Readings, hymns and sermon ideas for Sunday 25 July 2021, Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Feeding the 5,000 … a modern Greek Orthodox icon

Patrick Comerford

Sunday next, 25 July 2021, is the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII). The appointed readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are:

The Continuous readings: II Samuel 11: 1-15; Psalm 14; Ephesians 3: 14-21; John 6: 1-21;

The Paired readings: II Kings 4: 42-44; Psalm 145: 10-19; Ephesians 3: 14-21; John 6: 1-21.

There is a link to the readings HERE.

This day (25 July) is also the Feast of Saint James the Apostle. Resources for celebrating this feast are available in a separate posting later today HERE.

Baptisms and weddings … we all enjoy a good party, and have been waiting a long time (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Introducing the readings:

We all love parties and anniversaries.

Since the churches opened after the latest easing of pandemic lockdown restrictions, I have had a number of funerals, but I have also been blessed with a number of requests for baptisms and weddings in my group of parishes.

The return of congregations to our parish churches and cathedrals seems to add extra context and relevance to any sermon based on the Gospel story of the feeding of the multitude.

Birthdays, baptisms, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, retirements – we all enjoy a good party. Why, if we allow ourselves to admit the truth, we may, in time, return to even enjoying the ‘afters’ at funerals.

Parties affirm who we are, where we fit within the family, and mark the rhythm of life and the continuity of community.

It is not only the eating or the drinking. It is very difficult to sit beside someone at the same table after a funeral, or to stand beside someone at the bar at a wedding, and not to end up getting to know them and – as we say in Ireland – ‘their seed, breed and generation.’

King David (left) and King Solomon (right) in a window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne in Saint Michael’s Church, Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

II Samuel 11: 1-15:

Leonard Cohen’s popular song and poem Hallelujah begins by evoking King David composing a song that ‘pleased the Lord’ and draws on the stories of Bathsheba and Samson.

When we come to this reading from II Samuel, David has enjoyed military success over most of the neighbouring nations. This time, he sends Joab, his commander, with even his officers and the whole army to besiege Rabbah (present-day Amman in Jordan).

However, David stays behind in Jerusalem. While Uriah the Hittite is with the army, David lusts after Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. She was a gentile – a Gilonite and the wife of a Hittite; she was the wife of another man; the law said a woman was ritually unclean for seven days after menstruation; and the text is not clear whether Bathsheba consents, or whether this is rape.

Bathsheba conceives, and so David tries to hide what he has done, hoping he can deceive Uriah into thinking Bathsheba’s child is his own. But Uriah abides by the ritual laws, he refuses to break the ritual purity of the warrior, and he sleeps outside. David now schemes with Joab so that Uriah is in a vulnerable place in the front line of battle and is killed.

David’s sin costs Uriah his life. We hear of further consequences the following week.

David married Bathsheba, but the child dies soon after birth. Later, Bathsheba and David are the parents of Solomon, who becomes king instead of David's elder surviving sons by his other wives, and who builds the Temple that David imagined but never built.

But the unforeseen consequence of this story is that Bathsheba is the fourth of the four marginalised and despised women beside Mary from whom Jesus is descended, according to the genealogy in Saint Matthew’s Gospel: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. The Son of God is the Son of Man, he is truly human and truly divine (see Matthew 1: 1-17).

‘A man came … bringing … twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain’ (II Kings 4: 42) … bread on a supermarket shelf in Knocklyon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

II Kings 4: 42-44:

This reading, offered as an alternative in the paired readings, tells the story of a man who arrives at Gilgal when there is a famine in the land, bringing an offering of 20 loaves and fresh grain.

Elisha tells an incredulous servant to use this bread to feed 100 hungry people.

Despite the incredulity of Elisha's servant, all are fed, and some bread is left over.

‘The evildoers … eat up my people as they eat bread (Psalm 14: 4) … bread in a shop window in St Ives in Cornwall (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 14:

Psalm 14 laments the breakdown of the moral order. For the psalmist, the world is full of ‘fools’ who deny that God is concerned with human behaviour, people who are corrupt and do terrible things. God sees no one who seeks to follow God’s ways, so do these wicked people not understand God at all?

But God is in the community of those who follow his ways, and God will protect them and deliver the oppressed from the ungodly. When he does, all Israel, Jacob’s descendants, will rejoice.

‘You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing’ (Psalm 145: 16) … ‘Healing Hands,’ a sculpture by Shane Gilmore in grounds of the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Ennis, Co Clare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 145: 10-19

Psalm 145 is only psalm that actually identifies itself as a psalm: ‘David’s Psalm of praise.’ This psalm is a hymn, summarising the characteristics of God.

The Jewish Sages saw this psalm as the paradigm of praise, firstly because it is constructed as an alphabetic acrostic – with the exception of the letter (נ) – thus praising God for his blessings and his love with all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; secondly because it contains the verse ‘You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing’ (verse 16), encapsulating the idea that God not merely created the universe, but also daily sustains it and the life it contains, hoping for a future in which all will bless God’s holy name for ever.

This psalm is constructed of three groups of seven verses: Verses 1-7 are about God’s praise throughout the generations; verses 8-14 depict God’s kingship and compassion; and verses 15-21 are about prayer and how God hears it. The psalm is also built on numerical structures (3, 7, 10) that closely resemble the Creation narrative in Genesis 1: 1 to 2: 3.

To this have been added two verses from other psalms at the beginning, that use the word Ashrei (happy) three times, and one at the end. We could say, then, that this psalm epitomises the Book of Psalms as a whole, which begins with the word Ashrei and ends with the word Halleluyah.

It is a curiosity of this psalm that, despite its structure, there is no verse beginning with the letter nun (נ), which would come between verses 13 and 14 in this reading. This missing verse has since been supplied through other sources, including the Vulgate and the Dead Sea Scrolls:

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations. (NRSVA)

The version of this restored verse in the Book of Common Prayer 2004 (p 761) is:

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The ruins of the Basilica of Saint John the Evangelist on the slopes of the Hill of Ayasuluk and looking down on the ruins of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Ephesians 3: 14-21:

Even though Saint Paul alludes in this passage to the fact that there are different families, he reminds us that there is a unique way in which we, as Christians, are members of the same family, a particular family, the Church, the family of God.

Families share names, share stories, share memories, share identities, share anniversaries. And that is not all in the past. These celebrations allow us to express and share our hopes for the future too … is that not what baptisms and weddings are about in every family – hope for the future, hope for life itself?

Earlier in this chapter, Saint Paul has insisted on the equality in the Church of Gentiles and Jews in the Church. He has written: ‘Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise of Christ Jesus in the Gospel (Ephesians 3: 6).

Saint Paul now prays on bended knees to God the Father (πατήρ, pater), the source of life itself and every family (πατριά, patria). This is an explicitly Trinitarian passage in its scope, understanding and application. He prays:

● that they may have inner strength through the Holy Spirit;

● for the Christ may make them rooted and grounded in love;

● that they may the universal scope, capacity and totality of Christ’s love for all humanity;

● that this love rooted in Christ will fill them with fullness of God.

Saint Paul’s prayer concludes with a doxology that gives praise to God, for whom there are no limits to what can be achieved and whose actions we cannot limit.

‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ (John 6: 5) … bread on sale in a bakery in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 1-21:

The stories of the feeding of the 5,000 and of Christ walking on the water are familiar to us from the other gospels. But Saint John presents these stories in a slightly different way. For example, he refers to the Sea of Tiberias. This was the official Roman name for the Sea of Galilee. Saint John is concerned to locate the events precisely, in place and in time.

The setting is at the time of the Passover (verse 4), so we can expect stories that have a Eucharistic context, if we are reading it in the time of the Johannine community, and we can expect Exodus resonances if we are thinking of the significance of the Passover for the first readers: these would include an Exodus of large number of people (see verse 2), crossing water to new freedom (verses 1 and 17), feeding with bread in the wilderness (verses 5 to 14), climbing a mountain (verses 3 and 15) and the giving of new commandments of a covenantal relationship. The 12 baskets represent both the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 disciples, and Philip and Andrew relate to Jesus as Aaron relates to Moses.

When the people belice Jesus to be ‘the prophet,’ we are invited to recall how God tells Moses that he will raise a prophet like Moses who will speak what God commands (Deuteronomy 18: 18). When Christ says ‘It is I’ (verse 20), the phrase Ἐγώ εἰμι (ego eimi) uses the words God uses to identify himself to Moses in the Greek translation of Exodus 3: 14. It also precedes the first of the seven ‘I AM’ sayings in Saint John’s Gospel (‘I am the bread of life,’ John 6: 35).

The feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle – apart from the Resurrection – recorded in all four Gospels (see also Matthew 14: 13-21; Mark 6: 32-44; Luke 9: 10-17), with only minor variations on the place and the circumstances.

The story of the multiplication of the loaves as Saint John alone tells it has a number of key details, such as a Passover context, that are there to remind us of our feeding at the Eucharist and of Messianic hope for the future.

Christ lifts up his eyes. Earlier in this Gospel, when the disciples came back to Christ at the well in Sychar, they found him talking with the Samaritan woman. He told them to ‘lift up their eyes’ and to see the ‘harvest’ of the seed he had been sowing.

Now in this story, just as at Jacob’s Well, the disciples have failed to buy or produce enough bread for a meal. In this story, Christ responds not by sympathising but by demanding great generosity, so great that it would take six months’ wages to be so generous.

Barley loaves were the food of the poor, and so the boy’s offering symbolises the poverty of the people, while the disciples fail to offer from the riches of the kingdom.

Christ, who has told the woman at Sychar that she shall no longer thirst, is now going to tell the people he feeds, and the disciples too, that he is the bread of life, and that whoever comes to him will never be hungry, whoever believes in him will never be thirsty (see John 6: 35).

The feeding with the fish looks forward too to a later meal by the shores of Tiberias … that breakfast with the disciples when the Risen Christ feeds them with bread and fish. The fish is an early symbol of faith in the Risen Christ: Ichthus (ἰχθύς, ΙΧΘΥC) is the Greek word for fish, and can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of words spelling out ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsous Khristos Theou Huios, Sōtēr), ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.’

Christ asks the disciples to make the people sit down – well, not so much to sit down as to recline. They are asked to recline on the grass as they would at a banquet or at a feast – just as Christ does with the disciples at the Last Supper.

And then, in a Eucharistic sequence, he takes the bread, blesses or gives thanks, breaks it and gives it. John here uses the word εὐχαριστήσας (eucharistisas, verse 11), from the verb εὐχαριστέω (eucharisteo), ‘to give thanks,’ the very word from which we derive the word Eucharist in the liturgy.

Saint John alone tells us that Christ later tells the disciples to gather up the fragments lest they perish. Gathering is an act of reverential economy towards the gifts of God; but gathering also anticipates Christ gathering all to himself (John 6: 39; see also John 17: 12).

Look at the amount that is left over in the outpouring of God’s generosity. There are 12 baskets – one for each tribe of Israel and one for each of the 12 disciples. God’s party, the Eucharist, is a looking forward to the new Israel, not the sort of earthly kingdom that the people now want but the Kingdom of God.

In the next chapter, when the crowds follow Christ to Capernaum, he tells them: ‘I am that bread of life’ (John 7: 48). In this way, the Feeding of the Multitude connects with the feeding of the freed slaves in the wilderness and the coming of freedom, and with the heavenly banquet and the coming of the kingdom.

The earlier food miracle in this Gospel is the Wedding in Cana (John 2: 1-12), when Christ turns the water into wine. Now we have a miracle with bread. The Eucharistic connection of bread and wine is so obvious.

Saint John’s account of the multiplication of the loaves has a number of key details that remind us of the Eucharist.

When Christ asks the disciples to gather up the fragments, he uses the word συνάγω (synago, to gather up) – the same as the word συναγωγή (synagogue) for the assembly of faith, and as the word σύναξις (synaxis) for the gathering or first part of the Liturgy.

Christ puts no questions of belief to the disciples or to the crowd when he feeds them on the mountainside. They did not believe in the Resurrection – it had yet to happen. But he feeds them, and he feeds them indiscriminately. The disciples wanted to send them away, but Christ wants to count them in. Christ invites more people to the banquet than we can fit into our churches.

When we invite people into the Church, we have so much to share – must more that the meagre amount people may think we have in our bags.

Saint John the Evangelist with the poisoned chalice above the main gate at Saint John’s College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Connecting the Readings:

For me, the readings from the Letter to the Ephesians and Saint John’s Gospel make a connection with another story about Saint John and the Church in Ephesus.

This recalls the legend that Saint John was tested by the high priest of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, who gave him a poison chalice to drink. Saint John blessed the chalice, the poison escaped in the form of a winged dragon, and Saint John then drank safely.

But there is another poison that can damage the church today – we can fail to love.

Saint Jerome tells us that Saint John continued preaching in Ephesus even when he was in his 90s. He was so enfeebled in his old age that the people had to carry him on a stretcher into the Church in Ephesus, on the hill above the Temple of Artemis. And when he was no longer able to preach, he would lean up on one elbow and say simply: ‘Little children, love one another.’

This continued on, even when the ageing John was on his deathbed. Then he would lie back down and his friends would carry him back out. Every week, the same happened, again and again. And every week it was the same short sermon, with the same message: ‘Little children, love one another.’

One day, the story goes, someone asked: ‘John, why is it that every week you say exactly the same thing, “little children, love one another”?’ And he replied: ‘Because it is enough.’

There we have the basics of living as a Christian in a nutshell. All we need to know is ‘Little children, love one another.’ If we want to know the rules, there it is: ‘Little children, love one another.’

In his old age, that is all Saint John preached in Ephesus, week after week.

And if we live by that, then all those Christ wants to feed, all those Christ wants to gather into his family, into the Church, into the Kingdom of God, will be fed and gathered and become one with us at his banquet in the kingdom.

That is why we build churches and cathedrals, that is why as a church we celebrate and have parties, why we celebrate anniversaries, why we are gathered in to share the Word and to share the Sacrament.

And so, in Saint Paul’s words in the epistle reading:

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 (Ephesians 3: 16).

‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish’ (John 6: 9) … fish on a stall in the market in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 6: 1-21 (NRSVA):

1 After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 ‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ 10 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. 11 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. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 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.’

15 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.

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ 21 Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.

‘Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that holy things have taken’ (Post-Communion Prayer) … Communion vessels in the chapel of Westcott House, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical resources:

Liturgical colour: Green

The Collect of the Day:

Blessed are you, O Lord,
and blessed are those who observe and keep your law:
Help us to seek you with our whole heart,
to delight in your commandments
and to walk in the glorious liberty
given us by your Son, Jesus Christ.

Collect of the Word:

Gracious God, you have placed within the hearts of all your children
a longing for your word and a hunger for your truth:
grant that, believing in the one whom you have sent,
we may know him to be the true bread of heaven
and the food of eternal life,
Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be glory and honour for ever and ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that holy things have taken;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fulness of your life;
glory to you for ever.

A variety of bread in a shopfront in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Suggested Hymns:

II Samuel 11: 1-15:

551, How can we sing with joy to God

Psalm 14:

649, Happy are they, they that love God

II Kings 4: 42-44:

44, Praise and thanksgiving, Father, we offer
497, The Church of Christ in every age

Psalm 145: 10-19

24, All creatures of our God and King
42, Good is the Lord, our heavenly King
80, Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father
125, Hail to the Lord’s anointed
321, Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty
73, The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended
492, Ye servants of God, your master proclaim

Ephesians 3: 14-21:

294, Come down, O Love divine
454, Forth in the peace of Christ we go
3, God is love: let heaven adore him
616, In my life, Lord, be glorified
589, Lord, speak to me that I may speak
168, Lord, you were rich beyond all splendour
621, O Love divine, how sweet thou art
105, O the deep, deep love of Jesus
307, Our great Redeemer, as he breathed
341, Spirit divine, attend our prayers
313, The Spirit came, as promised
373, To God be the glory! Great things he has done

John 6: 1-21

665, Ag Críost an síol (The seed is Christ’s)
612, Eternal Father, strong to save
39, For the fruits of his creation
647, Guide me, O thou great Jehovah
584, Jesus calls us! O’er the tumult
587, Just as I am, without one plea
652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
428, Let us break bread together, we are one
657, O God of Bethel, by whose hand

‘Let us break bread together, we are one’ (Hymn 428) … bread in the window of Hindley’s Bakery and Café, Tamworth Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

A variety of fish on sale on a stall in Bologna (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Readings, hymns and sermon ideas for Sunday 2 August 2020, Eighth Sunday after Trinity

The miracle of the loaves and fishes in a fresco in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli, Crete … there are only two fish, but the loaves of bread have already been multiplied (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Patrick Comerford

Next Sunday, 2 August 2020, is the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII).

The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are in two pairs, the Continuous Readings and the Paired Readings.

The Continuous Readings: Genesis 32: 22-31; Psalm 17: 1-7, 16; Romans 9: 1-5; Matthew 14: 13-21.

There is a link to the Continuous Readings HERE.

The Paired readings: Isaiah 55: 1-5; Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-22; Romans 9: 1-5; Matthew 14: 13-21.

There is a link to the Paired Readings HERE.

Loaves and fishes … from a mosaic on the floor of the Church of the Multiplication at Tabgha, on the north-west shore of the Sea of Galilee, the earliest known example of a figured pavement in Palestinian Christian art (Photograph: Berthold Werner / Wikipedia)

Introducing the Readings:

In the first reading, Jacob is alone at night when he wrestles – with a man, with an angel, or, perhaps, even with God – until daybreak. Has he had a face-to-face encounter with God?

At daybreak, Jacob asks the wrestler for his name, but instead he receives a new name, Israel, ‘for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’

In the Psalm, the psalmist cries out in the middle of the night to God in his quest for vindication, and seeks to see God’s face.

In the Epistle reading, Saint Paul wrestles with his own relationship with the children of Israel in God’s plan, and their unique place in God’s covenants.

In the Gospel reading, Christ wrestles with the disciples’ unwillingness to share their food and to feed the crowds who have followed them into the wilderness. He calls forth a great miracle and in feeding the multitude offers not only a lesson in generosity, but also a foretaste of the heavenly banquet and an object lesson in mission and outreach.

How do we face up to the unknown? And in doing so, are we surprised to find ourselves faced with God’s plans rather than our own?

Where do we encounter God – both in darkness and in light – where are we fed, both physically and spiritually?

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, Rembrandt, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Wikimedia/Rijksmuseum)

Genesis 32: 22-31:

The story of Jacob wrestling with the angel has inspired great artists down the centuries, from Rembrandt and Gustave Doré to Marc Chagall and Sir Jacob Epstein. The story is much richer in the original Hebrew: there is wordplay, allusion, and vivid symbolism. Much of that is lost to us when we read it in English.

At a first reading, Jacob’s struggle with a mysterious being seems abrupt and vague. But this story sheds light on perennial aspects of the human condition: fear, dishonesty, destiny and integrity.

The angel in this episode is referred to as both ‘man’ (אִישׁ) and ‘God’ in Genesis, while the Book of Hosea (Hosea 12: 4) refers to an ‘angel’ (מַלְאָךְ). In this reading, Jacob is given a new name, Israel (verse 28), which means ‘contends-with-God.’

In the narrative in Genesis, Jacob is on the journey back to Canaan, and he spends the night alone on a riverside. There he meets a ‘man’ who wrestles with him until daybreak. In the end, Jacob is given the name ‘Israel’ and blessed, while the ‘man’ refuses to give his own name. Jacob then names the place where they wrestle Penuel (פְּנוּאֵל), meaning ‘face of God’ or ‘facing God.’

This account gives us several plays on the meaning of Hebrew names – Penuel and Israel – as well as similarity to the root of Jacob’s name, which sounds like the Hebrew for ‘heel’ and its compound.

The limping of Jacob (Yaʿaqob), may mirror the name of the river, Jabbok (Yabbok, יַבֹּק, sounds like ‘crooked’ river). The mediaeval Jewish scholar Nahmanides says the name Jacob means ‘one who walks crookedly.’

Jacob is a foundational figure in the Biblical narratives, but that does not mean he is a great leader. He is a follower, a bit of a sneak, all hinted at in the pronunciation of his name. He lies to his father Isaac, he is manipulated by his mother Rebecca, he steals his brother Esau’s blessing, he runs for his life, and then ends up under the thumb of Laban, his father-in-law, for many years.

Now Jacob has earned and accumulated many possessions, and is on his way to visit his estranged brother Esau, hoping to be reconciled with him. He is crossing the Jabbok, the boundary into Canaan, we might say he is crossing ‘his Rubicon.’ But, what man, still fearing the vengeance of his brother, would send the women and children in his family ahead of himself, unprotected, while he stays behind on his own?

Who wrestles with Jacob?

The Hebrew text of Genesis states that Jacob wrestles with a ‘man’ (אִישׁ). The Septuagint (LXX) renders this as ἄνθρωπος (Anthropos), the Vulgate as vir. But later Jacob identifies this ‘man’ with God (Elohim).

Later Jewish versions read ‘because I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face’ (Targum of Onkelos) and ‘because I have seen the Angels of the Lord face to face’ (Targum of Palestine).

Hosea 12:3-4 refers to the event, but is just as unclear. Verse 3 says Jacob ‘strove with God’ (NRSVA), while verse 4 says that Jacob ‘strove with the angel.’

In Hosea 12: 4, Jacob’s opponent is described as malakh (מַלְאָךְ), ‘angel’: ‘He strove with the angel and prevailed, he wept and sought his favour; he met him at Bethel, and there he spoke with him’ (Hosea 12: 4, NRSVA).

The relative age of the text of Genesis and of Hosea is unclear, as both are part of the Hebrew Bible as redacted in the Second Temple Period. It has been suggested that malakh may be a late emendation of the text, and could represent an early Jewish interpretation of the episode.

The mediaeval French rabbinical scholar Rashi (1040–1105) believed Jacob wrestled with the guardian angel of Esau, his elder twin brother. Maimonides (1138–1204) insisted angels are metaphors for the natural forces of the divine. In his Guide for the Perplexed (2: 42), he argues that Jacob never wrestled an angel, and instead said this was ‘a vision of prophecy.’

The interpretation that ‘Jacob wrestled with God’ (glossed in the name Isra-’el) was accepted by both Luther and Calvin, although Calvin believed the event was ‘only a vision.’

Other commentaries interpret the expression that Jacob had seen ‘God face to face’ as a reference to the Angel of the Lord as the ‘Face of God.’ Others suggest an encounter with the pre-existent, eternal Christ. The Zohar describes Jacob’s battle with the angel as symbolic of humanity’s struggle with our darker side.

Rabbi Shmuel Klitsner, a lecturer in Bible and Biblical Exegesis at Lindenbaum College, Jerusalem, and the author of Wrestling Jacob: Deception, Identity, and Freudian Slips in Genesis (Teaneck, NJ: Ben Yehuda Press, 2009), says this episode opens us to those things that keep us awake at night.

‘The things that you’re wrestling with are the things you’ve relegated to darkness. You can wrestle with things in the dark, but when the rise of dawn comes, that enlightenment is the most threatening part of this,’ Rabbi Klitsner told CBC Radio last year [17 September 2019]. ‘Our ways of prevaricating, of lying to ourselves or deceiving others don’t withstand the light of day.’

After he prevails in his fight with the ‘angel’ and receives his desired blessing, Jacob is injured at the hip. The sun rises, and he is given a new name, Israel, which means ‘he who wrestles with God.’ The new name reflects not only his personal struggle, but the destiny of an entire people, says Rabbi Klitsner.

Professor Tracy Lemos of Huron University College in London, Ontario, and the author of Violence and Personhood in Ancient Israel and Comparative Contexts (Oxford University Press, 2017) says this story ‘gets at the difficulty of reaching transcendence and reaching understanding.’

‘It’s not arrived at easily,’ says Dr Lemos. ‘And even in our moment of victory, we are just left limping toward transcendence. We are still wounded.’

‘This struggle of Jacob’s is so intensely human,’ says Rabbi Klitsner. ‘He needs his identity to evolve the same way I need my identity to evolve: Over time and through struggle.’

Jacob struggled with God and is given a new name, Israel. This change signifies a new era in Jacob’s life, and gives meaning to his future. Jacob is no longer cunning, he now has a mission, he is now divinely commissioned Israel and he is the father of God’s chosen people. Just as he has struggled with God, so does the nation. He is now protected by God, and God’s people now have a role in the unfolding story of salvation.

‘My footsteps hold fast in the ways of your commandments’ (Psalm 17: 5) … footsteps in the sand at Ballybunion (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Psalm 17: 1-7, 16:

Psalm 17 is described as ‘a prayer of David.’ Verses 1-7 can be described as a prayer for God’s intervention on behalf of the righteous, and the concluding verse, verse 16, as a response of faith and hope.

The psalmist prays for deliverance from his accusers who behave deceitfully. May God show them that I am innocent. ‘Visit me by night,’ when I am asleep and defenceless. You will find me godly in action and word. I keep the Law and I have always been peaceful, unlike others. I have kept to God’s ways and never slipped. I am sure that God will hear me, and hear me now.

He asks God to show his love and mercy, already made known in God’s covenant with the people. Through his power, or with his right hand, God has saved those who seek refuge in God. The God who is asked to use his eyes to behold what is right (verse 2) is the God who will keep me as the apple of his eye (verse 8).

And so the psalmist is confident that he will see God’s face (see Jacob’s experience in our first reading) and be in the presence of God.

‘To … them belong … the covenants, the giving of the law … the patriarchs’ (Romans 9: 4-5) … Moses and the Law, a sculpture on the steps of the Palais de Justice in Perpignan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Romans 9: 1-5:

The Apostle Paul writes in this reading about his great sorrow and unceasing anguish, as he switches his focus from Gentiles to his own people, the Jews. In a pun on his own circumcision, his lasting physical mark that he is a Jew, he would rather be cut off from Christ than to be cut off from his own flesh and blood.

He reminds his readers, who are in danger of counter-posing Jews and Gentiles that Jews or Israelites are God’s chosen people, with a name given to Jacob in our first reading. As such are the recipients of seven great religious gifts from God:

● Adoption: being chosen as children of God and members of God’s family
● Glory: God’s presence in the Sinai and in the Temple
● The Covenants: between God and the patriarchs
● The giving of the Law: the covenant on Mount Sinai and the Torah
● The worship: the worship of the one God in the Temple
● The promises: to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David
● The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob)

There is an eighth gift too, he points out: the Messiah, who is born a Jew.

Feeding the 5,000 … a modern Greek Orthodox icon

Matthew 14: 13-21:

The feeding of the multitude is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels (see Mark 6: 30-44; Luke 9: 12-17; John 6: 1-15), with only minor variations on the place and the circumstances.

In the verses immediately before this reading, Saint Matthew tells of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, who was executed after he denounced Herod Antipas for marrying his brother Philip’s wife, while Philip was still alive (see Matthew 14: 1-11).

The disciples of Saint John the Baptist took his body and buried it – a foreshadowing of how his disciples are going to desert Christ at his own death and burial – and they then go to Christ to tell him the news (verse 12).

When Jesus hears this, he takes a boat and withdraws to a deserted place. But the crowds follow him on foot around the shore and find him, and when he comes ashore there is a great crowd waiting for him. He has compassion for them, and he cures the sick among them (verses 13-14).

But a greater miracle is about to unfold – perhaps even two greater miracles.

This is a story of a miracle, but which miracle?

The multiplication of the five loaves and two fish is a miracle in itself, of course. But we might consider how there is another miracle here too.

Saint Matthew places this story in a section in his Gospel about training the disciples for their mission. So, perhaps, Christ is teaching them about how they can do this.

Christ tells the people to sit down – well, not so much to sit down as to recline (ἀνακλίνω, anaklíno, verse 19). They are asked to recline on the grass as they would at a banquet or at a feast – just as Christ does with the disciples at the Last Supper.

In verse 19, we have a reminder of the feeding of the people in the Wilderness (see Exodus 16), but also a foretaste or anticipation of the Last Supper (see Matthew 26: 20-29), the Eucharistic feast, and of the Messianic banquet at the end of time.

Christ takes bread, looks up to heaven, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them to distribute it among the people.

The feeding with the fish also looks forward to the Resurrection. The fish is an early symbol of faith in the Risen Christ: Ichthus (ἰχθύς, ΙΧΘΥC) is the Greek word for fish, and can be read as an acrostic, a word formed from the first letters of words, spelling out ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Iēsous Khristos Theou Huios, Sōtēr), ‘Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.’

In verse 20, we are told all ate and were filled (see Exodus 16: 15-18, Numbers 11: 31-32; Elisha’s food miracles, II Kings 4:42-44; cf John 6: 31-33, Revelation 2: 17). In Apocryphal writings, II Baruch 29: 8, a Jewish pseudepigraphical text thought to date from the late 1st century AD or early 2nd century AD, also connects the feeding in the wilderness in Exodus 16 with the Messianic age.

There is yet another level to the story in verse 20. The disciples get everyone to work together with a common purpose. All are filled, and yet much is left over: a basket for each disciple. Each of them has a mission, telling the good news of the infinite abundance of God's love and the kingdom in which all can eat.

A variety of bread gathered in a basket in a restaurant in Panormos, near Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A reflection on the Gospel reading:

Whether they are Birthdays, baptisms, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, retirements, or parish celebrations, we all enjoy a good party. Parties affirm who we are, where we fit within the family, and mark the rhythm of life and the continuity of families and communities.

It is not only the eating or the drinking. It is very difficult to sit beside someone at the same table after a funeral, or to stand beside someone at the bar at a wedding, and not to end up getting to know them and – as is said in Ireland – getting to know ‘their seed, breed and generation.’

Families share names, share stories, share memories, share identities, share anniversaries. And that is not all in the past. These celebrations allow us to express and share our hopes for the future too … is that not what baptisms and weddings are about in every family – hope for the future, hope for life itself?

In this story, the disciples have failed to buy or produce enough bread for a meal. Christ responds not by sympathising but by demanding great generosity (see verse 18).

The disciples gather up what is left over. Gathering is an act of reverential economy towards the gifts of God; but gathering also anticipates Christ gathering all to himself. The amount that is left over is a sign of the outpouring of God’s generosity. There are 12 baskets – one for each tribe of Israel and one for each of the 12 disciples. God’s party, the Eucharist, looks forward to the new Israel, not the sort of earthly kingdom that the people now want but the Kingdom of God.

Christ puts no questions of belief to the disciples or to the crowd when he feeds them on the mountainside. They do not believe in the Resurrection – it has yet to happen. But he feeds them, and he feeds them indiscriminately. The disciples wanted to send them away (verse 15), but Christ wants to count them in. Christ invites more people to the banquet than we can fit into our churches.

We often describe this story as the Feeding of the Multitude, or the Feeding of the Five Thousand. But how many people are there?

Verse 21 tells us that there were ‘about five thousand men,’ but adds also, ‘besides women and children.’

We often describe this story as the Feeding of the Multitude, or the Feeding of the Five Thousand. But how many people are there?

Verse 21 tells us that there were ‘about five thousand men,’ but adds also, ‘besides women and children.’

If there were 5,000 men there that day, and one woman and two children for each couple, we are then talking about the feeding of 20,000 people, or the population of a town like Wexford, Celbridge or Mullingar.

Sir Colin J Humphreys of Selwyn College Cambridge, former Professor of Materials Science, in his analysis of the number of people in the Exodus suggests the number of Israelite men over the age of 20 in the census following the Exodus 5,000, and not 603,550. He attributes the apparent error to an error in interpreting or translating the Hebrew word ’lp (אלף), and he goes on to suggest the number of men, women and children at the Exodus was about 20,000. Both of his figures correlate with the figures for the feeding of the multitude in this Gospel reading.

When we invite people into the Church, we have so much to share – much more that the meagre amount people may think we have in our bags.

As we enjoy the feast, enjoy the banquet, enjoy the party, share the Eucharist, are we prepared to be open to more being brought in to enjoy the banquet and the party than our imagination allows us to imagine.

The miracle of the five loaves and two fish … a modern Ethiopian painting in Mount Saint Joseph Abbey, Roscrea (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Matthew 14: 13-21 (NRSVA):

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15 When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ 16 Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ 17 They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ 18 And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’ 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

‘Send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves’ (Matthew 14: 15) … bread on sale in a bakery in Platanias near Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Resources:

Liturgical Colour: Green (Year A, Ordinary Time).

The Collect of the Day:

Blessed are you, O Lord,
and blessed are those who observe and keep your law:
Help us to seek you with our whole heart,
to delight in your commandments
and to walk in the glorious liberty
given us by your Son, Jesus Christ.

The Collect of the Word:

O God, giver of life and health,
whose Son Jesus Christ has called us to hunger and thirst for justice,
refresh us with your grace,
that we may not be weary in well-doing,
for the sake of him who meets all our needs,
Jesus Christ our Saviour;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that holy things have taken;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fullness of your life;
glory to you for ever.

‘Let us break bread together, we are one’ (Hymn 428) … bread in the window of Hindley’s Bakery and Café, Tamworth Street, Lichfield (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Suggested Hymns:

Genesis 32: 22-31:

418, Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face
226, It is a thing most wonderful
592 , Love that wilt not let me go

Psalm 17: 1-7, 16:

635, Lord, be my guardian and my guide
620, O Lord, hear my prayer

Isaiah 55: 1-5:

646, Glorious things of thee are spoken
576, I heard the voice of Jesus say
557, Rock of ages, cleft for me
448, The trumpets sound, the angels sing

Psalm 145: 8-9, 15-22:

42, Good is the Lord, our heavenly King
365, Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of creation

Romans 9: 1-5:

303, Lord of the Church, we pray for our renewing
545, Sing of Eve and sing of Adam
323, The God of Abraham praise

Matthew 14: 13-21:

379, Break thou the bread of life
39, For the fruits of his creation
647, Guide me, O thou great Jehovah
428, Let us break bread together, we are one
435, O God unseen, yet ever near

Some forward planning:

The Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) has been offering recorded sermons as a Sunday resource for parishes throughout these islands.

The next recorded sermon from USPG will be available for Sunday 9 August (Trinity IX), and is being recorded by the Canon Patrick Comerford, who is a Trustee of USPG.

The Gospel passage (Matthew 14: 22-33) that Sunday recounts Christ’s calming of the storm. On what will be the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki – which was home to one of the largest and oldest Christian communities in East Asia – Patrick asks, ‘Where do we find calm in the storms of the world today?’

USPG, one of the oldest Anglican mission agencies, sends out these sermons on the Thursday prior to the Sunday involved.

You can order this sermon for your church or parish by emailing Gwen Mtambirwa, USPG Mission Engagement Co-ordinator, gwenm@uspg.org.uk. In the email, include the name of your church (if it is for a church service), the time of the service, and if you have one, attach a high-resolution photograph of your church attached to your email as a jpeg.

‘Let you eye behold what is right … Keep me as the apple of your eye’ (Psalm 17: 2, 8) (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

The hymns suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)

Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.

Readings, hymns and sermon ideas for Sunday 22 July 2018, Eighth Sunday after Trinity, Saint Mary Magdalene

He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while’ (Mark 6: 31) … (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday next, 22 July 2018, is the Eighth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VIII). The appointed readings in the Revised Common Lectionary for Trinity VIII as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland are:

Continuous readings: II Samuel 7: 1-14a; Psalm 89: 20-37; Ephesians 2: 11-22; Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56.

Paired readings: Jeremiah 23: 1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2: 11-22; Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56.

There is a link to the continuous readings HERE.

Sunday is also the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene (22 July 2018), when the appointed readings in the Revised Common Lectionary as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland are:

Song of Solomon 3: 1-4; Psalm 42: 1-10; II Corinthians 5: 14-17; John 20: 1-2, 11-18.

There is a link to these readings HERE.

Trinity VIII:

Christ ‘has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us’ … flowers on a wall at the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

II Samuel 7: 1-14a

King David has been installed as king in Jerusalem, and is secure living in a palace built of cedar, then regarded as the best building material of the time. But David is conscious that while he is living in a lavish house, the Ark of God remains in a tent.

David consults his court prophet, Nathan, and confides in him his plan to build a temple for the Ark. Nathan agrees, but that night in a vision God tells Nathan to bring a message to David.

Nathan is to tell David that he is not the person to build a temple for God. Ever since the Exodus, God has not had a temple, nor has he ever asked for one.

Nathan is to remind David how God raised him from being a shepherd boy to being king, that God has always been with him wherever he goes, and he has defeated all his enemies. There are more promises to follow: God will also give his people a settled life, peace and security, and he will make David the founder of a royal ‘house’ or dynasty, and David’s kingdom will be God’s for ever.

There is an interesting play on words here: the word ‘house’ (bayith in Hebrew) refers to:

● a palace (verse 1),
● a temple (verse 4),
● a dynasty or royal house (verses 11 and 13).

This chapter is important for Christological reasons. God is soon to make a covenant with David. Chapter 7 connects all that has gone before with all that is about to come after.

God’s next covenant is with David and is a commitment to bringing about a kingdom and a dynasty among his descendants. A short-sighted interpretation would limit these promises to David and Solomon before the fall of the kingdom. But as Saint Paul makes clear, the great rule of David’s dynasty is completed in Christ Jesus and is a kingdom for Jew and Gentile alike (see Romans 1: 1-6).

The first Christians believed that Christ is the ‘Son of David’ and that through him they were the heirs to this promise to David.

Psalm 89: 20-37:

Psalm 89 recalls how God spoke to David through his words with the Prophet Nathan in our Old Testament reading (Psalm 89: 19).

Sunday’s portion of Psalm 89 recalls how God anointed David as his regent, and God will be constant in his love for him. Through God, David will be victorious, he will rule from the sea to the river (verse 25), from the Mediterranean to Mesopotamia. David will acknowledge God as Father, and God will adopt him as his firstborn. David will be closer to God than any other king, no matter what he and his descendants do. David’s line will continue forever, as the moon endures in the heavens (verse 37).

‘You are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone’ (Ephesians 2: 19-20) … the cross on a corner stone in the church in Vlatadon Monastery in Thessaloniki (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Ephesians 2: 11-22:

The theme of the house of God is taken up by Saint Paul again in the New Testament reading (Ephesians 2: 11-22). Here Saint Paul reminds us that Jews and Gentiles are both heirs to the Covenants God has made in the past, which would include God’s covenant with David in II Samuel 7.

But the true Temple is not the one David had a vision for, or the one built by Solomon. It is a Temple that is ‘built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone’ (verse 20).

This is the household of God, in which we are citizens with the saints and full members, regardless of whether we are Jews or Gentiles. We were once aliens and strangers, but now we are all insiders, full members of the household of God, because of God’s love for us.

Christ, the head and the cornerstone, along with the Church, the body and the foundation, replace the physical Temple in Jerusalem that David wanted to built. Now cultural differences are no longer relevant. What matters now is that we are ‘one new humanity’ (verse 15). The old divisions are gone, and Christ brings us together ‘in one body’ (verse 16). This is a message of peace in a divided, broken, divided and sinful world (verse 14).

Think about how the word ‘house’ is used in our Old Testament reading. The words used in the Epistle reading for household, οἰκεῖος (oikeios), and for building, οἰκοδομή (oikodomí), are from the same root as the word that gives us ecumenism. Our ecumenism, our ecumenical endeavours, our seeking for common ground in mission and ministry, in sacrament and in service, seek to draw us into one family, one household, where Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.

But this is a household at the service of the many. Saint Paul tells us we are being grown into a holy temple, into a dwelling-place for God. And when I think of that Temple, I think not just of David’s vision for building a Temple in our first reading, but the vision of the Temple in Revelation, when ‘people will bring into it the glory and honour of the nations’ (Revelation 21: 22-26).

That is the glory we should be seeking, that is the honour that we should be seeking, and it is the task of the Church as servant, in its ministry, not to see that you and I sit at the right and left hand of glory, but that as servants we bring the needs of the world, the needs of the nations, to the Church, and bring the hurch to serve the needs of the many.

‘When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat’ (Mark 6: 53) … a moored boat in the harbour in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56:

On the Sunday before last (8 July 2018), we read earlier in this chapter (Mark 6: 1-13) how Christ sent out the disciples, two-by-two, giving them authority over all that is evil in the world. Saint Mark’s narrative then diverted briefly last Sunday (15 July 2018) to the story of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist (Mark 6: 14-29). Now, Saint Mark returns to the main story (Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56).

The Lectionary portion next Sunday omits the story of the feeding of the 5,000 (verses 35-52). Instead, the feeding of the multitude is the story in the Gospel reading from Saint John’s Gospel the following Sunday (John 6: 1-21). But it is worth mentioning here that each of Saint Mark’s feeding miracles is joined with a water miracle, evoking the Exodus stories, including God parting the waters (Exodus 14: 19-31) and God feeding the people in the wilderness (Exodus 16: 31-21), and the disciples’ misunderstanding is a serious condition, akin to Pharaoh’s misunderstanding that is linked to his oppression of the enslaved people (see Exodus 7 to 11).

In Sunday’s Gospel reading, Christ debriefs the disciples after their return, having been sent out (verse 30). In Mark 3: 20, Christ has no time to eat, and now neither do the disciples (verse 32), such is Christ’s popularity as a healer and a wonder-worker.

Saint Mark puts his emphasis here on the crowd: many people recognise Christ and the disciples (verses 33, 55), they hurry to meet them as they disembark from boat, and Christ has compassion for them, for they are ‘like sheep without a shepherd’ (verse 34). They bring the sick with them, and beg Jesus to heal them (verse 56). He has compassion on them, begins to teach them, and heals the sick.

In the midst of all this, the disciples are on a boat on their way to Bethsaida when they are caught in a storm on the lake. Jesus walks on the water, calms their fears and shows his divine power – in this case over the stormy, choppy seas (verses 45-52).

The fringes on Christ’s cloak (verse 56) are the blue threads (tzitzit that show how he obeys God’s commandments: Israelite men were to wear fringes at the corners of their cloaks (see Numbers 15: 37-40; Deuteronomy 22: 12). In touching his cloak, the sick people are making him ritually unclean, but those who touch him are healed. In the following chapter, Saint Mark shows how the religious authorities are more concerned with legalistic ritual purity than with the needs of the common people, and how in touching Christ they are ‘touched’ by God’s power.

But as with our reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, the call is to all, Christ breaks down all barriers, and we are all invited to be part of the household of God, to enter his holy Temple, which is ‘built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.’

When they got out of the boat, people at once recognised him (Mark 6: 54) … a replica of a fishing boat in a restaurant in Rethymnon, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56 (NRSV):

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognised them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognised him, 55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the market-places, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

‘Noli me Tangere’, by Mikhail Damaskinos, ca 1585-1591, in the Museum of Christian Art in the Church of Saint Catherine of Sinai in Iraklion, Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Saint Mary Magdalene (22 July 2018):

Introduction

A new biblical drama film, Mary Magdalene was released earlier this year [2018]. The script is by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett, the film was directed by Garth Davis, and it stars Rooney Mara as Mary Magdalene, Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus Christ, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Saint Peter and Tahar Rahim as Judas.

The film had its world premiere at the National Gallery, London, on 26 February 2018, was screened at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival on 28 February 2018, and was released in Britain on 16 March 2018.

In a review in the Guardian [27 February 2018], Peter Bradshaw said the movie ‘sets itself a bold task: to rescue Mary Magdalene from an age-old tradition of patriarchal condescension and misinterpretation. And yet it winds up embracing a solemn, softly-spoken and slow-moving Christian piety of its own.’

Of course, Mary Magdalene was an intimate witness to some of the most important events in the life of Christ, including his Crucifixion, burial and Resurrection. But she has been wrongly recast in popular tradition as a ‘fallen woman’ and ‘prostitute.’

Saint Mary Magdalene mentioned by name 12 times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles. Her epithet Magdalene most likely means that she came from the town of Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.

In the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was conflated in western tradition with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed ‘sinful woman’ who anoints Jesus’s feet (see Luke 7: 36-50), resulting in a widespread but inaccurate belief that she was a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman.

This caricature of Mary Magdalene probably reached its low point in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar with Mary’s song ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him,’ with its startling lines: ‘He’s a man, he’s just a man, and I’ve had so many men before, in very many ways …’

The feast of Saint Mary Magdalene next Sunday may also offer an opportunity to address the way many women were treated in the past in the ‘Magdalene Laundries’ in Ireland.

John 20: 1-2, 11-18:

Early on the Sunday morning (‘the first day of the week’) after the Crucifixion, before dawn, Mary Magdalene, who has been a witness to Christ’s death and burial, comes to the tomb and finds that the stone has been rolled away.

Initially it seems she is on her own, for she alone is named. But later she describes her experiences using the word ‘we,’ which indicates she was with other women.

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, these women are known as the Holy Myrrh-bearers (Μυροφόροι). The Myrrh-bearers are traditionally listed as: Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joses, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, Martha of Bethany, sister of Lazarus, Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus, Joanna, the wife of Chuza the steward of Herod Antipas, and Salome, the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and Susanna, although it is generally said that there are other Myrrh-bearers whose names are not known.

Mary and these women run to tell Saint Peter and the other disciple – presumably Saint John the Evangelist – that they suspect someone has removed Christ’s body. The ‘other disciple’ may have been younger and fitter, for he outruns Saint Peter. The tidy way the linen wrappings and the shroud have been folded or rolled up shows that the body has not been stolen. They believe, yet they do not understand; they return home without any explanations.

But Mary still thinks Christ’s body has been removed or stolen, and she returns to the grave. In her grief, she sees ‘two angels in white’ sitting where the body had been lying, one at the head, and one at the feet. They speak to her and then she turns around sees Christ, but only recognises him when he calls her by name.

Saint Peter and Saint John have returned without seeing the Risen Lord. It is left to Mary to tell the Disciples that she has seen the Lord. Mary Magdalene is the first witness of the Resurrection.

All four gospels are unanimous in telling us that the women are the earliest witnesses to the Risen Christ. In Saint John’s Gospel, the Risen Christ sends Mary Magdalene to tell the other disciples what she had seen. Mary becomes the apostle to the apostles.

The word apostle comes from the Greek ἀπόστολος (apóstólos), formed from the prefix ἀπό- (apó-, ‘from’) and the root στέλλω (stéllō, ‘I send,’ ‘I depart’). So, the Greek word ἀπόστολος (apóstolos) or apostle means one sent.

In addition, at the end of the reading (verse 18), Mary comes announcing what she has seen. The word used here (ἀγγέλλουσα, angéllousa) is from the word that gives us the Annunciation, the proclamation of the good news, the proclamation of the Gospel (Εὐαγγέλιον, Evangélion).

Mary, in her proclamation of the Gospel of the Resurrection, is not only the apostle to the apostles, but she is also the first of the evangelists.

In Saint John’s Gospel, when Mary first sees Christ, she does not recognise him. In this reading, the Greek is regularly phrased in the present tense: Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb (verse 1), she sees (verse 1), she runs, she comes, and she says (verse 2); John sees (verse 5), Simon Peter then comes, and he sees (verse 6); Mary sees the two angels (verse 12), they say to her and she says to them that she does not know (verse 13); she then sees Jesus (verse 14); Jesus says to her (verse 15, and again verses 16 and 17) – notice this is three times in all; and she then comes announcing what she has seen and heard.

The language is constantly punctuated with the word ‘and,’ giving it a rapid, fast-moving pace, rather like the pace in Saint Mark’s Gospel. This is a present, real, living experience for all involved, and not one single episode that be relegated to the past.

The Risen Christ does things he did not do before: he appears in locked rooms, there is something different about his appearance, his friends do not realise immediately who he is. This is the same Jesus, but something has changed.

Why does Jesus tell Mary (verse 17): ‘Do not hold onto me’ (Μή μου ἅπτου, Noli me tangere)?

How do we recognise new life in the Risen Christ?

How do we understand the invitation from the Risen Christ to feast with him?

When we accept the new life Christ offers, how does our vision change?

Where do we see the presence of the Risen Christ?

Do we see his presence in the people and places we like and that please us?

Can we see him in the people we do not like and in the situations we find challenging? – the hungry child, the fleeing refugee, the begging person on the street, the homeless addict sleeping on the street or in the doorway?

Is my heart changed by the Risen Christ?

Where do I see the broken and bruised Body of Christ needing restoration and Resurrection?

Do I know him in the word he speaks to me and in the breaking of the bread?

Is the presence of the Risen Christ a living experience for us this morning?

Can Easter be an every-morning, every-day, living experience for us?

The women at the tomb … a stained glass window in Saint Ann’s Church, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 20: 1-2, 11-18 (NRSV):

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’

11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16 Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”.’ 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

‘Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that holy things have taken’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2018)

Liturgical Resources (Trinity VIII):

Liturgical colour: Green

Collect:

Blessed are you, O Lord,
and blessed are those who observe and keep your law:
Help us to seek you with our whole heart,
to delight in your commandments
and to walk in the glorious liberty
given us by your Son, Jesus Christ.

The Post-Communion Prayer:

Strengthen for service, Lord,
the hands that holy things have taken;
may the ears which have heard your word
be deaf to clamour and dispute;
may the tongues which have sung your praise be free from deceit;
may the eyes which have seen the tokens of your love
shine with the light of hope;
and may the bodies which have been fed with your body
be refreshed with the fulness of your life;
glory to you for ever.

Early on the first day of the week … Mary Magdalene came to the tomb (John 20: 1) – a window in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Liturgical Resources (Saint Mary Magdalene):

Liturgical colour: White

Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son restored Mary Magdalene
to health of mind and body
and called her to be a witness to his resurrection:
Forgive our sins and heal us by your grace,
that we may serve you in the power of his risen life;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Penitential Kyries:

Lord, you are gracious and compassionate.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

You are loving to all.
and your mercy is over all creation. Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Your faithful servants bless your name,
and speak of the glory of your kingdom.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Introduction to the Peace:

We are fellow-citizens with the saints,
and of the household of God,
through Christ our Lord,
who came and preached to those who were far off
and those who were near. (Ephesians 2: 19, 17)

Preface:

In the saints
you have given us an example of godly living,
that, rejoicing in their fellowship,
we may run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
and with them receive the unfading crown of glory:

Post-Communion Prayer:

God of life and love,
whose risen Son called Mary Magdalene by name
and sent her to tell of his resurrection to his apostles:
In your mercy, help us,
who have been united with him in this Eucharist,
to proclaim the good news
that he is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Blessing:

God give you the grace
to share in the inheritance of Saint Mary Magdalene and of his saints in glory:

Suggested Hymns (Trinity VIII):

The hymns suggested for Proper 11 (Year B) in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling, include:

II Samuel 7: 1-14a:

342, Sweet is the solemn voice that calls
73, The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended
343, We love the place, O God

Psalm 89: 20-37:

670, Come, worship God who is worthy of honour
2, Faithful one, so unchanging
668, God is our fortress and our rock
557, Rock of ages, cleft for me

Jeremiah 23: 1-6:

250, All hail the power of Jesus’ name
135, O come, O come, Emmanuel
442, Praise the Lord, rise up rejoicing
197, Songs of thankfulness and praise
323, The God of Abraham praise
20, The King of love my shepherd is

Psalm 23:

644, Faithful Shepherd, feed me
645, Father, hear the prayer we offer
466, Here from all nations, all tongues, and all peoples
467, How bright those glorious spirits shine
655, Loving Shepherd of your sheep
433, My God, your table here is spread
235, O sacred head, sore wounded
365, Praise to the Lord, the almighty, the King of creation
20, The King of love my shepherd is
21, The Lord’s my shepherd; I’ll not want
448, The trumpets sound, the angels sing

Ephesians 2: 11-22:

326, Blessèd city, heavenly Salem (Christ is made the sure foundation)
327, Christ is our corner–stone
87, Christ is the world’s light, he and none other
501, Christ is the world’s true light
421, I come with joy, a child of God
522, In Christ there is no east or west
306, O Spirit of the living God
675, Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
507, Put peace into each other’s hands
340, Sing and be glad, for this is God’s house!
528, The Church’s one foundation
313, The Spirit came, as promised
493, Ye that know the Lord is gracious

Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56:

211, Immortal love for ever full
513, O Christ, the healer, we have come
104, O for a thousand tongues to sing

Mary Magdalene at Easter … a sculpture by Mary Grant at the west door of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Suggested Hymns (Saint Mary Magdalene, 22 July):

The hymns suggested for Saint Mary Magdalene (22 July) in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling, include:

Song of Solomon 3: 1-4:

592, O Love that wilt not let me go

Psalm 42: 1-10:

607, As pants the hart for cooling streams
606, As the deer pants for the water
15, If thou but suffer God to guide thee
95, Jesu, priceless treasure
425, Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts
434, My Jesus, pierced with love of me

II Corinthians 5: 14-18:

416, Great God, your love has called us here
268, Hail, thou once-despisèd Jesus
522, In Christ there is no east or west
226, It is a thing most wonderful
634, Love divine, all loves excelling
306, O Spirit of the living God
528, The Church’s one foundation

John 20: 1-2, 11-18:

74, First of the week and finest day
460, For all your saints in glory, for all your saints at rest (verses 1, 2l, 3)
273, Led like a lamb to the slaughter
74, Light’s glittering morning bedecks the sky
104, O for a thousand tongues to sing
288, Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son
115, Thou art the Way: to thee alone
290, Walking in a garden at the close of day

Hymns that are also suitable include:

459, For all the saints who from their labours rest
461, For all thy saints, O Lord
576, I heard the voice of Jesus say
272, Jesus lives: thy terrors now
58, Morning has broken
237, O my Saviour, lifted
279, O sons and daughters, let us sing (vv. 1–3, 9)
471, Rejoice in God’s saints, today and all days
246, Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

The Second Court in Magdalene College, Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and are used by permission. All rights reserved.