NOW*

 Homily August 8, 2021 (oops...late posting)

11^th 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 1^st reading fits in with the Gospel. 

It fits because the Gospel reveals something about us and something about God

That offers another way.

 

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.

NOW

 

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 

I don’t like it!!!

 

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

To be taught by God

 

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!