[Propertalk] Fwd: Proper 14 b - Part 2

Sun Aug 9 12:59:38 EDT 2015

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From: robertpmorrison <robertpmorrison at charter.net>
To: 'propertalk at stsams.org' <propertalk at stsams.org>
Sent: Sat, Aug 8, 2015 8:13 pm
Subject: [Propertalk] Proper 14 b - 2

(Second part) 

            The people of Jesus’ time simply couldn’t comprehend that everyone being fed and satisfied was God’s number one priority; that providing education for everyone; and safety for everyone; and respect for everyone, was what God has always intended for those who inhabit creation. So many of the people of Jesus’ time had their own priorities. They wanted to hang on to whatever they had, and they wanted to add to that whatever anyone else had. So to have Jesus say that whoever comes to Him will never be thirsty, never be hungry again, was SO much of a threat to those who placed their hopes so much on tangible assets that they couldn’t bear the thought of risking losing even a crumb of them. THEY wanted to corner the bread market – whether in church or out beyond four walls.  
            But Jesus, the Bread of Life, who wants to sustain us all, cannot be imprisoned or locked away from us or any of His people.

            Maybe that’s what made some of the listeners of Jesus, who were the ones with power, what made them SO angrily nervous. After all, as a member of the Crow Nation remarked yesterday, the sacred, that which shows holiness, which draws us into holiness, always has and demonstrates power. And the fact that Jesus was willing to share power, to empower everyone, through bread, though conversation, through promises of eternal life; that made people SO angry.

            I don’t know that we get quite that angry, yet there ARE definitely times when we don’t want to share. Maybe we all need to go back to kindergarten, where we can learn that prime directive – to share with others, no matter what it is – except for germs and pain, of course!

            Presiding Bishop-elect Michael Curry made an amusing point about this last Sunday. He talked about how, in so many ways, we’re really still in kindergarten. He asked to imagine God looking at all of us on earth. He asked us to think about the ways in which we’re so far from getting things right. He asked us to think about how we relative to one another and to God. He asked us to picture God smiling and shaking God’s head and thinking, “Give them time. They’re still in kindergarten!”

As Bishop Curry remarked, maybe this is a good thing. Maybe it’s actually reassuring to think that we’re still in creation’s kindergarten, because, if this is what humans are like as adults, then we have some serious problems!

If we were adults, we should be falling all over ourselves, trying to make sure that no one is left out, that everyone has enough to eat, every single day; enough clean water to drink, every day; enough shelter from the blazing sun, or pounding rain, or bitter cold – every day.

We can’t quite see it in the bulletin photograph of the Sacrament House in St. Lorenz. We have to take the description at its face value, but think about the meaning of that carving. From head-height up it’s elaborate, a wonderfully creative expression of joy and devotion in knowing that within it shall live the Bread of Life which will feed the whole world. But the creative imagination of the sculptor, Kraft, was led to understand that all of this glory, this sign of freedom from hunger, and thirst, and fear; all of it is balanced on the shoulders of Kraft and his two companions; all of it is balanced on the shoulders of you and me.

Jesus IS the Bread of Life, certainly. He said it over and over, referring to Himself and to the tidings of peace He brought. That’s central to our faith. But in order for people to hear about it; in order to for people to taste it and see how gracious God is, you and I have to speak the words; you and I – or someone else on our behalf – has to mix the ingredients and bake the bread; someone has to make an offering of it and to use the words given us by Jesus; someone has to take it, to break it apart and to distribute it – outside as well as inside the building we often mistake for church.

As crazy as it sounds, Jesus trusts us. Teresa of Avila, born five hundred years ago this year, wrote, “O Thou Treasure of the poor!  How marvellously Thou sustainest souls, showing to them, not all at once, but by little and little, the abundance of Thy riches!  When I behold Thy great Majesty hidden beneath that which is so slight as the host is, I am filled with wonder…” 2

The torn piece of Bread, each bit not cut neatly with straight lines nor exactly the same as that given to person next to you; that torn piece of Bread came from human hands, but was blessed by Jesus Himself through the work of the Spirit which He promised us.

That torn piece of Bread, so small, so fragile, apparently so insignificant, is an incredible sign of life and love from God to us. It comes from God who made us and is given to us, the kindergarteners who seem so frequently to be so recently out of the sand box.

Yet as twentieth century saint, Dorothy Day, put it, “Young people say, ‘What good can one person do?’ They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time; we can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our heart that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know God will take them and multiply them as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes.” 3

Out of incredible love for us, God in Jesus reaches out to us as to the first century friends of Jesus and asks us to be the one, the group, the community, which takes seriously Jesus’ words. I AM – I AM present and I love and honour you so much as to offer you the means to eradicate hunger and thirst.

The officers of the organisation “Bread for the World” remind us that “Our efforts to help those in need are strengthened by Bread for the World as it brings together people frommany faith traditions – to be a collective Christian voice, urging our nation’s decision makers (and those of other nations) to change the policies and conditions that allow hunger to persist. We also give thanks for churches and other organizations that provide emergency relief and log-term assistance to overcome hunger, poverty, and disease.” 4

The Bread which Jesus gives for the life of the world must not be IN church alone. Nor must it be FOR the church alone. The Bread which Jesus offers, which Jesus invites us to take to the world, is for EVERYONE, withOUT exception.

THIS is the Good Word of Jesus to us, whether we feel like kindergarteners in mission or not. In fact, it may be better if we DO think of ourselves as kindergarteners. Nine times out of ten, they have no fear, no reluctance, to go to someone, even to a stranger, and to say, “Would you like to share my bread?”

It rests on our shoulders now, God helping.

NOTES:

[1]           Sacrament House by KRAFT, Adam - Web Gallery of Art  www.wga.hu/html_m/k/kraft/selfpor.htm

2           From “The Autobiography”, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) quoted in “Soulwork Toward Sunday: Self-Guided Retreat Proper 14 (Year B),  August 9, 2015 “Under The Appearance of” Suzanne Guthrie http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper14b.html

3           From “Loaves and Fishes” by Dorothy Day  (1897-1980) quoted by Suzanne Guthrie, Op. Cit.

4           Insert, “Bread for the World”, Washington D.C., October 2015 www.bread.org 

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