Could you allow me to start with a silly story from my school days? I remember two brothers at school who were almost identical twins. Their father had a business making plastic mouldings and, on a school visit to the factory, I remember, joking in a rather unkind teenage way, that his sons must have been fashioned in the same mould as they looked just like their father. A bad joke, I know!Who is this man?I begin with this story because today we continue with John’s account of the ways in which the disciples, the crowds, and the religious authorities, all attempted to understand Jesus. They tried to place him in a ‘mould’ that would make sense to them. ‘Who is this man?’, the disciples asked when he calmed the wind and the waves. Was he another Moses the crowds asked, as he had fed them with bread in the desert as Moses had?No, the religious authorities replied, ‘This is the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know.’ John 6: 42That was, in a sense true, but it did not explain or contain the whole truth, because Jesus escaped and continues to escape all attempts to categorise or contain him, either within philosophical, religious, scientific, or any human definitions. Instead, Jesus talked about coming from heaven.‘How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’? John 6: 42That is a question we continue to ask today, and indeed struggle to answer because he continues to escape us, or at least escapes the mould in which we attempt to place him.MatisseThe artist who best expresses the uniqueness of artistic genius is, to my mind, Matisse, but before he discovered his own unique style he went through many others. Starting as a student at the ‘École des beaux- arts’ he was trained in the grand traditions of French painting, but he soon moved on. He was introduced to Impressionism by the Australian artist John Russell, but moved on, again, to the Post Impressionists, and then the Neo-Impressionists before launching out in a new movement ‘Fauvism’. The Fauvists were called ‘Wild beasts’ because of their bold use of colour and it was with colour that Matisse discovered his own vision.The Red Room 1908 ‘The Red Room’ is the painting in which Matisse finds his own voice or, more correctly his own vision. Using colour alone to define the spaces he creates what is, at first sight, a red room, but the flat surfaces and spiral patterns suggest that this is more than a painting of a room, it urges us to think further and imagine more. Matisse has given us a room so we can locate ourselves within it, it is solid and we can identify the objects in it, but it suggests that beyond what we can see is another world of wonder and beauty. This is the artist’s eye giving us an insight into their world and their unique vision of it. The Bread of HeavenI want to use that image as a way of speaking of Jesus' words ‘I am the Bread of life’. We all know what bread is and how it sustains life so we can begin to understand what Jesus is saying. He is the one who sustains life, but then we get lost when he repeats the words adding:‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.’ John 6: 50Here we are asked to think beyond the bread we eat to a mystery that escapes us, as Jesus escaped the crowds, as Jesus still escapes all attempts to put him in a box and market him as some kind of wonder loaf! The words ‘From heaven’ are, I think, a way of saying ‘This is beyond you’But there is another way of understanding these words because Jesus adds that ‘the bread comes down from heaven’, in other words, it is given to us, and it comes down to us so that we do not have to attempt the impossible and reach up to heaven with our own ideas.‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven.’ John 6: 51This is the bread that Jesus gives to us, not bread we can grasp at for ourselves. It is all gift or as Paul describes it ‘Grace’. More than this Jesus has left us a meal in which we can actually eat this bread, it is real bread, though in wafer form. It is physical bread just as Jesus was really physically present on earth, and as he promises, he is now present in the bread and wine of Holy Communion.Son of the FatherThe religious authorities thought they could identify Jesus because they knew his parentage. They were wrong about that, but if they had listened to him they might have guessed what he was saying:‘Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father’ John 6: 46Jesus was not the son of Joseph, he was and is the Son of God, and like those two boys I remember from school, he is the very image of the Father. If we truly want a taste of heaven we are invited to the heavenly banquet today.‘Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh’ John 6: 51
Lammas, an old English word first found in the writings of King Alfred, meaning ‘Loaf Mass’, is celebrated on the first Sunday of August, when the first wheat and barley from the harvest are brought to the mill to be ground. Some of that wheat flour is then made into the loaves that will be used to celebrate Mass in thanksgiving for the gifts of creation.Bread, of course, has a central role in our Western world where it is considered a staple of life, and has become a symbol of God’s gift of life itself in our religious traditions. In most European countries and South America, it is put on the table first, and no meal would be complete without it. In Asia it is rice that plays this role as a staple of life, in East Africa, Manioc or Cassava, in West Africa and the Caribbean it is Plantains. I remember a meal I had once as a young volunteer in Kenya, where I was given a large plate of ‘Ugali’, which is what manioc is called. It is served as a porridge and eaten before any other food is served, the idea being to fill your stomach so that you do not leave the table hungry! In China they speak of having two stomachs, the rice stomach and the stomach, that only if any other foods are available, can be satisfied. All this speaks to an understanding of life’s essentials, only when they have been satisfied can we move on to other foods.Pieter Claesz. ‘Still life with Turkey’ 1625This thought is taken up in many of the Dutch still life genres that served as decorative additions to the rich and as a vehicle for moral instruction. In Pieter Claesz's ‘Still Life with Turkey’ all the trappings of the rich man’s table are on display as advertisements of his wealth and international connections. The turkey from the Americas, the spices from the Dutch spice islands, the fruit and olives from Southern Europe, the fruit bowl from China, in addition to the expensive silverware.The message is not, however, one of wealth and well-being but of waste and wantonness. The pie is half eaten, the meal abandoned and the bread in the centre of the painting untouched. The essential staple of life ‘Bread’ is ignored and the luxuries have taken its place. This message is accentuated by the precarious way in which the plates are arranged. In the foreground, the plate is balanced on the edge of the table, to the right the fruit bowl is tipped at a strange angle resting, again precariously, on a bowl. The apples appear to be maggoty, and the stuffed turkey is very dead! All things pass, so seek the things that are eternal.The Miracle and the ‘Sign’The miracle of the loaves and fishes brought the crowds following Jesus to the other side of Lake Galilee to the town of Capernaum where he had gone with his disciples. They are looking for another miracle but are disappointed when Jesus points them away from the miracles and instead tells them not to seek for food that perishes but for ‘The food that endures for eternal life’ John 6: 27The miracles of healing and feeding are in one sense incidental to the ministry of Jesus, they are described by John as ‘signs’ pointing to a greater truth, the truth of Jesus’ identity.‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent’ John 6: 29It is as if Jesus is speaking of that second stomach, not the one he has filled with food, but the one that can only be filled with ‘The bread from Heaven’John 6: 32Jesus has come not only to fill our stomachs but to satisfy our souls, our second stomach, with foods that: ‘Endures to eternal life’ John 6: 27As the Dutch still life artists so creatively described in their paintings, there is a part of us that neither riches nor power can satisfy, and that is the part of us that has, as sometimes described, a ‘God-shaped hole’. That space can only be filled as we ‘feed on Jesus’.‘It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' John 6: 32-33John makes it clear that these words were not heard or understood by the crowds, indeed the disciples themselves were confused. This should not surprise us as they are words that are not heard or understood by us either. How do you ‘feed on Jesus’? The expression sounds barbaric, the Roman authorities interpreted the words as evidence of cannibalism. Those questioning Jesus used their knowledge of scripture and tradition, citing Moses in the desert, but none of what Jesus says can be comprehended by the tools we usually employ to make sense of our world, just as none of the identities that we employ to understand Jesus make sense. He is not a King, as they had thought nor is he a Prophet, Priest, or Rabbi, he is all and he is none of these.Jesus, however, has left us with a meal, the Eucharist, in which we can ‘Feed on Jesus’. We may not understand what that means, and many have disputed the sense in which the bread and wine are indeed the body and blood of Jesus, but I believe, it is not necessary to understand, only to receive in humility the gift of God that ‘Comes down from Heaven’‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’ John 6: 35John Calvin when asked to explain the Eucharist said he would rather ‘experience it than understand it.’As we receive the bread and wine today we are reminded that all that we have is a gift of God, not to be grasped but to be received with humility and thanksgiving.Rev. Simon Brignall
Did you know that there is an official Olympic artist? Anabel Eyres, a former Olympic rower, rowing in the 1992 Double Sculls, is also an accomplished artist and gives to us another way of entering into the spectacle and drama of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Her work is influenced by the British photographer, Eadward Muybridge 1830-1904, who first captured on film the movement of the human and animal body in motion, as we can see in this delightful picture of swimmers.The Olympic and Paralympic games will bring to us many inspiring examples of human endeavour and endurance beyond anything ordinary mortals like us can imagine. We too can draw inspiration from their example as Paul did when he pointed to the perseverance of the Olympians of his day.’ Do you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run the race in such a way as to get the prize’ 1 Corinthians 9:24 Most of us, however, will happily live our lives within the limits of what we know we can cope with, but even we will be tested and tried by circumstances and situations that we find overwhelming. We too will sometimes be called to excel and exceed what seems humanly possible.TriedToday we find the disciples coping with two life-threatening situations where they are tried and tested. First, they are on unfamiliar ground as Jesus confronts them with a problem that they know they cannot handle. They are faced with an enormous crowd, maybe 20,000 hungry people. John’s readers would have known the story of Moses and Israel's escape into the desert. Here the people found themselves without food or water and were tempted to turn back. We are told that Jesus too takes the people into a ‘desert place’ and when the crowds grow hungry he challenges the disciples with the question “Where shall we buy bread for these people” John 6: 5. John tells us that he asked this only to test them. Jesus has put them in a situation where they are unable to cope. The disciples find themselves at a loss. “eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” John 6: 7.TestedLater, on the lake, the disciples find themselves in familiar territory. They were fishermen and knew the changing face of the water so they judged it safe to cross over to the other side. They were confident of their ability to handle any situation on the water, maybe even complacent, but they were caught by a sudden storm and they were now in danger of drowning. Despite all their experience, they are once again at a loss without Jesus.Here are two stories that will be familiar to us. The first will remind us of situations when we have been faced with overwhelming problems that we know we cannot meet. The second is when we have thought that we could manage on our own and discovered too late that we have attempted something that is beyond us.Daily lifeThe disciples were men and women like us, sometimes they faced overwhelming problems and sometimes their problems were of their own making. In both cases, Jesus seems to allow the disciples to struggle alone. We are told that Jesus withdraws to ‘a mountain by himself’ John 6:15. Could it be that this withdrawal is part of the discipleship training for it comes at just the moment when the crowds ‘intended to make him King by force’ John 6: 15Jesus is not a king who reveals himself through the miraculous signs of power but through the struggles of daily life.Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics: “ The important thing in sport is not to win but to participate, the important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.In the face of overwhelming problems, we are called on to give thanks to God that he has given us the resources however small to match the challenge. Even when he appears to be absent we are to trust that he is with us and in control of the situation. Christ is the King whose power is made perfect in our weakness and whose glory is revealed in disaster. Faith gives thanks that:‘He is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine according to his power at work in us’ Eph. 3: 20.Rev. Simon Brignall
We are reading this passage in a church building dedicated to the ‘Decollation of John the Baptist’ or in plain English, the beheading of John the Baptist. It is a powerful reminder that when true speaks to power it cannot be silenced, even by the powerful. We need this reminder in a world where the powerful flex their muscles at the expense of the innocent because we can give way to the lie that violence pays. We cannot retreat into silence or turn our backs on those who speak truth to power.History records and remembers the courage of those who speak truth to power and their voice is heard long after they have been killed, as in the case of Alexie Navalny. In the Netflix interview he gave he ends his message with the words ‘When I am dead do not stay silent, do not be inactive’. The 18th-century English philosopher, Edmund Burke, expresses the same message. ‘The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’The beheading of John the Baptist as recorded by Mark sets up the the contrast between the weakness of Herod who holds all the power of a dictator and the power of John the Baptist’s words, who is imprisoned and finally killed by Herod.The words of John the BaptistLet’s look first at the words of John the Baptist. We know he spoke out against the corruption and cruelty of Herod Antipas, the puppet ruler of Galilee, and specifically condemned his adultery with his brother’s wife, Herodias. For this, he was imprisoned and yet kept alive by Herod because he was fascinated and drawn to him by his message of ‘Repentance’, a chance to change direction and embrace a new way of ruling and living.Herod’s ‘power’Herod, in his heart, knew that this was what he wanted, but he was in the grip of powerful forces. Herodias holds him in her thrall, and he is under the sway of courtiers and political brokers. He boasts of a ‘Kingdom’, but in reality, he is just a puppet of the Roman Empire.When, two years after this event, Herod petitions Emperor Augustus for the title of King, he is exiled to Gaul where he dies in disgrace. Despite this show of wealth and the power of life and death, then, he is weak within and without. When the moment comes to decide the fate of John the Baptist, he acts not to save John, but to ‘Save face’.Pilate and the Condemnation of JesusThroughout this passage, Mark is deliberately drawing comparisons with the trial and execution of Jesus. Jesus’s words are a challenge to the religious and military authorities,and he is arrested and put on trial. Pilate, his judge, knows that he is innocent of any crime against the Roman state, but is swayed by the religious authorities, who threaten to report him to Caesar and by the mob they have roused to fury and who threaten Pilate with rioting in the streets. Against his better judgment, and to ‘Save face’ Pilate condemns Jesus to death.The New KingdomThe parallels that Mark draws between these two men point our attention to the hidden message in this account. For all Herod’s boasts about his ‘Kingdom’, it does not exist, and if he has any power it is rapidly fading away. In contrast the ‘New Kingdom’ is growing, as Mark illustrates, by telling of the successful mission to the towns and villages of Galilee.‘So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them’ Mark 6:14The Kingdom of God is growing, whilst the Kingdoms of this world are fading away. When Herod hears of the teaching and miracles of Jesus he utters the prophetic words:‘John whom I beheaded, has been raised.’ Mark 6: 16He was right in so many ways, for the truth cannot be silenced, it remains the truth even if those who carry the message are killed. I think that Herod secretly wished that John was not dead and that he might have a second chance to repent. However, though John the Baptist was not raised, Jesus was and offers to all the promise of new life, the assurance of forgiveness, and as a witness for all time, to the truth that can bring down and destroy the evil empires of this world.The gift of grace.There is a message for us all here, for the witness of John the Baptist is to God’s gift of grace. Why did Herod hold him in captivity, was it not because he longed to be free of the forces that held him in captivity? Did he not long for a second chance, to hear the message of God’s grace, a way to start again? Herod lost that chance when he had John beheaded, but we have that chance because Jesus has been raised and his voice has not been silenced, 'Good News’ of God’s love is held out to all eternally and unconditionally.A love that is stronger than deathPaul, in his letter to the Romans, put it like this:‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ? …I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Romans 8: 35-39That love is only made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus, it is a love that gave itself for others and overcame the powers of this world that wished to silence it. We must keep the faith with people like John the Baptist and indeed, Alexie Navalny and many others around the world, saints and martyrs who live by the power of love and not the love of power.
