IMAGINE!
Pentecost 12b, August 16, 2015
Key verses –"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. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them". John 6:56, 57
Imagine.
Imagine a mother. A mother who gives birth to a child that is then taken from her. The mother has done nothing wrong. And yet that child is wrenched away from her bosom, from her loving arms. That wee child is taken to a place unknown to the mother – to a place that mother cannot find.
Time passes. Not a single day passes wherein that mother longs for, years after, wanders about her child. Is her child safe? Is her child growing up? Is her child being loved? How is it with her child? How she longs for her child, aches for her child! She would give anything to be with her child. She would give her very life, all of her past, all of her future – to be with that child – to have that child be loved, be safe, be enabled to live. How she would love to see her child, hold her child, whisper into her child's ear, "I love you!"
The pain of separation is immeasurable for that mother. Can you imagine?
And then one day there is a call. Her child has been found – unharmed, safe. The authorities will bring her child to her in a few hours. Can you imagine?
Her heart is pounding nearly out of her chest, threatening to burst its meager limitations. Her mind is racing –thoughts, questions, memories, hope for the future. Those hours feel like an eternity. But then, then her doorbell rings. There are men in her doorway, standing with her child, a beautiful boy. Yes, he is fifteen years old – FIFTEEN YEARS OLD. He Is her son. She can tell – she reaches out – she wants to hug him and hold him and never let him go. She has dreamed of this moment for years – and then chastised herself for dreaming what may well be impossible. But now the impossible is possible. Yes, she reaches out – to touch his face, hold him, tell him how she loves him, how special he is to her – that there is no one else like him – to her.
But he steps back. He isn't sure. Many things have happened in his life. And she is – at least in that moment – kept at bay. How she loves him. BUT SHE WON'T HURT HIM. She wants him to be so close to him – she is there – she is available, she is reaching out – but he is not responding, unsure, perhaps unable in that moment to trust anyone – EVEN HIS MOTHER.
She is so close to him. She knows that if he will just come one step closer – their relationship will grow in ways that will be so GOOD. But in that moment they are frozen.
Imagine...
Do you know – do you realize deep within yourself that GOD IS YOUR FATHER, GOD IS YOUR MOTHER?
In some ways this is impossible to know. I am not speaking here of knowing in our heads, in some intellectual, ethereal capacity that God creates us – which God most certainly does.
Rather, I mean to realize that God loves us, wants the very best for us – is our beginning and our end, our home – wants to hold us, hear us, dialogue with us, go before us and encourage us. God wants us to know GOD as OUR LOVING MOTHER AND FATHER, to see also beyond ourselves – to see our brothers and sisters, men, women and children, creatures and the earth. God, like the mother in my story loves His/Her children so much, longs for us, yearns to embrace us – and continually reaches out to us.
This reality is underlined in today's Gospel from John. God's longing comes to us through God's own Son, Jesus who in becoming human reaches out to us and all people in direct ways. He gives His life so that we may see who we are – so loved by God. And then he sends us out – out from this place, from the Word become flesh, the Word we take into ourselves, through our mouths and into all our cells, shaping and transforming us, to carry whom we ourselves have received – to bring daily bread for others, to reflect light and love.
But we can only be this – as we eat and drink this bread from heaven, this body and blood of Christ, as remain in deep communion with God. God doesn't desire merely a texting relationship or simply intellectual assent. Instead God wills to be in all and through all.
As that old crusade hymn proclaims, Jesus loves us right where we are, just as we are.
In and through Jesus God also loves the world, calling us to do the same.
But we can't know the depths of this relationship, can't live out of the wonder of this relationship until we are being embraced and filled, moved and persuaded again and again by communion with this Christ.
Similar to the mother in our opening story – Jesus reaches out, longing to speak, to hold, to guide, to enable us, to be who we really are – the Sons and daughters of God.
What's holding us back? Even now, Jesus is reaching out to you and to me. – Amen.