Aug-1 Liturgical Study Eighteenth Sunday

 

Eighteenth Sunday


Exodus 16:2-15

Three times the Lord was tested:

  1. Parting of the Red Sea to save them from the army of Pharoah (Exodus 14:11)

  2. Sweeting of drinking water at Marah (Exodus 15:24)

  3. No food in the desert when their travel provisions ran out

In chapter 2 of Exodus, the stresses and chaos of the exodus out of bondage in Egypt through the wilderness is intense and debilitating, so much so that the people begin to long for their former lives as slaves in Egypt. However God’s grace pushes them forward by providing strength for the journey in the form of daily food (quail and manna) and a structure to their days (pick only what you need expect before the Sabbath) freeing them to follow the instructions regarding the keeping of the Sabbath.

In the chaos of the pandemic, we too should follow a pattern of prayer, worship and gratitude and trust that the Lord will lead us out of this darkness.


Psalm 78

Psalm 78, next to psalm 119, is the second longest psalm in the Psalter (next to Psalm 119) and along with psalms 105 and 106 rehearses Israel’s history. The larger point is that the present community of faith should remember God’s goodness to the Israelites of old, and the passage contrasts their lack of faith to God’s constant faith and continuous acts of salvation.


Ephesians 4:17-24

St Paul exhorts the newly converted to shed their past sinful ways and embrace the new path set out by Jesus. Sinful desires are deceitful; they promise men happiness, but render them more miserable; and bring them to destruction, if not subdued and mortified. These therefore must be put off, as an old garment, a filthy garment. But it is not enough to shake off corrupt principles; we must replace them with gracious ones. By becoming a new man, we take on a new nature, become a new creature, directed by a new principle regenerated by grace, enabling a man to lead a new life of righteousness and holiness. This is created, or brought forth by God's almighty power.


John 6:24-35

The central claim is this: Jesus himself is the gift from God that gives life.

In the discussion with Nicodemus (John 3), Jesus pointed to a birth beyond birth. In the conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus pointed to water beyond water. Now Jesus points to bread beyond bread, to that gift from God which not only comes to the world through Jesus, but is in fact Jesus himself

Seeing the miracle of fish and loaves, they remember the story of Moses and the manna, and seem to be requesting another sign like that. They are looking to the past, failing to see that God the Father is doing something astonishingly new right in front of them.

As so often happens in John, Jesus refuses to answer the question which they have asked, but instead redirects the conversation to more important issues. Because they have focused on the wrong “bread,” Jesus redirects them toward the bread which “endures.”


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