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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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They Did Eat and were Filled |
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Mark
8:1 Seventh
Sunday after Trinity July
18, 2010 The
Collect asks God to give us all good things, but let us take special care
to notice what these good things are. First is love of His name, which is
to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength above all
things. Second, true
religion, which refers us right back to love of God, but qualifies it by
reminding us that it must be true religion.
It is not something we have made up, it is something we learn in
the clear teachings of the Scripture. True religion is Biblical religion.
Third, nourish us with all goodness.
Feed our souls with goodness and righteousness.
Feed our souls with God. Finally,
keep us in these things. Keep
us from falling away from them, or falling out of them.
Keep us from trading them in for other things that are secondary,
unscriptural, and cannot nourish our souls. The
Scripture readings for today show that God is the answer to our prayer.
God is the One to whom we pray, and He is what we pray for.
The Epistle reminds us that we have been rescued from a lifestyle
that looked for happiness and meaning in things and self-indulgence.
But that "happiness" was merely the wreckage of a sunken
ship. Now a Luxury Liner has found us and invited us to come aboard and
live in its staterooms and dine in its banquet halls.
So we have left, the wreckage of sin and received the richness of
God. The Epistle uses the
imagery of slavery and freedom. We
were slaves of sin, leading to death.
But now we are free in Christ, leading to life. The
Gospel shows Christ providing the food we need. We must remember that physical food is but a symbol of the
spiritual food that gives eternal life.
It is an almost universal law of Biblical interpretation that
physical blessings are symbols of spiritual blessing given by grace
through Jesus Christ. I
am stuck by the dedication of the people.
They were with Christ for three days.
They left income behind to hear the word. They left home behind to sleep on the ground.
Some had food, and I am sure there was much sharing, but sharing
meant no one had enough to eat, so, by the third day, people were very
hungry. How different they
were from the average person today, who, blessed with great abundance of
the world's goods, can't be bothered to give an hour to the worship of God
and the preaching of His word. Again,
we must remember that physical hunger symbolises a much deeper and more
permanent need. It represents
the hunger and need of the soul. Our
real need is not food. The
bodies we care so much about will pass into the dust one day, and all the
pleasures of this world that so captivate our minds and energies will pass
from our grasp. So, in the grand scheme of things, what does it matter if
we are poor and hungry in the things of the world, as long as we are rich
and filled with the things of God? So
the real need of the people in our Gospel reading, like ours, is love for
God, true religion, and spiritual nourishment. Next
we see that Christ is their provider.
Christ feeds the multitude with what seems an impossibly small
amount of food. It reminds me
that people look at Christ, the forgiveness of sins, and all the things we
refer to when we talk about being "saved," as a very small
thing. To them Christ is a few crackers and sardines, while the
world is steak and potatoes, and they want steak and potatoes. In reality, those in Christ are eating the steak. The Bible
says the people did eat and were filled.
It means they had great abundance.
They were filled like we are on Thanksgiving Day.
They were stuffed. They
were gorged. Christ provides
us with great abundance, far beyond what we can even begin to understand. But
Christ is not only the Provider, He is also the Provision.
What we need is God, and Christ came to give us God.
The hunger in our soul can only be filled with Manna from Heaven.
Only the Bread of Life can give the abundance we need. And He gives Himself freely to all who come to Him in
Biblical faith. "Lord
of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things;
Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
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