" Lord, To Whom Shall We Go"

 

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts.

Breath into us.  We ask it in Jesus' name.  Amen

 

             It is good to hear the words of life read from the scriptures and to meditate upon the statements made by Jesus and by Peter in today's Gospel Reading. Today, as we gather here to worship as a Christian community, as a congregation of the church of Christ Jesus, it is laid upon me to share with you about Christ and the gospel that we have received in and through him.

             I will strive to proclaim what I believe are the core issues revealed in today's Gospel reading, issues which apply not just to us, but to all who would follow Christ.  Indeed part of the power of the scriptures that we have received is that they are of significance not just to those who first heard them some 2000 years ago - but to all who would follow Christ in every place and every generation.

             Today's gospel reading concludes our series of readings from the sixth chapter of the gospel according to John. It marks a turning point in the response of the people to Jesus, it marks the point where most of the people who come out to see Him turn away from him, the point where even most of those who have followed him from the beginning, those who had considered themselves his disciples, doubts and left him.

             Up to this point Jesus has been a popular man. He has been the hero of Galilee - the star from Bethlehem, the miracle worker who saved a wedding by turning water into wine, the healer, the wise man who is able to see into a woman's heart and bring her new hope, the man so close to God that he is able to feed over 5000 men, women and children with only five loaves of bread and two fish.

             But now - now after telling the people that all he has done is but a sign from God that they should believe in him, - now, after telling them that the bread and fish that he gave them to eat only will only satisfy them for a day, but that his flesh and blood will satisfy them forever, that he is the bread of heaven God has prepared for them, they leave him.

             And as they go from him the one who gave them bread to eat, the one who healed their sick and showed them the power of God - they say to one another and to themselves: "This teaching is too difficult - who can accept it? Indeed it is a difficult teaching to accept, this teaching that Jesus is the bread of heaven and that through him comes eternal life for all who believe in him, all who follow him.

             But is this the reason that crowds leave him? Is this the reason that most of his disciples depart from his side? Or is as Jesus said, in verse 26, after they had all followed him across the lake to Capernaum? "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves." Today I ask the question - what are we prepared to pay for it?

                Jesus says this: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.  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.  This is the bread that came down from heaven. 

             Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."   On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?"  Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you

             John records for us that from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

             The most difficult part of our faith as followers of Christ lies in our coming to grips with the claims that Jesus makes about himself - his claims about how he not only points to God and God's love for us but that in him and through him the life that God wants to give us is conveyed to us.

             There are many seekers after truth who recognize Jesus as a great teacher, even as a great miracle worker - but who cannot accept his claim - and the claim that the Apostles have ever made about him - that he is the way, the truth, and the life. 

             As with many of those who had followed Jesus around the land of Israel and Palestine 2000 years ago, the statement made by Jesus in today's reading, in which he claims to give life to us through his body and his blood - that body and that blood which we hold up to all every time we gather before this table - is too hard for them.

             Too hard for them to accept. Too hard for them to believe. Too hard for them to commit themselves too. We must remember that the world 2000 years ago was very much like the world is today.  Most certainly some of us have comforts and conveniences unheard 2000 yrs ago - our technology and our knowledge of the physical world is far beyond even what the most educated could have grasped as being possible back them - but in terms of social and spiritual we are far closer to what the world was like back 2000 yrs ago.

             We live today, as we are constantly told, in a pluralistic world.  So did they.  The Roman world, and within it the Jewish culture, was awash in diversity.  Many religions existed and claimed to be the way to the truth. Many cults flourished and claimed to give the secrets of life to their followers.

             Jesus was but one claimant among many in that world. As it is today. And like today, many of those who respected and followed Jesus about the countryside as he taught and performed miracles were reluctant to ascribe to him the power and the glory that he claimed for himself as "the" way to God.

             For some this was based in the fact that they had a firm commitment to a different understanding of how God works in the world.  For others it was based in the idea that all religions point to the same God - and all therefore are equally valid - and that therefore any claims they have to exclusivity are simply wrong.

             To those who have another faith commitment I can only say  - may God be with you and may you find that which you seek. To those who claim that there are other ways to God, may God be with you in your journey.

             I do not believe it is my right to judge.  But, equally important, I can also say what the Scripture proclaims to us who come each Sunday to worship God; and I quote: "We cannot point to any other way to salvation than Jesus Christ; at the same time we cannot set limits to the saving power of God."

             This statement is quite in line with that is said in today's gospel reading, when after many of those who had followed Jesus left him, Jesus says to the disciples who have remained with him: "You do not want to leave too, do you?" And Simon Peter answers him, saying: "Lord, to whom shall we go?

             You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." To whom shall we go? We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. You have the words of eternal life.

             The Christian Church is defined within this question and this assertion. We are a gathering of people who, while acknowledging that the saving power of God cannot be limited, have found faith in Christ that saving power and have committed ourselves to living within that power as Christ has both revealed it and embodied it in his own person.

              Our baptism - our profession of faith - and our coming together as a worshipping community to receive and share the gifts of God as mediated to us in and through Christ Jesus are the things that define who we are - the things that define our relationship with God and one another

             We are followers of the Christ - we are brothers and sisters in his name. Out of our embracing Christ Jesus and his embrace of us come the various things that make us, as a people, ones who show forth the love and grace God for the whole world. 

             Our commitment and our desire to do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with our God find their source in Christ Jesus and are empowered by him. It is Christ Jesus whom we proclaim - and it is his love and his care and his justice that we embrace because it is in Christ Jesus that we have found life, and it is through him and in him that we know the saving love and the righteous power of God.

             I personally make no apologies to those of other faiths about this -and in fact folk of other faiths tell me that they wish I would not. In interfaith dialogues held at every level of the church those of other faiths tell us that we should value and prize what makes us different - rather than seeking to say - as so many seek to say - that we are really all alike.

             "Yes", our interfaith partners tell us, "there are many things that we share in common - but there are many differences too.  Let us work together on those things we are agreed about - and respect those things in which we differ."  It is kind like a school reunion.  Each person there shares things in common - but is the differences between us that make us who we are - that make us distinct persons.

             If all people and all ways to God are really all the same, then what point would there be to our conversations?  If in fact, none of us can distinguish ourselves from the other?  Why eat at a table together and share the gifts of God with one another if each of us already has the all the gifts that the other offers? 

             If each of us thinks the same thoughts and lives the same experiences? If we project our doubts and fears constantly, what room is left to explore and grow as a person? 'We cannot point to any other way to salvation than Jesus Christ; at the same time we cannot set limits to the saving power of God.

             As most of know, I grew up in Africa, which is a pluralistic culture, where every conceivable religion and cult under sun is practiced. For me to be a Christian was a choice, I chose to embrace Christianity because of the evidence. I believe the best evidence for the Christian faith, are Christians.

             Equally true the worst evidence are Christians. I have more schooling than my Mom and Dad combined. Yet there was something about them that made me who I am today, and that is their experiential faith. We can have head knowledge (faith) without experiential (heart faith). ( I am who I am because of other people).

             We gathered here today not simply as the family of God, we are the church of Jesus Christ. It is Christ who defines us. We are not Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus or practitioners voodoos etc. It is Christ who makes us who we are. As Peter says to Jesus when many of those who had followed Jesus fall away from him because they find his claims to be too hard. "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.  We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." To whom shall we go? 

             The Christian Church has some identity problems from what I am seeing in the church today. Not all of us are sure just who the Christ is.  Not all of us can claim with the same certainty what it is that Christ would say about various issues within his church and in the world - issues around things like sexuality, our economic systems, our social and political structures, our debates about the quality of life and who has a right to what.

             What we can agree upon - and what we need to agree upon if we are to take the name of Christ as our own - is that every thing necessary to life comes to us through Christ Jesus and in Christ Jesus;  - that it comes to us in our profession of faith in his name and our embracing of him - our committing ourselves to him - as we gather together each week as a community of believers to worship and to remember the ways and acts of God.

             All people are welcome in our midst.  We are not called to judge them before God.  God, we believe is more than able to make his own judgements. But the church is, in the end composed of those who with Peter say to Jesus: You have the words of eternal life. 

             We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." and who then gather in his name that they might receive that life and be strengthened to show forth that life to the world. It is not the wisdom of human beings or even the knowledge of scripture that we might have that makes us one, nor is it the power of human organizations - even if they be called churches, that gives to us life, rather it is Christ Jesus - crucified and risen - the Holy One of God who gives us life.

 

Keep that ever before you - in our hearts and in our minds, in our words,

and in our deeds and we will not soon go wrong.

Praise be to God – in and through Christ Jesus - who makes us who we are and who grants to us the life that we. 

Amen