Confusing Words 8-25-24
Confusing Words
Eph 6:10-20; John 6:56-69
Eph 6:10-20
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
John 6:56-69
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Prayer – Lord Jesus, many times your teachings are confusing and demanding and frankly hard to live with. Still we come each week, hoping to learn how to live deeper into our faith. Grant us the ability and the courage to hear your confusing words of life – that they may somehow be transforming words – and you will be seen through our lives – amen.
Back when I was in a sophomore in college, and knew much more than I do today, I had a conversation with a senior who knew even more than I did. As I remember it, the conversation took place at Blimpie’s – a sub shop not far from my dorm. I had surprisingly gone to church that Sunday morning – must have been an away football game weekend – but either way, my friend gave me a ‘holier than thou’ look and said, “You haven’t been to church, have you?” Using my best sophomore sarcasm, “What was the clue?” “Haven’t you read Freud, or Feuerbach, or Marx?” he said. “Don’t you know that all religion is projection? People have this desire to live forever; therefore, they project their infantile wish onto the universe and name it ‘God.’ You suffer from a universal obsessional neurosis, my friend. Religion is a narcotic, the opiate of the masses. Wait till you are a senior – you’ll be over this Christian business by then.” College conversations can be quite interesting.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I come across a passage like today, confusing words of life, I wish my friend were right. How much easier it would be to live with this God who so scandalously appears on the pages of sacred text limited by both time and culture. How much easier it would be to sleep in on Sunday mornings and ‘go with the flow’ of our self-centered society. If God were a mere projection, I would be off the hook. No divine summons that calls me out for service as well as for grace. No injunction to love my neighbor as myself. No pesky commandments to care for the poor, the hungry, the sick; and even more no more troublesome brothers and sisters in Christ to live with.
That great American writer, Mark Twain, wrote: “Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I always notice that the passages in Scripture which trouble me the most are the ones I do understand.” I suspect that at times, we would like to walk away from the words in Scripture, particularly those in red letters, and never come back. We want a God different from the one we find in Jesus. We want a God of grace only; we don’t want to do those things in the red letters which make us uncomfortable, uneasy or may be a little demanding to our self-centered comfort zones. Flesh and blood – yes. But demanding – no. Resurrected – yes. But crucified – no. Salvation – yes. Repentance – no. Love – yes. Commitment – no. Unfortunately, we can’t have one with the other. The rose comes with the thorns. The pains come with the birth. Night comes with day. The best of time can only be lived because there are those times that are so bad. (Brett Blair)
In the 6th chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus feeds five thousand people plus, and compares this windfall to the manna the Israelites had received centuries before when they wandered the wilderness. It seems the listener’s ideas about manna had been all neatly organized and placed in a theological box, a nice straight-sided crossword where everything fits just right. Manna was God’s way of looking after the people of Israel. They received the blessing everyday until they reached the land of promise.
Then Jesus has a very long monologue about bread of life, which starts out nicely. We are used to hearing that sort of thing from him by now, but imagine hearing it for the first time – from a human being who does not look all that different from you – “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.”
In the gospel reading for last week’s Lectionary, Jesus took the offense to an even higher level by choosing really gory words to describe what he meant. In all the other gospels, Jesus calls this bread his body but in John’s gospel, he calls it his flesh – his skin and muscle tissue. In all the other gospels, he offers it to be eaten but in John’s gospel he uses the word ‘chomp’ or ‘gnaw’ so that a more literal translation of his invitation goes something like this – “Those who chomp my flesh and guzzle my blood have eternal life; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” Now that’s anything but neat and orderly for us Presbyterians. It’s frightening and messy.
It is a nasty image that sounds more like something for a butcher shop than for a church. Add to that fact that Hebrew scripture clearly forbids the drinking of blood, and you can understand why Jesus’ followers were confused by his words of life. It is no wonder they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” Obviously, the cannibalistic references didn’t help, but I suppose they didn’t like the way he was messing with the old stories, making the sensible words of life they’d heard into a much more complicated stance. This was long before the last supper in the upper room so you can almost hear their minds slam shut and many of his followers just walked away never to return to Jesus.
These were not mere hangers-on who walked away. The writer calls them “disciples.” They were real followers of who had probably been around for a while – had seen healings and feedings and transformed lives. They had liked the talk of Jesus, the idea of Jesus, but the messiness of Jesus was too much. “Does this offend you?” Jesus asked. Apparently yes, a lot.
Then Jesus turned to the twelve. The closest, most constant group. “Do you also wish to go away?” He simply would not let up on them; and us today. If they were going to follow him all the way, then they were going to have to give up their need to understand, agree, or approve of everything he said or did. When I was in Gastonia at the hospital my former Administrative Assistant would get real anxious whenever I decided it was time to write a letter to a pastor or to a local politician related to some activity at the hospital. Just like Barbara, my Admin Asst, the disciples were going to have to believe that Jesus knew what he was doing, even when what he said offended some of them. They were going to have trust him even when what he did went against everything they had been taught. Still it was Peter, who answered for his friends, “Lord to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Very confusing words of life. Peter is as offended as anyone else by what Jesus is saying. Of all the disciples, he is the one who stands up for traditional faith. He keeps the dietary laws. He never eats forbidden things, including any kind of meat with blood in it. The idea of gnawing flesh and drinking blood turns his stomach as badly as it does anyone else’s, but where is he to go? As confusing as Jesus’ words are, Peter has glimpsed something in him that he cannot turn away from. He has glimpsed God, and if trusting that means struggling with a whole lot of distasteful things that go with it, then Peter will wrestle just like Jacob at Peniel. Peter will not give up the truth he has found, even if it comes tucked in a box full of spiders. Peter will not go away from the life he has been led to, even if it is miles from the life he thought he wanted.
Peter’s words have added meaning today, when so many people are wary of allying themselves with imperfect communities of faith. I hear all the time, “If the church votes wrong on this issue, I am leaving.” Or, “I cannot belong to a church that would fund a project like that.” Or, “I don’t belong to a church any more. I couldn’t take anymore of the 1) hypocrisy, 2) sexism, 3) liberals, 4) conservatives, 5) fundraising, 6) lousy preaching, or 7) fill in the blank.” (Barbara Brown Taylor, To Whom Can We Go?) At the end of chapter 6 of John’s gospel, only twelve are left, his biggest advocate will deny him and even one of those will betray him for 30 pieces of silver. The direction of chapter 6 is not, as far as flesh is concerned, a promising trajectory.
The followers of Jesus, at their best times, have understood that life does not travel between the ditches; sometimes it gets in the ditch and sometimes it falls into the sewer where it is really messy. Life throws us curves of one kind or another all the time. No matter how hard we try to make things straighten out, we just don’t have that kind of power. Cancer. A broken relationship. A sick child. An accident. A job loss. Conflict. An international financial crisis. An abusive spouse. Bad news. Bad memories. A death. Yet God is working life in the midst of apparent failure and rejection. The church is called to see that it is in such places that even confusing words of life is doing its work around us, among us and within us. The presence of Peter the denier, and even of Judas the betrayer, at the end of our lesson today is a striking note of hope. Our natural inclination is to turn and run, to avoid the difficult call and above all to avoid the crosses of life.
The confusing words of life aren’t just the ones that fit on a neat desk plaque or that get tossed into political campaigns. They are not always simple, cute catchy sayings, easy to hear. The confusing words of life remind us that life is not always plain and simple; solutions to our problems are not straightforward. It is exactly because the confusing words of life ring true that we cannot leave. Where would we go? Who else will tell us the truth about life? Who else had lived the truth about life so fully?
My college friend was wrong. I’m still in the business of being a Christian – sometimes it is messy and sometimes it is amazing. Sometimes, in those messy moments I bring on myself or find myself in where I don’t have answers, I wish I had listened to him. But ultimately, the confusing words of life which can be offensive and problematic for our self-centered society aren’t for me to overcome. These are words of life I don’t need to understand, always agree with or even approve. Just like those early disciples, we have to figure out a way to trust that Jesus really was who he says he was; and that the offensive grace he offered to us from the cross is worth a lifetime. That is where these confusing words of life lead us – a decision about where do we go and who do we follow – the cross – thanks be to God – amen.