August 1, 2021 - 10th Sunday after Pentecost - Consuming God while Continuing to be Consumed By God

What is our purpose?  The easy answer to that question is that we should all purpose our lives to do good things, to be people of character and integrity, and to not hurt others.  The much harder questions arise when we add the ingredient of God's Word into the formula of discerning what our real purpose should be in the eyes of Almighty God, our Creator

 How often does the Gospel resonate in our hearts as Good News with an emphasis on the News? In this time of resurgent pandemic health concerns, together with Tuesday's Bible Study and Pastor Janelle's sermon I felt today's John 6 passage resonate in my soul. 

There is a spiritual journey from bondage, to transition, to a liberation. The Old Testament frequently divides the world into Egypt, which represents the physical bondage life imposes; the Wilderness, which involves transition to the Promised Land; and the Promised Land itself which contains the liberated life God promises. During the pandemic I think of a transition the church is being inspired to make from the bondage of traditions that no longer work through this time of transition to a Promised land we can't yet imagine. 

In Tuesday's first recently scheduled Lectio Divina we engaged in a familiar discussion for Lutherans. We all believe salvation is given through God's grace alone while simultaneously proclaiming God's work, our hands.

Today's Gospel is a dialog between Jesus and a crowd gathered around him. Jesus says to the crowd "Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures. The crowd asks "What then must we do to perform the works of God?"

Pastor Janell also shared a story from her continuing education at Grace Filled Turnings on the campus of Our Lady of Grace Monastery in Beech Grove, Indiana. that happened the week before our Bible Study. The focus was on Transitions and Wellness and Pastor Janell shared a transition metaphor we are familiar with in a new way - where the caterpillar transitions in a cocoon to becoming a butterfly. She described what was in the cocoon as "caterpillar soup", neither caterpillar nor butterfly. I felt this was an important metaphor for my soul today.

In Egypt, the slaves were fed depending on their labor by the Egyptians. They thought they were receiving manna because of Moses in the wilderness. They longed for the milk and honey they dreamed would be theirs in the Promised Land.

In comparison the caterpillar feeds, perhaps somewhat blindly and destructively, on the plants it traverses and lives on. When Jesus identifies himself as the food, the Bread of Life, for the transition-cocoon that is sent by God he makes comparisons to the manna in the wilderness and the passage echoes with Eucharistic language. 

And Jesus, as Bread of Life, lays bare a Eucharistic relationship I had never considered in a novel way. An additional relationship with our God of relationship. We consume God while continuing to be consumed by God. This mystery does not need to be understood by us any more than knowing how a butterfly eventually emerges from the cocoon. We, as "caterpillar soup", need to do nothing more than trust the God-given process will reach the final state of becoming a butterfly.

Lastly Pastor Janell preached that Jesus always accepts us (I will add the metaphor) as "caterpillar soup". He loves us just as we are with no judgement  Jesus knows God wants everyone to be free, to be a butterfly when we shed the cocoon and he is willing to be the food that will eventually let us fly.