Pentecost 9

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 9
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 13, 2000


TEXT: John 6:37-51 - 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 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. . . . . 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.

ISSUE: The passage beautifully addresses the issues of Jesus’ time when people were often alienated from God, and also at the time of John’s writing when the Christians and Jews were splitting. The passage reassures that no one shall be cast out from the presence of God. Jesus is the new nourishment, the new manna or bread to give spiritual sustenance to human alienation and division. In our own world where issues of success, materialism, and other spiritual depravities seem to alienate and divide people from the presence of God, the passage gives great hope. We are called upon to respond to the Grace.
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In the passage from the Gospel of Jesus we are dealing with essentially two levels of understanding. The first level deals with what Jesus himself may have been attempting to convey to the people of his time and in his specific ministry. The passage also deals with what was happening well after Jesus’ ministry. John is influenced by what is happening at the time of his writing of the Gospel.
In Jesus’ time, he is dealing with a very large population of people, largely peasants, who feel separated and alienated from God. Unable to keep all of the rules and regulations of the law by virtue of their poverty, there is the sense of standing outside the realm of God or Kingdom of God. They are people oppressed and without much standing or honor. The poor, the sick, blind, deaf, and lame have no right to enter the temple. These people were often seen as the cursed and damned, and thought to be sinners having caused their predicament and banishment. Thus, it is Jesus’ ministry that confronts the whole sense of human degradation before the throne of God.
In addition to this idea of spiritual depravity and unworthiness, by the time that John is writing his Gospel, there is a dissension developing between the followers of Jesus and the traditional Jews of the synagogues. Jesus’ followers are now being excommunicated from the synagogue community. The whole idea of Jesus being held up to a place of honor of which he is thought to be unworthy is seen as an overall dissension between early Christians and the Jewish community of the period. Thus, you have the two levels of concern in this passage assigned for reading this day.
It is curious, if not interesting that these two levels still exist today. In the same way that the religious community of Jesus’ time often looked down upon the poor, oppressed, and afflicted, there is often that same kind of disdain in the church today toward the poor and what we call the underprivileged. At the same time there can be trouble within the religious ranks. There can be within a parish, or within a denomination, or between denominations of Christendom considerable feuding on varieties of issues. The gay and lesbian issue is one of the more pronounced issues of contention in and among churches today. Abortion is another kind of issue that creates tension among various communities. Within some congregations there can be tensions over any variety of issues in terms of building a new Sunday School or Church, when some want to keep things the way they are and others do not. We can get very fussy as Episcopalians over how our worship services will be conducted and as to which rite in the Prayer Book. These tensions are often epitomized by the feelings that some have the right answer over those who do not. We also act as if the persons who differ from us are then some how less than Christian or less than Godly, or in some way do not have the real interest of the church at heart. We can in our differences become very very judgmental and righteous with all factions believing that they are on the one and only right track. I’d suppose that we are talking about basic issues of the human condition, which is often inclined to separate itself, to blow itself apart. This tendency occurs as well, even in some of our personal human relationships and we become driven apart and alienated from one another.
In the early pages of Genesis, one of the significant themes is that of alienation. It seems to be a basic ancient problem of the human condition. Human beings become alienated from God, as Adam and Eve are disobedient and seek to be self-serving. They are cast out of the garden that God had provided for them, and with that comes the pain, the suffering, the perpetual agonizing of the human condition. In a sense Adam and Eve are alienated from one another in terms of the loss of equality. Shortly thereafter, Cain and Abel, the two brothers become alienated and Cain resorts to the murder of his brother Abel. These stories lay out the human condition. Thus, begins the human condition of “murmuring” against and complaining about one another and God. Even when the Hebrews are delivered from slavery in Egypt, and have been delivered by Moses across the Sea of Reed and are wandering in the wilderness, there is murmuring, complaining, that God is not good enough to feed them. There is a kind of perpetual whining, dissatisfaction, fear, a kind of expressed troubled human inadequacy. There is an spiritual famine. Adam and Eve select the wrong or forbidden apple. The Hebrews complain over the inadequacy of the manna.
It is to this kind of human alienation, estrangement, and spiritual famine that John’s Gospel passage is addressed. Thus, Jesus is portrayed as the antidote to the alienation of the people of God, and in a sense as the new apple of God. In John’s passage Jesus says: “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away (cast out); 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 at 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 (quality) life. . . . I am the bread of life that came down from heaven.” Jesus is the revelation of God’s healing grace and the spiritual food that gives quality to human life.
This passage is significant good news to people who had felt alienated from God, cast out. This passage is profound good news to all who were seen as expendable, unwanted, and unneeded. Simply to be healed and restored to a right relationship with God is nothing more than to believe in, to trust in Jesus Christ as Son of the living God, who reveals the love and the forgiveness of God. Jesus Christ is the one who will raise up all of God’s people on the Day of the Lord, in the realm and Kingdom of God. Thus, whether you felt expendable and unworthy in your existence, whether you felt cast out of the garden of God, or whether you were cast out of the synagogue, the issue was that to turn in faith and trust toward Jesus Christ, you are not cast out, but restored. He is the new bread, the new food of which you are worthy to partake, and Christ is the spiritual food of God’s Kingdom. Christ is the food of love, of forgiveness, of healing and restoration. Through faith, you are God’s and restored to his presence: “Taste and see that the Lord is good. . . .” (Ps.34:8) The will of God is that his creation be restored, that it be raised up to its place of honor, worthiness, and dignity. The terms are quite simple receive with trust and belief, the wonderful undeserved, unearned, free grace of God. It is God’s will that nothing be condemned nor lost. That’s the great gift and the extraordinary message of this passage of Scripture from the Gospel of John. This Jesus Christ is the gift of God’s food that gives to you and me a quality life or real life worth living.
To really grasp with understanding the meaning of this passage requires that we translate its meaning to our relationships with people around us. If God’s grace is freely extended to us, it is also extended to others of faith as well. It is not for us then to judge or condemn, to ostracize or excommunicate. God’s redeeming presence and grace through Jesus Christ is extended to all who believe and feed upon Him. The mission of the Jesus, the disciples, and eventually the church was to convey the message of grace, that none need go with feeling their sense of worth, and none need feel spiritually empty nor depraved because of the all encompassing acceptance of God. “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,.” is the Prayer Books’ version of this passage in the Burial Office. (p.484) Many of us have differences of opinions. We have different ways of seeing and appreciating things. We all come from different cultural, ethnic, political, and economic backgrounds and varieties of ways of having been raised. It is a very pluralistic world, even within the church. What we must avoid is categorical condemnation and judgment upon that which God in Christ has already received. While there are great and significant differences among us, our lives can be enriched by varieties of thinking, our own insights can be broadened. Our “rightness” and fixed way of thinking may be challenged to our own good. What lies, however, at the very heart of the Gospel of Christ is love, the call for serving one another, treating one another with dignity and worth, as Christ lifted up to the light every one who sought the loving presence of God. In time, we shall all be taught by God. (Isa. 54:13) And at the same time we shall respect “the dignity and worth of every human being.” Different though we may all be we still gather around the same loaf, the same cup, to feed on the Christ who gives us our worth and dignity. Jesus Christ dared to show the way, and to reveal the grace. May we be as daring as to live into his wisdom and grace. Being hospitable, welcoming, warm, cordial, accepting becomes the essence of grace in an often too judgmental, cruel, and divisive world.