Day in and day out, we are required to make judgment calls informed by tough, durable, serviceable Christian love. We do what we can do, and God takes notice. God is in charge of rewards, and a glass of water will do when that is what we have to offer with a glad and open heart.

Paul gives us a clear theology for the missionary work we do whenever anybody is close at hand. He reminds us that our work, our ministry, is carried on in concert with Christ. We have been baptized into his death and life. In any given moment both life and death are there, a kind of play of shadow and light. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell where shadow leaves off and light begins. God will take care of that, too.

There is a good reason that the writings of St. Paul don’t show up as examples in grammar textbooks. Today’s reading is a case in point. It begins with one of those long Pauline run on sentences that leave lectors gasping for breath. So what? Take a closer look at how Paul’s fervor for his subject matter derails the grammar. There is something admirable about being so caught up in his convictions that the words cannot come fast enough to express them, much less in an orderly fashion. Scripture scholars usually take this grammatical ineptness as a sign of a passage’s early importance in the Christian community, something they were so ardent about that their language never got refined.

God sustained the people of Israel for forty years in the desert with manna sent down from heaven, and Moses doesn’t want them to forget it. God brought forth water from stone for them to drink, and Moses doesn’t want them to forget this, either. And Moses tells them—twice—that the food that God sent was a food that neither they nor their ancestors before them had ever experienced before. Jesus too speaks of food that came down from heaven, food that the Jewish people had never experienced before. Recalling the manna in the desert, Jesus doesn’t want them to forget it either, explaining that he is the food and drink of eternal life. And Paul reiterates to the Corinthians and to all of us that in the bread and in the cup, we share in the body and blood of Christ.

Moses is a man after our own hearts, for haven’t we all dealt with more than our share of stiffnecked people? Indeed, haven’t we all gotten a little stiff-necked ourselves at times? Complaining . . . impatient . . . quick to anger. How lucky for Moses—how lucky for all of us—that God is exactly the opposite! And we don’t even have to guess about it. The Lord tells us so directly. Accordingly, Moses does what we all need to do. Even with the tablets in hand, he bows down and asks for God’s forgiveness and grace. Encouraging us to live together in peace—and in God’s favor—the Apostle Paul knows all about this grace, joyfully invoking Christ’s grace on us along with God’s love and the Holy Spirit’s. “Rejoice,” he says. And when it comes to rejoicing, John offers us the gladdest words of all: the assurance of eternal life through Jesus.