August 10, 2003
1 Kings 19:4-8 + Ephesians 4:30-5:2 + John 6:41-51
Ahab was the King of Israel: his wife, Jezebel was a princess from Tyre and Sidon. A prenuptial agreement allowed that she continues the worship of her god; and she was enthused to convert her subjects. To accomplish that, she banished the prophets of Israel and brought in her own. Elijah has confronted those imported prophets, and in conflict, they are slaughtered. So, he is in big trouble with the queen, and no one is defending him. He heads to the desert convinced that he is finished, and not just a little discouraged with the God he has defended who now seems to have left him vulnerable and defenseless.
As we sit with the Word of God today, there are many images that sweep over us: especially since last week Exodus put before us the story of a provident God who ignores our murmuring and our hoarding of what perishes only to feed us with a food that lasts forever given at the hands of his own son. Finally at the end of his road, with his own ideas and plans in shambles, Elijah allows himself to be led and fed by God. He becomes strong and perseveres to do even greater things, and at the end of his journey (because he finishes it), he meets God.
The experience of Elijah is the story of anyone who walks through this life doing their best to be faithful to God and do what is right.
The inevitable consequence of that kind of life is clear. You end up under the “broom tree” wishing it were all over. It is the faithful ones who do what is right who lose their jobs, who find themselves alone without a spouse when divorce or death leaves them alone. It is the faithful ones who find cancer in their body or lose a child or have their homes destroyed by storm of fire. It is the faithful who face defeat and find their friends too ashamed or too busy to stand by them and hold them up.
But it is to those faithful ones, the believers, that God still sends an angel. John suggests that the angel is Jesus who comes and says, “Take and eat.” It is the food that sustains the discouraged and restores the faithful. With that food, Elijah makes it to Sinai where he meets God. With that food we who make our way toward God are sustained, strengthened, and nourished, and best of all, we no longer journey alone for our food is our companion, our food is our God. The mystery of it all is that in the eating of this food we are at journey’s end. It is not miracles that sustain us, but the Word of God, the promises of God, the faith of the Church, and the discovery that we are not alone. God indeed is with us.
Full-bellied crowds, staring at their toothpicks, idly asking Jesus for some sign that would validate his claims to be the Bread of Life
dismiss both Jesus and his teaching because they thought they knew him. In their unteachable, unreachable state, they could not recognize, appreciate, or be nourished by the Bread of Life. Faith in Jesus is not simply a human choice, but a unique cooperation of divine initiative and human fee will. Those who refused to come to faith in Jesus were refusing the promptings of God. Faith requires that the believer look beyond the bread to see Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Listen today to the Word of God like never before. When you hear of Elijah’s discouragement, remember your own. When you hear of his pain, recognize your pain. When you hear the angel speak, hear the voice of God. When you think you can’t go another day or take another step,
remember the Words of Jesus and the Promise of God.
We have food here come down from heaven, Jesus Christ
who feeds those who hunger with the bread of his teaching and the bread of his very self in the Eucharist. This is the food that prompts our faith and empowers our service. This is the food that enables us to follow the way of love proposed to us in Ephesians. This is the food for all our life’s journey. Feast now on the Word of God: as the angel says: “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you.”