John 6:56-69
August 25, 2024
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| Jesus Feeding the Multitudes Eric Feather |
This teaching is difficult, who can accept it?
The
disciples are right. The whole idea of communion
is
difficult, and the way Jesus asks us to live it out
is
difficult, it’s so difficult, that we seem to have
gotten
one of its main concepts wrong for
a
very long time.
This
teaching is difficult.
Yes, there are all the
theological wranglings:
Transubstantiation
or consubstantiation.
Essence
verses being, the true presence,
in,
with, and under all that stuff.
But
difficult to understand is not what I’m talking about
and
I don’t think it’s what the disciples are talking about either.
They
mean it’s tough to accept,
and
it’s tough to practice in real life.
Gnawing
on everything that Jesus commands is difficult.
This last five weeks we’ve
been reading John 6.
It’s
called the Bread of Life series and it’s
where
Jesus tells people that he is the bread of life.
So
we’ve been talking about Jesus and
food,
and eating, and communion, and Christ’s table.
I did a little overview of
all the places in the 4 gospels
where
Jesus was eating or talking about eating.
I counted 25 incidences in the gospels where
Jesus was eating with people or talking
about
people eating together.
Not
one of these are family meals.
They’re
all kind of like dinner parties.
where
others could kind of look in.
They
weren’t private.
And
indeed in the temperate climate
lots
of people ate outside and some say it’s possible that
their
houses were open to the street in view of others.
Mark Allen Powell who is a
New Testament
professor at Trinity Seminary
said
that Jesus did more than just eat one the patio
with
people. He says it’s likely that Jesus purposely
made
a display of his meals to everyone.
Even
more than the gospels tell us about.
He suggested that as part of his mission work,
every
time Jesus would travel into a new town
his
gang of disciples would pick a very public place,
lay
down the giant blanket and the pillows,
pull
out the food and just invite people over.
Jesus
made a spectacle out of his meals.
I was intrigued by this
image. It rang true.
It
was an open and free party.
It
was feeding those who needed it.
And
it was also a testament to those observing:
Jesus
was eating with everyone. And especially
inviting
those who were outcasts from other group meals.
Most
famously with tax collectors and sinners,
who
Mark Allen Powell said could more specifically
be
characterized today as mafia strong-arms and sex workers.
Vice-squad
targets. People rejected from main stream society.
They
all could openly come for food and friendship.
This teaching is difficult.
I grew up in a
denomination that restricted
who
could and couldn’t have communion.
They were very selective on who could come.
That seemed to be the norm to me.
Only
certain people who belonged to the
denomination
could eat with us.
Only
certain ages, and beliefs,
only
the baptized, only the un-divorced,
There
was a tussle in my church about whether a teenager,
who
was born and baptized in the congregation,
and
who had gotten pregnant,
would
be allowed to take communion.
I don’t think this is
unusual at all.
Most
denominations have some restrictions.
Some
are more intense about it than others.
And even in documents we
have about the earliest
church,
they seemed to gravitate to that
kind
of model, putting wide requirements on
who
could and couldn’t eat at the churches table.
When I was in that
environment, I thought that was the most
difficult
part about this meal.
That
is wasn’t for everyone. It was only for the ones who
attained
some simple accomplishments, or those who
at
least avoided something like divorce and teen pregnancy.
I
thought that’s what made it special and sacred.
But in looking at all of those eating events in the gospel,
That
was never the issue for everyone looking in.
Never
once did those Pharisees or scribes say about Jesus,
“Why does he only invite certain
people to his meals?
They never say: He shouldn’t
turn so many people away.
If this man was really a
prophet he would have known
who he turned away! That
never happened.
Jesus was only asked why
so many
of the
wrong people were invited.
They
asked, “Why does he eat with tax
collectors and sinners?
This fellow welcomes sinners
and eats with them.
If this man was a prophet,
he would have
known what kind of woman
that was at his table.”
Jesus is always criticized for being too open with his
meals.
That
is the part that is difficult.
That
is the part that the church has gotten wrong for so long.
Having
the true body and blood of Christ
and
not wanting to withhold it use it as a reward, or a bribe,
or
as a tool of manipulation. Having the power of Christ,
and
not using it for our own power or the power of the church.
This
is difficult teaching.
So our tables at the ELCA and some other denominations are open.
Meaning
anyone can have communion at an ELCA church
even
if they come from another denomination.
And there are many
churches and pastors
who
have taken that extra step to say
that
anyone of any age, is invited,
and
we don’t ask whether people are baptized
or
confirmed or on the right or wrong path.
Everyone
is welcome to our tables
because
everyone was welcome to Jesus table.
And we do get guff for
that, we are told we’re not faithful,
that
we’re not doing it right, that we’re abandoning tradition.
We
get told were lazy and we don’t regard
Jesus
table with enough respect or sacredness.
We’re
told “We need to put more limits on Christ’s table.”
When
what we’re actually trying to do is imitate Christ.
And
be more like what the scriptures repeatedly describe.
But the world is more
comfortable with us when we’re exclusive
and
restrictive and make strong lines of demarcation
between
“them and us”.
But
we knew before we started,
that
this is teaching was difficult.
So we, in this room, might
all be onboard with this,
we
might actually be okay with opening our tables
and
eating with mafia thugs and sex workers.
And
even people of another denomination or no denomination at all.
We
might be okay with that kind of openness.
All
friends of Jesus and friends of each other.
But at this table, on the
night in which he was betrayed
Jesus
took the bread and the wine and he ate.
He
ate with the one who denied him.
With
the ones who ran and hid when the going was tough.
And
he ate with the one who would betray him
and
turn him over the authorities and have him killed.
Nothing
feels worse than friends who turn on you.
But
Jesus ate with all of them none the less.
And I don’t know how I feel about that.
Eating with
people who turned their back on me,
betrayed
me and did me harm.
That’s another level of openness that I’m not sure about.
This is teaching is really difficult at times.
There was an Anglican priest named Father Wiggit
who ministered to the
political prisoners
in South Africa in the early 1980’s.
To remind everyone, in South Africa there was brutal,
blatant,
cruel, and non-optional
segregation and racial brutality
against black people in South
Africa by
the Dutch and British
colonists who settled there.
Black people were
arrested, starved, tortured,
and killed for minor infractions like walking in the wrong neighborhood,
or saying anything negative
about their situation.
Many were also imprisoned in horrible
concentration camps for
decades.
Nelson Mandela was one of those who was imprisoned for
speaking out against
apartheid and
he was held in different work
camps from 1962 – 1990.
Father Wiggit told this story:
Every week he would come and
share
communion with the prisoners.
A few of them would sit
around a little table in a nasty room,
and there was always a prison
warden who was assigned
to come and observe the
proceedings.
The guard would just sit
there during the service stone-faced,
and make sure that there was
no ‘suspicious’
activity happening, no secret
information shared.
Father Wiggit did this for
years at this camp
with the same warden
watching.
In 1982, Nelson Mandela had already been in various prison
labor camps for 20 years.
And he was transferred to the
prison that Wiggit served.
The first time that Nelson
Mandela was there,
he joined the prisoners for
communion.
Father Wiggit started the
communion liturgy and
Mandela stopped him. He yelled
out to the warden
and asked him if he was a
Christian.
The warden said “yes” and
Mandela said,
"Well
then, you should be over here.
Take off your
hat and come join us.”
And the guard took of his hat and joined them.
Father Wiggit
said in the 10 years he had been doing this,
he had never thought of inviting the
warden,
He said he just saw him as an apartheid functionary.
He said as soon as Mandela did it, he saw the guard’s face change.
He was not the cold person he had been for so many years.
Mandela saw him as a brother in Christ and invited him to the
table.
It made all the difference there.
Mandela lived the teaching of Jesus.
He gnawed on the whole body of Christ.
Not just part of it. This is difficult teaching.
But doesn’t that feel right? Doesn’t
that feel like Jesus way?
Doesn’t that way feel like it has the
power to save the world?
Wherever this table is, in a church, or living room,
or on a lap in a nursing home,
or in a visiting room of a prison:
This is Christ’s table, it’s not my table,
it’s not the pastor’s table, it’s not the church’s table,
and it’s not even the ELCA’s Table.
It’s always Jesus table.
It is to be made ready for those who love him
and those who want to love him more.
This is Jesus
table, Jesus is our host
and so it is always Jesus guest-list
that we have to honor.
Every time we
have communion together
and we open this table up to everyone,
and share Christ’s body and blood with
anyone that might drift in, anyone that might
care to join us (and some that might not care at all)
we make a public testament and a witness to
the depth and breadth of God’s love.
We sit across
the table and share this sacred
food with our enemies, those that don’t share,
that don’t believe our struggles or opinions.
Those who don’t understand us or agree with us.
Those who betray us and deny us.
Even those who keep us captive,
and who treat us and others with great injustice.
And when we do it, we are saying this is how God is
this is what Jesus commands.
Jesus is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
If we want the bread that lasts forever,
we have to share the way that Jesus shared.
This is
difficult teaching.
But like Simon Peter said to Jesus,
“Where else are we gonna go?”
Jesus has the words and the ways of life.
Jesus has the way to change the world.
This food that we share keeps us coming back.
This is the body
of Christ, this is the bread of life.
The sacred meal that we join together to share.
The meal that we ingest, gnaw on,
that becomes a part of us.
This has the power of reconciliation,
the power of forgiveness.
The power to help and to heal.
The power to bring us together.
As difficult as this teaching is,
This is living bread from heaven.
This is Jesus Christ
And he has the words and the ways of eternal life.
