AUGUST
12TH – 11TH of Pentecost
Scripture
Readings:
2 Samuel 18: 5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 34: (VU 761)
I Kings 19:4-8
John 6:35, 41-51
Hymns:
Eugenia:
506 VU Take My Life and Let it Be
664
VU What a Friend
466 VU Eat This Bread
477 VU I Come With Joy
288VU Great is Thy Faithfulness
St John’s:
506 VU Take My Life and Let it Be
477
VU I Come With Joy
466
VU Eat This Bread
664
VU What a Friend
288VU Great is Thy Faithfulness
Call to
Worship:
This morning, in
Ottawa our General Council sits down to meet for the 41st time since
the inception of the United Church of Canada. Before them are a myriad of
mundane procedural motions and suggestions, and there are a number of controversial
ideas and proposals that have in recent days caught the attention of the media
who have decided that the Church has no place in politics, international
affairs, or economics …
Yet repeatedly in the
Scriptures we find that Jesus had far more to say about economics and politics
then he EVER had to say about sexuality.
Reality is not as
important to the newspaper editors and media pundits as a good headline …
But today as General
Council 41 opens for business, and the delegates from across Canada get down to
the issues before them, they not only have to wrestle with the issues of
prophetic witness, social conscience, and faithfully living out the Gospel they also have to struggle with the reality
of being Church in the early 21st Century and what that means to
them, to us, and to our society … overarching ALL of the conversations at
General Council, and ALL of the media coverage on the United Church in recent
days, is the place of living out the Gospel in our world.
Our readings today
hint at the power of God in our midst, but use as the metaphor the idea of food
– the very bread we break and share and so easily take for granted.
Jesus said – I am the
bread of life.
Elijah orders the
killing of the prophets of Baal.
And David mourns the
death of his son …
The Gospel is about
the fullness of life.
Faith is about confronting,
living and embracing the fullness of life.
Faith – what draws us
here, and united us as a community and a people – what undergirds the very
United Church of Canada, of which we are a part – is about living life fully as
a child of God, trusting in God and knowing that we are never alone, and we
will never be abandoned.
AND in our tradition
– the Table – the place where we break bread and share the cup is CENTRAL to
that. The heart of our community, our faith, and what we are about is here (…).
Food spiritual and
physical is central to who we are, what we are about and how we live our lives
and faith whether we realize it or not.
I wonder though, how
often we really think about that though … how often do we think about our faith
and what it means and how it lifts us up and sends us into the world?
Do we ever think
about that? Or do we just get up in the morning, splash a little cold water on
our face, toss on some clothes throw back some food and beverage and head out
the door into our day?
What about prayer?
What about pausing as
we put our toast in our toaster and thinking about how incredibly fortunate we
are to have bread, and hydro, and a home, and butter, and cutlery … and
expressing our appreciation for those things … what about even just saying
thanks once in a while?
Do we remember where
we’ve come from, and as the old gospel hymn muses – to whom we belong?
Elijah not only
remembered – he showed the power of God.
Jesus, after feeding
the multitude and hearing their calls for more miracles, needed his disciples
to remember what was important – NOT the physical bread that satisfies the
hunger pangs. But it is the spiritual bread that feeds and nurtures our soul
that becomes important. Failing to feed the spirit means we begin to die …
In my time off, I
have been busy with a few things – one of them was tending the now overgrown
garden in my front yard. I have grand visions of what I want in my yard – but
I’m also FINALLY of the age that I am a bit more realistic about what I can
achieve. So, I am building my gardens bit by bit, a little more added each
season and overtime it will move closer to my vision. For now I planted a whack
of perennials, a dahlia bed, and what was supposed to be a tight, neat and
easily accessible veggie patch … unfortunately the pumpkin, beans and tomatoes
didn’t get the memo … and I have a very overgrown and wild veggie patch that is
overflowing …
I have, during the
hot dry weeks that have marked our summer, found myself having to water my
gardens a couple of times a day.
In the process of
planting, tending, watering, and now harvesting my veggies and flowers, I’ve
found a quiet place that has fed my soul as well as my body. Looking after a
garden reminds us of where food comes from to begin with, but it also provides
us a place where we need to be patient and where we need to let go and wait for
things to happen.
We don’t plant a
tomato plant at 8 in the morning and have fresh tomatoes on our plate for
dinner.
Instead we plant and
we wait … we watch and tend … we weed and fight back the bugs … then after days
or weeks, we have the fruits of our labour.
The seed grows into a
plant that blooms and blossoms and in time produces fruits which we in turn
enjoy. It takes time. I means waiting and letting things happen. I means
trusting in God and nature and the weather and all manner of other factors
before we enjoy the end results. And in our culture of instant gratification
and immediate responses – the notion of waiting is strange and alien.
Yet, that
counter-cultural idea - that notion of standing in a place different from the
society around us – placing our value on things that feed and nurture the
spirit and aspire for the ways of God in our world is EXACTLY what runs through
our readings today.
Elijah opposed the
prophets of Baal in the name of God because God’s ways offered a better way of
living life and moving through the world.
David publically
mourned his son and showed his grief…
Jesus speaking to the
authorities about the bread of life is not just hinting at a better way of
framing the world and living our lives, he is proclaiming the transformative
nature of that to our spiritual and physical beings.
We can run to the
supermarket or the nearest fast food outlet and grab our next meal and in a
matter of minutes sit down and satisfy our physical cravings. Or we can
approach our table mindfully, knowing that food is more than just sustenance.
This week in Ottawa
HUNDREDS of delegates from across Canada will gather to do the business of the
Church on our behalf, and they will need to be fed physically AND spiritually.
The logistics of
hosting and organizing a GC meeting has always been daunting – finding enough
room, enough food, and accommodations for the folks who come is a HUGE task –
but this year I’ve noticed through the social media a change – we’re being
asked to pray for the General Council and those taking part.
The requests began as
the selection process for delegates began back in early January, and have
continued as we’ve had our various working groups and task forces presenting
their findings and reports. In recent weeks the requests have been for the work
and the delegates themselves. And over the past week it has been requested that
we hold our General Council in prayer as they sit down to the business before
them.
I may have been out
of the loop in the last 20 years, but I don’t remember this kind of request for
the spiritual resources of our Church – or you and I – to be involved and
mindful of the work of the greater Church like this.
And yet, food for the
spirit is as important as food for the body.
Prayer is how we
begin to feed the soul and claim the Bread of Life Jesus not only speaks of,
but is …
The question though
lingers … do we even care?
Do we care about our
food enough to think about where it’s come from, how it’s production is
affecting our world, and whether the hands that planted, tended and harvested
it are being well treated for their labour … or do we just see food?
And when it comes to
the bread before us, do we see only the physical bread or do we see the
Spiritual bread too? Do we see the necessity of feeding the soul while we feed
the body?
These are big
questions … and at the end of the day, they are the questions and issues we
face as a people of faith. In EVERYTHING we do from our support for the local
food bank, through to our actions for oppressed and marginalized people in
Syria, Palestine, or the streets of downtown Toronto, is a reflection of our
faith, and ultimately is about feeding our minds, our bodies AND our souls.
Jesus said – I am the
bread of life … let’s go into the world living like we believe that …
It all begins with an
occasional “Thank you” for the bread before us, and it continues as we feed the
soul too …
May it be so … thanks
be to God … Let us pray …
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