August 5, 2018                         Bread of Heaven                            

It seems the news is daily filled with talk about Russian interference in our elections. Although most of what I hear is talk, I have heard very little about the nuts and bolts of how they are supposed to be doing this and why? Which is why I found an article on this subject this week that was very interesting.

 The article focused on 3 million tweets that have been collected over the past 2 years that have been identified as coming from computers at the internet research agency in Russia. Now the article breaks these tweets down into a number categories, but the two that stand out, are called left troll and right troll. Troll being the term for someone who posts something inflammatory on the internet to start an argument.

The left trolls post statements that seek to divide and anger voters on the left. E-mail posts about dissatisfaction with the left, the hopelessness of voting, radical and false statements about black lives matter, impeachment, and the me too movement are meant to start arguments on the left. The right trolls post statements meant to fire up and anger those on the right. Most of these statements are focused on immigration, the border wall, fake news, and attacking the integrity of the justice department.

Now most of you will say, that you don’t follow twitter so you may not be effected by any of this. However, many of you use email, and facebook, and the internet, and guess what – all of these have been compromised as well, through ad’s comments, posts, chain emails, news items, and etc. And even further, some of the less scrupulous news agencies, repeat these news stories, because they are more interested in ratings, than they are in the source of these articles.

So, if you are wondering what all this Russian interference in our elections stuff is all about, it’s all about making dividing, distracting, confusing, and making people in America angry at each other, so that we don’t know what to believe, or how to choose the people who will serve the best interests of our nation. That’s what it’s all about!

So what does this have to do with our scriptures this morning? Our first story talks about the grumbling and complaining Israelites in the wilderness, who basically say they would rather return to slavery in Egypt rather than be free in the wilderness. And I kind of get that, .. being free is tough stuff, it often means being responsible for what one thinks and says and does. Being a slave on the other hand is easy, as a slave, whatever you do or whatever is done to you is someone else’s fault. In the end, God provides bread and quails, so that the people end their grumbling, are fed and have the chance to become united.

Our gospel lesson this morning, continues on from the story of the feeding of the five thousand. As I mentioned last week, this miracle story is meant to show us the contrast between the worldly message of scarcity and the divine message of abundance. This week, the crowds follow him, not simply because he fed them physically, but because he fed them spiritually, the gospel message gives them hope, and so they follow him. Hope for peace, hope for freedom, hope for unity.

And finally, Paul has this to say, to the Ephesians who are a diverse congregation suffering attacks from the surrounding community that threaten to divide them.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one LORD, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

I hope you can see where I am going with this. Our nation is under attack from people who would seek to divide, distract, and have us destroy ourselves. As long as we continue to act as partisans, and by partisan, I mean people who love their party more than their nation, they will continue to succeed. But as Christians, we are called to God above nation, nation above party, and people above politics. We are called to reject division and seek unity in our lives together, for as Christians, we believe that all are children of God, potential brothers and sisters in Christ.

We do this, because hope and truth are our bread of heaven. The hope and truth revealed to us through faith in Jesus Christ. And each act of faith in our lives, each time we reject division and seek unity, each time we act in love toward our fellow humankind, each time we suffer one another in love, we do so seeking the kingdom of God to become present in human life. That’s where the rubber meets the road, in our daily Christian lives. And in doing so, we are fed spiritually with the bread of heaven, Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.