Lifeblood

this sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday August 19, 2012, the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14

Psalm 111

Ephesians 5:15-20

John 6:51-58

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

When I was considering this piece of scripture and this sermon, an old song came to mind, “Who Wants to Live Forever.”[1] The music was written by an Englishman named Brian May who you may remember from the Olympic closing ceremony. It was sung by Freddie Mercury and played by their band Queen. The music and the lyric are haunting. There is a beauty to the thought of living forever—and to the lilt of this song—which came together for me.

In our world view, we often think of living forever and eternal life as interchangeable; what happens after our earthly time has come to pass. But truly I tell you, the question of what eternal life means more than we usually think it does; for, you see, eternal life is more than simply living forever.

In verse 51, Jesus says that those who eat of the bread of life will live forever. Unfortunately, our translations do not have the nuance of the original language. In ancient times, there was a hierarchy of time contained in “forever.” Confusing, isn’t it? To make it simple, 2,000 years ago, forever included yesterday, today, and tomorrow—all of these time periods were included in forever. Each of these times were equally concrete, each of these times were equally fragile. So our sense of time is different from the sense of the gospel. Forever was the past, is the present, and will be the future.

This gives us a better grip on the forever thing, but we still need to take a look at living. 

In verse 53, Jesus tells his listeners, “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.” He continues in verse 55, “for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” Since the day after Jesus fed the 5,000, we have been told that Jesus is the bread that lasts. Only through him can we be fed with what we need—not just to survive, but to thrive in God’s bountiful creation.

He also reminds the listener again that while the nation of Israel once feasted on the manna, bread that came from heaven, it could not give eternal life. Only Jesus, in his body and his blood, gives eternal life.

Jesus asks, “Do we rest in Him?” or as the New Revised Standard Version translates this, “Do we abide in Him?” As God the Father gives Jesus life, in his flesh and blood we receive life. Jesus is specific and graphic about this teaching—we are to take of this. Only by resting, by abiding in him and partaking of his flesh and blood can we participate in his death and his life. Only by abiding in him can we live eternal life, life made possible in Jesus Christ.

If we limit our view of eternal life to “the afterlife,” we miss out on an important facet of this passage. In this passage, “eternal life” does not speak just of immortality or a future life in heaven, but is a metaphor for living now in the unending presence of God. Eternal life is not just a future concept; it is a past and present concept too.

Eternal life is our only choice. Life in Christ, marked in the waters of our baptism, nourished in the food from His table, this life is the only life worth living. Before the bread and the cup are served at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, I say, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” So let us truly taste—take from the loaf of life because the Lord is plentiful. Eat, chew, and experience the bread of life. And then, take and share this life with those around us.

We are invited by our Lord Jesus Christ to come to the table and participate in the feast of his body and blood. Through this feast, our spiritual selves are fed and our faith is kindled, growing more and more. In participating in this feast, we participate in the gift of faith and nourishment promised by Jesus, in a sign and seal he calls the church to continue. Through this food, we eat and drink unto eternal life.  Jesus tells us very plainly, if we do not eat of Him, the true food, the flesh and the blood, the bread and the wine, then we have no life in us.

Christ is our lifeblood, and there’s power in the blood of the lamb.

In a world where we can pretty much eat and drink what we want, we are reminded that the sustenance we need is the body and blood of Christ the Messiah. We are called to seek the good food, the only food that gives eternal life—his body broken for us and his blood shed for us.

So we do live forever, there is eternal life.

Who wants to live forever?  The song asks “who dares to love forever/when love must die?”  Thanks and praise be to God that is not our choice.  For we know that the love of Christ never dies.  The song continues:  “We can have forever/And we can love forever./Forever is our today.”  Yes, forever is our today, and our yesterday, and our tomorrow.  In Jesus Christ, we live, and love, forever.

“Who wants to live forever” is really not a good question.  Forever exists and we live in this forever.  Our better question is will we live forever in Christ, being nourished in his body and blood, or will we choose something else?

Live life nourished by the good food of the gospel.  But first, we must come to the table, and take, and eat.  We cannot share what we do not have.  Jesus offers eternal life, but if we only take and eat adequate life then we do not experience what has been laid before us.  The life of God in us is available and plenty, so taste and see, and share.

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[1] May, Brian, “Who Wants to Live Forever.” EMI: From the album “A Kind of Magic,” 1986. Written for the movie “Highlander.”

out of something ordinary...

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday August 12, 2012, the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time.



2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33

Psalm 130

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

John 6:35, 41-51

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.

On Wednesday evening, I was at Sullivan’s Funeral Home at the visitation for Miss Adra.[i] When I got to the chapel, right next to the book there were several pictures; including a picture from Adra and Albert’s wedding. They were standing right down here where the table is right now. They had just said their “I do’s” and were about to spend the first night of over fifty years together as man and wife.

In the midst of all of this, what drew my attention were the brass candle holders behind them. I saw those candle holders and wondered how many people had been married under their light. On Thursday morning, I was sitting next to Tom Malcolm during the funeral. When he saw that picture he drew my attention to it. I smiled and mentioned the candle holders. He saw them and remembered his daughter’s weddings.

When I asked Tom for permission to mention this he wrote me back:

The immediate memory that came to mind was the organ pipes in the background of the picture. The flash moment left only a wisp of time to take in the candleabras and regret that I was, as you say, “flooded” with instant memories of a setting long ago and I remember little else from the photo. Sad to say, I would have to see it again to know what event it saved. The mind says, “We were there, twice, and in this special place and time.”  I could say with some certainty that the candleabras are the same… perhaps in the mind's eye the entire setting was the same. That was the moment of value and for a second, my thought was “Thanks for the memory.” That happens a lot.[ii]

Well, I don’t think Tom should as he said “regret” being flooded with those memories. I believe it’s amazing and it’s wonderful how the split second the appearance of something familiar, like organ pipes and candle holders, can bring back memories. With a simple glimpse, a world of reminiscing begins. Suddenly thoughts of weddings and marriages, children and grand children and now great grandchildren flood our minds; all from pieces of metal.

With the look in his eyes, I was able to share that moment with Tom and in the midst of the sorrow of Miss Adra’s funeral was a different kind of moment. It was a moment that became more than the sum of its parts.

Organ Pipes and Iron Candle Holder in the chancel of the
First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas.
Photo by Paul Andresen

Behind me is an iron candle holder. This is one of the candle holders we currently use during weddings. In this congregation today are people who have been married under its lights. There are brides, grooms who remember these lights. There are wedding party members who remember these lights. Some of you are parents of children married under these lights. Some of you are children whose parents were married under these lights. These are special for me too because they are the lights that shined during the weddings I have celebrated in your midst.

Out of brass and iron, wax and wick come memories. These are just ordinary things, and like all ordinary things they will come and they will go, I don’t know where those brass candle holders are, but what they represent is not lost.

On a more difficult note, let me take off my rose colored glasses. I know that not every moment in every marriage is light and joy. That’s the nature of marriage. That’s the nature of life on Earth. And those memories come back with these candle holders too. They’re important to remember too.

Jesus said “I am the bread of life.” “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” “He who comes to me will never be hungry.” “If anyone eats this bread he will live forever.” Now that’s some bread. That’s the most special bread on Earth. It’s the most important bread on Earth. But if there is one thing that needs to be said, it’s that our relationship with bread is different from those living in the Holy Land. One of the best understandings I have found was this from Bill Hinson in “The Power of Holy Habits”:

I heard an Armenian describe the bread of life. He said that Westerners do not understand what Jesus was saying when he said, 'I am the Bread of Life.' In the Middle East, bread is not just something extra thrown in at a meal. It is the heart of every meal. They have those thin pieces of pita bread at every meal.[iii]

This isn’t so different from traditional Mexican cuisine. Substitute “tortilla” for “pita” and you are on your way. Many Middle Eastern cultures today do this with naan, another kind of flat bread made with yogurt. As for me, I can’t imagine a hamburger without a bun. We don’t have the same relationship with bread, but there are still echoes in our meals today. Continuing Hinson’s words:

Those strict people would not think about taking forks and putting them in their mouths. To put an object in your mouth defiles it. You certainly would not take a fork out and put it in again and go on defiling yourself like that. Instead, you break off a piece of the bread, pick up your food with it and eat it.[iv]

So where we often use bread as a side dish, in the time of the Lord bread was instrumental to the meal. In Jesus’ time meat was rare for regular folks. Fruits and vegetables had their seasons. Grain kept so bread was available. Bread was a staple.

So out of something ordinary, out of something people ate at every meal, out of the most basic component of every meal, Jesus made his point about who he is. Again, from Hinson:

Indeed, the only way you can get to the main dish, he said, is with the bread. Jesus was saying that the only way you can come to life is through him. That is why he was saying - I am the Bread of Life; I am the only way to come to life.[v]

When choosing something to compare himself to in John’s gospel, Jesus chooses the most important things in the lives of the people of Israel, bread and water. Jesus chose things the people could not live without. It’s as easy as that. We can’t live without Jesus; he is the way to life eternal. He made that point clear to the people who heard and he tries to make that point just as clear to us.

In his most recent book, the Rev. Dr. Michael Jinkins writes of the great German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Jinkins writes, Bonhoeffer “protests against our tendency to let the decisive theological question ‘Who are you?’ dissolve into questions about ‘how’… The how questions are the fragmenting mechanical, manipulating questions, the debilitating questions about mere techniques and technologies.”[vi] Bonhoeffer makes a point that is abundantly clear from our reading.

Jesus never once tells the people “how” he did what he does. He never shows us how a miracle happens. He never shows us that, as a friend of mine once told me he suspected, the feeding of the 5,000 happened because everyone stopped being greedy for one moment, opened their lunch pails, and shared their meals with one another leading to a surplus of food. (As if that wouldn’t be a miracle!)

Jinkins goes on to make a very astute observation: Good answers only come from good questions. He tells us that the right questions the church needs to answer have nothing to do with how and everything to do with who. The right questions according to Jinkins are “Who is Christ? and Who does Christ want us to be?”[vii] The answer to this first question is what we hear today, Christ is the bread of life that fills us. Christ is the one who satisfies our thirst.

The answer to the second is our vocation.

The Jews (As I’ve said before; John used the phrase “the Jews” to mean “the leadership” not “the people on the street.”), these leaders begin to grumble about his claim. “How can he say ‘I came down from heaven’ if we’ve known him since he was a baby born in Jerusalem?” Their grumbling makes Bonhoeffer’s and Jinkins’ point. When the “how” question gains traction the “who” question gets lost.

When we focus on what we know and understand and try to fit everything into our understanding; we grumble, we complain and we try to fit our square pegs into God’s round holes just like these Jewish leaders did. On that day, they failed to ask “Who is this?” and instead went for “How does he make this claim?” What they don’t realize is that the answer to the first question is the answer to the second.

The answer to “who” is the answer to “how.”

In John 4 Jesus calls himself the living water. In this passage Jesus calls himself the bread of life and the drink that ends thirst. Jesus shows us all that out of something ordinary something extraordinary comes. Many didn’t understand. That’s nothing new. This was true in the day of Jesus. It was true before the day of Jesus. It is still true today. In our over-enlightened “How does it work?” world, we won’t understand as long as our understanding is shrouded in human sin.

It is only when we begin to answer the questions “Who is Christ? and Who does Christ want us to be?” that anything else comes into place. As Jinkins says, these questions drive all of our other questions. These are the questions we must ask if we are to have any future as the Church Christ called to be his body.

The PC(USA) Directory for Worship says this about the bread we are to use for the Lord’s Supper:

Bread common to the culture of the community should be provided to be broken by the one who presides. The use of the one bread expresses the unity of the body of Christ.[viii]

What this meant when we lived in the Ozarks was that the bread we broke was a loaf of French bread from Wal-Mart because in Northwest Arkansas there is no bread more common to the culture of the community than something you get at Wal-Mart. For us, this means Al and Bonnie go the store and pick up a pack of rolls. There is nothing wrong with either of these breads.

Because of who we are, we aren’t required to go to Rome or Louisville or Dallas and get special church-approved bread. Jesus used the loaves of the community. Jesus was referring to the bread that everyone ate, not some special bread that is blessed because of what it is or who makes it.

What makes the bread special, what makes that meal special, is that it is the sign and seal of eating and drinking in communion with the crucified and risen Lord.”[ix] It’s not the bread that’s special; it is who instituted the meal and what he said about it that makes the bread special.

With the candle holders, brass and iron, wax and wick stimulate memories. These are just ordinary things, but what they mean to us makes them more than ordinary. In an even better way, Jesus took something ordinary; something used everyday, and made it holy.

Jesus does the same with us. When we ask “Who am I?” the answer is “I am a child of God.” What makes us special is not what we make ourselves but what God makes us. It’s the “who” question again and the answer is “God makes us who we are.” From there we must answer the next question Jinkins asks, “Who does Christ want us to be?"

Jesus said “I am the bread of life.” “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” “He who comes to me will never be hungry.” “If anyone eats this bread he will live forever.” In the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Communion, out of something ordinary comes the sign of God’s promise to us; the visible sign of God’s invisible grace. Now that’s some bread. That’s the most special bread on Earth. It’s the most important bread on Earth.

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[i] Adra Marie Abraham, September 27, 1925-August 4, 2012, http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/marshallnewsmessenger/obituary.aspx?n=adrah-marie-abraham-ryan&pid=159010370

[ii] Personal correspondence with this permission: You may use anything of the incident you wish…

[iii] Hinson, Bill, “The Power of Holy Habits.” Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991, page 39. Found at “Living Bread,” HomileticsOnline.com Animating Illustrations, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1652, retrieved August 7, 2012

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Jinkins, Michael, “The Church Transforming: What’s Next for the Reformed Project?” Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012, page 20-21

[vii] Ibid Jinkins, page 21, italics in the original text.

[viii] W-3.3610, Bread, PC(USA) Book of Order, Directory for Worship, 2011-2013.

[ix] W-2.4001.a., Jesus and the Supper, PC(USA) Book of Order, Directory for Worship, 2011-2013.

Our Mission, His Vision

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday August 5, 2012, the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

2Samuel 11:26-12:13a

Psalm 51:1-12

Ephesians 4:1-16

John 6:24-35

May the words of my mouth and the mediations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

Last week’s sermon “His Vision, Our Mission,” was about how God is faithful even when—especially when we are not. I also said as God is faithful it is our mission to share God’s loving faithfulness with the world. This week, it’s a look at “Our Mission, His Vision.”

Our reading begins the day after Jesus feeds the 5,000 when everyone awakens finding the disciples and Jesus gone. Now, the people remembered Jesus sending the disciples on their way before retreating to the mountain. So the people would have fully expected Jesus to be near by in the morning, wouldn’t they? But if Jesus did not leave with the disciples and he was not near, then where is he?

Keep in mind they had Jesus’ itinerary from the prior evening. They knew when they had last seen him; and when he went away. So once they deduced the only place he could be was across the sea, they took their boats and went looking for him. When they found him, they asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” I’m guessing this question may have been a little insincere. What Jesus sensed from them was they were glad to find him… and their meal ticket.

Jesus senses what’s happening here. He knows they want to know where breakfast is. So Jesus tells them “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.”

This is where we take the first lesson from our reading. To quote Kurt Vonnegut, “Leave it to people to always look at the wrong end of a miracle.”[1] Don’t get me wrong, in any time and day a free meal is a gift, a gift from God. In a time like first century Palestine it was a gift. In our current time it’s a gift. But what’s better, a free meal or the one who provides it?

This gets us to our second lesson, the subtext of the people’s question is “where’s breakfast?” With this the people ask that age old question of song and story, “What have you done for me lately?”[2] Yeah, dinner was great, but we’re hungry again. So Jesus asks them “What’s better, one free meal or the food that endures?” The people get this, sort of.

They ask, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” What they don’t do is finish the question, “What must we do to do the works God requires so we can get us some of that food that endures, the bread that bears the Father’s seal of approval, the food that doesn’t spoil?” It’s as if they’re asking if this bread is a Kroger exclusive or if it is at an artisan baker somewhere in Jerusalem or Shreveport.

Like the Samaritan woman at the well in the fourth chapter of John, the crowd seems to get past their desire to fulfill their earthly needs and asks about the works of God. At the well, Jesus offers the woman the living water and she asks about its source. The people ask about the bread that doesn’t spoil which in a time before refrigeration and vacuum packing is a miracle all by itself.

Jesus tells the crowd that the work they need to do is have faith in God.  Jesus’ answer to the woman is in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work.” In 6:29, Jesus answers the crowd, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”  Yet neither the Samaritan woman nor the people in this story realize Jesus is the living water, the food that lasts. This lesson wasn’t so easy for the disciples either. Then again, this lesson isn’t so easy for us.

Often, the question that lies beside “what will you do?” is “what do I have to do?” We know that we have to have faith in God, believe in the One God has sent, Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, how do we do that?

Now there’s a special little nuance to the word “believe” in Greek and Hebrew that’s different from English. We define believing as knowing and accepting a fact, a concept, or a truth. This is part of what it means to the ancient Greeks and Hebrews too, but to them there is more. Believing with our hearts and our souls and our minds is not enough. To truly believe we have to do something about it. By this aspect of believing we become the hands of God. Only when word and deed come together do we believe.

So here’s the third, and maybe the most difficult realization, God is with us and this relationship all by itself is the miracle, a miracle greater than breakfast. God wants us to accept the invitation join in relationship with the Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit. This is what God wants us to do.

Genesis tells us that we were created in God’s image. God wants us to join in this relationship not as slaves but as heirs; not as dumb animals but as partners. Jesus teaches us God wants us to join in Christ’s redemptive work in the world.

Let’s face it, if God had wanted simple adoration, creation would have been populated by puppies—and I do mean puppies. Grown and trained dogs work. Some are in the military and others are in police work. Some guard homes and businesses while others help with the hunt to bring home food. A grown dog is a companion; a puppy is not, not yet. If God just wanted his face licked and something to tell “who’s a pretty puppy?” this could have been done without us. Instead God created us, a being who can and must choose to love and choose to respond to love received. That’s why God created us. We were created out of God’s overflowing love to share God’s overflowing love.

God created us not to receive signs and miracles, but to join in being the miracle. Real miracles are not the signs and wonders he is capable of providing.  The miracle is that Jesus breaks through our misconceptions and expectations to reveal the new age he ushers in, an age which comes through the miracle of faith in him and relationship with him. Since the beginning this has been God’s vision. It must become our mission.

In the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the central event of the meal in the upper room is the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Today we celebrate this meal, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. But John uses this passage to radically redefine this meal. In our passage today, in 6:35 Jesus tells the world that he is the bread of life. 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke seemingly place the gift of this meal in one event, one place in time. John uses this passage to institute the Lord’s Supper in the life of Jesus and his death. The gift of the life of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, is the focus of the Lord’s Supper. Jesus, his entire life from before the beginning until after the end, is the bread of life. 

Our understanding of the bread of life is called to change too. We begin like the Samaritan woman and the crowd by seeking Jesus for the gifts he gives, gifts we need for survival. And we do receive these gifts of bread and water from our God. But we also are called to a better life, a better relationship. We are called into communion with the Lord our God through the life and ministry of Jesus. We are empowered to this relationship through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is how we fulfill our mission in God’s vision; how we live with God and with the Body of Christ.

There is a lot being said these days about what a Christian is and what it takes to be a Christian. Often these things desired come off as signs and miracles, wonders and phenomena, thoughts and deeds; what God wants is relationship. Our relationship must begin in three places, word, worship, and prayer. It begins in the smallest places and grows into the most wondrous of lives together. It’s a gift of God’s love and it is God’s love we are called to share.

There is something I need to add here, that as we pursue this relationship, from time to time we will get it wrong, dead wrong. We will be like the people who crossed the lake to get breakfast. We’ll think we understand what’s happening when we couldn’t be further from God’s truth.

So as we approach the Lord, we need to come to the Lord as Paul told the Ephesians to come” completely humble and gentle; being patient bearing with one another in love; making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. We need to come seeking a relationship with the Lord and with one another, not looking for what the relationship can do for us.

To carry on God’s reconciling work in the world, we need more than TV news sound bites and facebook posts that tell the world what we believe inviting like minded people to share. The tweet hasn’t been tweeted that has brought the world to the throne of glory.

The proof of this is in an email Harriette sent out last week saying “it’s easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one.” Let me tell you, preaching ten sermons is not easy, and living one is more difficult.

We need to reach out to all in Christ’s faithful love and reconciling work. We begin this work by breaking bread, sharing the cup and praising God together as the Body of Christ.

Today we mark this relationship celebrating the Lord’s Supper. We share this meal not to remember or commemorate one particular event, but to share in all of Jesus’ life including his death and resurrection. Taking this meal of grace identifies us as those who participate in his life and death until he comes again in power and glory. This is the sign of our relationship with Christ, with one another, and with the Church universal. This is the meal that feeds and strengthens the Church to do the reconciling work God requires. This meal is the most glorious way we can begin celebrating our mission founded in his vision.

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[1] From the essay “Palm Sunday” in Vonnegut’s book “Palm Sunday.

[2] I have the Janet Jackson song of the same name in my head right now. If you are thinking of another, that’s fine.