John 6:56-69
I don’t know if you have heard the alerts; I am sure the news services will be picking them up very soon. But what I discovered in internet bulletins in the past few days is shocking, and I must share it:
Bread Is Dangerous! Just listen to these horrifying details:
- More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
- More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
- And threatening to our children: fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
- Also very disturbing is the discovery that bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
- BUT worst of all... and I hesitate to even share this: Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person! :)
(found at ebaumsworld.com, "Bread is Dangerous")
Well, I don’t know how much you will believe that "Bread is Dangerous", but from our Gospel for today, it is pretty clear to me that talking about bread can be dangerous, or at least very controversial.
When Jesus spoke how "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me... " and being "the bread that came down from heaven... " he got some flack:
"This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" his disciples said... not the crowds, mind you, but his disciples. And then, "Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, 'Does this offend you?'..."
This is an interesting word here -- "Offend" in the Greek is "scandalizo" -- "Does this scandalize you?... Is this a scandal for you?"
And then towards the end, "Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him..."
I tell you, for Jesus and his situation, bread is dangerous...! I mean talking about bread is dangerous. People complain... people are offended... people are scandalized ... people no longer wish to hang around... people no longer will follow and be disciples...
Notice that this is a controversy that doesn’t get swept under the rug. Jesus doesn’t come back and say, "But that’s not what I really meant." He doesn’t come back and re-interpret. And John the writer of this Gospel doesn’t simply add a foot-note that says, "What Jesus was referring to was Communion, the Lord’s Supper, which would all become clear on the night before he would be crucified... "
I wonder if there is a modern day parallel in the national debate about health care reform. I don’t know if health care reform is dangerous, but talking about it has certainly gotten to be so. People at the congressional town hall meetings have gotten into shouting and even shoving matches; people showing up for rallies have openly worn assault rifles; TV talk shows and newscasts dwell on the controversy and inflame the debate. Some people take certain sections of the health care reform bill and interpret it to be about "death panels." Others take certain sections of the bill and become convinced that there will be wide-spread government interference in people’s lives.
We could debate health care reform in our country for a long time, and maybe we should. But right now, let me simply say that there’s such an element of controversy about it all that many people are losing interest. They’re falling away. I don’t know whether they have been offended, or if they’ve been scandalized, but some are certainly starting to turn away...
I wonder if there is a modern day parallel in what was decided at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America national church-wide assembly this week in Minneapolis. The controversial subject was not bread, nor health care reform, but rather human sexuality. There was an extensive social statement document on human sexuality that was discussed and debated and voted upon (which we have had available for people in the library for the past couple months).
But it was the follow-up resolutions that got all the attention. The results were in votes that delegates made about the church becoming more open to gay clergy serving in the church. Some resolutions passed there this week will make it possible for gay clergy in open, faithful, monogamous relationships to serve in the ELCA as pastors and leaders. (Previously, there was the understanding that any clergy who were gay must remain celibate).
We could continue to further debate how to make our church more welcoming for gay people; we could discuss how they might serve as leaders in the ELCA, as we have been for the past 15 years or so. Maybe that dialogue should and will continue. But right now, let me simply say that the discussion this week, and these decisions, have stirred up tremendous controversy, and divisiveness in our church. Some cannot accept this decision as it is; some are offended and scandalized; some will surely turn away.
But there is a truly gracious word in today’s Gospel lesson that rings out, and I hope you hear it with me. When Jesus asked his disciples, the 12, the ones closest to him, and his dearest supporters and friends, "Do you also wish to go away?" What was the answer? It says that Simon Peter -- you know, that denier, that impetuous one, who was the first to try to get out of the boat to go to Jesus, the first to say, "You are the Christ", this "Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
What a man, that Peter... if there was a line drawn in the sand, Peter was going to step over it and follow his Lord. If it seemed strange and controversial to people, about how Jesus was explaining all this "Bread of life" thing, well, so be it. Peter knew that with Jesus, he was going to be truly fed. "You’ve got the bread of life, Jesus; your words fill me up. You are our hope, Jesus, I’m still with you... " And eventually, though there was a time of good old impetuous Peter denying Jesus , he still comes back. And as Jesus would eventually tell him, PETER would be the one called to do the feeding; PETER would be asked to tend, nurture, and care for the flock who followed Jesus; PETER would help lead people to that same bread...
I wonder if there are people in our ELCA church who feel the same way as Peter this week? Perhaps there are gays and straights, members here at Cross, and fellow members still meeting at the Minneapolis convention center, people in congregations in our synod and all around the country, who could respond like Peter? Oh, certainly, they have all heard the dialogue, and discussions, and debates, and deliberations, and the differences, and the divisiveness for most of those 15 years now that this issue has been before us. They know that there is still controversy and division about it all.
But at the center of it for them, as it should be for us, is Jesus. And if Jesus were here right now, if Jesus would come into all the controversies of American life, of church life, of our ELCA, of all the troubles that persist in our congregation and every other one as well, and in each of our private lives... if Jesus were here right now, and would ask us, "Do you also wish to go away?"
How would we respond? How would we react?
Would we say, "Yep, I’m outta here! This bread is dangerous! This topic is too controversial! This means that we are divided about the Bible, and that can’t be good! This means that I am done, I am fed up!"
Or would we say, with Peter, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." Jesus, you are still "the man"; you are still the One; you are still our center; you are still our hope; you are still our life; you are always going to feed us and give us life. No matter who we sit in the same pew with; no matter whose hands serve that precious meal from the altar...
You are the Holy One of God, and there is no other. Controversies may come and go, but you will always be here, with us, giving us the words of eternal life, being for us the Living word of life eternal.
Amen.
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