Reflection for Proper 13, Year B Thomas E. Wilson, Guest Preacher
August 1, 2021 Holy Trinity Episcopal Hertford, NC
Exodus 16:2-4, Psalm 51:1-13 Ephesians 4:1-16 John 6:24-35
“What Is That?”
Thank you for having me here today. I am a retired Priest and it has been my honor to have known and worked with the last four of your Rectors. I have been here for many meetings and services in the 18 years I have been here in this diocese. However, this is the first time I have spoken from this pulpit during a Sunday service, so your Rector can get out of town this week for a well earned vacation.
Last week, Robert started off his reflection with a story of a previous vacation when he had been snorkeling in the ocean and looked down to see a gigantic shark. It was a good story but in all honesty I have to warn you my story doesn't have any sharks. Your task, when Robert gets back, is to say this line; “Gosh we missed you! That guest preacher was OK, but in no way does he come close to you.”
Practice that line.
Last week, my stepson was visiting on the Outer Banks, and since he is a Chef, and I am only passable cook, his mother and I took him out to an expensive restaurant. After we got our drinks and ordered our entrees, suddenly there is was! What is that? And what is was, was a small loaf of home made bread. Just sitting there with some small plates with butter and knives It smelled great. It looked beautiful, but what was its purpose? What is that?
Was its purpose to help us to gain more weight to all the pounds that I had put on in the time of the pandemic? OR Was it a sign of welcome? Was it to prepare us for the time that the three of us could share in community, to share the love that we had for each other? Was it there to remind us that we were guests, not just customers that were paying for the entrees and drinks? Was it a reminder of thanksgiving that we were encouraged to treat the other patrons of the restaurant and the staff with respect! Was it a sign that we were connected to something beyond our table? Was it something that we could take home into our daily life? The answer of course is “Yes!”
The Hebrew Testament story is about bread, the manna in the wilderness. The word manna does not mean bread you bake in an oven, but is is what they called the stuff that formed on the ground during the Exodus. They called it “Manna”, which is a word translated as - “What is that?” They used it for food, but it was more than that. It was the building of a community dependent on a daily substance shared with each other. This bread, this manna, could not be hoarded for individual use, since it would spoil. There was enough for everybody and it was a daily reminder that they needed a power greater than themselves to give them all they needed for the journey. This is a journey in which there was no first class, business class or tourist class; they were all equal in the sight of God. The Manna- “What is that?”, wasn't all they wanted, but it was all they needed.
Every year at the Passover Seder, observant Jews gather in families and communities where they celebrate what God has, and is, doing in our lives. In that observance, there is a song of 14 verses, where each verse remembers an act of kindness by God in each step of the entire Exodus story. At the end of every verse there is a response, “Dayenu”, “even that would have been enough”. Manna is in the 9th verse of giving thanks.
"If He had drowned our oppressors in (the sea)it, and had not supplied our needs in the desert for forty years Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had supplied our needs in the desert for forty years, and had not fed us the manna Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had fed us the manna, and had not given us the Shabbat Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!"
This 10th Dayenu is the transition from God's gifts of kindness for one's own needs for safety and security to moving to a deeper relationship with God and neighbor. Shabbat is the day of rest in order to get closer to God.
The next, the 11th, has to do with the encounter with the eternal at Sinai, being open to grow deeper,then the 12th kindness is Torah, the teachings of how to live a gracious life within a community and dealing with neighbor,
THEN the 13th kindness, the moving into a Promised land where they remember that they once were slaves and would no longer treat others as they had been treated, now putting the bitterness of the past behind,
THEN the 14th kindness, the building of a Temple, a becoming of one with the eternal and living into a new future.
There is more to come after getting fed the bread from heaven and getting your own needs met. For the mathematicians in each one of us: 9 out of 14 is 64%.
One of the things I used to do before I went to seminary was to teach Social Work and Counseling in a college. If any student in my classes had said that they were pleased to get a 64%, I would have questioned their desire to take that course seriously. I always thought that people taking my classes ought to make a commitment rather than just showing up. To quote from the Mae West 1933 movie, I'm No Angel, “It is not the men in my life that count, it's the life in my men!”
In the Gospel lesson from John for today, Jesus sees the people who keep coming back and he notices that many of them have reached the 64th percentile of the journey; they come because they want to continue to be fed. The old, “I come because I benefit from attending the meetings”, reason. The writer of John's Gospel relates:
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.”
For Jesus, “showing up” is the first step, but then he invites them to believe. The word “believe” does not mean an acceptance of a fact as a mental exercise; like I “believe” there is a city in Nebraska named Omaha. I believe because I have gotten insurance and steaks from companies in Omaha, Nebraska. However, beyond what I get, I have no real need to clutter my life up with Omaha. I am sure it is a lovely place, and maybe when I drive back out to see my daughter in Colorado the next time, I might be tempted to take a right in Kansas City on to I-29 and go an extra 180+ miles through Iowa and Nebraska. It will take a commitment of time, energy and resources. Who knows maybe it is worth it? Some people say it is a lovely place and I have read about it, seen movies about it. To really believe in Omaha, I would have to make a commitment to enter into life there, and help share the bread of God for the life of the world by changing my life priorities by working with other residents of Omaha to deepen our shared commitments to justice, peace, community and faith. To be prepared to die in Omaha.
To believe in Jesus is about entering into life with him, in him and through him. He invites them, and us, into eternal life. Eternal life does not mean just living after you are dead, but living into the eternal, in this time and place, to see with wonder and awe through the eyes of the eternal,
to commit time, energy and resources,
Dayenu!
to forgive constantly even those people who don't “deserve it”,
Dayenu!
to love our enemies,
Dayenu!
to live as we are constantly aware of the loving presence of the eternal in our lives,
Dayenu!
to have a life as if what I want is almost irrelevant compared to trusting the guide on our journey,
Dayenu!
to turn the other cheek,
Dayenu!
to trust in the wisdom and power of the eternal greater than ourselves,
Dayenu!
to care for our neighbor,
Dayenu!
to live as if all of this life is a gift of kindness.
Dayenu!
Dayenu! In case you were counting, that was the 9th commitment, Even that would be enough, but thank God, there is even more kindnesses to come!
What Is That?
Surrounded by a bunch of “What Is That?”s
occurring within my dreams, or waking life,
or times of prayer, or unasked times of strife,
reaching beyond simple dismissal of “that's that!”s.
Everything has a life in this growing creation,
where a rock is not just a rock, but a product
of forces bringing it together in an economic,
beyond just staying in one's own station.
The artist continues to do her work,
calling me to change, grow deeper,
until that time of meeting a reaper,
when I'll finally see hadron and quark.
Asking that question is what's important;
for only then can we see infinite portent.
