Dedication Sunday (18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Bread from Heaven)

Our evening service of Benediction, on the fourth Sunday of each month, is a most beautiful end to the Sabbath day of rest here at St Peter’s. As we gather and sing the praises of Evensong, the church still has the faint aroma of incense from the morning High Mass. Finally, the sanctuary party kneels before the High Altar as the celebrant removes the host from the Tabernacle and places it in the monstrance. Once again the sweet smell of fresh incense fills the church as we focus our devotions on the mystery of the Real Presence of Christ. The celebrant leads the chant: “Thou gavest them bread from heaven: containing in itself all sweetness.”

In our reading from the Book of Exodus today we hear thestory of the Israelites in the wilderness: hungry, disillusioned, complaining, wishing they were back as slaves in Egypt, where at least they had bread in their bellies at night. Then one of the great miracles of their sojourn takes place. God’s promise of provision is fulfilled, in abundance, despite their lack of gratitude. Each day, when the morning dew has lifted, there on the surface of the desert is food for a nation. Bread from heaven. Manna in the wilderness.

Years later the Psalmist composes a celebration of this miracle that we sing to this day: “He commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven; he rained down on them manna to eat, and gave them the bread of heaven.”

In John’s gospel, the day after the feeding of the five thousand, the crowd seeks out the miracle worker, hungry for a repeat of this Messianic sign. Jesus proclaims the first of the seven Johannine “I am” statements, evoking no less Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush: “I am the bread of life.”

We have been fed this bread of life at St Peter’s since Sunday 6th August 1848 when the newly arrived Bishop of Melbourne, Charles Perry, dedicated our church to the worship of God and the proclamation of the gospel. Throughout the five lockdowns of the current pandemic, we have broken bread each day and, though small in number, have been surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses; as well as the new “cloud” on Facebook and YouTube.

Our winter study group this year is studying the Rev’d Dr Sam Wells’ book, A Future that’s Bigger than the Past (2019). Citing Chad Meyers (p.13) Wells notes that there are two competing economies at work in the world: the economy of mammon and the economy of manna. The economy of mammon is driven by scarcity. There is not enough to go round, so I must focus all my efforts on getting my slice of the cake, and making sure it is as big as possible, just in case. Archbishop Justin Welby, in his book Dethroning Mammon (2016) personifies this economy of mammon in Judas Iscariot, the apostolic treasurer who betrayed our Lord (p.71): “Judas sees people and objects in material terms according to their monetary value … [his] disposition is one of fear, and fear produces anxiety to control.”

In direct contrast, the economy of manna is driven by generosity. We entrust God with control, and the divine spirit of generosity in turn showers the people with all they need. As we read in Exodus (16:18): “those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage.” As Sam Wells writes (p.13): “Manna is for everybody, gives what money can’t buy, and never expires … Manna is the economy of abundance. It is the currency of the kingdom of. God. The secret of happiness is learning to love the things God gives us in plenty.” One of the characteristics of the miracle of manna was that it dried up, or was eaten by maggots, if the people tried to store it. It is daily bread; God’s generosity, that evokes generosity.

Over the course of the pandemic our social enterprise at St Peter’s has miraculously flourished. It is a good example of the economy of manna. The meals we provide have quite literally been bread from heaven for so many who are struggling through the lock-downs. We even started to call it manna, because it came down each morning from, well, Parliament rather than heaven! And it was usually all gone by the time we closed the gates at 11am. At one stage we considered giving less away, so that we could build up our frozen stocks in case of emergency. But we just couldn’t do it; and by God’s grace the manna has fallen each day for nearly a year and a half. Even at the end of June this year, when the Parliamentary budget ran out, the angels of “Fair Share” stepped up, and we have been able to keep this part of our social enterprise going.

The foundation stone of St Peter’s is our economy of manna. It has inspired worship, social service, mission and ministry at St Peter’s since Sunday 6th August 1848. We are reminded of this economy of manna each time we offer empty hands for the filling at Mass. We are not motivated by fear, but love. We do not seek to control, but to open ourselves to one another and to the divine mystery. Our motivation is not self-serving, but self-sacrifice in the name of love. “Thou gavest them bread from heaven: containing in itself all sweetness.”