Weekly Bible Notes, 10th August 2003
19th Sunday in Ordinary
Year B, Green
| First Reading: | 1 Kings 19:1-9 |
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| Second Reading: | John 6:35-51 | |
| Commentary: | Elijah | |
| Meditation: | Strength for the Journey | |
| Prayers: | Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead |
Opening Verse of Scripture桬phesians:4
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Amen
Collect Prayer for the Day桞efore we read we pray
Almighty Lord and everlasting God, we beseech you to direct, sanctify and govern both our hearts and bodies in the ways of your laws and the works of your commandments; that through your most mighty protection, both here and ever, we may be preserved in body and soul; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
First Bible Reading 1 Kings 19:1-9
Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them." Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD ," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and eat." He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he travelled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night. (This is the word of the Lord. All: Thanks be to God)
Second Reading John 6:35-51
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"
"Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (This is the word of the Lord. All: Thanks be to God)
Post Communion Prayer
Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that have taken holy things; 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.
Commentary: Elijah
The Story of Elijah is an interesting one, he was one of the first of the great prophets. Elijah抯 background is known only from his description as 扙lijah, the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead?1 Kings 17:1. He first appears warning King Ahab of an impending drought, this drought would only end when Elijah proclaimed it so.
What lay behind this was a challenge as to who had power and authority, Yahweh, the God if Israel, or the Canaanite Baal gods. Baal means 憃wner?or 慙ord?and this was the name given to the Canaanite gods of storms and weather. The Baal god was the owner of the land and the inclination to worship these gods was strong. After making his pronouncement, Elijah hid in the desert and lodged with a widow. When the local brook dried up Elijah assured the widow that she would be able to feed her household many days with her meagre supplies which would not diminish. The widow also had her dead son raised by Elijah. (17:24)
After three years of drought Ahab accused Elijah of
troubling Israel. Elijah responded by telling Ahab to assemble the prophets
of Baal to Mount Carmel, where he issued a challenge. Elijah proposed that
both he and the prophets of Ball set up an altar and prepare a sacrifice.
The people would then recognise as God the one whose altar caught fire.
Baal抯 prophets called upon their god that day, danced around the altar and
mutilated themselves, but there was no reply. Elijah built his altar with
twelve stones, to represent the unity of the Twelve tribes of Israel. He
then called to God and the altar was immediately consumed by fire. The rains
came later that day, proving to Ahab that God, unlike Baal, could end the
drought at will.
Elijah was then faced with a death threat from Jezebel, Ahab抯 wife, and he
fled from the city of Jezreel to Beersheba. There he went out into the
wilderness about a day's walk, and came to a solitary broom tree in the
midst of this wilderness, and sat under it. He then asks God that he might
die. An Angel fed him and he gained strength to go on to Horeb, which we
call Mount Sinai, where Moses had received the ten commandments. Elijah
complained that he was a fugitive, a poor reward for having served God.
Wind, fire and an earthquake passed by the cave where he hid. God was not
there but appeared to him in a still small voice (1Kings 9:12). So it was
that God cared for Elijah even when Elijah felt there was no hope left.
At the end of this journey through the wilderness he is granted a vision of God - and given a message of hope for his own life and for the nation. Elijah went on to serve God in challenging Ahab over the murder of Naboth and taking of his vineyard. Elijah passed his ministry on to Elisha, by passing him his mantle while he was ploughing. Finally after the appearance of a fiery chariot and horses, Elijah was taken into heaven in a whirlwind.
Elijah in tradition
In Malachi 4:5 God says 慖 will send you the prophet Elijah before the great
and terrible day comes? to reunite families in disagreement. As Elijah was
believed not to have died, legend has grown around him. Jews believe that
Elijah will come at the end of days to decide questions of law and that he
will announce the coming of the Messiah. His presence is hoped for at the
Passover Seder. A chair is dedicated to him at circumcision ceremonies,
which he has to attend as each child might be the Messiah. In early
Christianity the return of Elijah was attributed to John the Baptist and he
was associated with Jesus at the Transfiguration.
Charles Royden
Meditation: Strength for the Journey
There are times when people we know and love despair to the point of wanting to die. Perhaps there have been times when we ourselves have thought death a better alternative. Our journey through life takes us through some very dangerous country, our pilgrimage of life can leads us into some very desolate wilderness. Think of the words of the angel to Elijah, the words "Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you."
To survive on our journey, to have the strength to go through the barren
places of life, those places where we are alone - because of divorce, or
illness, or death - we need to eat to drink the food and the drink that God
has prepared for us. God does provide food in the words of his scriptures,
in the lives of good people around us. We reach out to God when we are in
need, when we are in despair, it is then that we must wait upon that still
small voice which encourages us to believe, to trust, to rise up and feed
upon the living bread. It is only as we do this that we all gain strength to
enable us to complete our journey.
Hymns (Hymns & Psalms)
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Praise my soul 13
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Who put the colours in the rainbow (On notices)
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Immortal Invisible 9
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Who would true valour 688
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Lift up your hearts 405 (Tune Woodlands)
Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead
God of the way, you are the road we
travel, and the sign we follow; you are bread for the journey, and the wine
of arrival. Guide us as we follow in your way, holding on to each other,
reaching out to your beloved world. And when we stray, seek us out and find
us, set our feet on the path again, and lead us safely home. In the name of
Jesus, our Lord we pray. Amen.
Dear Lord, we thank you for your love, for how you provide all things that
we need. We thank you and
we ask you, O God, to continue to feed us,
to work on us - and to move us to feed
others. Father, just as you graciously provide for our spiritual nourishment
through the Word revealed to us by your Son, Jesus Christ, so we bring our
physical needs and the needs of others before you, in the faith and
confidence that you are willing to hear our prayers. We pray, O God, for the
needs of our brothers and sisters throughout the world, those who are united
with us at the one table of the Lord, and also for the people of his Church,
that they may continue to illuminate
the Word by their words and example.
Creator God, Give us a heart for simple things: love and laughter, bread and
wine, tales and dreams. Fill our lives with green and growing hope; make us
a people of justice whose song is Alleluia and whose name breathes love.
| First Reading: | 1 Kings 19:1-9 |
| Second Reading: | John 6:35-51 |
| Commentary: | Elijah |
| Meditation: | Strength for the Journey |
| Prayers | Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead |
| Intercessions | |
| Sermon: | Letting God Minister to Us |