John 6:56-69
8-27-06
12 Pentecost
"Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." These are Peter's words, and we have made them our own words as we sing this every time we wait for the gospel to be read each time we worship. The words mean, "How could we ever stop following this Jesus, how could we refuse to hear him, when Jesus, God's Word made flesh, ushers us into new and abundant life, even life that will last forever?"
"Lord to whom can we go?" This is not easy for Peter to say, nor is it easy for you and me to say. Jesus has just spoken some excruciatingly difficult things for Peter and us to swallow. As you know, we have been reading from this 6th chapter of John's gospel for some weeks now, and Jesus has been hammering us about his being the Bread of Life. As we considered last week, this could be palatable for us, if Jesus by referring to himself as the Bread of Life is taken metaphorically, that his MISSION and his MESSAGE are for us to believe in, and thus he feeds us with divine power and life. But if Jesus IS the Bread of Life to be ingested - consumed REALLY, spiritually and every other way, as he so plainly demands ("Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them....") - then we get confused, even "offended" as Jesus hints that we may be.
And these, of course, are not the only things that Jesus teaches that tend to offend us. It is not that Jesus is out to alienate as many folks as possible. It is just that when Jesus knows that GOD is the source and sustenance of yours and my lives, then everything else (EVERYTHING ELSE) that life may bring our way gets interpreted and transformed by Jesus our Lord. And so Jesus says tough things: "Love your enemies," "Do good to those who persecute you," "You cannot serve God AND material things," "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword," "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me," "If your eye or hand cause you to sin, remove them and cast them away from you." "Take up your cross and follow me." And so Jesus goes on and on, insulting our good tastes, stepping on our favorite causes, attacking our value systems. Again, not just to shock us or just to get our attention, but to remove obstacles you and I set up that hinder our intimate relationship with a loving, forgiving, merciful, gracious God. Until that happens, Jesus becomes almost an embarrassment for us.
Barbara Wills is a pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Iowa, and in a short article she wrote, she reflects on this business of our being offended. "It was a Saturday in spring," she writes, "and my dad was taking me shopping for a new Easter outfit. How exciting! I was seventeen or eighteen, and for my father to help me choose an outfit made me feel very grown up. Usually we went shopping as a family with my mother and perhaps my younger brother along. Or my mother and I would go together. But to have my dad to myself for the day, and to have him interested enough to help me choose clothes -- well, it was special.
"The only fly in the ointment (she writes) was that Dad was dressed for working in his basement workshop -- old flannel shirt, stained slacks, shoes that had paint spatters from bygone projects, and an old floppy hat. We were going to a nice department store, and Dad's choice of clothes didn't quite project the sophisticated impression I felt was so important. I remember a sense of embarrassment that overshadowed this otherwise joyous event. But we went, and I decided it was in my best interest not to make an issue of his clothes. I have lived to be thankful. My father died several years ago....the clothes he wore that day and those I bought are long gone. But the love we shared as father and daughter lasted over the years."
So when push comes to shove, is Jesus an embarrassment for you and me? We stand here in this church building and piously say, with Peter, "You, Jesus, have the words of eternal life," but what's our attitude once we leave the church parking lot? One clue, one terribly large elephant in the room (that we often kind of feebly acknowledge, weakly smile about, and quickly move on to something less embarrassing), is that practically NONE OF US ever speaks of this Jesus, the confessed "Bread of our lives" to other people in our lives - our family members, schoolmates, fellow employees, the neighbors. What is this embarrassment we have? I don't mean that we need to be over at our neighbors' houses knocking on their doors bubbling about new wrinkles in our personal spirituality - asking them, "Are you saved sister or brother?" But on the other hand, I honestly think we're more comfortable if Jesus stays in the Bible. We make the Bible a kind of prison for Jesus: as long as Jesus stays in the book, we can manage our belief in him. Many disciples of Jesus in our story today find Jesus' words about himself as the Bread of Life to be "difficult" (the Greek word they use means "harsh" or "demanding"). THEY have difficulty because Jesus stands in front of them as one of them, a man, one of the sons of Mary, who has sisters and brothers. How can this "man" be Bread of Life? And Jesus has to remind them that it is not only flesh and blood standing in front of them, but spirit - the very Spirit of the living God.
It is this spirit-filled, living, powerful Christ whom you and I often want to confine to the pages of a book, when Jesus is begging us to let him live IN us so that we might LIVE deeply. Jesus seeks to companion us, feed us, abide with us. Of this Lord of our lives, you and I need not be offended or embarrassed. And maybe (like St. Paul does so much) you and I can even "brag on Jesus," like we do our children or grandchildren. We WANT others to become acquainted with this one who gives us freedom and new life, and the strength to live in both.
This is not easy, and it is often a fearful experience, because when we take Jesus' words to heart things change for us. I'd like to think that things change for the better for us; but there are times when we discover that once the truth of this Christ lives in us, WE swim against the current of the world around us - our values and life styles and behaviors are vastly different than our neighbors or employers or teachers or even friends.
"Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life." When you and I come to the Table of our Lord, to ingest, consume his body and blood in bread and wine, we do so to feed upon the Staff of Life, BREAD that the world needs so desperately from US as we pass on this banquet to our sisters and brothers on this planet who are literally DYING to receive it. The Sacrament of Holy Communion is not about footwork around the altar, styles of wine and bread delivery, frequency of dining, or pots, plates or goblets. The Table of our Lord is spread for the life of the world, not for our personal comfort. JESUS wishes to feed us. You and I have the marvelous pleasure, with the most serious of mandates, to take LIFE to people whose lives are broken, dying, and filled with terror. The meal cannot stay with us. This is the food of freedom, justice, forgiveness and love. This food we will not withhold from those who hunger.
The whole thing of Jesus as the Bread of Life started with the feeding of the 5000, didn't it. Finally it becomes clear to us - you and I are the broken bits and pieces with which the world is to be fed. This is a miracle.
Pastor Scott McKinney