We have a strange story in the Old Testament reading. King Ahab comes whining to his wife Jezebel about how Elijah had killed all the prophets with the sword. Ahab was afraid but Jezebel was not. She sent word to Elijah threatening him with exactly what he had done to the prophets within 24 hours. It was Elijah’s turn to be afraid. He ran for his life to Beersheba and further, sitting down under a broome tree sure that he was as good as dead. When he awoke, there was bread and drink. He ate and lay down again. Waking a second time, the Lord presented him with food and drink and called on him: Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. That food lasted him forty days and forty nights until he got to Horeb, the mount of God.
Jesus fulfills this story and enriches its meaning. We are the fearful and weary who just want to run away. But Christ is our strength. I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall not thirst. The enemies of Jesus, our enemies, insisted either Jesus was a fool or did not know what He was talking about. But Jesus would not be distracted. He insists even more urgently. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died b ut I am the bread that comes down from heaven and whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread that I give for the life of the world is My flesh.
My friends, the journey of faith IS great. It is too great to be sustained on your own or even with the old covenant of the Law and commands. The manna in the wilderness was great but the manna had to come every day because the hunger came every day and, in the end, both gave into death. Jesus has come to fulfill this promise and to give radical new meaning to the phrase bread of life. He has come to feed you that which alone can satisfy the hunger and quench the thirst. He has come to give you Himself, surrendered to the suffering of the cross and raised in glory and now present here in this Holy Communion.
We are a fearful people. We give into the panic of our fears. We run from our enemies but we do not know where to go. We think we can hide from all that would threaten us. But sin is still there and death is still there. There is only one place to run where sin is forgiven and where death is overcome. We run to Jesus and we meet this Jesus where He has promised to be. In His Word He offers Himself as food for the mind and living water to refresh the body.
In His Holy Sacrament He offers Himself to us as heavenly food, the bread of heaven come down from above and the drink that enlivens what was death in trespasses and sin. And all He asks of us is that we believe in Him, rejoice in what He has done, and receive what He offers with joy and thanksgiving. The journey of our lives is great but we walk that path in the strength of the Lord, with the bread of life in us and the Gospel as the voice of life to be our guide.
You cannot go it alone. There is not enough food to satisfy or drink to refresh for the long and arduous journey of faith. We are threatened by too many enemies and we face too many temptations. On our own we would run but in Christ we are given the strength in which to stand. God comes to us in our fear and bestows courage in our hearts. God comes to us in our loneliness and surrounds us with
His favor and the angels who do His bidding. God comes to us in our despair and plants hope in us. God comes to us in our hunger and feeds us the only bread that satisfies and gives us to drink the fruit of the vine in His Kingdom without end. We would stand apart but He bids us come. We would watch and He bids us eat. We would hide but He sends us forth in His strength and with His peace in our hearts.
God knows the weakness of our frame, the hunger that burns within, the terror that fills our souls, and the worries that steal away our peace. God knows we have enemies and God knows where we are weak. He refuses to leave us alone to be swallowed up by those fears and left as the victims of temptation on the side of the road. No, God will not abandon us – not even to ourselves! And come to us He does. His Word addresses us with the life-giving voice of the Gospel. His baptismal water bestow upon us the new life that death cannot overcome. His own flesh and blood are here, hidden in bread and wine, to feed us until we are full of Christ, full of grace, and full of the presence of God.
Come and eat. The journey of faith is long. It is no sprint to the finish but the long haul and the long distance that we must battle. It is not a battle against other competitors but against ourselves, our weariness of mind and body, of heart and soul, that would give up or go our own way. God is determined not to allow us this freedom to fail. He restores us week after week through the absolution that forgives our sins. He refreshes our weary bodies and souls with the bread of heaven that comes down from above. He gives us not the food of others but His flesh for the life of the world and His blood that cleanses us from all our sins.
And all He asks of us is to believe Him and to believe in Him.
Christianity has been distorted by the cloud of individualism which sees the journey of faith as a solitary race with Jesus. Christianity has been corrupted by those who pit the faith of the heart against the food of heaven. Christianity has been hijacked by those who say worship can be virtual, that feelings are the best measure of truth, and that Jesus is more concerned about your happiness than your holiness. Don’t listen to them. Do not give into a Christianity which offers every thing in the moment but nothing for eternity, a cheap faith which asks nothing of you but promises everything you wish and hope for, or a shallow Gospel which ignores sin to address contentment and does not dare utter the call to repent.
The Holy Spirit builds faith in us through the means of grace. The Holy Spirit works to sustain and grow this faith in us through the Word and the Sacraments. The Holy Spirit connects us to the living fellowship of the baptized whose lips confess Jesus as Lord in the Church. The journey is long and we are bounced around by fear and haunted by temptation. But Christ is with us. He is the Bread of Life come down from heaven. He speaks with the living voice of His Word that endures forever. He feeds us with His flesh for the life of the world. He gives us to drink His blood that cleanses us from all our sin. You are not alone. You are not on your own. Jesus is not your personal Savior but the Redeemer of all who are being saved. He has not come to establish a relationship with you but to take you into Himself and this is exactly what He does in baptism, in the Word through which faith comes by hearing, and in the Eucharistic table.
Yes, my friends, the journey is great and you have enemies and on your own you are weak. But Christ is with you. His power is greater than all our enemies. And in Him we are rested and refreshed. So come and eat of His bread, His flesh for the life of the world, and you will live forever. This is not some pious sentiment but the Word of the Lord that endures forever. Amen. We have a strange story in the Old Testament reading. King Ahab comes whining to his wife Jezebel about how Elijah had killed all the prophets with the sword. Ahab was afraid but Jezebel was not. She sent word to Elijah threatening him with exactly what he had done to the prophets within 24 hours. It was Elijah’s turn to be afraid. He ran for his life to Beersheba and further, sitting down under a broome tree sure that he was as good as dead. When he awoke, there was bread and drink. He ate and lay down again. Waking a second time, the Lord presented him with food and drink and called on him: Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you. That food lasted him forty days and forty nights until he got to Horeb, the mount of God.
Jesus fulfills this story and enriches its meaning. We are the fearful and weary who just want to run away. But Christ is our strength. I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in Me shall not thirst. The enemies of Jesus, our enemies, insisted either Jesus was a fool or did not know what He was talking about. But Jesus would not be distracted. He insists even more urgently. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and died b ut I am the bread that comes down from heaven and whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread that I give for the life of the world is My flesh.
My friends, the journey of faith IS great. It is too great to be sustained on your own or even with the old covenant of the Law and commands. The manna in the wilderness was great but the manna had to come every day because the hunger came every day and, in the end, both gave into death. Jesus has come to fulfill this promise and to give radical new meaning to the phrase bread of life. He has come to feed you that which alone can satisfy the hunger and quench the thirst. He has come to give you Himself, surrendered to the suffering of the cross and raised in glory and now present here in this Holy Communion.
We are a fearful people. We give into the panic of our fears. We run from our enemies but we do not know where to go. We think we can hide from all that would threaten us. But sin is still there and death is still there. There is only one place to run where sin is forgiven and where death is overcome. We run to Jesus and we meet this Jesus where He has promised to be. In His Word He offers Himself as food for the mind and living water to refresh the body.
In His Holy Sacrament He offers Himself to us as heavenly food, the bread of heaven come down from above and the drink that enlivens what was death in trespasses and sin. And all He asks of us is that we believe in Him, rejoice in what He has done, and receive what He offers with joy and thanksgiving. The journey of our lives is great but we walk that path in the strength of the Lord, with the bread of life in us and the Gospel as the voice of life to be our guide.
You cannot go it alone. There is not enough food to satisfy or drink to refresh for the long and arduous journey of faith. We are threatened by too many enemies and we face too many temptations. On our own we would run but in Christ we are given the strength in which to stand. God comes to us in our fear and bestows courage in our hearts. God comes to us in our loneliness and surrounds us with His favor and the angels who do His bidding. God comes to us in our despair and plants hope in us. God comes to us in our hunger and feeds us the only bread that satisfies and gives us to drink the fruit of the vine in His Kingdom without end. We would stand apart but He bids us come. We would watch and He bids us eat. We would hide but He sends us forth in His strength and with His peace in our hearts.
God knows the weakness of our frame, the hunger that burns within, the terror that fills our souls, and the worries that steal away our peace. God knows we have enemies and God knows where we are weak. He refuses to leave us alone to be swallowed up by those fears and left as the victims of temptation on the side of the road. No, God will not abandon us – not even to ourselves! And come to us He does. His Word addresses us with the life-giving voice of the Gospel. His baptismal water bestow upon us the new life that death cannot overcome. His own flesh and blood are here, hidden in bread and wine, to feed us until we are full of Christ, full of grace, and full of the presence of God.
Come and eat. The journey of faith is long. It is no sprint to the finish but the long haul and the long distance that we must battle. It is not a battle against other competitors but against ourselves, our weariness of mind and body, of heart and soul, that would give up or go our own way. God is determined not to allow us this freedom to fail. He restores us week after week through the absolution that forgives our sins. He refreshes our weary bodies and souls with the bread of heaven that comes down from above. He gives us not the food of others but His flesh for the life of the world and His blood that cleanses us from all our sins.
And all He asks of us is to believe Him and to believe in Him.
Christianity has been distorted by the cloud of individualism which sees the journey of faith as a solitary race with Jesus. Christianity has been corrupted by those who pit the faith of the heart against the food of heaven. Christianity has been hijacked by those who say worship can be virtual, that feelings are the best measure of truth, and that Jesus is more concerned about your happiness than your holiness. Don’t listen to them. Do not give into a Christianity which offers every thing in the moment but nothing for eternity, a cheap faith which asks nothing of you but promises everything you wish and hope for, or a shallow Gospel which ignores sin to address contentment and does not dare utter the call to repent.
The Holy Spirit builds faith in us through the means of grace. The Holy Spirit works to sustain and grow this faith in us through the Word and the Sacraments. The Holy Spirit connects us to the living fellowship of the baptized whose lips confess Jesus as Lord in the Church. The journey is long and we are bounced around by fear and haunted by temptation. But Christ is with us. He is the Bread of Life come down from heaven. He speaks with the living voice of His Word that endures forever. He feeds us with His flesh for the life of the world. He gives us to drink His blood that cleanses us from all our sin. You are not alone. You are not on your own. Jesus is not your personal Savior but the Redeemer of all who are being saved. He has not come to establish a relationship with you but to take you into Himself and this is exactly what He does in baptism, in the Word through which faith comes by hearing, and in the Eucharistic table.
Yes, my friends, the journey is great and you have enemies and on your own you are weak. But Christ is with you. His power is greater than all our enemies. And in Him we are rested and refreshed. So come and eat of His bread, His flesh for the life of the world, and you will live forever. This is not some pious sentiment but the Word of the Lord that endures forever. Amen.
1 comment:
There is something strange in the story of Elijah and Jezebel. Why is Elijah afraid of her? Before Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal, he had dealt with King Ahab on numerous occasions; twice he called down fire to kill the fifty guards who had come to summon him to the king. He prophesied directly to Ahab about his death. Ahab threatened to kill Elijah, but never, until Jezebel’s threat, was Elijah afraid.
Fear, as we learn in Genesis, is a sign of sin. Did Elijah do something that did not please God, and therefore he was afraid? Why do we listen piously on two successive Sundays, when first Elijah creates a huge spectacle before he kills the prophets of Baal, and on the next Sunday we nod with understanding because God is in the still quiet voice, not the spectacular wind, fire and earthquake? It simply does not occur to us that there is a contradiction here.
Why did God end Elijah’s ministry right after this event by ordering him to anoint Elisha as his successor?
Much of my life I have wondered about this, but I have found no answers.
Peace and Joy!
George A. Marquart
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