August 13, 2006 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
1 Kings 19:4-8 + Ephesians 4:30-5:2 + John 6:41-51
Remember, Jesus is speaking to the people he has just fed. Their hunger has been satisfied. They have had all that they need. In fact, there was a great abundance left over. But they murmur. They complain. They talk among themselves. Their talk is not grateful. They have missed the point and failed to understand not only what they have received, but who they are because of it. So, he teaches them in clear and certain language with images they cannot fail to grasp.
“They” in this gospel is really “us” in this church. We are a people who have been fed not only with more food than we need because we waste so much, but we have all that we need of everything else. Our garages are full, so full our several cars are often on the street. Many of attics are so full there is danger of being buried alive from a collapse. Our stores and malls are full, our storage units bulge, and evidence of it all will be the garage sale in the parking lot next Saturday! Yet there is murmuring. We keep all his stuff because deep down inside we fear we may need it. We secretly suspect that God will not provide any more so be better keep what we have. we murmur when it isn’t good enough, breaks down, gets old, and needs to be replaced. We run the constant risk of getting stuck here in all this stuff and failing to move beyond it, move deeper into what it means, and instead of it bring us life and closer to the one who provides, it destroys and shortens our lives as we fight over it, work ourselves to death to get more of it, and never really hear what God has to say.
The Word of God speaks today to people who have been fed more than enough who are being drawn to God and invited into the same relationship with God that Jesus himself enjoys. If that is not you and me, then this Gospel is little more than a piece of pulp fiction. The issue is, who are we and what has happened to us with all this stuff we enjoy?
As Jesus looks at those he fed and cared for so abundantly, he looks at us and speaks these words to reveal the presence of God, not in heaven, but a God who has come down. What he reveals to us is first of all that we are called to something greater than all this – something beyond all the stuff we have been blessed with in this life. This stuff is “manna” — but there is something greater than “manna”. This stuff cannot give us life. In fact, if it’s all we want, we shall die in it.
This Gospel of John is not being proclaimed to unbelievers, to people not blessed or hungry but to people who have already been drawn to Jesus. This Gospel of John awakens us to what has already happened, to what has already been given to us. The fact that we are drawn to Jesus bears witness to the truth that we have already begun to know the Father who sent him. That is why Jesus attracts us, because we see the Father in him, hear the love of God in his words, and experience the love and presence, forgiveness and peace of God in his words and deeds. If we dare to move deeper into this mystery or this wonder, if we dare to “eat” and “drink” this presence dare to take it into ourselves and make it our identity as food becomes our flesh and blood by eating it, that divine life, the divine presence, that eternal life is ours.
There will be nothing to murmur about when that happens. There will be no more empty seats in this church, and the line at Communion will stretch from here to the river. No one will have stayed home at this hour. Their absence says more about us than about them. When we dare to move into this mystery and wonder,
there will be no more bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, or reviling. All malice will be gone. We will be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven us in Christ. We will be imitators of God, as God’s children living in love.