This is the homily
given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday,
August 12, 2018
“TWO THINGS WE
NEVER OUTGROW OUR NEED FOR”
(Homily texts: I
Kings 19: 4–8 & John 6: 35, 41-51)
Isn’t
it a good thing that God acts sacramentally? [1]
Perhaps
I should explain this statement…..God often makes His presence and His power
known in observable, tangible ways. That is to say, we know that God is at work
in the things He does in our lives and in our world. The things we see (the
outward and the visible) point beyond themselves to the things we cannot see
(the inward and the spiritual). God’s actions bind together the seen and the
unseen, and they serve to remind us of God’s continuing action in the world.
Without
God’s acting in this way, His existence, His power and His presence would be
the stuff of speculation alone. But God brushes aside any sense of speculation
when he acts to bind together those things we human beings can experience with
those things that we cannot see, but that are part of His very nature.
Our
first reading, taken from First Kings, points to God’s sacramental acting: Elijah has fled from the wicked Queen Jezebel
and her husband, King Ahab, fearing for his life. He is camped out somewhere
beyond the city of Beersheba, which was in the Southern Kingdom of Judah..
Falling asleep, he is awakened by an angel, who puts before him some cakes and
a jar of water. “Get up and eat,” the angels says to him, “or else the journey
will be too much for you.”
By
this act, God miraculously provides the things that Elijah is going to need in
order to make his way to the mountain of God, Mount Horeb. There can be no
doubt in Elijah’s mind and heart that God is present with him, and that God
will make it possible for him to fulfill all that God has in mind for him. [2]
Fast
forward to our Gospel text. We’ve been making our way through much of the sixth
chapter of John’s Gospel account. (We are blessed to be able to spend four
Sundays looking at this wonderful chapter. Today’s text is the third Sunday of
the four in the series.)
The
sixth chapter of John is as close as we come in the Fourth Gospel to a
description of the Holy Eucharist. (John never narrates the institution of the
Lord’s Supper, as do Matthew, Mark and Luke. Instead, John narrates Jesus’ act
of washing the disciples’ feet during that Last Supper.)
The
discourse between Jesus and those who had been following Him around the
northern shores of the Sea of Galilee naturally flows out of Jesus’ act of
feeding the 5,000, which is where the sixth chapter begins. In the course of
the back-and-forth, Jesus has to remind His hearers that it was not Moses who
gave them the manna in the wilderness, the manna came from God. (See verse 32.)
It seems as though Jesus and His hearers are on different wavelengths: Jesus is
speaking to them of spiritual things, while they are stuck on a focus on material
things.
So,
from these two readings, we may conclude that there are two things we are
continually and constantly in need of:
God’s
provision of the things we need to live: Even as the Lord’s angel fed Elijah in the
wilderness, and even as Jesus fed the 5,000, also in the wilderness, we stand
in need of certain things in order to live. A short list (by no means an
exhaustive one) might include: The
creation and its renewal, air, water, food, shelter, clothing, etc. All these
things are needful for us to continue to live this earthly life. In large
measure, God provides much of what we need directly. But it is also God who
makes it possible for us to get those things that we need in order to live.
Examples of this might include: Health, the ability to work, gainful employment
that makes it possible to buy the things we need, and the work of others which
make the things we buy, etc.
Reminders
of God’s presence: It’s easy to focus on those things that we
can see, touch and experience, and – in the process – forget God’s
invisible-yet-powerful presence in the world in which we live and in our lives.
To be aware that the things that God does point beyond themselves to the unseen
and invisible and spiritual reality of God’s presence should be a carefully cultivated,
lifelong habit.
We
stand in continual need of these two things.
By
the power of the Holy Spirit, may we be awakened to a fuller appreciation of
God’s working in the world, and to the proof that God’s visible acts are
tangible proof of His continued working among us.
AMEN.
[1] It may be helpful to remember the definition
of a Sacrament: “An outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.”
We here at St. John’s are in the midst of an extended look at the Sacraments.
[2] It’s worth noting that Elijah’s doubts
aren’t completely a thing of the past. He continues his “pity party” as chapter
nineteen of First Kings unfolds.
