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The Fourth Sunday In Lent (Laetare)
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which giveth life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The Fourth Sunday In Lent (Laetare)
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A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
✛
Evermore Give Us Faith
Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Lent
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which giveth life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
For centuries our imaginations have been kindled by the discoveries of how ancient Egyptian kings and queens lived and died. Egyptian burial practices are especially interesting when you consider the extremes they went to provide for the needs of the dead as they journeyed from this life into the afterlife. Transportation was provided— they were buried with chariots, tombs were furnished with chairs and tables, couches and beds. Clothes and jewelry were packed, money was laid in. Their pets were buried with them, sometimes, even their slaves. And lest any one of them get hungry along their way, they prepared food and wine for the journey. Naturally, all this was for naught. No matter how necessary these things seemed to either the living or the dead, they all proved useless. Bury a king along with all his goods in one century, and dig them up in another, when did he ever ride in his chariot? Did he rest on the couch, sleep on the bed? Spend any money? Did even one morsel of bread ever pass through his cold dead lips? No— for it is a true saying, “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” Or can we?
The heart of the collect for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, “Jesus came down from heaven to be the true bread which giveth life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him,” this is all rooted in scripture, particularly the sixth chapter of the gospel according to Saint John, and in the first epistle that bears his name. John’s gospel contains the account of the feeding of the five thousand, and Jesus’ discourse on the bread from heaven.
After they had been fed, miraculously, on two small fish and five loaves of bread, some of the five thousand people that experienced this miracle pursued Jesus across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum.
When they find Jesus, he tells them that the reason they worked so hard to find him was not because they saw him performing miracles, but because he filled their bellies up with bread and fish. He goes on to tell them not to work so hard for food that perishes, but rather work hard for food that does not perish, and lasts even into eternal life.
So, the people ask, what kind of hard work can we do to get that everlasting food? And Jesus tells them that believing in him is the hard work they must do to get it. In other words, have faith in Jesus.
The people then ask, what are you going to do to prove to us that our faith in you is well-founded? And then they give Jesus an example. Moses gave our ancestors bread that fell out of heaven. Here, they were referring to the miracle of manna that fed the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt.
Here, Jesus takes a moment to correct them. Moses did not give your ancestors bread from heaven, God gave them that bread. Having set the record straight on that significant point, Jesus tells them, now, God has given you bread from heaven that gives life, not just to Israel, but to the whole world. This sounds good to the people because they respond with words that we use in the collect: “evermore give us this bread.”
But Jesus continues, saying, I am that bread. “He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst… and this is the will of God, that everyone that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life.”
When we pray the collect for the Fourth Sunday in Lent, we are at once acknowledging that Jesus is who he says he is: the Son of God come down from heaven to be the true bread that giveth life to the world. But when we continue praying, asking that God evermore give us this bread, we are not asking for bread that we can see, or bread that we can taste, we are asking for faith.
We don’t ask for faith just for the sake of having it in the here and now, we ask for faith so that Jesus may live in us, and we in him. At this point in the collect, we are quoting from the third and fourth chapters of the first Epistle of Saint John. Jesus has given us a double commandment to believe in him, and to love our neighbor as he loves us. Whoever keeps this double commandment to believe and to love, dwells in Jesus and Jesus dwells in him. So we bind ourselves to Christ in faith and love, and that’s all sealed up through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Saint Paul’s epistle to the Romans, reminds us that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is an essential part of the pledge of eternal life: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then he that raised up Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”
Another way to think about all of this is to reflect on the things that you put your faith in here and now, and then to think about your tomb. What good can money, food or clothes do for you in your tomb? Can honors, status, or your mighty works, sustain you in death? Will your pride bring you unto eternal life? No, this is all stuff that fills up your heart or your belly (for a time), but must all perish. For it is certain we brought nothing into this world. But, is there nothing we can take out of it?
Yes, there is. It is our faith in the living person of Jesus Christ. And more than manna, or bread and fish multiplied, Jesus gives us a sign at the end of Lent to assure us that our faith in him is well-founded. He himself is laid in an empty tomb, and he comes out again on the third day, very much alive, glorified and eternal. You and Jesus bound up together, by faith and the Holy Spirit, are the means of eternal life. For to be bound in Jesus is to be bound to the only man who ever went into the grave to have come out of it, never to die again.
