Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
August 2, 2009
The Gospel: John 6:24-35
Sermon: "Manna, especially in the wilderness"
The Rev. Dr. Vicki L. Smith, Rector
The Gospel: The next day, when the people who remained after the feeding of the five thousand saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal." Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." So they said to him, "What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, `He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Then Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."
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."
John 6:24-35
August 2, 2009 : Manna, especially in the wilderness
I have a gift here this morning. I wonder what it is. Maybe it’s a book. Might be clothes I suppose. I don’t think it’s jewelry. It’s broccoli—cool. What a great gift.Now I realize that some of you might not think that broccoli is such a great gift; you might not recognize it as a gift at all.
That was what happened with the people of Israel in our Old Testament lesson this morning. On the first day that the manna arrived, they all stood around wondering what it was. It was bread, bread from heaven. It would nourishment for them. It would give them sustenance and strength for the day—it was one of the greatest gifts that God has ever given his people, and they didn’t recognize it as a gift at all, let alone a gift from God.
Some of God’s gifts are easily recognized. We know the bread and the wine of communion are gifts of Christ’s presence. They are nourishment and sustenance for us just as the manna was for our ancestors in the desert. The bread and the wine are holy gifts from God, and we readily recognize that.
We also readily recognize God’s gifts of love from and for our families, our friends, and our church community. We can see God’s hand in the gifts of nature—in the beauty of mountains and oceans, in the serenity of the forest or the beach, in the wondrous variety of plants and animals and the joy it all brings to us—those are clearly gifts from God. Some of God’s gifts are easy to recognize—some things we just know are manna from above.
Others of God’s gifts though, are a little harder to recognize. Some are unexpected or unusual—broccoli for example. Some are subtle and easily missed. For example, God gives us gifts of opportunity all the time, though we are often hard-pressed to know them as gifts. A chance meeting in the grocery store that offer us the chance to reconnect with a friend or neighbor—God makes that a gift to us. The phone call that offers the opportunity to forgive—another gift; or even the need that presents itself right in our faces, asking us to help now — even that God can use and make it be a gift for us. Free time, planned or unexpected, can be a gift from God. God can make even failure to be a gift. In our prayerbook, our prayer for young people asks God to help them to take failure not as a measure of their worth but as the gift of a new beginning. Sometimes God’s gifts to us don’t come clearly labeled and easily identified, but if we open our eyes and pay attention, we can see that even these are gifts from God, manna of a different kind.
Perhaps the most difficult of gifts to recognize is the manna given to us in the wilderness, those gifts from God that we receive in the midst of struggle or loss. And yet it is when we are in the wilderness that God is most generous with his gifts. Some of God’s most powerful gifts come in the midst of struggle and sorrow. The gift of manna came to the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness, not in the Promised Land. As God did for his people then, so he does for his people now, giving us gifts of strength, compassion and insight, gifts of fortitude and perseverance, even gifts of appreciation, thanksgiving and humor. In the wilderness times of our lives God gives us many, many gifts—though in our pain we may not recognize them..
It is important to remember though, that while God gives us gifts in the wilderness, God did not put us there. God did not send hunger to the people of Israel, but he did use their hunger for his good purposes. Their hunger created an opportunity for God to give them the gift of manna, not only for their physical sustenance, but also as a sign of his abiding presence and care.
Just as God did not cause their hunger, God does not cause our illnesses, our pain, our sorrows or our deaths. God did not make them happen, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t opportunities for God’s grace to come into our lives. God does not need to cause them to use them.
The book The Shack, puts it well when God says, “just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn’t mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don’t ever assume that my using something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes. That will only lead you to false notions about me. Grace doesn’t depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.”
Grace in the midst of suffering and gifts given in the midst of struggles—they are probably the most difficult of all God’s gifts to recognize but they are also the most readily and generously given of all God’s gifts. Those gifts are manna, manna given especially in our wilderness.
Like the people of Israel, God gives us manna every day—gifts of his presence and his grace, readily and generously given. Like the people of Israel, we may sometimes wonder what they are but God’s gifts are always manna for us--- they are gifts of what we need when we need it. Our challenge is to recognize God’s gifts as they are given, in the wilderness or in regular old daily life, and to receive them with gratitude and grace.
In the name of the one who gives us manna in the wilderness,
Amen