Sermons for the Month
Bread for the Kingdom
DATE: August 16th, 2009
SERVICE: Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
TEXT: John 6:51-58“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
Jesus is still talking about being the bread of life. He’s like the energizer bunny who keeps going, and going and going since this is the 4th week this has been the topic of the Gospel lesson. I’m reminded of a story told by Methodist Bishop William Willimon about going to see a movie titled “The Gospel of John” which goes through the Fourth Gospel, word for word, start to finish, in about three hours. While he and is wife loved the movie, and found it to be engaging, Bishop Willimon mentioned it to a friend who also had seen it. The friend said that midway through the film (probably during the sixth chapter) his wife looked and him and asked, “Will Jesus ever shut up?” (1) Well, we probably are too pious to say such a thing, but I can tell you that pastors who have been preaching on the “Bread from Heaven” section from the sixth chapter of John for the fourth week, and the congregations hearing it, are probably thinking the same thing. Because we’ve had other emphasis, this will be only the second time we’ve focused on this theme in recent weeks, and even then as I prepared the sermon I found myself wondering what new I had to say about food for the soul. I asked myself why, in this single portion of scripture, Jesus repeats himself so often. At least 10 times between verses 35 and 58 he speaks of being the bread of life that comes down from heaven, of raising believers up on the last day and of the eternal benefits of eating his flesh and drinking is blood. No doubt the repetitiveness is a sign that what is being said is important, but also that this was a difficult topic for those Christians who were alive when the 4th Gospel was written; it’s difficult for the hearer to hear. That certainly was true for the first listeners. Remember, many of them are part of the crowd that Jesus fed with just a few fish and loaves. They are seeking free breakfast, lunch and supper – physical food to meet their physical needs – and Jesus is challenging them to put as much energy into pursuing food for the soul which, ironically, is standing right in front of them. But it’s hard to grasp that when Jesus says bread he’s not talking about flour, water and yeast, he is talking about himself, the one who has come down from heaven. Bishop Willimon says that throughout the sixth chapter of John Jesus has been gradually, patiently raising the bar on incarnation, which is that God has come to us in human form. Jesus is a gifted teacher, there’s no doubt. He is a compassionate healer, as many have gratefully experienced. He is a worker of miraculous signs and wonders, among which is the multiplication of a little food into a feast for thousands. But, he is more than all that; Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. He is as real as a loaf of bread and a cup of wine that feeds our hunger and quenches our thirst. Just as we receive food into ourselves to survive, we must receive Jesus to experience an abundant and healthy life. In this text, “We are encouraged not simply to follow Jesus, which is difficult enough in itself, not simply to be with Jesus, but we are to consume him,” Bishop Willimon says. (3) It is like the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) Jesus is not an abstract, disembodied idea. He lived on earth and now he lives in us, as we are reminded each time we get up, come forward, receive bread, sip wine and in doing so take Jesus into ourselves again and again. He sustains us at the deepest level of our being and the more we realize that the bigger difference it makes it our lives and in the lives of those around us. That’s why Jesus is so insistent in this passage. “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” Jesus is telling us that as we acknowledge his loving, forgiving and empowering presence we are given new life now and in eternity. Obviously, that gift impacts all that we think, do and say. It leads us to share the bread of life in a hurting world. There are hundreds of ways that happens. Five of our high school youth went to New Orleans for the ELCA National Youth gathering and spent time reading to a group of children, interacting with them one-on-one. So what’s the big deal about that? Well, some of those children had never had a book read to them, and getting positive attention from a young adult whose focus was on him or her alone fed them; it was a happy experience. Fresh food from our garden is going out every week to literally feed people, but it is feeding the gardeners too who know that the sweat of their brows is bringing nourishment to people’s lives. We heard about the work of the Ohio Mission Team last week; they were Jesus to people, but did much more than build, paint and weed; the givers and the receivers became a part of each other’s lives and were fed by the grace of God. When our congregation offered what the Bishop called an extraordinary welcome for the Synod’s ordination service, hundreds of people were fed by the joy of being a family of faith. Whenever we talk about God in our lives, asking people what prayers we can offer for them or making a comment about how we saw God at work or reflecting on the spiritual nuances in a book or movie we are sharing the bread of life in a hurting world. The list of ways we can feed people is very long and it points to the presence of God’s kingdom among us. Every Sunday morning we pray the Lord’s Prayer and we say, “Give us this day our daily bread” and “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” Do we realize that our prayer is being answered and that’s happening already? Since Jesus is within us, then that new reality, we are fed and that transformed world, is in process, in us. So, that means that as we gather here today our eyes are open to the ways God is working in and through us everyday, and that we all are filled with hope and courage because we believe things can really be different. If that’s not as true as we would like it to be then I guess we need to get up, come forward, receive bread, sip wine and in doing so take Jesus into ourselves again and again. He is repeating himself for good reason; he is the living bread that came down from heaven with which the world – all of us- is fed.
AMEN
Feasting on the Word, edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, pgs. 357-361
Same as above.
Same as above