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.
[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.
