Introduction;
This is the Pastor’s Blog for the Service on Sunday Nov 16th at 10:45AM. Included here is the primary Scripture of this message and the Pastor’s notes. Prior to the service it will include an excerpt of the Pastor’s notes and following the service the complete notes will be added. Also following the service a link will be provided at the bottom to Replay this service. We hope you will join us in Worship on Sunday.
Scripture: John 6:56-69
56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Pastors Message:
My mother told a story in a sermon decades ago that I’ve never forgotten. Mom told of a little girl whose family struggled with stability in their living situation. The girl’s parents worked long hours, and they enrolled her in a free after-school program hosted by a local church in the neighborhood. The volunteers noticed that every day, after snack time and completing her homework, the girl would choose the same toy to play with: a Noah’s Ark set that had Noah and his family, and all the animals that went into the Ark. The girl would line up all the animals in pairs. She then would station Noah and his family at the entrance of the Ark, and then march each pair of animals, two by two, into the Ark. Noah’s family would then enter the Ark, followed by Noah. Then the girl would close the door to the Ark and place it back on the shelves with the other toys.
The volunteers of the after school program noticed how carefully and orderly the little girl did this, Monday through Friday. One day, a volunteer approached the little girl as she closed the door to the Ark. The volunteer remarked to her that the Ark set must be her favorite toy, since that was the first toy she played with every day. “I wonder,” the volunteer asked, “what you like about playing with this toy?” The little girl replied, “They are going home. When they go inside the Ark, they are all home.”
Home. A sweet and wonderful place where we belong, where we live with those we love. Where we face the challenges and trials of life and gain strength because we have a home.
As I mull over this story my mom told, I note its poignancy. This little girl and her family experienced seasons in which they didn’t have a place to call home. It also pricks my heart to think that the girl chose the Ark to act out her story of home. Noah and his family, and all those animals who entered the Ark would also find themselves without a home as the floods raged. The Ark floated, unmoored, on the waters. It doesn’t feel or sound very “homey” to me.
But something in this Noah’s Ark play set spoke to the little girl of home. Perhaps something deep within her felt unmoored and floating on flood waters, and the Ark offered a safe place to be home in her being.
So let’s keep this in mind as we turn to this last story in the 6th chapter of John.
The chapter opens with Jesus’ miracle in feeding the five thousand. Jesus himself moves from person to person, offering bread and fish, and everyone who receives eats their fill. When all is said and done, there is an abundance of food left over, and the gathered people marvel at the miracle they just experienced. They also struggle to understand, and the rest of the chapter relates Jesus’ teaching about the miracle and the crowds’ struggle to understand – even though they witnessed and experienced the miracle.
Jesus speaks about being the Bread of Life in both the spiritual and physical sense. He speaks of the need to eat his flesh and drink his blood so that those who partake have eternal life.
The way Jesus speaks about this is challenging, maybe even repulsive to some listeners. “Eat his flesh? Drink his blood? Does he think we’re cannibals?”
Jesus’ teaching is so difficult that many turn away and stop following him. “This teaching is too difficult!” they say as they turn their backs and walk away. Perhaps the piece they’ve missed hearing, though, is the spiritual piece – Jesus tells them that the spirit is what enlivens the flesh. The spirit is what makes eternal and abundant life possible. Receiving the bread of life is what allows Jesus’ believers to abide in him.
Abide. An old-fashioned word we don’t use much anymore, unless we’re channeling The Big Lebowski.
Contemporary definitions of “abide” are a bit of a head-scratcher: “to be able to tolerate someone or something”; “to accept or act in accordance with a rule.”
The archaic definition, though, is “to live or dwell.” It comes from an Old English word that means “wait.” (a-bidan).
This is what Jesus is asking his followers to do: receive the Bread of Life and dwell in him; to stay in this “place” of abiding and wait for the mystery of communion to unfurl and reveal itself in its own divinely-generated time.
When Jesus turns to the Twelve and asks: “Do you also wish to go away?” Peter’s response is just as poignant as the little girl’s response in the after school program: “where would we go? You have the words of eternal life.” We’ll stay here, with you, partaking of the Bread of Life.
Even though the Twelve don’t completely understand what Jesus has done and said, they have come to realize that their home is in communion with the Christ. They experience a completeness there they don’t experience anywhere else.
Even though the journey will get increasingly rough, the threats to Jesus’ life and ministry increasingly hostile and violent, even though it must have felt like they were being swept away by floodwaters, the Twelve choose to stay and abide. Where else would they go?
The Bread of Life that is Christ is offered in the bread we receive at the communion table on the first Sunday of each month.. When we come to the table and receive that bit of bread and drink that bit of juice, we are invited to abide with Christ, to experience a completeness we can’t explain, a communion that joins our physical selves and spiritual selves. We receive sustenance that helps us abide, even as the floodwaters of the world rage. We are home in Christ. Where else would we go?
Let us pray:
We praise and thank you, loving God,
for you are without beginning and without end.
Through Christ, you created the universe;
through the Spirit of Christ, you preserve it.
You are our beginning and our end,
you are our one true home,
now and forever.
Hold us in your embrace,
that we may abide in your love,
today and always.
Amen.
