Who Are You?
9th Sunday after Pentecost, August 2, 2009 (John 6:24-35)
Who am I?
Who are you?
Am I the person that others respect, that others experience as kind, patient, generous, even faithul? Are you that person? Or am I the person who "loses it" in my car when someone cuts me off in traffic, who from time to time makes very rude comments about the size of their brain, even their genetic makeup? Are we people who hide a part of ourselves from others as we hide from them what we are reading, watching, actually even thinking? Am I the generous person whose heart and money goes out to those in need from time to time or am I the person who sometimes refuses to read the paper, watch the news, or actually encounter those people on the lower East Side or in our parks for fear that I may be called to actually give deeply of myself, even to change the way I think about myself, my place and function in this world. Really, who are you?
These are important questions but not new ones. The Biblical record time and again helps us to actually see other people in very honest ways.
So I ask you this morning, who is King David? Is he chosen by God, through Nathan from the line of Jesse's sons, the supposedly least likely of all those sons? Is David that young shepherd boy, we may think of as kindly, even meek, who then goes out to battle with the giant Philistine Goliath, who with his sling shot sinks a stone into that large man's forehead and then proceeds to amputate Goliath's head? Who would cheer for that – even if Goliath was nastier than nasty? Or is David the one who writes at least some of the Psalms that we read in our Bible? The Bible itself notes that David was somewhat of a skilled musician. Finally is this David the great, great, great ( I didn't count how many greats there are in the biblical genealogies) grandfather of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God? Does that say something about who David was? Indeed isn't David the one of whom God said that he is a man after my (God's) own heart?
This morning we hear that David is also an adulterer. Now a King, David sees Bathsheba bathing. He wants her for himself. At times what kings want kings take. King David orders Bathsheba to be brought to him. Then he impregnates her while her husband is off battling a war on King David's behalf. If that weren't enough King David then tries to cover up his own sin by sending for her husband to return home. Bathsheba's husband Uriah is then ordered to go home to his wife. But Uriah unlike King David is a solider of honor. He refuses to do so. David realizes that the gig is up, that his sin of adultery will come to light. But David is willing to go further. Through his "kingly" authority he has Uriah murdered.
The writer of II Samuel tells us that all this displeased God. Duh!
At first David doesn't see it his own guilt. It takes Nathan to tell David a story in a way that reveals the great wrong that David has committed. David says that the rich man who took the poor man's one and only lamb for himself to feed a guest while keeping his many lambs all for himself deserves to die, or at the very least make a 4 fold recompense. Then Nathan speaks the truth to David in an uncompromising way. You are the man who deserves to die! Why, asks God, why oh why, did you disobey me after I had given you everything you needed and so much more? What a question!
In the light of King David's multi-faceted actions I ask us to reflect upon who we are!
I also tell you a second more contemporary story. A young baby had been born prematurely. The baby had lived for 17 days in an intensive care unit, and was struggling for life. The baby had contracted an infection and was now on life-support systems. There was grave concern that the baby would not live. The parents asked their Pastor to come to the hospital because they had been told that they needed to remove their baby from these life support systems.
The Pastor goes to the hospital and meets with the family and the parents in a waiting room. Together they pray and cry. Eventually the young mother says, "It's time." Together they walk to the doors of the neonatal intensive care unit. At the door the young mom stopped. She takes a deep breath. She looks at the door. There were all the names of the babies in that intensive care unit.. She looked at her son's name. She put her hand on his name and said, "I am his mother." Then she takes the name off the door, places it in her hand and enters the unit.
The family and the pastor gather around that baby's bassinet; a baby struggling for life, being kept alive by machines. Again they pray. The Pastor reminds the family that this little baby boy is a child of God. Whether he lives for 17 days or 100 years, he is precious to God. God will not leave him whatever happens today. Then one of the nurses asks the young mother, "Would you like to hold your son?"
"Yes", she replies.
They bring a rocking chair. Then they unplug the baby from all of the machines, wrap him in a blanket and place him in his mother's arms. She rocks back and forth, holding her baby as he breathes his last. Tears run down her cheeks but she starts to sing to her baby as he dies. Everyone else is weeping. The nurses are hardly able to stay in the area. But the young woman remains composed as she sings for her baby and rocks him into eternity.
At a deeply profound level this young mother knows who she is. She isn't only a daughter, a wife, or a friend. She isn't only afraid, very sad, full of questions, overwrought by loss. In all of this she is also her baby's mother. She has been gifted with amazing privilege and enormous responsibility. By God's grace she was and is that little boy baby's mother. This mother lives in relationships that are defining.
St. Augustine in his Confessions points to the underlying truth of all our identities quite clearly: "Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless, until they find their rest in thee."
So, what can we do people, we who can be amazing in one moment and disgusting almost in the next breath, whose "old Adam" as Luther called that part of ourselves, refuses to die rearing its ugly head time after time? Who will love us as we truly are, unconditionally? Who will transform us, lead us in St. Paul's words from this body of death here and now to new life both now and forever.?
Let me assure you that no thing and no strictly human person, regardless of how bright or caring they are, can do this.
BUT hear the Gospel. Jesus is standing among those to whom he had given daily bread the day before. This bread was never to be an end in itself. Instead this bread was also to point beyond itself to the giver. But the people don't get it. Their appetite is for more "stuff", more bread! They think that if they can just get more stuff then everything will be OK.
Looking at Jesus feeding them they do see a miracle. Miracles can be good. But the miracle isn't an end itself. Who is the source of the manna in the wilderness, who sends the friend that calls when we are most desperate, the one who listens when no one else seems to care or understand.? Who has died or would die so that we might have life forever?
Jesus says and he backs up what he says with his death, "I am the bread of life. He who believes in me will never be hungry. He/she who believes in me will never be thirsty!"
What an audacious claim! Many laugh derisively. We often like to think we can feed ourselves, or at the very least pump water up out of the earth to moisten our parched lips. Sometimes by the grace of God, we do so for a time.
But Jesus speaks here about more than daily bread or daily water as important as they are. Jesus is speaking of new life, transformed minds and hearts, the ability, a new will that refuses to hate, but rather works at persisting in love, in dreaming and working for the well being of others especially those in need. Jesus is talking about making us and all people into new people, giving us an identity as his sons and daughters that no one, not even our actions or inactions can destroy – not even death! He is talking about joining us to Himself.
What are you eating? What are we drinking? Who are we? We do well to listen to the author of the Ephesians who says, "I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love". In order to do any of that we need help beyond ourselves, a bread that lasts and nurtures, living water. Jesus is the living bread who comes down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever and the bread that Jesus gives is his flesh. This is his promise!
Are we trusting him? Will we receive Him? God help us, for we contend not only with flesh and blood, but with powers and principalities much more powerful than ourselves! Amen.