2 August, 2009

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

Last Sunday, we left Jesus escaping, perhaps miraculously, from the clutches of the full-bellied crowd who were desirous of making Jesus into some sort of glorious king who would be forever at their beck and call to make them prosperous, to destroy their enemies, and to put all things under their feet. The disciples it seems also beat a hasty retreat to their boat and had started off across the Sea of Galilee toward Capernaum. On their way, however, they were met by a nasty headwind and couldn’t, by their own reason or strength make much of any progress – and then, suddenly, out of nowhere, comes Jesus – striding across the face of the deep. This of course scared the you-know-what out of the good old boyz, especially when Jesus said, “I AM,” (which is the Holy Name of God). “I AM. Forget your terror.” Easy for Jesus to say. Be that as it may, the disciples thought it just might be a good thing to drag Jesus into the boat, by hook or by crook, so they could hang onto him like some cosmic rabbit’s foot – but then – before they could do anything, decide anything, get their ecclesial act together, they were on the farther shore. (And they and everyone else who’s ever gotten wet in the presence of the Word, Jesus Christ, would be scratching their heads over similar events for at least a score of centuries to come.)

Which brings us to today’s story. While all this stuff with water and a promise was going on, back on the other side of the sea where all this started, and noting that the boat that the disciples rode in on was now gone, and unable to add one and one and one together and still get One – a sizeable number of the crowd voted by a sacred two-thirds majority to commandeer whatever boats they could find on the shore and go after Jesus before he could get too far out of their control. Shoving off, they looked out over the water, but in spite of all their labored discerning – they saw nothing ahead of them whatsoever! Nothing! But Jesus and his posse couldn’t have gotten that much of a headstart – still, their boat was nowhere to be seen, and so by a show of red and green cards the crowd voted to keep on going anyway until they themselves got to Capernaum – where, lo and behold, up on landing, they do, after all, find Jesus and his rag-tag bunch of freaks. “Rabbi!” they marveled, “Wow!! How did you all get here so far ahead of us? You really are the wonder-worker, the miracle man, king of kings, grand poobah of grand poobahs. Just think of the new worlds filled with fruited plains we as co-creators with you could conquer. Of course Soli Deo Gloria and all of that sort of stuff, but, oh, can’t you just hear it now: ‘Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war.’