Pentecost 8 - Year B

When we gather families, and ourselves, at the monthly "Come to the Waters" session, our preparation for baptism of their children, we obviously look at, and talk about, the baptism service. But after a scrummy afternoon tea, we explore something else... we begin to talk about the spirituality of their children, the God-space of these wee young lives that must be taken care of we say, because that God-space is in everyone, living and waiting to be formed.

In that spiritual formation, we suggest, is the input of the world -and the things we feel should be there, and the things we feel should not. And I put the wondering question to parents, Godparents and us all - ‘what are the things you are concerned about, for your children?' We have explored the baptismal vows, and looked at those definitive words of "rejecting selfish living" and "renouncing evil" - but this is more than that, it seems. We are asking - what are those forces in the world that bring fear because they are big, too big, for us to control. Too big too reject and renounce because they are part of life, daily life.

Into that wondering, we then list a few of those forces that we have named - the hurried society, materialism, consumerism. We do so almost lightly - there and named, but not explored further. There is (ironically) not time to do so - but also, mainly, our intent in this session is initiate an alertness, perhaps a beginning alertness, into those forces that can influence us subversively and thus affect our own spirituality and our relationship with Creator God.

I wonder, have you thought about the nature of consumerism and its detrimental effect on our lives and souls in this way? Mind you, I can just hear you all thinking...this is good, from our Rector of many shoes! Ah, the frailty of humanity....

Consuming is in our face today with the Gospel word describing the huge consumption of bread and fish. This Jesus story is one of the few common to all, and you will notice we have moved from Mark's Gospel into John's Gospel for this telling. We are actually going to have a few weeks of John, before returning to Mark, in our Sunday Gospel readings. There is no ‘last supper' story in John's Gospel, and the tradition tells us that for John the account of the miracle of the loaves and fishes is the revelation of the Eucharist. We note that only in John's account is it Jesus who distributes the bread and fish; in the others it is the disciples.

Perhaps you have not before named this miracle as a "consumer event". It is certainly about consuming.... we will return to Jesus in a moment. Not that we ever leave him, mind you... but let us explore some realities of the consumer society we are part of.

The definition of ‘consumer society' is centred in pleasure in wanting, not having. It is about desire for things, a desire always on the move and never satisfied. When an item is obtained and seemingly should bring an end to that desire, it becomes undesirable. Thus consumerism is typified by detachment from things, not attachment, for desire must be kept on the move. Someone wrote that what has happened in consumer society is that dissatisfaction and satisfaction are no longer opposites. There will never be satisfaction, and there will be never enough ‘stuff' to go around, because desire is endless. There is no end to the cycle of that kind of desire. The experience becomes the lifestyle - from the infamous stories of people like Imelda (with her fetish for shoes - makes me feel better quoting her!) to the extreme of substance abuse to the point of addiction.

Straight away we can see how such a force cannot be part of a God-relationship, indeed, cannot be part of a healthy spiritual universe, no matter who your God is. We are called and drawn to be part of relationship with not only God but all that God has created and continues to create. In that understanding, no isolated product confronts an isolated individual. Indeed, ‘no man is an island'. We are part of a web of being, participating in a life force flowing from and returning to Creator God, and it is a relationship of beauty and also of glory.
It is not a relationship that excludes dissatisfaction though. But rather than leading us onto the "next thing", we Christians have only one end, and that is to be truly with God. We all the time have to be translating our dissatisfaction, our restlessness, into that framework, that belief. That is what we are to consume together - we do not stand apart from the rest of creation as individuals, appropriating, consuming, discarding. We are rather consumed, as it were, by something larger than us.

When Jesus Christ fed thousands and thousands of people that sunny day on the hill, their consuming was actually their consumption. As it is for all those who gather to consume Christ in the holy meal. We become consumed by the larger body, the church - the act of consumption is turned inside out, so that in eating we become food for others. St Augustine said it like this in hearing Christ's voice say" Grow and you will feed on me. And you will not change me into you, like the food your flesh eats, but you will be changed into me." Our small self is emptied into the larger reality of God's super-abundant life.

And we know it is abundant! Everyone was fed that day - and there was food over. A generous, abundant action of more than sharing. It is an act of offering - and it is two-sided offering. In this action, we offer the world we are part of God's action - someone wrote we create "an economic space" that seals our spiritual and physical connection to creation and to each other. Isn't that a wonderful gift to the world - the Eucharist is creating, in its continual action, the true economic space and leading us always to the ideal consumer society.

For the church, the Eucharist is the hugest event - we can see why, perhaps, John wanted it told in this way, with the thousands and the miracle. At the heart of the holy meal is gift.... "this is my body, given for you. this is my blood, given for you." I think, as church, we have to be careful not to think we are offering ‘the Eucharistic event'. We are not in charge of creating the experience; we are to prepare, yes, - and part of that preparation is healthy, welcoming community - but we prepare for the gift to be received. At its heart, the sharing of bread and wine in this way is the most profound action of love that we participate in to make true in the world. How it is done is not ours to quantify or qualify; we go out to "love and serve the Lord" because somehow in the mystery of our participation, we have received everything we need to do so. Abundantly so. We need such - and it is the need we are to proclaim to our consumer driven world. It is not about want; it is about need.

Words cannot finally articulate this great mystery we participate in; however, I am going to conclude with some words from St Augustine again...page 52 "Prayer Reflections for Group Meetings".