Pew Sheet, Sunday, July the 28th 2024. Ninth Sunday after Trinity / Proper 12
Many of the events we have been reading about in our Gospel passages for several weeks now took place either in, on, or around the Sea of Galilee on the northern fringes of the former Old Testament kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Jesus has talked about the coming kingdom of heaven to thousands of people. He has fed them and met their needs from the meagre resources of the few, which we hear about again today; and has worked countless miracles - healing the sick, returning life to those already dead, and liberating many considered to have been under the control of demonic forces.
It is not surprising then, that some of those ordinary people listening to Jesus decide to make him king by force of arms if necessary, a strategy which had been tried many times before with disastrous consequences when the people sensed the presence of a ‘Messiah’ in their midst. This would lead to the utter destruction of Jerusalem and its temple on the 5th of June AD 70, when Titus and his legions finally and irrevocably put down one of the bloodiest of many such insurrections, and sealed the fate of the Jewish people forever, driving them from the land, and causing many of the problems still encountered in the region today. It is surprising then, that so much of Jesus’ earthy ministry took place not in Jerusalem or Judea, but in this relatively small, and in the minds of those living in Jerusalem, totally insignificant part of their country situated around the Sea or Lake named Galilee.
The renowned Edwardian journalist and historian Henry Morton reminds us that the Hebrew word Galîl simply means a circlet or circle, for this is a rough description of the round – or perhaps almost heart-shaped sea or lake which sits at the heart of the territory which Jesus and his companions would have known like the back of their hands. The Sea of Galilee was almost encircled too by the Greco-Roman cities and towns of the province of Decapolis, as well as those which the sycophantic Herodians had built in honour of their Roman overlords: Bethsaida Julias, Tiberias, Hippos and Tarichaeae to name but a few. It was a cosmopolitan, prosperous, and very fertile region (which explains the Greek’s, and later, the Roman’s interest in it), and the favoured seat of political power for both the Roman governors and the Herodian Kings, who much preferred it to the geographically inhospitable, and febrile religious hotspot of Jerusalem. No wonder the priests and pharisees hated it so much.
They wondered what good could come from the region (John 7:41), and mocked its Jewish inhabitants (such as Peter in Luke 22:59) for their provincial accents and their willingness to live amongst and trade with the hated gentiles whose even more despised cultural and religious practices (such as eating pork from the land of the Gerasenes or Gadarenes), and worshipping in temples dedicated to false gods or the emperors in Rome were anathema to them.
Morton points out that whereas the southern Judeans had bound themselves up in a formulaic and deeply conservative form of religiosity he describes as ‘rabbinic rigidity’, most of the Jews living in Galilee (with the likely exception of deeply conservative Nazareth) were more open and receptive to the good news which Jesus had come to proclaim, hence Jesus’ willingness and ability to do so many miracles amongst them; and why so many of the events we read about between his resurrection and ascension occurred not in Jerusalem, but back on the shores of Lake Galilee. It was here that Jesus appeared to at least seven of the disciples as he met them coming home from a night’s fishing and called them to share a simple breakfast of grilled fish and bread he had prepared for them on the shore. And it was here that he reinstated Peter after asking him three times “Do you love me” before restoring his guilt-ridden conscience for denying him in the courtyard of the High Priest’s house after his arrest before telling him to “feed my sheep” immediately after the miraculous catch of fish.
Feeding the people, both spiritually and physically, is so fundamental to the Gospel of the kingdom that we are reminded of its importance not only in the Gospel narratives, but in the Old Testament in our 2 Kings reading today. It is a reminder that so much of what we do to support and sustain others does not happen at the religious centre, but on the periphery or margins of the Church where faith brushes up against different faiths or the complete lack of it on the edges of our society, and amongst many who are still often regarded by those at the rigidly conservative centre of the Church with suspicion, derision or disdain. Let us never tire of feeding those who need feeding, for it is in the excess of God’s provision for them that we find our own spiritual nourishment and fully experience the height, breadth, and depth of God’s love for them – and for us, and are filled with the full riches of God grace in doing so!
Collect
Gracious Father,
Revive your Church in our day,
And make her holy, strong and faithful,
For your glory’s sake,
In Jesus Christ Our Lord.
2 Kings 4:42-end
A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing food from the first fruits to the
man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack.
Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” But his servant said,
“How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to
the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord: They shall eat and have
some left.” He set it before them; they ate and had some left, according to
the word of the Lord.
Ephesians 3:14-end
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
John 6:1-21
After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place, so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by
those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.
Post Communion Prayer
Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles' teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Please pray this week for
All those getting married or having their children baptised in our churches over the summer. We are delighted to have 4 weddings and 5 baptisms between now and the end of August. Please pray as well, for all those going away over the summer, that they may return safely and refreshed from their holidays.
Weekly Events
Many of our regular weekly events come to a halt for the summer in the coming weeks or only proceed if enough people are available to continue, so please do check if you are interested in bellringing (07835 461361), Tuesday’s online morning prayer, or the book club. There will be no Friday choir practice or Tuesday house-groups, but the monthly Julian Prayer Meeting, the Midweek Coffee Morning, and the Midday Service at 12.00 on Wednesdays will continue as normal. Didier will be taking some well-earned leave during August, but Steve is available for the whole month in case of pastoral need on 07305 271148.
On Monday we remember Mary, Martha and Lazarus, Companions of Our Lord, on Tuesday, William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson, anti-slavery campaigners (1833, 1797 and 1846), and on Wednesday, Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Society of Jesus or “Jesuits” (1556).