Sunday Homily - August 26th 2018 - Faith in the Truth - I AM the Bread of Life pt. 4
Christ Taking His Leave of the Apostles
by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1250? - 1318)
I.
When you go to school,
or to work each day,
have you ever wished
that you were like someone else?
When you see Jordan roll up
in that brand new, midnight black
Dodge Challenger SRT
and you say,
“I wish I had a car like his.”
Or perhaps you see Bailey come into work;
and as she walks in the door,
you see her shoes and, oh you know,
those are Stuart Weitzman Stilettos,
and you think to yourself,
“I wish I could afford those.”
Shantell, a young mother is up at 3:00am
for the fourth night in a row
because her young infant just won’t sleep
for any length of time.
And as she sits in utter exhaustion,
in utter exasperation and tears,
she thinks,
“I wish I could be a better mom, whatever that looks like.”
You visit your family out of state,
and you attend Sunday worship at their Mega-Church,
hundreds of people, coffee is great, free WiFi,
music is inspiring
and the sermon is fresh and contemporary.
And you think to yourself,
“Maybe if my church was like this,
we would grow and be big like this one.”
Let’s admit it folks:
no matter what sphere of life we talk about,
we all play these comparison games,
don’t we?
We all find ourselves wishing for that better car,
those more stylish shoes,
that perfect parenting manual,
or that shiny, popular, BIG church.
We see that the popular people in our culture have those nice cars,
wear those stylish shoes,
are happy to detail the perfect parenting formula,
and go to those “fresh, contemporary” mega-churches.
And perhaps, you won’t find it surprising that
when we don’t have those nice cars,
when we don’t have those stylish shoes
when we aren’t those perfect parents
when our church isn’t filled to the brim
We feel like something’s wrong with us.
When we aren’t popular,
when we aren’t stylish,
when we have a difficult day with our kids,
when we fail to bring the masses to church
when we fail to be “fresh and contemporary”
We think we are failing.
Friends, fellow followers of Jesus Christ:
are these things -
cars, clothes, flawless parenting,
tons of people stacking the pews -
what our Lord really wants from us?
II.
but it doesn’t sound like Jesus is really after being popular.
In our final Gospel lesson from John chapter 6,
Jesus is faced with major resistance to his teaching
both externally from the crowd around him
and internally from his own followers.
And what was the disagreement about?
Well, you’ve heard him these past 5 weeks:
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood
you have no life in you.
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
have eternal life,
and I will raise them up
on the last day.
For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
abide in me, and I in them.” [John 6:53-56]
And we, as Christians, hear the echoes of Jesus’s institution:
“Take, eat: this is my Body…
Drink this, all of you: this is my Blood…”
[c.f. Matt. 26:26 and 1 Cor. 11:24]
Jesus, in the Gospel of John,
makes it clear what He is talking about:
the Holy Communion.
But notice what happens after Jesus says this.
Not only was he criticized by the crowd,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
but he encounters heavy resistance
from his own disciples.
Followers of Jesus,
who had been with him for a decently long time,
now tell Jesus,
“This teaching is crazy.
Who on earth will believe you?”
[para. John 6:60]
And how does our Lord respond?
Jesus responds, not by saying that what he said was metaphor.
He responds, not by qualifying what he said previously.
Instead, Jesus doubles down on his teaching:
“Does this offend you?
What [then] if you were to see
the Son of Man ascending
to where He was before?”
Basically, Jesus is drawing a line in the sand.
And, as we know only a few verses later,
many of Jesus’s disciples left him because of this teaching.
They abandoned him, and only 12 were left.
When the Truth is worth losing followers,
Jesus chooses the Way, the Truth, and the Life,
because that is who He is.
III.
we have walked through our Eucharistic theology
our belief as Episcopalians that Jesus is actually present
in His Sacrament,
the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar:
the Holy Communion.
We heard from the ancient church in the Didache (see July 29)
from Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church (July 29, Aug 5),
from St. Paul (August 12).
But ultimately, we must look to the Truth.
Just like the Didache, like Thomas Aquinas, like St. Paul,
we must look to Jesus Christ, the Eternal Truth.
“What the Truth hath spoken,
that for truth I hold.” (Adoro Devote, Hymn 314 Hymnal 1982)
And Jesus apparently thought it was worth losing disciples
to maintain the Truth of His continual presence in the Sacrament.
Because Jesus didn’t want shallow followers.
He didn’t want people who came to Him just to see the spectacle.
Jesus may not drive the fancy cars
or wear the fancy clothes.
But neither does he sacrifice the Truth
in order to fill up our church pews
or put money in our church budgets.
No. Rather, our loving Lord calls us to be faithful.
Faithful above all else,
in spite of all else,
and because that Faith
that child-like faith,
is what actually saves the world.
IV.
may never have the theological insight
of St. Paul or Thomas Aquinas.
Most of us here will never have perfect saintly lives
in which we understand God’s will perfectly.
We who are gathered here may never have the fancy cars,
may never wear the fancy clothes,
may never be the best parents,
and may never be as big as Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock.
But, friends,
Jesus doesn’t call us to be those things.
Jesus’s first call to us as disciples is to be faithful.
We are called to be faithful to Jesus,
obeying His teaching,
rather than our own feeble philosophies;
or the so-called wisdom being sold to us
by the world.
We are called to be faithful to Jesus,
even when the entire world may claim
to know a better, more reasonable way
than the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Because, friends, what our Eucharistic theology says about us,
what our belief in the Real Presence in the Sacrament means,
is that we take God’s Eternal Word as truth
when Jesus freely chose to reveal that truth
to us in our sinful and frail humanity.
We, by our faith in Jesus, turn to Him,
even if there are only 12 of us left that follow,
as was the case with Jesus in our Gospel this morning.
And we join St. Peter and Thomas Aquinas, and St. Paul,
and all the faithful saints throughout the ages
in saying,
“Where else can we go? You, [Jesus], have the Words of Eternal Life.
We truly believe you to be the Christ,
the Son of the Most High God.” [John 6:69]
Having faith in Jesus,
that Saving Faith in Jesus,
means that no matter what the circumstances
we know He in whom we have put our trust.
Never be ashamed for taking Jesus at His word.
Be joyful in the constant coming of Jesus every Sunday
when we gather to receive Him in the Holy Mysteries.
And now go and invite people to come to Jesus:
People who don’t have the fancy cars.
People who don’t wear the fancy clothes.
Parents who struggle with their worth
Christians burnt out by superficial worship
deprived of Christ’s real presence.
And let us join together in following Jesus,
as the disciples of Jesus who walk by faith
and not by sight.
In the Name of the + Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Comments
Post a Comment