I preached this sermon on Sunday August 12, 2012 at St. Paul's Sacramento at both the 8:00 and 10:00 services
Sunday closest to August 10
Proper 14 B RCL
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Psalm 130
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51
Jesus said to the
people, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,
and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
Then the Jews began to
complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from
heaven." They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, `I have come down from heaven'?"
Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to
me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on
the last day. It is written in the prophets, `And they shall all be taught by
God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that
anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the
Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the
bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and
not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this
bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the
world is my flesh."
Are you tired of bread stories
yet? This week is the third week of
bread and it will continue for a few more weeks. The Choir director at the cathedral
complained that he is running our of “Bread” anthems! We are reading our way through John chapter
6. It is our summer respite from the
gospel of Mark. We picked up our Gospel
reading where it ended last week with Jesus’ declaration “I AM the bread of
Life.” Unfortunately we then skip six
verses. They are important verses that
we should not leave out as they set the stage for why the people were
complaining. So here are the missing verses
“But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not
believe. Everything that the
Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive
away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of
him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose
nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is
indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may
have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.’”
So when we put these
verses back in the story we hear that not only are the people having problems
with the whole bread thing but also with Jesus assertions that he has come down
from heaven and that the Father will draw us to Jesus. Jesus is making a messianic claim here. He is promising eternal life through himself
and promising that those who come to him will be raised by him at the last day.
Jesus is upsetting
the Jew’s world in this passage. No
wonder when we pick up the reading the Jews are complaining. He is setting himself aside as different and
the people don’t buy it. Their response
is one that I think we all would make.
How can this be? We know his
parents? Mary and Joseph! Jesus is the carpenters son!
But Jesus is claiming more. In these passages Jesus is starting to reveal
who he is. He is using language that
would be unmistakable to his audience.
He is claiming to be the new Moses and more. Jesus relates his own flesh to the manna that
God supplied when Moses delivered the people form slavery. Jesus is not only referencing what happened
with Moses but there is the shift to God.
God provided the manna in the wilderness and Jesus is claiming to be the
bread from heaven. Jesus is claiming not
only to be the bread but to be God. So
is there any wonder that the people were complaining?
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Jesus
said to the people, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will
never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. What
does this mean for us? It really is
still radical. Jesus is promising an
abundance that we don’t often see. And
may not believe. Never hungry? Never thirsty? How can that be? There is the promise of
abundance but an abundance that is different from the worldly abundance that we
want to equate with this. It really is still radical. Jesus is promising an abundance that we don’t
often see.
Have you ever known someone who seems to live
a life of unexpected abundance and grace?
I have been privileged to know several people who epitomized living a
life of unexpected abundance. One dear
friend lived in a world that was full of life even when life was
difficult. When her body broke down she
did not complain. The worst complaint I
ever heard come out of her mouth was “Oh Bother!” when her body failed to
function the way it had in her younger days.
She believed in the abundance of God.
In her infirmity she went out of her way to help others around her. She ministered to those around her in amazing
ways. For example until the end she
would make sure that one neighbor who had lost many of his mental faculties was
still able to participate in community meals.
She made sure that he still was at table with his friends and did what
she could to help him know that he was still valued.
My friend looked forward to being
fed the Bread of Life. The abundant gift
of Jesus. Not in a Jesus that will come
but a Jesus that came into the world and is still operating in the world. She operated out of that place of
abundance. Her last meal was the gift of
the living bread. Her last meal was
communion. She died secure in the
promise of eternal life. Not some future
eternity but an eternity that is already around us and already here. I don’t think there was any fear in her
departing her failing body as she had tasted the bread that leaves one full and
believed in the gift of eternal life.
When the church is at its best we
help feed that abundance. When we take
communion we are offered a taste of the heavenly banquet. That mystical feeding that sustains us with
the promise of God’s grace. For me that
is one reason I am so strongly drawn to the priesthood. I have been fed by the sacraments in times of
despair and in times of hope and I feel called to help bring that feeding to
others.
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Jesus said “I
am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will
live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my
flesh." This radical statement
would have set the Jew’s teeth on edge.
The ideal of eating flesh was against all of the purity laws. It was upsetting. Jesus was turning the world upside down! It is still an upsetting image. Some of my un-churched friends have quite
literally been sick to their stomachs in hearing our Eucharistic words “Take,
Eat, this is my body!” These words that
we hear week after week have become too tame for us. We divorce our selves from the radical nature
of the words. Jesus words are not always
meant to comfort the world. They are
meant to turn it upside down. When we
partake of the Bread of life our response and our hope should be radical. Our response to God’s Grace that is present
in our Eucharist should be to go out and create the abundance that it promises.
Jesus calls us to love God and Love our neighbor. Yes even the cranky neighbor and the
neighbors who don’t look, smell or act like us.
The hope is radical. The promise is
not some future place of abundance but an abundance that is already unfolding
in our midst.
Dr. Karyn Wiseman Associate Professor of Homiletics at Lutheran
Theological Seminary at Philadelphia said “I want to be who God calls me to
be and make an impact in
the world, sharing resources and offering assistance to those in need. Many
will call me a socialist and deride my genuine care as a political agenda, but
I believe no one should go hungry. Spiritually or physically.
I
know that one of the best ways to help is to instill a sense of worth that all
are welcome to come to the table – to come to the Bread of Life. All persons
deserve to receive the gift of abundant life.
The
truth is everyone – in spite of their life circumstances – needs to have hope.
They need to see options for a better world. They need to envision a time and
place when they are gifted with what God intends for them. This passage reminds
me of that hope, that vision, and that gift. It brings us into deeper
relationship with the one who is the Bread of Life - the one who feeds us over
and over again.” (http://www.odysseynetworks.org/news/onscripture-the-bible-john-6-35)
God is calling all of
us to an abundant table. God is offering
us nourishment that will never leave us hungry.
We are called to the Eucharistic feast. We just have to be willing to
come to the table. To acknowledge that
we are worthy of the feast. God feeds us
an abundant feast. In response we are
called as God’s agents to bring God’s hope and abundance to our hurting and
hurt filled world.
