Christ Episcopal Church
August 2, 2015
13 Proper B
When my Aunt Em died in 1987 in south Alabama, our family made one of our last pilgrimages to Headland, Alabama the small town where my mother was raised and where my aunt had lived all of her 83 years. The funeral took place in the local Methodist church, then we made the long trek the short distance to the family plot in the Baptist cemetery. Not only do cars pull over and stop for a funeral procession in Headland, Alabama, there are signs all along the funeral route that say "Funeral procession. Silence please." In a small town, everyone is drawn into the solemnity of the day, whether they know the deceased or not. But the party after the burial was anything but solemn. Platters of fried chicken arrived at my aunt's house where family and friends had gathered. Bowls of potato salad and green beans, along with baskets of cornbread and no small amount of chocolate cake arrived to nourish our bodies and souls after a long morning. People who knew either my mother or my aunt dropped by the house to gather at the table and share both food and stories. The power of a shared meal to both nourish our bodies and souls and bring people together is a well known phenomena. We know that power here, certainly at the altar, but also we also know that power through our meals together at the Parish Picnic, or an all parish breakfast, or a welcome dinner, or even at coffee hour.
I wonder if the people who were present at the Feeding of the 5000 had the same sort of experience. We heard that story in the gospel reading last week, where Jesus fed 5000 people with 5 barley loaves and two fish, offered by a little boy. Imagine the excited chatter as Jesus distributed the abundance among the people. Perhaps people had Jesus stories to tell about previous encounters with him. No doubt they shared their amazement at how such a small amount of food could feed so many people, with leftovers even. In my imagination at least, the people left feeling some sense of being bound together by a common miraculous meal.
But a few hours later, they, like all of us after a good meal, were hungry again. While food has the ability to bring people together, I think hunger has an equal ability to isolate. At our Food Pantry, as much as we try very hard to treat each person with the dignity and respect they deserve, to have a little bit of conversation that connects us with each other, and to offer homemade cookies as people wait in line, there is still a sense that we have the food that our clients need. And the pain of hunger can isolate people who feel like they have to compete for limited resources, or who have to swallow their pride in order to ask for help. Last month, one of our clients said to me that he likes coming to our Food Pantry not just because we give a lot of food, which we do, but because we treat people well. While those words made my heart swell with pride for the work we do, I was also saddened by his description of, in his words, sucking up his pride to come to a Food Pantry.
This morning we hear Jesus say "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never thirst." With these words, I think Jesus reflects on both the power of food to unite and the power of hunger to isolate. The crowds hunt for Jesus this morning, not because they want to connect with Jesus and get to know him better, but because they want more food to feed their bellies. Jesus tells them not to work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life. In other words, Jesus tells them to long for the food that will nourish them forever, not just until the next meal, food that will connect them with the source of eternal life, which is not the local baker, but Jesus.
Our story from 2 Samuel reminds us what happens when we become isolated from God and from each other and take actions to satisfy only our own desires, our own hungers. Last week, we heard the story of David and Bathsheba, in which David has an affair with Bathsheba, who is married to Uriah, who is off at battle. When David finds out that Bathsheba is pregnant, he tries to make it look like Uriah is the father. But Uriah is far too ethical a person to sleep with his wife when his soldiers are out in the field. So, in order to protect himself, David has Uriah deliberately killed in battle, then takes Bathsheba as his own wife. This morning, we hear God's fury and God's hurt. David's actions will have consequences that will extend for generations to come and David will be publicly shamed before all Israel. What David thought he did in isolation to satisfy his own desires ends up having consequences that will hurt many. We are all connected and when we live like we are isolated from each other, working to satisfy our own desires at the expense of others, people get hurt. We are all connected.
While David may be an example of what happens when we live like we are isolated from each other, the reading from Ephesians describes what a life worthy of God looks like. The writer of Ephesians calls us to live "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Nothing could be further from the actions attributed to David. The writer goes on to say "But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love." The gospel calls us to live as one body, people who are bound together to work together. Only when we each offer our gifts is the body whole and can do the work we have been given to do as followers of Jesus.
But living as people who are connected, who know that, for good or ill, our actions affect others, and living as people who are connected to the source of life, is hard. Jesus knows that. In that peculiar gospel logic, the only way we have the courage and strength to live as people who are connected to each other is by living as people who are connected to each other and God. And so, Jesus feeds us. We gather at this table with Jesus, the bread of life, to be nourished in body and soul, and to be connected so that spiritual hunger and thirst do not isolate us from each other. What Jesus does by offering his body as bread for the life of the world is to connect us to God and each other in a way that does not perish. Then Jesus sends us out with hearts ready to connect with those who experience the isolation of physical hunger and thirst, and to do that work in such a way that both their bodies and souls and ours are fed.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment