Proper 12 :: II Kings 4:42 – 44 / Psalm 14 / Ephesians 3:14 – 21 / John 6:1 – 21
This is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, July 25, 2021.
“HOLY WORLDLINESS”
(Homily text: John 6:1 – 21)
This
morning’s appointed Gospel text recounts Jesus’ feeding of a large crowd, one
numbering about five thousand.[1] This
event is recorded in all four Gospel accounts,[2] [3] a
testimony to its significance and importance to the early Christians.
The
familiarity of this event might suggest that we approach its significance
(beyond the multiplication of the five loaves and the two fish into enough food
to feed such a large gathering) from a different perspective. For the purposes
of our consideration this morning, I’ve chosen to regard this event from the
perspective of “Holy Worldliness.”
The
term “Holy Worldliness” deserves some explanation.
I
define the two words this way:
Holy: Having to do with God and with godliness.
Worldliness:
Having to do, not with the ways of sin and disobedience to God’s will and ways,
but, instead, having to do with the everyday, basic concerns of life.
With
these definitions in hand, let’s look at what’s going on as Jesus and the
disciples confront the matter of how to feed such a large crowd in what must
have been a fairly remote area.
Worldliness
is the reason for the gathering of the people who had come to Jesus. They had
heard (and seen) what marvelous things He had been doing, in the healing of the
sick, and in the teachings which were marked with a compassion for human
beings.
It
might be easy for us to forget how difficult and uncertain life was for God’s
people in the time of our Lord’s earthly ministry. Disease and illness were
commonplace parts of life. And, as if to compound the challenge of ill health,
the commonly-held beliefs of the time maintained that a person who’d fallen ill
must, somehow, be guilty of some terrible sin. Moreover, contact with a
person’s blood make the person who touched that ill person ritually unclean,
unable to go to worship in the Temple in Jerusalem. (Such attitudes might
strike us as being very odd, given the realities we live with today.)
In
addition, life was also uncertain. The Roman occupation of the Holy Land
brought with it high taxes, brutal enforcement of Roman will, and poverty.
The
burdens of everyday life were made all the worse by the attitude of the
priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, who valued their own positions of power
and prestige above the betterment of the people they were appointed to lead.
It’s
fair to say that overwhelming need, physical and spiritual, was probably a motivating
factor in bringing so many people to hear Jesus and to receive healing at His
hands.
Into
this situation, the Holy comes. Jesus brings God’s power to create and to
recreate,[4] multiplying the few loaves of bread and the two fish into enough to feed
everyone present.
Let’s
notice what happens.
Jesus
deals with the immediate need. He doesn’t engage in theological thought, or a
teaching about the relationship of the Son to the Father (something we see
elsewhere in John’s Gospel account, and which we will see in the coming weeks
as we explore the aftermath of the feeding of the five thousand). Instead, He
meets the immediate and most pressing need before Him.
As
we live out our baptismal vows, those which call us to “proclaim by word and
example the Good News of God in Christ”,[5] we
will encounter people’s everyday concerns first, in most cases. The condition
of their “worldliness” will present itself to us long before any spiritual
concerns do. That seems to be the overall pattern as we make our way through
life (although the reverse is also possible).
Our
concern for others’ practical, worldly situation prompts us to meet those
needs. They might be needs for the basics of life: Food, shelter, clothing. Or
the presenting need might be emotional….how many people in our world today feel
as though no one cares for them, or about them? We can offer a listening ear
and a caring heart. That’s a great place to begin. Or other needs might present
themselves to us. We harbor concern for, and action to address, such concerns
because our Lord commands us to be concerned about and to meet such needs. (See
Matthew 25: 31 – 46 for a list of such basic needs.)
Motivating
us is a sense of the “holy”, of God pressing in on us, reminding us of God’s
continuing love for us.
If
we meet the “worldliness” of others first, we establish the framework with
which to build a bridge into the “holy”, for the wonderful truths of God can be
shared once that link has been forged with others.
AMEN.
[1] By the reckoning of the times, only the number of men present was recorded. No doubt there were also many women and children present. Matthew’s account of this event states that there were.
[2] For a comparison of the other accounts, see Matthew 14:13 – 21, Mark 6:32 – 44 and Luke 9:10 – 17.
[3] Matthew and Mark also record another feeding of a large crowd of four thousand. See Matthew 15:32 – 38 and Mark 8:1 – 10.
[4] Whenever we think of the attributes and powers of God, God’s ability to create and to recreate must be among the foremost attributes in our minds.
[5] Book of Common Prayer, 1979 edition, page 305
