Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Feast Re-Visited

There are moments I hear, we hear the whispered question, "Who do you think you are"? It is a hard question tinged with accusation, a hard question meant to undercut the path Abba may be leading us on. It may sound like a whisper out of our own consciousness but it is not. If we are not careful we will buy into the deprecation and dismissal lurking about answering with memories of our own personal failures, our times of sinful willfulness.

That is not the holy answer the question requires. A question worth posing in response is "Who am I, in Christ?" Chosen, a royal priest, a son of the most High, seated with Christ at the right and of God, called to do holy work; these are responses to remember, to recite, to know. Answers that satisfy.

The feast that day satisfied. Those that partook had their fill; it was no little snack to ward off slightly the hunger pangs that crowd felt. Their hunger that day drove them to eat their fill, an honest hunger that could not be ignored. Are you hungry enough to partake your fill of Jesus? He said to some of those folk the next day that they were to eat His flesh, drink His blood. This was a hard teaching that drove many away who had been following after Him. They couldn't get past the shocking metaphor, but we can, we need to if we are honest about our own hunger.

He asked His twelve who He'd sent into a storm if they would also leave Him. Peter voiced their response, a response of an honest hunger,"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. So I ask, are you hungry? When the question arises, "Who do you think you are?", how will you answer?