Home Devotions (Mid-week Message)

Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message

August 28, 2012

Home Devotions

On page 137 of the Prayer Book is found a short and very useable form for private and family devotions.  Each lasts about 5-10 minutes only, can be used for anytime of the day, and is based on the monastic liturgy of the hours.  I encourage you all to use them if you aren’t already doing so. 

If you currently don’t have a daily prayer regime, then I suggest starting out committing yourself to say one of these a day (either morning, noon, early evening, or bedtime) either alone or with your spouse or partner or family for a specific amount of time (say, a month).  Then see where it goes from there.

I enclose here the texts for convenience: 

In the Morning

From Psalm 51

Open my lips, O Lord, *

    and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, *

    and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence *

    and take not your holy Spirit from me.

Give me the joy of your saving help again *

    and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: *

    as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.

A Reading

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope

through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

1 Peter 1:3

A period of silence may follow.

A hymn or canticle may be used; the Apostles’ Creed may be said.

Prayers may be offered for ourselves and others.

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought

us in safety to this new day:  Preserve us with your mighty

power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by

adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your

purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

At Noon

From Psalm 113

Give praise, you servants of the LORD; *

    praise the Name of the LORD.

Let the Name of the LORD be blessed, *

    from this time forth for evermore.

From the rising of the sun to its going down *

    let the Name of the LORD be praised.

The LORD is high above all nations, *

    and his glory above the heavens.

A Reading

O God, you will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are

fixed on you; for in returning and rest we shall be saved; in

quietness and trust shall be our strength.  Isaiah 26:3; 30:15

Prayers may be offered for ourselves and others.

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect

Blessed Savior, at this hour you hung upon the cross,

stretching out your loving arms:  Grant that all the peoples of

the earth may look to you and be saved; for your mercies’

sake.  Amen.

or this

Lord Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles, “Peace I give to

you; my own peace I leave with you:”  Regard not our sins,

but the faith of your Church, and give to us the peace and

unity of that heavenly City, where with the Father and the

Holy Spirit you live and reign, now and for ever.  Amen.

In the Early Evening

This devotion may be used before or after the evening meal.

O gracious Light,

pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,

O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!

Now as we come to the setting of the sun,

and our eyes behold the vesper light,

we sing your praises O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,

O Son of God, O Giver of life,

and to be glorified through all the worlds.

A Reading

It is not ourselves that we proclaim; we proclaim Christ

Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants, for Jesus’ sake.

For the same God who said, “Out of darkness let light

shine,” has caused his light to shine within us, to give the

light of revelation — the revelation of the glory of God in the

face of Jesus Christ.  2 Corinthians 4:5-6

Prayers may be offered for ourselves and others.

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect

Lord Jesus, stay with us, for evening is at hand and the day is

past; be our companion in the way, kindle our hearts, and

awaken hope, that we may know you as you are revealed in

Scripture and the breaking of bread.  Grant this for the sake

of your love.  Amen.

At the Close of Day

Psalm 134

Behold now, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, *

    you that stand by night in the house of the LORD.

Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the LORD; *

   the LORD who made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion.

A Reading

Lord, you are in the midst of us and we are called by your

Name:  Do not forsake us, O Lord our God.  Jeremiah 14:9,22

The following may be said

Lord, you now have set your servant free *

    to go in peace as you have promised;

For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior, *

    whom you have prepared for all the world to see:

A Light to enlighten the nations, *

    and the glory of your people Israel.

Prayers for ourselves and others may follow.  It is appropriate that

prayers of thanksgiving for the blessings of the day, and penitence for our sins, be included.

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect

Visit this place, O Lord, and drive far from it all snares of the

enemy; let your holy angels dwell with us to preserve us in

peace; and let your blessing be upon us always; through Jesus

Christ our Lord.  Amen.

The almighty and merciful Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

bless us and keep us.  Amen.

Grace and Peace. 

--Fr. Tony+

Gone too Far Jesus (Proper 16B)

Gone too Far Jesus

Proper 16B
26 August 2012; 8:00 a.m. Said Mass and 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass

Homily Delivered by the Rev. Dr. Anthony Hutchinson

at Trinity Episcopal Church, Ashland, Oregon

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Psalm 34:15-22; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

God, take away our hearts of stone, and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.

When I was a graduate student, I published an article that caught my father-in-law’s attention.  It argued against an idea that he considered a core part of his faith.  He was shocked and surprised.  He came to me, and said, “Tony, now you’ve gone too far!”  

Hearing this, it was my turn to be surprised.  No one in my family had ever used such language with me before.  My parents had always been discussers and arguers, and all opinions, however outrageous, seemed open for discussion.  You just had to be ready to defend them from withering critiques. In our home, there were many differing opinions, some true, some erroneous.  Perhaps no one had the ultimate answer, and so it was important to cherish a diversity of opinions and teachings.  Pluralism was the value.  In my father-in-law’s home, generally there was one truth, one doctrine.  Monism, one-way-only, was the value. So both he and I were in for some intra-familial culture shock.  When he said that to me, I myself thought, “Clark, now you’ve gone too far!”   I was, in my own pluralistic way, just as intolerant as I thought he was being.  We eventually got used to each other, because each of us in our own degrees valued both pluralism and monism.   

Jesus often offended and outraged those about him.  He often heard, “Jesus, now you’ve gone too far!” 

In Mark 3, Jesus’ family thinks he has gone insane.  When he comes back from his baptism and the 40 day retreat, instead of returning to them as a dutiful son and brother, he begins his wandering ministry.  “Jesus, now you’ve gone too far!” 

In Matthew 19, Jesus forbids divorce in most if not all circumstances.  His own disciples reply, “Well if that’s the case, it’s better never to have married.”   “Jesus, now you’ve gone too far!” 

Several times Jesus’ opponents criticize him for keeping open table fellowship with known sinners, and unclean people.  They blast him for spending all his time with drunks, whores, and traitors.  He replies that God himself is gracious to sinner and righteous alike, and that it is the sick, not the healthy, who need a doctor.  This is the very thing that God wants him to do.  “Jesus, now you’ve gone too far!” 

In John 8, a crowd tries to stone Jesus to death because he has said that he was older and greater than Abraham.  In John 10, another crowd tries to do the same after he says, “the Father and I are one.”  “Jesus, now you’ve gone too far!” 

In the passion narratives, Jesus’ accusers tear their hair and rend their clothes, saying “he has blasphemed!”  “Jesus, now you’ve really gone too far!” 

So also in today’s Gospel reading—Jesus says people must eat his body and drink his blood in order to have everlasting life.  Many disciples say, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”   As they leave, never to be seen again, Jesus replies, “Does this offend you? How will you react when you see just who I really am?”  He asks the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?”  The best Peter can answer is “And just where else can we go at this point? You’ve already hooked us, and made us think ‘You have the words of eternal life.’”   

All of these stories suggest that there comes a point in all people’s interaction with Jesus where they reach a tipping point, where a single word of action by Jesus is just so outrageous that they can no longer put up with him.  Sometimes, they leave Jesus.  Sometimes, they try or plot to silence him. In the end, it is what nails Jesus to the cross, and kills him.

Modern research, analyzing carefully the various retellings of the Jesus story, has pointed out well that only part of this reflects the historical Jesus before his death, while much reflects the Christ of faith of Jesus’s followers, talking and writing after mature reflection on the Easter events.

It seems clear that Jesus in his earthly life did not have a clear vision of what would happen at Calvary and on Easter Sunday.  His preaching and ministry was focused on God’s Reign, not on himself.  The Romans killed Jesus for insurrection, not blasphemy.  Much of Jesus’ emphasis on his own person in John’s Gospel actually reflects the later insights of the Church.  

That said, the Historical Jesus almost certainly had an increasing sense that the Kingdom of God was breaking into human history in his own person, and that his pursuit of the Kingdom would lead to his own death.  Trusting in God to save his servants and redeem even their deadly sufferings, he persevered and took his challenge to the powers that be to Jerusalem. 

Jesus almost certainly took his practice of open table fellowship with him there, and celebrated one last meal with his close followers at the time of the Passover festival.  Whether at a Passover seder or a last meal the day before, Jesus likely pointed to the usual Passover meal symbols, the “bread of affliction” and the wine of the “cup of blessing,” and gave them new meaning. “This surely will end with my death, with my body over here (pointing to bread of affliction) and my blood over here (pointing to cup of blessing). What I will now suffer is true affliction and true blessing.  Share this bread and wine with me.  Eat my flesh and drink my blood.” 

After the Easter events, this took on completely new meanings, which we have been discussing in homilies with you for the last few weeks. 

This push-the-envelope practice of table fellowship, this personalization of the redemption of Israel, and near insane talk about cannibalism as communion was revolting to the people around Jesus.  And that is the point of the “now you’ve gone too far” Gospel story today. 

These scenes describe a very different world than that portrayed by the Deuteronomist in today’s lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures.  There, the message is not a tipping point that we should let pass.  The message is clear unambiguous decision—“Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve:  Yahweh, or the pagan idols, life or death!”  Exclusion, not inclusion.  Firmness, not open-mindedness.  Joshua is not saying don’t think “now you’ve gone too far.”  He is saying, “Here’s a line—don’t you dare cross it!”

The author here portrays the choice between Yahweh and the pagan gods as a complete dichotomy that ancient Palestinians might not have seen.   Archaeological digs have shown again and again that earliest Yahwism had much in common with Ba'alism, and for many of the people of that early era, the choice was closer to a consideration of a tipping point than the watershed decision portrayed in Joshua.  For many of them, Ba’al (which simply means “Master”) was simply another name for Yahweh.  The most basic original distinction seems to be that while Ba’al was a god of wealth, fertility, and power, Yahweh was the defender of the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the barren.  This one god among many who protected the disadvantaged evolved into the monotheistic creator and Lord over all, the one and only one God who, unlike Baal, defended the weak and forbade human sacrifice.   

The choice for early Palestinians to follow Yahweh and not Ba’al may itself have thus been based on a tipping point: Yahweh as unique was somewhat above the fray of all the conflicting unexplainable forces in their lives, otherwise personified individually by the competing and at times petty deities of the polytheistic pantheon.  A plurality of gods meant that what happened to you could be explained only by recourse to the random struggles between the gods.   Monotheism made room for a natural order in a created universe where cause and effect could in principle at least be reliably determined. 

To be sure, that Yahweh at times would described in distant and at times heart-breaking terms.  Because he could make the poor man rich and the sick person well, he could also be seen as responsible for almost anything previously chalked up to pagan gods, whether good or bad.  Perhaps it was because God rewarded the righteous and pushed the wicked—a view held by the Deuteronomist and Proverbs but denied by the Books of Job and Ecclesiastes.   Prophets tempered this stark view by saying God, “slow to anger and of great kindness,” did not willingly afflict anyone.  

In these stories about Jesus “going too far,” the basic complaint against him is by monists who believe that Jesus is weakening the monotheistic faith by his pluralism and his personalization of God’s redemption.  

The fact is: I remain very much a pluralist.  I love the fact that our scripture is called the Holy Bible, ta biblia ta hagia, which means the Sacred library, the Holy little books, and NOT the ONE, TRUE, HARMONIOUS, AND INFALLIBLE-IN-ALL-ITS-DETAILS BOOK.   

Biblical faith is pluralistic faith.   

I like the fact that we have four gospels, all very much in glorious disharmony and at odds with each other on some very basic points, and that this diversity is the very starting point of our discussions about the historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith.   

 I stand in awe of the glorious doctrine of the Holy Trinity, where the one and only God, monistic by definition, is tempered and modulated by a society of three persons in one being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, eternally dancing and processing, eternally relating, and calling us into the dance.   

 Christian faith is pluralistic faith. 

And I am very, very pleased that today’s gospel tells us to keep an open mind and heart about new things we learn from God.  We must not draw red lines that, once crossed, will force us to say, “Now you’ve gone too far, Jesus.”  oly Trint

I remember my reaction when my children first mentioned around the dinner table, 15 years ago, the need to honor the loving and monogamous relationships of same sex couples by celebrating marriages for them.  It was a few months after our daughter had come out of the closet.  I thought I was being very open minded and liberal by not rejecting her.  But when she talked about same sex marriage, I thought (and probably, alas, said,) “Now you’ve gone too far!”  I felt that holy matrimony was somehow being demeaned and cheapened by spreading it or something like it to what I had been taught all my youth was deficient, unnatural, perverted, and sinful.   But thank God I remained open minded and open hearted.  The wedding of that same daughter to her beloved Paige this summer, that I conducted at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Seattle, was a spiritual high point for my life.  And then General Convention authorized these rites for the whole Church just a couple of weeks later.  Thanks be to God, who moves in wondrous and mysterious ways to bless his children. 

It is important not to forget the value and truth of monism as well.  Without a clear sense of monotheism, of the unity and uniqueness of God, the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation make no sense.   Without a sense of sanctity of matrimony and of the union of two people, of human love, and the importance of exclusive, monogamous, dedicated relationships, marriage of any kind doesn’t make much sense either. 

“Now you’ve gone too far!”  When do you say this to those you love?  When have you said it to God, to Jesus? 

This week in your prayer and quiet time, think about this, and ask whether this is part of a healthy monism or an unhealthy one, and whether you should broaden your mind and open your heart. 

In the name of Christ, Amen. 

Things I’m Certain of that I learned from the Prayer Book (Part 2)

Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message

August 22, 2012

Things I’m Certain of that I learned from the Prayer Book (Part 2):  

III. You cannot fool God, or hide anything from God.  There are no secrets in God’s presence.   God knows every human heart in its fullness, and prayer is merely an act of voluntary self-disclosure to a Deity who already knows all our wants, desires, fears, joys, and shames.  Trying to deceive God, yourself, or others is a fool’s errand. 

--“O God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.  Cleanse the thoughts of our minds by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name.  Amen.”  (Collect for Purity, p. 355; this collect from the Sarum Missal rephrases several ideas from Psalm 51.)

IV.  God does not hate anything or anyone that he has made. God’s good intention in creation includes love for all his creatures.  

         -“Almighty and Everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent:  Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever.  Amen.”  (Collect for Ash Wednesday, pp. 166, 217, 265.)

V. God’s love, acceptance, and salvation of the dead are far greater and broader than we imagine or can define by our delineations of “the righteous” or “believers” and “the wicked,” or “unbelievers.”  

         -“For all who have died in the communion of your Church, and those whose faith is known to you alone, that, with all the saints, they may have rest in that place where there is no pain or grief, but life eternal, we pray to you, O Lord.”  (Prayers of the People Form V, p. 391;

More to come…  

Grace and Peace. 

--Fr. Tony

The Dormition of the Mother of God

Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message

August 15, 2012      
The Dormition of the Mother of God

Today on the Episcopal Church calendar is the Feast Day of Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In the Roman calendar, it commemorates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life; in the Eastern Church, it is called the Dormition of the Theotokos (“the Falling Asleep of the One who gives birth to the One who is God.”)   Anglicans and the Episcopal Church tradition have always honored the Mother of our Lord, and more often than not often venerated her as the Holy Mother and Nurturer of God made Truly Human.  In honor of the day, I am sharing with you a prayer by Anglican Thomas Traherne (1636-1674), one of the metaphysical poets (along with Donne, Herbert, and others).

Praise to God for Our Lady

O Lord I praise and magnify thy Name
for the Most Holy Virgin-Mother of God, who is
The Highest of thy Saints.
The most Glorious of all thy Creatures.
The most Perfect of all thy Works.
The nearest unto thee, in the Throne of God.

Whom thou didst please to make
Daughter of the Eternal Father.
Mother of the Eternal Son.
Spouse of the Eternal Spirit.
Tabernacle of the most Glorious Trinity.

Mother of Jesus.
Mother of the Messiah.
Mother of him who
was the Desire of all Nations.
Mother of the Prince of Peace.
Mother of the King of Heaven.
Mother of our Creator.
Mother and Virgin.

Mirror of Humility and Obedience.
Mirror of Wisdom and Devotion.
Mirror of Modesty and Chastity.
Mirror of Sweetness and Resignation.
Mirror of Sanctity.
Mirror of all virtues.

The most Illustrious Light in the Church,
Wearing over all her Beauties
the veil of Humility
to shine the more resplendently
in thy Eternal Glory.

And yet this holy Virgin-Mother styled herself
but the Handmaid of the Lord,
and falls down with all the Glorious Hosts of Angels,
and with the Armies of Saints,
at the foot of thy Throne,
to worship and glorify thee for ever and ever.

I praise thee O Lord with all the Powers and faculties of my Soul;
for doing in her all thy Merciful Works for my sake,
and the Benefit of Mankind.
For uttering the Glorious Word:
yea rather Blessed are they that Hear the Word of God, and Keep it.
And for looking round about upon thy Disciples and saying,
Behold my Mother and my Brethren.
For whosoever shall do the Will of God,
the same is my Brother and my Sister and Mother.
Yea for what thou wilt say,
Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these,
ye have done it unto me.

The most unworthy of all thy Servants
falleth down to worship thee for thine own Excellencies;
even thee O Lord, for thine own perfection,
and for all those Glorious Graces,
given and imparted to this Holy Virgin,
and to all thy Saints. 

Amen. 

Grace and Peace. 

--Fr. Tony

Things I'm Certain of (I) (Mid-week Message)

Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message

August 8, 2012

Things I’m Certain of that I learned from the Prayer Book (I) 

I. God has a better intention for us and for those about us than we can ask, imagine, or pray for. 

--“Almighty God, we entrust all who are dear to us to thy
never-failing care and love, for this life and the life to come,
knowing that ‘thou art doing for them better things than we
can desire or pray for’; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”   

(No. 54, p. 831; reference is to Ephesians 3:20)

II. God does not want us to be sick or suffering.  He does not willingly send suffering or affliction on anyone.  He created each of us for joy and any departure from that is not because of God or God’s plan.  The fact that Jesus constantly healed people tells us that God’s ultimate plan for us does not include sickness.  The fact that Jesus fed both good and bad alike tells us God does not punish with hunger.  The fact that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and that God raised Jesus tells us God does not want death for anyone.

-- “O merciful Father, who hast taught us in thy holy Word that
‘thou dost not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men’:
Look with pity upon the sorrows of thy servant for whom
our prayers are offered. Remember him, O Lord, in mercy,
nourish his soul with patience, comfort him with a sense of
thy goodness, lift up thy countenance upon him, and give
him peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

(No. 55, p. 831; reference is to Lamentations 3:33.)

More to come…  

Grace and Peace. 

--Fr. Tony+

Manna (Proper 13B)

Manna

Proper 13B
5 August 2012; 8:00 a.m. Said Mass and 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass

Homily Delivered by the Rev. Dr. Anthony Hutchinson

at Trinity Episcopal Church

Ashland, Oregon

Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15; Psalm 78:23-29; Ephesians 4:1-16; John 6:24-35

God, take away our hearts of stone, and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.

When Elena and I were living in China, we would occasionally come back to the U.S.to reconnect.  At times we would be asked how many meals we had to eat each day, since, “a half hour after you eat Chinese food, you’re hungry again.”   We would politely smile and say gently that we had become accustomed to food there, and found it every bit as satisfying as western food.  “We eat more rice with our Chinese meals than you probably do here.   Staple foods, whether rice or bread, fill you up and stay with you.” 

Sustenance!  Sustenance with staying power!  This is what we all need.  Because of this, hunger has become a metaphor for all human needs and desires.  Bruce Springsteen sings of having a “hungry heart.”  Van Morrison sings “I’m hungry for your love.”  We say that a particularly well-staged production here in this village of theater and music is a “feast for eye and ear.” A person ready to do a job with vigor and advance her career is described as “hungry.”

We speak of “comfort food,” revealing an uncomfortable fact that sometimes we transfer our needs and discomfort from other areas in life to food and eating.  So some of us alas, become fat due to neediness we seek to satisfy as if it were hunger.

Similarly, we often experience simple physical hunger, especially when coupled with exhaustion, as overwhelming and larger spiritual need.   That is one of the reasons that fasting is such a prevalent spiritual practice in many traditions. 

Sometimes, it is hard to sort out all the various needs we feel. 

Abraham Maslow talks about a hierarchy of needs:  at the bottom are the physiological needs.  Then there are the basic needs for safety and security, followed by love and belonging. A need for esteem comes next.  This is followed by self-actualization and transcendence.

St. Augustine, in his Confessions, writes of a need in the heart of every human being.  Addressing God in prayer, he says, “For you created us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in you.”   In this view, all our hungers are rooted in a single hunger of the creature for creator, a hunger only the creator can satisfy.  There is a hole in the middle of each human heart, and that hole has the shape of God. 

This most basic and important need in traditional Christian teaching can be satisfied only by the enjoyment of the presence of God made known to us, whether in the end time, or in glimpses through God’s indwelling spirit here and now.  This beatific vision is the Christian doctrine analogous to Buddhist enlightenment and nirvana.  But where in Buddhism, enlightenment comes through abandonment of all attachments and eradication the feeling of any need, in Christianity the conscious enjoyment of God’s beauty satisfies all want, fills every need, even while it stimulates ever-intensifying desire.   The presence of God both satisfies and feeds our hungers. 

The idea is expressed well in a line in one of my favorite hymns:

Joy and triumph everlasting
Hath the heav’nly Church on high;
For that pure immortal gladness
All our feast days mourn and sigh.

... There the body hath no torment,
There the mind is free from care,
There is every voice rejoicing,
Every heart is loving there.
Angels in that city dwell;
Them their King delighteth well:
Still they joy and weary never,
More and more desiring ever.

Today’s Gospel talks about various kinds of hunger, various kinds of need.  In it, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me and partakes will never be hungry again, will never be thirsty again.” 

He is speaking to people who have been trying to catch up with him ever since he fed the 5,000, which we read about last week.  Remember, Jesus has to flee after he had fed the 5,000 because the people wanted to make him their king.  He secretly walks across the sea to escape them.  When they finally find Jesus, he cuts to the heart of the matter, “You are chasing after me not because I showed you marvels from God pointing to hidden truth, but because you filled your bellies with the loaves I gave you,” (John 6:26).  He adds, “Do not work hard for the food that doesn’t last, but for the food that lasts into timelessness” (John 6:27).

Jesus’ marvelous acts serve a two-fold purpose, addressing different needs and hungers.  At a concrete level, they set people free from tangible burdens such as illness, social isolation, physical disabilities, mental illness, and physical hunger.   But as signs, they point to things beyond themselves. They put God’s love and power on display, and thus reveal God’s reign, and give a glimpse of the beatific vision.  Jesus’ healing and awesome acts of feeding those in need point to the truth that, indeed, the Reign of God is in our midst, and that God is, here and now, fully in charge.

Jesus scolds the people who have been chasing him because they can’t see beyond his satisfying their lower needs to see the glimpse of true glory that offers in these acts.  

Do we have eyes to see glimpses of God’s glory and ears to hear whispers and echoes of God’s voice when these are offered us?

If we don’t, our relationship with Jesus by definition is manipulative and exploitive.   We are using Jesus to obtain whatever it is that we feel we acutely need.  In so doing, we shun any authentic relationship with Jesus, and miss “finding our rest in God,” as Augustine put it.  We settle for satisfying only our simplest needs, and thus sell ourselves cheap.  We chase after Jesus because he fed us loaves and not because he showed us a glimpse of God at work.  

It’s not that these lesser needs and hungers are unimportant.  It’s just that chasing after them, as if it is all that is important, misses the crucial piece of what God is up to in sending us Jesus.   

“Don’t work for the food that doesn’t last, but for the food that lasts forever” (John 6:27), says Jesus.  He is thinking of the story of the manna in Exodus, where the bread from heaven spoils each evening, requiring the Israelites to gather it each day excepting Sabbaths.   “The bread that lasts forever” is for Jesus that which satisfies the deepest needs as well as the shallowest.  “I am that bread,” he says.

What’s curious here is this—this bread too must be gathered each day, though it lasts forever.  The problem is not that this bread spoils, but that this is living bread, and to nurture and foster anything living, you need to be constantly attentive.  

 

That is why the Lord’s Prayer in Luke says, “give us each day our daily bread,” or, better, “our bread for the coming day, for the morrow.”

The paradox here results from the intersection of the timeless, ever present Beatific Vision and our day-to-day, hand-to-mouth experience of it within time.  Remember the angels in the city of God in that hymn I quoted, “Still they joy and weary never, More and more desiring ever”? 

The idea is that the contemplation of the Divine Beauty is not simple satisfaction of a hunger, once felt and now managed, not simple rest found in God after restlessness apart from God.  In the timelessness of the Eternal presence, our need and our satisfaction are experienced at the same, eternally present moment.  Our hunger and our being fully satisfied are experienced as two aspects of enjoying the Beatific Vision.  It is an experience of being in the present moment, lost in timeless beauty.  And it is an experience of joy. 

Translating that into the here and now of our daily experience in time, it means that though the sustenance this bread gives lasts forever, we must be constantly feeding on it.  Otherwise, this bread is not living, and we have mistaken the Bread of Life for mere Bakery Goods.

Scots poet and minister George MacDonald wrote the following: 

“In holy things may be unholy greed.

Thou giv’st a glimpse of many a lovely thing,

Not to be stored for use in any mind,

But only for the present spiritual need.

The holiest bread, if hoarded, soon will breed

The mammon-moth, the having-pride, I find.”

Sisters and Brothers, we live in a world awash with need, inundated with hunger, and begging for our help.  We ourselves are conflicted messes of competing desires and hungers.  The very fact that we continue to have all our various needs and hungers, whether in a hierarchy or not, tells us that we are living in enemy-occupied territory.  And so the glimpse of glory, the dim hint of the Beatific Vision we gain through our experience of Jesus in the here and now, is very important. 

 

We must follow Jesus in trying to make the Reign of God present.  We must follow Jesus in trying to meet human hunger and need of all types. 

But, we must also be confident that satisfying want is not all there is. 

 

In offering himself to us as “bread from heaven,” living bread that must be partaken each and every day, Jesus offers us all his Father’s richest satisfaction of all needs and hungers.  

 

But our experience of this here and now is by definition partial, and can only hint at the glory to come.  But it is sufficient.  St. Julian of Norwich said of Jesus’ promise to feed us, and sustain us, the following: “He did not say, You will never have a rough passage, you will never be over-strained, you will never feel uncomfortable, but he did say You will never be overcome.”

In the coming week, I invite us all to do a spiritual exercise, a thought experiment to try to discover our motives.  Why do you come to Church, why do you pray, why do you serve, why do you try to resist temptation or avoid doing bad things, why do you give offerings and alms?  Why do you seek Jesus?   Identify this as best you can, and then label it as “filling my belly with loaves.”  Then image you are standing face to face with Jesus, who says, “You are seeking me not because you saw signs from God pointing to greater things, deeper needs met, but because I met this specific need for you.”    And then try to imagine him simply holding you in his arms, and saying, “But that’s all right.  I have much more to offer.  Let me show you the way.”    

In the name of Christ, Amen.