The great English 17^th Century poet, writer and Anglican priest George Herbert wrote a short poem entitled "The Call". It goes like this:

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life;

Such a Way, as gives us breath:

Such a Truth, as ends all strife:

And such a Life, as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:

Such a Light, as shows a feast:

Such a Feast, as mends in length;

Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart;

Such a Joy, as none can move:

Such a Love, as none can part:

Such a Heart, as joys in love.

This poem came to mind when I first read today's Collect, and in particular the phrase: grant us the spirit to think and do always those things that are right. To think and do....to think and do always those things that are right. That prayer is a tall order! We are asked in this Collect to always control what we are thinking to things that are right. And the same is true in regards to what we do: always do the right thing! The few unfortunate of you who have had the distinct unluckiness to drive with me know that I am not always thinking the right thing when I'm behind the wheel of the car....A true growing edge for me this lack of patience I have for those people on the road who don't know that the peddle on the right needs to be stepped on in order for their cars to move......I'm working on that lack of patience and am reminded of my humanness and brought up short by today's Collect.

We are provided a Hebrew Testament reading today that gives us an example of thinking and doing always those things that are right, and the opposite of that directive. King David wants his rebel son Absalom to be treated well, not killed in battle. Absalom gets hung up on a tree and is then killed by some of David's soldiers and when told about this David weeps and mourns the loss of his son. We have here David thinking and doing what is right, trying to save the life of his renegade son compared to his soldiers ignoring his orders and killing Absalom. Even though this death was of great political value to David's reign and realm, he did not want this to happen. Thinking and doing always those things that are right does not mean we will always personally benefit in a material way from those right thoughts and actions.

In our Ephesians lesson today we are provided with a litany of examples of right thinking and doing. Speak the truth to our neighbors, do not let the sun go down on anger, give up stealing, no evil talk should come out of our mouths, put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving, be imitators of God, live in love. The folks who put the Revised Common Lectionary together matched these readings quite closely to the Collect, giving us a clear message to take with us this week.

And then we get to this inscrutable Gospel from John. How does this continuation of the "I AM the bread of life" declarations Jesus makes (that we are continuing from last week) contribute to this theme of right doing and right thinking? Jesus talks about bread seven times in these eleven verses. But what does that have to do with right thinking and right doing?

To get the answer we need to do a little word study. When Jesus is answering his critics he says No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me..... The key word we need to explore a bit is "drawn". In the Greek, this is an odd word choice made by our Gospel writer John. This word (helkuein) in Greek is only utilized to describe when something being pulled is heavy, like a net filled with fish, where the net is almost tearing: the teaming full net was being drawn in by the straining fishers. This choice of word by John gives a clear indication that what is being drawn has a great deal of resistance to it. So God is drawing those believers to Jesus through their resistance. Jesus is not only talking about their resistance but also ours: through the resistance of our disbelief, through the resistance of our questions, through the resistance of our stubbornness. God is drawing us, pulling us toward Jesus and the kingdom despite our resistance

Perhaps allowing ourselves to be drawn, to be pulled by God is having the spirit to think and do always those things that are right. Perhaps letting go of doubt and disdain, letting go of fear and frustration, letting go of arrogance and anger, and being pulled to hope and love and truth, and also to this living bread that has come down from heaven for us, is right thinking and right doing.

Budd Schulberg, the writer of On the Waterfront, died this past week. There is a scene in that particular play/movie where Karl Malden is acting out the role of a Roman Catholic priest. (Well what movie was Karl Malden in that he didn't he play a priest, or a police officer?) In this particular scene he is in a bar talking to dock workers, trying to convince them to testify in court about their corrupt union leadership.  This act of testifying in court would be at great personal cost to them, putting themselves and their families at great personal risk. He is pushing them to do the right thing, he is drawing them, with a good deal of resistance, to a better way to think and to be and in so doing is helping to create a better world. Thinking and doing always those things that are right does not mean we will always personally benefit in a material way because of those decisions and actions, and it does not mean that there isn't a cost involved in our making them.

Many people here believe we are being called to build a new church, whatever that might look like; that we are being drawn to do so, some with great resistance. Will this be costly? Absolutely....monetarily, inconvenience, hard work, the possibility of debt, the personal cost in time and energy of the amount of work by the great number of volunteers needed to effectuate this occurring, these are all costs. While we are in the midst of this effort, if we focus on the image of God drawing us through our resistance, we can gain solace and strength when we are facing the cost.

And that is why I thought about George Herbert's poem "The Call" when I first read our Collect for today: for it is God who is calling us to always think and do things that are right. It is God who sends the spirit that allows us the audacity to think and do always those things that are right. It is God who is drawing us through our own resistance to answer the call to eat and dwell in this living bread that has come down from heaven: even though there is a high cost to answering that call, and we may not personally benefit in material ways from our answer. We will benefit spiritually from our answering the call of God. We will benefit by being that true human God intended and created us to be. We will benefit as that loving person who not only allows God to draw us in, but those others we bring along with us as we are drawn ever and ever closer to God's presence in our lives, in our community, in our work, in our world. We cannot do this alone. We need God. We need this Bread of Life that has come down from heaven, to enable us to accept that spirit to think and do always that which is right. And that is good news: that we are not alone, but are being drawn by God through our resistance. Let us be drawn. Listen again to Herbert's "The Call":

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:

Such a Way, as gives us breath;

Such a Truth, as ends all strife:

And such a Life, as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:

Such a Light, as shows a feast:

Such a Feast, as mends in length:

Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:

Such a  Joy, as none can move:

Such a Love, as none can part:

Such a Heart, as joys in love.