Let us pray, Gracious God help us to understand when and how and why we need to turn to you. We know where to turn, help us to believe and trust in you. In Jesus name, Amen Are there moments – maybe many! – when you want to say just what “many of His
Are there moments – maybe many! – when you want to say just what “many of His disciples” said: The disciples words of “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
We can relate because what Jesus has been saying, and what we have heard these past four weeks, is indeed hard to listen to and hard to understand.
That Jesus is the bread of life? That He provides the only food which truly nourishes? That he gives us his own self, even his own flesh and blood, to sustain us on our journey? These are hard words, hard to hear, hard to comprehend, hard to believe.
Note that Apostle John calls these folks not simply “the crowds,” as he did in earlier passages, but rather “disciples.” The people who in today’s reading who now dessert Jesus, that is, those precisely who had, in fact, believed in Jesus, those who had followed him and had given up much to do so. But now, finally, after all their waiting and watching and wondering and worrying, they have grown tired, and they can no longer see clearly what it was about Jesus that attracted them to Him in the first place, and so they leave.
And who can blame them?
But, are we really all that different? I mean, who here has not at one time or another wondered whether you have believed in vain? During the dark of the night, perhaps, watching and praying by the bedside of loved one, a parent, of a child or grandchild in the hospital, wondering why he or she is so sick. Or in the early part of the morning, maybe, waking up alone and wondering why your spouse is no longer with you. Or in the latter part of the afternoon, perhaps, while cooking supper or finishing a chore and thinking about your family – so full of ill-will toward each other – and wondering why things have not turned out the way you hoped and whether they ever will.
If we’re honest we must admit that there are so many of those kinds of things in this life that we lead – at these times, when we are looking for God, for some sense that there is a God, and can have such a hard time seeing God that we also are tempted to conclude that the promises we trusted were empty and the faith we once held was misplaced?
Oh, perhaps we don’t turn away or desert the Lord openly, we just don’t make the extra effort to get to church regularly, or we reduce what we’ve been giving, are more reluctant to help others, or simply stop praying until, in the end, we end up just like the disciples in today’s reading.
Our Gospel writer John draws a scene for us in today’s reading that may not a pretty one, but it is a rather realistic one, a fairly accurate portrait of disbelief, with Jesus surrounded by folks who wanted to believe, who used to believe, who have been trying to believe, but have gone through the motions too long and have finally given up.
At the same time, though, John’s picture is also one of belief, of courage, and of faith. For as he writes, after many disciples drew back and no longer followed him, “Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Will you also go away?’ [And] Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’”
Where do Peter and the other twelve get their faith. Or to put it another way, what makes them different from all those who gave up on Jesus and went away?
In asking this question we must be careful. Because as easy as it was to write off those other disciples as foolish or faithless unbelievers, it is even easier to imagine Peter and the rest as flawless faith giants.
And this, as each of the four evangelists point out, was simply not the case. These disciples were also plagued by doubt and fear, they suffered at times from an over abundance of pride and a lack of courage, and they, too, eventually deserted Jesus, and at the very time he needed them the most. So if they aren’t smarter, or more faithful, or more courageous, or, in short, any better than the rest of Jesus’ disciples – then or now – then what it is that sets them apart.
One thing. Listen, again, to Peter as he says the words of the Gospel: “Lord,” he replies to Jesus’ question, “to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Peter, you see, knew where to look. That’s it. That’s what makes him and the others different – it’s not their brains or the ability or their status or even their faith: they simply know where to look.
All of this brings us back to things we have considered these past weeks on the Bread of Life, Jesus the Christ. It began five weeks ago with the feeding of the 5000 where Jesus gives us not just a miracle, but a sign of who He is. And the small child who asks “Are you Jesus?” The second week was questioning Jesus and wanting more signs. But instead we were asked to put aside our expectations and demands on Jesus and be surprised to find Him in every place and setting.
Next we find Jesus in the boy next door, for He shows up in surprising people, places and settings in our lives. And last week we find Jesus in a special meal, Holy Communion, where Jesus is in, through and under the bread and wine. Not only that, when we participate, He becomes a part of us, coursing through our veins.
It can be difficult at times to see God in these times and places. For as Jesus’ real presence in our world, the sacraments are the once place we may look and know for sure that we will find God in Christ there for us.
These are the promises from God showing us weary disciples where to look, where to hear the promise that God’s loves us, where to find just what we need — abundant life!
For as Jesus’ real presence in our world, the sacraments are the once place we may look and know for sure that we will find God in Christ there for us. This is not to say that God is not at work in other places in the world. This world simply pulses with the presence and activity of its creator: in nature, of course, but also in government, and family, in the work you do and the benefits you receive — from the work of others, in our gathering together as families and as a family of faith where 2 or 3 are gathered. In all these places and more God continues to be both present and active, creating and sustaining the whole creation.
God’s word is most surely apart of the liturgy and hymns, the prayers and our preaching, yet even in these important elements of our shared worship it may sometimes be hidden and hard to hear. Yet in the Lord’s Supper God has bound God’s own self to the Word and through the Word to the simple, common, and ordinary elements of water, bread and wine – the very stuff of everyday life – so that we who are simple, common, ordinary, and everyday people may receive him with confidence.
We are invited to come. Come to God’s own self and come to receive again the earthly, particular, and powerful promise that God will stay with us, hold onto us, and love us forever.
Amen