Pentecost 11, Year B (full size gallery)
A temperate Sunday, temperatures in the low 80’s and brilliant sunshine. Can’t get much better than that in August! Plus we had the first group of butterflies – a swallow tail and monarchs. The light was great for both inside and outside shots
The flowers done by Cookie were roses and carnations and were like a beacon on the altar
We had only 19 in the congregation but 7 online or a total of 26 which is close to our recent average. This Sunday there was a prayer for those going to school next week on Aug 10. This week is also the Village Dinner with baked chicken legs and potatoes.
The theme of the service particularly in the Old Testament and Gospel is the “Bread of Life” is encompassed in the idea of nurture and community. John’s Gospel chapter concentrates on the “Bread of Life” which emphasizes faith in Jesus. The last hymn 335 was “I am the Bread of Life” also spoke to it.
This section of the discourse on the bread of life combines the themes of bread as the revelation of God in word and wisdom and bread as the revelation of God in the Eucharist. Jesus, is the way to eternal life. This generous offering of ourselves is what Jesus hopes that we too will bring to the world. That’s why he tells the disciples later to abide in him, as Jesus himself abides in God, for God is the source of Jesus’ ongoing and profligate offering of himself, the offering that brings life, the offering that ultimately brings life even out of death. When we abide in Jesus, God becomes the source of our generous giving as well. to give ourselves, with abandon and with love, for the life of this world.
He is reminding the people that people do not live by bread alone—true life comes from the word of God. We need the bread of heaven, embodied in earthly relationships; not spiritual quick fixes and easy answers.
Jesus calls on each one of us, as his disciples, to be the bread of life in this world– to be heavenly bread, to give ourselves, with abandon and with love, for the life of this world. We feed the world through ourselves.
The Prayers of the People recognized that while people must have spiritual food, they also need “good bread, safe drinking water and the bare necessities of life.”
Today’s readings continue the theme of God’s sustenance through Jesus who gives himself for us. In 1 Kings God nourishes Elijah for a journey that takes forty days and forty nights. Paul encourages Christians to be as loving as Christ to one another. Jesus promises that he will save all who come to him.
The Kings reading is from the Elijah cycle of stories. Elijah was a prophet to Israel, sent to call the unfaithful kings back to the covenant. Elijah confronts King Ahab’s endorsement and even sponsorship of Baal worship. Baal was believed to be the god of fertility, particularly in the forces of rain and harvest. Elijah comes in judgment on this infidelity to the covenant and prophesies a drought, powerfully demonstrating God’s sovereignty (17:1).
The drought ends at God’s command, as demonstrated through Elijah’s defeat of the Baal priests. Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, seeks vengeance on the prophet, who flees for his life in utter despair.
Elijah’s exhaustion and hunger drive him to the brink of collapse, at which point an angel feeds him, touches him and encourages him on his journey to Horeb, the mountain of God (also called Mt. Sinai). The story acknowledges the depression and despair that can come on the heels of great successes and points, in the end, to the presence of God as the only source of strength.
The Epistle from Ephesians continues the ethical exhortation of the previous two weeks. The new life of the baptized is to be lived out in specific ways. Old patterns of behavior must be replaced with new ones.
All discourse and behavior should build up the life of the community. Thus all Christians participate in the unifying work of the Spirit in the Church (4:3). They are to imitate God’s work of forgiveness and love shown in Christ’s self-offering (Colossians 3:12-13). The phrase, “a fragrant offering” (5:2) is used in the Greek version of the Old Testament to describe the burnt offering (Exodus 29:18; Leviticus 2:9; 3:5), and later applied to the people themselves (Ezekiel 20:41). This whole section is based on the belief that Christian living is an integral corollary of Christian doctrine.
The Gospel from John continues the discourse on the bread of life and combines the themes of bread as the revelation of God in word and wisdom and bread as the revelation of God in the Eucharist. Various Old Testament parallels would prepare the hearer for understanding bread as the symbol of God’s word. Amos describes a famine not of bread but of hearing the Lord’s words (Amos 8:11); the image of wisdom giving “the bread of understanding” (Proverbs 9:5); the word of the Lord giving sustenance like bread (Isaiah 55:10-11).
For Jesus’ hearers, this bread would have meant the Torah. Jesus is that revelation of God. He does the Father’s will, not his own. Those who really see him (6:40–the verb for “see” used here indicates, for John, true spiritual insight in contrast to the verb used in 6:36) will have eternal life in the present and participate in the resurrection “at the last day” (v. 40).
In reaction, “the Jews” (or more specifically for John “the Judeans” in Jerusalem and now in Galilee who oppose Jesus) murmur at Jesus, like the Israelites in the desert (Exodus 16:2, 7). The skepticism about Jesus’ physical origins (Mark 6:3; Matthew 13:55; Luke 4:22) is answered on a theological level. As in rabbinic writing (Hosea 11:4), God draws people to the Torah and is their teacher (Isaiah 54:13), so here the Father draws all who have learned from God to Jesus (12:32).
Jesus’ identification as the bread of life indicates his relationship to humanity, that of nourishment. In verses 45-50 the same argument is made as in 4:13-14 The Torah is without life-giving power. This leads naturally into the more specifically eucharistic discussion on “eating the bread.” The descriptions of the bread of life also echo the problems of the humans in the garden of Eden: “I will never drive away” (6:37; Genesis 3:24); “one may eat of it and not die” (6:50; Genesis 2:17, 3:3); “Whoever eats of this bread he will live forever” (6:51; Genesis 3:22).