St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen, Jersey City NJ
Church of the
Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
August 9, 2015
Year B, Proper 14:
The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15,
31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51
Starving People
If
you’ve been in church during the past few Sundays you may be experiencing deja vu since this is the third Sunday in a row that we’ve had gospel lessons that are, at
least in part, about bread.
We’ve
been talking so much about bread that even the super-resourceful and creative
Gail Blache-Gill is running out of hymns about bread!
Two
weeks ago we heard the story of one of Jesus’ greatest miracles – or signs, as
the Evangelist John calls them – the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes.
You
remember: a huge crowd of hungry people – John tells us it was about 5,000
people - gathered around Jesus and his disciples. The disciples were concerned
because they had so little food to feed all these hungry people – just five
barley loaves and two fish.
But
Jesus blessed the bread and the fish and it was passed around the crowd. And,
there was enough. There was more than enough.
Then
last week we heard that most of the crowd was hungry again – or maybe still
hungry - for what’s most important.
They
had eaten the bread but they were still hungry – hungry for what Jesus calls
the “true bread from heaven” – “the bread of God (is that) which comes down
from heaven and gives life to the world.”
These
people are no dopes – they know a good thing when they hear it – they know this
bread that Jesus is talking about is better than the manna their ancestors ate
in the desert – they know this bread is even better than the miraculous bread
they had eaten the day before - and so they say to Jesus, “Sir, give us this
bread always.”
To
which Jesus replies with more than they or even Jesus’ disciples can grasp, “I
am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever
believes in me will never be thirsty.”
The
passage we heard today is all about misunderstanding and conflict between Jesus
and the group that John calls “the Jews.” Remember, though, that pretty much
everybody in the New Testament was a Jew, including Jesus.
And,
today’s passage probably reflects painful conflicts between a young
Christianity and Judaism that were going on near the end of the first century
when the Gospel of John was completed.
So,
if you don’t mind, I don’t want to talk about that today.
Instead,
all this talk of bread has gotten me to reflect on all the hungry people who are
all around us.
There
are hungry people all around us.
People
call or come by St. Paul’s all the time because they are hungry.
People
call saying they don’t have enough money to buy food for their families – not
enough money to feed their children.
People
come by asking, do you have a food pantry – anything at all to eat?
Sometimes
I give them some money or I take them into the back of church and invite them
to take items out of our food pantry donations. Sometimes there’s plenty,
sometimes there’s not.
But,
you don’t need me to tell you there are hungry people all around us.
I
know that some of our own parishioners are hungry – people on fixed incomes
that don’t quite cut it – people who’s food stamps have been cut to just a few
measly dollars a month – people who have to eat a lot of pasta and canned foods
to make it through the month.
And,
I know that you see the hungry people around us – people begging, people lined
up every day at Let’s Celebrate over on Fairview Avenue waiting for lunch, the
people who line up once a month on Storms Avenue for Garden State Episcopal’s
emergency food pantry that we support with our food donations.
One
of the things I’m so glad to see at St. Paul’s is a growing interest and
willingness to feed people.
I
know some of you have made bringing food pantry donations a real priority, a
kind of spiritual discipline. I know some have been teaching children and
grandchildren why this is important – how there are hungry people who need our
help.
Our
monthly Stone Soup Community Supper is starting to come into its own, drawing a
diverse group of neighbors and parishioners – probably all of whom have at last
some food at home but maybe don’t get to eat such healthy and delicious
home-cooked so often.
In
November we will once again host Trish’s Thanksgiving Community Supper – a
healthy and delicious feast offered to absolutely anybody and everybody. I hope
that many of us will support this amazing event.
Speaking
of Trish, she’s in the process of getting together a group of people who are
interested in these and other possible feeding ministries. If you’re
interested, please see her or me.
There
are hungry people all around us and we’re getting better and better at filling
their stomachs.
And,
that’s wonderful.
But,
you know, in his bread discussion with the crowd, Jesus isn’t really talking
about empty stomachs and yeasty bread – as important as that is.
He’s
talking about a deeper hunger and an even more satisfying food.
I
remember one time a woman came to my office and she said in a loud voice, “I’m
starving!”
“I’m
starving!”
She
wasn’t talking about an empty cupboard or a barren refrigerator.
She
was talking about spiritual hunger.
She
was yearning for the kind of feast that you and I get to receive here every
week.
The
altar guild can tell you we literally go through a lot of bread – but we go
through – we receive so much spiritual bread, too.
Every
time we come here we are fed the Bread of Life.
We
are fed just by being in this beautiful place, by saying these beautiful words,
by hearing these old and yet ever-new stories.
We
are fed by the music, by the extended hands and arms at the peace, by the
knowledge that since we are part of this church we are never really alone, that
there are always shoulders to cry on – there is always a place to lay down our
burdens, even if just for a short while.
We
are fed by the knowledge of God’s love – and that, no matter what, even when,
especially when, all hope seems to be lost, God will never let us go.
And,
we are fed when we reach out our hands and receive the Body and Blood of Christ
into our bodies and souls.
My
friends, we are well-fed here – physically and spiritually.
And
so, just as we are getting better and better at filling the bellies of the
hungry people around us, my prayer is that God will give us the courage and the
creativity to feed the many spiritually hungry people all around us – the
people who often appear to be quite well-fed but who are, in fact, starving –
starving – starving – for the feast that we receive each time we walk through
the church door.
There
are people all around us starving for the Bread of Life.
With
God’s help, let’s feed them.
Amen
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