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Nourishment – The Seventh Sunday After Trinity

Updated: Aug 19

Rev. Andrew Brashier / August 4, 2025
Rev. Andrew Brashier / August 4, 2025

This entry is part 41 of 41 in the series A Walk in the Ancient Western Lectionary


Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,

As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;

Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;

My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word!


Preparation is key before any trek into the wilderness. There are essentials one must consider prior to stepping out into the great outdoors. Packing requires prep work, and proper prep work ensures the traveler is well-equipped for whatever they may encounter. If overnighting, then a tent or materials to craft a shelter are a must. Footwear should match the terrain, as sore and blistered feet can imperil the trip and endanger the sojourner. Food and water are a must, even for a “short” trek. Because when the unexpected occurs, you need to be at the ready and able to keep hydrated and nourished.


Unfortunately, we have been called to sojourn when we least expected. Christ did not ask if you were ready for the Promised Land; He simply found you where you are at and turned you in another direction. You thought you were resting in Egypt when Christ beckoned you to cross the Sea. You were fat and happy in Babylon, but God has called you home to Jerusalem.


Initially, you hungered for the provisions of God. You thirsted for His every Word that brought you new life. You fed on Him like manna from heaven. But now you find yourself worn, your feet sore, your soul bruised, and a bit leaner spiritually. Doubt arises in the mind – did He simply call me in order for me to starve in this wilderness? Has He forgotten me? Was this a cruel joke, and now I am abandoned while my old life awaits in Egypt and her oasis that clings to the Nile?


No child, you simply forgot your first love, and are seeing mirages in your mind. The Savior of mankind still leads you and He still feeds you. What you need is nourishment. Seek not the rotten bread of the corrupted world, but hold fast to the bread of Life who broke Himself to feed and nourish you. Return your trust back to the “Lord of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things.” (Collect of the Day). Your Father in heaven will give you far greater gifts than the food of Egypt or Babylon. His first gift is to “Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name,” because with a new heart, He shall “increase in us true religion,” and then “nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

(Collect of the Day).

Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, 

As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee;

Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall;

And I shall find my peace, my all in all.


The crowd following Christ in Mark 8 hungered too. Yet their hunger was in part fleshly and in part for the Words of Life. Despite their hunger and our own natural hunger, Christ does not scoff and tell us to ignore the created pains in our bellies. No, He tells His disciples that He has “compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat.” (Gospel lesson, Mark 8:2, KJV). This crowd has followed Christ where He goes for three days. They earnestly seek Him, and desire to be nourished, and Christ will not abandon them after He has called them. Jesus cares for this flock, as He cares for you, a lamb of His flock. He will not turn them away and tell them to feed themselves, as Jesus knows “they will faint by the way.” (Mark 8:3, KJV).


Instead, just as we read in the Fourth Sunday in Lent, Christ is going to feed the multitudes again. We learned on the Fourth Sunday in Lent’s Gospel lesson from John 6 that Jesus fed the Israelites who were hungry and had leftovers enough for twelve baskets – one for each tribe of Israel. Here in the haggard dog days of summer, the ancient Western lectionary reminds us that Jesus’ love extends to the Jew first, but also is open to the Gentile. For Christ is feeding the people in a Gentile dominated area in Mark 8. The ancient lectionary is doing something special. During Lent, it reminds us during the mid-point of our Lenten fast that Christ feeds His people – to hold fast to Him for Easter feasting draws near. Here in the middle of Trinitytide, in the middle of our Christian walk, when His first call to follow Him can seem so distant, Jesus calls to us again to be nourished.


It does not matter whether you have been following Christ for three days or thirty years; you need nourishment. Yes, we are on a journey towards the Jordan and beyond, but our Lord God tells us to rest – take sabbath – once a week. This Sunday we are called to rest – not simply to worship – but to rest in Him and with Him and through Him. He is the host and He provides us a feast every seven days. Therefore, do as the crowd did in both John 6 and Mark 8, and “sit down on the ground” as “he commended the people.” (Mark 8:6, KJV).


Those of us who have been in the Church for a number of years probably find it hard to sit. There’s work to be done, especially on a Sunday! Or so we tell ourselves and others. But we need to heed the lesson of Martha and Mary and sit today at our Master’s feet. Yes, our Lord incorporates us into His work – thankfully and out of His grace – but do not worry. The One who called you to follow after Him will prepare you along His Way. After all, Peter and his fellow fishermen, Matthew the tax collector, and Andrew and John who once followed the Baptist, each did as Jesus asked: “Follow Me,” and they dropped their nets, abandoned the tax booth, and left the Baptist without question to seek the Kingdom of God.


Yet these same disciples left everything and everyone for their Master, but still doubted, “And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” (Mark 8:4, KJV). The Master Carpenter, without any need to do so, turns to them as He turns to us and merely asks us for the ingredients, “And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven.” (Mark 8:5, KJV).


O little child of Christ, what little do you have to give your Savior? Turn it over to Him. It will never be enough in the eyes of man, nor in your own eyes, yet the Master sees His creation and He takes you – marred and bruised by sin – and He abundantly multiplies Himself within you.


Thou art the bread of life, O Lord, to me,

Thy holy Word the truth that saveth me;

Give me to eat and live with Thee above;

Teach me to love Thy truth, for Thou art love.


Listen now to how Jesus works with what little we have. His example is one we should heed in all things. First, to the Father, He “gave thanks.” (Mark 8:6, KJV). So too, in the small things in life, from the rain tapping my window as I write, to the smile on my bride’s face, should we give thanks to the Father. Next, Christ shares the blessing of the Father, for then He “brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them.” (Mark 8:6). Is it not incredible that Jesus shares the firstfruits with those whom He chose, the Twelve? It is a reminder that Jesus never forgets His people, for He came to the Jew first, and then the Gentile. Finally, and perhaps most incredible, is not the multiplied fish and loaves, but that Jesus commissions His disciples to administer the multiplied loaves, “and they did set them before the people.” (Mark 8:6, KJV).


Christ raised up the Apostles to participate in His work. Christ called you into His Church to be His body to a broken world. And what do we have to offer the fallen nations and Gentiles abandoned by Satan and his demons? Why nourishment! Not nourishment from our hands, but from His wounded hands. Not mere bread, but the broken body of the God-man Himself. Christ refused to bow to Satan and to turn stones into bread to win the nations bound by Satan during His temptation, because He knew it would only be by breaking His body and shedding His blood that He would feed the nations with His redemption and destroy Satan’s claim over the Gentiles.


The good news in today’s Gospel is that Jesus not only fed His people lost in the wilderness, but He feeds all whom He calls unto Him, even those from the nations. Through Abraham, all the nations shall be blessed, and by trusting and having faith in Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham and Son of God, we are made into sons of Abraham. Therefore, rest in Christ Jesus and feed on Him: ” So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets.” (Mark 8:8, KJV). Seven baskets, echoing the seventy nations given over to the demons and spread into exile across the earth. Now those nations have us being sent out to them to proclaim healing from sin, peace with God, and nourishment from the Ruler of the nations, whose Kingdom shall have no end.


Sit down and rest, weary traveler, for your Master has come to wash your feet, bind your wounds, and nourish your emptiness. On Monday, our travel continues as we leave Babylon and near Jerusalem step by step. Each step towards the Kingdom is another step away from the old life. Be filled and nourished this sabbath day, so this week you may “now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.” (Epistle lesson, Romans 6:19, KJV). The miracle before us is that God feeds us and then invites us to be His Body throughout His creation. After feeding us, He promises to continue feeding us, because by abandoning our sin, we are “now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” (Romans 6:22, KJV). Taste the sweet fruit of the Spirit that He is cultivating in you. Walk in His ways and bask in the garden of the Holy Ghost’s spiritual fruits growing from a seed to a tree within you. May the fruit that God grows in you bear much seed and raise up other saints around you.


God nourishes you this Sunday morn, so you shall grow abundant fruit to feed those around you. Give them what you have, warning them that “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, KJV). Bring them to taste and see that the Lord is good indeed. Be nourished, and nourish others in Christ alone.


O, send Thy Spirit, Lord, now unto me,

That He may touch my eyes, and make me see:

Show me the truth concealed within Thy Word,

And in Thy Book revealed I see the Lord.




 
 
 

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