7 January 2014 - found nation

7 January 2014 - found nation

In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.

We have life through Jesus.  Without him we therefore do not have life.  Without him we are like sheep without a shepherd.  We have all but fallen prey to the wolf already.  But Jesus sees us and has mercy.  His heart is moved with pity for us.  We have no guidance, no direction without him.  We wander in darkness without he who is the light of the world.  He sees us lost and wandering.  He sees us and is moved with pity.  Jesus came to seek and save the lost (cf. Joh 19:10) and so "he began to teach them many things."   

This is how the lost get found.  We feel alone and lost because we are sheep.  We are meant to have a shepherd.  With his voice guiding us we are no longer alone and no longer lost.

In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.

Jesus wants us to stay near him.  His disciples suggest dismissing us to the surrounding farms and villages so that we can meet our material needs apart from him.  Jesus wants his disciples to learn to rely on him for everything.  He tells them to meet these needs in his presence as well.  He doesn't want life divided into the material and the spiritual.  He doesn't want one realm over which he reigns and another to which he has no connection.

We don't have to go back to wandering and being alone just because we hunger.  Jesus wants to be LORD over all parts of our lives.  The disciples must learn to rely on Jesus.  Asked to provide what they know they cannot, to provide what they do not have, they despair of their own abilities.

“Are we to buy two hundred days’ wages worth of food
and give it to them to eat?”

But Jesus wants us to learn that we "receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him."  We often have difficulty discerning what is his will and for what what ought to ask.  This situation with the disciples is instructional.  The disciples do know that he doesn't want the people sent away.  They do know that they can't feed the people themselves.  Jesus wants them to turn to him.  He wants to to ask, and so to "receive from him". 
Let us trust in our shepherd.  He knows that we need food and clothing.  We don't have to chase them like the pagans (cf. Mat 6:32).  We are free to seek first the kingdom.  Let us trust in the successors of his disciples the feed us.  His Church, headed by the successor of Peter, feeds his sheep (cf. Joh 21:17).  For our part, we will only be fed if we are with clergy who seek our food from Jesus and not from their own strength.  This is a model for how we are to live as well.  May we find the face of the Good Shepherd in our clergy.  May we trust in Jesus to meet all of our needs.  When others are entrusted to our care may we in turn entrust them to Jesus so that "every nation on earth will adore" him.  The kingdom comes first but there is no aspect of our lives beyond his care.  Only when we entrust all aspects of life to him will we see his promise for the world fulfilled.

The mountains shall yield peace for the people,
and the hills justice.
He shall defend the afflicted among the people,
save the children of the poor.