Spiritual Growth :: Sermons

Sunday, August 23, 2009.
Proper 16B- RCL. The Rev. Kate Ekrem

Proper 16B August 23 2009 1 Kings 8:[1, 6, 10-11], 22-30, 41-43 John 6:56-69

There’s a prayer that we say every Sunday at the 8 o’clock service that is sometimes considered a little controversial. It’s the one we say right before we receive communion, the Prayer of Humble Access. You can find it on page 337 if you’re interested, it’s the one that starts “we do not presume to come this thy table…” The part that tends to be either very meaningful to people or hard to deal with is where it says “we are not worthy so much as to gather up crumbs under thy table.” For some, that’s about how powerful God’s loving grace is, for others it doesn’t reflect the loving God they know. So once, when a friend said a young person in her youth group got really upset after hearing this prayer, I said, wow, she had that strong a reaction to gathering up crumbs under the table? And my friend said, no, not that part, it was the part about it was eating the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and drink his blood. She’d never thought about the Eucharist in that way before.

Maybe it takes a young person’s fresh perspective to help us hear these words again. We’ve gotten so use to flesh and blood language for the Eucharist, that maybe we don’t hear it in the same way. But for those whom Jesus talked to in our Gospel story this morning, it was just as fresh and new and, yes, as gross, as for that young lady. The church hadn’t flowered things up with fancy words yet, blood was considered quite literally not kosher in Jewish life. When Jesus told them “my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink,” that was it for them. “This teaching is difficult, who can accept it?” they said, and the story continues to say that some of them left and “no longer went about with him” after this.

Why do you think Jesus made it so hard, so stark? Why didn’t he run after them saying, don’t worry, it’s just a metaphor, don’t take it too seriously. Now, please don’t get me started on whether it’s just metaphor or not, but whether you believe in transubstantiation, consubstantiation, or just the plain old Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the point is that Jesus is saying something hard here. Those disciples who stopped following Jesus after he said this left not because they didn’t bother to unpack this particular metaphor, but because they understood perfectly well what Jesus was saying. He was talking about death.

He was predicting what would happen to him and also making it perfectly clear that participating in his life means also participating in his death. Following Jesus means giving up one’s old life in order to receive God’s new life. And that means something about change, something about sacrifice, something about giving up what seems really important to us. And change and sacrifice and giving up are not things most people are really thrilled about doing. So it’s really no wonder that, when Jesus started talking about those things, about his own death, about how others also might have to take up their cross, many of them left.

John’s Gospel goes on and on about Jesus' flesh being bread and so on in part because it was written when John’s group of Christians was having arguments with Christian Gnostics, those influenced by the Gnostic philosophy who suggested this world of physical matter wasn’t so important. In fact, they said Jesus didn’t really become human, he just pretended to be, because God is much too holy to actually be one of us, so he didn’t really suffer and die on the cross, he was just pretending. They thought it was actually pretty gross to think that any part of God might be vulnerable, that any part of God might actually die.

To the Gnostic, then, “Jesus was the idea of love or philosophy of love rather than love in the actual flesh of a human being.”

There are still fans of the Gnostic way of thinking, but for me it’s pretty important that Jesus really became a real person, just like us, and really suffered, just like we do when we’re sick or in pain or grieving, and really died, just like we will. Because it’s real, then, not just a nice philosophy about how it would be nice if everyone were nice to each other, but is actually about the real hard things we face as human beings. We’re not just engaging in philosophy here but in real life. Following Jesus is not just about having an idea of love or a philosophy of love but actually loving other people, which is often hard and full of change, sacrifice, and giving up things you think are important.

But ultimately, of course, worth it. Worth it for at least two reasons. First, because of what we get. Jesus says, my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” Jesus offers every scrap of himself to us. There are no limits on his self-giving. When we give up our old life, we are given a new life, a resurrection life, that is deep and wide and abundant and eternal. And second because, whether we realize it or not, it’s the only game in town. I don’t mean that Christianity is the only game in town, but that living a life that’s outward focused instead of inward focused, that’s about letting go instead of grasping hold, in sum living the life that Jesus showed us in his life, in his flesh and blood, is the only true life. Any other kind of life is an empty shell.

So when Jesus asks Peter, is this too hard for you, too? Are you also reluctant to let go of what you’ve got so I can give you something more? Peter says, no, “to who can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”