Summer Series - a double header: John 6 and Ephesians

 During summer in Year B of the Liturgical Calendar 

            we get five Sundays in a row (starting last Sunday)

with the Gospel reading from John, chapter 6, the Bread of Life Chapter.

                        So this will be an extended period of time

                                    for us to feast on Jesus, the Bread of Life.

 

But before I begin to explore with you this incredibly significant Gospel passage

                        this Sunday and in the weeks to come,

            I want to call your attention to the Epistle reading,

because, as you may have noticed, we have been reading our way through

                        the Letter to the Church in Ephesus, Ephesians.

            We have a six weeks series of Epistle readings from Ephesians.

 

This letter is also one of significance in the canon of the epistles,

            and paired with John, chapter 6, 

provides for those who believe in, who put their faith in Jesus

                        deep nourishment for our inmost being

                                    where we hunger and thirst for what is life giving and holy.

 

With all that we have been experiencing in the world around us

            and in our own community – wildfires, climate changes, pandemic, politics –

both Ephesians and John’s Bread of Life chapter can help us focus on

            what will get us through all these current stressors in our lives

            and bring us to remembrance about what brings grace into our lives.

 

Looking at today’s reading from Ephesians, we hear some familiar words.

            There is one Body and one Spirit;

            There is one hope in God’s call to us’

            One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism;

            One God and Father of all.

Who can tell me where we find these words? Where have you heard them before?

                        In the Baptism liturgy, our opening responses.

 

Note the repetition of the word ONE 

            and what the implications are for us in terms of baptism.

 

Our rite of baptism is the outward and visible sign through water

            that we are submerged into Christ, we are one with Jesus,

and, as the Apostle Paul puts it in other epistles,

            “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

 

That is a truth, a reality of being, 

            which we may or may not be aware of at any particular moment,

but that does not make it any less real.

 

We can spend a lifetime before we are fully aware and cognizant 

                        of this incredible life-giving and life-sustaining truth of our being.

That is why we make it a priority and a habit in our lives to come here 

            in order to be reminded week by week 

                        through the words of scripture

                        and the words of the liturgy

                        and the sacraments

that everything is connected, one in being:  us to God

            and us to each other

            and us to the larger community

            and us to the environment and every living creature.

We simply cannot exist separate from the world we live in OR separate from God.

                                                

So because everything is connected,

            none of us has to carry the impossible task of being totally self sufficient.

The passage tells us that God has provided to each 

                                                                        something that is necessary for all

            so that we have to come together in order to be complete.

 

Christ, the logos, the Word of God, who brought all things into being,

            also fills all things (verse 10) and gifts us each with what we need

                        in order to be equipped for the work of ministry,

not for ourselves but for the building up of the whole body of Christ.

            …until all of us come to the unity of the faith…to maturity…

            to the measure of the full stature of Christ.                                    (verse 13)

 

I could go on and on about this hugely significant statement             

            that is at the center of this passage about oneness in Christ 

            and how everything and everyone is connected 

            and how this is our life’s work: to realize this and to live into this, 

but the epistle writer puts it best:

 

I…beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,

            with all humility and gentleness,

            with patience, bearing with one another in love,

            making every effort to maintain the unity of Spirit in the bond of peace.…

…speaking the truth in love, we must grow up – group up! – in every way

            …into Christ, from whom the whole body … is equipped,

                        as each part is working properly…

building itself up in love.

 

So how are we with this?  Have we arrived, accomplished that sense of unity?

            

Speaking only for myself, I have a long ways to go

                        to measure up to the full stature of Christ,

            so daily this must be in my attention upon waking

                        in the back of my mind all day long

                        and in what I surrender to God at the end of the day.

 

Are we working at this, holding this intention 

            in everything we do here at Nativity?

Or are we letting other concerns, worries, hurts, confusion and disagreements

            stand between us unaddressed blocking the very things we seek in faith?

 

I ask these questions for each of us to ponder in self examination

            in reflecting on this passage from Ephesians.

Sometimes, when it has seemed apropos, I have suggested to the congregation

            that you rip out a lesson or prayer from your Sunday bulletin

            and tape it to your bathroom mirror or refrigerator for the coming week 

                  as a way to support your own spiritual practice each day.  Ephesians?

Do you need support in your daily prayers and living out the Gospel?  I do!

            I must prayerfully attend to what supports me spiritually day by day.

                                                We all do.

 

So this now leads us into the Gospel for today.

 

Jesus fed the 5,000 because he loved them.  He saw their need, 

            and his compassion and love were put into practical action.

So he touched the food and enlivened it,

            causing an expansion that resulted in an abundance,

                        more than what was needed!

 

And his touch began to enliven the people

            as they sought him the next day, 

            and as he engaged them in life giving dialog.

 

“You were looking for me,” Jesus said to them,

            “because you ate your fill of the bread 

                        that you didn’t have to work for yourselves, free bread.”

You know what it is like to work hard day after day 

                                                to put groceries on the table at home.

            But I’m going to say something different to you, Jesus said,

Do not work for the food that perishes,

                        food that gets eaten up and then it’s back to work again.

Work for the food that endures for eternal life

                        - well, obviously, a different kind of food.

 

So they ask how they are to work for this kind of food,

            what works are they to work to be doing the works of God.

 

And here is the crux of all that is too follow in this chapter,

            indeed, the central point of this whole Gospel.

 

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God,

            that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

 

Does this strike you as odd?

            that the work of God that we are to do is to believe?

                        not work to keep all the Commandments

                        nothing that requires muscles and sweat

                        or that make a product, accomplishes a task

            but to believe the One God sent.

 

Let’s look at this word believe.

 

You may have heard me say concerning the challenge of translation,

            how a word in one language usually has a constellation of meanings about it

            and when we translate it to another language, 

                        we have to pick a word that inevitably cannot include 

                                    the whole scope of meaning of the original word.

That’s how it is with the verb that is translated here as believe.

 

In English to believe has the connotation of giving mental assent,

            to accept as a doctrine, like when we say in the Nicene Creed,

                        “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty…”

But the Greek word is much richer.

            We could begin the creed just as well with 

“We have faith in one God… We have faith in one Lord, Jesus Christ…”

 

To have faith in someone means that we have a history with that person.

We have experienced that person as trustworthy in particular areas,

            such as keeping their word, or arriving on time, 

                                    or doing a good job at fixing your car, etc.

What we have faith in is the truth of that person as we have experienced it.

 

So this is the work we are invited to do:

            to trust Jesus, to have faith in him,

            to trust him, especially as we have experienced him in our lives,

                        how we have experienced him in our prayers and meditation,

                        how we have experienced his Resurrection Spirit guiding us,

                        how we have experienced his voice, his presence

                                    through others who reflect his life in their own,

                        how we experience him in bread and wine week by week,

                        how all of creation points us to him,                        

and in all the hundreds of ways we can come to experience and know him.

 

And to trust that, to rely utterly on Jesus who would feed us with himself.

 

Jesus gives himself fully, so that when you receive him,

                        you are nourished to fullness of Life.

He will feed us with what he is.

 

He will feed us with what he is.

            And then we become him,

for, as they say, “You are what you eat.”

 

Jesus is the bread of God who comes down from heaven 

            and gives life to the world.

 

We may want to make a link between this Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel

            and the sacrament of the Eucharist

The essential Bread of Life is there for us 

to sink our teeth into spiritually, 

living bread that conveys life to the eater.

 

What are you hungry for?  What does your soul crave?

            Work for what will satisfy that hunger like nothing else can.

 

So come to the Table today with all your hunger,

and you may want to say a little prayer prior to eating,

                        such as the grace we say at home before a meal, 

            something like this:

For what we are about to receive,

            may the Lord make us truly grateful.

It comes with the package

 I must confess that I would rather we had different scripture readings for today

            because the reading from the book of the Prophet Amos

                        and Mark’s account of the beheading of John the Baptist

                                    present in clear and graphic terms the dangers facing

                                    those whose ministry is to be called as prophets.

Yet both these biblical stories are part of the whole story of the Gospel

            and what might be in store for followers of Jesus

                        depending on how the Holy Spirit may be calling them AND us.

 

So we do need to look at both readings,

            and I will put them each in context.

 

Amos speaks prophetically to the people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

            You may remember that after King Solomon

            the country got divided into the Southern Kingdom of Judea

                        Judah, the tribe that King David had come from,

            and the Northern Kingdom of Israel:

                        the rest of the tribes that would not tolerate Solomon’s heir, 

                                    a foolish young king who let his new royal powers go to his head 

                                    and thought he knew better than his seasoned counselors.

Well, that was a fatal error.

 

The northern kingdom did all right for awhile,

            but finally other surrounding stronger nations 

                                    were poised to expand their power and borders, 

            and Israel would fall first and those tribes would be scattered.

And then later Judea would be conquered 

                        and the people carried into exile in the Babylonian captivity.

 

Amos was not a typical prophet.

He did not consider himself to be anything special,

            not a professional, not even one of the “Sons of the Prophets,”

                        that is, those who were members of the prophets’ guild,

                        those who were schooled by current widely recognized prophets.

Amos described himself as a layman,

            a herdsman by trade and in the tree pruning business.

            just the sort of person God’s Spirit 

                        might be able to get through to 

                                    and come upon mightily with fresh, powerful words. 

 

Amos, outside the religious institution, could say things like:

            thus says the Lord,

            “I hate, I despise your festivals,

                        and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

            … your burnt offerings … I will not look upon …

            But let justice roll down like waters,

                        and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”

Oh, and by the way Israel will fall to invading forces.

 

He was just being obedient, as a disciple would be, to the Spirit moving upon him,

            but he crossed a boundary when he predicted the doom of the nation.            

 

So Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, a key religious center for the Northern Kingdom,

            tells Amos to get out, “You’re banished! 

                        Go peddle your prophecies elsewhere.”

And Amos’ message, faithfully delivered, goes unheeded.

 

John the Baptist was the last of this line of authentic prophets.

            And what a prophet he was!

 

He had messages for everyone who came to him

            recalling the people to the words of Isaiah,

            dunking them in the Jordan River 

                        symbolically causing them to re-enter the Promised Land 

                        as well as washing them and reconciling them with God.

“Repent for the Kingdom of GOD is at hand”

            not the Kingdom of the Emperor of Rome.

 

The common people struggling under harsh governance of their oppressors,

the religious leaders trying to maintain a fragile relationship with Pilate

                        that would allow them to continue to provide spiritual leadership,

even Roman soldiers keeping an eye on what was going on when John was preaching,

                        all were moved by his words.

 

But today’s Gospel story says nothing 

            about John’s powerful and prophetic ministry that gets stopped short

because he spoke the truth about the ugly behavior 

            of the most powerful ruler outside of Rome in that vicinity,

            about what Herod perpetrated on his brother Philip, 

                                                who ruled his own adjacent kingdom,

Herod, offering Herodias a better deal than Philip could,

            sticking it to his brother marrying his wife right out from under him

                        and doing it all in broad daylight shamelessly and deliberately.

 

And for John pointing to the blatant behavior, 

            saying out loud what others were afraid to say,

the reward was imprisonment.  Silenced.  Taken out of commission.

            Ministry ended.

 

And then John is executed – not for speaking that truth,

                        not as a martyr for all his baptizing, 

                        not for proclaiming the Kingdom of God at hand,

            but as the payoff for a foolish promise made to a girl

                        who was the means by which her mother could get revenge on John

                                    for what he had said about her and Herod.

 

There’s a saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,”

            and sometimes it seems like that’s the way of the world,

despite all the good preaching and selfless ministry devoted to saving the world.

 

But now, what about us?

 

Well, everything I am going to say now 

            is related to and connects with the collect for today.

We here today may be thankful that 

            we have not been called to be a prophet like Amos or John the Baptist.

Not everyone has to put their neck on the line

                        speaking truth to power,

                        stepping over that line with the powers that be,

but as baptized Christians we are called to be disciples – 

             disciples, that is, students of Jesus,

            but specifically, disciples who would follow Jesus’ example.

 

By showing up here, besides offering our devotion to Jesus,

we put ourselves in a good place to be made available to God.

 

Have you ever had that experience 

            in which you found yourself in a position of ministry 

            that called forth something inside of you that you didn’t realize you had?

Take some time to think about that.

            

God’s ways seem to include 

                        taking by surprise the ones through whom the Spirit can flow.

And how merciful that is, 

            for then we have the opportunity to really be doing some good

                        without leaving our fingerprints all over it.

 

You see, being called to service and ministry is not just for some of us.

Being called is part of the deal; 

            it comes as a part of the whole salvation package.

Being a follower of Jesus, a student of Jesus, a disciple 

                                                                                    is not just about being saved, 

being taken into the loving embrace of a Savior 

who takes care of us like a Good Shepherd, 

who prepares the way for us 

so that we have eternal life in him.

 

We get a bonus – Jesus calls us and chooses us to be disciples, 

meaning to be as he is,

            that is, to be outwardly directed in ministry,

                        being self-forgetful in service,

                        being of service to the needs you encounter.

 

Let me say some encouraging words (I hope they are encouraging) 

about the process of discipleship.

 

Here are three things that I observe in the Gospels

about Jesus’ process of instructing and preparing those he chose 

during the time of his earthly ministry.

 

First he was the one choosing the disciples, not the other way around.

            He calls the disciples.

We are selected; we don’t enlist, so you’re not here by accident.

 

Second in the Gospels Jesus showed the disciples the ministry,

            he demonstrated it for them.

Jesus taught the multitudes in parables, 

wonderful stories for people to bounce off of

seeing mirrors of their own spiritual conditions of life.

Then when he was with the disciples, 

            he opened up the parables and explained them, gave further teaching.

And each healing and each releasing of persons from demonic bondage

            were also teaching parables 

revealing the qualities of the Kingdom of God as a present reality.

Jesus taught by acts of healing as acts of the Kingdom.

 

And third he then sent the disciples out to practice 

what they had seen and heard, 

giving them the authority and ability 

to do just what he had showed them.

 

Jesus went ahead of them preparing the field of ministry before them,

                                    and he goes ahead of us too,

            doing the sowing for them to come after and do the reaping.

Jesus is the one giving them and us the authority, the authenticity, the power, 

the ability to do the ministry.

He gives what is needed for the work to be done.

            We need to trust that.

 

The very last words of the liturgy, after the final hymn, are

            “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”

 

We go with the gift of peace, embodied in bread and wine, 

                        a grace and an empowerment for ministry.

 

We can be disciples who do what Jesus does,

            letting that discipleship come to maturity in us,

                        not perfection, maturity.

 

Maturity is experienced knowledge of Jesus, 

not facts about him,

                        but who he is, his quality of being,

            what it is about him 

            that brings liberation in others, 

healing, repentance and reconciliation.

 

May the process of discipleship come to maturity 

in those of us who gather here, 

            who show up Sunday by Sunday, 

trusting ever more deeply in Jesus’ responsibility for the work,

so that the whole of the way we live our lives

            will be a fruitful witness of Good News.

 

It comes back to the Collect for today:

 

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you,

and grant that we may know and understand what things we ought to do,

and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them.