Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 14 Aug 8 2021

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost Yr B Proper 14 Aug 8 2021

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33, Psalm 130, Ephesians 4:25-5:2, John 6:35, 41-51

 

This portion of the Bread of Life discourse reminds me of some of the rhetoric that is carried on in some circles today. Who do we listen to? The experts, or sketchy shared stories on Facebook? That rhetoric has diminished some experts that we really need to listen to. I’m not saying we always defer to experts, that would disempower those of us who write, or sing, or dance just for fun. But in many things, it is important to listen to the experts. 

 

Jesus is the expert here, and Jesus says, I am the bread of life that came down from heaven. Jesus then says, do not complain among yourselves, the father draws you through love, and I will raise that person up on the last day. The people in this story want to diminish Jesus, “isn’t he just Joseph’s and Mary’s son? We know them, they live here in the neighborhood, Jesus can’t be who he claims to be.” But over and over Jesus continues to point them to the truth. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” Jesus reminds them of the manna their forebears ate in the wilderness, Jesus reminds them that that nourishment came from God. And Jesus shows them that now, Jesus is making a direct connection between himself and God. 

 

Let’s take a look. Listen again to verse 35, where we begin today and where we ended last week. Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” As you hear this what you might be reminded of is Jesus and the woman at the well. In that story Jesus says, “those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Jesus is building, bread crumb by bread crumb, the truth that he is this living water, this bread of life. Jesus is the source of this abundance. Jesus is I AM, God in our midst. No one has ever seen God, except for the Son. Jesus is saying “in me you see God.” What John the gospel writer does is to heap grace upon grace as the disciples and us are led to the place where deep in our hearts and souls we take Jesus in.

 

But the disciples see but do not trust. They are not unlike those Facebook posters who ignore the science in favor of what the guy down the street or Aunt Harriet has to say. And the people begin to complain, just like the wilderness wanderers complained that they were hungry, and the food God gave them wasn’t good enough. Jesus is trying to move the disciples, and the onlookers, and you and me deeper into the reality that is abundantly offered, because in this relationship with Jesus there is eternal life, salvation, belief, love, grace. 

 

We often define “eternal life” as our future resurrected life in heaven with God but in John, Jesus is clear that eternal life is abundant life with him here and now. Eternal life is not a postponed existence after we die but meant to be experienced in the present. Because eternal life is a relationship with Jesus now, salvation is also a present reality. Salvation, or “being saved”, simply means an intimate relationship with God and Jesus. Eternal life = salvation = belief. And when Jesus says I am the “bread from heaven,” heaven is then given to us. For Jesus in John, heaven is not a place, but a person. 

 

So you see, this is all about how we live our lives today in response to this amazing gift of love, this grace upon grace, this abundance. And what does that look like? 

 

It looks like love. Because love is not something that we feel all mushy about, love is who God is and what God does. It is for love that God, who creates all that is seen and unseen, God who creates the cosmos, comes into our world, to walk this path with us, to show us the way, to carry us when we cannot walk it our selves.

 

 

And how does God carry us? In love, through you. You are God’s hands and feet, you are God’s love in this world. You and you and you, all of us, this community of faith that comes together to pray, to eat bread and drink wine, to share meals, and tears, heartache and joy, and who is sent out into the world to do what we are called to do.

 

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we hear that call as clearly as we’ve ever heard it. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

 

This bread of life is Jesus’ body and feeds us. This bread of life is Jesus’ body that is broken for us, so that the bits and pieces of our brokenness may be put back together. Believe it, Jesus says. Live it, Jesus says. And Love. For Love is the recognition of the truth that we are neighbors. The Love we show is the recognition of the truth that as bad as we think we can get, God’s grace upon grace can embrace us anyway.

 

God’s promise of forgiveness and acceptance, of wholeness and of life, is given to each of us in a form we not only can hear, but also see, taste, touch, and feel. And so the bread and the wine, the body and the blood, bid us to raise our eyes from the confusion and ambiguity of life for a moment, so that we may receive God’s grace upon grace, God’s abundance, and return to our lives in this confusing world with courage and hope.

 

But don’t wait, don’t wait until the time is right, or until you have more or know more, eternal life is now. Don’t wait, until tomorrow or the next day, loving your neighbor is now. Don’t wait, until the world is a better place, make it so today.

 

This is the bread of life, broken for you. Thanks be to God.