AUG 2, 2009  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for our meditation today is the Gospel Lesson for this 9th Sunday After Pentecost, John 6:24-35. There we read these words:

Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat." Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

In the name of Jesus Christ, AMEN

Why do people go to church?

I think if you were to ask members of our congregation, you would be surprised at the variants in the answers. For some it may be the friendliness of the people; others may attend because of obligation, or because they feel that it is the right thing to do for some reason.

It may be because of the activities, so the more activities a church has, the better equipped it is to serve its members, kind of like a buffet; and still others may go to church because they feel that they can get something out of it. "That church didn't do much for me," is a line that many use when leaving a church they didn't like. Jesus was faced with this same problem. He had fed the 5000, had taken care of their needs, and then went off with his disciples to be alone. The people searched him out and found him in Capernaum. "Rabbi, when did you get here?" They asked. Jesus said in effect to them, "You don't look for me because you think I'm God or because of the signs from God. No, you look for me because you want you belly filled. But I didn't come here to fill you with junk food that spoils. I'm here to feed you with food that will last forever. I'm here to feed you with food that will last forever."

It is truly amazing how often people just like you and me live as if God didn't exist. God wants to give us a rich banquet of the finest food and drink, He wants to give us eternal life and every good gift, but we would prefer the stale grease of junk food.

Think back to Paul's words in the epistle lesson. What words does Paul use to describe their condition apart from God? Futility, darkened, separated, ignorance, hardened, insensitive, impure and lustful. Strong words. This isn't how you were taught in the Gospel! But the world and even our own flesh would have us sink into the mire. Think of how easy it is to feel as though life were futile, that it's just one day after another, with no thought of God or anything else coming in between you and the grave.

And yet isn’t that exactly what you do. Day by day, are you tempted to accept the cheap and worthless way of life that the world has handed down to you. Have you sometimes bought into the lie that life has no consequences, that there is nothing good or noble or beautiful or true in all of God's creation. And because of that, has it been easy, oh so easy to let the lusts and violence of the world hold your very lives in captivity.

Dear friends, we as a people and a nation are held captive by television, by books and music, advertising and virtually everything around us that extols violence and sex as the only way to live. I suppose it's true that we bemoan this somewhat, but it's pretty difficult to get away from it.

There is a certain security in slavery, though. Think back to the Israelites. The Great Grumblers. What did they whine to Moses about? "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death" (Exodus 16:3-4).

They had forgotten the slavery, the starvation, the backbreaking work with no sign of respite. They had forgotten their own cries to the Lord for deliverance. But there is a security in this slavery. They knew what tomorrow would be like. Oh sure, it may be misery, but it was their misery. Life was pretty simple that way, wasn't it?

And it is the same for you. How easy is it to give in to the world? Watch the gore and guts. Be satisfied with cheap thrills and bad music. Everyone else is doing it. Why not go back? If I'm going to die anyway, why not enjoy my life now? How bad is this slavery anyway? I get to do what I think I want, give into my own flesh and lusts, and just let everything go.

Oh sure, my family life crumbles apart, and the world takes on the look of gray mush where everything is the same, but who cares? Give me the food that spoils. Give me the stale greasy junk food that may kill me, but at least I'll die happy. That is what the world and even your own flesh tells you.

But against this Jesus offers a better way. Jesus offers a life that is rich and full. Jesus doesn't want you to have a life full of bad food that will finally kill you. No, the life He offers is something different entirely.

I think we sometimes forget the magnitude of Jesus' claim about Himself. Jesus claims in our text to be the Bread of Life. But more than that, Jesus claims that the work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. In other words, the work of God is to believe in Jesus Christ. As Peter himself said later in John 6, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

Jesus' claim is absolute and leaves no room for another. Listen to how one Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, puts it:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, in is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit on Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and Good.

Jesus' claim is absolute and leaves no room for another. Either He is the Bread of Life and you are to hold onto Him for dear life, or you should run away from this madman.

But, dear friends, He is no madman. He is God who gave and gives Himself for your very life.

It is very telling that Jesus calls Himself the Bread of Life. Jesus said that He is the Bread of Life, and that no one who eats and drinks of Him would ever go hungry. Now perhaps you miss part of the image here. Jesus is the Bread of Life who gives his life as a ransom for the world. He calls Himself the bread of life for a reason. The Israelites remembered that God gave them the bread from heaven, the manna from heaven. God gave it to them every day so that they would remember the He is the giver of all good things.

Jesus, though, is much more than manna to fill you stomach. He is here to fill you up, body and soul together. He calls Himself the Bread of Life. If you come to Him, if you eat of him and drink of Him you will never go hungry or be thirsty. But for that to happen, Jesus had to give His life away first. This Bread of Life had to be baked. He had to be baked on the cross so that you may eat of Him and be filled with the bread that never spoils, it never grows old or crusty.

Jesus is the only one that can fill your deepest needs. Other foods may satisfy for a time, but only Jesus can fill you up with the good things of God. Only Jesus can feed you with His Body and Blood for your life.

And with Jesus, you can look at the world with different eyes. You are a child of God; you have been fed with the Bread of Life. And because of that, you can see God's wonderful works in the world. There is a great deal of beauty and wonder in the world, but that beauty and wonder goes deeper that the world can ever know. It goes back to God, the author and finisher of our faith.

So put off your old self, with its selfish and useless ways, and be made new in Christ Jesus. For you have been created in God's image, and God remade you in holy baptism. He is your God, your Bread of Life; He is your Hope and your Life. This Bread of Life will never spoil and never go bad. Come to the Table of the Lord, then, and feast on the Bread of Life for your everything.

Remember always, that Christ is Risen.

Amen.