Incarnational Gospel

1Kings 2: 10-12, 3:3-14
John 6: 51-58

For the last few weeks, we have spent quite a bit of time in the book of John. We have been concentrating on what it means for Jesus to be the “Bread of Life”. The idea that Jesus’ flesh and blood has the power to bring us life is not an easy one to accept. Jesus knows this. It is why he spends so much time trying to show the people around him that eternal life is being offered by a God who cares enough to become one with us.

Some of us have been reading the bible for so long, and have heard these passages so many times that perhaps the meaning of what we are reading has become obscured. God, our Lord, loves us so much that He could not sit back in heaven and watch us flounder here on earth. God wanted to be a part of our struggle, to help us through each bump in the journey and God’s answer was Jesus Christ.

Picture a child, your child or a relative of yours. Think about a time you have watched them struggle with something. Perhaps it was bad grades, or inappropriate friends, or the struggle to make the right decisions as they became adults. A parent’s instinct is to help their child. We want to guide them, protect them, and help them with the wisdom we have earned with our own mistakes. God is no different. God looked at us and saw our pain, and God could no longer sit back and let us go through life without help.

Jesus, throughout the book of John and particularly in the sixth chapter, is hammering home the idea of incarnation. Incarnation is God, made flesh. We Christians make a bold claim. We claim Jesus Christ is not just the Son of God, Jesus Christ IS God. We know that Jesus is both fully a human being, flesh and blood like us; but we also know that Jesus is fully God. Jesus is not just LIKE God, Jesus is completely, 100% God. When he tells us the only way to see the Father is through the Son, it is because Jesus is God and has come to earth to show us more about our Heavenly Father than we ever could have known previously.

This is beyond radical compared to other religions! The Jewish and Muslim faiths agree with us on many things about God. We all agree that God is holy, loving, and righteous. But when it comes to Jesus, this is where we stand alone. This passage drives home the heart of Christian belief. Jesus’ body, broken on a cross is the flesh we eat; his blood, poured out for the world is our drink. Through his flesh and blood, we are given the gift of eternal life. It is given for all who are willing to accept such a radical thing – that the salvation of the world comes from the broken body of God.

The broken body of GOD. No other religion dares to say such a thing about the all-powerful, all-knowing God except Christians. It is incarnation, a God who is eternal, but enters into time, born of a Virgin and the Holy Spirit, becoming an intimate part of history to save us all. A man named George Macleod once said a prayer that says it all: “The morning is yours, rising to fullness; the summer is yours, dipping into autumn; eternity is yours, dipping into time”.

Jesus is a gift unlike any other. The shocking words he pronounces in this chapter remind us that when we eat and drink at the holy Table, eternity has broken into time in a unique, unrepeatable way. And God keeps on dipping into our time. Today, as we eat and drink the bread and wine, we are joined with the living Christ who is forever, and because we are joined to him, we are forever. Through the laying down of his life for us, he took away the sins of every person on earth. This bread and cup are for every person, in every land, in any imaginable state of mental, physical, and spiritual health.

As I mentioned, this idea that God could have come down from heaven to offer up his life for our own, is unique to Christianity. It is where Jews and Muslims part ways with us. Even Jesus’ disciples find this teaching in John 6 to be difficult to accept. Those of us that choose to believe, commit ourselves to a life of irony and unconformity.

Try explaining this passage to someone that knows nothing about Christianity. It sounds barbaric, like we are cannibals to be eating flesh and blood. It sounds insane, this idea that flesh and blood could make a person never die. It sounds like we are following a man who makes incredible and impossible claims. The secret to our faith is we are not following a man. We are following God. John 1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. .. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

This is the secret we are meant to share with the world. Somehow, we need to make known to those who would look at this passage and scoff at such claims of eating flesh and drinking blood will bring eternal life, we must let them know what we know. The grace of God is given to us as we take the bread and wine. We are lifted up into heaven, for a brief moment as we eat and drink and pray together, we are in intimate, loving communion with God. Such moments change the course of our life forever. We have been touched by God. Jesus has shown us more about God’s loving, inexhaustible, and patient nature than we could have known without Jesus’ presence on earth.

This talk of Jesus of flesh and blood, eating and drinking it, it is too radical for many people. Our faith would be easier if it was only a matter of logic and belief. But this chapter reminds us that Jesus intends to have all of us, body and soul. His truth wants to burrow deep within us, to consume us as we consume him, to flow through our veins, to be digested, to nourish every nook and cranny of our being. As we take Communion, we sit with God. We have been given a gift too precious for words, and it is our job to show others how this offer of life has changed who we would have been if we never experienced such an intimate encounter with Jesus, our God and Savior.

Jesus has come down from heaven with the intention of taking it all back. He wants all of us, and he wants us to have all of him. This God, OUR God is so scandalously, intimately available to us. And Jesus tells us here that whoever knows this, knows how to live forever.

Amen.

Bread of Life

1Kings 19: 4-8
John 6: 35, 41-51

Would you recognize Jesus if you met him today?

Many Christians feel that they know who Jesus is and would recognize his presence if they met him. In our lives, there will be many times when we encounter Jesus and we may never realize we just had a brush with a holy presence. There will be other times when the presence is so powerful, that immediately we know Jesus and are changed by the encounter forever. This does not happen to everyone and so I ask again, how often do you recognize Jesus in your life? If you cannot recall an instance, let me share one of mine.

A few years back I was walking into a bookstore because I knew a new book was coming out by a favorite author. As I went to open the door, an older woman who was obviously down on her luck or even homeless stood beside it. She looked at me and asked softly, “Do you have any spare change?” I hesitated. I had a $20 bill on me and my debit card. No change, no ones, and that book was calling my name.

I looked at her, smiled and said, “When I come back out I will have some change to give you.” She looked at me for a moment and then nodded her head as I walked inside. Was it my imagination or was that disappointment in her eyes? When I came back out, with some ones clutched in my hand – she was gone and I didn’t see her anywhere along the many stores. I knew logically that management had probably asked her to leave, but I found myself sadly wondering if I just failed Jesus. Did I really need that book more than that woman needed $20? Why didn’t I just GIVE her that money? I was going to school to be a pastor; I’m supposed to be generous and loving, not selfish!

I have no idea if that was Jesus or not, but I do know that I failed that woman and myself that day. The irony of it all is that I rarely ever carried cash while I lived in Pittsburgh, but on THAT day I had a twenty dollar bill and so I had the ability to help. But I didn’t.

Jesus tells us the only way we will know God is through the one whom God sent. Jesus also tells us the only way to meet him is if God has drawn you to Jesus. For some of us, this means we will always believe that only Christians will get to heaven. It seems to me that this passage also tells us that God, who created every living person, will constantly try to draw us near to Him through Jesus no matter our religion, race, or creed.

We believe the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. So how do we recognize Jesus when we meet him? Here’s another encounter of the one who died for us all that I read about in SouthAsianConnection.com.

Her name was Indu who was a hardcore atheist. Her life had been full of pain and torment. Her parents were against religion and often told her not to believe in God and that religion was a waste of time. She was eight years old when she was raped and abused by a neighbor. She internalized her pain to such a point that at 14 she became severely depressed and suicidal. She started cutting her wrists, she hated herself, she felt empty inside and knew what a mess her life had become.

At 17, she gave up on life and tried hanging herself. When her friend found her the doctors estimate she had been without a pulse for at least 12 minutes and spent eleven days in a coma. She said it was during that time she met Jesus. She was in a beautiful place with wonderful music unlike any she had heard before when two angels approached her and said the Lord wanted to see her. Immediately, she was afraid and thought the Lord wanted to punish her. When he appeared she said she recognized Jesus’ voice, and immediately began to apologize for all she had done wrong.

Instead of appearing angry, he was concerned and caring. She said they talked for a long time while Jesus explained the purpose of life and that each person did have a purpose. Jesus told her the purpose was found through Him. Through her time spent with Jesus, she was given a reason to live. She said some people tell her that she didn’t really meet Jesus, that it was all a dream. She responded by saying, “If that is true, then how did I find a reason to live, healing from past hurts, childhood sexual abuse, bulimia, and depression? Wouldn’t I live the same way as before if it wasn’t real? These struggles do not just go away by coincidence. Her family and friends had noticed she’d changed. That’s the power of God.”

Indu’s story is one of many that I have heard. Some will believe her story, others never will. This person’s life was at an end, but Jesus gave her life back. There are so many ways to meet and know Jesus. Some of us will get fantastic experiences and others of us will meet Him in our normal routines. But each moment is a chance for us to change, to grow, to learn more about whom we are and why we are here on earth.

For us to recognize these encounters requires for us to be aware of what the bible says about the kind of person our Savior is and not just assume we know. All of us tend to have a picture in our heads of what Jesus looks, talks, and acts like. Usually that idea of Jesus stems from our own experiences with the world. What if Jesus showed up today and was nothing like you had always pictured him to be? How do we react when our Lord tries to show us there is more to him than we could ever imagine?

If we go back two thousand years, the Jewish leaders killed Jesus because they could not believe this simple man was THEIR Messiah. He was nothing like they had pictured or what they wanted from a Savior. They could not understand and so they hated him. Many of us think we know Jesus, but I think history has shown us that we only know parts of him. There is so much more to God than we could ever fully know or understand.

But Jesus does not give up on us. He continues to meet us where we are at in our faith and life, to help bring us closer to Him. Even our ideas about Christianity sometimes need to be updated by Jesus. Fifty years ago, women were not considered suitable pastors, and all Catholics were looked at with suspicion by Protestants. Our ideas about God and religion come from how we grew up and what we were taught. I urge you to pay close attention to the people God is introducing into your life, and the encounters you have with them.

It may just be that God is using the people around you to show you more about who Jesus is and Jesus is trying to help bring a purpose and peace to your life that you never experienced before. The only way to know for sure is to keep our eyes and hearts opened to the powerful love that is Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Lessons Learned

2 Samuel 11: 26- 12:13a
John 6: 24-35

This passage would be very easy to preach if I just wanted to skim the surface of the message within it. The last line where Jesus declares himself to be the bread of life and all who come to him will never go hungry or thirsty could very easily be turned into a fifteen minute sermon on believing in Jesus and he’ll give you everything you need.

But that would be a misrepresentation of what this passage is really about.

The truth is that everyone in this room believes in Jesus, has at least a little faith in what Jesus can do which is why you come here on Sunday mornings. And yet, despite your belief and faith, do you have everything you need?

We are lucky to live in an area where most of us are able to make a decent wage, or at least be able to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. We have more than many others in the world do. So yes, in some ways, Jesus has provided for us all that we need to survive. But is that all we need?

If life was just about survival, then I would say yes to the question. However, life is about a whole lot more than it was five thousand years ago. Back then, surviving was paramount. Today, in a world of seven billion people, with the continued advancement in medicine, the ability to access knowledge, technology, and supplies; our survival is just about guaranteed as long as we have a job to pay for these things.

Some people will play with words. They will tell you that what you want and what you need are two very different things and the more important part of it all is the needs. I disagree. If we never have our wants and desires fulfilled, our life is left feeling a little hollow. When I’m visiting people in nursing homes, this becomes so much clearer.

The people in there have all of their needs met. They are bathed, fed, given their medicine and taken for walks throughout the day. All of their physical needs are met by the caring staff. However, what they want out of life is so much more than just to have their physical needs met. I meet so many people who feel lost and alone inside those nursing homes because their family has passed away or find no time to visit them. Some have lost their eyesight or ability to use their fingers because of arthritis and so the things that brought them joy such as reading a story or making a pillow are now denied them as well.

These wants of theirs are just as important to be fulfilled as their needs. And so are yours. It is not selfish to want something more for yourself than what you already have. It is not wrong to want to strive to achieve greater goals in your life.

In this passage, Jesus makes a point to define the difference between material bread and spiritual bread. He tells the people that they are looking for him not because of the miracle of feeding five thousand people with such a limited amount of food, but because they had been given enough to eat and drink when they expected to go hungry that night.

Jesus reminds us we should work for the food that does not spoil. When Jesus tells us we will never go hungry or thirsty through our belief in Him, he is not talking about the physical hunger and thirst. It is not about needs, it is about wants. When we pass from this life, do we want to look back and only see that our physical needs have been met? Or are the true memories we cherish the moments when our desires are fulfilled?

For example some of your wants may have been graduating from high school or college. Your first home. Your first job. Your first achievements in your career as you work hard. Meeting that special someone who makes your heart skip a beat when they smile. Marrying them.  Having children. Watching them grow and listening to them fight and then the moment when all is forgiven and the hugs begin. These things are the beauty of the earth; these things are gifts from God and manna from heaven that fulfills the spiritual growth inside of us rather than our physical needs. They cannot feed our body, but they do feed our soul.

 Historians have figured out Jesus lived on earth for around 33 years. Three years were spent ministering to the needs of others and helping to teach the disciples about the Kingdom of Heaven. What did Jesus do for the first thirty years of his life? We have read in the bible that at just 12 years of age, Jesus had a wisdom and knowledge of God that confused and baffled his parents Mary and Joseph.

We have no record of what Jesus did in the next 18 years before his ministry began in Cana at a wedding. But when I read a passage like this, I think I know what he did. Jesus lived. He went on long walks and talked to God. He studied the Old Testament and probably listened to the teachers in the synagogue. He fought with his brothers and sisters, and helped his family make a living. He loved and laughed and stored up treasure in heaven. Jesus was so wise in his three years of ministry because he had lived and loved in the previous thirty years.

He knew his time would come to an end quickly and violently, but somehow he did not let that stop him from enjoying what life had given to him. Jesus tells us that he is the bread of heaven and all who come to him will never go hungry, all who believe in him will never be thirsty.  Jesus shows us the way to live.

He tells us not to worry about food or clothing. When he asks the disciples to go out spreading the Good News he tells them to take nothing but what clothes they wear that day. What Jesus thinks is more important than a hot meal are the memories we create, the joy we have in sharing our lives with others, the love we experience in the connections we make on earth.

Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is the connection we have to all human beings in this world. Through him, we will never again be lost and alone. We will never again wonder if someone loves us. But this can only be experienced if we allow ourselves to open our hearts and souls to the people around us. Relationships are created through sharing – our lives, our minds, and our hearts.

When the people heard this they exclaimed, “Give us this bread always!”

And Jesus died so we may always be connected to each other and to God. Jesus died so that we may live and have this bread always.

Take and eat; the body of Christ – broken for you. Take and drink; the blood of Christ – shed for you. May you never hunger or thirst again.

Amen.