Proper 14 (B) + Dependence on G-d + 8.8.21
Melissa Campbell-Langdell
All Santos, Oxnard
(2 Samuel 18:5–9, 15, 31–33; Ps. 130; Ephesians 4:25–5:2; John 6:35, 41–51)
Every week as a pastor we run into moments when people ask us
questions we do not always know how to answer. How to explain the loss of a
child, taken from us too soon, just as we hear about in David’s loss of Absalom
in the scripture today? Whether that child was an angel on earth, or more
likely a rather complex part of our lives, it is unimaginably hard. Though Absalom
was a challenge for David, since he wanted to undermine David’s power, it is unthinkable
to a parent to lose a child. What do we do when God doesn’t answer our prayers
in the way we had hoped? What do we do with disease? Or other instances of
human frailty or whim? Or simply a person deciding that they don’t want to put
up with an insurrectionist leader, even if he is the king’s son, as happened in
our reading from the Second book of Samuel today? What do we do with the
feelings when others around us do not make the same decisions we would and in
so doing seem willing to endanger others?
David was the apple of God’s eye- his name means beloved! But
as we have heard in the last couple of weeks’ readings, he could also misbehave
and in fact be downright bad. He had to learn how to live in God’s love, just
as many of us do, albeit in much less dramatic lessons. So David is beloved,
despite all of his problems. But David’s son Absalom is not spared. Absalom had
been staging a revolt and that was just not done. However David asked for him
to be left alive. Even when outright rebelling against him, all David wanted
was for his son to live, and live abundantly, as would any parent. But Absalom
is literally cut down. Now, this is enough to shake anyone’s faith. And it is
enough to make David feel that God is punishing him. But despite what happened
with his infant son before, I tend to believe that punishment of that sort just
isn’t God’s way.
But to truly feel that, we have to lean into God. It’s a
paradox, but stay with me. So I ask you, what sustains you? Once, during the
little “children’s chat” at the church we visited in Waco, Texas, the priest
asked the kids what they felt about the word “bread” being used to describe a
person, namely, Jesus. One kid said “Bread’s not a Name!” very indignantly. It
made us smile.
When Jesus used this term “I am the Bread of Life,” he clearly was not confused
about whether we was actually made out of wheat flour and a rising agent, nor
did he actually think bread was a name. Instead, he was referring to the fact
that in Ancient Near Eastern cultures of the time, bread was literally the
staff of life. Just as it continues to be in other parts of the world and rice
or other starches often are in many other parts of the world, bread was the one
food that people relied on for the daily energy they needed to continue with
the hard work of living. This is why we ask for our daily bread in the Lord’s
Prayer.
But Jesus, who knew what it was to fast for forty days or at
least a really long time, wanted to remind us that we cannot only be tied to
that which physically and materially sustains us for our journey. He wanted us
depend on him as spiritual bread. If we only depend on physical bread, it
crumbles to ashes in our mouths, just as the manna in the wilderness rotted if
too much was gathered for the daily need. Food is key to our daily energy.
Here Jesus promises us eternity – literally all will be
raised with him on the last day – but that eternity is given us only a moment
at a time. We cannot grasp all the food we need for a week, but are only given
the bread for today. Although we may have quite the stockpile, tomorrow is
never promised, so we really only have what we need for today. Similarly, when
we try to grasp for bigger truths- try to understand the great sorrows of our
lives, sometimes we bite off more than we can chew. Can we instead trust God
for just a few moments, and trust that God will redeem that which has hurt us
most deeply?[1]
Maybe those moments can, over time, expand to the length of a day, and day by
day God will help us get through this life until we come to the place where we
will truly understand all things.
We can try. We can take one day at a time, as they say in the
12-step programs. We can take one mouthful at a time, and we can let our first
words in the morning be gratitude to God from whom every good thing comes. Gratitude
to God is essential, or nothing of the work of our hands will truly prosper.
In Ephesians today, we hear about how we can live. Along with
incorporating gratitude, we must put away bitterness, and trickery, and try to
live in the light. We share with those in need. Simple gestures, like when I
saw Margot offer a homeless man water this week during VBS. We do not do this
so that we can be saved. Thank Jesus, that is already done. We are good because we are God’s. We treat
each other with care so that all can prosper. May we speak this to a society so
tied up in individual success and freedoms that it is blind to the common good.
Let us live sustained by this bread, however our prayers are answered. Let us
come to the altar and receive not only physical bread but the spiritual bread
that sustains us and brings life to the world. Amen.
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