Pentecost 11B 09/08/2015The four gospels each, in their own way, addresses those who are victims. The gospel of Mark addresses those who are victims of oppression. Mark says Jesus came to us, the strong Son of God, and immediately confronted the powers that harm human life. Jesus subdued the wind and sea. He subdued the demons of mind and strength. He battled the very powers of hell. Even death stretched out to strike him down but in the end, Jesus is victorious over the powers that damage and oppress. The gospel of Matthew is directed to victims of casual discipleship and to those who have forgotten the demands of being a Christian. For Matthew, Jesus is the teacher who makes difficult demands such as, “Turn the other cheek when one strikes you,” “Enter by the narrow gate,” “Do not hoard treasures on earth,” and “Forgive your enemies.” At the final judgment, the question that will distinguish the righteous from the unrighteous is the simple question, “How did you respond to your neighbour?” In Matthew there are no shortcuts in living a holy life. Luke’s gospel is addressed to victims of amnesia, particularly to those who have forgotten that Christianity comes from the cradle of Judaism. Luke’s story begins with the priest Zechariah in the temple. It ends with the disciples praising God in the temple. In-between Jesus is born King in David’s hometown. He is reared in the practices of Israel. When he preaches at the outset of his ministry, he says, “Everything I do has continuity with the prophets” (4:18-27). On Easter, the risen Lord says, “What I have done is fulfilling the story of Israel” (24:27). In other words, Christian faith is grounded in God’s abiding covenant to God’s people. But John’s gospel is addressed to a different kind of victim. He does not write to victims of harmful forces, victims of soft-edged faith, or victims who forget their heritage. Those whom John addresses are in a much different category. They are, quite simply, victims of religion. I realise that this sounds strange. After all, isn’t religion the business of the church? What have we come here to do but, baptise, break bread, drink wine, and act as if we’ve heard a little bit of the gospel? Here we are practicing our religion. At least it certainly looks that way. Yet it remains to be said that for the gospel of John the practices, the ceremonies, and the rules of religion have their shortcomings. There is a sense, says John, in which the practice of a religion becomes a substitute for authentic faith. This is apparent as early1as chapter 2. Jesus is at a wedding reception where the wine runs out. Standing nearby were six stone jars that the religious people used for some of their ceremonies. Each held one hundred to one hundred and fifty litres. Jesus said, “Fill them up with water.” The servants did so. “Draw some out and serve it.” Out of Jewish purification jars? That is like using the baptismal font as a punch bowl. The religious people were stunned into silence. Soon thereafter, John says Jesus went to the temple, which was full of religious people. They were practicing what they believed, namely “to believe in God is to show a profit.” Their hunger was for money. Jesus turned over the tables and drove them out. He drove the animals out and released the pigeons and shouted, “Get these things out of here! You will not turn God’s sanctuary into a discount warehouse!” The religious people ground their teeth in rage and grumbled, “What right do you have to do this?” and it caused quite a stir. 1! of !3
Or some time later, there was a man who had been sick for 38 years. He was paralyzed on his bed beside the miracle pool called Bethzatha. Popular religion said, “The pool is charmed,” like the horoscope that promises to get you through the day or the magnetic bracelet that promises to take away arthritis. Jesus went straight to the man and said, “Do you really want to get well?” The man whined, “I don’t have anybody to put me in the miracle pool.” Jesus said, “Get up and walk!” The man stood and stretched and said, “I feel pretty good!” He began to walk. He started to dance. He picked up his mattress and waltzed down the street freed from the empty promises of popular religion. Yet it was the Sabbath, says John, so the religious people pounced in protest. “You are not following the rules,” they said. “It’s not right to dance on the Sabbath, nor carry a mattress on the Sabbath, nor enjoy anything on the Sabbath.” Jesus declared, “This is God’s work. Can’t you see?” The religious people groused and grumbled. According to John’s gospel, Jesus was not very interested in religion. He was more interested in God. This is what lies beneath our Gospel this morning. People flocked to Jesus after he fed a crowd of 5,000 with loaves of bread. “But you’re only here because of your stomachs,” says Jesus. “You follow me only to satisfy yourselves. Aren’t you hungry for something more than food, for the kind of bread that doesn’t go stale?” “We don’t know what you’re talking about,” said people in the crowd. “But have you followed me, and you have not yet noticed this bread?” “What bread?” asked the crowd. “Are you talking about whole wheat or rye?” “Neither,” said Jesus, “I’m talking about the real bread, which the Father gives you from heaven.” “Oh,” said the crowd, “You mean like the manna that God gave to Israel in the wilderness?” “No,” said Jesus, “I’m not talking about bread. I’m talking about real bread; that is, to know God. That’s the bread that gives life. Nothing else. Don’t get sidetracked by anything else.” It is so easy to get sidetracked by good reasons and causes. In a certain town, there was a congregation called The Church of the Squeaking Wheel. Its theme verse, which no one could ever quite find in the Bible, was “Behold, blessed is the wheel that squeaks, for it shall always get the grease.” The principal Vestry committee was 2 the Task Force on the Wagon, usually called the Wagoneers. It happened that a stranger came to town and said, “I want to join this church you look such a friendly bunch, giving to good causes. What must I do?” “Just say, ‘I want to be a member,’ ” she was told, “and we will receive you.” So she did and they did. The next week, the new member asked, “What do you want me to do?” The answer she received as simple: “Help us keep the wagon going.” The next week, she asked, “What do we haul in the wagon?” Her question was met with a blank stare and the words, “You are new here, aren’t you?” A month later, she went to the Vicar of the Task Force on the Wagon and asked again, “What do we haul in the wagon?” The head wagoneer answered, “I don’t know. But we keep the wagon in good shape the wagon looks great to anyone looking from outside, people like you come and join us 2! of !3
good friendly caring people. If something breaks, we fix it. If something squeaks, we grease it.” And it came to pass that the stranger spent the next twenty years of her life fixing and greasing. But once in a while, deep down inside, she asked herself, “Is this all there is? It is a million times easier for a church to maintain the machinery than carry any real cargo. In the practice of maintaining a religion, we may be carrying little faith freight at all. We might get accustomed to that. The only problem is that once in a while we find ourselves asking, “Is this all there is?” Jesus said, “I come to offer bread, not cake. What I offer is not secondary. It is absolutely essential. I offer you life itself, which is the opportunity to learn of the Father. No one has seen the Father, except the one who came from above. I will show you the Father. Are you hungry for that?” Jesus is the One who says, “I am the bread of life, the bread from heaven. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, for I come to reveal the Father. And what I show of the Father will satisfy every human need.”The question is: Do we really want that? Do we really want to know what God is like? Do we want to be satisfied so deeply that we will never again go hungry, even if we are without bread and water? Or do we just want to keep on greasing that squeaky wheel? The promise of the gospel is that Jesus offers a banquet for body and soul. As surely as he provides our daily bread, he reveals the heart and mind of God. He knows what we really want is God. It is God and his Son who brings us alive if only we but knew it…. Fr Robert Newton
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