The Rev. Laurel Hart, Deacon (retired)
I recently read a statement which rang true to me:
It was written: “the story of scripture repeats four powerful phrases throughout its pages:
I love you. I am with you. Don’t be afraid. You can come home.”
My senses, hearing, seeing, feeling seem to be in overdrive currently and I don’t mean just because my body is dealing with an injured knee. I mean the turmoil not only in our country but in the world are causing me stress. Every time I turn on the radio in our home or car my ears are blasted with news reports featuring fear, fires, or bloody chaos. So, then I switch to listening to the classical music station until - can you believe - features compositions containing measures of discordant chords – alas no peace for my poor ears. Let’s not even talk about the visuals on the TV.
Silence becomes the only peace.
The historian and blogger Heather Cox Richardson wrote in a recent post of times similar to 2024 when our country was struggling to remain a democracy. Such a time was between 1764 and 1776 the founding of our country, also from 1853 to 1857 on the eve of the bloody Civil War, then again from 1927 to 1932 which were the years leading up to the crash of Wall Street and to the very beginning of the New Deal. In each to these periods of years if seemed very likely that powerful rich people (OK let’s be real) powerful rich white men would overpower the majority for control of the government and democracy was in trouble. Sound familiar?
In our first reading today 2Samuel, King David, who is rich and powerful, is lusting for the beautiful and seductive Bathsheba and David arranges for her husband Uriah to be murdered during battle so David can take Bathsheba as a wife. God punished David for his sin by the death of their first-born offspring. Now this didn’t lead to the fall of the earthly Kingdom but God sure wasn’t happy with David.
Paul is pleading with the church in the Ephesus passage. He knows that this church community is experiencing a time which can be likened to many times in history when the populations are overwhelmed by other outside people, other outside forces and in our current age by social media. These external groups are constantly trying to sell us ideologies that separate and divide us. In our highly polarized reality today, division can be profitable, and organizations try to take advantage of the turmoil to increase their power and wealth. Sometimes, too, we face hardship inside ourselves: after listening to so many different ideas, we start questioning everything, and we do not really know what or who to believe in anymore. Paul writes and I quote “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people's trickery by their craftiness and defeatable scheming but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom body is joined and knit together by every ligament with which is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.”
Like Jesus in today’s Gospel, which challenges the crowd that follows him to not work for the food that perishes, but rather for the food of eternal life. At times we grow anxious like the people of God in the desert and yearn to see God’s liberating action in our lives. Haven’t we raised our demanding voices to God, asking for a quick response? Just as our desert ancestors did, we want to arrive at that promised land as soon as possible – we all experience weariness at the seemingly long wait, for rest, for serenity, for goodness we have prayed about for years.
Today’s lessons remind us once again that we are sustained by Christ’s teaching and example if and when we follow in his footsteps. And true, Jesus will fill our bellies and supply our need, but he also challenges us to seek him not for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures which is eternal life. We are invited to grow our relationship with Jesus, the bread of life, our sustenance, and our food for the way. Worshipping, living and growing together in this community of seekers is one of the pathways to a deepening of faith. Isn’t it?
So let us close as we began with this reminder:
“The story of scripture repeats four powerful phrases throughout its pages:
I love you. I am with you. Don’t be afraid. You can come home.
Amen.
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