Fourth Sunday in Lent

My podcast homily for Fourth Sunday in Lent, focused on Galatians 4:21 to 5:1 and John 6:1-14, the Feeding of the 5,000 was uploaded to the AIC Podbean site and linked from the Podcast Homily page at the AIC Web Site.   Listen to Fourth Sunday in Lent

With the coming of a hint of Spring and my wife’s continuing recovery from her accident, I took down the temporary handicapped ramp I built in early January.  This presented the opportunity to do some landscape work, which I will continue doing this morning (at least until the predicted rainfall begins).  Episode 41 and part of Episode 42 in the New Testament series is complete but they will not be uploaded until some time this coming week.   I need to do so further editing of the scripts and, possibly, production of one more slide for Episode 41.

Today’s three illustrations are part of those used for the Bible Study series which touched upon the Feeding of the 5,000.   I cropped the center detail of a larger mosaic of Christ flanked by a Byzantine Emperor and Empress.  The Hagia Sophia is a true treasure house of Christian art from the early Church.  Later converted into a mosque and even later into a museum, the Moslems attempted to destroy many of the images so that most of what is left was too far off the ground for the vandals to reach them and pray them off or paint over them.

The second illustration is a 5th Century fresco of Andrew at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls at Rome.  Andrew was one of two disciples named in St. John’s account, each of whom had doubts about how Jesus could feed so many with so little.

The other disciple who was a skeptic was Philip.  He is represented in this blog post by a late 19th Century opaque watercolor over gray wove paper by the French artist, James Tissot, and which is part of the life of Christ series by Tissot at the Brooklyn Museum, which placed the works in the public domain.  Philip could not see how two hundred denari worth of bread could give even a little to over 5,000 people.   We should remember that in the 1st Century the counts of such crowds did not include women or children, therefore the number present was quite likely many more than 5,000.

I present the Feeding of the 5,000 in the context of the unique material found only in St. John’s version of the event and also the lirugical parallel between how Jesus prepared, presented and distributed the bread and fish to the traditional service of Holy Eucharist (from the Greek, meaning a thanksgiving).

Blessings and best wishes to all those who have followed and supported the Internet ministry of the Anglican Internet Church. I hope you will attend your local church/parish this Sunday for the Fourth Sunday in the penitential season of Lent.

Glory be to God for all things!  Amen!