Word Become Bread! Bread Become Flesh!

“Moses said to YHWH, “But, never in my life have I been a man of eloquence,either before or since you have spoken to your servant.” Ex 4:10

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B: 

Word Become Bread! Bread Become Flesh!

In this Sunday's 'First Testament' reading from I Kings (19:4-8) we encounter Elijah the prophet on the run. He is running for his life after defeating the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. His victory and slaying of the priests enraged Queen Jezebel who had brought the priests of Baal to Israel. She swore to kill the holy prophet Elijah. In our section of Kings, we meet Elijah who is at the end of his physical and psychological strength, in of all places, the desert. Not even the beauty of the landscape can comfort him. There in the wilderness he asks for an end to his misery; "Lord, I have had enough! Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors." Elijah was God's appointed prophet. He was doing what he was supposed to be doing, faithfully preaching God's Word. Now he is filled with self-doubt. When people experience hard times they sometimes think God is punishing them for doing something wrong. But Elijah did not do anything wrong. He is enduring the usual rejection and threats of violence inflicted on God's prophets. Some endured more than threats and were killed for their faithful service to God. This is happening even in our day.


He thinks or probably more accurately feels, that he is no better than his ancestors but actually this is far from the truth. He is better than his ancestors because we do not find him complaining like the people in today's gospel (John 6:41-51) about the lack of food in the wilderness. Conscious of his own inadequacy as a prophet he entrusts his soul to God. It is a lovely irony that just because Elijah gives priority to the word of God he is able to survive on bread alone. Perhaps ‘survive’ is not quite the right term here. Recent scientific research suggests that regular ‘fasting’, keeping down the number of calories we consume, is actually good for us. It gives the body an opportunity to repair damaged cells and can prevent the onset of cancers or diabetes. If Elijah managed to walk all the way to mount Horeb on a stone baked loaf (this sounds rather good!) and a jar of water that might indicate that he was used to a meagre diet. It would be quite fitting if, without knowing it, the prophet lived a longer and healthier life as a result of self-denial in the service of God.


The fact that an angelic being ministers to Elijah’s very human needs reminds us that there can also be spiritual dangers in self-denial. A failure to respect the body’s needs for food and drink may be a sign of depression or self-loathing. The material and spiritual dimensions of life are inseparable and it can be just as much a temptation to undervalue our bodily nature with its various needs as it is to overindulge it. In the gospel today people are "complaining"–they are ‘murmuring’ just like the Israelites in the desert with Moses–they are not complaining about a lack of food. They are complaining that Jesus seems too ordinary, too perhaps human? "We know his father and mother, How can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'" The problem is not one of communication. Many of them would readily have understood the implications of what Jesus is saying. The giving of manna, the feeding of the chosen people with bread from heaven, was often associated in Jewish minds with the giving of divine teaching. In other words Jesus is clearly giving his teaching a unique status – he sees his own teaching as indispensable and as life-giving as our daily bread. Jesus has declared in his time of trial in the desert, "Humans do not live on bread alone, but on every word that flows from the mouth of God." (Deuteronomy 8:3)


In the wilderness, after praying for death, Elijah falls asleep. Then he has a double-dream theophany. An angel wakes him and provides food for him. We can see where the story is going. Like Israel's sojourn in the desert and when we cannot provide for ourselves, God can nourish us. And that's exactly what God does. The prophet cannot continue on his own, but God nourishes him for the "long journey" that lies ahead. Elijah's problems aren't removed, but God provides what he needs for the next phase of his mission. God has more for him to do. Elijah is given food in the wilderness to strengthen him to walk for; "forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God." On Horeb (or Mount Sinai) God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, another kind of bread for hungry people in the desert. The theme of being fed on physical and spiritual bread are them amplified in today's gospel.


Elijah was not just on a journey he chose for himself. He started out as a fugitive fleeing for his life but after his encounter with the divine messenger his flight becomes a pilgrimage that will take him to a holy place. Isn't that the way life can be for us? We find ourselves in a crisis, or stressed, hardly getting through a day. We cry out for help, when we discover we cannot provide for ourselves. Somehow God visits us in our wilderness, gives us nourishment to continue our life journey. At the end, when we look back on the difficult experience, we realize God was there for us each step of the way. God has not abandoned Elijah, but seeks him out. In our times of weakness, God does not abandon us, but seeks us out. The Elijah story helps us to trust in the gracious provision of God. It is a story of a human who cannot help himself. Which leaves plenty of room for God to move in with bread and water, nourishment to continue the journey.


What Jesus is trying to help his "complaining" listeners understand about "the bread" that he gives it is unlike the manna their ancestors ate in the desert. His bread is a bread that satisfies our true and deepest hunger and gives us life for the new age that he is inaugurating. Jesus doesn't debate with his opponents. If they try to just use their reason they will never get to understand what he is teaching. The crowd are closed to what Jesus is saying to them. Logic does not work for them in their encounter with Christ. The way people come to Jesus is that they are to be "drawn by the Father". Seeing with the 'eyes of faith' is a gift from God. What an opportunity Jesus' hearers have before them! The Father is drawing them to Jesus, but they are resistant. We cannot achieve God on their own, but must be drawn by God, who gives faith. The invitation to believe Christ's teaching is also there for us and all who will listen to Jesus. Do we accept what the religious authorities rejected, "the bread that has come down from heaven?" Our communion this weekend should be an affirmation of faith experience the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ. Amen..

Second Sunday after Epiphany - Br Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached at Maroubra on Sunday 18th January 2015 smatterings of Br. Luke as gleaned by Br. Andrew: 

 




Second Sunday after Epiphany - year B

“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”

Readings: 1 Sam. 3:1-10, Ps. 139, 1 Cor. 6:12-20,John 1:43-51

What do we know from the reading from samuel?

·                     The Lord's Word was 'rare' in those days or dear as Rashi puts it in the Hebrew Commentary, it was not falling to earth very often and neither were visions received often.

·                     "The Lamp of God had not yet gone out" was this the lamp in the Temple to indicate the hour the Lord began to speak to Samuel?

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ere the lamp of God went out; before the lights of the golden candlestick were put out, i.e. in the night season, or before the morning, when they were put out, as they were lighted in the evening, Exodus 27:21 Leviticus 24:3 2 Chronicles 13:11. 

Or did it indicate that though the Word of the Lord was rare in those days that the Lord had not yet abandoned Israel.

We decided that both were applicable.

Samuels bed was near the Ark of God and Eli slept in a room opposite the Holy of Holies to tend to it when needed, Samuel was his guide and ministered for him.

⁴Then the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ and he said, ‘Here I am!’ ⁵and ran to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’ So he went and lay down (1 Sam. 3:4-5) 

As we have read, this happens three times before Eli realizes that it is the Lord calling Samuel and sends him to lie down and to speak the words written at the beginning of this Sermon. "Speak, Lord, your Servant is Listening"

Note that Samuel does not yet know the Lord which is why he can sleep in the Most Holy Place without coming to grief, why he does not recognize the voice of the Lord when he hears it, but now he is bid to listen and how different is listening from hearing?

Remember this child was given into Eli's care to serve God in the Temple as Hannah's bargain with the Lord for allowing her to conceive a son.

see 1 Samuel 1:11"And she vowed a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”"

Right from conception  Samuel was destined to be a servant of God - and the awesome things God spoke to Samuel once he came and stood where the boy slept and spoke to him of the coming extinction of the house of Eli for the wickedness of the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, in their blasphemy and of their father for not rebuking them or removing them from the office of  priest.

“ In the deep silence of that early morning, before the sun had risen, when the sacred light was still burning, came through the mouth of the innocent child the doom of the house of Ithamar.”—Stanley, Lectures on the Jewish Church, Part I.

The seeming threat that Eli makes to elicit the truth concerning the fate of the House of Ithamar...

What else can Eli say except  Let the Lord do what seems good to Him.

Josephus tells us that Samuel was 12 when he began to prophesy , the Lord was with him and the Scriptures tell us that not a word of his ever fell to the ground.

The Calling of Nathanael

The story of Jesus calling Nathanael, better known as Bartholomew, sticks in our memory, mine especially under the wording of the KJV

"An Israelite in whom there is no guile."

Jesus calls Philip who recognizes him as the one promised by Moses in the Law and the Prophets - Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth and the response " Can anything good come out of Nazareth"

Nathanael's excited exclamation ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’upon hearing that Jesus "knows" him as an Israelite in which  there is no deceit, his innocent goodness in recognizing this description of himself, perceived by Jesus while he was as yet under the peppercorn tree.

The mysterious prophecy of Jesus that Nathanael will see angels ascending and descending upon the son of Man is reminiscent of Jacobs Ladder.

4th Sunday of Easter - Br Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour 

Homily preached at Winmalee on Sunday May 11th 2014

Fourth Sunday of Easter Br. Andrew

Here is something to think about:

In his “The Axioms of Religion” professor E. Y. Mullins’s: sates that "Whenever a church interposes between the child and the Father, through sacrament, through human priesthood or hierarchy, through centralized government, through authoritative oligarchies of any kind in spiritual affairs, it ceases to conform to the kingdom of God, and becomes a juvenile court or orphanage instead.” 

This quote, in its turn appeared in a pamphlet written by a Baptist by the name of Carolyn D. Blevins entitled “The Priesthood of All Believers”
http://www.baptisthistory.org/priesthood.htm

The Priesthood of All Believers

I Peter 2: 1-10


Today I shall be focusing on this verse from our second reading 1 Peter 2:9;
9 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Jesus has given us the gift of new life, as a priest offering his ultimate sacrifice, he sacrificed his life for us and he chose us, His believers to be priests. 
When we think about a priest, we tend to think of some one who believes in a Eucharist wherein the elements of bread and wine are somehow changed into flesh and blood.
We are a Non-denominational Sacramental Community but the Sacrament does not reside on the Table or in the beliefs of the one leading the service but in the heart and Spirit of those remembering Jesus through it.  

So for us being members of a royal priesthood, being priests has far more meaning than perhaps it does for members in the more traditional denominations, because the Sacrament is within our relationship with the Father rather than in a Doctrinal statement, place, person or ritual. Our priesthood sits within our relationship with the Father and with his Word the Lord Jesus

We are a community of Priests each ministering and shepherding one another not because of any special training, but because Jesus says we are; and through the Holy Spirit has given us various gifts to use to do so. Our priesting is an everyday sacrifice of joyful praise and service as we take up our various joys and burdens each day. We are always priests, not just on Sunday and we do have the Good shepherd to help us.

Let’s examine the Gospel now and see how the Master does it. 

Gospel John 10:1-10

Even in Palestine today several flocks of sheep may be sheltered in the same fold for some short time. A gate man – one of the other shepherds will sit at the entrance to the fold to guard it and will allow the other shepherds to enter. When that shepherd takes his sheep out of the fold he has a special call for them and all the sheep follow him, he has given them all a name and they come when they are called and the shepherd knows instantly whether any are missing. They will run from a stranger.

Jesus is the doorway both into and out of the fold and we wait his bidding before we come in or go out and we trust him to lead us to good pasture and fresh water. Jesus knows us by name, so intimately that he knows when we are distracted and out of full communion with him in our Relationship with him. Whenever we become so seriously lost as to miss curfew then Jesus who instinctively knows our absence knows just where to find us and comes and does so.

As priests in his new kingdom we need to practice our shepherding, getting to know those with whom we interact, the special words that will draw them to God through our Priesting. Their bolt holes when times are bad; the kinds of nourishment they need; to know our own limitations; to recognise when a relationship with Jesus is faltering and with prayer, practise and consultation with other priests pray out what might be done or not.

Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand the analogy but we are to Jesus as our fellow community members are to the sheep and the sheep need their shepherd. Greater than this:
Since we are all members of a royal priesthood, what is very interesting about this concept is that each one of us is both Shepherd and sheep – we are all Christs and all in need of Christ at one and the same time. Like a neatly woven sheep fold pulling together to keep ourselves safe from the robbers and daemons who would wrench us apart.
Priesting is a vocation we are called to, if necessary 24/7, there can be no Roster, whenever we find ourselves called, we priest & Shepherd.

 In celebrating Liturgy; priests such as Sr. Agnes finds pleasure in the Prayer Table, Lee as Parish Secretary, Ashley our fund raiser, Stephen our Mr. Music. .. We all serve each other in our various ways, we are a fold of shepherds & sheep sometimes each one of us is at once Shepherd sheep and priest-

At our lowest & most fearful we are only sheep- & if we have learned well at the Master's feet; we will know our own voices.

I feel we have an interesting time ahead.