WRideout
09-07-2018, 07:34 PM
It is a very American idea that we have a role in our own sanctification. It is a kind of bootstrap theology that if we work at it really hard, we can become acceptable to God. I suppose that the corollary might be that we would then be better than others, who had not worked as hard at sanctifying themselves. This is all hogwash. We can’t work hard enough to achieve righteousness in God’s eyes. The sacrificial death of Christ alone is what sanctifies us. Our job is to accept God’s gracious gifts, and to live righteous lives in response.
The crowd that Jesus fed by the lake intuitively knew this. They had their fill of food, but had also listened to the son of man preach. They had a hunger that food alone would not fill. When Jesus left, they followed him, eager to know what they had to do to earn God’s approval. It must have been confounding to hear that their own actions were futile, and that all they really needed was to believe the one speaking to them.
I once heard a radio program in which a lay Jewish woman with some theological training explained the meaning of the Sabbath. She said that the real principle of Sabbath keeping is not rest, although that is important. Rather, it relates to the idea that people have to work to eat. They have to tend crops, feed animals, cook, do all manner of things just to keep themselves fed, and where there is excess to be sold, they can become wealthy. When keeping the Sabbath, we abandon the idea that we are wholly responsible for ourselves, and turn over our very existence to God, who provides for us, that day and every day. Sabbath keeping is an act of faith in the belief that God will sustain us.
That was the lesson that the Israelites, traveling in the wilderness, had forgotten. Their complaint to Moses was that they were going to starve to death. Never mind a series of miraculous escapes from the Egyptians who were trying to bring them back into slavery. They had forgotten that having a full belly while enslaved by the Pharaoh, who fancied himself a god, was no way to live.
They had cut themselves off from the physical and spiritual gifts that God provided, to the point that later, while Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, the people went off to fashion a golden calf, an idol that they preferred to worship; a calf because it represented something that they had power over. That they could raise to maturity, and slaughter for food. Something they could own.
So, here are the twelve baskets of bread, and the twelve disciples. They have just had a communion meal with the Lord, and are now infused with the ferment that is the righteous knowledge of the Kingdom. Jesus knew that shortly he would be departing from this earth to take his place alongside the Father, but he wanted his work and his spirit to carry on. In Luke 13 Jesus says, 20 Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” It was as if each of the apostles were a batch of dough. And after being infused with the yeast of the Kingdom of heaven, each grew and changed. And in that time when they were completely ready, they shared the yeast with others. And they again, with others.
Some Christian denominations believe in the idea of apostolic succession, that is that God’s authority is handed down in a line of succession through various apostles who carry His authority and speak for God. That may or may not be true, but I think there is actually a different kind of apostolic succession; one that is based not on authority, but on spirit. That is the spiritual food that was shared by Christ with the five thousand; shared with the disciples; which the disciples shared with us; and us with others. It is the spiritual food that Jesus refers to when he taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” In another time and place Jesus asked if any father, when his son asked for bread, would give him a stone. When we ask our heavenly father for spiritual food, he gives us the Bread of Life, his son, our Lord.
My microbiology professor in college once said in an offhand way, that yeast are technically immortal. They reproduce by budding, that is, they divide into replicas of themselves, and split apart. So in that case, there is no parent and child; they are both the same. And this process can go on forever.
When we take communion, we are sharing in the food that Jesus gave the crowd. We are infused with the yeast of the kingdom of heaven, the stuff that not only feeds us but also changes us and makes us grow. When we share of ourselves with others, we are imparting that same yeast, essence, energy that Jesus gives to us. As Christians we are charged with going out into the world, and sharing this abundant spiritual food with everyone we meet. When we do, we are truly the embodiment of what it means to be the church.
Wayne
The crowd that Jesus fed by the lake intuitively knew this. They had their fill of food, but had also listened to the son of man preach. They had a hunger that food alone would not fill. When Jesus left, they followed him, eager to know what they had to do to earn God’s approval. It must have been confounding to hear that their own actions were futile, and that all they really needed was to believe the one speaking to them.
I once heard a radio program in which a lay Jewish woman with some theological training explained the meaning of the Sabbath. She said that the real principle of Sabbath keeping is not rest, although that is important. Rather, it relates to the idea that people have to work to eat. They have to tend crops, feed animals, cook, do all manner of things just to keep themselves fed, and where there is excess to be sold, they can become wealthy. When keeping the Sabbath, we abandon the idea that we are wholly responsible for ourselves, and turn over our very existence to God, who provides for us, that day and every day. Sabbath keeping is an act of faith in the belief that God will sustain us.
That was the lesson that the Israelites, traveling in the wilderness, had forgotten. Their complaint to Moses was that they were going to starve to death. Never mind a series of miraculous escapes from the Egyptians who were trying to bring them back into slavery. They had forgotten that having a full belly while enslaved by the Pharaoh, who fancied himself a god, was no way to live.
They had cut themselves off from the physical and spiritual gifts that God provided, to the point that later, while Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, the people went off to fashion a golden calf, an idol that they preferred to worship; a calf because it represented something that they had power over. That they could raise to maturity, and slaughter for food. Something they could own.
So, here are the twelve baskets of bread, and the twelve disciples. They have just had a communion meal with the Lord, and are now infused with the ferment that is the righteous knowledge of the Kingdom. Jesus knew that shortly he would be departing from this earth to take his place alongside the Father, but he wanted his work and his spirit to carry on. In Luke 13 Jesus says, 20 Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” It was as if each of the apostles were a batch of dough. And after being infused with the yeast of the Kingdom of heaven, each grew and changed. And in that time when they were completely ready, they shared the yeast with others. And they again, with others.
Some Christian denominations believe in the idea of apostolic succession, that is that God’s authority is handed down in a line of succession through various apostles who carry His authority and speak for God. That may or may not be true, but I think there is actually a different kind of apostolic succession; one that is based not on authority, but on spirit. That is the spiritual food that was shared by Christ with the five thousand; shared with the disciples; which the disciples shared with us; and us with others. It is the spiritual food that Jesus refers to when he taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” In another time and place Jesus asked if any father, when his son asked for bread, would give him a stone. When we ask our heavenly father for spiritual food, he gives us the Bread of Life, his son, our Lord.
My microbiology professor in college once said in an offhand way, that yeast are technically immortal. They reproduce by budding, that is, they divide into replicas of themselves, and split apart. So in that case, there is no parent and child; they are both the same. And this process can go on forever.
When we take communion, we are sharing in the food that Jesus gave the crowd. We are infused with the yeast of the kingdom of heaven, the stuff that not only feeds us but also changes us and makes us grow. When we share of ourselves with others, we are imparting that same yeast, essence, energy that Jesus gives to us. As Christians we are charged with going out into the world, and sharing this abundant spiritual food with everyone we meet. When we do, we are truly the embodiment of what it means to be the church.
Wayne