Trail Food
Proper 14B
12 August 2018; 8:00 a.m. Said Mass and 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass
Proper 14B
12 August 2018; 8:00 a.m. Said Mass and 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass
Homily Delivered by the Very Rev. Fr. Tony Hutchinson, SCP,
Ph.D.
at the Parish Church of Trinity Ashland
Diocese of Oregon
Elena and I love to hike. We have many wonderful memories of hiking
along the Appalachian Trail in the mid-Atlantic states, in the backcountry
parks in Taiwan, Hong Kong, along the Great Wall, in the Olympic and Mt.
Rainier National Parks, among others. We
miss the close intimate connection with nature since her illness started to
affect her mobility, but remain passionate in our love for it.
Part of the challenge of hiking is
figuring out what you can reasonably carry, and then going through the Zen
exercise of deciding what you will do without.
Simplified meals are part of this, as is finding appropriate body fuel
for the way, trail food. Light, easy to
consume, but substantial enough to give the calories and sugar lift we need to
keep on going, and keep enjoying the walk, even when it is arduous and
challenging.
When I first read J.R.R. Tolkien’s
classic The Lord of the Rings in High
School, I was struck by the love of walking in nature expressed in that epic
tale. Despite hardships and risk on the
trail, the beauty of walking in the natural world remained. This was summed up in part by Tolkien’s
description of lembas, the way bread
made by elves. The elven High Queen, the
Lady Galadriel of Lothlórien, gives it to the company before they set out for
the most hazardous part of the journey.
Light brown on the outside, creamy on the inside, crisp and wrapped in
golden leaves from blessed trees, the bread keeps for months and, when
consumed, revives not only the body, but lifts the heart and soul as well.
Lembas may be likened to
the hard-tack crackers we eat to this day in hiking, just way more appetizing. You may recall that Tolkien was Roman
Catholic. It is clear that his
description of lembas, also called
life-bread at one point in Tolkien’s writing, comes in part from his devotion
to Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The
Lady Galadriel, giving this bread and hope to those finding themselves in the
dark, echoes his devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
Today’s Hebrew lesson is about trail
food provided by an angel to the Prophet Elijah. It sustains miraculously far beyond what one
or two meals might. Like lembas, “one bite makes a person full,”
and gives strength and the will to go as long as the journey lasts.
The other texts, while not talking
about trails and walking, are about support and sustenance. The Psalm affirms hat we can rely on God, and
says wonderfully, “Taste and see that the Lord is good, happy are they who
trust in him.” The Gospel is a
continuation of the story of the Bread of Life discourse. It contrasts those who partake of this bread
and those who let other things get in the way of partaking of it. It suggests that the real trail food for us
in our life’s journey is Jesus.
The fact is, it is easy to get worn
down by life. If is easy to lose our
way. It is easy to get hungry, and
tired, to the point where we may want to stop putting one foot in front of the
other and move along. If we take our
packs off for a moment to rest, we may not ever want to put them on again. When we are not our best and most at risk of
making bad decisions, it is helpful to ask whether we are at risk, at the mercy
of extraneous things, things that we just might be able to do something
about: HALT—are we hungry, angry,
lonely, or tired? If hungry, eat. Angry, work to resolve it or let it go. Lonely, reach out to someone. Tired, take a nap or have a good overnight’s
sleep. Or perhaps make a change of
routine or scenery to get an emotional reset.
Today’s epistle makes some
suggestions on how to get on well in our life journey. Here, behaviors and habits are seen as ways
of getting strength and sustenance: stop
being phony, be open and direct out of a sense of shared endeavor with others
(those on the way with us), go ahead and let yourself have the emotions that
come with life (anger, for instance) but don’t let these make you harm others
or be malicious. Deal with them on a
daily basis, and don’t let them pile up hidden in your heart ready to break out
and overwhelm you. Don’t steal. Rather, pull your own weight, again out of
your sense of shared journey with others.
Don’t bad mouth people or tear them down. Instead, build them up. Put away bitterness
and cultivating wrath, arguing and slandering each other. Eschew malice, and be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another.
This will help us on our way.
Jesus, again, is the model and source of such benevolence. Jesus is our sustenance.
Eucharist is one of the two
Dominical sacraments; the other is Baptism.
Baptism is the gateway through which we start this great journey, our
life in Christ. The baptismal covenant
gives us rules of the road and suggestions for daily recharging. It even mentions our trail bread.
In it,
we:
·Affirm our trust and hope in the basics of the Trinitarian faith outlined in the Apostles’ Creed.·Promise to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread (the Holy Eucharist), and the cycle of prayers of our community.·Promise to persevere in resisting evil, and to repent from sin we may fall into, and return to the Lord.·Promise to proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ, seek and serve Christ in all persons, and strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being.
These all involve relationship: with
God, with Jesus, with the ministers Jesus sent and those who came after them,
with the living tradition of faith and practice they have given us, and with
those about us. By making and keeping
these commitments, we all become ministers of Christ, loving and serving others
as he loved and served us.
We turn away from, “renounce,” the
things that detract us from our forward movement in our journey. We commit to keep on walking and carrying our
packs for the way, and to do the things we need to recharge and refresh
ourselves for the hike. As Paul says in Romans, we “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
One of the things we promise in
baptism to do is to persevere in the prayers, and in the breaking of the
bread. The Eucharist is the way bread,
the lembas, that helps us in our journey with God. This is because in it we experience Jesus,
and reconnect with our model. In
Eucharist, we gather, we are transformed, and we are sent out into the world,
back on the way, on our journey with Christ.
One of the reasons we Episcopalians call the Holy Eucharist the Mass is
the focus that this name brings: it is
from the same Latin word where we get the words “mission” and “dismissal.” At the end of our great thanksgiving and
this meal with life’s bread and wine, we are sent out into the world. Our trail food has restored us, and we carry
on. We eat his flesh and drink his
blood, and find ourselves saying, “once more into the breach!” able to keep on
going where before we were about ready to give up.
Let us pray.
Loving Jesus, you are the bread of heaven, the food of angels, the water of life, the wine of joy, the source of all life and strength: help us to keep our baptismal promises, reconnect with you each day, find strength for the journey, and enable us to love and serve our sisters and brothers, and care for your creation. Make out burdens light, keep us forever oriented in your love. Protect us from losing our way, and bring us safely, with all your children, to your great hearth, home, and banquet. For your tender mercies’ sake we pray, Amen.
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