I. Theme – Living the Abundant life -Connecting to God as source of wisdom, energy, and adventure.
“The Wedding Feast” -Jan Breughel the Elder (undated, died in 1625)
The lectionary readings are here or individually:
Old Testament – Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm – Psalm 34:9-14
Epistle –Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel – John 6:51-58
Today’s readings continue the theme of God’s sustenance with the emphasis on the eternal consequences. In Proverbs Wisdom gives a feast to which all are invited. Paul encourages Christians to be filled with God’s Spirit. Jesus promises that all who eat his flesh will live forever.
Jesus’ words about eating his flesh and drinking his blood in the Gospel shocked even his disciples. Early in the Old Testament, blood was identified with life and deemed sacred because God is the source of life. The spilling of human blood was considered an outrage against God.
Eating flesh containing blood was prohibited in the Pentateuch. The penalty for doing so was expulsion from God’s people. Blood was removed from use as food and reserved for sacramental purposes. In the rites of atonement, blood symbolized the yielding up of the worshiper’s life to God and the atoning communion of worshipers with God.
But in John’s gospel, Jesus tells the people, enigmatically, that he is the fulfillment of this sacrificial atonement. In the light of the age-long prohibition against eating flesh containing blood, his words, heard in a literal sense, were quite offensive. But they brought a promise of eternal life.
Not only the atonement, finished on the cross, but also the living instrument of its communication—the eucharist—transcends our ability to understand. In some unseen, incomprehensible way, the energy of redeeming love is transmitted, and we receive food for eternal life. By faith, we allow Christ’s life to penetrate our being and nourish our life. God’s own life comes to us through the natural and temporal elements of bread and wine, so that we, natural and temporal creatures, may become vehicles of God’s supernatural grace. We participate in terms of a radical embrace of God’s vision so that it becomes the center of our self-understanding. God is in us, just as we are in God.
Eating and drinking are of symbolic significance in most religions, especially in Christianity. Natural life depends on our giving and taking these necessities. The eucharist reminds us of the self-offering of our lord and our dependence on him for our soul’s life. It provides us with a continuous supernatural apprehension of eternity. It suffuses our little lives with the creative spirit of Christ and fits us for our vocation to transform the world.
II. Summary
Old Testament – Proverbs 9:1-6
The book of Proverbs is an anthology of materials drawn from the wisdom tradition that traced its lineage back to the court of Solomon, who asked God for an understanding mind. . Wisdom literature is a cosmopolitan style of writing common to the nations of the Middle East. Proverbs has parallels in both Egyptian and Assyrian works. It is based primarily upon daily experience and observation, rather than upon Israel’s salvation history or worship. Happiness and prosperity are promised to those who follow the instruction of the wise.
From the statement in 3:19, the image of wisdom as a personified divine agent in the creation of the world was developed in 8:22-36. Wisdom is with God, “like a master worker” (8:30), assisting in the creation and ordering of the world.
Today’s reading is part of a poetic allegory contrasting the ways of wisdom and folly (9:1-6, 13-18)
Proverbs 9:1-6 is Wisdom personified as a woman, inviting us to the table of wisdom, a banquet, where we are served bread and wine. Though usually translated wisdom, other uses in the OT can suggest skill, prudence and shrewdness. Long before Jesus offered bread and wine as a meal of remembrance, Wisdom offers wine and bread as a meal of nourishment, a way of turning away from the foolishness of the world and walking in the ways of insight. Three imperatives end the passage: lay aside; live; walk in the way of insight.
Wisdom’s invitation is issued, not to the proud or the mighty, but to the simple and the righteous. Wisdom’s banquet is in contrast to that of folly (9:13-18) who lures the simple to destruction. The bread and wine of wisdom bring life and insight. This concept of sustenance parallels, in the eschatological tradition, the banquet to the final times (Isaiah 25:6, 55:1-5).
We do not read these passages often in our lectionary, but both chapters 8 and 9 of Proverbs speak of Wisdom, an aspect of God, as a woman, as a partner with God in creation of both the world and human beings. There is a genre of Scriptures called Wisdom Literature—Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, etc.—the books of poetry and prose that contain insight for how we live our daily lives, inspired by this personification of Woman Wisdom.
Psalm – Psalm 34:9-14
Psalm 34:9-14 continues from last week’s psalm reading. The psalmist first gives thanks for deliverance, then testifies to God’s goodness, calling upon the other worshipers to share the fruits of his experience.
This section of this song of praise reminds those that in seeking God, they will find their needs are met, and in seeking God they must live God’s ways. They must guard their mouths in what they say, and pursue the ways of peace. How we live with others is important to God, and models our closeness with God. When we live lives that respect and honor others and seek peace, we respect and honor God and trust in God’s ways
The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom – perhaps a better word is “awe” or “wonder.” When we appreciate the incredible beauty and immensity of this universe, we gain perspective. We see our place – small, barely noticed among the 125 billion galaxies that make up our universe, but we also discover God’s intimacy that makes each one – every cell and soul – the center of God’s universe. Wisdom is ours when we recognize that God is present in our lives, beckoning us to see the divine presence in all of life.
Epistle – Ephesians 5:15-20
Ephesians 5:15-20 continues lessons in how we ought to live as followers of Christ. Today’s reading concludes the author’s exhortations on Church life. Ephesians presents a pathway to wisdom through a spirit-centered lifestyle, joining individual and corporate, ethics and worship, prayer and action. Wise living involves a dedicating your time to thanksgiving, praising God, and behaving ethically, joining spiritual practices and lively worship.
In this passage we immediately are presented with the theme of wisdom. The first part contrasts the paths of wisdom and of folly, which theme, like the contrast between light and darkness (5:7-13), is taken from the Old Testament wisdom tradition. The wise are to make “the most of the time,” (literally, “redeem the present opportunity,” Colossians 4:5) offered by the contemporary world. Their response of obedience to God’s will is characterized by four aspects.
We live in this world, but we are not of this world. The first aspect is understanding God’s will, that is discerning it intellectually.We are called to stay away from things that impair us, that cause us to become addicted, that numb the sense of the world and of God’s presence; and instead stay awake, alert, ready to share the Good News, so that we are not slaves to addiction or the world, but instead servants of Christ and filled with the Spirit. Intoxication was a part of some pagan cults, and even occasionally of Christian gatherings (1 Corinthians 11:21).
Wise people make the most of the time of their lives. They don’t get distracted by ego needs, self-gratification, power plays, and consumerism. They have a big picture of life, not otherworldly, but cognizant of the countless opportunities to experience God in the shifting, dynamic, arising and perishing world. Life is short, live it to the fullest – be fully alive, glorifying God. Life is wonderful, despite its brokenness, because God is always with us as source of wisdom, energy, and adventure.
Beneath the challenges of life, there is an undercurrent of grace that enables us to experience God’s presence regardless of life’s circumstances. Unwise people live for the moment and in terms of self-interest. Their happiness depends on success and achieving their moment-by-moment heart’s desire. Wise people see their lives in perspective, seeing life from a God’s eye view, and recognizing that we can be joyful and spirit-filled in any setting.
Secondly, the lord’s will is not discerned individually but corporately in a context of worship and prayer. Just as today, vocal and possibly instrumental music appears to have been a usual part of early worship (Acts 16:25; 1 Corinthians 14:26; Colossians 3:16; James 5:13). Both psalms from the Old Testament and newly composed hymns (such as that quoted in 5:14) were sung. The appeal to sing “in your hearts” (v. 19) is not an appeal to the emotions, but is another way of saying the whole self.
So, thirdly, the response to God’s will is to be made joyfully, and with a total commitment of life “with the Spirit…to the lord” and in the lord’s name, “to God the Father” (vv. 18-20). God is always seeking to give us more than we can ask or imagine. (Ephesians 5:20)
Gospel – John 6:51-58
John 6:51-58 is a continuation of Jesus’ teachings on the Bread of Heaven, overlapping from the previous week. Once again, there is a literal interpretation by the hearers of Jesus’ words that cause misunderstandings.
Throughout John’s Gospel, beginning with Nicodemus in chapter 3 and the woman at the well in chapter 4, Jesus clearly uses metaphors to explain the reign of God and how we might participate in it as well as finding what we need in it, and time and again, the people take his words literally and misunderstand.
Here is wisdom not only offering a meal that gives eternal life, but this meal is wisdom itself. Today we interpret this passage as the bread and wine of Communion, the meal of remembrance; however, in John’s Gospel, “the word became flesh” introduces us to the idea that God’s law, the Word, is embodied in Jesus; therefore, we are to fully embrace, envelope and model the life of Christ in our own life.
We are to eat his flesh and drink his blood “Flesh and blood” is a Semitic idiom for “the whole human person” (Matthew 16:17), thus the phrase may be taken to refer to the reception of the whole living Christ. Taken separately, however, each term had a strongly negative impact in Jewish thought. In other words, take on the flesh and blood of Christ, to live the life of Christ to others in this world, laying down our lives for others and sharing God’s love with all who seek God. We must become the living Word, the Light of the World.
This passage is strongly eucharistic and is perhaps only comprehensible in that context. Indeed, some scholars suggest that verses 51-58 may have been originally set in the narrative of the last supper (chap. 13). John has no account of the institution of the eucharist. It is the flesh and blood of the “Son of man” who unites heaven and earth (1:51, 6:62) and who was glorified by his crucifixion (3:13-15, 8:23) that gives life now and at the last day.
The word for eat in verses 54-58 is a crude term (Matthew 24:38), usually used for animals. It is often translated ‘feed, munch, gnaw’. The only other use of this word in John is in the Last Supper account where it is put into an Old Testament quotation (13:18), again probably with eucharistic significance. Here in chapter 6 it probably stresses the reality of Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist and/or the reality of his humanity (against early heretics).
Structurally, verses 51-58 are a duplicate of verses 35-50, repeating in explicitly eucharistic terms what is, in the earlier section, primarily related to wisdom and only implicitly to eucharist. Whereas in verses 35-50, the emphasis was on believing in Jesus and thus receiving eternal life, now it is on eating and drinking Jesus to receive life. To eat and to drink is to incorporate and assimilate Jesus and thus to abide in him. As Jesus shares in the life of the Father, so he gives to humankind God’s own life.
Communion is connection; it is the presence of God in our flesh and bone activities of playing with children, driving to work, and eating supper. Wisdom emerges when we see all places as embodiments of the One who gives life to all creation.
III. Articles for this week in WorkingPreacher:
Old Testament – Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm – Psalm 34:9-14
Epistle – Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel – John 6:51-58