St. James Episcopal Church
Greeneville, TN
Year B - Proper 14 - August 12, 2018
1 Kings 19:4-8
Psalm 34:1-8
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51
In today’s readings, we continue to be bombarded with the symbols and images of bread. It must be important because the symbol and image of bread are used over and over again in scripture. It is especially strong in John’s Gospel. Jesus even refers to himself as the bread of life. And the phrase that we left off with last week, we begin with this week. Jesus said, “I am Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.”
So let’s talk some more about bread, and about how bread gives us eternal life. A simple food made of grains… a food that carries us from death to life.
Elijah the Tishbite was fleeing from one of the most wicked people in Scripture. Her name was Jezebel. Jezebel was Ahab’s Queen in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It is very clear that Jezebel was the one with all the power, and she has focused it all on Elijah… setting out to destroy him and his God, and to establish the worship of Baal in place of the worship of the One true living and loving God.
Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel and went south into the Sinai desert. He had only gone about a day’s journey, but in the heat and dry of the desert, he was exhausted. He had used up all of his resources… and food or water he had taken with him for the journey was gone. It was at this point, Elijah considered himself a great failure, so he gives up and he throws himself down under a tree to die.
While under that broom tree, that provided him very little shade from the heat of the desert, he begs God to take his life before Jezebel does. Then he falls asleep. An angel wakes him up, but in his dreaming, the angel feeds him bread and water, and he falls asleep again. The angel kicks Elijah awake, and now shocked out of his dream world into this one, he finds real bread and water, and it sustains him on a journey all the way to Mount Sinai, where he will hear the voice of God.
The point is that Elijah's clever wit could not save him from Jezebel. His own strength couldn’t get him far away enough to protect him from her, even the truth of his message didn’t help him.
What carried him out of certain death into life was the food that only God could give. The food which nourishes and provides for us at those times in our life when we think that all is lost. God’s food that is the life of God carrying us to God’s self.
Jesus says to his disciples that he is the true bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world. He is the same providential nurturing bread of God that carried Elijah to Mt. Sinai. He, Jesus, is the living bread through which the eternal life of God wells up in us and God takes us to himself, where we may for once be still and know that God is God.
The point for us is very clear. The things that we want to rely on to carry us into eternal life won’t get us there. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves and get us eternal life. Our good deeds won’t do it, our intelligence or understanding won’t do it, our plain goodness won’t do it; even our faith in God through Christ won’t do it. Only Jesus the Christ can carry us and sustain us into eternal life. The only real food worth having is Christ’s undying affection for us. All we need to do is wake up and eat it. It is broken and poured out… prepared for us.
In the second part of today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” One of the great gifts of the Book of Common Prayer is that in 1979, the breaking of the bread was restored as a distinct moment within the action of the Eucharist. We take it very seriously… we even pause for a moment of solemnity and sing a short anthem in response. I think we take it seriously for a good reason. See, the only way that we can receive Holy Communion is if we break the bread up into pieces. This is especially true when we use a large wafer or a single loaf.
The gift of eternal life can come to us only through the broken body of Christ on the cross — only through his death there for us; death dealing with love and affection for us. We find eternal life broken open for us, not by Christ’s great power and strength, but by his humility, weakness, and sacrifice. By giving of his whole self entirely away.
You have no doubt encountered the opposite in this world… You have in no doubt encountered the opposite in some folks who are self-indulgent, entitled, greedy, individualists. You may have encountered some folks that have more think that they have received more as a reward from God… But that’s not how it works. The cult of individualism is a heresy, Christ’s greatest strength was his weakness. His richest gift to us was himself, his life, freely given, on the cross on a garbage heap outside of the city gates.
His glory and radiance was his total dependence on God. Jesus never received the gift of worldly abundance as a blessing or a sign of God’s favor. The miracle of the bread, the feeding of the five thousand, was that the meager gift of a few loaves and fish fed EVERYONE.
Yes, those who have a job are blessed. But, those who have lost their job are equally blessed and loved by God. The homeless man on the street is just as much loved by God as the wealthiest. We are all saved by what we may think are the small and insignificant things of the world that are revealed as being the priceless treasure and beauty of God. We are saved by the broken body of Christ which for us the eternal bread of life.
There is an old story…
At the foot of a mountain lived a father and his three sons. They were a simple and loving family. The father noticed that travelers came from far and wide to climb the mountain, but they never returned. It was rumored that the mountain was made of gold and its streams flowed silver. The father warned the sons about the dangers of the mountain, but they climbed it anyway.
Along the way up the mountain, under a tree, sat a beggar, but the sons ignored him in their eagerness to ascend the mountain. One by one, the sons disappeared: one into a house of rich food, one into a house of fine wine, one into the gamblers’ den where promises of vast wealth hung on the throw of the dice. Each became a slave to his desire and forgot home.
Meanwhile, the father was heartsick. He yearned for his lost sons. “I must climb the mountain. I must risk the dangers.” The father searched the mountain. Indeed, the mountain was solid gold and the streams flowed silver, but he hardly noticed; he was so determined to find his sons. He failed to find them, but on his way down the mountain, he met the beggar and asked his advice.
“The mountain will give your sons back only if you bring them something from their true home that will awaken your love in them.” The father raced home and brought back a loaf of bread. He gave the beggar some in humble thanksgiving. He found his sons, one at a time, and carefully placed a piece of that bread on the tongue of each. Each awoke to discover their foolishness and to embrace the love of their father. They returned home together to the simple and loving life that brought them happiness forever.
That one small humble piece is here. May we all be awakened to the eternal and humble sacrificial love that it represents. May it stir up in us the flame of love which burns in the heart of Jesus as he bore his passion and let it nourish us for our journey to eternal life.
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