Scripture John 6: 35-51
Rev. Michael Fry preaching
at East Bethany PC
August 12, 2012
“…whoever believes has
eternal life” (47).
Note: present tense, has
eternal life:
It is easy to overlook this detail. Our minds jump to the future – to eternal
life after our death, to heaven. But there
is a tension between the future and the present as Jesus says that right here
and now “…whoever believes has eternal
life.”
One little word and yet it expresses a profound truth about
our identity as Christians. Eternal life
is now. What does that mean for us? How might believing that change how we live,
how we see ourselves, how we see God?
Eternal life is a life with God. God is not distant but close by and
involved. This proximity brings joy to our lives because God seeks us
out drawing us into relationship with him even though we are sinful. And our reconciliation
to God through Jesus Christ gives us peace
that we are indeed forgiven despite
our sin.
This gift of God gracing our present is abundant life. We know God
by knowing Jesus, because Jesus reveals God to us.
This promised abundance is apparent in the miraculous signs
Jesus performed at the Wedding at Canna, turning water into vats filled with high quality wine for the wedding guests and how he took two fish
and five loaves of bread and fed a crowd of 5,000 – our Lord is about providing
an abundance of goodness. Jesus says, “I have come that you may have
life in all its fullness (John 10:10)
But there is no wasted
excess, because after the 5,000 are fed Jesus instructs the disciples to gather
the fragments of the leftovers, “so that none may be lost” (12).
Like the fragments of bread left over from that meal Jesus
is concerned that we not be left out, cast aside, or be lost. He is the shepherd who seeks out his
sheep. In both the present and the
future, Jesus is intent that none who come to him will be lost.
Often times we think of God as a celestial being far away,
but here is the thing God came to us, sought us out making the ordinary
extraordinary, and God seeks us out today drawing us toward him in ordinary
ways.
Grace and abundant life is offered to us in the here and now.
It is the perspective given to us as a gift from Jesus that makes it available
to us. This is important because often
times we think only of the future or dwell on the past and this keeps us stuck
right where we are.
The difficulty we have is that God is incarnate in Jesus a
man who looks like you and me and chooses to be represented in an ordinary
everyday food staple. God the divine on
earth walking among people. Last week I
said that we realize that Jesus is not just talking about physical bread. He is talking about things that sustain us –
Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit (the Trinity) are what sustain us, they give us
life.
Sometimes we overlook the extraordinary qualities in our
ordinary lives, because they are, well, ordinary. And we fail to see the holy in our midst – the
smell of fresh baked bread, a meal time prayer, the laughter of a child, the
companionship of a friend, the embrace of a loved one.
But how do we express this extraordinary God life here in
the ordinary world. Jesus uses this
bread of life imagery saying that whoever comes to him will no longer hunger or
thirst.
Think about bread, not Wonder Bread wrapped up in plastic,
but that fresh baked bread smell that fills the house or a bakery, except it’s
not a smell, but an aroma that hangs in the air. We begin to enjoy the bread before we taste
it. It is pleasing to our eyes and our
nose. It has a nice irregular texture so
that as you pull the bread apart or slice it you see the air pockets inside and
feel the warm escape. As we eat it we
are satisfied with it in a way that plain old sandwich bread can’t compare to.
And once we’ve experienced this bread of life it is the like
song Shirley Jones and Robert Preston sing in The Music Man – “there were bells all around but I never heard them
ringing, no I never heard them ringing at all till there was you.” God turns everyday occurrences like bells
ringing and birds winging into events that transforms an ordinary bell ringing
or bird singing into an extraordinary song of praise.
This is how it is with God.
We look all over seeking God searching for the answers to our questions
that seem to have no answers and somehow miss that God has been with us all
along making the ordinary extraordinary.
Sometimes I wonder what it is that keeps us from seeing God
where we are.
Is it because like Jesus’ neighbors we think we know who God
is and where God can be found?
We have these expectations of God and are surprised when
those expectations do not match up with the reality of God descending to earth
incarnate in Jesus who appears, to his neighbors, to just be Mary and Joseph’s
son.
With all the violence and injustice in our world it is hard
to see how God could really be doing the miraculous things he has promised. Isn’t it easier for us to say God will act in
the future, not in the present?
Some bystanders see Jesus as an ordinary man doing
extraordinary things turning water into wine, feeding thousands, and healing
people – they see Jesus as a good compassionate man – someone like Tom
Golissano, building first rate children’s hospitals.
Yet Jesus is not an ordinary man, he is not a wealthy man,
he is not an extraordinary man, he is God.
What is it that makes some people reject Jesus as God,
preferring to see him as a compassionate man or a good moral teacher with some
good ideas, while others see Jesus as God who is to be worshipped and served?
Maybe it is like bread, some people prefer Wonder Bread while others savor fresh
baked bread provided by God that satisfies more than our hunger but our eyes,
our noses, and nourishes our spirits.
The big question is, once we have tasted this fresh bread,
how can we be content with what has passed for bread before?
O, taste and see that the LORD is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him.
Psalm 34:8
No comments:
Post a Comment