2024 Sun Aug 25

I. Theme –   The Joys and Challenges of Following Jesus

Cerezo Barredo (1999)

The lectionary readings are here  or individually:

Old Testament – Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 Psalm – Psalm 34:15-22 Epistle –Ephesians 6:10-20 Gospel – John 6:56-69

Today’s readings invite us to consider the joys and challenges of following Jesus. In the first reading, Joshua leads the people of Israel in the choice to follow God. In Ephesians, Paul exhorts Christians to protect themselves with the armor of God. Jesus’ words cause many to turn away from him, but the twelve disciples recognize his teaching as the words of eternal life.

God is present in the community of believers, not in the mountains or the valleys or heaven or earth—God is present among us. We trust in God working in us and among us. We know that God is faithful even in times of doubt and trial. And we know that the way of God is the way to God—the way to eternal life is The Way. It is about how we live our lives for Christ and for others, not for our own gain, for when we seek our own gain, we lose. When we seek to save our lives, to find eternal life, we lose it, but when we seek to live for others, we find our own lives. We cannot be focused on our own mortality if we wish to follow Jesus. For the way of Jesus is the way to the cross, to die to live, to put to death the things that tie us to an earthly life—sin—and to live in Christ’s love.

The hard sayings Jesus gave to his disciples are still hard. That our true life depends on spiritual certainties rather than earthly realities requires a tremendous leap of faith. Even if we, like Peter, give Christ our allegiance, wholehearted trust is more difficult to attain. The universe is full of gods to choose from—they range from pseudo-Messiahs to devils. In between are the enticements of hedonistic pleasures and worldly crowns. Like the tribes in Joshua, we can choose from a dazzling array. Can we say, as they did, “As for me and my household, we will serve the lord”?

The mystical union of Christ with his Church is not an evident fact within Christendom. The Body of Christ is rent with divisions like those of an incompatible marriage. We have marred the model marriage of Christ with his Church by not really understanding the hard sayings that he has given us. The marriage covenant with Christ means to forsake all others and have no other gods.

We are drawn to God by love—just as human love draws us toward a particular person and inspires the desire for a permanent commitment. Mutual choice makes a covenant. The earthly things we know point to heavenly realities. A strong marriage is one in which union transcends the separate existence of husband and wife. The desire of each to give all to the other means that both receive from each other.

God has pledged love and blessings to us forever. God has told us this most explicitly through Christ. How poignant is Jesus’ question to his disciples: “Do you also wish to go away?” May we answer him with Peter’s firm conviction: “lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

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Where have we been during last month? The bread of life concept from John 6 has consumed the Gospel in August, 2024 and we reach the conclusion this week:

Aug 4 – John 6:24-35
Aug 11 – John 6:35, 41-51
Aug 18 – John 6:51-58
Aug 25 – John 6:56-69

John 6:1-21 back on July 28, the “Feeding of the 5,000” is the preview since it sets up the discussion from what follows.

Jesus tries to explain to the people that the bread he has to give them isn’t just bread like the bread that he gave them when they were hungry, and that he himself isn’t just Jesus the carpenter’s son. Jesus is the bread of life itself. Jesus came not to give bread but to be bread.

Jesus said to this crowd, “I am the bread of life.” Overall, the passage returns to the terms of 6:35-50 (Jesus as the word/bread of revelation) rather than continuing the specifically eucharistic theme of 6:51-59. The issue is believing in Jesus, not specifically eating his flesh. “But among you there are some who do not believe.” As in the Exodus story, the issue is not simply the grumbling of the people but the lack of trust in God that it represents:

That is, the bread that Jesus gives for the life of the world is himself—not just a bit of himself here and a bit of himself there, carefully rationed out, but all of himself, extravagantly and with abandon, with such abandon that he ends up on a cross by offering the generous gift of himself.

This generous offering of ourselves is what Jesus hopes that we too will bring to the world. That’s why he tells the disciples later to abide in him, as Jesus himself abides in God, for God is the source of Jesus’ ongoing and profligate offering of himself, the offering that brings life, the offering that ultimately brings life even out of death. When we abide in Jesus, God becomes the source of our generous giving as well.

Bread itself is made of many pieces of flour interconnected with each other. We too, can be more than just ordinary people living ordinary lives. Jesus calls on each one of us, as his disciples, to be heavenly bread to be to give ourselves, with abandon and with love, for the life of this world.

Being bread for the world is obligation of service to others and their causes. Each of us have unique gifts to give to make others lives more beneficial, more productive for the sake of each other and the world. As Genesis writes “And you, be fruitful and multiply.”

Jesus went on to say to them that everyone who has heard and learned from God comes to him, and that he, Jesus, is the way to eternal life.

The disciples know this but they don’t know what to do with it or how to help others understand. Jesus’ way of life is not about earthly success or securing a place in a heavenly kingdom, but rather giving up all personal glory for the glory of God, for the way of Christ, to love one another and lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Many of Jesus’ disciples turned away, and we know that others, even though they remained with Jesus, still did not accept this teaching. They wanted earthly fame, an earthly king and rewards.

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

From St. George’s newsletter, June, 1992. Church archives and publications often yield items that are timeless and need to be re-published.