The Rev. George Adamik reflects on Mark 8:27-38: “Jesus asks his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ Is there any more human question that any of us wonder in our lives? … And then Jesus asks them one of the most significant questions in scripture: ‘And you, who do you say that I am?'”
We meet Jesus today in an extraordinarily human moment. Extraordinary only because of how ordinary it is; how very human Jesus seems, given our assumptions about how the son of God behaves. Today Jesus is tired….
(Mark 7:24-37)
The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista considers the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees in today’s gospel reading (Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23): “The Pharisees were actually part of a reform movement in their day and age. They were trying, like Jesus and his followers, not to burden people with the law but to bring the law into their daily life, to help the everyday person find meaning in it… Both Jesus and the Pharisees were trying to interpret the law in the light of their current situation, not demanding observance for its own sake.”
The Rev. George Adamik discusses John 6:56-69: “How can we satisfy our deep hunger? It begins by realizing sometimes we’re trying to fill that hunger with ‘junk food,’ with stuff that’s not going to nourish us or lead us to wholeness… Jesus came as bread, as food, and whoever is hungry can be fed.”
For reference, here are the passages by St. Augustine and Richard Rohr discussed in today’s homily:
“Christ is the bread, awaiting hunger.” (St. Augustine)
“The Eucharist is telling us that God is the food and all we have to do is provide the hunger. Somehow we have to make sure that each day we are hungry, that there’s room inside of us for another presence. If you are filled with your own opinions, ideas, righteousness, superiority, or sufficiency, you are a world unto yourself and there is no room for ‘another.’ Despite all our attempts to define who is worthy and who is not worthy to receive communion, our only ticket or prerequisite for coming to Eucharist is hunger. And most often sinners are much more hungry than the ‘saints.'” (Richard Rohr)
The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 and the endurance of wisdom: “We are complicated people, and each day we are given choices. We require wisdom to do not just that which is convenient but that which is right. Will we seek after God’s wisdom?”
The Rev. Candy Snively discusses John 6:35, 41-51: “Have you ever wondered why doesn’t God speak up? Or let alone, why doesn’t God step up? The idea of leaving everything up to God may seem naive to us during critical times.”
The Rev. George Adamik reflects on John 6:24-35 and growing up during the turbulent 1960s: “We can live into God’s dream and God’s hope, and, as Bishop Curry so often says, step out of the nightmare that we have created into the dream God has for creation. When we look at the world today and our country, we can’t just say ‘it’s the way it is.’ No, it’s not; it can be something different.”
The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista reflects on John 6:1-21: “In Islam, the pilgrim or believer is often imagined as a bird with two wings: one of the wings is fear, one of the wings is fear. In order to make her journey through life, the believer must hold these two in tension.”
The Rev. Candy Snively discusses Ephesians 2:11-22 and the dividing walls of “hostility between us.”
The Rev. Adrienne Koch reflects on Mark 6:14-29: “Have you ever had that feeling that you missed an opportunity to really get to know someone because all you could see in them was a ghost from your past? Maybe it was your first date after a breakup or divorce […] Maybe it was right after you moved to a new place, looking to make friends […] Sometimes, we think we already know who someone is.”