Lectionary:Isaiah 55:1-5; Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-22; Romans 9:1-5; Matthew 14:13-21
En el nombre de Dios: creador, redentor y santificador.... In the name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
As we reflect on the stories in our lectionary today, I ask you to consider a) what do you believe about God, and b) how do you use that in your life?
I learned at our Bible study this week that our Collect for today was written about 1500 years ago. That puts in in the era of the Early Middle Ages, aka, the Dark Ages. The Roman empire had just fallen, destabilizing the world. Trade routes for food, goods, and manufacture that had been safe under the Pax Romana, were now treacherous as local, tribal groups began to build or rebuild kingdoms in the vacuum of the Roman absence. War was everywhere. People were struggling to eat, to work, to survive. Their focus on survival resulted in little to no advancement in education art, music, and literature - hence the name: the Dark Ages.
It is in this context that our Collect was written. It’s a familiar context for us today. We are witnessing global destabilization in real time and it’s scaring many of us. When folks come to me with fear and anxiety over what’s happening in the world, I remind them that humankind has survived this before. God promised reconciliation of the whole world and God keeps God’s promises.
This Collect gives us words to pray when we’re afraid and our faith is faltering. The Church, however, is the people of God (us), not an institution (it), so we might rephrase the Collect saying, “because we cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern us always by your goodness.”
The goodness of God is a truth we can always count on. Despite what many so-called Christians say about a vengeful, punishing God who hates sinners, the psalmist reminds us that God is gracious and “full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness”...and “loving to everyone.” There is no “except for” here. God’s love is inclusive of everyone.
This psalm has been attributed to King David and was believed to be written near the end of his life, so it reflects a spiritual maturity David gained in his lifetime. Not only is God good, kind, loving, and compassionate, but God is also generous to meet our needs, near to us whenever we call, and protects us against those who would harm us.
The inclusive nature of God’s love is also attested to in Isaiah. Ho, everyone... Isaiah says, if you are thirsty, come to the waters. You don’t need money. Come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Eat what is good, delight in rich foods.
Then God, speaking through the prophet, says, “come to me, listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant” and he names David a faithful witness. And we just heard David’s witness: that God is good, kind, loving, compassionate, generous, near to us, hears us, and protects us.
These Old Testament texts provide us with a foundation for our understanding of the inclusive, loving, attentive nature of God. How does your understanding of God fit with this? What did you learn about the nature of God growing up - especially if you are LGBTQIA2S+ , an immigrant, poor, or female?
Did you feel included in the love of God in the Church? As a female, I didn’t. My gay child and friends didn’t, because the Church used their power to exclude those whom God had always intended to include.
It’s still happening today in the Church and by the people of God in the world. I read this week that the Missouri Secretary of State is threatening to block state and federal funding from a library in Columbia that read LGBTQ+ books to children at a recent public event. If they didn’t violate the law, one of our Senators said he wants to change the law to prohibit this from happening in the future. According to their official government pages, these men are professed Christians.
How do we use what we believe about God? To include or to exclude? To serve or to dominate?
Our Gospel story today teaches us how we are to use what we believe about God in Christ. It is, in my opinion, Jesus’ first lesson to the disciples on how to be the Church in the world. It is also, the real first Eucharist, but we’ll get to that later.
The context is this: Jesus has just learned that his beloved cousin, John the Baptist, has been beheaded by Herod. So, Jesus retreats to a deserted place by himself. Anyone who is deeply grieving can understand this. Add to that, John’s murder by the state was unjust according to Jewish law, manipulated, and horrifying by any standard. In addition, Herod strangely believed that Jesus, who was born just months after John, is the reincarnation of John, so he’s out to kill him too.
Jesus is confronting political insanity, which is generating horrible, unjust violence against perceived enemies. Somehow, this feels familiar these days, which is why we can identify with that feeling of being depleted by what the world around us is doing.
The gospel says, “when they heard it” (and we’re not sure if that refers to John’s beheading or Jesus’ retreat), the people followed Jesus on foot. Jesus comes ashore to find a great crowd waiting for him - and he had compassion on them and cured their sick. As the psalmist says, The Lord “fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he hears their cry and helps them.”
We don’t know how long Jesus spent among the crowd healing them, but we do know it lasted until the end of day, because when evening came, the disciples wanted to send the crowd away so they could eat.
Here comes that first lesson from Jesus on how to be the Church in the world. They don’t need to go away, Jesus says. YOU give them something to eat.
I hope we hear “something to eat” as more than just consuming food. Being fed by God is much bigger than that, isn’t it? In fact, it’s what we Episcopalians do each Sunday when we gather together as God’s people, the Church. We share a Eucharist, which features the holy food of God, aka, Holy Communion.
How will we do that, the disciples ask. We have only five loaves and two fish. This resonates with Mary’s question to the archangel, Gabriel: How will I bear the Son of God when I haven’t been with a man? The answer both times: nothing is impossible for God. Be the vessel. Let God act through you.
Jesus tells the disciples to bring all they have to him. I hope we hear that as more than just bread and fish. Bring all they have, all they are. Then he enacts the first Holy Communion, the first sacred meal that makes a community out of varied and diverse people gathered together, drawn there to be fed by God.
Jesus blessed and broke the bread and gave it to his disciples. Sound familiar? Then he told the disciples to give the bread to the crowds. God’s holy food for God’s holy people. No exclusions. No course to take or test to pass. No secret handshake to learn. Give it to everyone who wants it, Jesus said.
And everyone who ate was filled. And there was an abundance left over because that is the generous nature of God’s love.
Do we have ears to hear this? This is Jesus telling us how to be the Church in the world. How does this fit with what we believe about God and how do we use that in the world today?
In the Diocese of Missouri, our bishop enables us to live this faithfully by offering Holy Communion to all who are present. You’ll hear the invitation later in our service.
At Emmanuel, we welcome all whom God draws near, just as they are, embracing them with friendship and inviting them to participate in all parts of our parish life. I’ve had several conversations in just the past two weeks with folks who have been told by the church of their childhood that they are intrinsically disordered and barred from communion, marriage, ordination, and participating in parts of their parish’s life and work. They have been condemned as sinful, and their life problems were blamed on their sin.
It’s truly heartbreaking, and so I give thanks for this wonderful lectionary that reminds us of who God really is, and who we are in relationship to God and one another.
To sum up then: God is good, kind, loving, compassionate, generous, meets our needs, is near to us, hears us when we call, and protects us against those who would harm us. We, the people of God, the Church, are to do likewise in the world: loving all God’s people, hearing and responding to the cries of those in need, protecting the vulnerable from those who would harm them. We are to gather in community to share our thanks and the holy food of God, feeding anyone and everyone God draws to us from the bread of life, given to us in Jesus, the Christ. Amen.
