May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: 15 PENTECOST
PROPER: 17 B
PLACE: ST. JOHN’S PARISH
DATE: AUG. 31, 1997
TEXT: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 - Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come. . .”
ISSUE: The passage deals with what is really important, which is a matter of what is truly in the heart. The Pharisees, jealous of Jesus’ increasing honor, challenge him. In a confrontive manner, Jesus challenges their emphasis upon man-made human tradition over the law of Moses, the Torah. It is not the forms of religion that matter as much as what is in the human heart. Inspite of our facade, the human heart can be badly diseased with and by things that are not of God. We can go through the religious motions, but not really deal with the spiritual development of a loving, caring, compassionate, and a profound faith in God.
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This passage from the Gospel account of Mark is a very confrontive one. Jesus is being challenged by the religious leadership, the pharisees. It is likely that Jesus was receiving an increasing honorable status among some of the common folk. The pharisees challenge him and his disciples concerning their improper religious practices, particularly that of not washing their hands before eating. This was not an issue of hygiene in Jesus’s time, but a religious ritual practiced by the pharisees, the honorable ones. They publicly bring attention to the fact that Jesus’ disciples are not following proper ritual, ceremonial cleansing. The effort is to dishonor him publicly on this point.
The process of ceremonial cleansing of the hands was complicated. The water had to be kept in special jars. The hands had to first be free of any foreign matter, like sand, mortar, gravel, whatever. Then the ceremonial washing could begin and hands had to be held in a certain position so that water that had touched the wrist did not run back down on the hands. It appears that you would need to have some kind of assistance to do it properly. Food eaten without the hand washing was considered itself to be polluted. Eating with unclean hands made you subject to a demon, named Shibta.
There were also elaborate pharisaic rules over the cleansing of pots and vessels, which applied to certain dishes that had a rim, but not to vessels that did not have a rim. The letter of the law in these respects were very complicated. And food brought from the market was also ceremonially cleaned considering that it may have been touched by a Gentile, or some other unclean person. Remember also that lepers, women in the time of their menstrual period, corpses, dead animals or fish were all considered unclean. Well for the poor people, for fishermen who were constantly dealing with dead fish, these rules would keep them for the most part considered to be people that were ritually unclean and unworthy religious beings. Jesus’ ministry really challenged all these intricate traditions of the pharisees. In fact, Jesus did touch lepers, women in the time of their menstrual cycle, the dead. He challenged the strict adherence of the Sabbath which forbade healing. He dismissed the ceremonial hand washing. These practices alienated the poor and people who did not have money for servants and time for carrying out these elaborate rituals. In fact, water was scarce and not readily available.
Furthermore, if the early church was to have a mission to the Gentiles, in which it attempted to proclaim Jesus Christ as Messiah and Lord, it would be burdensome, if not superficial to require all these elaborate rules and regulations of tradition. Keep in mind the rules Jesus abandons are not the basic commandments and law of God. It is the elaborate traditions that evolved which were sometimes well intentioned in their beginnings, but that lost meaning and eventually overshadowed the real intentions of law and being a people who were of God, pure in heart, and who were intended to be witness of the grace of God and light to the nations of the world.
In a very confrontive way, Jesus responds to the Pharisees, quoting scripture, a passage from Isaiah (29:13). He refers to them as “hypocrites.” A hypocrite was an actor. What he is essentially saying to the Pharisees is, “You actors, scripture may be the lines you quote, but it is not the script by which you live.” (Or as Isaiah wrote: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human doctrines.” The issue for Jesus is not what you put into yourself in terms of whether the hands are ceremonially clean or not, but what is inside already, what’s in the heart. What is important is what comes out of a person. Jesus lists all the evil stuff that comes out of people. And that long list of sins is typical of rabbinical listings of the time: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. It is in the this response and the quoting of scripture that Jesus maintained his honorable stature among the poor.
In the passage we can all see that what the point that Jesus makes is well taken. However, we need to consider whether or not our own traditions enable us to purify our own hearts and what comes out of them. There is sense in which we also are “hypocrites” that is, actors. Look at me. I am all dressed up in these robes and vestments playing a part in a ritual, as are the choir and the acolytes. You folks in the pew have dressed in your “Sunday-go-to-meeting” clothes. Together we follow the script of the liturgy. But what gives us true religion? All of our religious play acting is only as good as it allows our hearts to be ministered to by God, and as we allow ourselves to be changed and transformed by the presence of God. If we go through the liturgies and return home and persist in malice, holding grudges, intent upon keeping our prejudices, practicing adultery and sexual promiscuity, continuing in shady business deals, keeping the status-quo with hardened hearts and ongoing stinginess without a sensitivity to the poor and those in need, then we are hypocrites, play actors, in the worst sense of that word.
There’s a funny little story of a man who wanted to be spiritual and have a close relationship with God and God’s way. So he set an hour of time each day for prayer, scripture reading, and meditation. He was regular and devoted to his discipline. However he was frequently disturbed during his meditations by his cat, which would jump on his lap. So each day during this time of prayer, with a leash he tied the cat to a chair until he finished the time of devotion. He became a holy man. His son of the next generation, which was a busier time followed in his father’s footsteps. He could not devote quite as much time each day, but he dutifully read scripture, prayed, and kept the cat tied up during this devotional period. He too became something of a holy man. Now this man’s son recognizing the importance of this need for devotion lived in a still much busier time. So he dutifully each day tied up the cat for an hour, and went about his business. He did not become a particularly holy man.
In this post Christendom era, I think we are sometimes inclined, like the man of the third generation, simply to tie the cat to the chair. We go through the rituals, but maybe without the real devotion. We live with the idea that all is well and that Christianity, the church is doing fine, but we are insensitive to what is really happening, having eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear. What appears to be surfacing is a world and country threatened by serious moral decline and a loss of true godliness. Our own personal lives, and family lives are often in spiritual crisis. People find themselves caught up in messes that are in sharp contrast to their lives of ritual and values they want to profess. Are we not all sinners? And our spiritual hearts can be sometimes as diseased as our coronary arteries.
At the same time that we can be glum, prophets of doom, and play the “Ain’t It Awful” game, it is important to be aware that God is still alive and active in the church and the world. People are being transformed and changed and wrestling with issues of their faith. Many churches are taking a hard look at themselves and how they can be more effective spiritual witnesses to the world rather than tying the cat to the chair and just existing. New missions, hopes and dreams abound among people of renewed deep faith. Jesus was renewing people’s understanding of God who sought to be in their midst. Jesus wanted to clear away the clutter that blocked a genuine spirituality, closeness with God and that invigorated a sense of mission, of being a light for the world. Jesus did not abandon traditions and rituals. He participated in the synagogue and the Passover Feasts. But he did have a clear vision of God and Godliness.
Our need today is renewed trust and faith that God will lead us into what he would have us be and do as a church community and as individuals for that matter. Certainly, Jesus was shaking the foundations of his time, challenging the rituals and the tabus, in terms of who and what was touchable. He revealed through his faith and sacrifice the loveliness of God. There is an old hymn which could be the prayer of our lives for today. It is in the Hymnal 1940 and the new one Hymnal 1982, (number 694).
God be in mine eyes, and in my looking.
God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be a mine end, and at my departing.
Each Sunday we pray:
Almighty God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name.
No doubt this prayer, so very familiar, makes us less attuned to it. But it expresses what we need: cleansed and open hearts so that what we say and do hear may be truly lived in our lives. May our lives be truly transformed and our hearts open to the spirit of God that our lives may be a genuine expression of what God is calling us to be and do in our world today.
We are indeed the Actors of God, God’s own hypocrites. But may our script be truly God’s scripting and words, etched upon our hearts and lived out on the stage of life.
Sunday, August 31, 1997
Sunday, August 24, 1997
14 PENTECOST
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: 14 PENTECOST
PROPER: 16 B
PLACE: ST. JOHN’S, KINGSVILLE
DATE: AUGUST 24, 1997
TEXT: John 6:60-69 - Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever.” When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” . . . . . . So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
ISSUE: As Jesus addresses the people of his own time he gives them some “hard sayings.” Accepting him as the Bread of Life and that they are to drink his blood is certainly one of those hard sayings which is a startling statement that he is God’s son. There are many other statements that challenge people. Many people turn away from him. Peter remains loyal, seeing Jesus as the bearer of the words of eternal life, that is, quality of life. In the world today, the words of Christ Jesus are every bit as challenging. We must make the decision to be faithful, or choose other values. Either we serve God through the ways and teaching of Christ, or we serve ourselves to our own selfish demise.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In recent weeks we have had a running account from the Gospel of John of how Jesus was seen as the Son of the Living God. More specifically, Jesus is the word of what God has to say to the world. He is the spiritual bread of life. In a startling and compelling statement, Jesus says from last week’s gospel reading, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” To people who had an abhorrence for consuming the blood of anything, even in their meat dishes, these saying were extraordinarily difficult. Jesus’ repeated use of the I Am statements were unacceptable, such as I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Light of the world. I am the Vine. I am the way, the truth, and the life. All of these statements using “I Am” were associating himself with the divine, the sacred, the holy with the very name of God itself. These saying were astonishing and hard for many of the people who had been attracted to him to accept. According to the passage today, there were many who did, in fact, abandon him.
However, the difficult statements of Jesus’ teaching are not limited to just his own association with the holy. Throughout the gospel narratives there are other difficult sayings and teachings with which many people are not at all comfortable. Some examples:
From Mark 10:21, Jesus says to the rich young man who wants to know what he must do to receive eternal life: “Go and sell all that you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
In Mark 10:2, Pharisees come to Jesus asking him if a person may divorce his wife to which Jesus replies: “A man who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against his wife. In the same way, a woman who divorces her husband and marries antoher man commits adultery.” And of course in our modern age, there is discomfort with the passage in the Epistle reading today from Ephesians (5:21-33) in which wives are instructed to be subject to their husbands. People miss however that the passage also says that men are to be everybit as subject and devoted to their wives and that all people out of reverence for Christ are to be subject to one another. Caught up in our racial and socio-economic prejudices we often miss this point of being subject to one another as human beings. This saying is a hard and difficult one for overly individualistic and competitive societies.
Luke 14:26, goes on to write that Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
From Matthew 18:13, Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. To become like a child meant to give up all your status and honor in the society.
It is not only the sayings of Jesus that are sometimes that are hard to accept. It is also some of the teachings, his parables, and things that Jesus did. In Matt. 21: 18, Jesus sees the fig tree which has no fruit on it. He curses the tree and it dries up. Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem, (Matt. 21:12 also Mark, Luke, and John) goes into the temple and seeing the normal and routine market place insinuates that those people gathered there are little more than bandits and thieves. He overturns the tables, and throws out the people whose family businesses may have been there for long periods of time.
Parables of Jesus like the Prodigal Son expressed a forgiveness of a delinquent son that was unacceptable. People still challenge it. In the Vineyard parable where laborers came at the end of the day and received the same amount of money as those who bore the heat of the day, this concept and the meaning were, and still is, hard to discern. Considering all of these teaching, sayings, and parables, it is not hard to appreciate that Jesus lost disciples and was in fact ultimately crucified. He called for some tough hard looking at life and life’s values relative to our relationship with God and with one another.
Eventually, there were those who could not follow Jesus and remain in a committed, faithful, and loyal relationship with him. They are essentially dismissed. The inner core, the twelve disciples are also offered that option to leave him. Peter answers him with the words of genuine faith, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know tht you ar ethe Holy One of God.
What God has done in Jesus is to reveal what a son, a child, or a daughter, or person of God looks like. In the life and ministry of Jesus there is the devotion to revealing through his life what God is like. God is love. That love is no more romantic easy affection. It is a profound servanthood. Jesus’ love is sacrificial. He expresses the forgivingness of God who by the very fact of the presence of Jesus Christ is the recalling of faithless, rebellious, and fallen human nature. God in Christ is showing the way to the re-establishment of the Garden, or the Promised Land, or the Kingdom of God. It is hard to believe, to trust, to have faith in the fact that God loves the world so much as express such passion and compassionate love and acceptance. It is offered as a gift and is not forced. Accepting, receiving, embracing, consuming the way and teaching of Jesus Christ is to enter into relationship with him and be a disciple, a child a son, a daughter of the living God.
What this passage lays before us is the fact that we all as at least nominal Christians need to examine our own set of values and our allegiances. Just as in the Old Testament Lesson, or reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, Joshua challenges the tribes of Israel. It is a time of reckoning. Joshua calls for their allegiance at a ritual of renewal. The people declare their faithfulness in Jahweh. We are attracted, if not seduced by the world’s values. We become locked into our racial prejudices. The mass media leads us to believe that violence and sexual promiscuity are the overall way of life to be accepted and endured. Occasional and subtle dishonesty doesn’t really matter, if it gets us what we want easily. Human relationships are only valuable in so far as we get what we want out of them. An occasional relationship with Holiness is more than sufficient. The basic religious relationship with God is to get things to be and run the way we want them to be and run. We want rain. And when we don’t get what we want we get angry with God and abandon God or see God as useless to our needs. The culture avoids words like sacrifice, commitment, faithfulness. People offer themselves minimally. Our hesitnacy, our rebelliousness, our trivial commitments, our holding back are all contrasted to Christ the bread of life and the out pouring blood of salvation.
The faith and the scriptures hold up Christ as the Bread of Life, the real presence and sustenance of what really counts and matters. In Christ we see sacrifice and giving. In him we see endurance and patience with the poor and the afflicted, with foolish and hardhearted people and disciples. In him we see profound compassion like a unique father’s love for a wayward son. In him we see a devotion to God and Godliness that comes first and foremost, a deep spirited commitment spiritual thanksgiving for blessings. In him we see a delight in being fruitful and giving. And for those who will allow it, they will see in him an enduring quality of life that is indeed precious. It is indeed an enduring quality of life that makes world standards and values often empty and meaningless. The Way of God is narrow, and sometimes just plain hard, but meaningful and enduring. The ways of the world are described as fun, happy, joyful, leading to success and without restraint. Yet they are often shallow, meaningless, trivial and destructive to people and their relationships. The Bread of Life, which is Jesus, is food and meaning for the human spirit. It is indeed the way of the cross. It is also the way of God that leads to deeper joys and appreciations of the true wonderfulness of life. May God help us to make the right choices, to long for Christ as our way, our truth, our life. That with all of our poor choices and inadequacies we who embrace him as Lord shall share in his way of love and enter into God’s Kingdom.
SEASON: 14 PENTECOST
PROPER: 16 B
PLACE: ST. JOHN’S, KINGSVILLE
DATE: AUGUST 24, 1997
TEXT: John 6:60-69 - Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever.” When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” . . . . . . So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
ISSUE: As Jesus addresses the people of his own time he gives them some “hard sayings.” Accepting him as the Bread of Life and that they are to drink his blood is certainly one of those hard sayings which is a startling statement that he is God’s son. There are many other statements that challenge people. Many people turn away from him. Peter remains loyal, seeing Jesus as the bearer of the words of eternal life, that is, quality of life. In the world today, the words of Christ Jesus are every bit as challenging. We must make the decision to be faithful, or choose other values. Either we serve God through the ways and teaching of Christ, or we serve ourselves to our own selfish demise.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
In recent weeks we have had a running account from the Gospel of John of how Jesus was seen as the Son of the Living God. More specifically, Jesus is the word of what God has to say to the world. He is the spiritual bread of life. In a startling and compelling statement, Jesus says from last week’s gospel reading, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” To people who had an abhorrence for consuming the blood of anything, even in their meat dishes, these saying were extraordinarily difficult. Jesus’ repeated use of the I Am statements were unacceptable, such as I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Light of the world. I am the Vine. I am the way, the truth, and the life. All of these statements using “I Am” were associating himself with the divine, the sacred, the holy with the very name of God itself. These saying were astonishing and hard for many of the people who had been attracted to him to accept. According to the passage today, there were many who did, in fact, abandon him.
However, the difficult statements of Jesus’ teaching are not limited to just his own association with the holy. Throughout the gospel narratives there are other difficult sayings and teachings with which many people are not at all comfortable. Some examples:
From Mark 10:21, Jesus says to the rich young man who wants to know what he must do to receive eternal life: “Go and sell all that you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.”
In Mark 10:2, Pharisees come to Jesus asking him if a person may divorce his wife to which Jesus replies: “A man who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against his wife. In the same way, a woman who divorces her husband and marries antoher man commits adultery.” And of course in our modern age, there is discomfort with the passage in the Epistle reading today from Ephesians (5:21-33) in which wives are instructed to be subject to their husbands. People miss however that the passage also says that men are to be everybit as subject and devoted to their wives and that all people out of reverence for Christ are to be subject to one another. Caught up in our racial and socio-economic prejudices we often miss this point of being subject to one another as human beings. This saying is a hard and difficult one for overly individualistic and competitive societies.
Luke 14:26, goes on to write that Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”
From Matthew 18:13, Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. To become like a child meant to give up all your status and honor in the society.
It is not only the sayings of Jesus that are sometimes that are hard to accept. It is also some of the teachings, his parables, and things that Jesus did. In Matt. 21: 18, Jesus sees the fig tree which has no fruit on it. He curses the tree and it dries up. Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem, (Matt. 21:12 also Mark, Luke, and John) goes into the temple and seeing the normal and routine market place insinuates that those people gathered there are little more than bandits and thieves. He overturns the tables, and throws out the people whose family businesses may have been there for long periods of time.
Parables of Jesus like the Prodigal Son expressed a forgiveness of a delinquent son that was unacceptable. People still challenge it. In the Vineyard parable where laborers came at the end of the day and received the same amount of money as those who bore the heat of the day, this concept and the meaning were, and still is, hard to discern. Considering all of these teaching, sayings, and parables, it is not hard to appreciate that Jesus lost disciples and was in fact ultimately crucified. He called for some tough hard looking at life and life’s values relative to our relationship with God and with one another.
Eventually, there were those who could not follow Jesus and remain in a committed, faithful, and loyal relationship with him. They are essentially dismissed. The inner core, the twelve disciples are also offered that option to leave him. Peter answers him with the words of genuine faith, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know tht you ar ethe Holy One of God.
What God has done in Jesus is to reveal what a son, a child, or a daughter, or person of God looks like. In the life and ministry of Jesus there is the devotion to revealing through his life what God is like. God is love. That love is no more romantic easy affection. It is a profound servanthood. Jesus’ love is sacrificial. He expresses the forgivingness of God who by the very fact of the presence of Jesus Christ is the recalling of faithless, rebellious, and fallen human nature. God in Christ is showing the way to the re-establishment of the Garden, or the Promised Land, or the Kingdom of God. It is hard to believe, to trust, to have faith in the fact that God loves the world so much as express such passion and compassionate love and acceptance. It is offered as a gift and is not forced. Accepting, receiving, embracing, consuming the way and teaching of Jesus Christ is to enter into relationship with him and be a disciple, a child a son, a daughter of the living God.
What this passage lays before us is the fact that we all as at least nominal Christians need to examine our own set of values and our allegiances. Just as in the Old Testament Lesson, or reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, Joshua challenges the tribes of Israel. It is a time of reckoning. Joshua calls for their allegiance at a ritual of renewal. The people declare their faithfulness in Jahweh. We are attracted, if not seduced by the world’s values. We become locked into our racial prejudices. The mass media leads us to believe that violence and sexual promiscuity are the overall way of life to be accepted and endured. Occasional and subtle dishonesty doesn’t really matter, if it gets us what we want easily. Human relationships are only valuable in so far as we get what we want out of them. An occasional relationship with Holiness is more than sufficient. The basic religious relationship with God is to get things to be and run the way we want them to be and run. We want rain. And when we don’t get what we want we get angry with God and abandon God or see God as useless to our needs. The culture avoids words like sacrifice, commitment, faithfulness. People offer themselves minimally. Our hesitnacy, our rebelliousness, our trivial commitments, our holding back are all contrasted to Christ the bread of life and the out pouring blood of salvation.
The faith and the scriptures hold up Christ as the Bread of Life, the real presence and sustenance of what really counts and matters. In Christ we see sacrifice and giving. In him we see endurance and patience with the poor and the afflicted, with foolish and hardhearted people and disciples. In him we see profound compassion like a unique father’s love for a wayward son. In him we see a devotion to God and Godliness that comes first and foremost, a deep spirited commitment spiritual thanksgiving for blessings. In him we see a delight in being fruitful and giving. And for those who will allow it, they will see in him an enduring quality of life that is indeed precious. It is indeed an enduring quality of life that makes world standards and values often empty and meaningless. The Way of God is narrow, and sometimes just plain hard, but meaningful and enduring. The ways of the world are described as fun, happy, joyful, leading to success and without restraint. Yet they are often shallow, meaningless, trivial and destructive to people and their relationships. The Bread of Life, which is Jesus, is food and meaning for the human spirit. It is indeed the way of the cross. It is also the way of God that leads to deeper joys and appreciations of the true wonderfulness of life. May God help us to make the right choices, to long for Christ as our way, our truth, our life. That with all of our poor choices and inadequacies we who embrace him as Lord shall share in his way of love and enter into God’s Kingdom.
Sunday, August 17, 1997
13 PENTECOST
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: 13 PENTECOST
PROPER: 15B
ST. JOHN’S CHURCH
DATE: AUG. 17, 1997
TEXT: John 6:53-59 - “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
See Also: Proverbs 9:1-6 - “Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
ISSUE: The passage continues to have an element of being scandalous in the calling for the drinking of ‘blood,’ which was unheard of by the Jews. However, the passage presents the radical shift of the early church toward the acceptance of Jesus Christ in an intimate way. He is the presence of God come among his people, and offered for his people, even in sacrifice. They are welcomed into an intimate relationship with him, and at the same time to be in a mature union with God. The people of God are to be the channels of God’s redeeming grace revealed in Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The scriptures readings today continue the theme of Jesus Christ as the true bread of life. Emphasis today is upon Jesus the eating, the consumption or gnawing upon Christ and the drinking of his blood. The very concept is difficult for some people, and any number of small children are often disturbed by the concept of drinking of the blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. It is indeed very compelling imagery, if not disturbing imagery. Yet John’s gospel account uses this imagery to convey some radical shift in thinking and appreciation of the focus of the early church’s understanding of Jesus Christ.
Actually Christianity has been based upon some scandalous beliefs from its beginnings. Christmas is scandalous. God comes to the world in human form. For the Jews as well as for many people even today, it is very difficult to accept the image of God in human terms. At the same time the conception of Jesus to an unwed mother had its problems for the early church. What is even further scandalous was the crucifixion of Jesus. If he was truly the Messiah, the Christ, he is totally dishonored by the crucifixion. Crucifixion was a curse. This crucifixion of Christ was foolishness to the Gentiles and scandalous to the Jews. Then the idea that the liturgy was based upon the eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Christ was abhorrent to Jewish religious tradition.
In the Jewish faith you learned from the very beginning that the spilling of human blood was forbidden. You learned this fact early in Genesis in the story of Cain and Abel. The Ten Commandments forbade murder, for it was an outrage to God. Blood for these people was of God. It was deemed to be sacred. Blood was how God gave life. If it drained out of a person, the person died. Even in the cooking of animals for food. The blood of the animal was not consumed. The orthodox had a special ritual of soaking meat in salt water, rinsing and draining until such time as all the blood was removed. The eating of a rare steak would be unheard of and against the law.
In Genesis 9:4, Noah is given instruction after the flood ordeal as to what he can eat among fish, animals, and green plants, but “The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood.”
Leviticus Law (17: 10,1214) writes “If an Isrelite or any foreigner living in the community eats meat with blood still in it, the Lord will turn against him and no longer consider him one of his people.”
Even in the New Testament Book of Acts 15:29 early Genitile Christians are told: “Eat no food that has been offered to idols; eat no blood . . .” The taboo hung on at least as it was related to Gentile pagan practices.
Blood of animals was used as an offering in the sacrificial system. Blood offerings were offering to God something that was considered sacred as an atonement for sin. At the Passover, the blood of the lamb was offered remembering that the Angel of Death passed over God’s people, and they were liberated from their bondage. The offering of blood, the sacred, for sin was in belief that God would forgive the pentitent.
Now in the teaching of Jesus as we have it in John’s Gospel account, you have a radical shift of emphasis. What was once considered taboo, the consumption of the sacred, now becomes made available in Christ and through Christ. Jesus’ very being is seen as the incarnation of God. People are invited to consume the sacred, to take it into themselves. Christ is the living bread of God. He is the new manna of heaven he may be consumed fully in order that humanity may be ultimately redeemed by the living sacred presence of God taken into their very being.
In John’s Gospel, there is no account of Jesus taking the bread and the wine at the last supper and saying , “This is my body, this is my blood. Drink this in remembrance of me.” as you find it in the synoptic accounts. What you have in John is the miraculous feeding of the the 5,000 followed by the discourses on Jesus being the Bread of Life, the Word of what God has to say, the blood to be consumed, made available to all of God’s faithful people. Here you have the fullness of God’s sacred love being made fully available to the world.
Notice the beautiful Old Testament passage this morning from Proverbs 9:1-6. In this passage God’s wisdom or God’s Word has prepared a banquet. Wisdom sends out the servant girls to call from the highest places to the simplest of folk. They are invited to the banquet of well mixed bread and wine. Drinking of the banquet of God’s wisdom will bring them maturity and insight. The early Church is picking up this theme. That in and through Christ and consuming his way a person is entering into the wisdom, the sacredness, the holiness, the very initmate way of God. Obviously for the early church the concept of consuming the flesh and blood of Christ was a radical shift of thinking. But it was the myster, the poetry of the early church and its focus and confident belief that it could be close to, intimate with, abide in the very real and living presence of God.
In a sense, it is like knowing that the Bible is the living word of God. It is like holding up the Bible as a book which is worthy of great respect. Many many people do. But for the Bible to make any difference for people, they have to read it. They have to consume and take into themselves its content and meaning. For the early church it was extraordinarily important that people just not know about Jesus, or that there was a Jesus, who was a good guy. It was important to embrace the living Lord, to consume him, to take him into you and let his sacredness abide in you, and you in him. It meant to appreciate the fullness of the living Christ and live into that mature love and insight that his ministry was one of love and profound sacrifice that people could know the will and the presence of God in their lives.
For people of John’s time who were faced with all kinds of philosophies and morality, it was important to be able to conume, take into yourself in this radical way the trust that God was really, truly, genuinely in and with you and could be a stable part of your being. It is also so very important for our time. Some of us older folks came out of a mindset that life was pretty organized and predictable. We knew cause and effect. Things, life seemed relatively simple and God was the great cause and protector. Today, young people and even us older people are no longer as certain that life is as simple and predictable. It just isn’t. Certainly it is not simple. Life has become in many ways complicated and fast paced. I sit down almost daily in front of a complicated computer that is supposed to help me do everything faster.
At the same time we live in a world where it is hard to know, especially for young people, to know what they can trust and what is lasting. There is great distrust in our culture right now. People are suspect of Government and we don’t have much confidence or trust in politicians. We have been disappointed by sports figures, the sometime bizarre behavior of celebrities, take Prince Philip and Princess Dianna as examples. The stability of the once respected royal throne is diminished. Religious figures are greatly distrusted by recent scandals. And what’s more our children can never be sure whether their father or mother will come home and stay with them. Our families are suffering from great instability. So little is predictable. Young people sometimes die before the old people. Older people once expect this to happen more than young people do today. Youth sees death as chaotic and immediately excludes notions of an eminent God.
What have we that we can depend upon? What is there to be with us in our instability, to give us hope in a world of chaos. What can we trust and have faith in? For many people today these are unanswerable questions. They are the real challenges of our time. If we as Christians are to bring any hope and trust to the world, it must come through our faith. It must come through our feeding upon Christ in the way that makes us united with him, in his love and forgiveness, and in living in that way of servant sacrifice. In the world’s chaos we must be the believers in hope, the believers in love, the believers in God through the consuming of Christ as our Lord. We ourselves are not and do not have all the answers to the uncertainties and the complexities of the world. At best we embrace, absorb, and abide in Jesus Christ the living expression of God and let God’s grace work through and be seen through us so that the mystery of God may be seen to prevail. We ourselves must indeed be faithful enough, so absorbed in Christ and he in us, that we are not afraid to live with the ambiguities of life.
SEASON: 13 PENTECOST
PROPER: 15B
ST. JOHN’S CHURCH
DATE: AUG. 17, 1997
TEXT: John 6:53-59 - “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
See Also: Proverbs 9:1-6 - “Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
ISSUE: The passage continues to have an element of being scandalous in the calling for the drinking of ‘blood,’ which was unheard of by the Jews. However, the passage presents the radical shift of the early church toward the acceptance of Jesus Christ in an intimate way. He is the presence of God come among his people, and offered for his people, even in sacrifice. They are welcomed into an intimate relationship with him, and at the same time to be in a mature union with God. The people of God are to be the channels of God’s redeeming grace revealed in Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The scriptures readings today continue the theme of Jesus Christ as the true bread of life. Emphasis today is upon Jesus the eating, the consumption or gnawing upon Christ and the drinking of his blood. The very concept is difficult for some people, and any number of small children are often disturbed by the concept of drinking of the blood of Jesus in the Eucharist. It is indeed very compelling imagery, if not disturbing imagery. Yet John’s gospel account uses this imagery to convey some radical shift in thinking and appreciation of the focus of the early church’s understanding of Jesus Christ.
Actually Christianity has been based upon some scandalous beliefs from its beginnings. Christmas is scandalous. God comes to the world in human form. For the Jews as well as for many people even today, it is very difficult to accept the image of God in human terms. At the same time the conception of Jesus to an unwed mother had its problems for the early church. What is even further scandalous was the crucifixion of Jesus. If he was truly the Messiah, the Christ, he is totally dishonored by the crucifixion. Crucifixion was a curse. This crucifixion of Christ was foolishness to the Gentiles and scandalous to the Jews. Then the idea that the liturgy was based upon the eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood of the Christ was abhorrent to Jewish religious tradition.
In the Jewish faith you learned from the very beginning that the spilling of human blood was forbidden. You learned this fact early in Genesis in the story of Cain and Abel. The Ten Commandments forbade murder, for it was an outrage to God. Blood for these people was of God. It was deemed to be sacred. Blood was how God gave life. If it drained out of a person, the person died. Even in the cooking of animals for food. The blood of the animal was not consumed. The orthodox had a special ritual of soaking meat in salt water, rinsing and draining until such time as all the blood was removed. The eating of a rare steak would be unheard of and against the law.
In Genesis 9:4, Noah is given instruction after the flood ordeal as to what he can eat among fish, animals, and green plants, but “The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood.”
Leviticus Law (17: 10,1214) writes “If an Isrelite or any foreigner living in the community eats meat with blood still in it, the Lord will turn against him and no longer consider him one of his people.”
Even in the New Testament Book of Acts 15:29 early Genitile Christians are told: “Eat no food that has been offered to idols; eat no blood . . .” The taboo hung on at least as it was related to Gentile pagan practices.
Blood of animals was used as an offering in the sacrificial system. Blood offerings were offering to God something that was considered sacred as an atonement for sin. At the Passover, the blood of the lamb was offered remembering that the Angel of Death passed over God’s people, and they were liberated from their bondage. The offering of blood, the sacred, for sin was in belief that God would forgive the pentitent.
Now in the teaching of Jesus as we have it in John’s Gospel account, you have a radical shift of emphasis. What was once considered taboo, the consumption of the sacred, now becomes made available in Christ and through Christ. Jesus’ very being is seen as the incarnation of God. People are invited to consume the sacred, to take it into themselves. Christ is the living bread of God. He is the new manna of heaven he may be consumed fully in order that humanity may be ultimately redeemed by the living sacred presence of God taken into their very being.
In John’s Gospel, there is no account of Jesus taking the bread and the wine at the last supper and saying , “This is my body, this is my blood. Drink this in remembrance of me.” as you find it in the synoptic accounts. What you have in John is the miraculous feeding of the the 5,000 followed by the discourses on Jesus being the Bread of Life, the Word of what God has to say, the blood to be consumed, made available to all of God’s faithful people. Here you have the fullness of God’s sacred love being made fully available to the world.
Notice the beautiful Old Testament passage this morning from Proverbs 9:1-6. In this passage God’s wisdom or God’s Word has prepared a banquet. Wisdom sends out the servant girls to call from the highest places to the simplest of folk. They are invited to the banquet of well mixed bread and wine. Drinking of the banquet of God’s wisdom will bring them maturity and insight. The early Church is picking up this theme. That in and through Christ and consuming his way a person is entering into the wisdom, the sacredness, the holiness, the very initmate way of God. Obviously for the early church the concept of consuming the flesh and blood of Christ was a radical shift of thinking. But it was the myster, the poetry of the early church and its focus and confident belief that it could be close to, intimate with, abide in the very real and living presence of God.
In a sense, it is like knowing that the Bible is the living word of God. It is like holding up the Bible as a book which is worthy of great respect. Many many people do. But for the Bible to make any difference for people, they have to read it. They have to consume and take into themselves its content and meaning. For the early church it was extraordinarily important that people just not know about Jesus, or that there was a Jesus, who was a good guy. It was important to embrace the living Lord, to consume him, to take him into you and let his sacredness abide in you, and you in him. It meant to appreciate the fullness of the living Christ and live into that mature love and insight that his ministry was one of love and profound sacrifice that people could know the will and the presence of God in their lives.
For people of John’s time who were faced with all kinds of philosophies and morality, it was important to be able to conume, take into yourself in this radical way the trust that God was really, truly, genuinely in and with you and could be a stable part of your being. It is also so very important for our time. Some of us older folks came out of a mindset that life was pretty organized and predictable. We knew cause and effect. Things, life seemed relatively simple and God was the great cause and protector. Today, young people and even us older people are no longer as certain that life is as simple and predictable. It just isn’t. Certainly it is not simple. Life has become in many ways complicated and fast paced. I sit down almost daily in front of a complicated computer that is supposed to help me do everything faster.
At the same time we live in a world where it is hard to know, especially for young people, to know what they can trust and what is lasting. There is great distrust in our culture right now. People are suspect of Government and we don’t have much confidence or trust in politicians. We have been disappointed by sports figures, the sometime bizarre behavior of celebrities, take Prince Philip and Princess Dianna as examples. The stability of the once respected royal throne is diminished. Religious figures are greatly distrusted by recent scandals. And what’s more our children can never be sure whether their father or mother will come home and stay with them. Our families are suffering from great instability. So little is predictable. Young people sometimes die before the old people. Older people once expect this to happen more than young people do today. Youth sees death as chaotic and immediately excludes notions of an eminent God.
What have we that we can depend upon? What is there to be with us in our instability, to give us hope in a world of chaos. What can we trust and have faith in? For many people today these are unanswerable questions. They are the real challenges of our time. If we as Christians are to bring any hope and trust to the world, it must come through our faith. It must come through our feeding upon Christ in the way that makes us united with him, in his love and forgiveness, and in living in that way of servant sacrifice. In the world’s chaos we must be the believers in hope, the believers in love, the believers in God through the consuming of Christ as our Lord. We ourselves are not and do not have all the answers to the uncertainties and the complexities of the world. At best we embrace, absorb, and abide in Jesus Christ the living expression of God and let God’s grace work through and be seen through us so that the mystery of God may be seen to prevail. We ourselves must indeed be faithful enough, so absorbed in Christ and he in us, that we are not afraid to live with the ambiguities of life.
Sunday, August 10, 1997
PENTECOST 12
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: PENTECOST 12
PROPER: 14 B
ST. JOHN’S CHURCH
DATE: AUG. 10, 1997
TEXT: John 6:37-51 - “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 thi life of the world is my flesh.”
ISSUE: Jesus addresses a complaining and resistant people. They resist him as being close to God and from above. They resent that he refers to himself as the Bread of Heaven. The passage reveals the resistance of human beings to remember and accept the wonderful blessing of God revealed in Christ. The good news resides in Jesus’ coming to his people to feed them with spiritual food and to raise them up.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The theme of Jesus being present to the early Christian community as the bread of life was in important one. That theme was part of last Sunday’s gospel reading. It is part of the gospel reading for today and will continue again next week. In the reading for today, Jesus is addressing a crowd of Palestinians who are resisting him. He presents himself as one who has come down from heaven. He says, “I am the bread of life.”
Remember that in Jesus’ time it was not appropriate to get ahead. Your place in the society was fixed by your family’s place in the community. A man followed in his father’s footsteps, doing what he was assigned and maintained the status and position. A carpenter’s son was expected to be a carpenter. Thus, for Jesus to say that he had come down from heaven and for him to say “I am the bread of life.” were outrageous statements. The community resists him. They complain about him. How can he say that he came down from heaven. He is no more than the son of Joseph and Mary who held a very simple place with very limited honor in the society. Yet Jesus tells them to stop ‘complaining’ or stop ‘murmuing’ against him. This retort that they should stop complaining or murmuring was reminiscent of the Jews wandering in the desert during the Exodus event. They complained that they were hungry and thirsty and longed for the old days back in Egypt. They may have been slaves but at least there was food to eat. Yet inspite of their complaining God provided both manna from heave, quail, and water from the rock. What Jesus is implying when he tells them to stop complaining is that once again God is with them and they are too dumb or dim witted to see it.
For Jesus to say that he came down from heaven was certainly an audacious thing to say. However, for him to say “Iam the bread of life.” was even more outrageous. Jews did not utter the name of God. The name was considered to be much too holy to be used in any casual way. The name of God in the Hebrew language was Yahweh. It’s translation was “I AM.” Thus people avoided saying “I am.” However, Jesus dares to say it. “I AM the bread of life.” In John’s gospel, Jesus is reported to also use this godly formula in other I AM statements: I AM the good shepherd. I AM the authentic vine. I AM the resurrection and the life. I AM way , the truth, and the life. I AM the light of the world. Jesus dares to use the name of God associated with himself. What’s more, he makes the claim that he has come down from heaven in order to raise up all that has fallen and to redeem everything that God has given to him. It was indeed hard for the people hearing him speak such things with such audacity and with such authority.
Think, however, what this audacity of Christ meant to the early church. It was liberating. Jesus was teaching you could move beyond tradition and your limited place in society. You could speak the name of God and be associated with God. Furthermore God’s love revealed in him sought to redeem and raise up all that had fallen. God had come among his people and having faith in Jesus Christ was your renewal and hope. John’s gospel is revealing Jesus as truly the Son of God who had come down from heaven.
Jesus seen as the bread of life and as the one come down from heaven was not something merely made up by the early church. It was rather seen as the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. The word ‘bread’ was also a metaphor for the Torah. The torah as the law, the word of God, regulated the religious, moral, and social life of the community. It was the message of God. When the people of Israel wandered in the desert God’s word his bread that manna from heaven was given to them when Moses came down with the Law from the mountain.
In the book of Proverbs (9:5) it is written: God’s Wisdom says . . . “Come eat my bread and drink the wine that I have mixed. Leave the company of ignorant people and live.”
The prophet Amos (8:11) writes: “The time is coming when I will send a famine on the land. People will be hungry but not for bread; they well be thirsty but not for water. They will hunger and thirst for a message from the Lord.” i.e. the word from the lord.
Isaiah 55:10-11 writes: “For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprouit, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth . . . . .”
And Hosea 11:4 says: “I drew them to me with affection and love. I picked them up and held them to my cheek. I bend down to them and fed them.
As is often the case in John’s gospel account, the people are dense and misinterpret, taking the words of Jesus literally. They cannot appeciate the fulfilling presence of God in their lives. But for those with insight aand longing for God comes the truth. Jesus is the liberator. Jesus is the bread or word of God that has come down to raise up a fallen world. While in the garden of Eden there was a forbidden fruit, with Christ there is no forbidden fruit but to eat of him is to consume the word of God’s truth and love, new life and new being.
For the world today the scripture provides us with the Bread of Life revealed in Christ. He is the message of God’s redeeming and forgiving love. He is the way, the truth and the life for the world. In the church as we worship together, it is interesting to observe that the first part of our worship is dealing with the Bread, That is, The Word from the Scriptures. God comes and speaks to us. In the latter part of the service of worship, we consume or eat the Bread of Life, the living bread of Christ to be that sacramental spiritual presence of the Word of God come among us.
In the world today, and among ourselves, there is still the resistance and the murmuring. Is Jesus Christ really what we need? Is it really true that God has come among us? Is it possible that the fallen world can really and truly be raised up? The doubts and the skepticism persists. People are quick to forget the loving hopeful redeeming story of our faith. While people long for a difference in their lives much confidence is place in the lottery, and in the astrology columns and late night astrologers. What a business that has become. Even dear Nancy Reagan reportedly sought guidance from astrologers. Even in some circles there is a belief that hidden in the Bible there is some magic hidden formula that only computers can find.
Yet all the while people vainly search and resist what has already been given, the simple and prevailing truth persists: Stop your complaining and murmuring. . . . . Come to me all of you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. I am the Bread of Life. I am the Light for the world. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the one who came down from heaven and Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. . . . . People search for the bread of life when it is in our very midst.
SEASON: PENTECOST 12
PROPER: 14 B
ST. JOHN’S CHURCH
DATE: AUG. 10, 1997
TEXT: John 6:37-51 - “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 thi life of the world is my flesh.”
ISSUE: Jesus addresses a complaining and resistant people. They resist him as being close to God and from above. They resent that he refers to himself as the Bread of Heaven. The passage reveals the resistance of human beings to remember and accept the wonderful blessing of God revealed in Christ. The good news resides in Jesus’ coming to his people to feed them with spiritual food and to raise them up.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The theme of Jesus being present to the early Christian community as the bread of life was in important one. That theme was part of last Sunday’s gospel reading. It is part of the gospel reading for today and will continue again next week. In the reading for today, Jesus is addressing a crowd of Palestinians who are resisting him. He presents himself as one who has come down from heaven. He says, “I am the bread of life.”
Remember that in Jesus’ time it was not appropriate to get ahead. Your place in the society was fixed by your family’s place in the community. A man followed in his father’s footsteps, doing what he was assigned and maintained the status and position. A carpenter’s son was expected to be a carpenter. Thus, for Jesus to say that he had come down from heaven and for him to say “I am the bread of life.” were outrageous statements. The community resists him. They complain about him. How can he say that he came down from heaven. He is no more than the son of Joseph and Mary who held a very simple place with very limited honor in the society. Yet Jesus tells them to stop ‘complaining’ or stop ‘murmuing’ against him. This retort that they should stop complaining or murmuring was reminiscent of the Jews wandering in the desert during the Exodus event. They complained that they were hungry and thirsty and longed for the old days back in Egypt. They may have been slaves but at least there was food to eat. Yet inspite of their complaining God provided both manna from heave, quail, and water from the rock. What Jesus is implying when he tells them to stop complaining is that once again God is with them and they are too dumb or dim witted to see it.
For Jesus to say that he came down from heaven was certainly an audacious thing to say. However, for him to say “Iam the bread of life.” was even more outrageous. Jews did not utter the name of God. The name was considered to be much too holy to be used in any casual way. The name of God in the Hebrew language was Yahweh. It’s translation was “I AM.” Thus people avoided saying “I am.” However, Jesus dares to say it. “I AM the bread of life.” In John’s gospel, Jesus is reported to also use this godly formula in other I AM statements: I AM the good shepherd. I AM the authentic vine. I AM the resurrection and the life. I AM way , the truth, and the life. I AM the light of the world. Jesus dares to use the name of God associated with himself. What’s more, he makes the claim that he has come down from heaven in order to raise up all that has fallen and to redeem everything that God has given to him. It was indeed hard for the people hearing him speak such things with such audacity and with such authority.
Think, however, what this audacity of Christ meant to the early church. It was liberating. Jesus was teaching you could move beyond tradition and your limited place in society. You could speak the name of God and be associated with God. Furthermore God’s love revealed in him sought to redeem and raise up all that had fallen. God had come among his people and having faith in Jesus Christ was your renewal and hope. John’s gospel is revealing Jesus as truly the Son of God who had come down from heaven.
Jesus seen as the bread of life and as the one come down from heaven was not something merely made up by the early church. It was rather seen as the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures. The word ‘bread’ was also a metaphor for the Torah. The torah as the law, the word of God, regulated the religious, moral, and social life of the community. It was the message of God. When the people of Israel wandered in the desert God’s word his bread that manna from heaven was given to them when Moses came down with the Law from the mountain.
In the book of Proverbs (9:5) it is written: God’s Wisdom says . . . “Come eat my bread and drink the wine that I have mixed. Leave the company of ignorant people and live.”
The prophet Amos (8:11) writes: “The time is coming when I will send a famine on the land. People will be hungry but not for bread; they well be thirsty but not for water. They will hunger and thirst for a message from the Lord.” i.e. the word from the lord.
Isaiah 55:10-11 writes: “For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprouit, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth . . . . .”
And Hosea 11:4 says: “I drew them to me with affection and love. I picked them up and held them to my cheek. I bend down to them and fed them.
As is often the case in John’s gospel account, the people are dense and misinterpret, taking the words of Jesus literally. They cannot appeciate the fulfilling presence of God in their lives. But for those with insight aand longing for God comes the truth. Jesus is the liberator. Jesus is the bread or word of God that has come down to raise up a fallen world. While in the garden of Eden there was a forbidden fruit, with Christ there is no forbidden fruit but to eat of him is to consume the word of God’s truth and love, new life and new being.
For the world today the scripture provides us with the Bread of Life revealed in Christ. He is the message of God’s redeeming and forgiving love. He is the way, the truth and the life for the world. In the church as we worship together, it is interesting to observe that the first part of our worship is dealing with the Bread, That is, The Word from the Scriptures. God comes and speaks to us. In the latter part of the service of worship, we consume or eat the Bread of Life, the living bread of Christ to be that sacramental spiritual presence of the Word of God come among us.
In the world today, and among ourselves, there is still the resistance and the murmuring. Is Jesus Christ really what we need? Is it really true that God has come among us? Is it possible that the fallen world can really and truly be raised up? The doubts and the skepticism persists. People are quick to forget the loving hopeful redeeming story of our faith. While people long for a difference in their lives much confidence is place in the lottery, and in the astrology columns and late night astrologers. What a business that has become. Even dear Nancy Reagan reportedly sought guidance from astrologers. Even in some circles there is a belief that hidden in the Bible there is some magic hidden formula that only computers can find.
Yet all the while people vainly search and resist what has already been given, the simple and prevailing truth persists: Stop your complaining and murmuring. . . . . Come to me all of you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. I am the Bread of Life. I am the Light for the world. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the one who came down from heaven and Whoever eats of this bread will live forever. . . . . People search for the bread of life when it is in our very midst.
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