July 26-John 6:1-21, 2 Sam. 11, Eph. 3:14-21
The David reading is a demonstration that the one after God’s own heart, the anointed of Israel, God’s favorite would be capable of such sin.This is what happens when success and power allow one to drift away from god. Religion seems to fare better in the rigors of Sparta than the comforts of the palace. Notice The interconnected flow of one wrong after another. We get a banquet of sin in the David passage. One course of sin leads directly to another until he has pretty much gone through the second tablet of the commandments. He already has six wives, but his roving eye catches Bathsheba and he sends for her and takes her, just as Samuel had predicted kings would do. At best, he is captivated by her beauty, and desire and lust take over, or he sees something he likes and sees it as his to grasp. I detect no romance here; she is treated as another object, another thing.All the sins are connected with an abuse of power.If sin is acting in the absence of god, we get to witness its full extent.
Spiritual lessons to be gained-sometimes a little is plenty- access to abundance It is I do not be afraid-I forgot that the manna in the wilderness was enough for the day, except before Sabbath. if you tried to preserve it , it rotted. here the abundance of Jesus has plenty of leftovers. Unlike David. Jesus has no signs or designs of enjoying a kingship. He hides away, only to appear before his small band in a most unlikely place
I do not get the testing of Philip.Is it possible that he was expected to know that the feeding would occur?Signs are special demonstrations of the reality, the identity of Jesus. Fear distorts our vision.Philip is asking a fundamental question about lack of resources-why we can't do something. It is a question all of us bring to the table frequently. It inhibits a broader imagination and hope for a new and different future. I also bet that some of the people complained almost immediately-is this bread gluten free? I don;t like this kind of fish-where’s the beef?are your hands clean? Andrew catches a glimpse of a little when he noticed the boy with the bread. Immediately, he loses a view of the assets, the resources and succumbs to a negative reality, but what is that among so many. Apparently all that Jesus needed for the feeding and baskets of leftovers.
Perhaps we are correct in reading these two disparate stories together.Then we have an abundance of fear on the sea at night. Fear is of Jesus as an apparition, or really as Jesus.They make it to shore immediately. (plane landing after a rough descent)This is the god of nature. this is the god of stillness in the midst of the storm. This is a god who quells the storms inside us, between us, and among us.Jesus trikes over the waves in the midst of the storm.This Is the god of the abundance of nature and who faces down its dangers as shown in sea and storm of day and night, of rest and work.the god who calms the storm that rage is the god of abundance, of a god breathed imagination.
Eph 3 -We use the lectionary here to get at ephesians hope for the length of god’s dealing with us in a large amount of Scripture-its glory in in the church=worship should try to touch just a bit of the height and depth-God’s fullness fills up the empty places of life-love greater than knowledge
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