AUGUST 27, 2006 PASTOR SCOTT FULLER
JOSH 24:1-2a, 14-18; PS 34:15-22; EPH 6:10-20; JN 6:56-69
Choice Words
Prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive your Word. Silence in us any voice but your own that in hearing we believe and in believing we obey your will revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear friends in Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
How do people get themselves elected to office? In honor of last Tuesday’s primaries, and looking forward to November and a new governor, here’s a question: What is needed to be the favorite of the people?
-Personal qualities include: character, leadership, vision, etc.
-Practical elements: money, P.A.C., the knowledge of one’s POWER-BASE – Like a good comedian, a politician must know his/her audience.
Do these two pillars ever collide – can the personal conflict with the practical OR the other way around? Do candidates ever clash with their constituency?...cadre?...cash cows? A person whom I respect very much commented on a recent election. In a conversation about why one candidate was not elected, my friend said: he was fine…until he opened his mouth.
I think that we’re seeing a similar sort of thing in our story about Jesus for today. Remember the context: this whole 6th chapter of John’s Gospel is about bread. It started with Jesus feeding 5,000 people with just five loaves and two fish…Imagine the high his followers were feeling: verse 15 tells us that the crowd wanted to seize Jesus right there and force him to be king! Politically, it doesn’t get much better than that…
But, what my friend said about that unfortunate candidate is also true here…Jesus was doing fine…until he opened his mouth.
He starts the very next day by slamming the very subjects that wanted to serve him: in verse 26 he says, you’re here looking for another free meal. You should be looking for the food that endures for eternal life. Ouch!
Then he steps on the toes of those who claim to be blessed because their ancestors ate manna in the wilderness. Sure they ate it, agrees the Lord who then adds, and they all died. Believe in the Son and have eternal life.
The next group he alienates are the properly pious. I AM the bread of life, says Jesus…and these folks are offended…Any ideas why? Israel’s holiest name for God is YHWH (Yahweh). Way back when God talked to Moses through a burning bush and told him to lead the slaves out of Egypt, Moses asked, Who shall I tell them is sending me? God replies, Tell them my name is…I AM (YHWH in Hebrew). So holy is this name that no sinful human is allowed even to say it, let alone claim to be connected to it. So when he claims I AM the bread of life, poof goes the mighty religious right.
So to recap: Jesus blasts some for voting with their bellies. Then he chides others for excessive pride in their ancestors. Next he utters a claim that makes Mohammed Ali’s I am the greatest! or Al Gore’s I invented the internet! pale to nothing.
And today we see the straw that breaks the camel’s back (6:56). Says Jesus those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them. Now what does it sound like Jesus is proposing? Cannibalism. No wonder many of his disciples say, This teaching is difficult…and turn away.
And soon the crowd is gone; the lights are out; the party’s over. There aren’t many left who still want to crown him king…and to those few who stay, Jesus offers an out. He asks Do you also wish to go away?
What has happened here? Why the plummet in the polls? What is Jesus tying to do – DRIVE people away?
It could be that Jesus is thinning the garden, pruning the vines, cutting back the excess growth so that what remains will produce good fruit. That makes sense…but to the untrained gardener, it is so hard to trust that hacking off that beautiful growth will actually be a blessing.
At my worst moments, I find this frustrating about Jesus…that he didn’t just seize the crown and take command and establish God’s kingdom with power and might. Even here in our congregation, this parish, this neighborhood, I often find myself longing to leap from problem to solution without doing the Jesus-type work in between.
Here’s an example. You’ve heard me talk about AFACT: Anchorage Faith and Action – Congregations Together. Many of you have been visited and all who want to will. The purpose is simply to listen: to hear you talk about your life, family, neighborhood, congregation – both what’s going well and what you find to be a challenge. The goal is to build bridges between people, to strengthen our relationships so that we can reach out to help the last, the lost, the least and the little (Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment).
This is the Jesus-work that must be done: creating relationships, building up the Body of Christ one beating heart at a time. Jesus practices this method with passion. Sure he addresses crowds, but he’s not after numbers. Our lesson proves that he’s looking instead for those precious few who get it.
And the miracle is that some actually do. They see and hear in Jesus what they see and hear nowhere else. Says Peter for that ragtag group: Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life (6:68). And though it’s possible to see this as a problem, the thousands dwindling down to dozens, I picture Jesus smiling at these wonderfully choice words of Peter. They are, I hope and pray, the words that are on our lips and in our hearts with every breath we take: Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. I invite you to join me now as we say these words in prayer.
Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. Amen.