August 23, 2009
The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Year B)
I Kings 8:22-30, 41-43; Psalm 84; Ephesians 6:10-20;
John 6:56-69
Have you ever been a groupie? Growing up, did you follow the Rolling Stones or The Beach Boys? Or maybe you were a Jimmy Buffet parrothead looking for Margaritaville?
When John and I went to the Holy Land back in 1998, there was a woman on our study tour who was a fan of the American pop music star, Bobby Vee. Now this woman was not a teenager; she was a grown woman of about 60. And whenever she heard that Bobby Vee was in concert, she would fly to wherever he was playing, Las Vegas or London. She was a hard-core groupie who traveled the globe to hear Bobby Vee perform the golden oldies.
Groupies aren't limited to rock bands and musicians. No, there are groupies who follow sports teams and movies stars, even political candidates. Speaking for myself, I'd have to say that in the last election, I was a Barack Obama groupie. I signed up with MoveOn.org and spent an evening at someone's house making phone calls to voters in Ohio asking them to volunteer for the Obama campaign. But when the requests to serve became more involved, like spend a couple Saturdays driving to NH and canvassing neighborhoods, I have to confess that my participation fizzled out.
I've often wondered what was missing for me that I didn't go to the next level. I certainly had the passion in my heart for my candidate of choice, but when it came time to put that passion into action, I could only go so far, and giving up a Saturday wasn't something I was willing to do.
If we think about elections that have taken place since the Obama vs. McCain contest – particularly those on the global stage, we see some really active and engaged citizen groupies.
In Iran, Pres. Amadinajad was reelected under suspicion of election fraud. The reports of protesters who gathered and marched in the streets and the opposition they faced were daunting. Would you or I have gone out to participate in the protests if we felt the election wasn't fair? How much heart and passion does it take, to go out and risk getting arrested, in order to take a stand for what one believes?
Just last Thursday, elections were held in Afghanistan. In the weeks leading up to election day, the Taliban threatened people in an effort to frighten them from going to the polling stations. Can anyone say whether you or I would have been among those who defied the threats and risked their lives to vote anyway?
At what point does one's heart attitude translate into action for radical change? And how do we know when it's important enough to disrupt one's life and live for the change we believe in? What's the basis for such a decision? And how do we find balance between the passions of our hearts and our daily commitments to family and work?
It seems that one way in which people are motivated to step out of their comfort zones and engage the powers and principalities of the world is through religion. And Christianity is no different in that score. In the reading from John 6, Jesus makes it quite clear that we all have a choice as to how we use the gift of our own life. And if you choose to follow Christ, a commitment of heart and soul is required. It means going against the grain of the culture in which we live in order to bring the gift of new and everlasting life to a world desperately in need of the gospel.
However, as the followers of Jesus point out, his teaching is difficult. It's hard to step out of our own surroundings and viewpoints and get involved for someone else. And yet, there's a world of injustice at home and abroad that Jesus calls us to care about as followers of the Holy One of God. Issues of healthcare and education for all people, of maternal health and clean drinking water, and natural resources, to name a few.
The life of faith is not only about creating exciting worship or entertaining ourselves as a parish – important as these things are – but it's about building the Kingdom of God on earth, brick by brick, loaf by loaf, in an effort to bring hope to the millions of people who struggle and suffer every day.
In the first century Jesus had his groupies, but they were interested in his signs and miracles: the free food, healings of the blind and lame, and the raising of the dead. But Jesus was not a one-man road show out to dazzle the crowds. They missed the boat when they couldn't see that Jesus' signs were not meant to glorify himself, but were a glimpse into the heart and soul of God. And because of their misunderstanding, their interest in, and vision of Jesus was limited to “what are you going to do for me now?” A similar trap waits to ensnare us whenever we treat God as one to be influenced to do things our way. Instead, we are invited to approach God with our prayers, not so much to ask for what we want, but to bring ourselves into alignment with God's purpose.
We've come to the point in the lengthy John 6 discourse where “the men are separated from the boys” as Jesus makes clear what is required to be his true followers. Jesus is the living bread that came down from heaven – unlike any other they have ever known, including the manna that God provided to their ancestors. But what is this superior bread of life?
We know that bread is the most basic food of many diets throughout the world. It's even called 'the staff of life.' And Jesus takes the image of this staple of the human diet and applies it to himself. His message to the people is that just as your physical body needs daily bread (i.e., food) to fuel its growth and function, you also need me/Jesus, to develop your spiritual body and strengthen your heart center.
With the metaphor of bread Jesus described his desire for relationship with God's people, a relationship where they see beyond their own circumstances and are empowered to fight the injustices of the world. But it's not a passive exercise; rather it's about taking Jesus inside ourselves in order that we are transformed and therefore live in a way that reflects the love and compassion of God to others, no longer seeing people and their circumstances in the same way.
Jesus came from God and invites us all into relationship with God, but it's a relationship lived on God's terms, not ours. A relationship that draws us out of ourselves and into a bigger picture of life; where we get in touch with our internal blindness and allow our eyes to be opened to see the work of God in the world, and joining in where and when we are called.
Eating the bread which is Jesus transforms us from the inside out. Moreover it comes with the promise of eternal life because we are joined with the Creator who has existed for all time, who lives now, and will be forever. But there lies the rub. Many people can accept that Jesus was a good man, a prophet, and a healer, but they cannot swallow the fact that He is God in the flesh, God in physical form. One commentary footnote I read quotes, “…to this day many a man's refusal of Christ comes, not because Christ puzzles and baffles his intellect, but because Christ challenges and condemns his life.” The teaching of Jesus is not hard to understand, it is hard to live by which is why so many turned away and continue to do so. According to John Calvin (Reformed Tradition), the reason the crowds turned from Jesus was not because the sayings were hard, but that the “hardness was in their hearts.”
The teaching of Christ is difficult. It asks much of you and me. It asks us to give up holding on to our own sense of how things should be. And it invites us to live from the heart in sync with the heart of God. But how is this done?
Oddly enough, there was an interesting example in the news last week in that a Scottish judge allowed Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the man convicted for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, to return home to Libya after serving only eight years of a life sentence. He was released for reasons of compassion because he is dying of cancer and has only months to live.
For the families whose loved ones died in that flight, the news was devastating. They argue understandably, that al-Megrahi showed no compassion to the people on that plane, so why should he be treated with compassion now? Did the judge make the right decision? Or should he have allowed al-Megrahi to rot in his prison cell alone?
As a Christian, how do you decide? There's no easy answer. Both sides have valid arguments.
But if we think about it as Jesus' groupies, we just might see the situation in a whole different light. We know that God in Jesus is the forgiver of sins, the restorer of brokenness, the giver of eternal life, who looks not on our sinful deeds, but into our hearts. God looks past the hurts and rejections, the anger and jealousies that we hide from others' view. And God sees through all these layers and looks at our tender heart center. It is there in that place of utter vulnerability that God sees and relates to His people.
We're invited to go with Jesus anytime to that place within ourselves where true Christian charity and love prevail. And when we tap into that place of pure heart, it is there that we are motivated to do whatever it takes to live the compassionate love of God.
Jesus' words confront us today: What is your choice? Will you walk away with the crowd saying, I can't do this, it's too hard? Or will you stand with the disciples rooted in faith that there is no other way to eternal life with God?
Come today to the Lord's Table, not to feed your ego, or a sense of being right, but come and surrender your heart, be transformed and allow the Spirit of God to dwell within you and make your life new and whole. Come to humbly accept the invitation of the One who gives himself for you and for all people. Join with the One who calls you to eat and drink His body and blood. Come and be a groupie following Jesus, the Savior and Lord. Trust that with each taste of this holy meal, the passions of God's heart are strengthened in yours and enable you to live in service to the Holy One of God, just as you were created to do and be.
Amen.
The Reverend Melissa Buono,
Church of the Good Shepherd