Bible Tuesday for Sunday, August 9th, 2015

1 Kings 19:4-8

But Elijah himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and come and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord. Take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly, an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up, eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Elijah has a big trip to take. The poor man has been hammering at the obstinate stupidity and idolatry of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel for his entire prophetic career and what has he earned? His face on a wanted poster with a HUGE ransom offered to be paid by Ahab’s treasury. Elijah is exhausted, discouraged to the bone, craving either retirement or death, whichever God will allow.

The above text picks up this story at the point where Elijah has fled into the wilderness to hide from Ahab and Jezebel. Elijah cries out bitterly to God that if this is what life is going to be like, then “I am sick enough of this to die!” Then Elijah seeks a little shade under the broom tree and finds himself being fed by a messenger of God. The messenger feeds Elijah three time; three signifying that these meals are from God’s hand. Why must Elijah strengthen himself with food? For his invitation only trek to Horeb, the mountain of God. It is on this mountain that God met with Moses to give the Law, summarized in the 10 Commandments. Horeb means “chaos”; out of the chaos of life as slaves, of life as desert wanderers, God gives life and order. Mt. Horeb is also known as Mt. Sinai. It is on this mountain, in this place of historical significance, this place of clarity in the midst of chaos, that Elijah will have an audience with God.

Psalm 34:1-8

Of David, when he feigned madness before Achish, so that he drove him out, and he went away.
1 I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
3 O magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together.

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
5 Look to him, and be radiant;
so your* faces shall never be ashamed.
6 This poor soul cried, and was heard by the Lord,
and was saved from every trouble.
7 The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
8 O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.

During this “month of bread” when we spend five weeks reading the gospel of John’s discourse on the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus declaration that he is “the bread of life”, the accompanying Old Testament and Psalm are chosen for their dealings with bread. The Epistle is a continuous reading of the book of Ephesians.

David has been anointed the second king of Israel but has not taken the throne yet, as it is still occupied by King Saul. David has proven himself a capable and loyal young man by killing Goliath, and from that time until this, served King Saul as his armor bearer. However, David’s military prowess have earned him accolades from Israel but jealousy from King Saul. When the Israelite army marched through towns, the cheer rang out, “Saul has killed his thousands but David has killed his tens of thousands!” One night King Saul’s mental instability and growing mistrust of David exploded in a fit of rage, causing David to flee for his life.

David ran to the Tent of Meeting, which served as Israel’s Temple from the time of Moses until the time of King David’s son, Solomon. David implored the priest to give him food and weaponry. The only food in the Tent was the show bread, that is, the twelve loaves of bread set fresh on the altar every week to signify the bounty God provides to all Israel. David took the show bread to feed himself. The only weaponry was the sword of Goliath. Why that was kept in the Tent of Meeting is not explained but it sure came in handy for David now. With food and a weapon, David ran from Israel to seek refuge among the surrounding peoples.

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not make room for the devil. 28Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up,* as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.* 51Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 2and live in love, as Christ loved us* and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Paul admonishes the congregation in Ephesus not lie to one another but always speak the truth because “we are members of one another.” Paul goes on to describe how members of a faith community to live and treat each other: not arguing, power brokering, gossiping, or clique forming. Instead, the baptized are to act as little children, imitating their father, save that we imitate God, the perfect parent.

John 6:35, 41-51

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’” Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that comes down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The ancient Israelites as portrayed in the Hebrew Scriptures tend to be a very literal people. If God says he will give bread, then the Israelites expect loaves of bread in the size and shape that Momma made them back home. This manna and quail stuff doesn’t cut it, not because it isn’t filling or because it requires dressing and gathering, but because it is not literally what they understood God to promise. However, in Deuteronomy, Moses himself says, “Humans do not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” So the ancient Israelites are not always literal minded, just most of the time.

Like Moses, Jesus bumps up hard against that literalness. Jesus also struggles with over familiarity. There are those in the crowd who know Mary and Joseph and reject that Yahweh would act like a Roman or Greek god and be half human/half divine. Either Jesus must be a Messiah, a king like David who would overthrow the Romans and inaugurate the new golden age of Israel, or Jesus is God come down to earth. And no matter what Jesus claims to be, these Israelites want literal proof…in addition to that amazing meal that fed this crowd of 5,000 just the day before the above pericope.

The problem with literalism is that it confines thought to the right here and right now, to exclusively what the senses detect. God’s world is oh so much bigger than that. In the gospel of John, Jesus is out to give eternal life an any and all comers, Jews, Greeks, Samaritans, anybody. Eternal life starts the moment faith in Jesus whispers its first inkling of hope in faith in Jesus.

“And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” In the gospel of John, Jesus knows that he will be publicly executed by the Romans at the hands of “the Jews”, which, in John, refers to the Jewish Temple authorities in Jerusalem. This gospel has Jesus fully in control of the whole betrayal and execution process. “I lay down my life willingly,” Jesus says later in this gospel. Belief into Jesus’ teaching, the signs that Jesus performs, and his sacrificial death and resurrection constitute eternal life: freedom from sin, guilt, and the Law now, and freedom from death when th