Rose Sunday Mid Lent

 Rose Sunday Mid Lent

First Reading

Exodus 16:4-15

 

Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord; for that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord: for he hath heard your murmurings. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

Second Reading

 

The Epistle

Galatians iv. 21.

TELL me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not: break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Holy Gospel

 

The Gospel

St. John vi. 1.

JESUS went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet. that should come into the world.

A Little Lad

John 6:1-21 “ One Can Make a Difference with God”

Today’s Gospel calls us to look at the miracle that Jesus did in multiplying the loaves and fish. Jesus sees the crowd and asks one of his disciples, “ Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” 6:5 He was trying to test Philip the Gospel writer John tells us or “prove” him, for he “himself knew what he would do.” 6:6 Philip sees that they do not have enough money to buy bread for all the people and is “ not sufficient for them” 6:7 But another disciple seeing the same situation Andrew who was Simon Peter’s brother says unto Jesus, “ There is a lad here which has five barley loaves, and two small fish.” 6:8 Even he realized that they were not enough among so many. 6:9

 

We all encounter situations in our lives where we have to choose courses of action and make decisions. Should we just give up? Some seem to do that. That talk may be under some of our feelings in one way or another. Now giving up is not such a bad idea as it sounds either. For when we give up, we can let God work, if that is our intent. Last time I looked God works through means. He has ordained people to do His work. I want to give Andrew credit. He saw that there was a possibility among the impossible. He did not just do what Philip did and say , “ this is not going to work.”

 

Are we an Andrew or a Philip? In our own American history I can think of some that persevered and did not give up in the middle of very hard situations. One of these is George Washington at Valley Forge. Here it would have been easy to just give up. He had basically no food and no place to house his army in the winter, but he did not give up. We know from our American history that in the middle of this he developed a plan to attack even in winter because that was when the British would be least expecting him. And in the end he was successful and saved the nation. That is why we honor him with the title, “ father of our country.”

 

Andrew looked to Jesus and of course we know what happens. He made the men sit down, about 5,000. “ And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples….the fragments left over filled twelve baskets above unto them that had eaten.” 6:13 The Scripture calls this a miracle. 6:14

 

In our situations are we letting God work through us or others? Or have we said , “ this can never happen?” Unfortunately there are more Philips than Andrews around us. Negative thinking about what God can do is damaging. It stunts our growth and our vitality. It discourages and disheartens us . We lower our heads in deep feeling of disappointment.

 

Ephesians reflects this as well----Ephesians 3:14-21. I saw this right away when I read it . “ that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love…be filled with all the fulness of God.” It would be well to admit that we have conducted a lot of relationships and business without others remembering the golden rule. “ Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Matthew 7:12 We all want our opinions respected and wish to be heard. We all have rushed to judgment without all the facts. There may be things we disagree on but we can agree to disagree in love. The reading in Ephesians says when we are filled with the fullness of God, we can let Him do His work. Our job is to listen to that direction from Him. 3:20 gives us the goal in the form of a prayer, “ Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”

 

If God is to work through His Church we should be more like Andrew than Philip. Maybe we cannot do such and such, but we can do this or that. We can make a start in the power of Christ and in the love that envelopes us . Do you see the difference? “ May we go where God leads “ someone prayed I heard on the radio this week. So we pray, “ enable us for your service” . We pray for the world in which we live and the calling that God has chosen us to .

 

Yes, God calls us to be the one person that makes a difference in our own lives and in the lives of others. For one person can make a dif