Year B
Exodus 16:2-4,9-15
Psalm 78:23-29
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the opening prayer of our Eucharist\u2026 called the Sursum Corda<\/em>\u2026 we lift up our hearts to God\u2026 we open our hearts to Mystery\u2026 but generally speaking\u2026 we prefer to know everything precisely\u2026 to have everything nailed down\u2026 ] and science tells us that it can prove things to be true\u2026 except when it can’t\u2026 and we’re back to mystery\u2026 like dark matter\u2026 curved space\u2026 or a forgiving heart\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n While in the mysticism which encompasses both the Eastern church\u2026 and Hindu and Buddhist practices\u2026 there is much greater comfort with mystery than we find in the West\u2026 Eastern Christianity is known for its embrace of mystery in its theological and liturgical practices\u2026 ] when it comes to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity\u2026 the Eastern church acknowledges that human reason cannot fully comprehend its nature\u2026 but emphasizes the importance of experiencing and encountering this mystery through worship\u2026 prayer\u2026 and the sacramental life\u2026 ] when it comes to the Eucharist\u2026 men like Thomas Aquinas sought to reconcile faith with reason\u2026 offering clear and logical explanations of theological concepts\u2026 like how the bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood\u2026 while the Eastern church teaches that this transformation is beyond human understanding\u2026 ] and when it comes to God\u2026 the Eastern church finds it easier to talk about who and what God is not\u2026 rather than who and what God is\u2026 it underscores the mystery of God\u2019s nature\u2026 and promotes a sense of reverence and humility in the face of the Divine\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again and again\u2026 Jesus invites us into deeper relationship with the Divine\u2026 with our True Source\u2026 and both East and West offer comparable practices\u2026 in the West\u2026 we can pray with icons\u2026 which are understood as windows to the Divine\u2026 or with Anglican prayer beads and Roman Catholic rosaries\u2026 we can practice Centering Prayer\u2026 in the East\u2026 there is praying with sacred images called murtis<\/em>\u2026 there are prayer beads called japa mala<\/em>\u2026 and there is yoga and various forms of meditation\u2026 and all help to develop what we could call enlightenment\u2026 or established in Being\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the West\u2026 there have been Christian mystics who were said to be able to levitate\u2026 notably the Italian Franciscan Joseph of Cupertino\u2026 whose levitations were so frequent and well-documented\u2026 that they were investigated by the Catholic Church\u2026 which later canonized him as a saint\u2026 and St. Teresa\u2026 who reported experiences of levitation during her deep states of prayer and ecstasy\u2026 in his book Autobiography of a Yogi\u2026 Paramahansa Yogananda describes yogis who exhibited various spiritual powers that included levitation\u2026 but such abilities are wholly incidental\u2026 compared to the state of consciousness\u2026 out of which those abilities arise\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now in our reading from Exodus\u2026 the Israelites grumble about being hungry\u2026 and they may have been hungry for food\u2026 but I think they were hungry for more\u2026 and God gives them manna\u2026 now the word itself\u2026 means\u2026 what is it<\/em>\u2026 and Moses explained that it was the bread that God gave them to eat\u2026 ] manna\u2026 a food that crosses the gap between divine and mundane realms\u2026 falling from heaven to be consumed on earth\u2026 ] in Jewish mysticism\u2026 in a commentary on the Kabbala\u2026 manna is presented as something which granted the Israelites a direct and embodied experience\u2026 ] knowledge of God\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Raj Nadella\u2026 a professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary\u2026 writes\u2026 in this morning’s passage from Exodus\u2026 the Israelites are experiencing an \u201cidealized and selective memory\u201d of life under Pharaoh\u2026 they are caught between a dehumanizing past\u2026 and an uncertain future\u2026 and they choose to idealize the past\u2026 and God responds to their hunger\u2026 not with the food of enslavement to which they had become accustomed\u2026 but instead offers a new recipe for freedom\u2026 rather than the meat of empire\u2026 God offers them wild quail\u2026 rather than bread made from grain in storehouses… God offers ephemeral manna\u2026 which offered a deeper experience of the Holy\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Matthew 4:3-4\u2026\u00a0 in response to the Tempter’s command to turn stones into loaves of bread\u2026\u00a0 Jesus said\u2026\u00a0 One does not live by bread alone\u2026\u00a0 but by every word that comes from the mouth of God<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 ]\u00a0 Jesus tries… offers one example after another\u2026\u00a0 to get the people to shift their awareness from the surface level of things<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 to the spiritual depth of things<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 in John 2:19\u2026\u00a0 Jesus says\u2026\u00a0 Destroy this temple\u2026\u00a0 and in three days I will raise it up<\/em>\u2026\u00a0 he was talking about the Temple of his body\u2026\u00a0 but those with whom he was speaking thought he meant the Temple which had been under construction for forty years\u2026\u00a0 in John 3:3\u2026\u00a0 Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God\u2026\u00a0 without being born from above\u2026\u00a0 and Nicodemus asks\u2026\u00a0 how can anyone be born again after having grown old\u2026\u00a0 in John 4:5-30\u2026\u00a0 Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well\u2026\u00a0 and says that\u2026\u00a0 Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again\u2026 \u00a0but those who drink of the water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life\u2026 \u00a0<\/em>and the woman thinks he’s talking about H2<\/sub>O and fewer trips to the well\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Gospel of John is a veritable symphony of incomprehension\u2026 the crowds in today’s story\u2026 who clamor after Jesus\u2026 don’t get it either\u2026 and of course\u2026 neither do those who are closest to Jesus\u2026 and the crowds are attracted to Jesus\u2026 not for any of the reasons he wants them to be\u2026 but only for his miraculous works\u2026 Jesus even says it out loud\u2026 that the crowds were looking for him\u2026 not because they saw signs\u2026 not because his actions revealed a thin place between the divine and the mundane\u2026 into which they were invited\u2026 but because they ate their fill of loaves\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n We heard some of this last week when the crowds were about to take Jesus by force\u2026 and make him king\u2026 because of the food he provided\u2026 and so the reaction of the crowds\u2026 is a clear indication of how widespread the popular misconception of Jesus is \u2026 they hear Jesus talk about bread\u2026 and they think he’s talking about sourdough loaves\u2026 and not the spiritual food that satisfies our deepest longings\u2026 their thinking is too small\u2026 too narrow\u2026 because what he’s offering is access to divinity itself\u2026 to the field of all possibilities\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are a modern people who believe that we have a democratic right to comprehend\u2026 an inalienable right to understand everything\u2026 but what if the kingdom we seek is not of this world\u2026 what if it’s beyond our comprehension\u2026 but not our experience\u2026 what are we asking for when we ask for this bread always\u2026 what are we imaging that this is going to be like\u2026 after 2,000 years\u2026 we’re only still on the cusp\u2026 and it may be that the truth we’re after is not something we can apprehend through our own intellectual or mental effort\u2026 because it is a truth that must be given as gift\u2026 and in the last verse of this morning’s Gospel\u2026 the gift that Jesus offers\u2026 is his own boundlessness\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The church in the United States is at a crossroads\u2026 caught between a past that’s often been captive to wealth\u2026 a caste-like system of racism and oppression\u2026 and transphobia and heterosexism\u2026 ] and a future with God lived at the margins\u2026 God is responding to the church\u2019s anxiety about the future\u2026 but what we’re being offered will be quite different going forward\u2026 Christianity is a religion of transformation\u2026 and if we’re not transformed\u2026 both individually and collectively\u2026 if we don’t think we need to be\u2026 then we have sold a diamond\u2026 at the price of spinach\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year B Exodus 16:2-4,9-15 Psalm 78:23-29 Ephesians 4:1-16 John 6:24-35 May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 In the opening prayer of our Eucharist\u2026 called the Sursum Corda\u2026 we lift up our hearts to God\u2026 we open our hearts to Mystery\u2026 but generally speaking\u2026 we prefer to know everything precisely\u2026 to have everything nailed down\u2026 ] and science tells us that it can prove things to be true\u2026 except when it can’t\u2026 and we’re back to mystery\u2026 like dark matter\u2026 curved space\u2026 or a forgiving heart\u2026 While in the mysticism which encompasses both the Eastern church\u2026 and Hindu and Buddhist practices\u2026 there is much greater comfort with mystery than we find in the West\u2026 Eastern Christianity is known for its embrace of mystery in its theological and liturgical practices\u2026 ] when it comes to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity\u2026 the Eastern church acknowledges that human reason cannot fully comprehend its nature\u2026 but emphasizes the importance of experiencing and encountering this mystery through worship\u2026 prayer\u2026 and the sacramental life\u2026 ] when it comes to the Eucharist\u2026 men like Thomas Aquinas sought to reconcile faith with reason\u2026 offering clear and logical explanations of theological concepts\u2026 like how the bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood\u2026 while the Eastern church teaches that this transformation is beyond human understanding\u2026 ] and when it comes to God\u2026 the Eastern church finds it easier to talk about who and what God is not\u2026 rather than who and what God is\u2026 it underscores the mystery of God\u2019s nature\u2026 and promotes a sense of reverence and humility in the face of the Divine\u2026 Again and again\u2026 Jesus invites us into deeper relationship with the Divine\u2026 with our True Source\u2026 and both East and West offer comparable practices\u2026 in the West\u2026 we can pray with icons\u2026 which are understood as windows to the Divine\u2026 or with Anglican prayer beads and Roman Catholic rosaries\u2026 we can practice Centering Prayer\u2026 in the East\u2026 there is praying with sacred images called murtis\u2026 there are prayer beads called japa mala\u2026 and there is yoga and various forms of meditation\u2026 and all help to develop what we could call enlightenment\u2026 or established in Being\u2026 In the West\u2026 there have been Christian mystics who were said to be able to levitate\u2026 notably the Italian Franciscan Joseph of Cupertino\u2026 whose levitations were so frequent and well-documented\u2026 that they were investigated by the Catholic Church\u2026 which later canonized him as a saint\u2026 and St. Teresa\u2026 who reported experiences of levitation during her deep states of prayer and ecstasy\u2026 in his book Autobiography of a Yogi\u2026 Paramahansa Yogananda describes yogis who exhibited various spiritual powers that included levitation\u2026 but such abilities are wholly incidental\u2026 compared to the state of consciousness\u2026 out of which those abilities arise\u2026 Now in our reading from Exodus\u2026 the Israelites grumble about being hungry\u2026 and they may have been hungry for food\u2026 but I think they were hungry for more\u2026 and God gives them manna\u2026 now the word itself\u2026 means\u2026 what is it\u2026 and Moses explained that it was the bread that God gave them to eat\u2026 ] manna\u2026 a food that crosses the gap between divine and mundane realms\u2026 falling from heaven to be consumed on earth\u2026 ] in Jewish mysticism\u2026 in a commentary on the Kabbala\u2026 manna is presented as something which granted the Israelites a direct and embodied experience\u2026 ] knowledge of God\u2026 Dr. Raj Nadella\u2026 a professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary\u2026 writes\u2026 in this morning’s passage from Exodus\u2026 the Israelites are experiencing an \u201cidealized and selective memory\u201d of life under Pharaoh\u2026 they are caught between a dehumanizing past\u2026 and an uncertain future\u2026 and they choose to idealize the past\u2026 and God responds to their hunger\u2026 not with the food of enslavement to which they had become accustomed\u2026 but instead offers a new recipe for freedom\u2026 rather than the meat of empire\u2026 God offers them wild quail\u2026 rather than bread made from grain in storehouses… God offers ephemeral manna\u2026 which offered a deeper experience of the Holy\u2026 In Matthew 4:3-4\u2026\u00a0 in response to the Tempter’s command to turn stones into loaves of bread\u2026\u00a0 Jesus said\u2026\u00a0 One does not live by bread alone\u2026\u00a0 but by every word that comes from the mouth of God\u2026\u00a0 ]\u00a0 Jesus tries… offers one example after another\u2026\u00a0 to get the people to shift their awareness from the surface level of things\u2026\u00a0 to the spiritual depth of things\u2026\u00a0 in John 2:19\u2026\u00a0 Jesus says\u2026\u00a0 Destroy this temple\u2026\u00a0 and in three days I will raise it up\u2026\u00a0 he was talking about the Temple of his body\u2026\u00a0 but those with whom he was speaking thought he meant the Temple which had been under construction for forty years\u2026\u00a0 in John 3:3\u2026\u00a0 Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God\u2026\u00a0 without being born from above\u2026\u00a0 and Nicodemus asks\u2026\u00a0 how can anyone be born again after having grown old\u2026\u00a0 in John 4:5-30\u2026\u00a0 Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well\u2026\u00a0 and says that\u2026\u00a0 Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again\u2026 \u00a0but those who drink of the water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life\u2026 \u00a0and the woman thinks he’s talking about H2O and fewer trips to the well\u2026 The Gospel of John is a veritable symphony of incomprehension\u2026 the crowds in today’s story\u2026 who clamor after Jesus\u2026 don’t get it either\u2026 and of course\u2026 neither do those who are closest to Jesus\u2026 and the crowds are attracted to Jesus\u2026 not for any of the reasons he wants them to be\u2026 but only for his miraculous works\u2026 Jesus even says it out loud\u2026 that the crowds were looking for him\u2026 not because they saw signs\u2026 not because his actions revealed a thin place between the divine and the mundane\u2026 into which they were invited\u2026 but because they ate their fill of loaves\u2026 We heard some of this last week when the crowds were about to take Jesus by force\u2026 and make him king\u2026 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