Year B Proper 15 19 August 2012
1 Kings 2: 10-12; 3: 3-14 Psalm 111 Ephesians 5: 15-20 John 6: 51-58
In an ancient culture of Rabbi’s and preaching and parables it isn’t any wonder that there were so many speculations and divisions over the teaching of Jesus.
Many times, however, the strong reactions to the words and actions of Jesus were because the people, or at least the religious people of Jesus day, did understand the implications. They actually read between the lines very well, but didn’t want to hear the message because it meant they needed to respond and change their lives. Are we any different? Do we choose to hear the “softer” message in the readings and ignore the “hard” stuff?
Each of our readings for this weekend has a strong and memorable story, but at the heart of each is the question of our attitude and our motivations.
Our first reading is about King Solomon at the beginning of his kingship. This man walks into the position that was firmly established by his father. It was a position chosen for him by his father, King David, although he was not the eldest son. Neither was his life free from reproach, for this is the child of Bathsheba and David.
Solomon’s life teaches us so much about the grace and love of God, because he was born from a union that began in sin, but his birth was a sign of redemption. David had an affair with Bathsheba, a married woman and she fell pregnant. The child she bore died. Solomon was then born and his life had the blessing of God and this was affirmed by God, through a vision from the prophet that proclaimed Solomon the child loved by God. What an amazing message of hope this is to all of us who have less than admirable things in our past. How many people are kept from the full blessings that God has for them because they know the failure and reality of sin, and do not realize the amazing and all covering grace of God?
Solomon had the blessing of God, but do you think that his brothers and sisters allowed him to forget the delicacy of that union which brought him into being? I doubt it. So although it seems that Solomon’s position was secure, I imagine that he may have had some anxieties.
God came to Solomon in a dream and told him ask for what he would like and it would be given him. Solomon asked for wisdom. The request was not for his own glory, so that others could admire his intellect, but so that he could best govern the people.
The following two readings tell us something about wisdom. It is obviously something that God wants for his people and we are given some clues about the getting of wisdom. The Psalm tells us in Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.”
God is the source of wisdom and to acknowledge the truth of God’s existence and all His ways is the very start of wisdom. Our lives and our whole understanding about life must be built on truth. God is the truth, without this basic acknowledgement any attempt at wisdom has the possibility of being utter foolishness.
The second reading tells us a little more about wisdom; Ephesians 5:15-18 “15 Be very careful, then, how you live —not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
Being filled with the Spirit of God is another key to wisdom. To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with God and have the mind of Christ – and therefore understanding what the Lord’s will is.
With this wisdom and understanding about God, we come to the Gospel reading. And this one is most divisive!
John 6:51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
Jesus certainly ruffled a lot of feathers with that statement and still does today. First and foremost we must understand that he is making a statement about his identity. The people knew that he was identifying himself a “God from God”. The Hebrew for Yaweh - “I am”…. God!
He is the Living bread from heaven. Manna was given to the Israelite people in the desert - It was a miraculous provision which sustained and nourished them and bread for which they did no labour – it simply appeared each morning, they collected it and baked it…. But it wasn’t a crop that they sowed and tended. In the same way we do not labour for our Salvation – Jesus, the bread of life, accomplishes it.
The Jewish people argued over what Jesus meant and how it was possible to eat the flesh of a man who is alive…. They chose to ignore the implications of what he was telling them (that he was God) and instead argued about the technicalities of the literal interpretation of this parable.
We too can get caught in literal technicalities. When we do, we miss the point. The point being that Jesus is God from God come to bring us life eternal. He accomplishes this without us needing to do any work. That is, our eternal life is done by Jesus – and not by anything that we do.
This reading is so tired up with our experience of communion that we do tend to misunderstand. When Jesus was talking about eating his flesh as bread he added that those who eat this bread live forever. This reading is not about communion – but communion is a celebration of this reading.
This reading is about the sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross – how he would give his whole life, body and blood – completely shed, to redeem the world. We are to accept this life of Jesus and by our union with him we have eternal life. Our union with Christ, our partaking of his body and blood is a spiritual reality…. Our partaking in communion celebrates and affirms our union. Just to be perfectly clear…. A person who has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus but never been to church to take communion still has eternal life because it is a spiritual reality brought about by God. Communion, like other sacraments, is an outward sign of an inward reality.
Now to get back to the emphasis on our attitudes, we know that many people after hearing the words of Jesus about him being the bread of life, turned away from him. It was too hard. I’m pretty sure that his disciples didn’t fully understand what was being said, but they stayed. The Jews that argued were indignant. They allowed pride and sin to stop them from receiving the full blessing of God.
Sometimes wisdom is not about understanding. When we know and trust God we know that we don’t have to fully understand because we are united with the one who is the very source of wisdom.
