Sermons for the Month
To Whom Shall We Go But Jesus?
DATE: August 24th, 2003
SERVICE: 11th Sunday After Pentecost
TEXT: John 6:56-69“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
What did you see in the mirror this week? Is that transformed child of God becoming more and more visible every day?
This week as I continued to think being God's transformed people, I was reminded of a time when I learned that the choices people make - indeed the choices Christians make - can be surprising. That's why we can never become lax about intentionally choosing to live as the transformed people of God.
This event occurred on a winter night - the middle of the night, actually - when I was in my mid-20's. A long-time friend and I were having a heart-to-heart talk when she told me that as a teenager she had been a vandal. It had happened multiple times; she and another youth had spray painted obscenities on people's homes.
Now, the thing that made this revelation something more than an episode of "teenagers will be teenagers" is that at the time this destructive behavior was occurring we were friends. I'd say we were best friends, church buddies, active in the youth group together. So, ten years after the fact, I was shocked to hear about the vandalism and found it nearly impossible to believe that such a thing had occurred. But, I was perhaps more overwhelmed by the reality that our "we know everything about each other" friendship was not what it seemed to be.
My friend's choice - to deface property and then to keep it a secret - surprised me. Having given people the ability to make choices, I don't suppose that much surprises God. In fact, in today's Gospel lesson choices are made, some choose to turn away from following Jesus, and others choose to stick it out.
The saga of the sixth chapter of John continues. Those who were first-hand witnesses of the feeding of the 5000 are still hanging around. (Remember, John Maroni preached on that on July 27, four weeks ago.) However, as we noted last week, they are becoming pretty uncomfortable. As it turns out, Jesus is not going to free them from the Romans, nor will he supply them with an endless supply of breakfast, lunch and supper flowing down from heaven. In fact, the whole situation is taking a turn that many of them do not appreciate as Jesus makes some offensive statements about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
We gather from the way the text is written that among the crowd are those who are simply looking for a free lunch. But there also are those who have been serious about following Jesus and are in an "outer circle" of followers who are called disciples but are not among the "inner circle" of the 12 disciples. Their response to what Jesus has said is, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?"
The word that is translated "difficult" probably is more accurately translated as "unacceptable" or "hard" or even "offensive". So what is it that Jesus has said that is offensive?
Well, earlier in John 6 we read that his listeners complained because Jesus said that he is the bread that came down from heaven. How could that be? He obviously came from Joseph and Mary and the town of Nazareth, not from heaven. Who does he think he is?
Then, we read that his listeners were fighting among themselves because Jesus is no longer talking about offering bread to eat, but his own flesh. Such horrifying statements are impossible for them to understand, and even more impossible to accept. How can they be expected to believe or accept such offensive claims as these?
That's when we come to the tricky part of the text where, in essence, Jesus says, "If by your own power you are trying to believe or accept what I have said, you can't. The ability to believe is a gift of God, a gift of the Spirit. So, the only way any of you can believe is if God makes it possible for you to do so." "And," Jesus says, "I know that some of you do not acknowledge the gift of faith that is yours."
No sooner where those words out of his mouth than many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. Maybe they were offended at the idea that on their own they could not believe. Maybe they thought Jesus was saying that God had chosen not to give some of them the gift of faith, which if you study the text carefully is not what it says. Or, perhaps they just can't get beyond the problem of this man claiming he had come down from heaven and his saying that his flesh and blood are real food for real, eternal life. They made a choice and turned away.
So, Jesus turns to the "inner circle", the 12, and says, "Do you also wish to go away?" Sometimes Peter gets it right. He says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe that you are the Holy One of God."
I have to tell you that I do not think Peter, or the other 11, at that point understood what Jesus was saying about being the living bread that came down from heaven any better than those who walked away. But the difference between the ones who stayed and the ones who left was this - for whatever reason the ones who stayed were able to allow the Spirit to stir within them, they gave the gift of faith room to work, and even if little that Jesus said made sense, they believed that he was Divine.
For three weeks now I've been talking about the fact that we are the transformed people of God. Indeed, my friends, the gift of faith has been given to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can choose to acknowledge it and be empowered to live as transformed people, in spite of the fact that there is much we do not understand, or we can choose not to do so.
When my friend chose to vandalize people homes the gift of faith was hers, it just wasn't being put to good use. Later, that faith flourished to such a world-transforming degree that people who know that person today would struggle to believe that such a thing ever happened.
It seems to me that day in and day out we are faced with Jesus' question, "Do you also wish to go away?" The word "wish" indicates that we can chose whether or not to live out the faith that is God's gift to us. If we would just pause for a minute and ask ourselves, "To whom can we go? Does any other way REALLY offer us anything of lasting value?", then I believe the answer would become oh so clear.
Jesus is true food and true drink for a hungry world, and we who take him into ourselves become the ones who feed those who are starving - physically, emotionally, spiritually - all around us.
We are the transformed people of God. Indeed, "Lord, to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life. And we have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy one of God." AMEN