9TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST Lessons & Meditations
FIRST READING: Isaiah 55:1-5
We were also in Isaiah Chapter 55 three Sundays ago… then we read verses 10-13. We might remember that the second part of the Book of Isaiah, comprising Chapters 40-66, is often called “The Book of Comfort”. These words are either from the prophet Isaiah looking forward 150-200 years or from a group or “school of Isaiah” who tried to follow in Isaiah’s footsteps. The people were now in exile under the Babylonians.
Today’s verses are part of a magnificent proclamation of restoration to a people who are defeated and scattered and at the edge of despair. The image used is one of a party. God is calling out and inviting all of the exiles of Israel, so thirsty and hungry for a better day, to a great feast where both drink and food can be shared at no cost. Even those who have not been so faithful – who have been spending their money and their time on things that cannot satisfy – are invited to God’s party! That’s how gracious God is! That’s the mercy of God given freely! In verse 3 God urges the people to listen and to turn to God so that they might live. In that same verse God repeats the promise once made to King David of an everlasting covenant relationship.
But here is a bold announcement that might have surprised those desperate and hopeful people in exile. The “invitation” to the party will go beyond just the people of Israel! All the peoples of all the nations that have witnessed Israel’s restoration will also be called, will also be invited, will also be included. God is not stingy!
Are you hungry? What are you hungry for? God is hungry. God is hungry for you. God is hungry “to have and to hold you from this day forward, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish” (traditional wedding vows) – even beyond death!
SECOND READING: Romans 9:1-5
Today’s reading begins a new section in Paul’s letter where he considers the knotty issue of the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the plan of God. Paul has previously said that both Jews and Gentiles are saved not by good works but by God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, grace that is freely received by faith. But most Jews in his day refused to acknowledge Jesus as Messiah.
It was a personal painful issue for Paul. In his new life as a converted follower of Christ, Paul has become all the more aware not only of his deeply rooted Jewish heritage (both by birth or “flesh” and also by his previous faith or “law”), but also of the peril his people may face if they cannot accept the salvation offered them by God in Christ. Anguished and grieving, Paul says that he would even be willing to sacrifice himself on behalf of the Jewish people. When have you ever wished that you could save someone else by offering your own life?
In today’s verses Paul follows up his expression of great sorrow with a summary of Israel’s unique history as God’s people, the great heritage and legacy of being God’s children, of having God’s covenants, of receiving God’s law, of worshiping God, of receiving God’s promises, and of being the “family roots” of the Messiah.
But, in the verses that will follow today’s reading, Paul must now ask some serious questions:
Why did the Jews reject Jesus Messiah?
Does Israel’s unbelief and the Gentiles’ faith mean that God has “moved on” from the covenant
with Israel?
How will it all turn out? Will Jews who do not turn to Jesus be saved?
What Paul is wrestling with is not unique to him or his time. Some Christians have debated and prayed about Israel’s continued place in salvation history throughout the centuries. Sometimes Jewish people have suffered and even died as a result of Christian decisions that God could only include “us” by excluding “them”.
In the rest of this section of Paul’s letter that follows today’s reading, he will understand and celebrate that what God has done in Christ is good news for all creation, all humanity. God’s justifying grace knows no limits. God in Christ Jesus has broken through all human hostilities between family and tribe, gender and race, class and wealth and all other walls and barriers of human construction. Unfortunately, not every Christian has moved beyond still trying to live in a divided world of “us” and “them”.
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 14:13-21
Facing the deep human hurt of rejection by the people of his own hometown and shattered by the news that his cousin John, the man who had been preaching and baptizing in the wilderness, had been beheaded, Jesus did what any of us would do – he looked for a quiet lonely place, a place to get away. But it would not be, because of the genuine needs of others, because of his compassion (that Greek word splagchnizomai, to have an internal pain or physical/emotional sickness, “gut-wrenched”). There were so many people gathered, a great crowd, but Jesus would not consider dismissing those who needed him. So he reached out, gently, lovingly. He talked kindly to the sick and healed them. He told some of his stories, inviting faith, encouraging hope, challenging current beliefs and ways of living. And the day slipped on by, the sun was beginning to set. When and how have you found yourself wanting to get away from it all, yet moved by compassion and God-given power to stay at the caring action far beyond what you could have imagined?
The disciples wanted to send the crowd away to find food for themselves. We also are sometimes good at (and guilty of) “washing our hands” of any potential response to the hurt of others. But Jesus told the disciples, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” According to this lesson (and to five other similar tellings in the four Gospels, making this Jesus’ most popular miracle), there was then an amazingly endless “all you could eat” picnic with abundant leftovers!
Maybe the story is one of Jesus continually multiplying, so that a few loaves and fewer fish were transformed into endless food for thousands. Or maybe the story is one of thousands of selfish hearts being transformed by the initial contribution (See the example of a small boy in John 6) to give what food they also had brought along with them. Either way it’s a miracle. But don’t allow your focus on the transformation of the loaves prevent you from focusing on your need to have your own selfish heart transformed. Even as you are fed by the living Christ – nourished by word and, soon enough in these COVID times, by sacrament – hear Jesus say to each of us in our mission to others, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”
Jesus and his disciples were in a deserted place with little or no food. There are “food deserts” right here in the city of Philadelphia where people do not have access to affordable, nutritious food. There are people throughout our nation and all over the face of this earth who do not have enough to eat, who experience issues of food scarcity. Jesus offered himself. Jesus offered life. Can we work that same miracle of love and action?
A MEDITATION
Don’t begin with “We have NOTHING here but…” Sometimes we Christians are too good at saying that we are ourselves “not enough” (good, perfect, capable, trained, etc.) or don’t “have enough” (time, money, additional workers, other resources, etc.) to get involved, to make a difference.
Begin with God’s generous grace and wonderful blessings to you, including the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ, and, often, enough to eat. Begin with splagchnizomai, a fire of deep caring for others which the Holy Spirit can kindle inside of you. Begin with the chance, the opportunity, the need to feed others – physically, spiritually. Believe, as Jesus does, that you can offer who you are and what you have into his tender and mighty hands. Jesus can make a way out of no way.