The Giver

Gospel: John 6: 16-21

Jesus walks across the sea to the other shore while the disciples traverse the sea in their boat.  In crossing from one shore to the other we are placed in a transition stage.  We are going to be moving from one understanding of the loaves and fishes to another.  On the first shore Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes in order to feed a hungry crowd.  The bread is literal bread and the hunger it satisfies is physical, and everyone receives this bread to eat without exception.

In the new understanding to come, the bread is now the life and body of Jesus given for us to share, providing us with spiritual nourishment.  However, that is not all.  We are not merely to receive this food as we did with the loaves.  We are to become the body of Christ, to become the bread shared for others in a life of mercy and compassion.  To receive this bread, the body of Christ, is to be in communion with Christ and to pledge to become him in our lives.

It is for this reason that many will not accept this new understanding.  Everyone likes receiving food and being nourished by it.  Everyone likes having their needs met.  However, we are not all so keen on becoming the bread, in going out to give our lives for others, in providing mercy and care to the world.  We are fine with the false theology of Jesus doing it all for us so we don't have to bear it.  We are less keen on the authentic theology that communion calls us to become Christ ourselves in the lives we live, in being mercy and loving kindness in the world. 

Resisting Thrones

Gospel: John 6: 1-15

Jesus had been going about doing good to others.  Crowds hear about these good deeds, so they follow him wherever he goes.  Jesus looks to be apart from them, but they keep finding him.  They come in large numbers to a large field.  They are hungry, so Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes to feed them, hoping that would lead them to go home.  Instead, they want to make him a king, so Jesus finds a way to escape from them, not wanting any part of such an enterprise.

In every age and place, whenever someone wants to use Jesus for their political ends, he flees from them.  For those who would have Jesus as king to bless their violence, wars, and animus toward the other, Jesus flees from their sight.  For those who would make Jesus into a community organizer, Jesus flees from their sight as well.  To reduce Jesus to a political program and agenda is to invite his swift and immediate departure from one's life.  

It is much easier to reduce Jesus to a political program than to accept him for who is really is - the presence of God's mercy and love in the world who invites us to extend that mercy and love to others.  We would much rather have the political program than actually extend mercy and love to others.  But the presence of Christ is in the bread offered and shared with others, not in the political agenda of the crowd more than willing to eat the bread, but not willing to be the bread. 

The Ones from Heaven

Gospel: John 3: 31-36

The ones of the earth speak of earthly things.  They are consumed with self-interest and insecurity.  They have many possessions and suspicious of others.  These possessions are not enough.  They need to be secured and expanded upon.  So the ones of the earth go about the world seizing the property of others, acting to secure their ill gotten property from others, causing wars, refugees and migration from lands where the wars of aggression are waged by the ones of the earth.

The ones from heaven speak of heavenly things.  They speak of peach and the common good of all.  They proclaim the need for dialogue and mutual cooperation, knowing that the goods of the earth belong to all and require equitable sharing.  The ones from heaven appear vulnerable to the violence of the ones of the earth, for the ones of heaven have no army and receive constant threats from the ones of the earth.  Yet, the ones of heaven have no fear of these threats.  They are at peace.

If we look to find the way of heaven, look to those who speak and live the heavenly way of peace, mercy, and loving kindness.  The way of earth will attempt to create false images of religiosity, claiming to be the way of heaven.  But their way is easily seen as false, for underneath lurks their violence and self-interest, their mistrust and lack of love for others.  The way of heaven is the way of Jesus, the way of mercy and peace, the way of life and death for the sake of others.