The Outrageous Mystery of Our Faith!

“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

Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B:

 The Outrageous Mystery of Our Faith!

This is the last of 5 weeks in which the church reflects on Chapter 6 in the Gospel of John. 

The chapter began with the 'sign' of the feeding of 5,000 men and the unknown number of women and children. The whole of the chapter has used bread as an extended metaphor to describe both: what it is that Jesus is offering and what is the relationship Jesus wants us to have with him. The text this week (John 6:60-69) presents us with a crisis of faith, a difficult teaching, that will become a turning point for many of the disciples of Jesus. So far following Jesus has had exciting moments as he performed signs and wonders, tense moments when he challenged the religious authorities. Many of the disciples had come to hopes that Jesus was "indeed the prophet who is to come into the world." (John 6:14)

However, when Jesus says: "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides (lives) in me, and I in them" (6:56) he turns the focus on his disciples and on us. It is we who are the "whoever" in his teaching. The question from the disciples; "This message is harsh. Who can hear (stand) it?" and the question from Jesus; "Does this offend you?" are addressed to us. Jesus goes on to say; "What if you were to SEE the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?" As we read this text remember that Jesus is no longer on the hillside with the thousands but with his disciples teaching now in the Synagogue in Capernaum. The number of followers seem to have fallen off but Jesus is uncompromising in the sharing of his truth.

The question "what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? This question should get us thinking about what we have already SEEN in Jesus - or at least to remember what it is that the gospel writer John has SEEN. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... All things came into being through him ... What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people ... And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have SEEN his glory ... full of grace and truth." (John 1:1,3,4,14) John has SEEN and wants us to SEE the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth, light and life. But John does NOT want us to "see" in the simple sense of intellectual understanding. If we were to SEE the Son of Man ascending to where he was before, then perhaps we might SEE who it is who has descended from Heaven and is right here before our very eyes living (abiding) among us. "The Word became flesh and lived (abided) among us."

John wants us to hear the word, "abides or lives" as being as viscerally real as "flesh" and "blood." And to hear the words, "flesh" and "blood," as dynamically real as "abide." Abide is a verb. It not a material substance but a conscious dynamic relationship. But the teaching of Jesus still asks us to make a deeper level of commitment to the reality of who he is for us. Since blood was understood in the Jewish faith tradition to be "the seat of life" and belonging solely to God, Jesus is asking us to make him and those who abide in him the seat of their life, the very centre of their life; belonging to God alone.

John's story started five weeks ago with the crowd of 5000 seeking Jesus after the miracle of the loaves. Now the vast numbers are almost gone. If you count success by numbers, then Jesus seems to be a failure. Even among the Twelve one will betray Jesus - and he knows it. So, at the end of today's passage we find that only Jesus and the Twelve are left. When Jesus says to his disciples "Do you also want to leave?" Peter responds, "Lord, who shall we go to? You have the words (message) of eternal life. We BELIEVE and KNOW that you are the Holy One of God." 

In scripture faith is a verb an action by which we consent and act. But it is also a process. Peter and the others, like us, have faith, but it needs to grow stronger. The faith of the Twelve does not amount to much at this stage of their journey. Jesus' suffering and death will severely test their faith. But the faith they have now is a starting point and the disciples believe in Jesus and have surrendered their past, present and future to him. Jesus, for his part, has something to work with, in the growing faith of his few disciples and in time will send the Spirit upon them to finish the work he has begun. Still, this is not about what mere human "flesh" can accomplish, but about what the Spirit can do with willing disciples who say, as we do by being at the Eucharist, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."

 Jesus in feeding the 5000 and his accompanying words, has asked his followers to make a life-altering decision. He asks them, "Do you also want to leave?" In other words, did they see in him the One they were expecting? They certainly did not have a lot to base their hopes on; he was losing many disciples who were disenchanted with him. Although all the evidence is not in yet, we like the disciples want a deeper life with God and believe, as Peter confessed, "You have the words of eternal life. We (have come to) believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." The words Jesus speaks to us are spirit and life. When Christ is present, life is present. But there will be some who will find it hard believe, find it difficult to trust and bond with him. John wants us to come to believe, to trust him, to have life in him. Not the life of this flesh that ends in death, but the life of the Word that became flesh - full of grace and truth. As we read or hear the words of the gospel this weekend, let us realise that nothing can ever compare to what we have come to believe about the Eucharist, which is the outrageous mystery of our faith.

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost-YB -Br Simeon & Br. Luke

Homily preached by Brs. Simeon & Luke e.f.o. at Maroubra on Sunday 2^nd August 2015

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.

Gospel:  John 6: 24-35

"Lord, give us this bread always"

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.

Last week we heard the amazing episode of Jesus feeding the 5000.  He took the tiny amount of loaves and fishes and multiplied it into enough to feed all the people on the hillside with food to spare.  Jesus suddenly had people wanting to be around him, he had crowds following him and they wanted more. They wanted more food and more miracles and more shows of his authority.

Today we hear Jesus tell the people what they really need.  He tells them that they are wrong to look for food again.  He tells them that they should not actually be looking for physical food; they should be looking to be fed by the Holy Spirit.  He tells them that the bread they are searching for is not the food but himself.

Many sought Jesus out because he offered them something no one else could give - bread from heaven from the very hand of God himself. When Jesus had performed the miracle of multiplying five loaves of bread and two fish to provide a refreshing and satisfying meal for more than 5000 people ( John 6:1-15), they wanted to make him their king - no doubt because they wanted more. When Jesus withdrew from the crowd and quietly returned to Capernaum to be with his twelve disciples, they ran to seek him there (John 6:24-25). Jesus met them with a probing question - “are you looking for physical food that perishes or food that gives eternal life?”

Jesus' question to the crowd, and to each one of us as well, echoes the words of the prophet Isaiah: "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy" (Isaiah 55:2)? There are two fundamental types of hunger - physical and spiritual. Only the Lord Jesus can satisfy the hunger in our heart - the hunger for truth, life, and love. Jesus alone can satisfy our hunger for truth - because in him alone is the Truth which is found in God. Jesus alone can satisfy our hunger for life - because he alone can give us abundant life - the supernatural life of God which transforms us now and lasts forever. Jesus alone can satisfy our deepest hunger for love - the love of God that knows no end, that never fails nor forsakes us, that outlasts sin and death. Jesus alone can satisfy the eternal hunger of our heart, mind, and spirit.

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus tells the people. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” He is offering the people himself. He is the imperishable bread that nourishes and sustains imperishable life.

Jesus makes us the same offer. He offers himself to us in every one of our relationships: family, friends, strangers, enemies, those who agree with us, and those who disagree. In every situation and each day of our life we choose the bread we will eat, perishable or imperishable. In so doing we also choose the life we want.

Theresa of Avila's prayer book contained a bookmark which she wrote: Let nothing

disturb you, let nothing frighten you; All things pass: God never changes. Patience achieves all it strives for. Whoever has God lacks nothing, God alone suffices.

As we leave this place of worship today,  I leave this with you and for me to ponder throughout this week....

 “Do you hunger for the bread which comes down from heaven and thirst for the words of everlasting life?”

Amen.

Mystery - Miracles or Magic!

“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

Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year B: 

Mystery - Miracles or Magic! 

This week, we leave the Year B Gospel of Mark and read chapter 6 from the Gospel of John for the next five Sundays. Reading this passage all on its own (John 6:1-15), we could miss the major themes in the Gospel of John, and we might wonder why John places this story, which is told in all four Gospels, where it is. In this account there is compassion and communion, but there is so much more. While Jesus' heart is touched by the hunger of the "large crowd", John is teaching us about the power of God in Jesus, about who Jesus is. We learn about who Jesus is by what he does - as actions speak louder than words. The words Jesus said, connect to the actions Jesus did. We have the down-to-earth disciples, overwhelmed by the "large crowd", trying to work out the cost of feeding so many people. "It's Impossible!" they say, but all things are possible with God. This story is about the power of God in Jesus, and about Jesus' compassion for the large hungry crowd. God's power is "far more than all we can ask for or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20b). If the disciples had remembered the story of how the prophet Elisha (found in 2 Kings 4:42-46

- the first lectionary reading) fed a 100 people from "twenty barley loaves" then they might have had greater trust in Jesus - who is the very presence of God. If we can receive this faith story - Jesus' fourth 'sign' - with the eyes of faith, then we can grow in our ability to trust God in mist of the most seemingly difficult situations of life. 

The people who are with Jesus are a people longing and hungry for freedom from the Roman empire that oppresses them. This need leads them to project on to Jesus an easy short-sighted answer to their need. It's certainly understandable, and only human, that they would see Jesus as a miracle-worker and potential king. Even the desire for a king (never God's desire), however, is too small a dream and falls far short of God's dream for the people. Jesus wants to give us what we don't even realise we need; he knows what we need, deep down in our innermost, authentic human selves. Why do we ask for too little, when God can and would give us so much more? Can we see beyond our immediate wants and expectations? How else will we begin to see where God is leading us? 

How do you explain a miracle? The feeding of the five thousand recounts a great wonder that Jesus worked. Many have tried to explain this miracle in rational terms. The most common "rational" explanation of the feeding of the five thousand is that it was an act of generosity. They say the charismatic Jesus inspired many in the large crowd to share them with others there provisions. I strongly object to such a modern reading that misses the point that John is making about God at work in our midst, God's power to completely transform human expectations. However I believe, we're focusing on the wrong thing when we concentrate on explaining the miracle of multiplying the barley loaves and fish, when the more remarkable miracle is the hope that Jesus inspired in the masses who followed him. Jesus' powerful presence and deep compassion for their suffering and need might explain the ability of ordinary, insecure and fearful people to follow him to a deserted place. The scientific arrogant scepticism of our time seeks to provide rational explanations for everything and loses the capacity to wonder at the extraordinary within the ordinary of our everyday lives.

The definition of miracles that we are using here is not just the literal miracle of whether or not the person with a disease is healed. Rather it is about the more ordinary moments, when the power of God’s love and grace overwhelms our sensibilities. It is about see our faith communities becoming immersed in God’s healing love and goodness. A miracle may simply be that people believe that God’s grace has been unleashed. When we do something ordinary, God takes that ordinary act - like offering 5 barley loves and 2 dried fish - and creates something incredible. It seems that we limit the concept of miracle only to physical healing and discount the moral miracles of unity. We still have to be honest about the despair, brokenness and decline that is happening in our church situations but we can’t allow ourselves to believe the statistics that bring despair have the last word. We are called to be a people of hope, who declare by word and example that God is still about God transforming lives. This story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and our stories of change and transformation as individuals and communities have amazing miracle power if they are told and heard and believed. Our stories have to touch the heartstrings in order to inspire change. The God who spoke to Moses and the prophets - still speaks, the God who protected his people and fought their battles - is still at work, the God who feeds the poor who are hungry and thirsty - is still doing so. This is the reality in which we scripture-formed believers 'live and move and have our being'. Each time we do what we thought we could not do, each time a faith-community lives in loving faith unity despite differences, God has been at work. When we recognise God's presence - this is a miracle. Our gift of faith takes us beyond appearances.


What are our expectations for our own church community? What hope do we have in spite of perceived falling attendance? Do we worry about whether we are being true to the gospel, speaking courageously, and acting boldly on behalf of all those who suffer, or are we worried about whether our church will be able to pay its bills? This is a pressing question and we can be tempted to concentrate on survival and maintenance which can distract us from our true mission. We want our church to survive so that it can preach the gospel, minister to the suffering and speak a prophetic word in a world that has little compassion and caught up in self interest. As gospel inspired people, we are challenged to focus not just on the "reasonable," not just on "basic needs," but on "multiplying resources," so that we might experience "a revelation of amazing grace." The words grace, and amazing, belong in any discussion of miracles and wonders. Have you ever witnessed such sharing, such wonders, such grace? Generosity itself is a miracle to me, and it expresses a God given power to completely transform lives. And I don't mean the lives of those who receive as much as the lives of those who give.


 Speaking of those who give: the disciples of Jesus were overwhelmed by the need before them. They did not it seems feel a responsibility to meet the large crowds need, so Jesus raises their awareness. They try to assess the situation, measure their resources, and figure out a solution, but they are powerless in the face of so many hungry people. John draws a contrast between the power of God that was about to burst forth and the power that we think we have today: the power of knowledge. John observes that "knowledge as power," is the opposite to "love's knowledge" which can take what appears to be little and indeed multiply it. It is "loves knowledge" that enables an individual and a community to recognise the power and presence of God in a given situation. God responding to our prayers for the world's needs with the question, "What do you have?" Think of the abundance many of us enjoy, even in the midst of economically challenging times. I often feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of problems and the needs of the world. And yet, what would happen if we trusted in the power of God to multiply in amazing ways the resources we have, and what would happen if we saw this as a communal question? Perhaps our sense of community has been lost in an over-emphasis on the individual. This miracle shows us that there is always enough for all, with plenty left over, "twelve baskets." 

John's Gospel is the one that does not have an account of the Eucharistic meal in the upper room, so this story is John's equivalent of 'the last supper.'" What follows the sharing of loaves is important, because John, unlike the other Gospel writers, draws political meaning when the people start talking about Jesus as their new king. Jesus first performs a "sign," and then will discusses it with those who witness it and then uses it as a teaching moment with his followers as he interprets its meaning. That is John's approach to teaching us about the power of God, and about who this Jesus really is - not a magician but a visible expression of the living God - the same yesterday, today and forever. This story connects us with the celebration of the Eucharist. It reminds me that Jesus does not command his disciples to exclude the divorced and remarried, the pickpockets, the spies from the Temple, the merely curious, or the hangers-on, or those who don't know their catechism, or even those who are unsure about their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Jesus simply responds to human need, as he so often does, above all other considerations. How well does this mirror our celebration of Eucharist sacrament today? It seems that the church wants to protect Jesus-Eucharist from the defiled (sinners) and only let those who are worthy to be fed. The crowds came out from their homes, their towns, seeking something from Jesus. What are we as part of the "large crowd" seeking for today? C.S. Lewis, the 20th century English theologian reflects; "Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see." As we come with our hunger and thirst for love to the Eucharistic table, will we sense a miracle? Will we with faith based on "love knowledge" be able to see the "sign" Jesus works?

9th Sunday after Pentecost Y.B-Br. Andrew

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached by Br. Andrew e.f.o. at Springwood on Sunday 26th July 2015

9th Sunday after Pentecost Year.B


Gospel John 6: 1-21

John 6:14 "After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world."

Elisha, his name means "God is Salvation" son of Shaphat, was a prophet from Abel Meholah in Gilead. He lived in the northern Kingdom of Israel during the reigns of Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz and Jehoash. During his prophetic lifetime he performed many miracles that rivaled Christ himself; on this occasion Elisha fed 100 people with 20 loaves of barley and some ears of grain and with some to spare. In contrast we have the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread was the first appointment in the year designated by God for the Jews to meet with Him in a holy convocation, it occurred the week prior to Passover.
John has chosen to place his account of the feeding of the 5000 during this combination of Holy days. (John 6:4 “Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.")
Jesus makes what Matthew Henry calls a Coasting voyage to Bethsaida (Luke 9:10) where despite his weariness he continues to heal and to preach to the people until evening.
It is important, to note that this is the only miracle reported by all four gospel writers, though John is the only one to mention the more intimate facts which bring this event alive to us -such as the matter that the 5 barley loaves and 2 fish were brought to Andrew by a little lad or  paidarion—, probably one that used to follow the crowd, as settlers do the camps, with their eatables to sell, and the disciples had bought what he had for themselves, coarse barley bread and fish rather than the finest wheat.

Whereas the other Gospels record the disciples suggesting to Jesus that he send the crowd away to buy food and find lodging. Here in John’s account Jesus asks Philip, by name, WHERE they are to buy enough food to feed everyone, yet Philip’s response refers not to the where but to the COST of it as though the group purse could not meet the task, yet we already suppose the provisions to be theirs. Jesus already knows what he will do.

And so what I suspect is the largest picnic ever attended get underway.

The grass is plentiful there and sits at the base of the hillside upon which Jesus was overseeing the proceedings, the disciples are instructed to have the men recline in groups of 50, and we are told that 5,000 of them are seated in this way – only Matthew’s Gospel draws our attention to the presence of women and children (Matthew14:21), making the number many more thousands than the five mentioned.
Although the group is huge, it represents a family gathered for a meal, a family communioning together. Jesus took the loaves and blessed them and gave them to the disciples to distribute and likewise the fish until all were served and when everyone had eaten enough the scraps were gathered up to fill 12 baskets..

John introduces this miraculous meal to us as the first Holy Communion, or in rephrasing that, in the interval between the miracle and this gospel, about 90 years of Christian living had transpired to bring John to deliberately place his account of it during the 3rd Passover of Jesus' ministry for the wealth of symbolism recognizable to both Jewish and Gentile Christians.

The Barley was the first of the cereal grains to ripen and at the Harvest Festival, before Passover was offered in the Temple as first fruits.  Jesus had just offered the first fruits to his Father and given them to the crowd that all might eat and be filled.  Since the disciples had acted in loci Eucharistic Ministers we might suppose that each collected a basket of the left over bread and fish – somehow symbolic of the 12 tribes, abundance for Israel?

 In his time with us Jesus ministered to the marginalized and how many of them must have been here in this crowd? The smaller groups gave many the opportunity to rub shoulders with different sorts of people and may have reminded later Christians of the Home churches which sprung up quite soon after the Resurrection. Even of Pentecost, the birth of the Church which would occur about 57 days later.
To sustain so many of those on the margins of society a prelude to another Passover when Jesus would offer himself as First Fruits.

The Fish has been suggested as the representation of the Church, being the secret sign by which early Christians found each other so that in feeding the multitude with bread and fish Jesus was both giving Himself and the Church to them in a Holy Communion. Holy Communion is a conversation, a Communication between God and the Church or God and the Body of Christ which this event certainly was.

Alternately taking the anagram ichthys:- (ΙΧΘΥΣ), the Greek word for fish and we have - Jesus Christ, God's son and our Saviour, such that at that first Holy Communion Jesus gave himself to the 5000 as Son of God and their Saviour who is the Bread of Life.
The readings for the next two weeks follow this one giving us the controversial groundwork for the development of the Latin and Greek understandings of the nature of the blessing Jesus gives to the bread and the wine.
Some of those present at that time understood that a man like Jesus just might be a suitable military Messiah. They sought to make him King but he slipped through the crowd and went into the hills to pray.
Soon we shall partake of the Holy Communion, as we do so let us make it a prayerful conversation, a Communication between ourselves who are the Body of Christ and the Lord who gives us His mysterious Food for our Spiritual nourishment.

Amen

8th Sunday after Pentecost - Br. Simeon

Andre-Rublev's Saviour

Homily preached by Br. Simeon at Winmalee on  Sunday 3^rd August 2014:    

8TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.

Gospel:   Matthew 14: 13-21

Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself . . .
Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, Jesus said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer. Amen.

This Gospel reading is one in which we can use our imaginations of this setting of the feeding of the five thousand. Can you possibly imagine, being in the midst of Jesus and his disciples and hearing Jesus say to them “ you feed them”! “Excuse me, you said what.... how, by what means Lord, we have nothing and certainly nothing that will feed this amount of people, all we have is five loaves and two fish”.  Just imagine as you read this passage, and through your imagination  see Jesus taking the five loaves and the two fish, and with  your own eyes, seeing the miracle that take place, that all these folk have been fed, awesome! Through this act of Jesus, we have the second act as the Eucharist, when Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

The multiplication of the loaves and fish is the only one of Jesus’ miracles recorded in all four Gospels. The early Christian community especially cherished this story because they saw this event as anticipating the Eucharist and the final banquet in the kingdom of God.

This miracle also has strong roots in the First Testament.  For the peoples of both the First and New Testament, the image of a great banquet was an important visualisation of the reign of God: the gifts of the land were unmistakable signs of their God’s great Providence; the Messiah’s coming was often portrayed as a great banquet with choice food and wines.

The miracle of the loaves and fishes is a clear affirmation in God's providence.  Just as the merciful God feeds the wandering Israelites with manna in the desert, Jesus, “his heart moved with pity,” feeds the crowds who have come to hear him.

In Matthew’s account, Jesus acts out of his great compassion on the crowds. First, he challenges the disciples to give what they have -- five loaves and two fish.  Then he performs the four-fold action that prefigures the Eucharist:

Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and gives the bread and fish to the assembled multitude, making of them a community of the Lord's banquet.

More astounding than Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand is Jesus’ transforming them into a community, a community who becomes one in their need, one in the bread they share, one in the love of Christ who has brought them together.

We, too, can perform wonders in our own time and place by imitating the four “Eucharistic verbs of Jesus: to take humbly and generously from what we have been given by God, to ask His blessing on it, to break by offering it to others in God’s love, to give with joy-filled gratitude to the God who has blessed us with so much.

The bread of the Eucharist, which we share together in charity and faith, today, is a prelude to the great banquet of the next world to which our loving Father invites us.

Christ calls us to become a Eucharistic people: to become the Eucharist we have received.

Amen.