Pentecost 10

Pentecost 10 (John 6:24-35) “I am the bread of life.”

Jesus came to bring abundant life. He came to bring a new way of living. That new way of living
is grounded in the teachings of Moses and the Prophets. That new way of living is active, dynamic and transforming.

Jesus models the new way of living in his words and by his actions. He just doesn't say: do this. He just doesn't say: believe that. He says: i am with you. I am on your side. I am here. Come to me and be changed by the presence of infinite and eternal love. That love created you. That love redeemed you. That love will transform you as you choose to receive it. That love is the bread of a new life and a new way of living.

One of the questions Jesus never answered is: “what is the true religion?” The reason Jesus never answered that question was the context in which people asked the question. They wanted to justify themselves. They wanted to know who is in and who is out. They wanted to know who is righteous and who is unrighteous, who has earned God’s favor and who deserves God’s wrath. They wanted the assurance that they could judge, condemn, exclude and deny goods and services to the people they considered sinners.

They were thinking in the terms of power and knowledge. Jesus spoke the vocabulary of personal relationships. When the crowds saw Jesus performing miracles, and even Jesus’ critics and enemies acknowledged he performed miracles, they all universally concluded: he’s got the power. Some decided that this power could bring them wealth and dominance in society. Some saw the power as a threat to their position of authority and rule.

The events described in this passage immediately follow the miracle of the loaves and fish. Just the day before Jesus had taken a little boy’s lunch, five small barley loaves and two even smaller fish, offered it in thanksgiving to God the Father, blessed it by acknowledging the real presence of the Holy Spirit in  Creation, and then fed some five thousand people. When the meal was finished there were twelve baskets full of the left overs.

The people were astonished. Some reacted with fear. Many brought forth a demand. They demanded Jesus become king. John, who was a teen at the time, remembered that the crowd actually attempted to force Jesus to become king, to overthrow the provincial government in Jerusalem and the imperial government in Rome. Jesus responded by withdrawing. He crossed the lake to continue his three fold public ministry of teaching the Torah, preaching the Good News of Divine Love, and healing minds, bodies and souls.

Sadly, the people then, even Jesus’ closest and most loyal students, did not want what Jesus offered. This was no surprise to Jesus. As a child he had studied the writings of Moses and the Prophets. As a teen He had learned the lessons of history. As an adult He recognized that most if not all people create God in our own image according to our individual needs and desires. As a teacher, He also knew from Moses and the Prophets that this is precisely the problem that defines our species.

The problem is not that we believe the wrong things. The problem is not that we sometimes do bad things and fail to do good things. These are consequences of the problem. The problem is that we have made a choice to separate from God. The problem is that we are lost in separation from God. And, in that separation from God we have separated from the very source of light, and life and love.

Moses is very clear: separation produces disintegration. It is an incremental and sometimes lengthy process of disintegration of society, the family and the individual. That is why God commissioned people to write the many books we now call the Bible. These books, written by dozens of people over the course of hundreds of years, show us the pattern of separation from God. The pattern is the slow, steady and inevitable disintegration of our species.

The prophets are very honest. God gave the prophets two words to proclaim to their generation: repent and prepare. The prophets called people back to the teachings of Moses. They asked people to wake up and recognize how their pride kept them separated from God, how their demand for personal power brought scarcity out of abundance, how their fear of losing power defined their abuse of power. The prophets also proclaimed God’s solution to the problem. The solution to separation is reunification. The solution to the process of disintegration is the process of transformation.

Jesus is the solution to separation. Jesus is the Way of transformation.

In Jesus God Himself overcomes separation. In Jesus, God unites His divinity with our humanity. This is not about Law, although law has its place. This is not about religion, although religion also has its place. The plan of salvation in Jesus Christ is reunification of a lost and broken and fearful humanity with infinite, eternal, universal and unconditional love.

The people who had witnessed Jesus miracles- even his own students (the disciples) wanted the power. Jesus offered what God the Father sent him into the world to offer. Jesus offered universal unconditional love. Jesus offered himself.

The teen disciple, John, was the first of the disciples to realize this. He was the first (after Holy Mother Mary) to realize that Jesus is not about power, judgment or condemnation. Jesus is not about who is righteous and who is unrighteous. Jesus is nothing less that the fullness of infinite and eternal love personified. Jesus is God with us and God for us.

That is why Jesus makes some amazing and even scandalous statements. When Jesus says: “I am” he is claiming the very name of God that God revealed to Moses. When Jesus says: I am the bread of life, he is declaring that he is the very source of life. There is no life on this planet apart from the source of life. That source is embodied in Jesus Christ. We chose and continue to choose to separate from the source of life. The source of life comes to earth to seek the lost who do not want to be found. He does this because he loves us and wants to restore to us what we abandoned.

What are the conditions to receive this life? Just ask.

 Jesus is God the Father’s gift to the world. It is a free gift. It is a true gift. God offers this gift to everyone without exception. The gift is there for you in the rising of the sun and in the setting of the sun. The gift is there in your joys and in your sorrows, in your pleasures and in your pain. The gift of God is the life of God. The gift of God is the co-eternal Son of God. The Gift of God is the real presence of divine love in Jesus Christ. This love has no beginning and has no end. It is eternal. To receive this gift simply say: Amen. Yes God. Yes I receive the gift of life from the source of life. I receive your divine love in the co-eternal Beloved, Jesus Christ. Amen.