PROPER 14 (19) – Year B
12th Sunday after Pentecost — August 11, 2024
Gospel Lectionary Text
John 6:35, 41-51
6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
6:41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
6:42 They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"
6:43 Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves.
6:44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day.
6:45 It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
6:46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.
6:47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.
6:48 I am the bread of life.
6:49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
6:50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Context
Welcome to the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost. We are in the middle of a five week stretch in which Jesus reflects on matters related to the feeding of the 5,000 and the essence of the meal on offer. This week’s passage doubles back on Jesus’ role as the “bread of life.”
Three key verbs surface in the text. The first is that the people began to “complain.” This evokes memories of how the people grumbled before God when being fed manna in the desert. The second verb is the word “drawn.” It is a gentle word referring to how God deals with those who grumble. God draws them. Finally, this drawing is contrasted with the word “drive,” found in verse 37. “Anyone who comes to me, I will never ‘drive’ away.”
Jesus wants his grumbling guests to celebrate the wide open table that God sets — a table that does not exclude anyone. Ironically, this table is hosted by the one who will soon be driven out. It is the driven-out-one who gently draws the complainers back to the table that excluded him, nourishing and sustaining them with his very life. This is the meal on offer.
Reflections
Praying Eucharistically - Weekly Homily by James Alison:
Understanding the Bible anew through the Mimetic Theory of René Girard.
Poetry
Perhaps the Word Ends Here
by Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation,
and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. They scrape their
knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what it means to be human. We make
men at it, we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms around our children. They laugh
with us at our poor falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back together once
again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place to hide in the shadow of terror.
A place to celebrate the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow. We pray of suffering and remorse. We give
thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table, while we are laughing and crying, eating
of the last sweet bite.
Prayer
Coming soon.