The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
“This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.”
Summary
In last week’s reading the Israelites were “complaining among themselves” in the wilderness, this morning, Elijah, in 1 Kings 19:4-8, is also complaining bitterly and, in John 6:35-51, the crowd following Jesus are doing the same. The Israelites wanted to return to Egypt, Elijah wanted to wage jihad, the crowd around Jesus wanted miracles. In each case they are disappointed. God knows what they need. But before they can accept this they have to come to the end of their tether. It is only when they can no longer rely on their own strength and skills, when their own resources have been exhausted, when they give up, that they allow God the opportunity to act. In the mountains of Horeb, in the wilderness and in our own lives God’s power is made known in our weakness. God meets us in our own wilderness when we have nothing left to give and gives us the rest and resources we need; re-viving and re-forming us to continue, not on our own path but on the journey that God has planned for us.
First Reading
1 Kings 19:4-8
Elijah went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came 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 and 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 for forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.
GOSPEL
John 6.35-51
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. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this 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 came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’
