Revised Common Lectionary: Heartbreak, Holiness, and Hunger

There’s nothing simple or easy here. These texts lean toward heartbreak, holiness, and hunger in a loop that doesn’t want to end. We begin with the story of Absalom’s death.It’s an odd one made odder by the verse selection of the lectionary. I have trouble tracking with these stories of King David’s wars and this one is no different. I’m not sure whose fighting whom or exactly why. Fortunately, this isn’t the point of the story. In this text we get a little snippet of Absalom’s rebellion against his father and David’s attempt to protect him. The battle lines may not be particularly clear, but David’s heartbreak at the death of his son surely is.

Heartbreak could be a tough sell for an August sermon, but I’m thinking it could go quite well with passage from Ephesians. The Ephesians are called to a holy life and given very clear examples of what that might mean. If David’s family and those in his army, had lived without deceit and lies and not let their anger give way to sin, Absalom might have lived. Heartbreak is the inevitable outcome when we treat each other with disrespect and forget that we are agents of God’s love in the world.

If heartbreak and holiness aren’t quite what you want to take on as a sermon topic, then we are back to bread.  Elijah flees for his life and then decides to lie down and die. Of course, this does not happen. An angel of the Lord shows up with bread and water that will nourish him on his journey, a journey that is presumably a sacred one. What nourishes us for this sacred journey we are on?

The Gospel text answers that question – the bread of life – of course. It’s not all that easy, though, is it? On a good day, we might grasp a bit of what Jesus is saying when he says that if we eat we will never be hungry again. Most days, though, we’re hungry. We are baffled by the Mystery that is our God. We want to laugh at the people who didn’t recognize the Christ in their midst, but how can we laugh when we so often do the same? I want to figure out how to get enough of the Bread of Life so that I am nourished for the journey and not always having to be reminded of whose I am and of the responsibility to feed those around me who are also sometimes overcome with hunger. I guess this takes us back to the advice given in the Ephesians passage. You know, be nice to each other and be “imitators of God.”

I’m not sure hunger is any better than heartbreak and holiness for a sermon, but these are the texts this week. The places we could go with heartbreak and hunger are numerous when we look around the world in far places and nearer ones. The response to both seems to be a life of holiness and our very human reluctance to trust the Bread enough to be nourished, sustained, and transformed for the duration of this sacred journey.

Please share where your thoughts are leading you with these texts. Are you tired of the bread and focusing on one of the other readings instead? Are you offering more bread?

Photo by Erika Sanborne. Used with permission.