Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Ephesians 5.15-20; John 6.51-58

For the last few weeks now we've been reading from two different sources in the Bible which in a very real sense complement one another but might not at first sight seem to have any connection. They both point us in the direction of the way in which we live our daily life, on what you might call a surface level and also on a very deep level. These are things which have a moment by moment relevance and also have an eternal significance.

We have been reading St. Paul who, in writing to the Ephesians is asking them to recall what great work Jesus Christ has done in bringing them back again into a relationship with God which is like that of a natural parent with his or her child. And he goes on to talk about the power of the Holy Spirit working in each one of them empowering them to live the life God calls them to and enabling them to be built up into the Body of Christ Himself. And that body is a very real manifestation of God's presence and power in the world then and now. St. Paul talks about what is the natural behaviour towards one another of those empowered by the Spirit of God, a behaviour that is characterised by thanksgiving and generosity of heart, mind and spirit towards one another. It's a way of life that has put aside everything that is negative, damning and destroying, in thought, speech and behaviour; and is a life that is taken up with blessing and building up one another. It's a way of life that doesn't deny and grieve the Spirit of God but one that welcomes the Spirit and is a fountain of the Spirit's grace, spilling over into the world.

There are things here that are very practical, that have a day to day, moment by moment significance. But they also go very deep indeed, deep into our human psyche. Always St. Paul recognises that this way of life isn't easy; that our inclination is always to draw away from God and for our body, mind and spirit to turn away from God and to grieve His Spirit. And these things go deep within us. St. Paul agonised about this in himself. But as we give ourself over to the Spirit's movement in us, so we gradually become what God intends both as individuals and together as the Body of Christ. St. Paul also knew this personally and the power of God at work in Him so that what he'd been and done in the past was forgiven and forgotten and far outweighed by what God had for him and what he was to accomplish in the future.

Those of us who are getting on in years might look around at the world and particularly our Western world and maybe sigh and maybe get angry because of the ways in which there seems to be nothing new under the sun. Yet again, despite the success and achievement orientated culture within which we live, despite all the wonders of science, medicine and technology so many people here and throughout the world are still scraping a living, going hungry, jobless and homeless. People are still at odds with one another and dying violent deaths. It's as if the lessons of the past are never learned. It's as if each generation makes the same mistakes as the previous one.

Well I think maybe it's because everyone has to learn how to live. We aren't born with all the accumulated knowledge of civilisation. And so there is a sense in which each of us has to make the mistakes of the past. And we do it as individuals and groups and societies. We all have to learn.

And learning is what Jesus's disciples are doing as we've encountered them in the readings from St. John's gospel over the last few weeks. They are learning both about the way of the world and the way of the Kingdom of God. The way of the world is that in which there is need to be satisfied in this very moment without reference to any context or culture or past or future. The 5,000 were hungry and needed feeding and fed they were. What the disciples hadn't grasped and had to have explained to them was that not only were they seeing hungry people fed but they were seeing the Kingdom of God being made very real and present. They were seeing the reality of the abundance of eternity, not the scarcity of a moment in time. What they were witnessing but not really seeing was that new life and new way of living and new dimension of reality that everybody wanted but nobody could see, let alone believe in. God is living bread that lasts for ever. He doesn't just meet the needs of the time but is the provider of all that is needed for eternity. And the real learning comes when we begin to see in our world, God and His Kingdom. God, not just meeting our immediate needs but being the creator and sustainer and provider way beyond our immediate needs into eternity.

When we are born we are born into this world and we have to learn to live and grow in this world. But we are also born with the potential of living in the Kingdom of God. Both Jesus and St. Paul, in what we've been reading these last few weeks and in what we'll come to read, they both are showing us how to see the Kingdom of God, how to recognise it, to believe in it, to live in it and to grow in it. We do that by letting the Spirit of God live in us and bend our will to His, living as God teaches, wills and commands us; by letting the Spirit of God open us up to the Kingdom and not grieving the Spirit or stopping it by our inclination to sin; and when we do that we are promised that Jesus Himself, the bread of heaven gives us all we need and all we will ever need now and in eternity.