Community Church Sermons

Year B

August 26, 2012

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Crossroads

John 6:53-69

Rev. Martin C. Singley, III

Senior Pastor

LISTEN IN!

A friend of mine recently posted something to Facebook that I thought was worth sharing with you. The words are amusing – and wise – and they go like this:

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming….. WOO HOO…. What a RIDE!”

I don’t know who came up with that saying, but I like it. It sounds a lot like the Gospel of Jesus!

Remember when Mary and Joseph found out they were having a baby? Oh my! Tragedy! Life over! Very young. Not married. Ashamed. Scared to death.

And yet, nine months or so later, there they were in a barn in Bethlehem with a little baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger – surrounded by a bunch of smelly shepherds and foreign travelers – listening to a choir of angels singing about their baby, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!” Who would’ve thought that nine months earlier?

Can’t you imagine Joseph leaning over to Mary and whispering, “Honey…WOO HOO!....what a ride!

And think back to that night on the Sea of Galilee when the disciples were out in the boat and Jesus came out to them walking on the water! Peter – always impetuous and quick to speak – said, “Lord! If that’s really you out there, let me come out and walk with you!”

Jesus said, “Peter! Come on down!”

And so Peter got up on the rail, stuck out one leg, put his foot down onto the raging water – AND IT HELD! Then, the other leg, and the other foot, and suddenly Peter was walking on the water! But then he saw the waves, and he got scared, and with the fear he lost his faith, and he went under! Jesus reached down and plucked him from the depths.

And Peter – soaking wet - had this great big smile on his face and said, “WOO HOO…what a ride!”

Well maybe not in those exact words, but you know what I mean.

On page after page of the Bible people are called by God to not play it safe, but to step out into places of life where the only certainty is God’s love for us and his promise to bring us through. The best known story, of course, is the Easter story when those who saw Jesus killed on Friday suddenly were encountered by the risen Christ on Sunday. And they had no words to express their amazement and joy but for “ALLELUIA!” which is just another way of saying, “WOO HOO, WHAT A RIDE!”

So how about you? Are you ready to step out of the boat of playing it safe, and follow Jesus to heaven, sliding in sideways with chocolate smeared all over your face, totally worn out and singing “ALLELUIA! What a ride?”

Probably not.

You know most of us think that Jesus was such a beautiful and attractive man that everybody flocked to follow him like groupies to a rock star. And they did – at first. But today’s reading from John 6 tells us it didn’t last very long.

Jesus is talking about how his followers need to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they are to see eternal life. We talked about this last Sunday, but today there is an added element. Jesus tells the people that the bread their forefathers ate – the manna that came from heaven every morning – kept them alive for the day. But not for eternity. The people who ate the manna died like everybody else. And then Jesus says that he is the bread of life and whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

I don’t know if you see it or not, but Jesus is telling the people that their traditions, their religion, their laws, and their conventional ways of living life are for naught. Following these ways may get you through the day, but in the long run they lead in one direction and to one destination - and that is the grave.

If they want to find heaven and eternal life, Jesus is saying, they’re going to have to lay down that old bread and start eating the new bread. They’re going to have to step out of the boat they’ve been on and learn to walk on the dangerous and raging sea where there is nothing to hold onto except for God and God’s promises.

Here’s what many of the people said that day: “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” And then, in verse 66, John writes, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

Picture that, if you will. People who were once enamored with Jesus, now hanging their heads, turning around, and walking away. How sad.

Are you in that crowd?

I am.

Sometimes.

When I was in high school, the Lord started whispering into my heart about Christian ministry. I wanted no part of that. I wanted to be a professional baseball player, or something else – ANYTHING ELSE than a preacher. When I got into college, I stopped going to church. When I was home on weekends, Sandy’s mother would scold me about not going to church. I went fishing instead. Sandy’s mother said she was praying I wouldn’t catch anything. And do you know what? I caught MORE! I’d come home from fishing with a great big string of fish and hold it up to her face. Ha! Ha! So much for your prayers!

Sometimes we turn away from the word of God being spoken into our lives. It doesn’t mesh with our own thoughts, or values, or personal agendas. Quite often it doesn’t agree with what conventional wisdom has taught us to believe and think.

So I’m in that crowd who turned away from Jesus.

But Jesus never turned away from me.

Came the day when my life started unraveling a bit – a lot - and I had nowhere to turn but to Jesus.

And as the Lord’s love for me touched my heart, I heard the whisper again.

And that’s why I’m here today.

But sometimes I still turn and walk away from Jesus.

And so do you!

Some of his teachings are really hard!

Tony Campolo was preaching at my friend Ron Miller’s church. Tony is a very intense and highly excitable preacher and professor whose passion for Jesus and the Gospel lead him to say things many of us preachers would never say – in public. That Sunday at Ron Miller’s church, located in a very affluent suburban community in New Jersey, Tony began his sermon by saying something like: “Let’s get something straight before we even begin. Most of you are going to hell. In fact, Jesus said, ‘It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for rich people like you to enter the Kingdom of heaven.’ So most of you ain’t gonna make it…Let us pray…”

Well, come Monday morning the phone in the church office started ringing off the hook. People were mad! Ron said, after awhile, he was afraid to even pick up the phone! I don’t know all that happened that day, but I’ll bet some folks left that church and never came back again.

But do you know what?

The next year when Ron asked his congregation who they wanted to invite to come and preach, who do you think they wanted?

Tony Campolo!

Why do you suppose that is?

Because as hard as it had been to hear what Tony said, there was eternal life in it. Jesus DID warn rich people about what affluence can do to you, and how a culture of affluence can keep you from the kingdom of heaven. Jesus DID tell people that riches can blind you to your own faults, and make you a harsh judge of others, especially the poor. Jesus DID caution those who have much that much is expected of them. Jesus DID teach that no matter how big we build our barns and accumulate our wealth, one day our souls will be required of us and we will have to give account for how we used every penny of the treasures God loaned to us in this lifetime for the benefit of the world He loves.

These are all things Jesus said.

And they are hard sayings.

And they lead us to that spiritual crossroad that always appears along the journey of faith. One road sends us away from Jesus, the other follows him. Will we turn back? Or will we go forward with Jesus?

Here’s how that all worked out in our Gospel lesson:

After the huge crowd of followers turned away, there were only 12 left. Jesus looked at them and said, “What about you? Do you want to leave too?”

There was a long silence.

Then Simon Peter spoke up, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know you are the Holy One of God.”

You and I are bombarded every day by voices. Voices from our past. Voices of our parents. Voices of our friends. Voices of teachers. Voices of politicians. Voices of preachers.

These voices speak words, and these words shape our lives, and direct our thoughts, and guide our actions.

But the question we need to ask is, “Are these the words of Jesus – the words that will bring about eternal life for us and others?”

Or are they simply words that fight against every good thing Jesus was sent to do for us, our families and our world?

“You have the words of eternal life,” the disciples said.

They knew the difference between the voices that lead to destruction and the voice that leads to life.

“You have the words of eternal life.”

They are dangerous words for sure – telling us that love is the way – that when we are struck on one cheek we are to turn the other - that we are to practice forgiveness toward ourselves and toward others. They are words that tell us to love our enemies and to pray for those who hate us, to never repay evil with evil, and that the way to lift up our lives is to lay down our lives in service. The words of Jesus tell us to believe in miracles – for ourselves and others – to pray about everything and invite God into every situation. Jesus tells us that the true test of faithfulness is how we treat people who are thirsty, sick, in prison, and that we are called to be healers in a broken world. And most especially, Jesus tells us that God loves us – every last one of us – and that we are capable of more good than we can even imagine.

Just like Mary and Joseph on Christmas morning, and Peter out there walking on the sea, and the disciples rejoicing in the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection, WE are called to the ministry of eternal life!

You see, God’s desire is for us is to have the experience of sliding sideways into heaven, chocolate smeared all over our face, totally spent and screaming, “WOO HOO – what a ride!”

So Jesus asked the twelve, “What about you? Are you with me? Or do you want to leave too?”

And today, Jesus asks us the very same question.