Sermons from Park Hill Congregational UCC Denver, Colorado Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] August 1, 2021 “Soul Food” John 6: 24-35 – New Revised Standard Version 24So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is that which[a] comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. I find today’s text a little irritating, or rather, one line of it. Right in the middle: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the One whom God has sent.” The work of God is believing? Whenever I see that the gospel assigned in the lectionary for the day is from John, I wince a little. Oh no, what kind of wandering labyrinth of logic will this one be? Whereas Jesus primarily spoke in parables in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, even though they are often enigmatic, in John he gives these long-winded, zigzagging discourses that are even more difficult to follow. That’s not to say the entire gospel is problematic. Some of the best stories about Jesus are only in John. The wedding feast at Cana, the Samaritan woman at the well (one of my favorites), Lazarus rising from the dead, Mary Magdalene and the “gardener” at the empty tomb, and Jesus showing his wounded hands to doubting Thomas. Oh, and I love the opening prologue. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Our official UCC motto is taken from John: “That They May All Be One.” Our unofficial motto is taken from Gracie Allen: “Never put a period when God has placed a comma.” To which my friend Ron Buford added, “God is still speaking.” But it is from John, and only John, that we have the overused words “born again.” And John 3:16. I love John 3:16. For God so loves the world. It’s just the end of the verse: “Whoever believes in me will not perish but shall have eternal life.” Ugh… I’m sorry if I sound cynical, but John’s constant focus on belief is often an excuse to disregard the work of God to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty, visit the prisoner, and so forth. And to divide the world into believers and non-believers. “Belief” is furthermore emphasized only in John with “I am” statements like today’s “I am the bread of life.” But, as our Lunch and Lectionary group asked, what about actual bread for people who are actually hungry? Yes, we need the bread that does not perish. Bread that endures. Bread for the soul. But people also actually need bread for life. And that’s why I find today’s text irritating. Right in the middle: “This is the work of God, that you believe in the One whom God has sent.” The work of God is believing? Really, Jesus? Again, to me, the work of God is feeding people who are hungry. In fact, the deeper work of God is upending a system that requires some people to live in poverty so others can live in opulence. In the Gospel of Luke, Mary talked of toppling the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. The hungry are full and the rich are sent away empty. In the Gospel of Matthew, if we don’t care for the needs of others, we don’t care for the needs of Jesus. Is that to be meant only metaphorically? However, in contrast, the last verse of today’s text from John says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Yes, but… Marcus Borg says that John is a “remarkable testimony about what Jesus had become in early Christian milieu. It tells us how Jesus was spoken of in a Christian community near the end of the first century. It does not tell us very much about how Jesus himself spoke.”[1] I am the bread of life. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the resurrection… There are 7 “I am” statements in the Gospel of John that invite us to believe in Jesus as the Son of God. After learning of the remarkable life of Jesus as a teacher and prophet of the Kingdom of God, the rabbi who invited us into a different way of living, even as the one who conquered death, why, according to John, is so little asked of us but to believe? Perhaps because John represents the beginning of institutionalizing Jesus into Christianity. Diana Butler Bass says the basis of the institutional church has been believing, through creed and dogma, behaving, through rules and techniques, and belonging, through membership and choice. All of this results in people thinking that Christianity is about getting the answers right, living by the right rules, and passing the test to get in. If you believe right, and you behave right, you might belong. It leads to people saying, “I don’t think I can be a Christian anymore because I just can’t believe all that stuff.” Perhaps you’ve said that too. “Can I be a Christian and not believe in…” Fill in the blank. Biblical concepts like resurrection, virgin birth, hell… Or cultural concepts claimed by certain kinds of Christians about abortion, same gender marriage, and even free market capitalism. How many times have you heard or thought to yourself, if that’s what Christians believe, then count me out. Whole generations are counting themselves out. Diana Butler Bass wrote a book called Christianity After Religion. Great title, isn’t it? If we could free the faith of Jesus from the religion of Christianity, she claimed, we would see a world-wide spiritual awakening. She reverses the order from the institutionalized church’s flow of believe, behave, and belong. First, she said, before anything else, we belong. “We belong to God and to one another, connected to all in a web of relationships.” In her reversed flow, belonging isn’t based anymore on subscribing to a certain set of beliefs. Which would therefore mean, the work of the church shouldn’t primarily be about belonging as membership but belonging as radical hospitality. We are all one in Christ. Then, when we feel part of the whole, we practice faith together through acts of justice and love that reflect and anticipate the reign of God. In other words, behave. I don’t like the word behave, but for the sake of this example, all of that belonging and behaving, she said, will then form the basis of belief. In addition, these beliefs are not static but grow and evolve with time and experience. But as long as we focus on belonging to one another, working together on shared values, i.e. behavior, then beliefs will stop being deal breakers in relationship. Again, she said, over the centuries the Christian church has come to assert that to belong you must first believe in a set of theological assertions; to belong you must first behave in certain prescribed ways; and only then can you belong. But who wants to belong to that? And I’ll add that progressive Christians have the same tendency to regulate belonging according to certain beliefs and behavior. Cancel culture is mostly a dog whistle, but it does contain some ring of truth. When the UCC was formed in 1957, our forebears tried to move beyond the limitations of creeds, like the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed, with their repetitions of “I believe” or “We believe.” Repetitions which include things that people often do not believe. Or understand, such as the statement in the Nicene Creed that Jesus was “begotten, not made.” Find 2 people in 100 who could tell you what they just said they believe. The UCC Statement of Faith is not a creed. It begins “We believe in God.” That’s it. Then it goes on to say, “and to God’s deeds we testify.” The rest of the statement describes the work of God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The UCC Statement of Faith is also unique from creeds because, beyond belief, it says what we are called to do, including, “to accept the cost and joy of discipleship.” And “to be your servants in the service of others.” And that we are promised “courage in the struggle for justice and peace.” I find it rather forward looking for 1959 when it was adopted by the General Synod. So, you may ask, if this is already part of our “belief system” as the UCC, then why am I making a big deal about today’s text from the Gospel of John? Perhaps because it simply needs to be restated from time to time, to remind us about this community to which we belong – not because of formal membership but because we claim one another as spiritual companions. As well, of course, to provide education for people who are new to the UCC. To be clear, despite what John says, the faith of Jesus, the work of God, is more than believing. In fact, Marcus Borg said, "For me, to believe a set of statements is impossible." What is possible, he argues, is to "belove" Jesus and walk in his path. The idea of beloving Jesus vs. believing in him is a fascinating concept for another day. According to John, Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” Earlier I said “yes, but.” However, I want to end with “yes, and.” The work of God is to feed the hungry and it must be, we must be, sustained with soul food. We may think of soul food only as a type of African American cuisine – fried chicken, collard greens, macaroni and cheese. Getting hungry? But soul food originated in the scraps of food that no one else wanted. It was only from love and creativity that the pieces and parts no one else would eat came the banquet feast we know as soul food. Just like Jesus did and can do for us with simplicity of bread and the splendor of God's creation. I “believe,” funny word, that Jesus does in fact sustain us, especially through the sacrament of communion, the true bread of the soul that endures, around whose table we now gather. But to today’s point, it doesn’t matter what you believe about communion. You don’t have to understand it any more than to know this: it is an invitation to belong. In fact, it is a symbol that you already DO belong. [1] Marcus Borg, Evolution of the Word, Harper One, 2012
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