“Excellent Food"
August 19, 2012
The 12th Sunday of Ordinary Tine
A.K.A.
Kingdomtide
and
Time of the Church
Proverbs 9: 1 – 6/Psalm 34: 9 – 14/Ephesians 5: 15 – 20/John 6: 53 - 59
His Eminence
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
Here we are the in the Twelfth Sunday after the beginning of Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time truly is a manifestation of the Kingdom in our lives. All that God has empowered us with is meant to give us the provision, the ability to live out the life as He gave it to us. He fully has provided for us all that we need.
God shows us that the manifestation of that is progressive. As we walk in it, as we practice it, as we grow with Him, we change from glory to glory into His image. We do not stay the same. What we were last year at this time should be less than where we are today. We should be a people growing in the grace and mercies of God – growing in His provision; growing in our relationship with Him; growing in our understanding of Him. If this is not true, then it means that we are dying because there are only two directions: forward or reverse. You cannot be neutral. It is impossible to be neutral. Scriptures very clearly says this to us: this is considered negative.
We look at Scriptures and we allow the Spirit to quicken them to us. We have been given the Spirit by God. Christ, ascending into heaven, asked the Father to send the Spirit to us and said that He will be to us the Comforter. He would teach us all things. In this understanding of teaching, we would need no one to teach us because He would be the Teacher. Do we listen to Him? Do we pay attention to what He has said? He has given to us much. We are a blessed people.
Ephesians is a portion of Scriptures that has unveiled to us the fullness of God’s commitment to us. Paul unveils more than perhaps we see in the writings of the four Disciples of Christ. The gospel lead to what Paul tells us. Paul brings the depth and the intrigues into reality. He helps us to understand what God has given to us.
As God’s people, we are meant to demonstrate His glory upon the face of the earth. He shares this with us so that we can live it out, so that we can bring praise to Him with our lives, not with our words. They speak forth the ability of God, the hope of God. It is not despair, but faith. Not sorrow, but joy. The confidence in God.
Scriptures says of bringing praise and thanks to Him. This is what we have in our hearts because of all that He has done for us. As we begin to know Him more, as we begin to understand God’s commitment to us, praising and thanking Him becomes a norm in our lives. In all things, we see something good. In all things, we see that He is at work, bringing into our lives the fullness of His provision for us.
The Old Testament writing today in Proverbs 9 talks to us and proclaims by prophetic utterance how God shares with us all that He is. “Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn out her seven pillars; she has prepared her food; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table.” This is already established. This is not something that comes, but already brought into fullness of reality. It is there set before us. We are not waiting for it; it is already given to us.
“She has sent out her maidens, she calls from the tops of the heights of the city; whoever is naïve, let him turn to here! To whom who lacks understanding she says, ‘Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake your folly and live, and proceed in the way of understanding.’” The writer speaks to us of God’s provisions, God’s ways. How that God’s ways are higher than our ways. He gives to us and shares with us wisdom.
You have heard me say many times that you will not find wisdom in any other place but in God. No institution can share wisdom because they have no wisdom. The only source of wisdom is God. God does not hold it only for Himself. His desire is that we would have that wisdom and walk in it. It is already set, prepared; the wine is mixed and there is nothing waiting to happen. It is already been established.
The Table is set. The invitation has come forth. It is up to man to approach the Table. It is up to man to make the decision to partake of that which brings wisdom and understanding into our lives. We are to forsake the folly. Folly is the way of man. It is man thinking that he understands life and man thinking that he understands the world and its system. Man does not understand it; it is foolishness according to Scriptures.
“Forsake your folly and live.” This is what God has given to us, through Christ – life. This life is greater than any other force, greater than any other thing that could come our way. God has given this to us. We must forsake our folly and understand and realize what God has given to us that we can walk with assurance and confidence. Whatever may come our way, we have God’s promise and provision that He will bring into our lives the hope and the assurance of faith that we will walk where He intends us to walk – not anxious and not fearful.
Ephesians shares to us the very principle of God’s life, and how that God has provided these for us, through Christ. In Christ, all things are possible. In Christ, He has given to us everything. We lack in nothing – everything pertaining to life and godliness has been bestowed upon us. We are challenged to be careful how we walk, that we don’t walk in the darkness. We walk not as unwise men, but as wise men. God challenges us and Paul brings that challenge to us. “Awake! Realize who you are and what God has done for you, through Christ. Set aside the foolishness. Set aside the fears, the anxieties; set aside the failures; set the attitude of impossibility and realize what God has given to you.”
In Ephesians 4, we are challenge to speak in truth and the truth comes from God. This is what God has given to us, through Christ. Christ came and He took our sin. He went to the cross, and He gave His life. He shed His body and His blood so that we can be made holy and righteous before Him. He destroyed the power of the enemy. He gave to us His holiness and His righteousness. He restored our relationship with the Father, and we are not separated from the Father. He is with us. We have this closeness, this unity which He has given to us. Anything beyond that is foolishness. When it says that if we are no longer one with Him, when it says that we are not a part of what He is doing, it shows that we do not know Him.
God’s provision for us is awesome and He says to us, “Understand the will of the Lord.” Understand His purpose. Know your life and realize why you have been created and now in existence.” Paul shares this in Ephesians. He share how that we are the workmanship of Christ. He has created us for good works. Here is our life. We are not to be overcome. We are not to be slaves of the circumstances around us but we are to be the source through which God’s kingdom flows, through which the power of God flows through us, the ability of God flowing through us because we were created by Christ to do the good works, His will.
Romans 12 says, “Renew your minds and prove the will of God.” Set aside the foolishness; set aside that which is not truth and realize that God has restored His people. Once, we were aliens; once, we were in darkness. Peter tells us that we have been taken out of the darkness and transferred into His marvelous light. Now, we are called a chosen people; a people of God’s own choosing; a royal priesthood; a holy nation that we might declare, proclaim, and live out the excellencies of God. This is what God has given to us. This is our hope. It challenges us not to substitute other things for the success of our Christianity – our life in God.
Most of us have sought success in the things around us. We have not sought success in the things of God. We have substituted fulfilment for the things which are temporal. It is like we are drugged with these successes, with these achievements that we seek for ourselves. “Look, I found security – I have built my business. I have found my security – I have built my degrees. I have found my security – I have my fame. People look up to me. Now, I am what I need to be.”
This is not success. This will not bring the fullness of God’s provision into our lives. We cannot substitute those things for the life that God has given to us. Those things will not conquer at the moment of trial; they will not conquer at the moment of testing. They will not conquer at the moment of tragedy. Fear will take over and when that fear comes, faith is gone.
When we built a relationship with God, when we know Him and we know we are walking with Him, we know His purposes. We know through His wisdom; we understand the purpose of life and the provision of life. We will avoid the things that take away from us. These things are substitutes that drug us and we think we are in success; but we are duped and fooled and held in that.
We quiet our conscience by the things that we do thinking, “No, I have overcome. I have challenged this. I have overcome them. As we understand and know the way and the will of God, Scriptures says, “Give thanks for all things in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Can we say that? Can we thank Him for all things? Can there be that praise? Can there be those hymns, those thoughts of greatness that come out of our lives?
Ephesians says, “Praising with psalms, hymns, and singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” Speaking and singing to one another; not destroying one another with gossips. Instead it is singing the praises of God and building up one another; bringing into life the joy and the confidence of God’s provision. Not focusing on the failure of the flesh, not focusing upon the things that have gone wrong in our lives, but focusing upon God’s ability. Focusing upon God’s provision, love, and His commitment to us as His people.
The gospel today very powerfully shows how Jesus explains and brings understanding to us about the life that He has provided for us. He has provided His life that we can, as He did, bring forth that which He has shown to us as His provision. This life which conquers death because it is greater than death. This life which is greater than circumstances and situations. This life which causes the mountains to melt like wax. This life which causes the darkness to turn to life and causes the fear to turn to faith. This life that He gives to us is more powerful than any other force that is known to man.
We may face issues that are difficult, but this life gives to us the overcoming power. In this life, we conquer. In this life, we overcome. In this life, we become victorious because Christ has won the victory for us. This is the hope that He gives to us. It is not the despair, the despondency, not the anxiety but the security of walking with Him – this life which is ours; this life which we see in Christ when He was in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. When He would not turn the stone to bread, even though He needed something to eat, He held firm to the principles of God. This life within Him was greater than the temptation. When He finished the temptations, the angels came and ministered to Him. He was not lacking in anything. He had that which came from the heaven to take care of Him.
We see the same life when Jesus went to the Wedding at Cana where He turned the water into wine. This was the life that was with Him. The circumstance that would have brought shame and failure to a groom, He made it become something that brought glory and honor because the wine was greater than any wine that has been served prior to this.
We see the life in Him healing the blind. We see the life in Him healing the crippled. We see the life in Him coming to those places in society where things were not what they should have been. Christ brought victory and hope into every one of those situations. Where there were the possessed, the demons fled. Where there were those who had died, He brought life to them.
This is what this life is that He has given to us. It is greater than our minds can comprehend. It is greater than our understanding can bring into a reality in our daily living. It is God, through Christ, that will bring them into fact for us. Jesus tells us that even though He was tested by the Jews and was mocked when He said, “You will eat My flesh and drink My blood.” They said, “How could this be? What is this?” Jesus said, “This is what comes from heaven.” They said, “What is this that comes from heaven? We know Your mother. We know Your father. We know where You came from.” They were using human reasoning. They were using the experiences they had in life, but Christ had something beyond that which is human reasoning. He had something that which is beyond those experiences that came upon man and bring Him to points of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty.
Jesus did not compromise, but held firm. He held firm His commitment. He said, “Eat the flesh of God and drink the blood of God and you will have life in you. If you don’t eat of that flesh, if you don’t drink of that blood, you will have no life in you.”
The news that I would bring to you today is if we have partaken of that Eucharist, we have that life in us. He shares it with us. He shares His life so that we can become like Him, changing from glory to glory into His image. The reason that we have not seen these things in our lives is because we have not understood. We have walked in darkness. We have not walked in light. We have not tasted of the wisdom of God and understand He shares His life with us.
We have listened to the words but we haven’t allowed the words to speak to us. He said, “Even if you die, you live.” Do we comprehend what that means? Do we see that life that He has given to us is greater than death? Why then do we fear death? Why then do we make a big mockery of death as though it were an end, as though it was not something meant to be?
Jesus said, “No, you will overcome death. You will live and that life that I give to you will be greater than what you have ever known before. It will be that which is of excellence, of purity, and of righteousness and holiness. It will be complete; it will be perfect; it will be excellent in Him.” We come to that which is given to us.
Jesus said, “Eat and drink and I will raise you up at the last day. If you eat and drink, you will remain in Me and I will remain in you.” Do you hear His promise to us? Do you hear what He speaks to us? If we come to the Eucharist, if we come and partake of His body and blood, He dwells with us and we dwell in Him. It means that which He is begins to flow through us and begin to change into His image and into His likeness. It is fulfilling the beginning of our lives when He said, “Let Us create man in Our image and in Our likeness.” This is beginning to share some of the authority and some of the power that God bestows upon us.
This life is so powerful. We have the ability to change the darkness. We have an ability to change the problems into something wonderful and something beautiful. We have the ability to take the impossible and make it possible because of the life of Christ. Why do we give in? Why do we fail? Fear comes upon us because of what we see and because of the experiences we had in the past so fear then hides and cramps the life that God has given to us. We suppressed it. We belittle and put it down and say, “I am just human. I am just flesh.” Yes, that may be true, but dwelling within us is the life of Christ.
Dwelling within us is the Holy Spirit that God has given to us. He says, “I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I will never put you to shame.” We do that to ourselves by denying what God has made us to be; what He has created us to be. We can face the issues and change them for good. We can face the problems and we can find the solutions. We can face the darkness and we can turn it to light because of the life that He gives to us in the Eucharist.
Scriptures gives us the understanding that what you eat is what you become. It is an old saying that floats around in many different circles. If you are an athlete, you eat certain foods so that you build your bodies, your muscles so that you can do certain events that you want to do. If you are pregnant, Sis. Chato will tell you what to eat to prepare you to bring forth life with excellence. It prepares the child to be strong when the child is brought forth in birth. It will make the birth easier if you eat the right foods. You become what you eat.
In the same way, when we partake of the Eucharist, we become like Christ. It should be that eventually, we are changing character and our attitudes and our very abilities are to be like Him. It will not take away our personality. It will enhance our personality. It will make our personality pleasing. It will show the greatness of God through who we are because of life that He has given to us.
Israel in the wilderness, having come out of Egypt, was given by God bread from heaven. It was just a wafer but it was so powerful that it kept them alive for forty years. They had little else to eat. Occasionally, He gave them meat, but that wafer was the food from heaven. It strengthened them. It kept them from sickness and disease as long as they were obedient to Christ. When they failed, when they rebelled against Christ, disease came upon them and many of them died because they did not believe. They became rebellious.
The life that God gave to them in that “host”, that manna brought strength and ability to them so that they lived through that difficult situation. The desert was unpleasant. There was no grass, no trees, and all the other things that we would want to have. The wilderness was void of ability and potential. It was void of prosperity. In the midst of it, the life that came from God gave them the ability to overcome. It gave them the ability to conquer. It gave them the ability to prepare themselves for the Promised Land.
The host, that manna from heaven brought them that. In the same manner, as we partake of the flesh and the blood of Christ, it gives to us that which you cannot get from any other food. It gives to us the heavenly nourishment - the strength. It gives to us the confidence that our sins are gone because He took them away. He brought instead His life for us to enjoy, for us to live out.
This is the hope that is ours. This is the assurance that is ours. So powerful was this life in Christ that He would walk down the road and meet an evil spirit and the evil spirit would cry out for mercy. He did not say a word, but there was the cry, “Have mercy on me. I know who you are. Have mercy on me.” It should be the witness of our lives. Wherever we are, whatever we are facing, we have that aura of grace around us. That aura of presence is there so that people are awed at our abilities, our peace, our confidence, our assurance and our wisdom that comes only from God.
It is not the wisdom of man. It is not the understanding of man but the understanding of God’s ways. We walk in God’s principles because of the life that He gives to us in the Eucharist. Here is where life is made manifest in us. He said, “If you don’t eat this flesh, if you don’t drink this blood, you have no life in you.” It is not the ability to conquer, not the ability to overcome, not the ability to have that peace and that joy, but the frustration and the anxiety of what is around you will cause you to be tensed and stressed because you do not have the life.
This life changes our being. It causes us to have the confidence and the assurance. It changes our attitudes. Instead of seeing the problems, we see the solutions. Instead of seeing the darkness, we see the light. Instead of seeing the enemy, we see the friends. We see that which is in the natural has the potential of change and we realize that we are instruments to bring that change about.
This is the life that God has given to us. This is the excellence of the food that He feeds us. It brings us to that ability, to that manifestation and it prepares us for the life that we live so that we will not fail. We will not be overcome. He gives us the victory.
We are reminded every time we come to this Table of His victory. He conquered sin in our behalf. He conquered death, hell, and the grave in our behalf. What He has done, He did once because it was complete. He does not need to repeat it. What He did at that time of His death, His burial, and His resurrection is still the same today. It has not changed. Because we don’t grasp this understanding, because we have not eaten of the wisdom of God, we have listened to the things of man and have lost so much of what God has given to us.
It is time, as Scriptures says, for us to awake. It is time that we realize who He has made us to be, what He feeds us with, and what we have become so that we are not overcome by our human reasoning, but we have the heart of God to strengthen us, to encourage us, and to give us the ability to stand. Even in the midst of the storm, we speak to the storm and cause the storm to be calm. That storm can be conflict, anger, and many things. It doesn’t just have to be natural wind and the waves, but whatever the storms may be, we have the potential and that life for it to change the peace.
Is it not that Scriptures says, “All things will turn to good?” Can we believe that? Instead of being intimidated and threatened by the problems, instead of being intimidated and threatened by the circumstances, can we not believe, comprehend and have the faith to believe that God can change it into something good? Instead of running from the problem, instead of hiding behind the rocks, we address the circumstance and see the power that God has given to us in life.
The life that Jesus had at times brought Him, in the flesh, some pain. It brought into flesh sometimes discomfort, but He did not let it rule Him. When He was confronted, He did not defend Himself. When He was accused, He did not get a lawyer. He stood firm. He knew who He was.
This knowledge of who He is was so strong that it caused the others to be intense, irritated and angry. They were wrong; He was right. They could not handle the righteousness of Him. It stirred them up to anger. He just stood in silence. They beat Him; He did not defend Himself. They spit upon Him, and He did not defend Himself. They humiliated Him and He did not show shame. They nailed Him to the cross and He did not murmur and moan. He took it in the fullness of His life because He knew that the life that He had could not be taken away from Him. He knew that there was no power that could take away and destroy what He was. He understood that.
The moment when Jesus had to pass from one realm to another, He said to His Father, “Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit.” He knew. He bowed His head and slept. Was He dead? No. If He was in death, how could He go to hell? How could He conquer the forces of evil? How could He have called forth the captives and set them free? How could He conquer and rise above all that and rise on the third day if that life was not so powerful? It was greater than death. It was greater than hell. It was greater than evil. It was greater than sin. That life was the most powerful force that man has been introduced from the beginning of time. He has given that life to us.
We have no need for fear. We have no need for anxiety, despair. Trust the life that God has given to you. That life will overcome. That life will not put you to shame. That life will change the darkness to light and change the problem into good. This is the promise of God. Believe Him. Trust in Him. He does not lie. He speaks truth to us.
We come to His table. Heaven comes to earth to meet us. We come from earth to meet Him. He feeds us of that which that brings life to us, that which brings hope to us. He heals and strengthens us. He gives us wisdom and understanding. It brings to us that assurance that He is with us.
May we be a people of faith. May we be a people of understanding. May we keep the wisdom that comes only from Him as it says in Proverbs. It is all ready, set for us. It is up to us to receive it. It is up to us to come to the Table and eat. The meal is prepared; the wine is mixed. The Table is set and it is all given to us. We must come away from our foolishness and our folly. We must come to Christ and realize He is our life. He is the only source of life and He is the life that overcomes in every situation. Excellent food! It prepares us for His life of victory.
HIS GRACE, THE MOST REVEREND ARCHBISHOP LUIS ANTONIO "CHITO" GOKIM TAGLE D.D.
ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA AND VENERABLE PRIMATE OF THE PHILIPPINES
LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
HIS GRACE, THE MOST REVEREND ARCHBISHOP LUIS ANTONIO "CHITO" GOKIM TAGLE D.D.
ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA AND VENERABLE PRIMATE OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
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