LoginHome » Ministers' resources » Worship Resources » Preaching Kits » Year B Mark » Kit 6 » Pentecost 9
Kit 6 2003 - Pentecost 7 to Pentecost 13
Sunday 10 August 2003 Pentecost 9
2 Sam 18:5-9,15,31-33, Ps 130, Eph 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51
The modern reader has little difficulty in connecting this passage with the sacrament of the Eucharist. We know well the idea of sharing in the life of Christ through eating the Bread of Life. Jesus gives himself for the life of the world. We also note that the “divine rebirth” idea is not present in this section. The essential element for eternal life is quite simply belief. We accept all too easily the assertions of some Christians that their concept of how one receives Christ is the only right one!
Note that v 41 starts off with reference to “the Jews”. John’s attitude to this group is the subject of much debate; probably the simplest thing to do is to regard them as the opponents of the new faith who have a Jewish background. They are regularly used to present the viewpoint of those who oppose Jesus, but it is probably a mistake to regard them as a coherent synagogue-based group. Here we note that they are seeing Jesus as an ordinary human being, and the contrast is set out very sharply. The basic question then as now is: who is Jesus? Is he the human son of Joseph and Mary, as “the Jews” claim, or is he what the Johannine Jesus claims, the One who comes from God and who has seen God. As I have noted earlier, this is a very “high” view of Jesus and is not reflected in the other Gospels. The decision of the Church at the Council of Chalcedon was the Jesus was fully divine with respect to his divinity and fully human with respect to his humanity. What we have here, then, does not reflect the position of mainstream Christianity, but of the Johannine Church. It is, however, a very widely held view amongst Christians today.
It might be appropriate, depending on the congregation, to reflect on the range of positions taken by the early Church and the conclusion reached and point out that this Johannine view is not what we are called upon to believe as mainstream Christian people. There needs to be a balance, and it is this lack of balance which led to the break-up of the church associated with this Gospel.
It seems to me that the question for us as we read this passage is “How far can we go with this Jesus?” For this is a different Jesus from the other Gospels – one whose words are very familiar but when we analyse those words we run into problems. How, then, do we deal with this in preaching?
It seems to me that we can provide a good balance by going to that prayer which we find in Matthew and Luke where we pray so often “Give us this day our daily bread”. Here we have no possible doubt that the bread is the regular sustenance that all human beings need. There is no question about the concern of the Synoptic Jesus for the physical well-being of his followers, and indeed, the whole world. It is right and proper to be concerned for the needs of people; Mahatma Gandhi was so taken by this petition that he said that the needs of the world were so great that to a large proportion of the world’s population, God could only appear to them as bread.
Furthermore, we use real, physical bread (albeit tiny cubes or unleavened wafers) to represent Christ in the Eucharist. The spiritual and the physical are united in this sacrament. The Christian must be concerned with the provision of adequate food for his or her own needs, the needs of the immediate family and then for the needs of the community and the world. This is a duty with a religious component to it, as witness the work of our social service agencies and the international agencies supported by the Church. The Christian cannot stand back and watch people die from hunger.
At the same time, in our land and in our communities, the greater danger we face is that of excess. Most of us eat too much and the prayer for “our daily bread” lacks real fervour. The real need in our society is more for the “Living Bread” that Christ offers, his own life. There is a real desire for spirituality in our community – a desire that the Church often fails to meet. Surely the task of the Church is to show how Jesus meets this hunger; a task which it often fails to accomplish.
The need can be seen in the way that “New Age” philosophies catch on, that Eastern religions gain devotees who will even dance in the streets to celebrate their faith (note the offence that the Hare Krishnas took at the “dancing butchers” television advertisement!) and that it is in order to commence a public meeting with a karakia but not with a prayer! We have failed to show that the Living Bread is free and on offer to all. Perhaps we need to look carefully at why this offer is not taken up.
No doubt we all have some answers of our own. I would suggest that the Church has been far better at saying “no” than at saying “yes”. We have been inward looking and irrelevant. We have failed to interpret our own scriptures to the community. Despite this, there are still many believers out there who are not belongers. Each faith community will have a different way of trying to communicate the Gospel – the important thing is that we look at how we might best do it. I have tried to show that the Gospel involves a balance between the physical and the spiritual – we overlook this at our peril.
As John reminds us, Christ is the Living Bread, the answer to the spiritual needs of the world. The other Gospels provide the balance to this very spiritualising statement. Our task is to identify the spiritual needs of our own community and to both show and tell how Jesus Christ, the Living Bread, meets those needs.
As you have been fed at this tablego to feed the hungry.As you have been set freego to set free the imprisoned.As you have received – give.As you have heard – proclaim.And the blessing you have received from Father, Son and Holy Spiritbe always with you.
Kathy Galloway “The Pattern of our Days”