Whatddya Need?

 

11^th Sunday after Pentecost, August 16, 2009

Focusing on John 6:51-59

What do you need to live? Think about this in terms of your life, your commitments, that is the expenditure of your time and money. What do you absolutely need, have to have, to live? I invite you to think about this for 30 seconds. Then I invite you to turn and tell someone else at least one thing that you need to live.

 

What do we need to live? This is an important question. It is a question that frequently surfaces in my life. Sometimes this is because I am a Pastor. As a Pastor I am regularly faced with the reality of our mortality. What is the meaning of life as we are born, as we live and as we die? These questions surfaced again this past week as Marilyn discovered that she needed heart surgery right away. Even yesterday, as my wife and I went to renew our mortgage I again thought about, what do I really need to live?

 

This question arises again and again as we live and move and have our being. Yesterday I spoke with my parents on the occasion of their 58^th anniversary. As I heard their (from my perspective) "simple" plans for the day, I thought about what they needed to live.

 

Be careful about how we are answer this question. Sometimes our temptation, particularly when we are young, is to act as if we are going to live forever. You know, get in your car and drive hell bent, as if nothing could ever happen to you. Even now there are times when I'm tempted to do that. It's not only the young who must deal with temptations about what we need for life.  I remember an acquaintance of mine, a fine father, a good husband, a successful partner in a very successful business dropping over and shortly after dying while he was participating in a run for cancer. He was 44 years old. None of us are going to live as we are, forever. And the stuff that seems so important right now, that absolutely can't wait because it just has to be done, well we would do well to asses that.  At times it may need to be done right now. But at other times, think also about what we are sacrificing with others to do all those things right now. What do we give up in terms of our family members, friends, God, the rest of creation to do all those other things right now? What is the cost of our busyness to our relationships? What do we need to live?

 

There are a variety of temptations that run through our lives in this regard. A great one is to try to function as if we don't need any help. Someone asks, "Do you need any help?" "No, I'm fine", runs off our lips almost before the question has even been asked. How we long to be independent. How we must pretend, even to ourselves, that we can manage on our own, physically, emotionally, financially – even as the load becomes greater and greater. And our gender at this point doesn't' really seem to make much difference. Men and women are both equally guilty. Yah, sure, we can do it!

 

Oh, really? Can we do "it", on our own when our spouse dies? Can we do "it" on our own when our child denies us in some manner, shape or form, or runs the risk of really getting lost on their life's journey? Can we do "it" on our own when a friend that we counted on, betrays us? Can we do "it" on our own when we receive a diagnosis that knocks our socks off, cancer, heart disease, Parkinson's?

 

And on an even grander scale can we do "it" on our own while millions of children starve, while the planet enters an ecological crises, mostly because of our human actions? Can we do "it" on our own when others hate us because of what we have or because of what we believe? I ask, can we care for them, love them, refuse to hate them, simply by our own power?

 

There are some people, perhaps even many who claim that trusting in God, taking Jesus' promise that in Him there is life both now and after death, is a crutch, a convenience. I wonder about that.

 

Take today's Gospel text. Here Christ claims to be the living bread that has come down from heaven. At its climax Christ makes this incredible statement about himself: "But the one who eats this bread will live forever."

 

There are many Christians who want to spiritualize this claim of Christ – to say that what Christ is saying here is only about what happens to us when we die. There is truth in their statement. Christ does promise to raise up all who receive Him, who trust Him with their living. But there is also much more here! Yes, even more than life after death - as amazing, as wonderful, as incredible as that is.

 

The word that is translated in Christ's statement as "eat", that "the one who eats this bread will live forever" comes from a Greek word that literally means to gnaw on, to eat vigorously, as if our very lives depended on it. This is the key. What Jesus calls us to isn't somehow merely a polite or even a reverential reception of a communion wafer or bread. Instead Christ calls us to be nurtured by all that He is and does in His suffering, life, death and resurrection. In such a reception we literally can't wait – for what He is, who He is and what He brings to us: life that joins us to God. Such anticipation, longing to receive and eat is like my Chocolate Labrador who waits at our table or by my couch wanting so desperately to share what I already have. My dog Abby just can't wait for what she thinks she needs! 

 

Truly there are many things that we want. We live in a time where advertisers capitalize on increasing and over emphasizing our "wants". What we want changes throughout our lives. What we want to do, perhaps what we want to be, or even what we think we must have can change. But for a life that knows unconditional love, experiences that and can gladly, joyfully give such love away no matter what – this life can only be received from God, the Creator of the universe. This life comes to us in very real ways through God's Son, Jesus the Christ. He gives His flesh – that is his body, his very being for us in unconditional love, so that we can experience new life with God, with others and with creation.

 

We could never achieve this on our own. It is absolutely impossible. Think about this, we can't even make dirt on our own, let alone rise up from our own dirt, that is our grave. At times we are hard pressed to love ourselves, to say nothing of loving our enemies. To be sure as human beings we have developed a propensity to end life. But on our own we cannot create life. 

 

So, whatddya need? Think carefully people. The community birthed by the risen Christ, through which His very Spirit blows, tells us that the One reality we need for life is to dine on, to receive from, yes even gnaw on Jesus. Of course such gnawing is a metaphor, but as such it points us to profound reality. Hear Jesus' words. Receive his body and blood. Be moved by His Spirit to listen for Him, be open to Him, receive Him. In Him is life, eternal life that which  for John's Gospel is a quality of life here and now, that God wills to gift us with even through any and all realities. In Christ even then, especially then we are joined to God with this new life beginning now and forever! 

 

Jesus is the One we cannot live without. By the grace of God may our living prayer be, "Give us your bread, O Lord!"  In receiving this bread new life comes both for us and for the world. Amen.

For Sure?

 

Sometimes we ask others, almost as a greeting or an opening remark, "Hey, whatddya know?" But we should pay more attention to such a question. I want to ask you something this morning. What do you know for sure: one thing, one reality, one experience? I invite you to share that "knowing" with a person beside you. (give them 30 seconds to a minute).

 

Now, you are sure, right? Wonderful. But be careful. Here are some things that I have been sure of – that turned out either not to be true, or which I now understand in a completely different way now than I did at an earlier time. Moving from the less significant to the more important. Just over 2 weeks ago the football team that I cheer for was ahead by 22 points near half time. I was sure that they were going to win but THEY LOST. A second example: one of my parishioners in Vernon had a large malignant mass while he was in his early 70's. His physician told him that he then had less than 3 months to live. He did die but nearly 10 years later.

 

I used to be very sure about the power of gravity. But about ten years ago I witnessed  a person levitate off the ground right before my very eyes. Now I think about gravity in different ways. And lastly - I have met many different people who were sure they could trust someone. However later days or months or even years they discovered that their trust was misplaced. I have also witnessed the opposite where one hadn't been trustworthy for years and then changed.

 

So, we need to have some humility about what we are sure of, both positively and negatively..

 

The people who are quizzing Jesus in today's gospel are dubious about what he is saying. Jesus makes the most remarkable assertion: "I am the bead of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." They question all of this. They ARE SURE that they know Jesus. To be sure, they do know something about Jesus. To be sure, they also know something about the people that they think are Jesus' parents. And these people think that because they are very familiar with Jesus' parents, that Jesus must have exactly the same or very similar limitations to his parents. You know that old thing about the apple not falling too far from the tree! How then could Jesus come from heaven – if he had lived as a young child among them? As a result of their so-called certainty they are not open to the full reality of Jesus' presence, even though he is right there with them. 

 

Now, before we are too harsh on these people, we will do well to examine our own preconceptions. What do we know? People don't change because very few if any people we have ever known (including ourselves?) have dramatically changed. We may say that we know that God is good but what happens to such "knowledge" when cancer strikes or violence rips those we love from our presence? Even the so-called laws of science have been reexamined in the last 40 years that I have been reading and studying them. At the very least they have expanded dramatically. Read history and discover that what the church claims to know also changes. I hope that we wouldn't excommunicate Galileo today. 

 

All of this directs towards humility when it comes to what we think we know and the limitations such knowledge directs us to place on others, ourselves and yes, GOD!

 

Jesus makes declarations then and now. "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty". It is very likely that Jesus' meaning here is not literal. Regardless of our trust in him we continue to need material sustenance. So the meaning here must be deeper, more expansive.

 

In this regard I think that he is talking about a quality of life now and forever. And we are convinced that death is certain? In so many ways it is. I observe those who had the direct hands in creating my life. They are becoming more physically frail. As their earthly life draw closer to death  I cannot deny the reality of death. I have also been bedside while one of my closest friends has died this year. And I await a call as another fades way too quickly. I have painfully observed relationships that were once fueled by mutual compassion and joy wither and die, giving way to acrimony, apathy or even hatred. Death is powerful! Death has its own sting!

 

But Jesus comes making this audacious statement: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry".. "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever."

 

Watch Jesus live? Do we dare? Watch him bring life to people: to disciples who don't get it. Yet he keeps on trying with them. He even says that Peter, the one who denies him, will be the rock – the one who will in his living point others to Jesus. And Jesus gives those disciples peace, even after they have denied him.

 

Most importantly watch Jesus die. He doesn't die returning hatred for the hatred that kills him. See him turn hatred upside down. Jesus loves the world. His love is manifest as we gather today to receive him in such seemingly ordinary forms of bread and wine. He invites us, he can enable us to trust that in this bread and wine, coupled with the words of his promise, he is present bringing us new life and then even through us, new life for the world.

 

How can we know this? Well, what we have is His word, that is His promise, his life, death and resurrection. Others receive him too and spreading the word as He takes root in them and gives them flight! Thanks be to God for all of this.

 

It is good for us to wrestle with what we know for sure, by directly asking where our sustenance, our nurture is coming from? Oh, yes we need our daily bread. That's why Jesus encourages us to pray for it. But we also need much more than that. We need the "bread" that can fill our hearts and minds with the ongoing impetus to love. We need the "bread" that can give us hope in the face of death and evil, that propel us to respond by working for life ourselves. We need the "bread" that can make us sing and dance, gives us the freedom to lament and mourn in the midst of all reality.

 

Let me tell you that the witness of the Scriptures, the experience of my limited life is that this bread, this One is Jesus, just as he claims.

 

One further thin: amazingly we don't have to find him ourselves – we can't. Through the work of the Holy Spirit he is working to draw us to himself. The words of Scripture, the Sacraments and sometimes the words and actions of others, even the working of creation can all become part of that grand and wonder-filled mystery. May we be open to His action in our lives to leading us to new trust even opening us up to all kinds of possibilities as we are led beyond our security need to be so "sure"

 

Christ tells us that he is the bread from heaven. Even now he invites us to come and receive, just as we are. Amen. 

Who Are You?

9^th 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.