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!
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