Monday &c
There is an uneasiness in this half of the year, June 1 to December 1, hurricane season. In this morning's case, the yellow X is not ominous yet, but the rapid development of storms that we have experienced recently, the obscene surprise of waking up the morning of October 10, 2018, turning on television to see a Category 5 hurricane offshore from Mexico Beach at least means Take Notice. Keep Watch: an Advent theme before Advent.
For myself, I'll take it to the wildfires, and to the earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes; but it's our own natural scourge. A theologian I once knew used the term "evil in the nature of things."
Where "evil" is relative. The storm on the surface of Jupiter is not evil because there's no Being there to suffer from it.
In some sense, we bring these evils down upon ourselves. An arsonist starting a fire. In climate change that we have contributed to, a part of Antarctica breaking off to melt and raise the sea level.
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Monday: even as, out here in my Wilderness, I work toward becoming my Fourth Self, my inclinations still cling to my Third Self, the priest. Longfellow might call it my mouldering past, in one of my favorite poems from The Old Time:
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.
Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
Thus, a look at our lectionary for next Sunday, August 4. We have moved into five-Sundays of reading Jesus' "Bread of Life" discourse from John chapter 6 and, we have shifted to Track 2, the Old Testament readings and responsive Psalms support it. I'm always intrigued with the manna from heaven lesson from Exodus. Yehvah rains down food from heaven, and when the dew lifts the people see a flaky substance on the ground and say, "Ewww, Yuk! מָ֣ן ה֔וּא man hu (manna)," literally, "What is it?" And Moses tells them that it's "lechem" bread.
It'll be the same bread, lechem, that Jesus says "ha-motzi" over every Time he Takes and Blesses (ha-motzi lechem) and Breaks and Gives the bread throughout his earthly ministry.
And moving ahead several thousand years, these little round wafers of unleavened bread are offered to us as the Body of Christ, the Bread of Heaven. It goes back to Yehvah and Moses and the People of Israel in that Wilderness, now Jesus telling us I AM that bread.
Another theme, peculiar to Gospel John, the "I AM" sayings in which Jesus says I AM the Gate, I AM the Good Shepherd, I AM the Light of the World, and others including I AM the Bread of Life. Jesus using the unspeakable Name of YHVH, I AM, to refer to himself, Mark 14:61bf: - -
[Again the high priest questioned Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”
62 “I am,” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”
63 At this, the high priest tore his clothes and declared, “Why do we need any more witnesses? 64 You have heard the blasphemy. What is your verdict?”
And they all condemned Him as deserving of death.] - -
identifying himself with the God of Israel, whose Name cannot be spoken, is, to the Jews of his Time, capital blasphemy.
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The Collect
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Old Testament: Exodus 16:2-4,9-15
The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Then יְהוָה֙ YEHVAH the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.”
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’“ And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’“
In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, מָ֣ן ה֔וּא (man-hu - - manna) “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is הַלֶּ֔חֶם (ha-lechem) the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”
The Psalm: Psalm 78:23-29
23 So he commanded the clouds above * and opened the doors of heaven.
24 He rained down מָ֣ן (man) manna upon them to eat * and gave them grain from heaven.
25 So mortals ate the לֶ֣חֶם (lechem) bread of angels; * he provided for them food enough.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens * and led out the south wind by his might.
27 He rained down flesh upon them like dust * and winged birds like the sand of the sea.
28 He let it fall in the midst of their camp * and round about their dwellings.
29 So they ate and were well filled, * for he gave them what they craved.
The Epistle: Ephesians 4:1-16
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it is said,
"When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people."
(When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 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 in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.
The Gospel: John 6:24-35
The next day, when the people who remained after the feeding of the five thousand saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the ἄρτων - - ἄρτος (bread) - - loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I AM the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”