Father Riley's homily from August 26, 2018, Christ Episcopal Church

Breaking News:  
...The Vestry of Christ Episcopal Church, Saint Joseph, held our vestry retreat with The Rev. Canon John Bedingfield Saturday, August 25th in our Parish House.  Canon John helped the vestry in planning our future.

...The Rev. Canon Gregg Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist Sundays:  September 2, 16, and 30th.   We will have Morning Prayer on Sundays: September 9 and 23.

...There will be a vestry meeting following our service and congregational fellowship on Sunday, Sept 16.  We will be finalizing plans for our Stewardship Campaign which will begin in late September.

14 PENTECOST, PROPER XVI - B - 18         JOHN 6. 59-69

It was Thomas Jefferson who produced his own version of the New Testament by cutting out the parts he did not like or could not agree with, including the miracles Jesus performed, any suggestion that Jesus is God, no Virgin Birth, and no Resurrection. There are many today who do the same thing by disregarding the verses they cannot abide by or re-interpreting them to fit their own agenda.

Today’s passage comes at the conclusion of the lengthy “bread of life” discourse, which makes up the entire 6^th chapter of St. John’s gospel.

It all began, you may recall, with the feeding of the 5000 and the people’ misunderstanding of what Jesus had done in multiplying the loaves and fishes. The climax came last week, when Jesus shocked his listeners with the pronouncement that his flesh was food indeed and his blood drink indeed.

Here we get the crowd’s reaction. Jesus’ words about “eating flesh and drinking blood” are naturally offensive to the Jews. The Old Testament is filled with prohibitions of such. This was a new and radical teaching and a difficult one for those Jews who heard him in the synagogue at Capernaum.

It was difficult in the sense that it was demanding not just to get one’s mind around it but to get one’s heart and soul into it. They had misunderstood the deeper meaning behind the feeding and now they misunderstand the spiritual meaning behind his words about eating and drinking.

The words I have spoken to you,” Jesus tells them, “are spirit and life.” They are stuck on the physical aspects of his words about eating and drinking and miss the deeper spiritual meaning behind his words. Therefore, St, John tells us that many of those who had followed Jesus up to this point, now made the decision to go no further because of his teaching.

Everything that Jesus has taught up to this point is demanding in every sense, but these words cause division. They might have been prepared to follow a prophet like Moses, or a would be Messiah as long as such figures kept within the bounds of the agendas and aspirations they had in mind.

However, Jesus did not fit into either. Thus, they made the choice to cut their ties to him. Many still ask whether Jesus really meant what he said about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. His words still cause divisions today within the Body of Christ because they are interpreted in different ways.

“Do this in Remembrance of Me” is seen by some as a memorial statement and the action that accompanies it is merely sentimental. For us and others within the apostolic tradition it is much more. In the Eucharist we re-in-act the events in the upper room and repeat Christ’ words, “This is my Body,” and likewise, “This is my Blood…” For us it is a sacrament.

There are those in our Western culture who think of religion as a purely spiritual thing. It doesn’t matter we are told, if these things happened or not, whether they were said or not; what matters is the spiritual truth behind them. That may sound fine, and it does up to a point, but it was not what John was meaning and it was not what Jesus meant.

The whole discourse, and indeed the whole gospel of John are about the Word becoming flesh; not the Word becoming an idea, a feeling, or an experience, as Tom Wright likes to say. The actual story of Jesus is what matters - what he said, what he did, and what he meant - and not just the parts we can easily accept but all of it with its demands and challenges.

Here Jesus is warning against a purely physical interpretation of his words about eating and drinking without the spiritual meaning behind them. He is urging his listeners to go beyond a one-dimensional understanding of what he is doing and saying and for this; they will need the spirit to help them. Without that, they will remain in unbelief. It is because of their unbelief, John says, that they turned back.

There is a difference between a follower and a disciple. A disciple is a student who sits at his master’s feet and learns from him. A disciple is not free to pick and choose from all that is being taught, that is, to refuse to accept the “hard sayings,” the ones that are difficult to get one’s mind round and one’s heart and soul into, and only accept the one’s that are not.

Nor is he free to re-interpret them to fit his or her own agenda. Or to cut and paste and create his or her own Bible as Jefferson did.

That is where faith comes in. Faith is a gift of God not an accomplishment of men. Faith enables us to believe and accept even when we do not fully understand. For now, we see in a mirror dimly. Faith is the key to discerning God’s truth. Faith is our shield against this present darkness.

Jesus said his words are spirit and life. The Spirit is a gift that leads us into all truth and helps us “to stand firm” as Paul exhorts the young Christians at Corinth even in the face of adversity, doubt, fear, and or our frail human understanding.

“So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ The crisis of belief is now upon the disciples. It is a test of their faith with even stronger ones to come. 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.”

But for now, Peter speaks for the twelve, including the one who will eventually turn his back on the Lord. For the moment they all choose to stick with Jesus. They represent the faith, the belief that Jesus has been looking for. That is, the recognition that in him, his words and his deeds, God was at last bringing into being the great moment that would set the whole world free from sin and death.

Christ’ words and deeds continue to demand a decision as a test of faith. Likewise, his teachings and his actions continue to cause divisions even among those who call them selves his followers. However, of all the words and deeds of Jesus, it was his willingness to suffer death on the Cross-so that the world might have life- that truly demands a decision.

For the cross is a sign of God’s Love to a broken and sinful world that sin and death are not all that there is. Rather for those who choose to believe in Him who died and rose again, there is salvation and the gift of new and eternal life.

Joshua demanded a decision from the tribes of Israel, “choose this day whom you will serve…” The world we live in challenges us with the same decision as a test of our faith. Will we choose to stick with Jesus? AMEN+