Homily August 8, 2021 (oops...late posting)
11th Sunday after Pentecost
John 6:35, 41-51
Once again we have a trauma-laden episode from the story of King David
…so a few words about David, his commanders and Absalom is called for.
And once again…much context is missing….we have only the culmination of the drama.
First thing to say is that David could never win any awards for good parenting.
Some of the backstory:
Absalom learned that his half-brother, Amnan raped his sister Tamar.
She confides the violation to Absalom
who then goes to his father David demanding punishment for Aman.
But David doesn’t oblige
…Amnan is his favorite.
In the predictable resentment and rivalry that follow
Absalom kills his half-brother Amnan,
And later attempts a coup against David
He fails
which leads to today’s episode, where,
despite David’s plea for his commanders to NOT kill Absalom-
they do so---violently.
This horrible tale ends with a most poignant scene
It is a scene capable, I believe, of drawing us into the story:
David went up to his chamber and wept
“O my son, O my son
Would I had died instead of you!
O my son, my son!”
The Bible often teaches things about God…
But sometimes…like in this piece of narrative…
It just puts an issue on the table and asks
“Have any of you’all ever felt like this?”
Wishing to take away the suffering of a son or daughter
or someone we love deeply
Pleading with God
“God, give ME the pain/the diagnosis/the heartache instead,
her burden is just too much”
It’s not hard to see all the grief and loss as consequences of the endless cycles of revenge and violence in David’s story.
And this is where the 1st reading fits in with the Gospel.
It fits because the Gospel reveals something about us and something about God
Stepping back to look broadly at John’s Gospel and its underlying themes
We see that in John’s Gospel
God’s promises are available NOW
Incarnation is available NOW
Ascension is available NOW
Eternal life, a word from today’s passage, is available NOW
For John…
Who begins his gospel with the mysterious and cosmic words:
In the beginning was the Word
And the word was with God
And the Word was God
For John…Eternal life means not only forever into the future but also forever into the past, and forever right NOW.
The phrase Come and See is a kind of mantra in this Gospel
Come and See is how the Gospel continues to invite the hearer in
Come and see God at work in the every day…NOW
Come and see God as bread and light, and good shepherding and gates or doors, and the vine
Come and see
I am the Bread of life
Come. See. Taste.
I want to think that of all the I AM statements in John’s gospel that this one
I am the bread of life…
The living bread of life
Is the first and therefore the most all-encompassing
Two weeks ago we reflected on the multiplication of the 5 loaves and 2 fish
in terms of scarcity thinking versus abundant thinking
And I see this again in this passage
But today instead of scarcity of food
“what are 5 loaves and 2 fish
in the face of ALL these hungry people”
We have scarcity of thought
… a scarcity of vision…a scarcity of openness
[The text uses the phrase “the Jews” but we need to remember that this is an all Jewish world
So the conflict that exists behind the text is within Judaism so it isn’t Jews versus Christians…but rather different leanings within the Judaism of the time]
This scarcity of thought
is an inability to think big enough about God
It leads to a boxed-in-God
A God limited by my own narrow experience
But God is always more
Always bigger
Always more generous
Always…More forgiving
Always More abundant!!!
In the text we read that
The Jews began to complain about him
The word for “complain” is often translated “murmuring”
And in the Greek there is a sense of inner smoldering!
The scene is highly combustible!
I don’t get it
SO
Why does this happen to us?
The text seems to indicate that Our problem…The crowd’s problem
Is that they/we come from below
Below…is where rivalry, jealousy, resentment,
Lead to anger and eventually violence
The biblical image for this is having a hardened heart
A heart made of stone
There is no opening
Nothing penetrates
It can’t be taught
This thinking takes over us
When our inability to understand leads to defensiveness
rather than wonderment or curiosity
But wait a minute…this REALLY is crazy talk!
“Who does he think he is
claiming that he is “the bread of heaven,”
whatever that means?
Does he think he is manna like God provided a thousand years ago
when the Hebrew tribe migrated through the Sinai dessert?
And on top of that, we know where he comes from!
We know his father and his mother.
He’s from down the road a ways
from that dusty, broken-down, impoverished town of Nazareth.
Does he think that just because he now calls Capernaum home
…Well…it isn’t exactly moving up in the world…
Bread from Heaven---Not buyin’ it
You are from Mary and Joseph or from heaven
But NOT both
And we KNOW you are from Mary and Joseph
Can’t have it both ways.”
This is one way of encountering Jesus’ words
Just below the surface is rivalry, jealousy, anger and resentment.
And it WILL lead to violence (we know what comes next)
There is another way.
Accept the invitation to eat the bread of life
It is an invitation to eat and be nourished by bread that truly satisfies.
Sharing bread…sharing a meal…is an essentially communal activity
Eating alone is not a thing in the ancient world
And it shouldn’t be in our world either…it happens but hopefully not the norm.
Sharing a meal implies relationship
Some of you may recall me sharing with you the famous icon of the Holy Trinity
It has the three persons of the Trinity
Around a table and evoking a circle (an energy) of giving and receiving
In theological language we call it mutual self-donation
God = a relationship of persons in a constant state of giving and receiving.
And that my friends…That is where Jesus comes from
He comes from giving and receiving
He comes from loving self-donation
Which oddly just generates more love
To Overflowing…Abundant…UNSCARCE…Life
And Jesus is inviting us into that
Then, NOW, tomorrow and forever
His invitation is constant
I am not naïve though
I admit that relationship based on rivalry and competition
Is in the air we breath
It creeps into our lives stealthily
I remember when I began my studies at St Meinrad…a Monastery and Seminary…
I was one of very few women.
Most of the time I was the only woman in the classroom.
My sense of rivalry and competition was intense
Cindy Bernardin SHE must be THE best in the class…no matter the class.
I had this delusion that the status of catholic women across the globe depended on me besting everyone in the room!
And I admit I held no genuine desire to revel in the success of others.
My daughter (very briefly) dated an opera singer…many years ago
He was an apprentice opera tenor that she met when she was wig-making for the theater.
Rob and I met this young man…and I’ll never forget him saying,
With respect to his career:
an Opera singer had to be “Ruthlessly-Self-Promoting”
And don’t we know that there is always another person on the other side of ruthless;)???
I don’t live in that world
but because of my daughter’s work I have met many singers
and…he was wrong.
And I was wrong in my St Meinrad days.
It IS possible to live outside rivalry and competition
It is in fact…the call of the Christian life
The key is a generosity of heart
…an openness that responds to the invitation to come and see
To take and eat
Rivalry, Revenge, Resentment
They predictably lead to violence in one form or another
because they are born in a scarcity mindset
Where you can’t have it both ways
IT’S …Win or lose
…From above or from below
…With me or against me
So…what’s the plan?
There are places and situations
People and relationships
There are times
When I more easily fall into the trap of rivalry and jealousy
The only way to manage them
Is to recognize them
And to name them
Confess them
And ask God…but not only God
Ask friends also
For help in accepting God’s invitation to eternal life…NOW
The invitation is never rescinded
It is always on offer
Thanks be to God!
