Week 9

Psalm: Psalm 14 or Psalm 145:10-18
Old Testament: 2 Samuel 11:1-26
Gospel: John 6:1-21
Epistle: Ephesians 3:14-21

Unless you live under a rock, you probably know the Olympics have started.  Naturally, many people are caught up in Olympic fever. I think I heard that NBC had like 63 hours of coverage just yesterday. So for those of you with nothing to do for two weeks and a time-machine, congratulations.  For the rest of us, get ready for some late nights watching primetime coverage.  Ok, enough of the Olympics, time to move on to something almost as exciting: adultery and murder.  If you’ve read the passage from 2 Samuel, then you know this is the well-known story of David and Bathsheba.  After the initial affair with Bathsheba, which was spur of the moment lust, David does everything very methodically to cover his tracks.  He tries to call Bathsheba’s husband from war so that it would seem the child was his.  However, Urriah is too honorable, which makes what comes next worse.  Since his first plan doesn’t work, David tries to get Urriah drunk so maybe then he will sleep with Bathsheba. That doesn’t work.  Finally, as a last act of desperation, David has Urriah murdered during a battle.  During this battle we have to imagine that even more men were killed because of David’s plan to have Urriah killed.

Not a very pleasant story of David’s life. Perhaps this was one of the reasons the Lord didn’t want Israel to have a king.  Monarchs have a tendency to be corrupted by their power.  This is just a sad story of one sin leading to a whole string of sins trying to cover up the first.  I think we can all relate to that.  Our reading this week leaves the story at that; David in the midst of his sin seeming to get away with it. We will see what happens next week.

Moving on to the Gospel of John. This week we have two miracles, the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on water. First, notice that John explains that the Passover is the feast of the Jews.  Clues like this determine this Gospel wasn’t written for a Jewish audience.  John tells this story differently than the three other Gospels.  For starters, Jesus “tested” Philip by asking him where to buy food for the crowd.  Obviously, the answer was nowhere.  There weren’t grocery stores and they weren’t near a city.  Phillip gives the obvious answer that even if there was a place to buy food, nobody could afford it.  Andrew kind of gives a sarcastic answer, there’s a boy here who has five loafs of bread and two fish. “What can you do with that Jesus?” I don’t know what to make of Andrew.  Is he mocking Jesus, like Phillip, or is he truly hoping for another miracle? Either way Jesus takes the gifts from the boy and feeds the crowd.  The crowd recognizes that “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Notice the crowd doesn’t say Messiah.  Some might have thought that, but for others, Jesus was just a prophet in the vein of the Old Testament prophets.  There are a number of points to take from this passage, but I think the take away for me is that God can use whatever gifts we have to do something much greater.  The miracle here was only possible because a boy shared his lunch.  All the gospels make clear that this is a miracle of multiplication and not one of conjuring something from nothing.  God works through us and with us and sometimes, you might say, despite us, as in the case of Phillip.

Space forces us to skip over Jesus walking on water and move to Ephesians.  First, Paul says that every family on earth derives its name from the Father.  This is just a poetic way of saying that the Father is the Father over everybody, not just the Jews.   Paul offers the Ephesians and us a prayer in these verses.  In fact, these verses are often used as a benediction in a service.  I can think of nothing more appropriate to pray over a congregation as they leave.  And so, read and pray these words for yourself now and maybe pray them every day this week.  How interesting it is that the prayers of the Bible are so different then the prayers we often pray?  I’ll let that sit for now for you to think about and leave you with the words of Paul.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Eph. 3:16-21