11th Sunday of Pentecost August 5th – Rev’d Bev Diet
May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight our Lord and Redeemer.
We begin as we have heard in this gospel with the crowd – a large crowd and seemingly hungry looking for Jesus and his disciples. He is not where they thought he would be. They question why Jesus and the disciples are no longer where and when they want to find them.
‘Rabbi’, when did you come here as if he was to be accountable to them. It was a lack of awareness on the crowd’s part of what has been happening.
Jesus responded with, what are they really seeking. Do they want to be filled with loaves rather than fulfilled. They keep asking about works to be performing and mistake the work God is performing and bringing them into a life of faith.
The crowd asks ‘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
What sign are you going to give us then so that we may see it and believe you.
At the beginning we were told that Jesus is the light of God shining upon us in such a way that we see his glory.
At this point in my reading for today we were in Nova Scotia. As most of you know there are many lighthouses in Nova Scotia.
I found this saying about them.
Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining – Anne Lamott
Does this mean us – is He saying our work is believing in him, standing like the lighthouse. No, it can’t be. When I first read this about the lighthouse I tried to make the connection with us. Somehow I just couldn’t picture your faces on top of lighthouses.
Yes our work must be to believe in God to believe in him whom he has sent. Our belief will lead us though to more. We can use Guy Jolin for an example.
We did do the work of believing in Him and then prayed for Guy. People went to the hospital to be with him, wrote letters, phone calls, etc. Guy is healing and we continue to pray.
Our prayer comes from our own gifts from God – our own spiritual life. We eat bread to satisfy our spiritual hunger and to sustain our physical life. We can only satisfy our life and hunger by a right relationship with Jesus.
You might want to read over again our second reading from Ephesians for help with our spiritual life.
‘Each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Ephesians 4:1-16
God has chosen us to be Christ’s representatives on earth.
Paul challenges us to live lives worthy of the calling. We have received the awesome privilege of being called Christ’s very own