Proper 13 2015

The Tenth Sunday After Pentecost 2012

It’s probably wrong of us to pick on the people who surround Jesus—perhaps if they didn’t make it so easy... We’re told in the Gospels that wherever Jesus went, by his preaching and his reputation as a faith healer, he drew a crowd. And time and again—no matter what mysteries Jesus reveals to them, or even what miraculous things he does in their presence—they continue to completely miss the point. So, it may be that having a joke at these people’s expense is about as helpful as punching a sad clown. You may feel some satisfaction for hitting him, but it doesn’t change anything about the clown.

Well, it should be no surprise to anyone, then that today’s reading turns out no differently. We find Jesus having crossed the lake, and this group of people who were just fed by the loaves and fish are coming to find him. At first glance we may think that these people were genuinely interested in Jesus’ mission. But it isn’t long before Jesus calls them out for their real motives—what they’re really after is more bread.

It’s even a little harsh the way that things go down. Jesus not only calls them out for only being interested in more bread—but he goes on to tell them that they’re missing the point—that it’s a faithful relationship with God that is necessary, and that the ‘bread’ that they should be seeking is an eternal thing.

  

While they may not have gotten what Jesus was saying, they are clever enough to make the connection to Moses and the manna that fed Israel in the wilderness. They even quote Scripture, apparently. But here again, Jesus has to remind them that not only was it not about the bread (even heavenly bread), it was about a faithful relationship with God.

Now, I don’t know whether or not metaphor as a literary device was completely lost on these people—or if they really were so hard-headed as to miss the eternal gift that Jesus was offering. Either way, it makes me feel a little bad for them…

To own the truth, the more that I try to have a go at these chumps, the more I begin to realize what it would be like to be in their position. I don’t have to try too hard and before I know it, I’m just as confounded by Jesus as any one of them—and I’m sure I’m not alone.

Because even as people who know the end of the story, we still get its significance all muddled-up. And in some ways, just like these people in Jesus’ time—we start to think that it’s all about the bread.

It’s kind of ironic. After all, we have a couple thousand years of studying and understanding all of this stuff. And even though we have some concept of what Jesus means by Love God, love your neighbor; take care of the widow and orphan; don’t swim right after you eat—we’re still apparently not all that great at being what we’re called to be.

It kind of makes me wonder what it would be like if our places were reversed with these nameless crowds that we find in the Gospels; If somehow they were reading an account of us and our struggle to figure out Jesus in our own lives.

 Maybe they’d say something like, what’s wrong with these people? How can these people have the gift of the Holy Spirit and still have so many issues around race and gender? How can they be called salt of the earth and light to the world when their cities are full of violence and poverty? How could they claim to understand the temporal nature of things, yet live as if nothing has an end?  

One answer is that we’ve allowed metaphor as a literary device to be completely lost on us. And another is that we keep thinking that it’s about the bread.

Because for many of us our politics are about sound bites and clever quips on social media. For some a public profession of faith is all about bumper stickers and sentimental “God-talk”… All the while we’re being duped into dividing, self-selecting and infuriating one another at the whim of politicians and corporations. So that sometimes even when we think we’re not acting like it’s about the bread, that we’re really rooted in what is true—we’re actually acting like it’s about the bread…and we continue to follow Jesus for what it will get for us.

  

From the outside, it could almost seem that when faced with responding to Jesus’ call to true relationship with God—to being broken and burdened by the very things that break the heart of God our reason along with our identity as the redeemed, beloved of the Risen Christ goes up in a cloud of media smoke. And the troubling part is, that it isn’t persecution that causes it, but our indifference.

But y’know, the best news about all of this is that the answer to all of our issues is very simple. It’s about loving, faithful relationship with God—but that’s only the start. Because once we begin to really work on that, we find that we’re inevitably drawn to faithful loving relationship with those around us, and we’re changed.

We’re changed because we begin to have a clarity of purpose—to love our neighbors, and seek and serve Christ in them. We’re no longer worried about the state of our faith in this country, because our works will speak clearer truth, and people will respond to that truth.

Most importantly, the people of the Church will no longer need to worry about buildings, or music, or liturgy—because as the Body of Christ, we’ll finally understand that the Church is not the building, but the people; and our music and our liturgy will be going into the world to do the work we have been called to do—Kingdom work.  Because it’s not about the bread—it’s never been about the bread—not for this crowd we read about today, not even in the Eucharist…but that’s to say it is about the Body (the Body of Christ), us, and our relationship with God.