August 20, 2006 Sermon
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Proper 15 – B
August 20, 2006 Allan Conkling
Long before I took my first anthropology course in college on the Native Americans of the southwest, I was fascinated by the early inhabitants of this area of Texas. Far away on the other side of the world, while the early church fathers were hammering out the Nicene Creed and the Doctrine of the Trinity, here in Texas the indigenous people were chasing deer with sticks and eating nuts and cactus. In dry seasons like now life was especially harsh. Among these nomadic groups one’s entire existence revolved around hunting and gathering of food. All rituals and habits of the early Texans were centered on food. If you didn’t hunt you didn’t eat. If you didn’t eat you wouldn’t live very long.
Have we changed much since then? Well yes and no. No we don’t have to pursue deer or rabbits (except when hunting season comes up next month). We don’t have to depend on whether or not the fish are biting, or forage for berries, worms, acorns or mesquite beans. But in a way, we are still basically hunters and gatherers. Nowadays we shop the aisles of Albertsons, HEB, Wal-Mart or the Food Basket. We roam the plains searching for a good restaurant or, in if you have kids, the nearest MacDonald’s or Burger King. Life still goes around food. If you don’t think we are as preoccupied as the early Indians with foraging, just look how much money goes each month to food. Think about how much time is spent in food planning, food preparation, and eating. Right now, you are probably thinking about where you are going after church – or if we will get out in time to beat the Baptists. We are food centered organisms, and what we eat affects how we live and function.
To bring this around to our topic for today, in a spiritual sense this is precisely what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat of the flesh and drink the blood of the son of Man you have no life within you.” Just as our physical body requires constant supply of vitamins and minerals—or as my kids think, hamburgers, pizza and hot dogs, so in a spiritual sense do we all need proper spiritual sustenance and nutrition. Jesus wisely taught that just as we cannot do without food, neither can we do without God.
This Gospel is a continuation of miracle of feeding of the 5000. Here Jesus uses graphic language to get across a central point of his teaching: that our lives depend upon spiritual fulfillment as much as physical sustenance. In the miracle story Jesus was concerned that people were missing the point…that what had just occurred was more simply giving people something to eat. The real miracle was not that not 5 loaves and 2 fish were magically made to feed a multitude. Rather everyone who was present, who’s eyes of faith were opened, who’s heart was open would be transformed, filled to overflowing with the goodness of God. He said, “My body is bread…It is for you. My blood is drink…It will keep you alive.”
These days we are obsessed with eating right; counting calories, carbohydrates, proteins and minimum daily requirements. At the same time we have the highest incidence of eating disorders: obesity, anorexia, and bulimia. But what I think we see is symptomatic of one of the fundamental truths in all life: There are times when we long for “something” that goes beyond the day to day. St. Augustine likened this to having a God-shaped hole in our heart which can never be filled by the “stuff” of this world. That which truly fills us and puts to rest the pangs of hunger within us can only come from the One who is at once beyond us, and within us. Christians believe that while we can look in lots of other places, in the end answer to spiritual hunger is found right here—at the Table of the Lord. To put this another way, people who live on “junk food” or fast food will eventually lack from proper nutrition. There are times when we need more.
In the end we are never very far away from the ancient hunters and gatherers. As sophisticated as our society is; as much in control as we believe we are; when our interests take us away from church or we spend our time bickering about who is right, who is in, and who should be kept out—it will do us well to remember that it is the simple things, the “eatin’ and drinkin’” that we are all about. This is the very heart of our worship.
I can remember as a child singing that opening hymn, “Praise to the Lord the Almighty the King of Creation”. I think it was one we sang at my Ordination. It speaks to our need for and dependence upon God for our soul’s life and health. This is the true Wisdom spoken of in Proverbs and by Paul in Ephesians. When we allow this spirit-life, spirit-food to become part of who we are, the supernatural becomes part of us and changes us from the inside out. That spirit-energy propels us into the world to become vehicles of gods grace to those around us.
Soon this service will be over and we will be fortified to face another week. But savor it now. There is much about this life that we can never fully understand, which is why Jesus chose simple elements like food—to be a symbol of the kind of life Christ calls us to live. I close with a prayer from long ago, from Psalm 104:
“The eyes of all
wait upon you O lord…To give them their food in
due season.
You give it to them…and they gather it up.
You open wide
your hand…and they are filled with good things.
Bless Lord these gifts which we are about to receive from your bounty, through
Christ our Lord. Amen.”
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Revised: 08/27/06