HELP FOR THE POOR PREACHER

Here are some ideas on how a 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time sermon might go, keeping in mind that the same readings are used on the same Sundays by 25 Protestant denominations as part of the Revised Common Lectionary:

* 1st Kings 19, 4-8: Elijah wants to die but God won't let him. Angel gives him food, orders him to eat, he gives up on dying, gets up and does what he has to do, walking 40 days and 40 nights to "the mountain of God, Horeb."

We'd like to give up but we can't: there's work to be done, miles to go before we sleep, miles to go before we sleep. See Robert Frost, "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening."

* Ephesians 4.30-5.2: Paul says don't "sadden" the Holy Spirit. Soften your whole response pattern. Drop "bitterness, passion & anger, harsh words, slander, and malice of every kind." Forgive each other, as God forgave you (us). Take your cue from that, "follow the way of love."

Doesn't this slow us down in our headlong pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, family good order, sticking up for what we believe in? Even in our pursuit of good things we have to slow down when we get too hot and bothered. Be done with malice. Cool it.

* John 6.41-51: "The Jews" again. They "murmur" over Jesus' claim to be the bread of heaven. They knew him back when. It's the Jews of Nazareth apparently, who knew him since he was a little kid. Here's a way out for Christians embarrassed by Paul and the four Evangelists, who seem constantly to harp on Jews and their hard hearts. More to come on this important issue, now in the news because of the coming Mel Gibson film, "The Passion." Best bet is to concede readily, "The Jews," yes, but the ones who were there, specifically.

Jesus hits home at them: "Your [and his, for that matter] ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died." He is "the living bread." Eat this bread, and you will live forever. It is "my flesh, for the life of the world."

It's a riff on what we call the Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures, we should keep in mind: reference after reference rooted in those time-honored texts. It's beyond most of us, even if we look it all up and become quite learned.

Something else to consider: Jesus was dropping on them some very heavy stuff, and we cannot entirely blame the murmurers. Young priest many years ago to friendly black mother of little kids unfamiliar with Catholic ways, in low-income home on Chicago's NW Side, responding to her amazement that he wasn't married but refrained from intimacy with women, which she called "impossible": "You'll just have to take my word for it." To which she: "I do, but it's still impossible."

It's impossible that Jesus becomes food for us. We will have to take his word for it.