July 27, 2003

2 Kings 4:42-44 + Ephesians 4:1-6 + John 6:1-15

For the next several weeks, as happens every third year in the late summer, the church turns to the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel.

It is John’s “Bread of Life” gospel, and it is a feast for the soul.

Proclaimed in the context of the Eucharist, it is even more so.

If you think of the Liturgy of the Word as a Feast in itself,

it becomes a four-course meal, and the appetizer is the first Old Testament reading.

Today it is the Book of Kings.

Next week we focus on the Manna in the desert as described in Exodus.

Then we hear the story of Elijah being fed and prepared by God for his 40-day walk to Sinai.

A Proverbs text follows Elijah’s story,

and the series ends with the renewal of the covenant at Shechem.

During this series, I am going to do something different

since you do not have the texts in your hand or before your eyes.

I am going to preach first and then we shall listen to the text and take a few moments after each reading to reflect and savor

what God’s Word says to us.

In that way, you will be prepared for what you hear, since I sometimes think that you have not settled down enough to really hear the first reading. Those who habitually come late are going to have a problem with this, but I can’t help that.

There is a detail in the first reading and the Gospel that is important to know for a wider understanding of what is happening and the implications of these texts. Barley bread is the food of the poor. It is course, bitter in taste, but cheaper than the finer grains at that time. Notice too that it is a poor man who is generous in the first reading. It is a poor man who brings his barley bread to the prophet. In the Gospel, it is a boy, another poor man, whose simple, course bread becomes the “stuff” of a miracle.

For the Jews at the time of Jesus, the miracle stories of Elijah were told and retold with great delight by all the people, but especially the poor for whom story telling then just as now was the favorite entertainment since they did have resources for more elaborate fun.  Yet their telling was not just to entertain, but also to affirm that the power of God is at work, and the poor, the needy, and the helpless can count on that power. Once you realize how popular this cycle of stories was among the Jews, and then begin to see the parallels between the miracle stories of Elisha and Jesus, you can understand why so many people thought that Jesus was the prophet returned.

The major element of the Elijah stories is the conflict with Canaanite religion that tended to identify God with the gifts of a fertile earth. The Canaanites made gods out of the gifts rather than having the gifts lead them to God. The miracles performed by the two prophets: Elisha and Elijah counter that inclination by insisting that Israel’s Lord of the Covenant controls the fertility of the earth, the cycle of death and life, and that Lord was the source of all good things. No stopping at the gifts themselves to make idols of them; but the force of the story insists that we go through the gifts to the giver.

When we sit with the Word of God on this hot summer weekend, there are two miracles here to ponder: two miracles that lead us into the mystery of God. The first is the miracle of the generous poor. Those with the least give the most. Those with the most to lose do not cling to what they have because they trust in God and believe that God sees their need, and their God will not leave them.

They preach more powerfully than any prophet or preacher. Their  faith is miraculous. The second miracle is the response of the servant in the Old Testament and the disciple/servants in the Gospel.

When they do what God asks, something they didn’t quite believe in happened. They doubted, feared, and suspected that there would not be enough; but they went ahead with the plan and the request. The miracle here is not just the consequences in terms of plenty;

but the fact that their obedience led them from doubt to faith.

May it be so here this day. May our attentiveness to God’s word

move us to discover and imitate the generosity of the poor and so find us counted among those God favors; and may our willingness to obey God’s command lead us from faltering faith, fear, and doubt to true faith in God and a joyful celebration of the bountiful gifts God has for those who hunger for what God provides. Listen now to the Word of God.