Concordia Lutheran Church
11th Week of Pentecost- August 15, 2009
“Do You Want to…”
John 6:51-69 and Joshua 24:14-18
† IHS †
{My dear friends}, grace and peace has been poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ.
(Eph 1:3 Message mod.)
A Question, and a similar call
In the gospel reading today, a question is asked, one similar to the decision Joshua asks the people of God to make in the reading from the Old Testament. Both are nice to read, because there, it is not us being asked. It is not us squirming between two options, the one we know we need to make, and the one that is more convenient to make.
But what if they were asked of us today, and a decision was called for, could we honestly face ourselves?
What would happen if I like Joshua, were to demand that you choose to serve, gods of the past, or gods of our present world, or admit and serve the God that we know is good? Are you ready to stop choosing to sin, stop chasing after the false gods of this age, and to get serious about your faith?
Or what if you were asked by God, Do you want to go away as well? Or are you ready to embrace the great mysteries of our faith, and be shepherded by God into places that could lead to death, or worse, to being mocked for believing that which is scandalous, and perhaps from the world’s view, silly? I mean, do we really comprehend the depth of what it means for God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to be not just the source for life, but the source and meaning of that life?
Do we really want to take 10 minutes, and look into what it means, to be in a covenant relationship with God? Are we willing to be honest, to look at our lives, and consider the depth of our commitment to God? To look, not just at Sunday between nine and noon, but to look at Monday morning at eleven, sitting in the doctor’s office? Are we ready to look at 2 a.m., when our sleep Is broken by the worry’s of life? What about Friday night between 7 and midnight for those under 40, or you know 9:30 for the rest of us?
Do our lives testify to a desire that answers those questions as the apostles and Israel did? If not, are we willing to renew the relationship, as God would demand, and yes, welcome?
The Parties
Whose asking?
I wonder if who asks us to make the decision to choose, or who asks us if we are going to leave makes the difference. I mean, were I to ask you, I imagine most of you would, like I would should another pastor ask me, respond with an enthusiastic yes! Of course I would recognize God is good, and that all other gods are worthless! And would I ever leave God behind, and go after something less demanding, less challenging, easier to understand? Like the apostle Peter, I would hastily reply – No, I would never ever, ever, ever leave you Lord!
But what if we were face to face with God, and it was Him asking us to commit to a relationship with Him, a relationship that had some level of accountability, some demand for interaction, some demand for transparent intimacy, basically, that we would be faithful to Him, and grow in our love and service?
Would you answer the almighty, all knowing, all powerful God with such fervor, with such assurance? Would you tell Him, that you are ready to trust Him, to the point that whatever He desired to do with you, wherever He led you in the world, you were ready to follow, without any doubt?
If you answered in positively, how do you deal with the times where, you didn’t uphold your part of the deal?
The Need for Renewal
There was sin
There will be temptation
Renewal?
If you are like me, the times I have tried to respond to God, by my own strength or wisdom, are numerous. The times were my emotions drove me to my knees, to enthusiastically commit my way to God, or to confess him in front of others. So many times I thought that my faithfulness would move mountains, if God would only let me have the power, and then get out of my way! The only problem is, that most of the time, okay, all the time, my good intentions were not support by my actions, and left me open to failure, sometimes spectacularly so.
Just like the Israelites in Joshua’s day, and like Peter in the Gospel, I had two problems. The sins of the past, and the temptations of the future. Remember, by the time the book of Joshua started, the people of God had wandered about in the desert for forty years, because they struggled with being faithful to the pledge they made at Mount Sinai, when they were marked as God’s people, with the blood of the sacrifice that would cover their sin. After Joshua leads them into God’s Holy Land, the place He set apart for them to celebrate in His presence as He provided for them, they would be tempted time and time again. So often, they would choose to do what was right in their eyes, or in the eyes of their neighbors who chased false Gods.
Peter was no different. A loud and often wrong man, his intention to serve God was not well-tempered. I mean, Peter had the nerve to tell Jesus that Jesus didn’t need to die for us! He fell for the temptation to fight to defend Jesus in the garden, slicing off a guys ear, ( I think he was actually trying to behead him…)
I sometimes wonder why God puts up with our failures, especially for those of us who swear we love Him? There are days, I will admit, that I sometimes wish He wouldn’t. Why not just be done with us, for the failures can sometimes crush us, or we harden ourselves to them, tired of having to ask for forgiveness again and again.
In theology-speak, we need to renew the covenant. We need to do what Joshua calls on Israel to do, and what the apostles realize they need – to understand and see the covenant a-new – to hear again the incredible promises of God, for those He has called, or to use John’s words, granted the right to come into His presence, to be quickened, given life, by the Holy Spirit.
The Promise
10 phrases about life
Generated,
Not just Bios, but Zoe
So come…
We need to realize that God hasn’t removed us from His people – the promise that He gave us in our baptism hasn’t disappeared because of our stumbling around in sin, and sometimes unfaithful. AM I excusing our behavior? No, absolutely not.
I am pointing you to this altar – where God’s faithfulness is demonstrated as He is your host, and the very nourishment you need, to see the covenant as if it was brand new. Your sins forgiven, as Thomas a Kempis noted, He calls us to this feast, broken sinners who will be made whole, people who struggle with what is right, and need God’s love and care, and receive it.
Ten times in the gospel, it notes that our life is found in Christ. We are promised to live forever, should we be nourished by God. We are told His flesh is the bread that is the life of the world. Without being sustained by His body and Blood, there is no life in us, and we are not promised to be raised on the last day.
In the Bible, there are two words for life - the first is bios, where we get biology from. The almost physical, mechanical fact that we are alive. Blood flows throughout the body. Zoe is far different – it is cognitive, conscious, life of existing, the kind of life that has meaning and definition. That is the life that is given, that is generated, begotten in us by the very work of God in our baptism. The kind of life that enters into a relationship, and is capable of finding incredible joy, and incredible pain, in the midst of those relationships – especially the relationship we were together created to have – with God.
And yes, like any relationship, sin can mar it, and cause pain, and even doubt, and a sense that it is broken. It is because of this, we need to be re-assured, and find the covenant and its promises renewed.
This is the place of covenant renewal – but it is not so much that we re-pledge our faith, or re-commit, as much as the place where we are renewed, the place where we are strengthened, reminding and sustained by the very Body and Blood which was given and shed for us. Renewed that we might again cry out again in praise and wonder; realizing that God is our God, who has renewed the covenant. That, because of the covenant, He can be our soul desire; it is His faithfulness that sustains it, and calls us back, and strengthens us. Peter said it – where else is there to go, you have the words of life.
I would end this sermon, by reading the quote of A Kempis again. Hear the words, let them stick to your heart and mind…
COME to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.43 The bread which I will give is My Flesh, for the life of the world.44 Take you and eat: this is My Body, which shall be delivered for you. Do this for the commemoration of Me.45 He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him.46 The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
THESE are all Your words, O Christ, eternal Truth, though they were not all spoken at one time nor written together in one place. And because they are Yours and true, I must accept them all with faith and gratitude. They are Yours and You have spoken them; they are mine also because You have spoken them for my salvation. Gladly I accept them from Your lips that they may be the more deeply impressed in my heart.
Words of such tenderness, so full of sweetness and love, encourage me; but my sins frighten me and an unclean conscience thunders at me when approaching such great mysteries as these. The sweetness of Your words invites me, but the multitude of my vices oppresses me.
You command me to approach You confidently if I wish to have part with You, and to receive the food of immortality if I desire to obtain life and glory everlasting.
“Come to me,” You say, “all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.”48
Oh, how sweet and kind to the ear of the sinner is the word by which You, my Lord God, invite the poor and needy to receive Your most holy Body! Who am I, Lord, that I should presume to approach You? Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, and yet You say: “Come, all of you, to Me.”
Come, and know that there is an incredible peace, between you and your God. The peace which passes all understanding, and guards you, heart and mind, as you are in Christ Jesus!
AMEN?
