Introduction
I preached this sermon the weekend of Aug. 16, 2009, the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb.
Readings
Proverbs 9:1-6
Psalm 34:9-14 (10)
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58
Prayer
Let us pray…
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation[s] of [our] heart[s]
be acceptable to you,
O LORD, [our] rock and [our] redeemer.” Amen. (Psalm 19:14, NRSV)
Message
One of the ways to get a handle
on our preoccupations
as individuals and as a culture
is to scan the book racks
at Wal-Mart or Target.
And whether you check out those titles
or spend a little time channel-surfing
through the infomercials on TV,
the same conclusion is clear.
We enjoy reading and hearing about—
and then trying out—
diet and fitness programs.
Just mentioning some of the names
helps us recall different phases
in our national obsession:
Pritikin, Atkins, South Beach,
Weight Watchers, and Jenny Craig.
It’s easy to become confused
trying to sort out the sometimes
conflicting advice these diets offer.
But they all hold out before us,
like crowns waiting to encircle our heads,
or medals on ribbons waiting to be draped upon our necks,
a single, unified hope or aspiration.
If we pursue
—with diligence of will and discipline to the rules—
the game plan of the new diet, the new fitness regimen,
then we will achieve the health we desire
and the physique we long for.
There’s something in us that draws us
to this promise,
draws us like moths to a flame,
like dogs to a bone.
It’s almost as if we cannot help ourselves,
like we are wired to want to believe a promise to be true,
whatever the promise may be.
And so, whether it is a diet or an exercise plan,
a one-in-a-million chance to win the lottery,
a management tool that offers the ten easy steps
or the five secret principles,
we are drawn to plans and programs
that promise the fulfillment of our hopes.
And preferably with a minimum of pain and inconvenience.
For several weeks now
we have been listening to and reflecting upon
the conversation that Jesus has with the crowds
in John’s Gospel.
And in a way, the crowds and Jesus have been talking together
about precisely these questions:
In what do we hope?
And what do our lives look like when we pursue that hope?
In fact, the conversation has turned
to the question of the spiritual diet
of those who seek to live as followers of the Lord.
Jesus says to the crowd:
“Whoever eats of this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51, NRSV)
And then, immediately, the people in the crowd
“…dispute[] among themselves, saying,
‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’” (John 6:52, NRSV)
Jesus hears their question, their confusion,
and responds with a promise,
an assurance about the hope that God will fulfill
in the diet he offers them:
“Very truly, I tell you,
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.” (John 6:53-55, NRSV)
Jesus promises the crowd—and us—
that when we eat the bread of heaven, which is his flesh,
and when we drink the cup of salvation, which is his blood,
then we have what he promises us:
life in him, Jesus, the Son,
the blessings of the Spirit,
and the promise of eternal life with the Father.
This diet is not a fad.
It does not offer us a false and empty hope.
It does not seek to take advantage of us
when we are weak and vulnerable
and prone to grasp at any brass ring dangling before us.
It does not require us to pay any user fees
or buy any instruction books or memberships.
This diet—the living bread of heaven and the cup of salvation—
is God’s gift, freely broken and shared,
graciously blessed and poured out for us,
offered without conditions
to each one of us and to every child of God
everywhere and at all times.
This is the promise, the Gospel,
the Good News, the Word for us.
And while it may not make sense
according to the ways of this world,
or generate big profits,
or catch the attention of crowds
ceaselessly prowling for the newest, the flashiest, the latest and greatest,
it makes all the sense that really matters.
It is God’s truth for us.
It is his Wisdom come to us in his Word.
And in fact, the Church has a long and holy tradition
of connecting Word and Wisdom and Christ.
We’re reminded that John’s Gospel
begins by proclaiming that the Word is with God and is God,
and announcing that this Word became flesh in Jesus Christ.
And because of this message,
the Church then reads the Hebrew Scriptures,
what we call the Old Testament,
with ears attuned to hearing Christ,
to seeing the Word revealed in snatches and glimpses
in the holy texts of God’s people.
That’s why, when we hear today’s reading from Proverbs,
we can connect its message about Wisdom
with the Gospel’s message about the Word.
The writer of Proverbs tells us that Wisdom
invites the simple and the lowly to her house, saying:
“‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Lay aside immaturity, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.’” (Proverbs 9:5-6, NRSV)
For us, this is a reminder, an echo, of Jesus’ invitation
to eat the living bread and drink the cup of salvation,
to come to his feast and receive life.
And the beauty of this passage is that it tells us
what our lives ought to look like
when we have received this invitation and then responded to it.
God the Father, in his Wisdom, his Son, the Word,
calls us to a life in their Spirit,
to a journey on a certain path.
He calls us to set aside immaturity in favor of life.
He invites us to walk in the way of insight, of Wisdom.
This helps us along the way,
when we come to times of decision in our lives
and must choose a path to take.
We know that we can trust God
to sustain us through his gifts.
And then, we can listen to his Wisdom
to guide us away from immaturity
and to take the path that leads to insight.
Then the Psalmist shows us a glimpse of what this life looks like:
“Keep your tongue from evil,
and your lips from speaking deceit.
Depart from evil, and do good;
seek peace, and pursue it.” (Psalm 34:13-14, NRSV)
This is our calling from God;
this is the path along which we walk.
And when we respond to this call,
we step out together along this path.
Then, along the way,
we can cling to God’s promise,
we can hold the hand of the Word made flesh,
we can trust in God’s Wisdom and rely upon the strength
that we receive from the bread of heaven
and the cup of salvation,
as we are fed for the journey of faith. Amen.