Feasting on Wisdom

I never sit down to watch sports on TV- that is, until it’s THE OLYMPICS! How about…

Stephen Nedoroscik’s heroic performance on the pommel horse!

Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh’s first gold medal in the women’s 400-meter individual medley?

France’s Leon Marchand setting a new record in the 400-meter individual medley!

Team USA winning gold in the women’s gymnastics team final, led by the amazing Simone Biles! Love her!

What sustains Olympians?

Family & Fans & other teammates

Training, experience, practice

Mental strength- Centered, calm, mentally strong, steady nerves

Good coaching

Food, water: eating and drinking the right things in the right combination to fuel their athletic performances

It’s hard to imagine Simone Biles as anything but a world-class gymnast,

She is a clear example of finding one’s vocation, one’s deep gift and passion. These athletes become the sport, and the sport becomes them.

Christians know something about this- living into our call or vocation, our area of gift and passion. Theologian Frederick Buechner defines vocation as the place where “your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.” Your deep gladness is the call of one's true, enduring and authentic self, the pursuits that engender profound joy.

For Christians, gathering to break bread at the altar celebrates our vocation as followers of Christ, the bread is not only representing Christ, it is representing us.

Christ is the bread of life, and as we participate in sharing the bread, we are becoming the bread to feed a hungry world, and the bread is becoming Christ in us. We become inseparable, indistinguishable from the bread of life we gather to break and share. The bread becomes humanity, as we seek to grow into pure hearts and perfect love for one another- which are the great remedies for the resentment and disunity that are spread by forces of greed, ego, and a desperate battle for status. Our vocation is to become bread of life, the remedy for all that harms or violates in creation.

We all live into our vocation as bread of life in distinctive, unique ways. In his letter to the new Christian community gathered in Ephesus, the apostle Paul teaches that we are one, yet we are given different gifts. Paul writes that:

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. The gifts that God gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…

Just as Simone Biles focuses on gymnastics and Summer McIntosh on swimming and Stephen Nedrodscik on that amazing pommel horse routine, so we each have an area of focus for our life. For some it is very clear what the area of focus is that contributes to building up a more loving and just society, for others of us it is a bit more hazy and we wonder if we will ever know what gift God gave us because it is taking such a long time to figure it out.

When Jesus talks about bread in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus is possibly evoking wisdom in the minds of his fellow scholars of the Jewish scriptures and teaching. Bread is associated with wisdom throughout the Hebrew texts we find in the Bible.

In the ancient world, there were two pathways to wisdom. One would be through philosophy, or finding a pattern that is practical and meaningful to live one’s life. Another would be through the law, a set way of behavioral expectations developed and adapted over time by wise community leaders to create a peaceful and successful community. When Jesus says: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty,” Jesus is offering a new pathway for wisdom that complements a philosophy of life and following the law – it is a pathway of union with God and with one another that we study in the teachings and example of Jesus’s life.

It is a pathway that sustains our spirit, like bread sustains our bodies.

Regardless of our clarity of a specific vocation, the area into which every Christian is called to focus is wisdom. When we share in the sacrament of holy communion today, the bread you receive offers a pattern of life that builds up the wisdom we require to be faithful, to live well in community with one another, to discern between what is good and what is harmful, to grow in the knowledge that we have more in common with one another than we have differences, to experience an open heart for the experiences and wisdom of others, to simply share food at the most basic level and yet be united mystically with a creative energy that brings us peace and comfort and joy.

Just as bread and wine are the food and drink of those experiencing the fullness of life’s material bounty, so wisdom and understanding are the food and drink of God’s people experiencing the fullness of life’s spiritual bounty. As we hunger and thirst for food and drink in our bodies, so we hunger and thirst for wisdom and understanding in our spirits.

Olympians take seriously those factors that sustain them.

As Christians called to a vocation of peace making, love of neighbor, creating a more just society, healing, encouraging one another in this life, we seek the sustenance we need to perform feats with grace and skill for the long haul.

We surround ourselves with family & fans & other followers of Jesus who will encourage and remind us of our gifts.

We pursue the learning and training for a faithful life, incorporating each new experience, practicing over and over again those skills we long to master.

We receive feedback and guidance from coaches who have studied the spiritual life, who have studied us.

We work to develop our mental strength- so that we may remain centered, calm, mentally strong, with steady nerves for the challenges ahead.

And we eat and drink the bread and wine of wisdom and understanding, allowing the bread and the wine to re-invigorate us with power and resplendent wisdom to be a part of the fullness of god’s loving vision for humanity, for all of creation.

READINGS-

Proper 13, Year B, RCL

Exodus 16:2-4,9-15
Psalm 78:23-29
Ephesians 4:1-16
John 6:24-35