August 9, 2009 at Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
1 Kings 19: 4-8 + Psalm 34 + Ephesians 4: 30-5:2 + John 6: 41-51
I had to remind myself while praying and working my way into this homily that chapter six of John’s Gospel began with the feeding of a multitude. We have to keep that in mind when we pick up lose verses like the ten today.
The word is out! Free meals! Come and get it. This crowd seeks Jesus for the wrong reasons, and that becomes more obvious as the chapter moves along. The crowd is interested in material things: food, signs, and wonders. They will not go beyond the sign and how it benefits them. They will not consider what the sign means, what it asks of them, nor will they recognize the one who provides the sign. They will not ask that question. They want one thing and one thing only, their entertainment and free food so to speak. When the free food demands something of them (belief) they start to murmur.
But this Gospel proclaimed today in this place is not about “them.” It speaks to any and all who are here or who come to Jesus for the wrong reasons. This Gospel speaks to anyone absent or thinking about leaving because they do not get anything out of it. It speaks to anyone whose relationship with God depends upon getting something they want or need. “Do you believe because you see signs and wonders?” Jesus asks? “Do you believe because your prayers are answered; because you get what you want? because you feel satisfied have a good time and are comforted? This Gospel suggests something else, and those people who heard him became uncomfortable and backed away.
People of faith are wondering what it is God asks of them, not what it is God can do for them. People of faith are not gathered around Jesus to get what they can. They are drawn together to bear one another’s burdens, to stand in communion, to lift up the cross, and live in the presence of God whose plan for this world is not a nation of consumers, obese from gluttony, exploiting the weakest and most vulnerable, and hiding in gated communities from the poor whose very poverty has often supported their luxury. God sees all of this and says: “Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, and they died.”
The operative word in Chapter Six is “flesh.“ We have to dwell on that and get it right. Jesus is not talking about meat. That is not the “flesh” he promises. This “flesh for the life of the world” is presence – as real as flesh and blood. It’s about “incarnation” — hear that syllable “carne” in the bigger word? Any fourth-grade student of Spanish knows that Latin word for flesh-meat: carne. It expresses the real presence, the real in-dwelling of God in this world. This is the most profound, literal and real revelation of God’s presence in this world: in the flesh: not spiritual, nor symbolic. REAL.
In this part of John’s Gospel and next week we shall reflect upon the very roots and deepest meaning of the Eucharist. Eating this bread that is his flesh and drinking this cup of salvation is an entry into the presence of God who in this sacrament becomes a living presence within us. This changes the way we think of and see our selves and the way we look into the face of the others who commune in the presence of God with us.
Last week, Jesus spoke to them about ultimate things, and they ask silly questions. He speaks of eternal life, and they want a sign, and then ask for bread. This week, he gives them bread and calls it “flesh” and they are back away murmuring. They cannot see what is right in front of them because they are so bogged down in a literal, the superficial, and materialistic reality.
How shall it be for us? More entertainment and free food? Or shall we enter into this revelation to discover that giving flesh for the life of the world has something to do with sacrifice, service, and laying down one’s life for another. It has something to do with being broken, poured out, and shared. It is God who proposes that this is the only way to eternal life. “Believe it and live.” he will say to us next week. In the meantime, we probably ought to figure out what we’re doing here; why we have come; and what we are going to become because of it.