August 23, 2015 -John 6:56-69
John 6:56-69
Knowing Where to Look
Time after Pentecost – Lectionary 21 – August 23, 2015
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
We’re into the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel now, and Jesus has a large following.
He’s fed thousands and he’s walked on water – Jesus is popular!
It’s not surprising! He’s like a celebrity!
People are attracted to him for various reasons, I think.
They think he’s the answer to political problems, to personal problems,
and to relationship problems.
And there is something to those thoughts.
But everyone sitting here this morning knows there is more to Jesus than the razzle dazzle.
Jesus wants to be close to those who follow him – very close.
Jesus wants to transform everything in the universe – and he wants to do it through his followers.
He wants to be right inside them – and he wants them to live right inside him.
That’s pretty close – maybe uncomfortably close, for most of those listening to him.
Years ago I told you about the American Prosperity Gospel proponent Creflo Dollar –
yes, that is his real name.
He had one of those mega-churches with 10s of thousands of members.
A journalist doing a story on Pastor Dollar asked one of the members if
she had ever met her pastor.
“Oh, no,” she said. “I don’t want to meet him.”
That would be too close – she wants the show and she wants the prosperity –
with no relationship and no commitment.
Well, that’s just not what Jesus is going for with his followers.
He speaks to them now in chapter 6 of his desire to be intimately connected to his followers,
of his body as bread that they can take into themselves,
so he can become a physical part of them.
And he speaks to them of what that intimacy might mean:
going to the cross, loving the world, loving creation,
and loving their neighbour to the extent of serving them and suffering for them.
And it’s at this point that the huge crowd of disciples start to complain.
And then they start to leave.
From the multitude of those who were razzled and dazzled by Jesus, by the end of today’s story,
only 12 remain! 12!
And to this 12 he asks what is perhaps the most poignant question in all scripture:
Do you also wish to go away? Do you also wish to go away?
People come to church for all kinds of reasons – sometimes there is kind of an excitement about
something that sparks them and their interest.
They are happy to make commitments when they are in that state but often, maybe always,
the excitement is not sustainable.
And so people leave off church and following Jesus for many reasons:
difficulty with committing to the challenging life Jesus calls them to.
Or because of disappointment with the institution of the church or
the behaviour of individual Christians.
Or because of disappointment with God.
Or, let’s face it, because of disappointment with themselves and feeling like a failure.
Some leave because they do not find the welcome they expect and
some leave because they do not find the grace and inclusiveness they expect.
Some leave because there is no clarity about what the church is for and
what its mission in its neighbourhood is.
And some leave because, well, sometimes church life is boring.
Sometimes the sermon is boring! But not today!
And some leave because of some crushing life trauma and depression that
they never recover from.
I gave up judging people who leave for these reasons a long time ago.
Because I have experienced every single one of these things myself.
We can’t judge the ones who leave in the story – do you know why?
Because we have to keep the whole Gospel story in mind.
We can’t judge the ones who leave – and we can’t hold up as heroes the ones who stay:
because by the end of the story, of these twelve, one of them will betray Jesus and
the rest will abandon him.
They will all go away.
None of them want to be close to Jesus on the cross.
It’s dangerous to be close to Jesus – he takes you into the difficult places in life:
the places God wants to redeem and make better with mercy – and that’s hard.
So, in the end, what’s the difference between these 11 and all the others?
It’s not their greatness, or their unwavering commitment, or their never-changing faith,
or their complete and utter devotion and faithfulness in every situation: rather,
they know where to look to find life, to find the full life God intends for them:
the life of grace, mercy, meaning, and generosity, and purpose.
They know where to find forgiveness for all they are not – so they can move on.
In response to Jesus’s question Do you also wish to go away? Peter doesn’t say:
Heck! Not us! “We’re better than those other guys!”
He doesn’t say: “You’re kidding, right? We have waaaayyyy more faith than that!”
He simply shrugs his shoulders and says, “Lord, to whom else can we go?
You are the one who has the words of fullness of life. You are the one who can give it.”
Peter knows where to look to find fullness of life. He knows he simply finds it in Jesus.
The television show Mad Men has come to an end now.
Its main character Don Draper is a Madison Avenue advertising executive who is a man who is looking for an authentic life – he wants to know who he truly is, and what he’s for.
Early in the series he says, “I feel like I am scratching at the surface of my life.”
He can’t find it, can’t find who he is and what he was made for.
I think that’s a very common feeling in the world we live in.
Well, Peter knows where to find it: in Jesus.
Peter finds in Jesus what he was made for: for loving.
And after he betrays and abandons Jesus at the cross, he comes back,
because he knows where to look, and the resurrected Jesus feeds him – yet again! –
a beautiful fish fry breakfast on the beach, and then looks at him and says, “If you love me, Peter, feed my sheep.”
I’ll keep feeding you in my resurrected life – you feed others.
As I have said many times, Christianity is not rocket science.
Here you are fed and receive precious gifts if you know where to look, right at this table:
gifts of forgiveness, graciousness, welcome, inclusion, food, strength, perseverance,
gentleness, kindness, remembrance, energy, spirit, and hospitality.
And in turn you are invited to feed others with the same gifts – here in this community and
when you leave this place.
Here is enough meaning and more for a life.
It is easy to forget these things.
This is why we do it every week!
You all know I’ve had a difficult year and that I have really struggled.
I don’t mind telling you that I have felt many times like I would like to be one of those who
also goes away.
Church and Christian life take energy, and commitment, and let’s face it they take faith.
When you’re in the midst of personal trauma those things are very difficult to come by.
So you go to church, you go to work, out of habit and obligation –
and those are not necessarily bad things, although our culture no longer prizes them.
But you go. Because Peter has told you where to look for life.
While I was on sabbatical I found a second church home at
Messiah Lutheran Church in Westwood.
I went there regularly while I was in Winnipeg – and I had a wonderful time.
It was not easy to work up the enthusiasm, let me tell you.
During coffee one Sunday after I’d been there a few weeks in a row, Retired Bishop Lee,
who is a member there, said to me, “Do all pastors on sabbatical go to church?”
After a beat I responded, “Well, the religious ones.”
Which got a big laugh.
Of course it’s not true.
If it were true I would be a religious champion, a spiritual giant, but I am anything but that.
Like Peter, I have just come to learn to know where to look:
I needed the gifts I could receive at the communion table: gifts of grace and inclusion and
welcome and forgiveness – despite my many failures and disappointments –
and new life, and the promise of a new day, a better day.
And I needed the gifts I could receive from those beautiful people Jesus had entered and lived in,
the gifts of hospitality and care and concern and welcome.
I met people there who knew my Dad and my Mom in seminary and I met people there who
who knew my grandparents from way back on Church Street in the North End.
I found a life there at that communion table and in that coffee hour that connected me to
a larger sense of who I was and what I was for and the mission that connected all of us:
to be God’s people in the world:
to take Jesus and his gently relentlessly loving self into ourselves and take it out into the world
for others to see and experience and feel.
I’m old enough to know now that no matter how you feel, you come to worship,
and you come to the table, and you come to God’s people.
You just need to know where to look for life, for love, for meaning.
Where else can we go? You, Lord, have the life that we need and
the love that makes sense of our lives.
So come to the table again, seek and you will find, and together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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