sentence:  For example, as this morning’s saying goes, “I am the bread of life.”  But there are other sayings of a similar nature:  “I am the way, the truth and the life,” (John 14: 6) for example.  Or this one:  “I am the good shepherd.”  (John 10: 11)  On one occasion, the “I am” statement simply stands alone, as when Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, ‘I am’.”  (John 8: 58)  These sayings evoke God’s self-revelation to Moses at the burning bush, where we read that God told Moses that His name was “I am that I am.” (Exodus 3: 14).

Jesus’ teaching (discourse) is going somewhere:  He is telling His original hearers (and us) that He is the one who will be able to feed us during our earthly life, and that the benefits of His feeding us here will have benefits that will last into eternity.  For in eternity, we will live forever with the Lord.

Most scholars believe that the sixth chapter of John’s account is the closest we ever come in the Fourth Gospel to an outline and understanding of the Eucharist.  Nowhere in this particular gospel do we ever read an account of the institution of the Eucharist (Communion) of the Last Supper, as we do in Matthew, Mark and Luke.[1]  But John holds in common with the three other gospel writers a plain description of the connection between the Lord’s body and blood, as we will hear in coming weeks the Lord’s statement that, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in them.” (John 6: 56)

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[1]   John’s account omits the institution of the Lord’s Supper entirely, but he does tell us about the foot washing which also took place on that occasion.

Pentecost 10, Year B (Proper 13)

Proper 13 + Exodus 16: 2–4, 9-15; Psalm 78: 23-29; Ephesians 4: 1-16; John 6: 24-35

A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, August 2, 2015.

“PRESERVATION AND HOPE”

(Texts:  Exodus 16: 2–4, 9–16, Psalm 78: 23-29 & John 6: 24-35)

Let’s talk about preservation and hope this morning.

We continue a theme which began last week, having to do with God’s action in feeding people.   Last week, we heard the account of the prophet Elisha’s provision of food for a group of one hundred people, using only a few barley loaves, and in last week’s gospel reading, we heard the account of Jesus’ feeding five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish.

In today’s Old Testament reading, we read about the provision of manna to God’s people in the wilderness, an event that the writer of Psalm 78 recalls many years later, and we hear in our gospel reading this morning the continuing interchange between Jesus and members of the crowd of five thousand which had been fed with the barley loaves and fish.  (We will continue making our way through chapter six of John’s gospel account in the next three Sundays.)

Whenever we encounter, read or hear a passage of Scripture, it’s important to remember that the accounts which reach our ears and eyes are meant to convey a truth about God.  More specifically, Scripture is meant to convey a truth about God’s nature, and about the ways in which God interacts with human beings.

Keeping this concept in mind, then, the passage this morning might convey two truths about God, and about the ways in which God relates to humankind:

•         Preservation:  God preserves and saves the people with whom He has chosen to be in relationship.  In both of the instances before us this morning, God’s preservation comes in the form of food, food which He Himself has provided in order to sustain life.  Thereby, God is able to preserve a people for Himself, by saving them from death and starvation.
•          Hope:  As people come to realize that God has taken the steps necessary to preserve their lives, the wider implication is the truth that God’s action to intervene in human affairs –especially when threats to human existence arise- provides the assurance that God has not abandoned the people He has come into relationship with, but rather God’s action creates the basis for hope for the future, a hope that assures us that God will meet our needs when they arise.

One caveat arises in connection with these two concepts:  Neither the fact that God preserves and saves His people, nor the fact that God’s preserving and saving actions provide hope for the future negate the fact that difficulties and challenges will arise as time goes along. 

We can see this clearly, I think, in the circumstances of God’s people as they make their way through the wilderness on their way from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land…there will be yet many dangers, difficulties and challenges in their path as their forty years of wandering in the wilderness unfold.  The provision of manna in that wilderness did not mean the end of problems.

In our gospel reading, we find similar circumstances.  Though John does not specifically tell us that the feeding of the five thousand took place in a wilderness (or deserted)[1] setting, we do know from the context of Philip’s question to the Lord, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people might eat?” (John 6:5) that Jesus, His disciples and that large crowd were not in a town or village.  As wonderful as the miracle of being able to feed so large a crowd with such meager resources was, and as the people are fed and are satisfied, with twelve baskets of food left over, the truth remains that challenges will lie in their path out of that lonely place, as they make their way back to their homes and continue to live their lives.

Let’s return to the concepts of preservation and the hope that results from God’s preserving and saving actions.

God’s very nature:  One way to understand the lessons that Holy Scripture seeks to impart to us is that God’s nature can be seen in the ways in which God acts.  For God to be God, God will act in ways that are true to His very nature.  So knowing the ways that God has acted in times past will give us a clue as to the ways in which God will act in our time, and into the future.  This fact is one very important reason for God’s people to be reading, hearing and studying Scripture.  We learn about God and about God’s nature and about God’s ways of behaving and acting in these accounts.

God’s nature is to preserve and save:  Oftentimes, God’s preserving and saving acts are most clearly seen in dire and difficult circumstances.  In the case of God’s people in the wilderness, the fact that this very large group of people find themselves in a wilderness with very little to eat is a dangerous and dire situation.  No wonder they grumble against Moses and Aaron, and no wonder that they long for the circumstances they were in in Egypt, for they recall that, in Egypt, they had something to eat, even though they were slaves.  The need for food for the crowd of five thousand creates similar challenges for Jesus.  God always preserves for Himself a people that He has called into relationship.  Providing for people’s basic needs is one way that God preserves and saves.

God’s nature is to provide hope:  In Hebrews 11: 1, we read this following definition of the word faith:  “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews is stating a basic truth, the truth that faith in something (in this case, faith in God) rests on some sort of a foundation.  An example from everyday life will illustrate the point:  We put this truth to work every time we choose to sit in a chair, for as we examine the chair (ever actually take time to notice that this is something a person does before choosing one chair over another to sit in?) before sitting in it, we make sure that our past experience with chairs assures us that the chair we are about to sit in will support us, if it is made in a certain fashion and with a certain design and with certain types of materials. Where chairs are concerned, all these past experiences and interactions with chairs provide a foundation for being able to have faith that the chair we are about to sit in will perform in a manner that our past experiences have demonstrated to us.  In like manner, we rely on God’s past actions to give us faith and hope in God’s faithfulness as we meet the future.

One final thought is in order:  In our gospel text for this morning, notice that Jesus has to correct the perceptions of those in the crowd who are engaging in conversation with Him:  He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” (verse 32).  In our Old Testament reading, Moses has to remind God’s people that the manna which came down from heaven was “The bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

It is easy to focus on the immediate circumstances by which we are preserved and saved, and by which we have a basis for hope and faith, and to neglect to see that these things ultimately come from God’s hand.  We would do well to heed the warning we read in Deuteronomy 8:17:  “Beware lest you say, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’  You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth.”

May we see God’s hand at work among us, providing for our needs, preserving and saving us, that we may have assurance of faith and hope for the future, and that we might be called to witness to God’s graciousness and generosity.

AMEN.

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[1]   We remarked in last week’s homily that all four gospel writers record the miraculous feeding of this crowd.  Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell us that the place where the feeding took place was a “desolate” place.