The Joshua Victor Theory

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Some think the book of Ecclesiastes is a rather depressing or bleak book, and you can get a glimpse of why, from the short excerpts you heard in today’s reading. “ Vanity of vanities! All is vanity … It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with…I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun...I gave up my heart to despair over all the toil of my labors…what has a man from all the toil and striving of his heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest.” The words may strike us as an expression of dark pessimism or even leaning towards unbelief…or perhaps we can secretly identify with his frustrations about work and life in general. Does your work or life ever seem like an unhappy business? Do you even hate your work? Or maybe even if you...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Two weeks ago we talked about the feeding of the 5,000 and the spiritual hunger that we have that is satisfied only in Christ. I read some of these same verses from our Gospel in John, but today I want to expand on the idea of discontentment, and how Jesus is the Bread of Life. Discontentment is more than just hunger. It’s dissatisfaction with what we’ve been given, and ungratefulness for the gifts we have. The Bread of Life, however, is the end of discontentment. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Jesus told the crowds that followed after Him looking for another bread miracle, that they should “not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” They were spending their time and effort working for something that would leave them empty. They took His question and said, ok, well if...