Loading...Celebrating St. James’ day with us last Sunday, Bishop Terry reminded us that there is no asterisk that excludes anyone from the love of God. What a bold statement of the broadness of God’s love in this world. That God, as a 1980’s poster may have said, “doesn’t make junk.”
We are all beloved of our Creator. So much so, that even when the bulk of humanity repeatedly failed to understand the depth of this love, God kept on trying, through prophets and martyrs, to help humanity understand. Finally, God sent Jesus to live with and among us.
Jesus was given the task of teaching us that all of God’s people matter to God. That even though we humans like to separate ourselves, deciding the worth and purpose of others, sometimes even excluding and denying basic human rights, decency, and justice, God loves each and every one of us. No asterisk, no exclusions. We are each beloved of God.
As people who have chosen to hear this message from Jesus, we are reminded throughout his ministry that people, separated from society because of perceived or actual illness of mind, body, or soul, should be included in the daily life of community.
That, as we heard from Exodus, when they are hungry and fleeing tyranny on a journey through the wilderness, life-saving, life-giving manna and quail will be provided.
And as we heard from our lesson from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, that each individual brings unique gifts and talents to speak “the truth in love” to promote “the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”
Unfortunately, as our Eucharistic Prayer C so blatantly reminds us, we don’t always get these messages. While we are given such responsibility to care for this creation and all that is a part of it, we (that’s the royal “we”) turn against God, we betray God’s trust, and we turn against one another.
Yet, as the Eucharistic Prayer continues, “again and again, God calls us to return.” Through those prophets and martyrs, through teachers and preachers, through both written and spoken words, God has continually begged us for our attention.
Finally, God sends Jesus. God and human, Jesus comes into the world to teach what love is all about. That love is bigger than our ability to comprehend, but as simple as what Paul reminds us, and that is the unique “grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift” we have each been given.
For all the chasing God has done throughout all time, I wonder how God felt when this time, just after Jesus has fed the 5000 with five loaves of bread and two fish, there were some who chased Jesus.
It wasn’t even easy for them. They had to get into boats and cross the Sea of Galilee to get to Capernaum. Then they had to look for Jesus and the disciples in the busy port town. Who knows how long they looked for him. They could have given up, turned around, and gone back. But something compelled them, something strongly urged them to keep looking. There was something they needed from him, even if they could not quite put their finger on what it was.
Sure, they might have wanted more bread and fish. But they journeyed across a big lake, to a port town where lots of people were coming and going, just to find Jesus. It had to be for more than food. Right?
They were hungry, but for what?
Jesus knew. They were hungry for God.
In the Gospels for these next few weeks, we are going to hear a lot about bread. Jesus uses bread as his example to help people understand the importance of God in their lives.
He uses bread because people around the world all have some form of bread available in their diets. It’s a universal item that is often the item that helps fill bellies in millions of households—even gluten free households have found ways to eat bread.
In some cultures, meat and vegetables are held in some form of bread. Think tortillas, sandwiches, buns. Injera, Fufu, Pita, and Naan sop up the spicy sauces and tasty spreads in many cultures. Cornbread. Fry bread. Pancakes, biscuits, crackers of all sorts. Pizza dough, Asian milk bread, steamed buns. Breadsticks. Of course there are quick breads, like the abundant Zucchini Bread I’ve been baking… I’m getting hungry thinking about all these types of bread!
It's easy to understand when you think about bread why Jesus would use this food item to help people understand the importance of having God in their lives.
But there’s more to it than that. I mean, we can simply ask God to be in our lives through a single prayer, but there is more we need to do to let God’s light shine from within us.
Just what does Jesus mean when he says, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for food that endures for eternal life.”?
I believe that the food that endures is being in relationship with our God. That might look like a lot of things for many of you.
For me, it means learning, praying, worshipping, listening, paying attention.
It means being willing to change because as I get older, I understand the world differently.
I see the obstacles and frustrations; the pain and the suffering differently than I did when I was younger.
I recognize the complexities that others have experienced when they tell me their stories, or when I learn more about a broader problem facing our world.
I see the grey; and I don’t just see it; I embrace the grey places between the polarities of black and white—because nothing is ever so binary, so one way or the other, or easy.
I have grown. I have changed. I am not the girl or young woman I was. And that may have come from growing older, from my education, from prayer, from the study of scripture, or from worship.
Maybe it came from understanding the Jesus who spoke to the woman at the well and heard her story and gave her hope and forgiveness, even though she was imperfect. Because try as I have to be otherwise, I am imperfect.
Maybe it was in today’s reminder to the crowd that the manna that they thought came from Moses actually came from God. That the bread and fish they ate just a day or two ago actually came from God.
Perhaps it was from hearing the struggles of those who have had difficulties beyond what I have ever had to experience, trying to get the help they need to put or to keep a roof over their head or food on their table. Nothing is so starkly one-sided that God cannot impact the world.
But it wasn’t always that way for me. It isn’t always that way. Sometimes, I really do see God in simple ways. And that, too, can be food that does not perish. It can be food that endures for eternal life.
To be honest, I need some kind of balance between the deep spiritual work of knowing and trusting that God is holding the world with loving hands, and in seeing the beauty of all God’s creation in this world. I need the simple reminders and the really, really hard, complex issues, and everything in between to always remind me that our loving, life-giving, liberating God is with me. And that not only is God with me, loving me, I love God. I love my neighbors, even though that is hard sometimes. And I can love my imperfect self.
Let me put it to you from a few words from the song that has been in my head when I have been thinking about today’s Gospel. It’s called “Love Song for a Savior” by Jars of Clay.
In open fields of wild flowers
She breathes the air and flies away
She thanks her Jesus for the daisies
And the roses in no simple language
Someday she’ll understand
The meaning of it all
He’s more than the laughter
Or the stars in the heaven
As close as a heartbeat
Or song on her lips
Someday we’ll trust Him
And learn how to see Him
Someday He’ll call us
And we will come running
We’ll fall in His arms
The tear will fall down
And we’ll pray
I want to fall in love with you…
The crowd chased Jesus not knowing that what they were seeking was to fall in love with the God of their ancestors.
And I do believe God smiled.
Amen.
