Proper 16
Year B
St. Stephen’s, Orinda
Great things, Thou hast done, O Lord, my God. I would name them and proclaim them, but they are more than I can tell. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
I always appreciate it when the lectionary sets appropriate expectations for the sermon which is meant to follow it: “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”
This morning, not only are we confronting difficult teachings, we are also witnessing some coming to the conclusion that this is so difficult that it isn’t worth following. My only hope is that my sermon won’t imitate scripture so closely that many of you also head for the exit…
(So what is Jesus teaching, and why is it so difficult?
It would seem that there are two reasons for rejecting this difficult teaching. The first is the content of Jesus’s words. Jesus tells the crowds “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.” The easiest reason to explain the crowds rejecting the difficult teaching was that it was off-putting. Talk of drinking blood and eating flesh. There is no better surefire way to alienate devout Jews than the invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood. To the followers of Mosaic law, this was more than- a difficult teaching—it was scandalous. In fact, it was downright heresy.
But there is something else @ play here. Earlier, these same crowds were the ones who followed Jesus across the Sea of Galilee, looking for the miracle working multiplier of loaves. They were curious about bread from heaven that would feed them eternally. Here, Jesus continues to talk about food and drink that leads to eternal life—but interest has collapsed. ~
Earlier the crowds misunderstood Jesus. They chased him across eight miles of open and dangerous water, guided by a mistaken understanding of who and what Jesus is. Confused, the crowds followed Jesus…now seeing clearly, they scatter immediately. Not really the progression of understanding that we were hoping for, is it?
Jesus continues to teach using metaphor and symbolism and it’s not that the crowd doesn’t get it quite the opposite! They now truly understand what Jesus speaks of, and they are scared and abandon him.
In my mind, it isn’t the invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood which causes them to turn back—it is the call to abide…to join…Jesus in his death.
Here in the 21st Century, we can rely on our sophisticated understanding to understand Jesus’ imagery, but we can not separate the act of_eating and drinking Jesus’ body and blood from the destiny of Jesus. To participate in that sacrament, to truly enjoy the food and drink which brings eternal life, is to commune, to be together with, the one who dies. Whether you frame it like the synoptic Gospels, “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me,” or whether you describe it as “the foolish preaching of the Crucified Christ” as Paul does, or finally, whether you, like John invite someone to eat and drink Christ’s body and blood—all of these are tough demands, not polite invitations.
Being a Christian is difficult. There is no way to sugar-coat that.
Want to feel self-righteous about someone harming you? The gospels tell you to instead pray for your enemy. Want to boast in your achievements, in all that you have accomplished!? It is the meek who will inherit the world. Finally, do you seek eternal life? To reach it, you must first suffer death and be buried.
Christianity seeks nothing less than the total upheaval of this world, and fundamental reversal of all our expectations of power and glory. That is a big ask. It is a question that not all of us can answer positively. Many people will find it too difficult to accept, and simply leave.
And if that teaching weren’t difficult enough for the crowds—there is a second lesson which compounds the difficulty of understanding this text. In John’s gospel, Jesus can sense and perceive everything, even the future. Jesus knows both that there are disciples who do not believe currently, and that there will be disciples who betray him. And for this reason, Jesus says, “But among you there are some who do not believe…For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”
While this may or may not have been a stumbling block for the audience of Jesus’s teaching, it certainly has become one for us, the audience of the Gospel. What is Jesus saying here? Is God deciding whether or not we have faith? Would God prevent faith? Is the Gospel veering us towards a Calvinistic double-predeterminate worldview?
The answer—the honest answer—is “I don’t know.”
That is a phrase I hope we use more and more in the Church, especially when it comes to difficult teachings. I. Don’t. Know.
“I don’t know, but maybe…”
I don’t know, but maybe we are
And that is important, because it is an understanding Jesus who, despite knowing exactly the costs, continues to follow the plans ordained by his Father. Jesus does not go to the cross as the victim of misguided hope, dying disillusioned upon the cross because good failed to triumph over evil. From the beginning, Jesus proceeds with eyes fully open to the presence of doubt, unbelief, and destruction.
Our gospel lesson this morning ends where it begins, on a place of divine grace. Like Peter and the Twelve, “we have come to believe and know that Christ is the Holy One of God.”
As the lectionary this morning suggests, there is little for us to boast of on this account. Perhaps our presence here this morning is nothing more than divine Grace. Maybe we, like the early followers of Jesus would have abandoned were it not for a preponderance of grace outweighing our own logic. Perhaps we can not claim any agency in our faith. What then, can we do for those who have yet to be drawn to the Father? We can not abandon the difficult requirements of the gospel in order to make Christianity more palatable. Instead, we must rely on God, from whom all blessings flow. And trust that his Mercy and Grace will always precede us and the gospel we carry.
As Paul himself said, For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not, will not overcome it.
Amen.
