Listen to Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, August 19, 2018
Jesus says, “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.” In a way, it is a comfort to know these words of Jesus were difficult to understand from the very beginning. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they ask. Rather than simplifying their understanding, Jesus seems to complicate matters even more. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
2,000 years later, these words still cause a dispute between seminary students. The question is put this way: “Is John chapter 6 sacramental?” Is Jesus referring to a spiritual eating and drinking as a metaphor for receiving Jesus by faith? Or is he referring to Holy Communion? This approach to Jesus’ words can lead to endless arguments about cannibalism, distinctions between body and flesh, spiritual eating, the necessity of Communion for salvation, transubstantiation, consubstantiation...you probably get the point.
I love what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:14: “Remind everyone...and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.” In other words, when our conversations are about winning theological arguments, all it does is tear people down. It ruins those who listen. Because the goal is to win so that one side or the other can say, “I am right. You are wrong.” I’m certainly not advocating an anti-intellectual Christianity. We should never check our brains at the door when we come into church. We are to be discerning, wise, and teachable. There are things each of us feels strongly about. And that is not a bad thing. But demanding everyone else to agree with our finer points of doctrine is not okay. Creating discord and confusion is not healthy or helpful. Pride is a sneaky and pernicious thing. We do harm to ourselves and others when we lose sight of what being a believer and follower of Jesus is all about. When we talk about other Christians and Christian traditions with contempt we are not only judging a child of God. We are ruining those who are listening. We are not building up the body of Christ. We are tearing it down.
What Jesus wants his hearers to discover is the greater truth and mystery of who he is. Sometimes the bigger picture is the clearer one. As the cliche goes, “We don’t see the forest through the trees.” Sometimes we do not even know the ground we are standing upon. Archeologists dig in the mud, sift through sand and dirt, and explore caves. The look for signs of civilization. They may be small artifacts. And it can take years to stumble upon them. But Sarah Parcak from the University of Alabama has a different approach. She looks from space—400 miles away using satellite cameras. She has been able to discover lost rivers, roads, and cities. Just this summer, it has been so dry in Wales in the United Kingdom that farms are revealing their secrets from these satellite photos. You can see the footprint of castles, their moats, homes, barns, and old roads dating back a thousand years.
This is the effect Jesus wants his words to have. “Take a step back. This is what I am doing for you and the world—I’m giving myself. All you need to do is receive.” “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life,” Jesus says. “And I will raise them up on the last day...I am the living Bread...the one who eats this bread will live forever. Jesus invites us to receive himself as a gift. He wants us to be his “consumers.” He wants us to enter into a relationship with him—to abide with him and he with us. He wants to enrich our lives. He wants to give us the assurance of eternal life. It really is that simple. Let us get this satellite image of the whole world and Jesus through whom everything was made.
This is the big picture: Jesus gives us himself—flesh and blood in being born of the virgin Mary. He gives himself in his teaching, healing, and spreading the good news. He gives his flesh and blood on the Cross for the forgiveness of sins. He gives his flesh and blood in his rising from the dead to assure us of our victory over death and eternal life. We receive Christ through the hearing of God’s Word which heard read and preached today. We receive it by faith. It is not earned. It is not deserved. We receive Christ through the Bread and Wine—his Body and Blood in Holy Communion. We enter this mystery every time we abide in Christ—every time we hear, eat, drink, and pray to Jesus. This should not cause a dispute between us. It should put wonder in our minds, thanksgiving in our hearts, and praise on our lips.
No comments:
Post a Comment