Flesh and Blood Faith – 16 August 2015 – Lectionary 20/ Proper 15

Are Christians cannibals? The image of eating flesh and blood – so grotesque and graphic in today’s Gospel speech – needs some explanation. Preachers with visitors who are curious about the church but reluctant to dive into a community that is, as so many say, “organized,” might be the most in need of learning how to hear this speech from Jesus. What is John trying to convey about Jesus here?

It is tempting to talk about the Eucharist, the meal of bread and wine, the body and blood of our Lord on this day. In 2009 in Homily Service, however, David Tripp expressed an even broader and deeper meaning than the Eucharist itself. Read on.

John 6:51-58

The passages from John for the next two Sundays share a common context. After Jesus has declared his unity with the Father in the giving of life (ch 5), and has fed the starving crowd in close association with the Passover, after which some of his followers have in error sought to make him a political figure (ch 6:1–21), Jesus challenges the hearers to seek the true life-giving bread from heaven, which transcends the bread of the desert Passover, and to receive the universal mercy that Jesus offers in obedience to his Father (6:22–40). Now (6:41–71), Jesus declares himself to be, in person, the bread of life: the one who chews. . . Jesus' flesh and drinks his blood will abide in Jesus, and Jesus in that person, and thus that person will have life, because Jesus has life from the living Father. . . .

John's time-line differs from that of the three other gospels, and appears to be John's way of interpreting the priorities of Jesus' ministry, rather than simple chronology. Thus the cleansing of the temple comes near the start of the story, and the theme of feeding on Jesus is another early theme, suggesting that Jesus' cleansing power and his nourishing are found in his entire life and acts, not simply in Holy Week and Maundy Thursday. Such power and feeding are to be throughout the believer's relationships, not only in sacramental moments.

The key word in John 6 may be abide (v 56): the image is of a continuing, developing and consistent relationship. Throughout this entire part of the Fourth Gospel, the priority of the Father's sovereign grace is emphasized. The relationship between Jesus and the Father is the basis of the relationship that becomes possible between believers and Jesus.

– David Tripp

Proverbs 9:1-6

Eating together is a hallmark of wanting to move closer in communion. In her invitation, Wisdom includes anyone who desires to enter into the mystery at the heart of life more deeply. By eating of her food and drink, all people may come to a more profound understanding of Wisdom, which, so the author says elsewhere, is the first step toward knowledge of God. In the invitation, Wisdom speaks a great truth. We must make wisdom and knowledge and understanding of God as fully a part of us as the food we eat and the wine we drink. It seems like such a human thing to do; it is also the divine thing to do. – Mary Katharine Deeley

Ephesians 5:15-20

“Be careful how you live… be filled with the Spirit…” A strong link exists between this admonition to the church and Jesus’ statements found in John’s Gospel about abiding in him.

Paul's version of “Carpe Diem” is not about winning medals or trophies or living the exuberance of youth and all its adventures. It is about getting drunk on the Holy Spirit in such a way that it results in singing and playing with all the heart for God. It is about allowing ourselves to be so filled with knowledge and wisdom in the ways of God that we cannot help but live lives that are grace-filled and joyful. – Mary Katharine Deeley

Where and how is the Holy Spirit engaging and filling the life of the congregation you serve?

David Tripp, a United Methodist minister, served Salem United Methodist Church in Indiana, served in the British Methodist ministry for twenty-eight years, and wrote in liturgics and related subjects.

Mary Katharine Deeley is the director of Christ the Teacher Institute of the Sheil Catholic Center, the Roman Catholic campus ministry at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. She is the author of many books, a frequent speaker on diverse topics, and a pastoral advisor.

Homily Service 39, no. 9 (2009): 27-33.

Food for Faith – 2 Aug 2015 – Lectionary 18/ Proper 13

The connections between wilderness manna and bread provided by Jesus – physical sustenance for the body – draw our attention to the sign of gift, of giving, and of the giver. Rather than seeing our groceries as products of our own labor and ingenuity, we are invited in these texts – just as were the Israelites and the crowds following Jesus – to hear Jesus’ insistence that we see these provisions as gifts from God.

Food does far more that keep us individually alive. It brings people together. We gather around meals to cement our bonds, to celebrate. We eat together after funerals to commit ourselves to life in the face of death. We were commanded by the stories of Jesus’ last supper to eat together to remember him. Food is essential to faith in the way that the community of faith itself is essential.

This day asks us to ponder food not only as tangible life necessity and community creator but as a sign and reminder of God’s gift of life.

John 6:24-35

Jesus warns the crowds: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” The Gospel writer continues to develop the relationship among gift, Giver, and act of giving, and in doing so, Jesus is lifted up as the culmination of this relationship: as the Bread of Life, Jesus is both the gift and the Giver, and he embodies the act of giving. – Steven H. Fazenbaker

Curiously but not surprisingly, the crowd is interested in knowing the steps or the formula for doing the works of God. “What must we do… ?” That's so North American. You would think that came out of a twenty-first-century self-help manual. What must we/I do to do the works of God? I think they were expecting Jesus to answer something like, well, pray. Eat well. Read your Bible. Walk the labyrinth. Journal. Exercise.

. . . Jesus' simple reply is that they need him. We need him. Jesus is the food we need, the One who is the provision for the journey, the manna from heaven. He offers, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” – Neal D. Presa

Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15

Six weeks out of Egypt, and the memory of the Israelites is already beginning to fade. Not only have they forgotten the miserable conditions from which they have come, they have also forgotten the acts of God that rescued them . . .  God hears their complaints and responds, “[I]n the morning you shall have your fill of bread. . .” The author is very clear that the gift of bread is meant to be a sign of God's provision . . . [and] that the Israelites fail to grasp the meaning of the sign, and almost fail to recognize the gift itself. . .

When we are not able to remember God's gracious acts in the past, nor recognize God's gracious acts in the present, it is difficult to hold any hope for the future (cf. v 3, “you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger”). Yet God continues to act on behalf of God's people, and into the future we go! – Steven H. Fazenbaker

Ephesians 4:1-16

The author of this letter is begging the church in Ephesus (and, most likely, several other churches in Asia Minor) to think of themselves not as separate and individual congregations, but rather, “bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” they are asked to think of themselves as “one body”. . . .  

Each church's responsibility, therefore, is to develop its own gifts and help other churches discern and develop the gifts unique to their communities. It is important to remember, however, that each of the various gifts was given for a common purpose: “for building up the body of Christ. . .”  – Steven H. Fazenbaker

Steven H. Fazenbaker is director of the Wesley Foundation at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Neal D. Presa, pastor of Middlesex Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth Presbytery, New Jersey, was the Moderator of the 220^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA).

Homily Service 42, no. 3 (2009): 100-110.

Miracles of Bread and Water – 26 July 2015 – Lectionary 17/ Proper 12

“The love of Christ,” Paul writes, “surpasses knowledge...” In other less elegant words, it is not with cognitive powers that we can take in the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 hungry followers of Jesus or understand the story of Jesus walking on the water. These astonishing images become fruitful for us when the eyes of our hearts are opened to mystery.

God’s Word means to make us shiver, to experience awe, to grasp what is beyond our abilities. No wonder people who do not enter into Christian fellowship (or that of other faiths!) find us a bit off-center. What we take in as narratives of hope and joy sound simply preposterous.

Let us rejoice this day in the sheer enormity of what God’s Word holds out to us as nourishment. Let the preacher name some of the many daily miracles that abound in our current lives, in the midst of the congregation. Where is hope emerging? Where is love making itself plain?

John 6:1-21

The common theme of the two stories is the response of the people who receive a gift of grace from Jesus. In the first story, Jesus meets the physical needs of the crowd by providing an abundance of food from a very limited supply. The crowd responds by trying to draft Jesus into their preconceived status quo notions of power structures. From this, Jesus withdraws. In the second story, Jesus meets the needs of the disciples by rescuing them from a storm at sea, and calming their fears of the unknown. The disciples respond by welcoming Jesus into their presence without condition or expectation. In doing so, Jesus does in fact join the disciples in the boat, rather than withdrawing as he did with the crowd. Following Jesus' lead, rather than insisting Jesus follow our lead, is the way we sustain our relationship with the Good Shepherd. – Stephen H. Fazenbaker

2 Kings 4:42-44

Reflecting the Great Multiplication in John 6, this short lection in 2 Kings recounts Elisha's miracle of feeding one hundred people with twenty loaves of barley and an indeterminate amount of grain from one sack. Although the miracle is in no way similar in scope to Jesus' feeding of the five thousand, we are reminded that God has always provided for us, and we may trust that God's provision, both physical and spiritual, is eternal. – Stephen H. Fazenbaker

Ephesians 3:14-21

Beginning a lection with “For this reason” automatically prompts a question: is the author saying, “because of the reason I just gave,” or “because of the reason I am about to give you”? If we were working through the entire letter, we would have to spend time on this question; however, for our purposes, we will trust that the lection we have been assigned is inclusive, and therefore the latter is the answer to our question. In fact, verses 14–19 comprise one sentence in the Greek, so we are safe in our assumption. If we substitute the word “pray” for “bow my knees” in verse 14, and read “I pray that …” as “I pray so that …” in verse 16, the meaning of the long opening sentence of this lection becomes clear; and when we consider the lection as a whole, we discover a prayer in the form of a traditional collect, containing all of the traditional elements: the address to God (v 14, “Father”); the attributes of God on which the prayer is based (v 15); the petition (vv 16–19a); the intended result of the petition (v 19b); and the final doxology (vv 20–21). – Stephen H. Fazenbaker

Steven H. Fazenbaker is director of the Wesley Foundation at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Homily Service 42, no. 3 (2009): 88-99.