“Integrity of the Heart”

Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23

An investment counselor started a business. She was shrewd and diligent, so new business kept coming in. Pretty soon she realized she needed an in-house lawyer counsel, and so she began interviewing young lawyers."

“I'm sure you can understand," she started off with one of the first applicants, "in a business like this, our personal integrity must be beyond question." She leaned forward and continued, "Mr. Peterson, are you an honest lawyer?""Honest?" replied the job prospect. "Let me tell you something about honest. Why, I'm so honest that my father lent me 100 thousand dollars for my education and I paid back every penny the minute I tried my very first case."

"Impressive. And what sort of case was that?"The lawyer squirmed in his seat and admitted, "My father sued me for the money he had lent me."

A lawyer named Strange died, and his friend asked the tombstone maker to inscribe on his tombstone, "Here lies Strange, an honest man, and a lawyer."The inscriber insisted that such an inscription would be confusing, for passers-by might think that three men were buried under the stone. He suggested an alternative. He would inscribe, "Here lies a man who was both honest and a lawyer."

"That way, whenever anyone walked by the tombstone and read it, they would be certain to remark, 'That's Strange.'" Someone told me when I was young that you can earn money and stay honest: It’ll just take longer.

There was a survey a few years ago that asked: What are you willing to do for $10,000,000? Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one, some to several of the following:

Would abandon their entire family (25%)
Would abandon their church (25%)
Would become a slave for a week or more (23%)
Would give up their American citizenships (16%)
Would leave their spouses (16%)
Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
Would kill a stranger (7%)
Would put their children up for adoption (3%)

Would…

Well I wonder what you would do? Have you ever wondered? Most of us know what we would do for God if he let us win the lottery, don’t we?

I also wonder what the results would be if people were asked: “What would you do to get revenge or inflict hurt on a person, family, business, or church that you don’t like? What an interesting question?

If you are a student of people then you know Human beings are capable of great acts of love and sacrifice but are also capable of much hate, violence, and evil. A man can show great compassion, patience, and love for a child and turn around and be cut-throated, manipulative, and vindictive to a business or sports rival minutes apart. Where does that ability or nature come from?

Let’s read the Gospel lesson from Mark’s 7^th chapter, verses 1-8, 14-15, 21-23:

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 

(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ 

He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, “This people honours  me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me,teaching human precepts as doctrines.” 

You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’ 

Listen closely, I am about to reveal to you a Godly mystery that explains a lot about ourselves. It comes from Genesis 3: 16a. God is speaking to Eve regarding her part in the satanic deception of the forbidden fruit and humanity’s fall from perfection.

“He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children in anguish.”

The anguish (Hebrew word ‘etseb)  and/or sorrow that God is referring to here is separate from the concept of birth pain through labor and refers instead to the anguish/sorrow a parent feels when one’s child is born with or experiences disease, illness, deformity, or any other condition that makes them less than perfect.

God is telling Eve that her children will be born with imperfections and faults. Her children will be messed up! In the last few verses (Mark 7: 21-22) Jesus confirms this idea that our sinful imperfect nature pre-exists when He says:

“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness…”

Just as faith and trust in God must come from within, so to must integrity. We are born into sin and evil and must learn, through the power of Jesus Christ, to control and overcome it as best we can.

Paul writing in the Book of Romans, 7: 13-25 wrestled with this very issue:

Therefore, did what is good cause my death? Absolutely not! On the contrary, sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made out of flesh, sold into sin’s power. For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.

So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.

Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me. So I discover this principle: When I want to do what is good, evil is with me. For in my inner self I joyfully agree with God’s law.

But I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this dying body? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh, to the law of sin.

Paul nails it in this passage – we can not achieve perfection (or good) in the law on our own.

Paul is telling us that everything that is good comes from God whereas anything that is not good comes from the mind and desire of humanity, as passed down to us through the promise/curse given to Eve.

Now, I know you’re probably thinking – what’s his point? God must first win the heart of a person before the body can be glorified and sanctified. We may never be truly free of sin in our bodies (our flesh), until we enter those pearly gates of eternity.

It is why (and now my summation of five weeks of preaching) that Christ has given us, through Holy Communion, His flesh and His blood so that not only can we fulfill God’s love but overtake our own flesh as well. Unless the inside of a person changes, starting with the heart, eternal judgment will occur.

When God starts with a heart truly turned over to Christ, the mind, the eyes, the ears, the hands, the liver, the kidneys, and even the feet must soon follow.

Throughout his administration, Abraham Lincoln was a president under fire, especially during the scarring years of the Civil War. And though he knew he would make errors of office, he resolved never to compromise his integrity.

So strong was this resolve that he once said, "I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."

Many of you have heard me talk about my favorite quote from Dietrich Bonhoffer, that we are “to be wary of those who cannot be alone, for how can they then be with others.”

But learning to be faithful, full of integrity, and opening oneself to God requires lots of time alone, in study of oneself and getting to know God and Yeshua personally. It is only when one understands, as the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, our internal struggle and how to win it, that one may become better Christians in our own communities.

Sure it’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. We start out respecting God, then knowing ourselves, and then loving others and our neighbors. Then perhaps we can be remembered as that strange Christian who lived as they believed. Amen.

THE FALLING AWAY

JOHN 6: 56-69 NRSV

Many times Mrs. Jones came to her pastor to tell him, "I'm so scared! Joe says he's going to beat me up if I continue to come to church." 
       
"Yes, yes, my child," replied the pastor, more than a little tired of hearing this over and over. "I will continue to pray for you, Mrs. Jones. Have faith - the Lord will watch over you." 
       
"Oh yes, he has kept me safe thus far, only....." -- "Only what, my child?" “Well, now he says if I keep coming to this church, he's going to beat up YOU!" 
       
“Well, now," said the pastor, "Perhaps it's time to check out the Baptist Church on the other side of town."Is this the difference between faith and belief?

Someone once remarked that “there are no atheists in fox holes.” Can we then assume that faced with the idea or threat of war and death that people automatically have faith in God? Or that stress and fear nurtures faith?

C. S. Lewis once wrote: “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong as long as you are merely using it to tie up a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a river gorge. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it?” 

Contrast that fact with the understanding that most people refuse to believe that which they don't want to believe, in spite of evidence. We are natural doubters especially when the belief goes against what we know, or what we want to believe we know.

When explorers first went to Australia they found a mammal which laid eggs; spent some time in water, some on land; had a broad, flat tail, webbed feet, and a bill similar to a duck.

Upon their return to England, they told the scientific community of this, who felt it was a hoax. They returned to Australia and found a pelt from this animal and took it back to England, but the people still felt it was a hoax. In spite of the evidence, they disbelieved because they didn't want to believe in the Duckbill Platypus.

An important aspect of belief is in where the source of information comes from. The author Samuel Johnson remarked, “"We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us." How much we believe something depends on the authority of the source.

Our scriptures tell us that "understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that thou may believe, but believe that thou may understand." In other words, we are to put faith first, and faith will build our understanding.

In our passages from John’s Gospel the last few weeks Jesus has been telling the folks over and over that they must have faith in Him first in order to have understanding of Him and His Father. He uses terms that are familiar with the Jewish people in order to proclaim authority to speak in such a manner. He gets mixed results: many leave Him, and many are angered by Him.

Let’s read our passage from John 6: 56-71:Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever." He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe."

For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, "For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father."

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" 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."

Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.”

He was speaking of Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.

Wait a second. There were those considered to be followers of Christ who didn’t believe in Him and never would? There were members of His “church” community and even members of the inner circle of the twelve closest to Him who didn’t believe?

Are we to assume there were those who wanted Him to do things He knew weren’t necessary or helpful to His ministry?

Even those who have been active in His ministry and who had been sent out to minister to the world and still hadn’t been seen for the disbelievers they were?

It makes me want to ask whether Judas crossed his fingers behind his back when he ministered in Jesus’ name? Yet we see that Jesus knows the hearts, minds, and commitment of a person because the source of information comes from Almighty God Himself.

The key to understanding the passage is what the definition of “believe” is. The

Hebrew word ‘amanto means to stand firm, trust, and to be certain as to believe in something one has seen, heard, or felt in the heart.It grows as it is nurtured.

The Greek word used for believe in John’s Gospel is pisteuõ which means to be  persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in of the thing believed, and have confidence so much so that one’s whole life and being is committed to it.

Belief becomes a way of life that demonstrates the understanding of the belief. We are called Christians because we have taken Christ upon us in everything we do.

The danger is in what I’ll call the idea of belief. People have an idea that they believe something but haven’t really committed to put faith into it. It’s kind of like eating bacon and eggs – the chicken is just providing an egg while the pig is totally committed.

Today only about 23% of people believe the absolute truth of the Bible, down from 65% in 1963, and fewer still claim a personal relationship with Jesus. It is one thing to claim we believe and a harder thing still to actually understand how to commit to that belief.

C. H. Spurgeon claimed that 98 percent of the people he met-- including the criminals he visited in England's prisons--told him that they believed the Bible to be true. But the majority had never made nor ever will make a personal, life-changing commitment to Jesus Christ. For them, "believe" was not an active verb.

Jesus experiences a falling away of those who aren’t really committed to Him, just as prophecy predicts a falling away of an element of what’s called the church in the last days. These are those who have never really committed, nor given themselves over truly to Him, rather using their ritual actions, pseudo-belief, and false discipleship for personal gain. They’re the people who click “like” on Facebook, but do little else.

They will be outraged at those who believe in the true faith and rise up to persecute and destroy them because God’s laws and judgment are binding, regardless.

How can people do this? Because the content of belief is important: Jonathan Whitfield was preaching to coal miners in England. He asked one man, "What do you believe?" "Well, I believe the same as the church." "And what does the church believe?" "Well, they believe the same as me." Seeing he was getting nowhere, Whitfield said, "And what is it that you both believe?" "Well, I suppose the same thing."

Sorry – that’s not the Answer God is looking for at the last judgment.

We thank God that Simon Peter told Jesus "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."

There is a place we can find truth and righteousness if we look for it.

I worry about Christians and church members who have such a superficial faith they treat God as a superstitious talisman used for good luck and to ward off bad luck. When asked a question about their faith or about God they get a blank look on their face and act as if they didn’t know life was a journey with a test at the end.

It tells me they listen but they aren’t hearing – that’s part of who’s leaving Jesus in this passage.

The others are people like Judas, who have heard the message and rejected it. They stick around to mess it all up for the others, kind of like the “sleepers” in terrorist cells who wait for their opportunity to cause havoc. I’ve known a few in the church and I’ve come to call them “crocodiles” because all you see of them before they strike are their eyes hovering just above the water line.

This would be disheartening if we didn’t have such a wonderful Savior and Awesome God who has made promises they will keep. Just in case we missed His promise, Jesus makes it again even more clearly inJohn 10:28-30. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

The Father and the Son have both accepted responsibility for our security. Once we’re in God’s hands, no one can get us away. If He says that we’re saved solely because of our committed belief in Him, and that He’s accepted responsibility for keeping us so, then we can count on that.

When prophecy talks about a falling away it is speaking of those who are only superficially believers or closet scoffers who turn and run from the Lord when the chips are down and the deceptions of the evil one abound. Amen.

“That’s Gross Jesus!”

John 6: 51-63a

A Law professor during the course of a contract law class asked one of his better students, "If you were to give someone an orange, how would you go about it?" The student replied, "Here's an orange." The professor was undeterred. "No! No! Think like a lawyer!" The student then replied:

"Okay. I'd tell him 'I hereby give and convey to you all and singular, my estate and interests, rights, claim, title, claim and advantages of and in, said orange, together with all its rind, juice, pulp, and seeds, and all rights and advantages with full power to bite, cut, freeze and otherwise eat, the same, or give the same away with and without the pulp, juice, rind and seeds, anything herein before or hereinafter or in any deed, or deeds, instruments of whatever nature or kind whatsoever to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding...'"

A mouthful – think about  that when you give things away.

Details of how and why things are done can be messy, gross, and just not interesting to some people. Some of you stopped listening after the second sentence of the joke.

Not many people want to know their microwave works, gasoline burns in a car, or why a lightbulb needs to be turned on. They just want them to work.

Not many people want to watch hamburger, sausages, or Jell-O being made. Not many people want to know the details behind their government, their church, or even their children’s school. They just want the benefits of each.

This is why everything in government, in medical services, and nursing home care is growing everyday – people want others to take care of the increasingly detailed and meticulous, monotonous tedium of life in the 21^st century. “We’ll pay someone else to do it” is our cry. Anything to avoid the “gross” details. Some even feel that way about faith.

Our passage for this week, from late in John’s 6^th Chapter is best understood when verses 59-63a are read before verses 51-58: 

He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? The Spirit is the one who gives life.

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for 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. 

Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Jesus is talking to a group of people who have at least 500 years of history in the sacrifice-forgiveness cycle of Judaism. They knew that blood was sprinkled on the altar and bodies of some sacrificial animals were eaten by High priests. So when Jesus begins to tell them that believers in Him will come to drink His blood and eat His flesh they become contentious and argumentative.

Even the disciples join in the argument and grumble.

There is a kind of consensus that perhaps Jesus has gone a little too far, claimed a little more about Himself then he should have. People are getting “uggied-out.”

Jesus tries to deal with the debate and disbelief by simply saying: “Would you believe if you see me, with your eyes, being taken to up to Heaven to be with the Father? Besides I am speaking spiritually. Would you know I speak truth then?”

This is the same Jesus who reminded them in John 3 “if they can’t handle the world’s truth how are they going to handle heavenly truth?”

We know these are the same people who in a chapter of two from now in the Book of John who will deny Him and call for Him to be crucified. How did they change their minds, hearts, and attitudes? How did they become “bad church people?”

When we are confronted with a situation we’re sure about we develop a disorder called cognitive dissonance, which means we’re experiencing a situation that involves conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. We want to believe or understand but we can’t.

Cognitive dissonance produces a feeling of discomfort that either leads to a change in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors involved which then reduces the discomfort of the stress of the situation. Put simply, when faced with facts that are at odds with what we believed to be true, we often lie to ourselves to create a comfortable illusion.

For example people who believe that abortion is acceptable may also say all life is important, but that human embryos, fetal tissue they call it, are not alive in the sense that you and I are. This helps them sleep at night.

People who accept homosexuality and the whole gender-identity spectrum concept have probably done so out of humane care and concern for another human being more then out of any sense of acknowledging the actual physical acts of same sex behavior. We care for the person and overlook the behavior.

It’s really just developing a logic system that allows white to become black, orange to become yellow and so on, because the alternative is upsetting.

We humans experience dissonance a lot, it’s often the major focus of ad campaigns, sales techniques (the foot-in-the-door method), and even when companies give you a gift in advance for trying or answering a survey (“Wow this must be worth a lot).

Dissonance resolution is only one of the ways we handle discomforting stress. Most of the time we’re unaware that we’re doing it or have experienced it, and will automatically make adjustments to our belief system.

That’s probably how the attitude change happened but let’s talk a little more about this “body and blood” stuff.

Jesus knew people would have trouble understanding the concept of Him being the source of a body and blood giving meal that believers in Him could accept and understand. He also knew that they would have trouble understanding that it wasn’t an actual physical meal He was talking about. It is obviously spiritual and obviously supernatural in nature.

But this ritual, called the Eucharistic meal or Sacrament of Holy Communion is still explained and understood in two separate traditional views pertaining to how Christ is present. The dispensation of the view represents two separate ways people solved this mystery to reconcile the ability to believe what Jesus was telling them.

Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Episcopalians, and a few other denominations view Christ’s presence as one of transubstantiation, while the Reformed tradition (UCC, Reformed Church, Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and so on) view the presence as consubstantiation.

In Transubstantiation, it is felt that the communion bread and juice are transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ when the ordained or authorized celebrant prays (called the epiclesis) over it.

Consubstantiation believes that Christs’ spirit surrounds the bread and juice instead as the ritual becomes a commemorative supper memorializing Christ’s death and resurrection.

Both traditions believe there is no greater intimacy between Jesus and the believer than during the Sacrament of Holy Communion. And I believe that Jesus was trying to convey that message to these people in the synagogue that day but it didn’t work because their cognitive dissonance got in the way. They weren’t seeing the trees for the forest. They were hung up on details just like we are.

I don't think we can understand just how offensive and gross Jesus' words were to the Jews. Seven times it says we are to eat him, in fact it says to gnaw and chew on Him, and at least four of those occasions it refers to the drinking of his blood. He says our life depends on it! But only if we understand that He meant spiritually, that works. We are to know Jesus fully and spiritually in all ways.

Our next message will come back to the attitude change. Amen.

FOOLISH THINGS

John 6: 35, 41-51

Over the years, “The Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch” has sponsored an annual contest of the most absurd warning labels. Among their top place winners have been:

"Do not use this snow blower on the roof."
"Do not allow children to play in the dishwasher."
A Clothes Iron: "Warning! Never iron clothes while they are being worn." 
On a Superman costume: “Warning: Cape does not enable user to fly.”
On a bottle of hair coloring: “Do not use as an ice cream or snow cone topping.” 
On a cardboard sunshield for a car: “Do not drive with sun-shield in place.”
On a toner cartridge: “Do not eat or apply toner as eye shadow.”
On a portable stroller: “Caution: Remove infant before folding for storage.”
And lastly - In a microwave oven manual: “Do not use for drying pets.”

Why would they make these labels? Doesn’t it seem obvious enough that you shouldn’t use these products in this way? Well yeah… but you just know somebody must have actually tried the things these labels warned against! Just imagine someone saying, “Hey this might just work…”

Warning labels often warn about the obvious.But as one person once said “The desire to make something foolproof vastly underestimates the creativity of fools.”

Engaging in these types of behaviors would get you labeled as a fool, laughed at, and at worst hospitalized. But we also call people fools who don’t think, talk, or present their ideas in ways that make sense to our understanding of the world.

There’s really only one place that being foolish is positive: Literature is full of the author’s use of what’s called a literary device called the fool. Fools can say and do absurd things to advance plots, relieve tension, and throw monkey wrenches into stories. Fools generally are immune from rules of grammar, logic, and hidden agendas.

Fools can be used for dramatic effect. In fact some places relish the use of fools: Mexican TV always has the fool wearing a funny or strange hat so you can “tell” which one they are.

Sometimes those we perceive as fools know a lot more than they are given credit for or are agents of change for the better that people don’t want to recognize or have anything to do with. So sometimes “playing the fool” might be a good thing.

Remember also that God and Jesus, in their relationships and communication with humanity, sometimes uses human nature, psychology, and behavior for effect, and to get us to listen and understand.

In today’s Gospel lesson the people in the crowd around Jesus are starting to respond to Him as if he were a fool who is putting His pet in a microwave after washing him in the dishwasher. People are starting to get angry at Jesus for His “stupid” statements they think don’t make sense. Listen to John 35, 41-51:

Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’ 

Jesus answered them, ‘Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. 

It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 

Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. 

Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’

I going to assume you remember last week’s message and what I said about the crowd that was seeking Jesus. From 6:24-35: They were actually chasing Jesus, looking for Jesus, and demanding to know more about Jesus. They want to see signs, because they are uncertain about Jesus.

But this crowd doesn’t really want to know more about Jesus, they don’t accept the bread of life proposal. It’s clear by inference that these folks are the “Temple insiders” being taught in the synagogue in a few later verses who are more skeptical the more they hear Jesus teach. And like people who don’t believe what Jesus says they are thinking Him a fool and a dangerous interloper.

They are akin to “Church people” who can’t or won’t see who Jesus really is because they are certain that he is just Mary and Joseph’s son. Nothing more, nothing less.

It’s similar to a congregation who stops listening to the pastor because he’s no longer relevant of somebody who no longer matters.

It is at this point that Jesus’ methods change a little and He seems to adopt the literary devices of the fool. If we look at the characteristics of the theatrical archetype of “The Fool” we see many similarities with Jesus. 

The Fool is: 1) usually a homeless, marginal wanderer; 2) who interrupts the daily life of those around him by violating etiquette, using elements of surprise, and mockery; and 3) Is often irreverent of cultural and religious customs.

Jesus often goes where he is unexpected (eating with Tax Collectors, sinners, prostitutes, Gentiles) and does the unexpected (welcomes, heals, challenges, comforts).

Sadly, the Jews begin to think of Jesus as out-of-touch, out-of-control, dangerous, politically incorrect, irrelevant, and just downright foolish.

Jesus becomes the ultimate ironic protagonist in his world changing Crucifixion/ Resurrection event that has elements of great comedy (Where did the body go?)!

The whole dialogue of Jesus’ birth, life, and death is a panorama of comedy and tragedy marked by unexpected changes in circumstance:

The virgin birth; that he is the son of a laborer from a backwater town (Can anything good come from Nazareth?); He is the Son of God, but doesn’t follow the rules of God in Hebrew scripture; Uses hyperbole, parables, and comedy to set up and challenge authority and embarrass the established religious hierarchy.

Jesus is “raised up” by the Romans as the “king of Jews” in a grotesque display of Empire and mockery that ends in Jesus revealing the powerlessness of the Romans and even of death itself.

One can even say that Jesus has the last laugh on everybody because they really didn’t know Him.

In our world today culture/society is starting to put “DON’T BE A FOOL” labels on Christianity to keep people from foolishly believing or doing things Christians do:

Family values and marriage. Sanctity of life.  Human sexuality and gender identity.     Tolerance/applying codes of conduct to one’s life.  Political correctness and so on.

We see the labels being added daily regarding sexual preference and identity, on abortion, and in the definitions of truth and human dignity trumping God’s laws.

And any pastor, teacher, or believer who points it out becomes like Jesus as someone to target and get rid of.

We need to remember that as Christians we too will be called foolish if we side with and abide by God’s Laws, but that’s okay – Jesus was called a fool first.

A latter scripture passage even offers a comment on this: 1 Corinthians 4: 10 -“We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!”

Being dishonored for Christ will honor both Jesus and the community of faithful believers. The world sees faith and Hope in Christ as foolishness. We see it instead as eternal Hope.

Where you stand on this matter of foolish things will be the defining issue of eternity! 

Does the Bible need a warning label? Should there be warning banners above the altar? Should believers be required to warn non-believers before any discussions. Is the world headed that way?

God loves us and has prepared a place for us. If the world views that as foolish thinking then they are the ones who are foolishly building on ground prone to sink holes. Amen.

THINKING ETERNALLY

JOHN 6: 24-35

As we prepare to participate in the Sacrament of Holy Communion I want to remind you of why we do so by using an example I used before to make a dramatic point you should remember but probably don’t.

When American engineers designed railroad tracks, they made them just as they did in England. The reason England built the tracks 4 feet, 8½ inches is because the wagons used on the tracks were 4 feet, 8½ inches.

The reason the wagons were built 4 feet, 8½ inches was because the ruts in the roads were exactly that measurement, and they didn't want to break their wheels by not fitting into the ruts.

I fear that's many Christians. We demand to do things in church the same way it’s always been done. We become a right or left rut. A man may say, "I'm a right rut. I'm right, and I'm in a rut. I don't know about those left ruts, but my rut's right."

I remember attending my first Consistory meeting as a Deacon. There were several other “newbies” there also. The older members of the church wasted no time in making sure that each motion for action was seconded by the Emeritus Elder/Treasurer for 30 years we’ll call “we’ve always done it that way.”

“We’ve always done it that way,” has one motivation in mind – to preserve, protect, and perpetuate policies, actions, and attitudes designed to ensure one view or method will dominate the course of action for that organization.

Now don’t get me wrong, the church and religious ritual is the one place that “We’ve always done it that way,” may be appropriate, provided the action is consistent with belief and the teachings of Jesus and the Heavenly Father.

But, unfortunately, because we humans sin and that we are often prejudiced in favor of solutions that seem to work relative to a situation I always become skeptical when I hear someone say it, because it limits options and solutions to problems, which in themselves may later become problems.

Why were the ruts 4 feet, 8½ inches? Because the Roman Empire built the roads and their war wagons to that measurement. You know the reason the Roman war wagons were 4 feet, 8½ inches?

Because that's the width of two horses' rear ends.

So our railroads, intermodal truck trailers, and some roads are built the size of 2 horses standing side by side. I wonder how many times we collectively have behaved as a couple of horses' rear ends?

I wonder how much of our faith is based on our own needs and not what God provides? We look for our own desires and expectations and miss what God offers.

JOHN 6: 24-35: So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"

Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal."

Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."

So they said to him, "What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?  Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'

"Then Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always."

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

The people come to Jesus because they are starting to count on Him to meet their needs because He has come from the Father who has provided for them before. But Jesus points out that the gift comes from God, not the fragile humans God chooses to use to give them the gifts.

The Definition of Human Insanity: Albert Einstein said that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results was insanity.

Jesus told the Jews to pay attention to God’s saving grace to know what salvation will mean for them. Salvation will not require humans to do something, but rather receive something that will be done for them.

To think eternally we are to receive the bread from Heaven and the living water from Jesus Himself by believing Him. Nothing else is necessary. Believe, tell, and receive and eternal life will be ours.

We are free to change and take up God’s ways because God and Jesus never change – they always do it the same way fro us!

Jesus comes in the bread and cup of communion. We do this in remembrance of Him and not in remembrance of how we feel about ourselves receiving Him. This passage has always been Jesus telling the Jews to get over themselves and get God.

God created the world in His love.

Love created relationship.

Relationship created Christ.

Christ created community.

Community created loving neighbor.

Loving neighbor created service.

Service created sacrifice.

Christ’s sacrifice created salvation.

Salvation created eternal life.

And God created eternal life for relationship.

Amen.