If you have been around for the last few Sundays in church,
you know that we have been working through a series of stories
about David.
- from his being anointed to become king,
David the youngest of eight brothers.
- to taking up the challenge from the giant Goliath
with his armor of metal alloys,
David facing him with his primitive weapon of a sling shot.
- David’s military victories and having establishied his capitol in Jerusalem, his desire to build God a house, a temple,
- and then when everything seemed to be going so well,
David exploits his power
in the same way we have seen other powerful people behave.
Today’s story holds well on its own
and does not require much explanation.
David, as king, the one in power, popular with his people,
victorious in war,
assumes he can get away with anything
including adultery and murder.
The Prophet Nathan wasn’t the only one who knew
what was going on at the palace.
Others may have been politically astute enough
to know when to keep your mouth shut and look the other way.
But God sees, and Nathan is a reliable prophet
not afraid to speak truth to power.
Nathan tells a story aimed to hook David
calling up his shepherding days,
and poking his inner core values of compassion and justice
that had been glossed over in this abuse of power.
You can see that in David’s response to Nathan’s story about the lamb.
Nathan delivers the words of rebuke
that contain a nasty description of the outcome of David’s actions,
how devastating it will be for all the accomplishments
David had achieved.
And that innocent child that was born from David’s lust will die.
And next Sunday’s reading will reveal later troubles
within David’s household
that would end only with death of another of his sons.
Yet David kept his kingdom and his power through all this. Why?
The answer is in the last sentence of today’s reading:
David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Not just, “I have sinned,” which in itself is very important –
an acknowledgement of agency in sin,
an awareness and a confession of sin.
Not just that – which in itself coming from the king
is a significant act of humility,
but “I have sinned against the Lord.”
The sin was surely against Uriah, his faithful and dedicated military leader.
The sin was also against Bathsheba,
making her an adulteress and liable for the death penalty.
But David says, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Any sin – Every sin – strikes at God’s heart,
the One who created Uriah and Bathsheba AND David
and the doomed infant.
God weeps, and David realizes the depth of his sin,
David who had composed songs of praise to God.
Every sin is a sin against God. For sin, as we often define it,
is separation from God,
turning away from God,
being so taken with one’s self that we forget to give credit
to the One who made each one of us.
We often walk, maybe most of the time, in ignorance
ignorance of our organic connection to God
and all the other creatures, human or other.
Heaven help us!
And that leads me to the Gospel reading for today,
from John, chapter 6, the Bread of Life chapter.
Jesus fed the 5,000 because he loved them. He saw their need,
and his compassion and love were put into practical action.
So he touched the food and enlivened it,
causing an expansion that resulted in an abundance,
more than what was needed!
And his touch began to enliven the people
as they sought him the next day,
and as he engaged with them in life giving dialog.
“You were looking for me,” Jesus said to them,
“because you ate your fill of the bread
that you didn’t have to work for yourselves, free bread.”
You know what it is like to work hard day after day
to put groceries on the table at home.
But I’m going to say something different to you, Jesus said,
Do not work for the food that perishes,
food that gets eaten up and then it’s back to work again.
Work for the food that endures for eternal life
- well, obviously, a different kind of sustenance.
So they ask how they are to work for this kind of food,
what works are they to work to be doing the works of God.
And here is the crux of all that is too follow in this chapter,
indeed, the central point of this whole Gospel.
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God,
that you believe in him whom God has sent.”
Does this strike you as odd?
that the work of God that we are to do is to believe?
not work to keep all the Commandments
nothing that requires muscles and sweat
or that make a product, accomplishes a task
but to believe the One God sent.
Let’s look at this word believe.
You may have heard me say before concerning the challenge of translation,
how a word in one language usually has a constellation of meanings about it
and when we translate it to another language,
we have to pick a word that inevitably cannot include
the whole scope of meaning of the original word.
That’s how it is with the verb that is translated here as believe.
In English to believe has the connotation of giving mental assent,
to accept as a doctrine, like when we recite, say, the Nicene Creed,
“We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty…”
But the Greek word is much richer.
We could begin the creed just as well with
“We have faith in one God… We have faith in one Lord, Jesus Christ…”
To have faith in someone means that we have a history with that person.
We have experienced that person as trustworthy in particular ways,
such as keeping their word, or arriving on time,
or doing a good job at fixing your car, etc.
What we have faith in is the truth of that person as we have experienced it.
So this is the work we are invited to do:
to trust Jesus, to have faith in him,
to trust him, especially as we have experienced him in our lives,
how we have experienced him in our prayers and meditation,
how we have experienced his Resurrection Spirit guiding us,
how we have experienced his voice, his presence
through others who reflect his life in their own,
how we experience him in bread and wine week by week,
how all of creation points us to him,
and in all the hundreds of ways we can come to experience and know him.
And to trust that, to rely utterly on Jesus who would feed us with himself,
for when it comes right down to it,
it is Jesus who works, works in us.
All we have to do is trust that.
The work is what Jesus does in us.
Jesus gives himself fully, so that when you receive him,
you are nourished to fullness of Life.
He will feed us with what he is.
He will feed us with what he is.
And then we become him,
for, as they say, “You are what you eat.”
Jesus is the bread of God who comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.
We may want to make a link between this Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel
and the sacrament of the Eucharist
The essential Bread of Life is there for us
to sink our teeth into spiritually,
living bread that conveys life to the eater.
What are you hungry for? What does your soul crave?
Work for what will satisfy that hunger like nothing else can.
And that work is trusting that the Incarnate Word dwells within us
who is working out our nourishment and healing,
providing for us the center out of which
we can live our daily lives.
So come to the Table today with all your hunger,
and you may want to say a little prayer prior to eating,
such as the grace we might say at home before a meal,
something like this:
For what we are about to receive,
may the Lord make us truly grateful.
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