Dare to Wonder?
12th Sunday after Pentecost, August 19, 2012 (John 6:51-58)
MT – I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh (sarx). Real stuff. Remember the distinction between isthei and trogo (eating and gnawing). Jesus is encouraging/commanding the gnawing. This is a battle, between "life" and "death".
Malady – Do we really think there can be life – not just death? If Jesus is correct, "right", actually God in the flesh, what are we to do with him/? Or more aptly what is he to do with us. What is his entolay? (will, commandment).
Sometimes you just have to think. Sometimes you just have to wrestle. Do you know what I mean?
When you are standing beside the bed of someone you love and you are watching what you know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, are their last breaths – you have to think. And when you are there with the dying one's family, their children and you are caught up both by and with their grief, their memories, and their hopes you not only have to think. One also needs to WONDER. Yes, I did say wonder: wonder honestly about life and death – not just in some abstract philosophical fashion. Then one must think and wonder deep down in the depths of one's being, about the reality of life and death – about one's own hopes and dreams, vanity and meaning. Such wonder, such thinking then isn't only cerebral. Such wondering and thinking also roars in one's "heart", in one's lungs, in all the cavities of one's being, from the dryness of one's throat to the sudden moistness of one's eyes as the tears well up and overflow. It's not bad to think! It's important to feel and to WONDER. As long as we are alive it's important to wrestle with all of this. . .
I have similarly wondered and felt as I have been present when our "own" children were making their way down their birth canals. In those moments I have been caught up in wonder, awe, by feelings that literally defy verbal expression. Such thinking, feeling, wondering go to the depths of our being and then run over like an artesian well. Joy and birth, new life, pain and death drive us to deeper realities.
Often these days I live with grave concerns. There are temptations for us to approach following Jesus as a merely ritual or as subscribing to "sum" collection of statements of "belief". The implications are that there are clearcut and simple lines which mark as "in" or "out". We are tempted to function in some way that if we can just somehow stay within these lines we may merrily go on our way because we are "OK" regardless of what else is happening in the world. Still, many around us are hungry, thirsty, lonely, confused, struggling, despairing. Sometimes we ourselves are among them with hunger, thirst and despair. We must realize that following Jesus can never be merely ritual nor even "only believing certain things" as in assent.
Jesus would shock us out of such ease or trivialization of the reality of trusting him in the totality of our living. This morning through John's Gospel we hear Jesus shocking not only the "Jews" but if we take him seriously, also ourselves. Listen!
"So Jesus said to them, '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 have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink."
Eat his flesh? Drink his blood? It sounds so - CANNIBALISTIC! Some of the accusations made against the early Christians were just that. But whether we understand Christ's words literally as in Him referring in some manner to the Sacrament of Communion or whether we understand him more metaphorically in terms of "believing" that is trusting completely in Him, we cannot escape his basic claim. We are thrown into responding to his claim. Jesus is saying that He is the difference between life and death both for individuals and the world. Nor is he speaking here in some other worldly way. Rather he speaks in concrete terms employing words like chewing and digesting. These signify that as we are nurtured by him our lives will be impacted and become different in every facet: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. So, as Jesus speaks about this he changes the words from eating this bread to "gnawing", that is really sinking one's teeth into his flesh, into the essence of who he is!
Sometimes in our 21st century western context, we in the church have attempted to domesticate Jesus. At best we try to make him into our friend. At worst we try to limit him to being a somewhat nebulous but very nice "guy". But such attempts at domestication ARE FUTILE! For such domesticating attempts blind us to the reality of Jesus as fully God and fully human while avoiding his lovingly radical claim to deliver us and others from the powers of death and evil, including ourselves.
Jesus' words, life, suffering and death shatter our pathetic attempts at domestication. Do we hear him now? His flesh is the bread that he will give for the life of the world. That's right - THE LIFE of the world. The Greek word translated here as world is COSMOS.
In our darker moments are we giving up our Christian hope of life for the world? Are we not tempted to merely try to take care of our "own", be concerned first and sometimes only for those we think are most like us? Do we seriously consider the others who are hungry, thirsty, lonely, and lost – not limiting that to only human creatures? But we reason, "We can only do what we can do!"...Ah, there is some truth to this short sighted proverb.
But we, dear people are not all there is! Before us, within us and after us, there is God, the Creator of the universe. God loves us. God becomes One of us, who, in Paul's words, empties God's self so that our rebelliousness and propensity towards hurting and killing, death in all its forms might be overcome, and even transformed! This gift of Christ's life, death and resurrection includes hope marked by compassion. Such living, following Christ, absolutely refuses to be paralyzed by fear. Jesus Christ comes so that the cosmos can experience God's love not only in the future but here, now and forever! Jesus Christ comes so that death in all its forms of violence, hatred, apathy, bitterness, profiling, denigration and fear will end.
Now, these death dealing forces will not go away without a battle. Nor is this battle waged with sticks and stones, or even guns, nuclear weaponry or germ warfare. To be sure this battle includes economics and politics. However the hope that God continues to flesh out (I Use that word very purposely)is that in becoming One of us - loving, living and dying for all creation, our hearts and minds will continually be transformed to follow this Jesus. We can by God's grace "empty ourselves" by sharing the gifts God entrusts to all of us – to actively love, forgive, and advocate for the well being of others. To live this way we need to be daily fed and nurtured by God in Jesus Christ – through His living Word, His body and blood, joined in action and practice to Christ's community.
Otherwise the forces of death and evil ebb and flow throughout our beings, seeking to stake their claims and block us from the reality of the light, the wonder, and the hope that is Christ. As the light He shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.
So I urge you. Don't be afraid to think, to feel, to wrestle, to question with the fullness of life and death. BUT ALWAYS , ALWAYS do that even as we are being daily fed by the One who is the living bread from heaven, who can and does and will bring life, even eternal life to this world. Amen.