Proper 16B

Proper 16B • 26 August 2012
Preached at 
Church of Our Saviour, Killington Vermont

We have reached the last portion of the five-week excursus into the Gospel of John’s sixth chapter that focuses on Jesus, the Bread of Life. (I invite you to sit down and read the chapter in its entirety now that we have heard it in segments.) In this chapter we have moved from Jesus feeding the five thousand—the miracle which appears in all four gospels, to Jesus walking on the water, to his long discourse on the bread from heaven. Initially a response to the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus teaches the crowd about signs and, in particular, about those signs that center on bread—the gift of the Mannah from heaven, and now the gift of the real bread from heaven, Jesus. In words that imply the elements of the eucharist, Jesus tells his disciples that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to have eternal life. Nothing else will do.

Though the gospel reading for last week (had we heard it instead of celebrating the feast of Mary, Mother of Jesus) summed up the theological themes of Jesus’ long discourse on the bread of life, we have not yet finished with the sixth chapter from the gospel of John. This week we hear the reactions of those who heard Jesus’ teachings about the gift of eternal life. We would expect the disciples’ reaction to this incredible promise would be one of faith. It would seem natural that the gospel report that ‘many believed’—the other three gospels often times state that a crowd comes to believe Jesus’ teachings with these words. But, here in the fourth gospel, we have a unique situation wherein the disciples do not accept the teaching; in fact, they disbelieve and ask who could possibly accept Jesus’ teaching? Not only do they discredit Jesus’ words, they also draw back from Jesus. Worse, they take offence. The Greek actually says, ‘they were scandalised,’ that is, blocked by what Jesus has been teaching. And what is the block over which their minds trip?

Throughout the bread of life discourse, Jesus stresses the importance and necessity of the incarnation and the cross so that God may give eternal life to the world. Jesus has to become incarnate in flesh and blood and die on the cross so that God may be glorified. Jesus carries his thought through to the passion in his teaching about the bread of life because it is only through the passion and Christ’s ascension that humanity can receive the bread of life. Jesus stresses this crucial connection in his words about taking his flesh and eating it, receiving his blood and drinking it.

The disciples, those who do not accept Jesus’ teaching, do not follow through to the moment of God’s ultimate self-giving. They remain stuck thinking about the human nature of Jesus, the physical realities of Jesus’ flesh and blood. Their disbelief stems from several misconceptions, one of which teaches that the human body is bad. If the physical body is bad, Jesus our saviour, could not have appeared in human form. As long as they remain focused on Jesus as only a human, they cannot see through to the incarnation and its resulting gift of the eucharist, the meal of life that we receive week in and week out, and the larger gift of eternal life.

Jesus tries to open them to a larger understanding of what choosing life means by saying: ‘It is the spirit that gives life… the words I have spoken are spirit and life.’ What Jesus is driving at is that those who open themselves to the spirit can understand spiritual things. There is the natural reality of being human: we can use our reason and intellect to survive, but as long as we are closed to God’s influence, we cannot perceive divine things. Jesus’ teachings are of the spiritual realm and they intend to bring people into that realm. Yet Jesus recognises that not everyone will believe and he goes as far as to ask those present if they, too, would like to go away, to stop trying to understand his radical teaching about eternal life.

And then Peter speaks. We are so conditioned to thinking of Peter as the disciple who blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind and who never gets it. Even here Peter’s response seems to be more of the same outbursts when he says, ‘Lord, to whom can we go?’ At first hearing, it sounds as though Peter is saying, ‘We are stuck with you, we have come too far to turn around and anyway, we don’t know where else to go.’

But that is not what Peter is saying. Not at all. Instead, he continues, ‘You have the words of eternal life.’ Peter understands after all what the teaching about the bread of life is all about. After asserting that Jesus has the words of eternal life, Peter affirms his belief in Jesus by saying, ‘We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’ His faith statement is more than mere words. Peter demonstrates exactly what Jesus has said about one’s capacity to perceive the truth. Peter recognises that what Jesus has been teaching all along is about ‘spirit and life, ‘ and so he entrusts himself to Christ in faith. Remarkably and unexpectedly, Peter becomes for us an example of how one’s life can be changed if only one opens one’s heart (and mind). He becomes one who is open to God and the life of the Spirit. He becomes one who chooses God and life.

How much easier it would have been for Peter if he had kept his mind and heart closed to Jesus’ message about God’s love. If he had never opened his heart to Jesus, he would have never ended up standing by a fire in a cold courtyard and denying three times a saviour he loved. He would have never ended up walking along the way of the cross behind Jesus, being martyred himself later on. He could have interpreted Jesus’ message to suit himself. But Peter’s heart is opened by and to the Spirit that gives life. Even in dying, he chooses life.

Like Peter, like Joshua who says, ‘Choose today whom you will serve… as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,’ you and I have the choice to follow God. That saying actually has hung in the front hall of the rectories in which I have lived as a daily reminder of whom I have chosen to follow. God puts that choice before us each day. Each day we face a moment of choice, a turning point. Whom do we choose to follow?

We come to turning points again and again in our lifetimes. We come to times when we must choose between life and death, between delight and misery, between being truly alive and merely existing. God created us for far more than mere existence so God cares passionately about what we choose. Is our life vital, a life in community with God and others? Do we celebrate the gift of life God has given us? Do we find delight and wonder in all God’s works and with other people? Do we choose life that rejects fatalism, always being the victim, and misery, but chooses instead hope, joy and wonder?

A year ago, we were just getting ready for Irene, thinking it would be a simple storm. In the aftermath, most people chose life by dealing with the mess. Two young adults, Eric Mallette and Lyz Tomsuden created the poster, ‘I am Vermont Strong,’ that now adorns license plates as a fund-raiser. (We probably would have said, ‘We are Vermont Strong,’ given that we are people of community.) Indeed, in this week’s Mountain Times article on the slogan, they defend their choice of words: ‘It’s a personal statement. When singular strength meets the masses that’s the important point. Liz and I both feel strongly it has to come from you.’ Regardless, we saw countless examples of people choosing life post-Irene. And some even chose God and stuck with God.

‘Where can we go?’ Peter asks Jesus. And we find the answer: We can go to the One who holds up for us the possibility of delight and hope and vitality and goodness in this world and in the world to come. We can choose to follow the One who can give us life now and in the world to come.

Even faced with signs of our mortality around us, we can choose life because we are created for life, for the fullness of life in joy and wonder. We are created with the capacity to choose life or not as we will. God desires life for us—rich, abundant life in this world and in the world to come, life measured not in length or possessions but in the fullness of relationship with God and others. God gives us the strength to choose such a life for ourselves and those we love. And God gives us the community that can choose life for us when we cannot choose it for ourselves. God gives us life and wants us to know the fullness of that gift.

Where do we go? Whom do we choose? If there is any question, we have a regular reminder of where to go and whom to follow… and that reminder comes to us in Christ’s body and blood. So come, partake, and remember where you are going and whom you are following.