Picture for a
moment that stereotyped version of a mother or grandmother whose cure for anything
and everything is to offer up an overflowing plate of food. A large bowl of hot
Chicken soup, a pile of pasta, mouth watering cookies, meatloaf and gravy. The food comes with the invitation: “eat..eat.”
Comfort food. Soul food.
Food is what we
bring to the homes of those living through times of loss and grief. Casseroles
are brought to families too preoccupied to care and cook for themselves – when
trips to the hospital take all the time and energy there is to spare. Casserole as sacrament: an outside and
visible sign of concern, connection, caring and love.
Years back you may
remember the quite successful cottage industry of books of collected positive
stories of inspiration called: Chicken
Soup for the Soul. I admit that I
drew heavily from those series of books in my early years a preacher. There are now over 250 books in the series, including
Chicken Soup for the Pet-lover Soul and Chicken Soup for the Teenage soul. The
authors hit on something true: things that are good and lift us up are as good
as chicken soup given to us when we most need it… from someone who cares.
I was speaking with
a college professor recently who commented that a common, known language of
what could be called the Judeo-Christian worldview – that had been assumed 20, 30,
or 40 years ago from students -- no longer prevails. The baby-boomers and the parents of the
1960’s by in large did not lean on their children to attend church like they
had and the battles of prayer in public school are long behind us. We live in a
different time. So when great works of literature are cracked open in
classrooms today, a teacher cannot assume that students have the same common
knowledge of religious and cultural language to draw upon.
An example could be
the expression: “manna from heaven.”
I looked up the
phrase “manna from heaven” in the Urban Dictionary, which is a crowd-sourced
online dictionary of slang words.
Definition: “A gift that is usually given unexpectedly to someone for
free, that is a big deal to the person receiving. It's mostly used for the sake
of food.” The example given is a person
describing a great tasting strawberry as “manna from heaven.”
My question is this:
What if you had no idea of what manna from heaven meant? Would this gospel
story mean the same or make any sense?
In today’s gospel again,
Jesus says I am the bread of life. And then he continues. “Your ancestors ate the manna in the
wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so
that one may eat of it and not die.”
The people who
heard these words of Jesus had a common heritage and language. They knew the
back-story. Having been raised with the
Exodus story, hearing how God sent Manna from heaven to Moses and the
Israelites to sustain them on their journey to the Promised Land, the people
were ready and wired to look heavenward for signs that God was with them, that
God would deliver and save them if they would keep the commandments.
In times of
scarcity and hardship, manna came from above to give what was needed to carry
on for another day. The manna, having been collected from the ground after the
morning dew, had to be eaten then and there, less it spoil.
The prophet Elijah,
in the first reading from 1 Kings -- hiding and fleeing for his life -- was
touched twice by an angel who told him: “get up and eat.” God had provided yet again, this time with a
cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water.
Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.
The language and
image continues in the psalm. “Taste and
see that the Lord is good, happy are they who trust in him.”
Language common to
our faith is to say: the Lord will provide. When we find ourselves in the
wilderness, alone, unsure, down – all those normal parts of being human.
When Jesus says I
am the living bread that came down from heaven, he rightly reminds those
willing to follow him that the good things of life do not merely fall from
above.
Jesus was saying to
those who were ready to hear and see: focus. Focus on what is before you. Tend
to it. Not the fantasy or parallel or hidden life of dreams and shadows, but a
blessed life of openness, light and truth.
I am before and with you.
Come closer.
Imagine a relationship with God that is intimate and real – of this world and
not just the next.
It was Robert Louis
Stevenson, who gave us Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, who said:
“The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes,
flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you.
Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain common work as it comes
certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things of life.”
God knows -- we
spend a great deal of mental and spiritual energy and anguish overcoming and
understanding our past. Past decisions, choices, mistakes, wrong turns and
dead-ends. We too need strength for the life before us. It is with this in mind
that the angels tell us also: “get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be
too much.
Taste and see that
Lord is good. Each and every day. May we live into this promise.
August 9, 2015
11 Pentecost, Year B
The Rev. Mark B. Pendleton
Christ Church, Exeter
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