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Kit 6 2003 Pentecost 7 - Pentecost 13

Sunday 3 August 2003 Pentecost 8

2 Sam11: 26-12:13a, Ps 51:1-12, Eph 4:1-16

John 6: 24 – 35

This week we will first try to see what the evangelist was trying to say to his particular audience early in the 2nd century.  We can assume, following most writers, that the Gospel was written before the Epistles and that the divisions apparent in the Epistles are already developing when the Gospel was set down.  Here we have a Church which has taken a quite different path from the majority Church.  They see Jesus as much more divine and much less human than other churches and are moving towards being less concerned by human actions than with spiritual matters.  The writer of the Gospel and the Epistles is concerned to bring them back into a more mainline position.

The passage clearly follows on from the Feeding of the Fivethousand and is a commentary on that event.  We find the crowd following Jesus and Jesus pointing out to them that they have come for the wrong reason.  What they were meant to have seen was a sign pointing to Jesus as the Son of God; what they have seen was a free lunch.  John is walking a fine line between the physical world and the spiritual world - a division that we might not be happy to make today.  John is not taking a position against his audience but rather trying to steer them into a sound faith.

We notice that Jesus here speaks in ways that we never find in the other Gospels.  There is no mistaking the voice of the Son of God in John’s Gospel.  This is part of the very atmosphere of John’s Church and it remains a powerful part of the thinking of the Church today.  Perhaps we need to remember that the other Gospels are much more cautious about these claims.

The question being asked at the heart of this passage comes out of John’s Church and echoes down the centuries:  “What must we do to perform the works of God?”  Every believer must ask this question.  We in our turn go on asking and we hear a variety of answers.  As we tease out the question, let us remember the background and setting.

In the first place, John’s Church was not big on social action.  The problems they faced were internal and growing.  In this they were not unlike some congregations today where strife over what style of worship and music, which theological path should be followed have caused an actual split.  At the time of writing the Gospel, the evangelist was probably seeking to use general language that could be picked up by all followers of Christ.  Maybe there is a lesson here for leaders of groups facing the same problem today!

Jesus’ answer to the question is absolutely right because any Christian action must arise out of belief.  Furthermore, it must be clear to all that the reason for action is rooted in faith.  It is very easy for a Church to follow the social action path while overlooking the reasons for this being an imperative.  The very first work for the follower of Jesus is to believe.  Eating and drinking in the Eucharist, actions in the world of whatever kind, are simply signs that we believe in the One whom God has sent.  At their root there must be belief in Christ.

The dialogue, however, goes on.  The crowd asks questions which we must assume come from within John’s Church.  “What sign is Jesus offering?  What work is he doing?”  This seems a little incredible to us, for we have just seen the crowd fed!  It helps us to remember that the question does not come from those eyewitnesses but from the early 2nd century Church.   Jesus cuts through the question by pointing out that neither the bread which the crowd ate on the hillside nor the manna which the Israelites ate in the desert is truly life-giving.  The true bread is Christ himself.  Once again, we seem to have a thinly-veiled reference to the Eucharist.  And so we are brought to that great statement:  “I am the bread of life”.  This is just as relevant today as it was to John’s Church.

What is very clear is that Jesus, the Bread of Life, is not to be compared with the manna that our ancestors ate in the desert.  Here the line between spiritual and physical is clear, but the questioners go on assuming that this bread can be given and taken like ordinary loaves.  We need to be much clearer in our proclamation that what Jesus offers, himself, the Bread of Life, comes to us through the work God requires of us, that is belief.  For John, that which was spiritual was far more important than the physical and he is pushing his Church in that direction.  They would have understood these words of Jesus .  We need to take a step not taken by John -  the work God requires is belief;  that belief will feed us with the Bread of Life;  when fed with this spiritual food, we are empowered to be God’s caring and loving agents in the physical world.

Christ came treading into our marketplaces, out temples, our homes – even into our private person –

Teaching in the templePreaching by the seaQuestioning religious customsBreaking the ceremonial lawRighting injusticesHealing the sickBeing joyful in the company of friendsCalling the childrenChiding good church membersCaring for unimportant peopleSeeking out the sinnersChrist came humbling himself,

Came loving the poor, the hungry, the lonely.

Christ came loving-           
                This Lord of Life                       
                                  This living, loving Lord
O Lord, open our eyes to see the Pharisee within us.
Open our ears that we might hear the prophecy
Of the possibility of change.
Open our church doors that we might follow           
                Our living, loving Lord
                                  Out into the marketplace.

 

 

                               Ann Weems,  “Reaching for Rainbows”