<html><body>(Second part)<br><br><br><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>The
people of Jesus’ time simply couldn’t comprehend that everyone being fed and
satisfied was God’s number one priority; that providing education for everyone;
and safety for everyone; and respect for everyone, was what God has always
intended for those who inhabit creation. So many of the people of Jesus’ time
had their own priorities. They wanted to hang on to whatever they had, and they
wanted to add to that whatever anyone else had. So to have Jesus say that
whoever comes to Him will never be thirsty, never be hungry again, was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>SO</u></b> much of a threat to those who
placed their hopes so much on tangible assets that they couldn’t bear the
thought of risking losing even a crumb of them. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>THEY</u></b> wanted to corner the bread market – whether in church
or out beyond four walls.</span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>But
Jesus, the Bread of Life, who wants to sustain us all, cannot be imprisoned or
locked away from us or any of His people.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Maybe
that’s what made some of the listeners of Jesus, who were the ones with power,
what made them <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>SO </u></b>angrily nervous. After all, as a
member of the Crow Nation remarked yesterday, the sacred, that which shows
holiness, which draws us into holiness, always has and demonstrates power. And
the fact that Jesus was willing to share power, to empower everyone, through
bread, though conversation, through promises of eternal life; that made people <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>SO</u></b> angry.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>I
don’t know that we get quite that angry, yet there <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>ARE</u></b> definitely times when we don’t want to share. Maybe we
all need to go back to kindergarten, where we can learn that prime directive –
to share with others, no matter what it is – except for germs and pain, of
course!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Presiding
Bishop-elect Michael Curry made an amusing point about this last Sunday. He
talked about how, in so many ways, we’re really still in kindergarten. He asked
to imagine God looking at all of us on earth. He asked us to think about the
ways in which we’re so far from getting things right. He asked us to think
about how we relative to one another and to God. He asked us to picture God
smiling and shaking God’s head and thinking, “Give them time. They’re still in
kindergarten!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">As Bishop Curry remarked, maybe this
is a good thing. Maybe it’s actually reassuring to think that we’re still in
creation’s kindergarten, because, if this is what humans are like as adults,
then we have some serious problems!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">If we were adults, we should be
falling all over ourselves, trying to make sure that no one is left out, that
everyone has enough to eat, every single day; enough clean water to drink,
every day; enough shelter from the blazing sun, or pounding rain, or bitter
cold – every day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">We can’t quite see it in the
bulletin photograph of the Sacrament House in St. Lorenz. We have to take the
description at its face value, but think about the meaning of that carving.
From head-height up it’s elaborate, a wonderfully creative expression of joy
and devotion in knowing that within it shall live the Bread of Life which will
feed the whole world. But the creative imagination of the sculptor, Kraft, was
led to understand that all of this glory, this sign of freedom from hunger, and
thirst, and fear; all of it is balanced on the shoulders of Kraft and his two
companions; all of it is balanced on the shoulders of you and me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Jesus <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>IS</u></b> the Bread of Life, certainly. He said it over and over,
referring to Himself and to the tidings of peace He brought. That’s central to
our faith. But in order for people to hear about it; in order to for people to
taste it and see how gracious God is, you and I have to speak the words; you
and I – or someone else on our behalf – has to mix the ingredients and bake the
bread; someone has to make an offering of it and to use the words given us by
Jesus; someone has to take it, to break it apart and to distribute it – outside
as well as inside the building we often mistake for church.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">As crazy as it sounds, Jesus trusts
us. Teresa of Avila, born five hundred years ago this year, wrote, “<span style="color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">O Thou Treasure of the
poor! How marvellously Thou sustainest souls, showing to them, not all at
once, but by little and little, the abundance of Thy riches! When I
behold Thy great Majesty hidden beneath that which is so slight as the host is,
I am filled with wonder…” <sup>2</sup></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:
bold">The torn piece of Bread, each bit not cut neatly with straight lines nor
exactly the same as that given to person next to you; that torn piece of Bread
came from human hands, but was blessed by Jesus Himself through the work of the
Spirit which He promised us.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black;mso-bidi-font-weight:
bold">That torn piece of Bread, so small, so fragile, apparently so
insignificant, is an incredible sign of life and love from God to us. It comes
from God who made us and is given to us, the kindergarteners who seem so
frequently to be so recently out of the sand box.</span><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Yet as twentieth century saint,
Dorothy Day, put it, “<span style="mso-no-proof:yes">Young </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">people say, ‘What good can one person do?’
They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time; we can be responsible
only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase
of love in our heart that will vitalize and transform all our individual
actions, and know God will take them and multiply them as Jesus multiplied the
loaves and fishes.” <sup>3</sup></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">Out of incredible love for us, God
in Jesus reaches out to us as to the first century friends of Jesus and asks us
to be the one, the group, the community, which takes seriously Jesus’ words. I
AM – I AM present and I love and honour you so much as to offer you the means
to eradicate hunger and thirst.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">The officers of the organisation
“Bread for the World” remind us that “Our efforts to help those in need are
strengthened by Bread for the World as it brings together people frommany faith
traditions – to be a collective Christian voice, urging our nation’s decision
makers (and those of other nations) to change the policies and conditions that
allow hunger to persist. We also give thanks for churches and other organizations
that provide emergency relief and log-term assistance to overcome hunger,
poverty, and disease.”<sup> 4</sup></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">The Bread which Jesus gives for the
life of the world must not be I<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>N</u></b>
church alone. Nor must it be <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>FOR</u></b>
the church alone. The Bread which Jesus offers, which Jesus invites us to take
to the world, is for <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>EVERYONE</u></b>,
with<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>OUT</u></b> exception.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman"">THIS</span></u></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> is the Good
Word of Jesus to us, whether we feel like kindergarteners in mission or not. In
fact, it may be better if we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DO</u></b>
think of ourselves as kindergarteners. Nine times out of ten, they have no
fear, no reluctance, to go to someone, even to a stranger, and to say, “Would
you like to share my bread?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">It rests on our shoulders now, God
helping.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">NOTES:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><span style="mso-special-character:footnote"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-ansi-language:
EN-US;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[1]</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEIQFjAKahUKEwjMhNyeiZjHAhWILogKHbirB1Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wga.hu%2Fhtml_m%2Fk%2Fkraft%2Fselfpor.html&ei=IzjFVYznC4jdoAS4156wBQ&usg=AFQjCNGtDx6WLAAj-trMAZ9NVOj8Do1p5w&bvm=bv.99804247,d.cGU">Sacrament
House by KRAFT, Adam - Web Gallery of Art</a><span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
</span><cite><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.wga.hu/html_m/k/kraft/selfpor.htm"><span style="font-style:
normal">www.wga.hu/html_m/k/kraft/selfpor.htm</span></a></span></cite></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><cite><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.wga.hu/html_m/k/kraft/selfpor.htm"><span style="font-style:
normal"><br></span></a></span></cite></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">2</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>From
“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Autobiography”</i>, Teresa of Avila
(1515-1582) quoted in “</span><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:
bold">Soulwork Toward Sunday: Self-Guided Retreat Proper 14 (Year
B), August 9, 2015 “Under The Appearance of” </span></i><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Suzanne Guthrie <a href="http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper14b.html">http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper14b.html</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper14b.html"><br></a>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
line-height:normal"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"">3</span></span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>From <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal">“Loaves and Fishes”</i> by </span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">Dorothy
Day (1897-1980) quoted by Suzanne Guthrie, Op. Cit.</span></p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
line-height:normal"><br><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"></span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">4</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Insert,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Bread for the World”,</i> Washington
D.C., October 2015 <a href="http://www.bread.org">www.bread.org</a> </span></p><br></body></html>