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All three of our lessons are drawing to a close-John chapter six, Ephesians, and the Davidic narrative will end either today or next Sunday. In the first lesson we hear of David’s death-might be helpful to read the non-lesson material around the final days of David; it’s very insightful and poignant. In the second lesson the writer shoots arrow admonishments at us as fast as he/she can shoot them. And in the gospel lesson, the conversation continues between Jesus and his listeners about true God-breathed sustenance, told in strong eucharistic overtones. Threading the homiletic needle with all three strands may be more the work of a magician than homilist this week, but each of the passages we listen to will yield an overabundance of bread for the journey.

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14-David Died

We come to the close of the life of David and begin with the next generation in the Davidic dynasty: the Solomonic era. A terse obituary closes David’s life by reminding us of the length of David’s rule, where he was buried, and the rise of his heir apparent. The second section of the lesson focuses on this new king. "Solomon loved the Lord," the writer begins, and that clues the reader in to a character quality that is expressed in his passion for God and in his prayer. God comes to the new king in a dream and, like the genie of Aladdin, God invites Solomon to ask what he will. Solomon passes by the typical royal passions of worldly wealth and fame, and instead asks for wisdom to rule Israel. In that prayer is the personification of the rich wisdom tradition that pervades Job, Proverbs, Qoholeth, and Song of Songs.

Ephesians 5:15-20-Living Carefully

In this part of the Ephesian epistle, the writer seems to put down as many behaviors for the Christian "to do" list as could possibly come to mind in thirty seconds. The writer pursues none of the admonishments in any detail, she/he just jots the word or phrase down-be careful . . . live not as unwise but wise . . . make the most of the time . . . don’t be foolish . . .but understand . . . don’t get drunk . . . but be filled with the Spirit . . . sing . . . make melody . . . give thanks. Not sure what the cohesive phrase or word might be in this short passage that could pull all of these injunctions together into a single idea other than the other parley: "Be careful then how you live . . ."

John 6:51-58-Bread of Life

Though his listeners are still scratching their heads about his use of language and the controlling metaphor of bread, Jesus continues the discussion reasserting that indeed, the Bread which he speaks of is in fact, his flesh. That’s where we ended the lesson last week. With today’s passage we observe a new dimension of the Bread-Jesus adds "drink," which, he indicates, is his blood. Such, according to Jesus is the true bread and true drink. Jesus once again refers to the prototype of bread from heave-manna that came down from heaven to sustain the Israelites in the wilderness.