Proper 14 Year B (RCL lectionary) notes

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1 Kings 19:4-8
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- Elijah in despair, sick of his efforts with Israel going unheeded, sick of Queen Jezebel’s harassment and persecution, sick of the weight of being a prophet to Israel.

- not being “up to task”
- not being “good enough”

- not being any better than, or even as good as, one’s predeccessors
- like Moses didn’t feel qualified (see Num.11)

- lies down in despair, ready to give up, ready to just throw in the towel and die
- sort of a spiritual paralysis

- Elijah’s complaint is not so much physical as emotional/spiritual. He is not only physically worn out from his efforts; he is spiritually drained. He needs sustenance which will feed his spirit with hope and vigor, not just his body

- God answers this sort of deep depression and spiritual paralysis with life
- a vision in a dream: spiritual response
- a word of encouragement and life: Get up and eat
- life-affirming
- outward signs of life and sustenance
- bread and life
- the basic support the body needs

The sustenance God gives to Elijah, both for his body and for his soul, not only satisfies him, but invigorates him.
- God does not just comfort Elijah in his depression, but strengthens him.
- the hot cakes and jars of water strengthen Elijah to get up and move on
- the life that God gives is for living
- Elijah continues on to Mount Horeb

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Ephesians 4:25-5:2 notes
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We are to speak truthfully and reign in our anger because “we are all members of one body.” Our corporate life means that we are to be genuine with each other, not hiding ourselves or the truth. It also means that we are not to let our own passing feelings of anger or frustration tear us apart from each other.

We are “members” of one body-- the Church—the Body of Christ.
- knit into Christ’s body, we are to be like Christ
- we are to imitate God, and imitate Christ
- Since Christ was loving and self-giving, we are to be also

We are “God’s beloved children.” Now, children imitate their parents and grow into their image. This mimicking is part of how children learn how to speak, how to behave, how to interact with others. Imitation is formation. And the parent not only models patterns of behavior for the child to imitate: they patiently teach and instruct as the child grows into these patterns.

But there is something more basic going on than that. Children are *like* their parents. There is something fundamentally “related” or “same” about the children and parents of a particular species. Baby elephants grow up into elephants. Kittens grow up into cats. Babies grow up into adults. So, as children of God, there is something fundamentally “godly” about us that we have to “grow into.” As God’s children, and as members of Christ, this “godliness” is already a part of who we are. But we, like any children, must mature into it, imitating the ways of our Parent—God—until we are grown.

As adopted children, the exhortation “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed” reminds us that we were sealed as God’s own in our baptism. As such, the phrase should sound in our ears something along the lines of “Do not grieve your father or your mother.” If we are to honor our earthly father and mother, how much more our heavenly Father, God!

Imitation themes in vv. 4:32-5:1
1 - God in Christ has forgiven us
- we are to forgive one another
2 - Christ loved us and gave himself for us
- we are to live in love

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John 6:35, 41-51 notes
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Immediately before our passage, Jesus has just told the crowds who followed him after the feeding of the five thousand:
“For the bread of God is that-which/he-who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” (6:33-34)

This sets up Jesus’ startling self-revelation: “I am the bread of life.” Jesus is the very bread that the crowds have requested. They already have what they has asked for, right before them!

Jesus’ (earthly) parentage is a stumbling block for “the Jews.” When he claims to have descended from heaven, their rebuttal is that they know his father and mother— so he cannot possibly have come down from heaven! However, Jesus’ earthly origins are not the totality of his origins, and his human descent is not the totality of his descent. There is more to his identity than what they know.

The manna met the Israelite’s immediate physical hunger, but those who ate it ultimately died. The bread from heaven, Jesus Christ, satisfies our ultimate human needs and satisfies us on another level. Jesus answers our human need at the most basic, most fundamental level, even more central to the core of who we are than (physical) hunger.

On some level, bread alone—even manna—leaves us un-nourished
- Christ nourishes us at that level—at the very core of our being

vv. 45-46: learning, imitation, drawing near to Christ…

“It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me,”
- touches themes of learning/imitating also found in the Ephesians reading
- Jesus is the “content” of the lesson;
- they will be taught by God,
 they listen to the father & learn from him
 they come to me
If we are learning what God is teaching us, we are drawing near to Jesus; Christ, or Christlikeness, is what God is teaching us.

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Eucharist notes
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Orthodox Eucharistic Invitation: Holy things for holy people.

- Receive What you Are, Become what you receive.

In Orthodox Eucharistic theology, God does not so much "come down" to our level as we, the people of God, are "lifted up" to God's level.

Eucharistic overtones: how Eucharistic theology permeates all of John’s Gospel throughout, rather than in discrete events as in the synoptics…

Bread is the “staff of life.”

Water is the “element of life.”

Together, water and bread represent the sustenance we require, our most basic needs.

Eucharistic Prayer C:
“Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal.”

As Laurence Hill Stookey notes in Eucharist: Christ’s Feast with the World, “The English words companion and company both are formed from two Latin roots meaning ‘those who share bread’ with each other. The desire to be together when eating and drinking appears to be a universal human characteristic.”

In the Eucharist, we receive what we are: the Body of Christ. We come together with who we are: the Body of Christ. We are fed by Christ, in whom we are already children of God, and we are sustained at our most fundamental level, becoming more fully who and what we truly are.

This enables us to be Christ's hands and feed in the world.

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Food reflections
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Isaiah 55:1-2a

Ho, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?



dreaming of food, only to wake up still hungry
- the opposite happens to Elijah!

seeing a mirage of food or water, only to have it evaporate when you approach

Dt. 8:3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

There is something we hunger for that isn’t food;
something we thirst for that isn’t drink.