Listen! My lover! Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My lover is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! There he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice.
My lover spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me."
(Lover)
My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.
(Beloved) My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.
In the year AD 90, the council of rabbis convenes at Jamnia. Jerusalem is in ruins, devastated around them, so the council has to meet in the little village of Jamnia, miles to the east of Jerusalem; Jews are no longer allowed even to go near the once-great city. The rabbis are convening to make decisions about which, of all the texts of their faith, will be included in the canon. They come to the Song of Songs. Discussion is heated, often loud and angry. The Song of Songs is pornography, it’s about sex, and even reading it might be considered breaking religious law. As well, nowhere is Yahweh mentioned, in the entire book. Never mind that Solomon was a great king, this is too much.
One rabbi leaps into the discussion, insisting that since there is no sacred history, no ethics or morals, the book should never be included, it is too dangerous. But a senior rabbi defends the book, for if it is about love, then it is about God. Surely the relationship between two lovers is something given by God.
Days and days of debate, many different texts examined, always the rabbis come back to this book. In the end, the Song of Solomon becomes part of holy Hebrew scripture.
In less than two hundred years after this council, Rabbi Akiba would say that "all the ages are not worth the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel." In the Christian church, Song of Solomon was at the top of the list for eight hundred years, and the subject of uncountable commentaries.
It is true that God's name is never mentioned; there are no sacred principles or history. So why is the Song of Songs included? Remember what it was like? Remember when you could pick out the voice of the one you loved, even in a room full of people? Remember when you heard that voice on the other end of the phone and your heart leapt? Remember lying awake at night wondering if you were imagining things, afraid you might be wrong? Remember sitting with daisies pulling out the petals “He loves me, he loves me not.”???
Listen to the text again, because it is two voices, the lover and the beloved.
(Read text)
I couldn’t help thinking of the song from “My Fair Lady” - the young man who suddenly finds himself smitten by Eliza. He sings “I have often walked down this street before, but the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before. All at once am I several stories high, knowing I’m on the street where you live.” Did you ever do that? Walk down the street where you knew the object of your affection lived, just in case you might catch a glimpse?
It has been suggested, in an effort to quash any suggestion of sex in the Bible, an effort to take the ‘raciness’ out of it, that this text is really a metaphor for the love of God for us. No, I think not. - and that does a disservice to the passage. It was put in for a reason.
In the United Church, the introduction to our wedding service says “This is a holy place; it is holy because love is here, and wherever love is, God is there also.” So the Song of Solomon, while it doesn’t mention God outright, is a love poem, an expression of profound sensuality and mutual love between two people, and where love is, God is there.
My colleague in Owen Sound, David Shearman says “the passage is an intimate conversation between two lovers, and it is as if we are eavesdropping on a passionate duet which warms not only the two participants in the conversation, but us, as well.”
Sometimes we forget that God has created us as people who seek and need love. The creation story of Adam and Eve in Eden is a story of human need for love. One of the driving forces in our lives is to find a person, that special person who will share our hopes, dreams and lives. We seek someone who will understand when we are down, when we fail, and will hold us in their arms when nothing else will give us comfort.
Rev. Isabelle Davis comments “The Church too often either fails to acknowledge this aspect of who we are, or makes us feel guilty about our sexuality, the place most people learn about love is in the media. We seek out music that tells of love, we watch movies that are love stories, we read books about love. And too often, it has been made into casual sexual encounters, or something to be taken lightly. Very seldom this gift of love, this passionate love, is seen as a gift from God.”
The Song of Solomon is love poetry, celebrating the relationship of lovers in creation, reminding us of God’s role in creating. The imagery of the garden recalls the creation of the garden of Eden; it recalls the creation of man, or “ish” and “‘ishsha”, woman - something which took place while the man was asleep. Together they reflect the image of God.
There is a very clear social commentary here. In a world in which sexuality is reduced to a lowest common denominator, where children are used and exploited, where women are treated as less than valuable - here is a song of praise to all of humanity.
This is the very basis and foundation of the human experience, and that’s why it is found in Scripture. German theologian Dorothee Solle suggests that the openness and intimacy of the relationship found in this passage is not just between two lovers, whether they are human or divine, but that it opens our hearts and minds to other people; the world. And in that world we find we have far more solidarity with each other than we could ever imagine. She says that in this song, “nature, animals, men and women, partake of the joy, the abundance, the fullness of life.” But it does not stop there - because as we learn to live in joy in our mutual love, that love spreads and ripples around us, so others become part of the joy of creation. Love is not diminished, but increased. Loving and being loved is a transformative experience that leads us into praise of the One who makes joy possible, and helps us to develop our capacities for love. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Sermon “The Duet”, by Rev. David Shearman, Owen Sound ON.
2. Sermon “An Old-Fashioned Love Song”, by Rev. Isabelle Davis
3. Sermon “The Invitation” by Rev. Thomas Hall.
4. Dorothee Solle “To Work and to Love: A Theology of Creation”, Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1984, 150.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
To Whom Can We Go? John 6:56-69 August 23, 2009 Glen Ayr United Church
More than any other Gospel, John presents us with “hard sayings” of Jesus to wrap our heads around. Today’s reading is one of the hardest, for on first read it is offensive. It is not only somewhat offensive to us, it would have been really shocking to Jewish listeners. Even the image is disturbing - eating flesh and drinking blood; as a result, many preachers have turned this into yet another text about eucharist or communion, thereby making it palatable. Others have just not tried to preach it - because it is a really hard text.
In the time of Jesus, it was pagans who ate flesh with the blood still in it. Hence Jewish hearers would have been shocked to hear Jesus even utter these words. The church in Corinth got itself into all kinds of knots over whether or not to eat meat which had been killed in a pagan temple. The suggestion of eating flesh with the blood still in it would have been repugnant to the Jews altogether. How could Jesus suggest such a thing?
Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr places this text at a period of Jesus’ ministry usually designated as “the crisis”. Jesus had been popular. The multitude had followed him to listen, to catch the charm of his personality and to be cured of physical ills. “But gradually”, says Niebuhr, “as Jesus unfolded the full meaning of his way of life, the multitude found his ideals as difficult as they were engaging and began to desert him, muttering, "These are hard sayings, who can hear them?" Only the twelve disciples stayed, in the end, along with some of the women and others, although John specifically names the twelve. Jesus asked, did they also wish to leave him? Peter, always the spokesman for the rest, answers “Where shall we go?” Niebuhr interpets this to mean that Peter is saying, "Yes, what you ask of us is so difficult that we are tempted to give up too. We don’t know if we can follow your way and truth, but we can’t find a better alternative.”
Is Jesus offering immortality in this quote? We have tended to take the phrase “eternal life” to mean immortality. I don’t think that is at all what is inherent here. This is another example of Jesus trying to communicate a difficult concept using ordinary things of life- bread, wine, meat, water - to teach about a way of living which saves us from being ruled by fear. Jesus reminds them that it is the spirit which gives life, and that his words are both spirit and life. Yet they choose to turn away because it is “too hard”.
The crowds had got used to the comfort of being around Jesus, and were prepared to take some small challenge to their discipleship. There was comfort in the affirmations of Jesus’ faith, and they were to some extent willing to accept them; but Niebuhr comments that “inextricably intertwined with that assurance is a moral challenge” which most people find too difficult to consider. He says that the Christian church, at its best, is a community of the few who have seen, however dimly, “that the assurance and the challenge belong together”. The teaching of Jesus presents both a way of looking at reality, and a way of living.
In the past weeks, as President Barack Obama has begun to lay out the foundations of a health-care plan, arguments for and against have been all over the news. People have considered resorting to violence, extreme responses to the proposal - accusing Obama of being Hitler - have appeared, along with accusations of fascism and socialist medicine, as if somehow socialist is a bad thing. An American colleague of mine noted “how easily scaremongering can prod Americans to act against their own best interests.” I’ve found the comments of people fascinating - people who claim America is a country founded on Christian principles, yet who scream at the notion of paying for someone else’s health care as un-constitutional, too difficult, if people want good health care they are “free to pursue it”, but others should not have to shoulder it for them.
Rev. Amy C. Howe says this: “Our culture tells us we are in control of our lives, our destiny. If we work hard, we will be rewarded with material gain.” She goes on “My theologian sister says that we prefer religion to God. We, like the disciples, are offended by Jesus’ offer of spirit and life. We make religion about the rules because we can control the rules.”
Well, the words Jesus uses “abide in me” present comfort, but they also present challenge. A handful of followers remains, and when Jesus asks if they also want to run away, Peter responds “Where else can we go? You have words of life. We have come to believe.” In that moment, Peter who is generally a little thick, realises that despite the hard path Jesus calls the followers to walk, he is ready to give up some control in order to accept the offer of the gift of life.
The gift of life for the church is the moment we realise that giving up control gives life. It may not be the life we envision out of our own experience, or how we have always done things in our church. It may be that the creative spirit moves into that space created by our willingness to let go control, and does something completely unexpected. The decision of the followers not to walk away but to follow and give up control marks them as a community of faith. Nothing else - not budgets, mission statements, worship attendance - mark us as a community of faith. Coming together to follow Jesus, no matter how hard it is, no matter how contrary to our political notions - that marks us as a community of faith - and in Jesus we receive spirit and life. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Reinhold Niebuhr, “To Whom Can I go?” in The Christian Century, March 10, 1927.
2. Rev. Amy C. Howe, essay in “Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary” Year B Volume 3.
In the time of Jesus, it was pagans who ate flesh with the blood still in it. Hence Jewish hearers would have been shocked to hear Jesus even utter these words. The church in Corinth got itself into all kinds of knots over whether or not to eat meat which had been killed in a pagan temple. The suggestion of eating flesh with the blood still in it would have been repugnant to the Jews altogether. How could Jesus suggest such a thing?
Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr places this text at a period of Jesus’ ministry usually designated as “the crisis”. Jesus had been popular. The multitude had followed him to listen, to catch the charm of his personality and to be cured of physical ills. “But gradually”, says Niebuhr, “as Jesus unfolded the full meaning of his way of life, the multitude found his ideals as difficult as they were engaging and began to desert him, muttering, "These are hard sayings, who can hear them?" Only the twelve disciples stayed, in the end, along with some of the women and others, although John specifically names the twelve. Jesus asked, did they also wish to leave him? Peter, always the spokesman for the rest, answers “Where shall we go?” Niebuhr interpets this to mean that Peter is saying, "Yes, what you ask of us is so difficult that we are tempted to give up too. We don’t know if we can follow your way and truth, but we can’t find a better alternative.”
Is Jesus offering immortality in this quote? We have tended to take the phrase “eternal life” to mean immortality. I don’t think that is at all what is inherent here. This is another example of Jesus trying to communicate a difficult concept using ordinary things of life- bread, wine, meat, water - to teach about a way of living which saves us from being ruled by fear. Jesus reminds them that it is the spirit which gives life, and that his words are both spirit and life. Yet they choose to turn away because it is “too hard”.
The crowds had got used to the comfort of being around Jesus, and were prepared to take some small challenge to their discipleship. There was comfort in the affirmations of Jesus’ faith, and they were to some extent willing to accept them; but Niebuhr comments that “inextricably intertwined with that assurance is a moral challenge” which most people find too difficult to consider. He says that the Christian church, at its best, is a community of the few who have seen, however dimly, “that the assurance and the challenge belong together”. The teaching of Jesus presents both a way of looking at reality, and a way of living.
In the past weeks, as President Barack Obama has begun to lay out the foundations of a health-care plan, arguments for and against have been all over the news. People have considered resorting to violence, extreme responses to the proposal - accusing Obama of being Hitler - have appeared, along with accusations of fascism and socialist medicine, as if somehow socialist is a bad thing. An American colleague of mine noted “how easily scaremongering can prod Americans to act against their own best interests.” I’ve found the comments of people fascinating - people who claim America is a country founded on Christian principles, yet who scream at the notion of paying for someone else’s health care as un-constitutional, too difficult, if people want good health care they are “free to pursue it”, but others should not have to shoulder it for them.
Rev. Amy C. Howe says this: “Our culture tells us we are in control of our lives, our destiny. If we work hard, we will be rewarded with material gain.” She goes on “My theologian sister says that we prefer religion to God. We, like the disciples, are offended by Jesus’ offer of spirit and life. We make religion about the rules because we can control the rules.”
Well, the words Jesus uses “abide in me” present comfort, but they also present challenge. A handful of followers remains, and when Jesus asks if they also want to run away, Peter responds “Where else can we go? You have words of life. We have come to believe.” In that moment, Peter who is generally a little thick, realises that despite the hard path Jesus calls the followers to walk, he is ready to give up some control in order to accept the offer of the gift of life.
The gift of life for the church is the moment we realise that giving up control gives life. It may not be the life we envision out of our own experience, or how we have always done things in our church. It may be that the creative spirit moves into that space created by our willingness to let go control, and does something completely unexpected. The decision of the followers not to walk away but to follow and give up control marks them as a community of faith. Nothing else - not budgets, mission statements, worship attendance - mark us as a community of faith. Coming together to follow Jesus, no matter how hard it is, no matter how contrary to our political notions - that marks us as a community of faith - and in Jesus we receive spirit and life. May it be so.
Sources:
1. Reinhold Niebuhr, “To Whom Can I go?” in The Christian Century, March 10, 1927.
2. Rev. Amy C. Howe, essay in “Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary” Year B Volume 3.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Wisdom Calls Proverbs 9:1-6, Ephesians 5:15-20 August 16, 2009
“Wisdom has built her house, she has cut the seven pillars. She has slaughtered the animals, she has mixed the wine, she has also set her table. She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places around the town “You that are poor, come in here! To those with no sense she says “Come, eat my bread, drink my wine. Lay aside immaturity, and live and walk in the way of insight.”
Since Proverbs wasn’t listed in the bulletin as one of today’s readings, you probably wonder why I decided to throw this in. Hmmm, well - Ephesians talks about living wisely - but in a boring and constrained sort of way. The Ephesians passage, on the surface, probably has been one of those used to convince Christians that anything which smacked of having fun was a no-no. The John passage is another of Jesus’ references to the bread of life, and it’s the third or fourth this month. Proverbs doesn’t usually get preached - but in fact, it reminded me of the parable of the banquet in the Gospels.
Back in the fall, Norio and I received a call, late on a Saturday afternoon, from friends in the west end. Would we like to come and join them in the local street festival, and then go for some dinner? It meant putting aside everything, leaving a sermon half-finished, in order to join them. It would have been easy to say no, I have too much to do, Saturday nights aren’t good. That’s what I usually say to invitations for Saturdays. But we hadn’t seen our friends for a long time, and the evening sounded like it would be fun. So we went. All the way there, I kept wondering if it would have been better to refuse, to spend more time on the sermon, to beg off. Was it a wise thing to do? I don't know - but had I not gone it would have been a missed opportunity for something important.
The Book of Proverbs is a collection of sayings, speeches, lectures which were accumulated over time. They were shaped by the wise leaders in the court, and the temple of Israel an early Judaism. Wisdom is personified as a woman, the spirit which was beside God at the beginning of creation, the feminine principle, the breath of God.
In the time of Jesus, there was a group of religious ascetics called Gnostics. In general to be a gnostic means to make a claim to an esoteric knowledge that no-one else has. If you wander into Chapters, you can find a self-help book purporting to be knowledge no one else has. It is a kind of modern-day gnosticism, in that each of the self-help gurus purports to have a knowledge no one else has. To the ancient Gnostics, wisdom was something they had access to because of their esoteric knowledge. Ordinary people didn’t.
In this selection from Proverbs, Wisdom prepares a banquet and goes into the town calling to the poor and the simple to come to the table. I think this is the important part, and draws the parallel to the Gospel. Virtually everything Jesus taught had its roots in Hebrew scripture, and he would likely have been familiar with this passage, so to tell the banquet story would draw on this scripture. In fact it is totally contrary to both the Gnostic understanding of wisdom, and the temple understanding. The passage from Proverbs is telling us that wisdom is a free and fabulous banquet, equally generous to all. The table is set, and the banquet is there.
The Proverbs text gives us a great feast set in the house of Wisdom. The slaughtering of animals for the feast is directly connected to the traditions of Israel. Wine is “mixed”, perhaps a product of different fruits, maybe the fruits of the spirit. Everyone is invited to come. Wisdom offers a pattern for living.
There is a pretty clear message in this passage. Each of us is given the opportunity to live a blessed and fulfilled life. It says that it is God’s intent for the human race. Here, in this passage, Lady Wisdom offers wine and a banquet for enjoying. It is reminiscent of the story of the wedding at Cana, when Jesus’ mother is portrayed as a wise woman - in some ways wiser than Jesus.
There is another message in this passage. Too often we do make excuses for not participating in the banquet. For the gathered church community, it says to us that we have to ask if we live out a mature faith, if we are answering the call fully, what kind of future do we envision and what choices will we make. As we come to the end of summer, it is a kind of fallow period where we can do some reflection and assessment, as individuals and as congregations. Miriam Therese Winter wrote a song “I Cannot Come”. It refers to the wedding banquet story, but I think it fits here too.
I CANNOT COME.
A certain man held a feast on his fine estate in town,
he laid a festive table and wore a wedding gown.
He sent invitations to his neighbours far and wide.
But when the meal was ready, each of them replied:
I cannot come, I cannot come to the banquet, don't trouble me now
I have married a wife, I have bought me a cow,
I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum
Pray, hold me excused, I cannot come!
So, my question to you today is, what are we going to do as we go forward into the next church year?
Sources:
1. Material from essays by Thomas R. Steagald, and Susan Vande Kappelle in the book “Feasting on the Word”, Year B Volume 3. Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds.
2. The Wedding Banquet, by Miriam Therese Winter. In the collection “Joy is Like the Rain”. C. Medical Mission Sisters 1966.
Since Proverbs wasn’t listed in the bulletin as one of today’s readings, you probably wonder why I decided to throw this in. Hmmm, well - Ephesians talks about living wisely - but in a boring and constrained sort of way. The Ephesians passage, on the surface, probably has been one of those used to convince Christians that anything which smacked of having fun was a no-no. The John passage is another of Jesus’ references to the bread of life, and it’s the third or fourth this month. Proverbs doesn’t usually get preached - but in fact, it reminded me of the parable of the banquet in the Gospels.
Back in the fall, Norio and I received a call, late on a Saturday afternoon, from friends in the west end. Would we like to come and join them in the local street festival, and then go for some dinner? It meant putting aside everything, leaving a sermon half-finished, in order to join them. It would have been easy to say no, I have too much to do, Saturday nights aren’t good. That’s what I usually say to invitations for Saturdays. But we hadn’t seen our friends for a long time, and the evening sounded like it would be fun. So we went. All the way there, I kept wondering if it would have been better to refuse, to spend more time on the sermon, to beg off. Was it a wise thing to do? I don't know - but had I not gone it would have been a missed opportunity for something important.
The Book of Proverbs is a collection of sayings, speeches, lectures which were accumulated over time. They were shaped by the wise leaders in the court, and the temple of Israel an early Judaism. Wisdom is personified as a woman, the spirit which was beside God at the beginning of creation, the feminine principle, the breath of God.
In the time of Jesus, there was a group of religious ascetics called Gnostics. In general to be a gnostic means to make a claim to an esoteric knowledge that no-one else has. If you wander into Chapters, you can find a self-help book purporting to be knowledge no one else has. It is a kind of modern-day gnosticism, in that each of the self-help gurus purports to have a knowledge no one else has. To the ancient Gnostics, wisdom was something they had access to because of their esoteric knowledge. Ordinary people didn’t.
In this selection from Proverbs, Wisdom prepares a banquet and goes into the town calling to the poor and the simple to come to the table. I think this is the important part, and draws the parallel to the Gospel. Virtually everything Jesus taught had its roots in Hebrew scripture, and he would likely have been familiar with this passage, so to tell the banquet story would draw on this scripture. In fact it is totally contrary to both the Gnostic understanding of wisdom, and the temple understanding. The passage from Proverbs is telling us that wisdom is a free and fabulous banquet, equally generous to all. The table is set, and the banquet is there.
The Proverbs text gives us a great feast set in the house of Wisdom. The slaughtering of animals for the feast is directly connected to the traditions of Israel. Wine is “mixed”, perhaps a product of different fruits, maybe the fruits of the spirit. Everyone is invited to come. Wisdom offers a pattern for living.
There is a pretty clear message in this passage. Each of us is given the opportunity to live a blessed and fulfilled life. It says that it is God’s intent for the human race. Here, in this passage, Lady Wisdom offers wine and a banquet for enjoying. It is reminiscent of the story of the wedding at Cana, when Jesus’ mother is portrayed as a wise woman - in some ways wiser than Jesus.
There is another message in this passage. Too often we do make excuses for not participating in the banquet. For the gathered church community, it says to us that we have to ask if we live out a mature faith, if we are answering the call fully, what kind of future do we envision and what choices will we make. As we come to the end of summer, it is a kind of fallow period where we can do some reflection and assessment, as individuals and as congregations. Miriam Therese Winter wrote a song “I Cannot Come”. It refers to the wedding banquet story, but I think it fits here too.
I CANNOT COME.
A certain man held a feast on his fine estate in town,
he laid a festive table and wore a wedding gown.
He sent invitations to his neighbours far and wide.
But when the meal was ready, each of them replied:
I cannot come, I cannot come to the banquet, don't trouble me now
I have married a wife, I have bought me a cow,
I have fields and commitments that cost a pretty sum
Pray, hold me excused, I cannot come!
So, my question to you today is, what are we going to do as we go forward into the next church year?
Sources:
1. Material from essays by Thomas R. Steagald, and Susan Vande Kappelle in the book “Feasting on the Word”, Year B Volume 3. Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds.
2. The Wedding Banquet, by Miriam Therese Winter. In the collection “Joy is Like the Rain”. C. Medical Mission Sisters 1966.
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Bread and Water August 2, 2009 Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15, John 6:24-35
Let me introduce you to Louise and Phil Decker. Louise and Phil are the caretakers of the Gros Morne National Park campgrounds in Newfoundland. Every morning, Louise is up at 6, and goes to every campground and rest area to clean the washrooms. Phil goes around and empties all the garbage cans. Then they both sit down and sort the garbage, taking out things people toss like batteries, and separating out the recycling. Phil is a retired fisherman, who still goes back to sea on a seasonal basis, and brings in enough for them to eat over the winter. Louise, of her own volition, has begun teaching a course to children in the campgrounds, about the native plants and animals of Newfoundland, the lives of those who fish for a living, and teaches the kids how to make certain kinds of local food. In the early spring, Louise cleans every camp site, making sure the fire pits are cleared, cutting the weeds down, sanding and painting the picnic tables. The day we sat with them, Louise had just finished a class with 39 kids. They own a tiny house, really a hut, on the property at Broom Point. Parks Canada wants to make the whole point a historical site, so they offered to buy Louise and Phil’s property, for $3000 - and told them they could move the house off if they wished.
Let me tell you a little about the house. Like many people, this house has been in the family for several generations. It was not originally a year-round living accommodation, but was there for families to live in during the fishing season. Fishing families would come to the point every year, when their fishing permits allowed, in order to work. They processed, dried, and canned the fish right on the premises. The salt fish, and the canned salmon, was picked up by larger boats which took it to market. This year, Phil and Louise made 50c a pound on their lobster catch. Next time you buy lobster in the supermarket, look at the price.
Norio and I sat with them in our campsite this July, over a glass of wine, and talked about life in Newfoundland. Needless to say we were impressed with the passion and the optimism of these two people.
Louise is a tiny woman, but don’t be fooled. She is a formidable presence, and passionate about her life. Get her talking about how the Canadian government is killing off the fisheries - and the lives of many people - by selling out to large corporations. Louise is smart, savvy, and hard-working. So is Phil. They love life, and despite their criticisms of the way things are done, and what is done to them, they have a solid faith that what they DO have is given to them, by God, to use well. They don’t have much, but if you asked them I am guessing they would say they have enough.
I am telling this story because Louise and Phil epitomise for me what it means to be on a life journey. There have been times when these two were in a wilderness. Yet they survived, and grew, even if all they had was bread and water.
In todays first reading, we meet the Israelites, newly freed, and looking forward to going to the land they have been promised. In the first throes of real freedom, they were happy to be anywhere but Egypt, and they sang and danced their joy! Then, of course, as the days went on reality set in. The small stocks of food they had brought along were gone, and there was little if anything to eat in the wilderness. There was no wildlife, no large body of water, no edible plant life. The people became hungry and thirsty; the manna they were receiving didn’t last long, and water from a rock was hardly sufficient. Bread, and water: that was their diet in the wilderness. It began to feel like they were in prison again.
Eventually, of course, they complained about what God had provided, and complained against
Moses. They wanted to go back to Egypt, where they were slaves but had good food. God set them free from one kind of oppression just to kill them off in the desert? If they were going to die anyway, better to do it back in Egypt where at least they could do it in relative comfort. They wanted more: more food, more water, more variety in their diet. More.
They sound like us, don’t they? Like those ancient Israelites, we want /more. /We want more variety, more choices. So we can now order our fish deep-fried, broiled, baked, grilled, or blackened. We want to be able to eat all kinds of foods whenever we want it.
Norio and I have an ongoing discussion - I won’t call it argument - about food when he is in Cuba. After five weeks, he doesn’t want to eat rice and peas any more. He can’t find Japanese noodles. There is some variety in the food but not what he gets here in Toronto, where we can eat anything we want any time. My comment is that the Cubans have to eat that every day.
And that is where Louise and Phil come in. They don’t have the luxury of Japanese or Chinese or Korean or Thai or Greek or Italian, or whatever. Their diet is mainly fish; given all the wild berries we picked around the island, and the people we met picking them, that probably they get a lot of their fruit that way. And yet they are satisfied, and they are happy people.
John’s Gospel this week begins with the story of the feeding of a large crowd of people with five loaves of barley bread and two fish. The crowd is dazzled! They want him Jesus to feed them anytime, anywhere, as much as they want. But Jesus eludes them, refusing to be known simply as the one who gives them all they want on demand.
Yes, I can offer you bread, he says, but what you are looking for is bread and water to satisfy your soul as well as your body. God gives true bread, the bread of life. In me you see God, and you see the bread and water which will satisfy.
It’s no accident that bread and grains are at the top of the food pyramid; they provide
great nourishment. Bread of the right kind can be packed and carried on long treks. We need bread, and we need water, to be well and healthy.
We are invited in these stories to trust in the God who feeds us what we need to live, and calls us to gratitude for life. When we eat the bread of life, when we drink the living water God offers, we can thrive, and be satisfied. That’s why Louise and Phil impressed me so much. From our point of view, they probably have nothing. Life is a struggle, every single day, to make enough to live on. And yet, they are satisfied, and they have enough. Bread, water, and fish - the three things Jesus used to demonstrate what really matters in life. May it be so.
Acknowledgements:
1. Louise and Phil Decker, Gros Morne National Park
2. Material from the sermon “Thriving on Bread and Water” by Randy Thompson.
Let me tell you a little about the house. Like many people, this house has been in the family for several generations. It was not originally a year-round living accommodation, but was there for families to live in during the fishing season. Fishing families would come to the point every year, when their fishing permits allowed, in order to work. They processed, dried, and canned the fish right on the premises. The salt fish, and the canned salmon, was picked up by larger boats which took it to market. This year, Phil and Louise made 50c a pound on their lobster catch. Next time you buy lobster in the supermarket, look at the price.
Norio and I sat with them in our campsite this July, over a glass of wine, and talked about life in Newfoundland. Needless to say we were impressed with the passion and the optimism of these two people.
Louise is a tiny woman, but don’t be fooled. She is a formidable presence, and passionate about her life. Get her talking about how the Canadian government is killing off the fisheries - and the lives of many people - by selling out to large corporations. Louise is smart, savvy, and hard-working. So is Phil. They love life, and despite their criticisms of the way things are done, and what is done to them, they have a solid faith that what they DO have is given to them, by God, to use well. They don’t have much, but if you asked them I am guessing they would say they have enough.
I am telling this story because Louise and Phil epitomise for me what it means to be on a life journey. There have been times when these two were in a wilderness. Yet they survived, and grew, even if all they had was bread and water.
In todays first reading, we meet the Israelites, newly freed, and looking forward to going to the land they have been promised. In the first throes of real freedom, they were happy to be anywhere but Egypt, and they sang and danced their joy! Then, of course, as the days went on reality set in. The small stocks of food they had brought along were gone, and there was little if anything to eat in the wilderness. There was no wildlife, no large body of water, no edible plant life. The people became hungry and thirsty; the manna they were receiving didn’t last long, and water from a rock was hardly sufficient. Bread, and water: that was their diet in the wilderness. It began to feel like they were in prison again.
Eventually, of course, they complained about what God had provided, and complained against
Moses. They wanted to go back to Egypt, where they were slaves but had good food. God set them free from one kind of oppression just to kill them off in the desert? If they were going to die anyway, better to do it back in Egypt where at least they could do it in relative comfort. They wanted more: more food, more water, more variety in their diet. More.
They sound like us, don’t they? Like those ancient Israelites, we want /more. /We want more variety, more choices. So we can now order our fish deep-fried, broiled, baked, grilled, or blackened. We want to be able to eat all kinds of foods whenever we want it.
Norio and I have an ongoing discussion - I won’t call it argument - about food when he is in Cuba. After five weeks, he doesn’t want to eat rice and peas any more. He can’t find Japanese noodles. There is some variety in the food but not what he gets here in Toronto, where we can eat anything we want any time. My comment is that the Cubans have to eat that every day.
And that is where Louise and Phil come in. They don’t have the luxury of Japanese or Chinese or Korean or Thai or Greek or Italian, or whatever. Their diet is mainly fish; given all the wild berries we picked around the island, and the people we met picking them, that probably they get a lot of their fruit that way. And yet they are satisfied, and they are happy people.
John’s Gospel this week begins with the story of the feeding of a large crowd of people with five loaves of barley bread and two fish. The crowd is dazzled! They want him Jesus to feed them anytime, anywhere, as much as they want. But Jesus eludes them, refusing to be known simply as the one who gives them all they want on demand.
Yes, I can offer you bread, he says, but what you are looking for is bread and water to satisfy your soul as well as your body. God gives true bread, the bread of life. In me you see God, and you see the bread and water which will satisfy.
It’s no accident that bread and grains are at the top of the food pyramid; they provide
great nourishment. Bread of the right kind can be packed and carried on long treks. We need bread, and we need water, to be well and healthy.
We are invited in these stories to trust in the God who feeds us what we need to live, and calls us to gratitude for life. When we eat the bread of life, when we drink the living water God offers, we can thrive, and be satisfied. That’s why Louise and Phil impressed me so much. From our point of view, they probably have nothing. Life is a struggle, every single day, to make enough to live on. And yet, they are satisfied, and they have enough. Bread, water, and fish - the three things Jesus used to demonstrate what really matters in life. May it be so.
Acknowledgements:
1. Louise and Phil Decker, Gros Morne National Park
2. Material from the sermon “Thriving on Bread and Water” by Randy Thompson.
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