John 6: 56-69. Now Is Our Kairos Moment!!!

            So, here we are on the last of our John and the “Bread of Life” sayings. It may seem that we are hearing it “one…more…time!” but this is a defining moment in this Gospel reading. It is significant because it is calling us to make a choice. This repetition of “I am the bread of life” is not meant to bore or drag out the saying of who Jesus is.

            This saying is to impress upon all who have been following Jesus, who JESUS is! This is being used for all the people gathered at the time, who are now called disciples (meaning follower) to make a decision as to who this man is; is he just man, divine being, or both. Their decision time has come. For these people, if they are going to continue following Jesus from this point on, then they have to decide; is Jesus the Son of God or not?! Their moment has come! All this time that they spend questioning each other as to who he is has come down to this one point in time. It is their defining moment as a follower of Jesus. It is their Kairos moment; A Kairos moment is God’s appointed time to act. It is a moment in time when the Holy Spirit draws near to do a special work in and through a person or group. The Holy Spirit creates and orchestrates Kairos moments. So this is their Kairos moment

            I believe that it is important to realize what is at stake for these people who are at the point of decision. They are hearing Jesus say these words and they realize that there is more to the picture here. You see, there is another Greek word in this passage; it is the word used to define what is “difficult to hear” and “what offends;” it is the word “scandalize” from where we get our word scandal. What is scandalizing about what Jesus is saying? Is it that the Romans require worshipping their emperor’s as Gods? Is it recognizing that God is in the world with them and among them listening, watching, teaching, healing, etc. Is the scandal following this person who claims to be the Son of God and they may believe that they have to abandon their understanding of who God is?

            The answer could be any one or all of those things. It was a big deal not to worship the emperor as God. It was a big deal to acknowledge that God was in the world and this person, this Jesus is the Son of God. All of this would change their world forever, if they were to believe! Nothing would be the same! It would all be new and uncharted territory! Who could blame them for being scared or even terrified?! They would have to take a leap of faith and that required a lot more than words.

            I think we can relate to these disciples. We, too, are in a place where it is our decision time. We have heard Jesus saying “I am the bread of life” just like they did. This is our moment to look upon Jesus word of eating flesh and drinking blood…”that unless we eat and drink, we have no life in us!” That Jesus is the true bread from heaven; that Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, offers himself up for our sake so that we will be forgiven…so that we will have life everlasting IN US! So that God’s promises are passed onto us and so that we know that we are worth so much to the God who created heaven and earth and ALL that is within them.

            We are brought to that decision time. This is the time where we are called to acknowledge the scandal, as well. We are brought to it every week in our communion, our confession, and our worship. We are brought to the decision of confessing who Jesus is; is he the son of God, is he the one who sacrifices it all so that we have that same forgiveness and life eternal? We are brought to the time where this flesh and blood will change our lives, change the way we think of the world, and the way we think of God.

            We might be tempted to say, “of course!” But realize something that the people of Jesus time acknowledged long before us. The crowd and the disciples of his inner circle acknowledged this is hard! It is difficult! It means that we open ourselves up to be vulnerable people; to allow God to see who we are, our success, our failures, the things that make us confident, and the things that may make us appear to be weak. We open ourselves up to reveal it all to God. It is not easy giving our lives over to God! Giving who we are over to God is difficult in a world that does not want to acknowledge the presence of God let alone the existence of Jesus. I can’t tell you how many times I see people saying in one form or another how God doesn’t exist or that God is an imaginary friend. Sometimes we are the ones that get called names for believing in God, let alone uttering the name of Jesus.

            We live in a world where society wants us to believe or maybe idolize the things that society determines we should worship. We are pulled everyday towards the latest and greatest, the thing that will take care of me, and the idea that “I only need to worry about me and who cares about anyone else!” Society wants us to take the easy way and let the issue of the day rule our thinking, beliefs, our words, and our actions.

            It is not easy being a disciple of Christ. Sometimes it means doing the difficult thing and not giving in to what society would have us do. Sometimes it means, actually loving our neighbor who needs a ride for medical treatment, holding the hand of someone dying rather than writing that person off, or sitting with someone and listening. Sometimes, being a disciple means inviting the stranger into a place where they can be who they are and being mindful that God has used you to invite one of God’s children. Sometimes it means doing the difficult thing and showing compassion and grace…that same compassion that God had shown for us in the sacrifice of God’s only Son on the cross.

            While it is difficult, it is not impossible. It is not impossible because God has called all of us to this decision point. God calls us all as individuals and as a community. To be together, to be strong together; or whenever one is seeming to have a moment of weakness, we are all called to be their strength for them, their words of prayer, and as Luther says we are called to carry their faith and lift that one person or whole community up.

            See, the Good News is that even while this may seem to be difficult, God does not abandon us! When some of those people left, God did not pack his bags and leave. God remained…the Son of God remained because he knew there would be some who stayed. Even they, eventually, took off at one point; BUT God still did not abandon them. God came back to them three days later.

            It is the same with us. God does not abandon us. Jesus is here in bread and wine, flesh and blood calling us all to eat and drink so that we may have a life that is transformed by grace, love, and compassion. Jesus is calling us to the scandal of life eternal because of the sacrifice he made for our sake. So this, brothers and Sisters in Christ, is our Kairos moment: AMEN!

John 6:51-58 "Easier said than done."

                You know that phrase “easier said than done?” We all know what it means, right? It is easier said to do something than it is to actually do that. We have heard the phrase many times in our lives.

            Well, here we are again in the Gospel of John. It is the fourth week of five weeks of this particular chapter. We are almost done and I think it is important to put it in perspective. We started our first week in John with the feeding of the five thousand. Five thousand of Jesus closest friends who needed food. 5000 needed food and God made it happen through Jesus. It was a sign of who Jesus was…that this was no ordinary person.

            The next week we heard about those same people following Jesus and wanting more. We took the cynical road, as I called it, and pointed out how they were demanding another sign; and how it was some form of control. They quickly learned through Jesus proclamation that it all comes from God. It was about what God has done for them; not what they want God to do.

            Last week, we got a little deeper into Jesus proclaiming to be the bread that came down from heaven. While the people are arguing about who Jesus is, man or son of God, he tells the people that God draws them to himself and we examined the ways that God uses force to draw us to God so that we are able to taste and see, through our lives and experiences, that God is Good.

            This week we dive even deeper into this Jesus proclamation of being the bread come down from heaven. This week we have a more serious Jesus. Our scripture says, “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…” We know he is serious because the Greek word (the original language of the New Testament) for “truly” is “amen” and it is used twice. “Amen, Amen I tell you…”Jesus is being very serious.

            He, Jesus, is trying to get their attention and tell them something very important here. When Jesus uses the term flesh and blood, he is telling them that there is more than just words here. HE is telling them that God has come into the world in a form that they can comprehend; flesh and blood and that God is now among God’s people and God’s creation. God himself is now in the world to see for himself what people are going through and how broken the world really is.

            The “Easier said than done part” is the believing among the people. They cannot comprehend that God who is all powerful and the one that did so much for them is now in the world. How could they comprehend it; because they are human and not God. It might be easy to hear Jesus proclaim it, but to comprehend it may not be so easy to people who have been waiting for God to come and help them while the Romans occupy their land.

            The phrase “Flesh and Blood” means more than what me might think. This is a phrase that is used, especially in Jesus time and still to this day, to give us an idea of what is involved. Jesus is telling us that flesh and blood is not words, looks, or outward appearances. This use of flesh and blood means everything that is contained within the physical body. Meaning, it is the skin, the arteries, veins, organs, heart, mind, soul, hope, dreams, fears, and so much more that is contained within that flesh and blood.

            Jesus use of this phrase eating flesh and blood is all about connection. Everything I mentioned, flesh, bone, heart, hopes, and dreams, etc. are all connected. It makes up who Jesus is. Jesus shares all of that with us through his teachings, his conversations, prayers, and his actions of love towards neighbor and stranger. It also means that the flesh and blood we know as Jesus and all those things will be stretched out and poured out for us, you and me.

            Easier said than done, right? It is easy to say that Jesus poured himself out for us, but believing is not always so easy. It may not be easy because who would do such a thing? Who would go to a certain death, who would sacrifice all that they are for “little ole me?” Jesus is the answer. The son of God would do that for you. The flesh and blood of the Son of Man goes to the cross for you and me and our sins in this broken world.

            What may seem even more baffling Jesus tells us that unless we “eat flesh and drink his blood...” (that may seem a little gory) “we have no life in us.” Here is where our connection to Jesus goes as deep as it possibly can. When we eat the flesh and blood of Jesus in our bread and wine, are taking in all that Jesus is; man and Son of God. We are taking in the hopes and dreams, the heart of a loving God…that same flesh and blood that was hung upon the cross. 

            What Jesus is telling us is that by our taking in of bread and wine, flesh and blood, we are connected to Jesus…to God. We are forever tied to God because God is now in us and coursing through our veins; and there is no way that we can separate ourselves from God. We can’t get rid of this meal just like we can’t get rid of the breakfast we had two days ago or last week. We are forever connected.

            When we come to the altar for the meal that is Jesus we bring our flesh and blood. We don’t say words. We bring ourselves, our heart, hopes and dreams joys and sorrows to this table to receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ. We come to this table with all the good, the bad, and the ugly. We bring it hear as we are, not as who we think God would want us to be. We come with all our experiences.

                        The Good News is that just as we become inseparable from God, God becomes inseparable from us. It means that God is in the world in us and seeing how difficult this world really is through our eyes. It means that God is in our flesh and blood experiencing what we experience in life; our ups and downs, hopes and dreams, our heart and soul; forever connected to God through our flesh and blood and the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ coursing through our bodies.

            Easier said than done, right? It might not be easy to come to this altar. Sometimes there are things we have done or not done, actions we are not proud of, and sometimes just sad or in some kind of pain (whatever that pain is).

            The Good News is that Jesus doesn’t want you to hide that pain. I said last week that “I hope that when we all come to the table we could smile about the meal that is so good.” Easier said than done! You don’t have to be all happy schmappy to come to God’s table because God wants us as we are! God invites us to this table just as we are because God cares about all of us! God cares about our hopes and dreams, our hearts, minds, fears, sorrows, our joys, and celebrations. God cares about us all with compassion, Grace, and Mercy.

            God calls us all to this table to be strengthened in our lives and in our journeys of faith. Because we are forever tied and connected with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we are also called to go into the world to share God’s love through word and action with our neighbors and the strangers; EASIER SAID THAN DONE, but not impossible, because we know all things are possible with God! Amen!

John 6: 35, 41-51 Taste and see that the Lord is Good!

            By now, it should be no surprise what this sermon is about (M&M packs in the bulletin). It is not about M&M’s! It is about Taste and See that the Lord is Good! It is another week of Jesus talking about himself as the bread of life. “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Those are words that are followed by some complicated language.

            So let’s look at some of those words that come after the statements about bread, hunger, and thirst. The people are complaining about Jesus. They are not sure who this Jesus is! Some are steadfast that this Jesus is the son of Joseph and Mary! “It’s the carpenter’s kid, right? They know him, seen him, and maybe followed him around as a child…grew up with him. Some are confident that this is just a man!

            But this “man”, this Jesus makes a different claim. “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Really? While others know him as the carpenter’s kid, there are others who are witness to some of the things he has said and he has done. They have seen the healing, maybe even were part of the feeding of the 5000. All these people are together trying to figure out who this Jesus is: IS he a man born of Mary and Joseph? Well…Mary, definitely. We also know that he is the Son of God, so, the question of “is he the bread from heaven,” is a resounding yes! But the people of Jesus time do not know that and they are trying to figure it all out.

            Here is the best part of these words that Jesus says after his proclamation. “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.” Webster’s defines this word draw in one of several ways: one of those definitions is “to cause to move continuously toward or after a force is applied in advance. Other definitions include some kind of force being used to either push or pull something or someone in a certain direction.

            This sounds a little disturbing! It sounds like we are going to be scooped up, maybe like fish in a fishing net; remember the disciples were promised, by Jesus to be “fishers of people.” IT sounds a lot like there is no choice in the matter and that we are all going to be hauled into this whole God thing, whether we like it or not! Sounds like we don’t have a choice in the matter!

            Think of the forces in our definition. What are some of those applied forces in advance that our definition talks about? Well, let’s think about it, for a moment. Sometimes we go kicking and screaming as a little baby down this long aisle. We are then forced to be all dressed up and on display for everyone to see while our parents and God-parents make promises, and then we hear those words of Baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is that time when God forcefully claims us and grabs hold of us and promises to never let go. That is one of those forces.

            Then there is the other force. We are forced, without choice to see God’s only Son betrayed, arrested, beaten, and crucified. We don’t have a choice in that matter! He will go to that cross whether we want him to or not! And, he will suffer on the cross, for our sake. HE goes to pay the price for our sin, for our falling short of the Glory of God. That is another one of those forces to cause us to move (in the hopes) continusously toward God.

            Jesus Christ was betrayed but calls us to sit down with himself at the banquet table; And there he utters those words “this is my body and blood given and shed for you.” This is the moment where we taste that bread of life and cup of blessing: It is the time where we eat and drink the bread and wine that is the body and blood of Jesus Christ, it is the teachings of Jesus and the actions of Jesus in the world to love God with all out heart, mind, body, and soul; and it is also that food which sustains us in our difficult times. It is the taste of forgiveness of our shortcomings and it is the strength of knowing that God’s Son died so that we may be forgiven, know that we are loved, and we are called to share all of that with our neighbors and the stranger.

            Those M&M packs in your bulletin are for you to eat or share, whatever you want to do with them. They taste good! They melt in your mouth and not in your hand as the commercial said in years gone by. But that taste will disappear. The reaction of the sugar in your body can make you want to crave more and you OR I may go to the store to get some after worship. But that taste will end.

            The meal that you have this morning will not end. This meal is the meal that gets inside you and stays with you and DRAWS you to God’s promises. They are the promises of never being abandoned, always having a loving God who will ALWAYS want the best for you; the God who loves you so much that God will put people in your life to love and help each other out.

            I believe that God uses other ways to draw us to God. We might call them God moments or special moments; but they are those times when we get to share how God has touched our lives or listening to how God has touched the lives of others; OR, it might be having a conversation with someone who has never thought about God nor heard the word of God. God uses many different ways to draw us to God.

            There is one more force God uses to draw us closer to God. Let’s not forget the other major force! Three days later Jesus is to be raised from the dead; to show us that death does not have the last word in this world, but it is God that has the first and the last word and action in this world. Whether we like it or not or don’t have a choice in the matter, God raised Jesus from the grave…out of the cold and dark…and into the new reality and promise of everlasting life. Those are some of the forces that draw us to almighty God. I encourage you to think this week about the experiences you have had in which God has drawn you closer to God. I pray that you do enjoy your M&M’s because it is nice to smile at something that tastes good. I hope and pray that every time you come to this banquet that God invites you to that you can smile, as well, in thanks and praise to the one God who loves you so much: AMEN!

            

John 6:24-35 "God give me patience...right now!" Its all anxiety!

            Did you ever notice how one question or statement can be so mis-interpreted? Take for instance the question: “What’s for dinner?” When in a happy mood it is asked in a nonchalant way with a little pep in the voice; maybe it was a good day and you are topping off a good day with a good question…waiting in hope and anticipation what that answer is going to be. OR take that same question, “What’s for dinner?” after a bad day. Everything that can go wrong is going wrong and you dread the answer, because you just know that the answer is going to be one more thing that goes wrong…food that you don’t like that you’re gonna have to eat.

            Let’s take our Gospel reading for today from the Gospel of John. It can be a great story, depending on our mood. The people were just fed…5000 people fed on the grassy lawn as they followed Jesus, listened to him, and they wanted to make him their King. They look for him and find him and can’t get enough of Jesus, wow! That’s a good thing, isn’t it?

            But what if it is meant in another kind of way. Take that same story that was so uplifting and look at it in this way: They wanted to take Jesus by force and make him King. Now, this week, they find him in Capernaum. They weren’t on the sea to watch him walk on water. They ask about his timing, “When did you get here?” Jesus doesn’t skip a beat, “you didn’t come looking for me because you saw what I gave you, came looking because I gave you food (paraphrasing, of course). Jesus is saying “you came because of what I did for you, not because you have a deeper understanding of who I am.”

            Jesus is telling them that they are focused on something way different than what he is focused on. HE is telling them that Jesus gave them what they wanted. They were hungry because they have been following him around for some time. Bringing people who need healing and listening to his every word. All that walking and listening and following can make a person pretty tired and hungry. Jesus is telling them that they are focused on their bellies, their stomachs. It seems like it would make sense. How many times do we work or get involved with something and forget to eat? We go through the day and then our stomachs tell us that it is time to eat something. I am sure we’ve all been there before at least once in our lives.

            But Jesus words go deeper than the stomach. So let’s go down the cynical road. They are focused on the fact that he was able to give them exactly what they wanted. Then they ask what they must do to “perform the works of God?” What sign are you going to do so that we see and believe (as if feeding them was not enough) and let’s not forget the healing. These people are even comparing him to Moses; “Moses gave our ancestors bread from heaven, so what are you going to do? That is basically what they are saying.

            It sounds like these people want some control. They want to know what they have to do, they want to see a sign, and “if you show it to me, I will believe!” It sounds like they want a checklist so they can be told what to do, check it off, and then move on. Last one on the list is checked off so I can go into heaven; cut and dry.

            There is only one little problem with that thinking. They aren’t listening to what Jesus is telling them! Jesus is telling them that they are looking for those things that will perish; the bread from a full belly, it perished when they ate it. “Look for the food that endures for eternal life.” They are so focused on that meal, on what they want, that they were not hearing Jesus or recognizing who it really was that was providing the food when they were hungry. They question what they have to do perform works of God; not knowing that it is God who enables them with gifts and talents to do God’s work in the world.

            These people have it all wrong! It is not about what they can do for God to get the reward. It is all about what God has done and is doing for them. Despite their walking around and listening to Jesus and witnessing healing by Jesus, they don’t see that when they were hungry it was God who brought enough food “so that all were filled.” When they brought people who needed healing; they saw Jesus doing the healing…it may not have registered but it was God who was doing the healing through Jesus, God’s Son! It is that plain and simple! God was using Jesus to do God’s work. God was behind the feeding of the Israelites and now these people.

This whole story is about God’s action toward the people. Jesus is telling them to look past their stomachs and look at those things that don’t end, that are eternal. What is it that is eternal? Maybe the followers can’t see that far or it is beyond their comprehension. What is eternal? In the case of the Israelites it was God’s promise of deliverance out of slavery, providing bread from heaven so they won’t starve on the journey, keeping the people safe so they can reach the land that God promised.

What is eternal for the people in our Gospel? Jesus teaching about a God of love who did deliver…kept his promises with the ancestors; and the God who sent Jesus with the power to heal, and feed, and forgive. What is eternal is God’s promise, through Baptism to gather us into God’s care and protection and love. What is eternal is the pouring out of God’s love in the form of a Son who will show us exactly what it means to love and care for one another. What is eternal is the power of the forgiveness of sins; in the form of God’s only Son on the cross FOR OUR SAKE…YOU AND ME! To say that we all are loved and valued in the eyes and heart of God.

So, knowing all that, what do we do with that? We all know about control. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have things exactly how we want them? Sometimes, we think that is possible. Oh sure, we can control some things in our lives; meal time, setting the alarm, going to bed, what college (sometimes), career (again, sometimes). But there are times we want more control: I want to make sure this does/does not happen, a stable job, a steady income, and sometimes “I want to worship the way I want to worship.” I want church wrapped up in this nice little bow, never to change.

And there’s the rub. When we think we are in control or have control over our worship life or faith life, we are actually trying to put God in some nice little box. But that is not how it works. God does not work that way. God is not in that Box because God is always doing something. God is active in the world and God is not a person or a thing that can be put away on a shelf. God uses each and every one of us to do God’s work and we don’t do it to check off a box. The hope is that we do things…use our gifts and blessings to help our brothers and sisters, and even God’s creation, plants, animals, and oceans as a response to the love of God, the hope and promise of God shown us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

We can get so caught up in the hunger…using that term metaphorically that we focus on worldly, temporary things rather than giving praise and responding to God’s graciousness. We are sitting in a time of anxiety, just based on the news this morning of our announcement, I can tell you that I know there is anxiety. There is anxiety in this world about what the future holds – and if you believe the rhetoric -- if there will even be a future! With all the back and forth going on about everything it is easy to get consumed and swallowed up into a higher level of anxiety.

This is when we need to focus on something bigger than our stomachs…our pains, or anxieties. Look to the cross. Look to the God who does not fit in a box or a mold. Look to our God who does the unthinkable, unimaginable by send a Son into the world. A God who sends Jesus into the world to experience, first hand, the hurts, pains, and brokenness of this world. Let’s remember God’s promise that we belong to a loving and caring God who is abundant in mercy and love. Let’s hand all that anxiety over to God so that we don’t have to be burdened with the things we don’t necessarily have control over. So that we can be hungry for God’s presence with and in us through the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ; so that we can be hungry for God’s continuing promise of love, forgiveness, and everlasting life: AMEN!