Readings

FIRST LESSON

The first lesson is from The Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen

“Even the price of our products and the use of our money should be determined by the praise of God’s mysterious presence in our lives.”

This hit me hard since I had just begun to realize how much my own life was motivated by self-glory: even going to a monastery could be a form of self-indulgence. My problem with work is obviously related to my tendency to look at manual labor as a necessary job to earn a couple of free hours to do my own work. Even when this work seems very spiritual, such as reading about prayers, I often look at it more as an opportunity to make interesting notes for future lectures or books than as a way to praise God. I remember vividly how the Jesuits in high school made me write above almost every page AMDG (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam – to the Greater Glory of God), but I am overwhelmed by the realization of how little of that has become true during the twenty-four years since high school.

And still I know that living for the glory of God would make everything different. Even living for each other would then be living for the glory of God. It is God’s glory that becomes visible in a loving community. This sounds pious and sweet but when someone said to me, “We get to know each other so well that we take each other for granted and forget to realize that we are more than our characters,” I became aware of the powerful implications of living for the glory of God. When we indeed participate in the life of God we will always discover more of God’s mystery in each other. Heaven was once described as the ongoing discovery of God’s mystery by living in the most intimate presence of God and each other. The Christian life on earth is simply the beginning of this heavenly existence.

SECOND LESSON

The second lesson is from the Gospel of John, Chapter 6, verses 41 through 51

Then some among them began to complain about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the One who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from God comes to me. Not that anyone has seen God except the one who is from God; that one has seen God. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

This Week's Sermon

Date: August 23, 2009

Title: Bread of Life, Water of Life

Message Delivered By: Rev. Dr. Joe McMurray

There were two wealthy brothers – Sam and Steve Miser, who, as far as appearances, looked great on the outside. They attended church regularly. They gave generously to the church and to many other civic and social organizations. They appeared to be models of good citizenship, examples of a healthy Christian lifestyle, and said all the right things to convince many people of their solid standing in the community.

However, those who knew them the best, those who engaged in business with them, those in their immediate families, and those who felt the impact of their social dealings, knew that the Miser brothers were manipulative, underhanded and dishonest.

Meanwhile, a new Pastor came to lead the church where the brothers were members. He had been told about the brothers’ business shady dealings and decided not to ask them for help as he and the Board continued plans for a campaign to extend the church.

Without warning, Sam Miser died of a heart attack. The new Pastor was asked to preside over the funeral. The day before the funeral, the deceased man’s brother sidled up to the Pastor and said, “I have something for you.” He wrote a check on the spot for the full amount needed to complete the church extension. The Pastor was flabbergasted, and he knew there had to be something more. “But there’s one condition for you to receive this check,” Steve Miser said. “You must tell people that my brother, Sam, was a saint.”

The Pastor raised his eyes to heaven, prayed for strength, and suddenly nodded, and agreed to the surviving brother’s request. He deposited the check that afternoon, and sat down to compose his eulogy.

The next day, at the funeral, the Pastor looked out and said very plainly, “We all know Sam Miser was a very wealthy man. And he was hard-hearted man.” There was a gasp from the people in attendance. “He was hard on his wife, he cheated people in business, he was a disgrace to his parents and his family, he was corrupt and immoral.” The Pastor went on like this for about 15 more minutes. As he concluded his remarks, he said the following, “Sam Miser was a disgrace to the human race, but compared to his brother, Steve, he was an absolute saint.”
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Will you pray with me? God, we use any number of ways to connect to you—through prayer, work, relationships, our love for one another, and especially through the mercy we show to those who are most in need. Help us always distinguish you from material need, ego, selfishness, and other false gods that beckon us only to safe choices. While we know that risk comes with love, help us to overcome our fears that we may know the depth of this gift of love you have given. May my words and all of our thoughts be filled with praise and glory to you. Amen.
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As many of us know, the gospel of John is one of a very high Christology, which means that its focus is mostly on the divine nature of Jesus. Biblical scholars will confirm, that each gospel, as it was written, was pieced together in a particular way to influence the reader—we might say to convince, or persuade the audience—by adding a particular slant to the story or embellishing the language used. This was even true within the synoptic gospels—the three gospels that contain some of the identical language that was obtained from a single source.

For example, Matthew concentrated on Jesus being the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Old Testament—conveying that Jesus was the Messiah who fulfilled God’s promise to ancient Israel. Mark highlighted the ministry of Jesus with emphasis on the miracles performed as evidence of God’s power and influence working in the world. Luke’s emphasis was on the human side of Jesus, tracing his lineage back to Adam and Eve, focusing on the relationships Jesus forged in his life as he brought the marginalized into the fold of this new understanding of faith.

In the same way, Paul’s letters were sometimes contradictory. He would claim one thing to a certain community and something else to another community. He did this because, no doubt, he wrote about what he felt called to say based on what was happening to a that community at the time. In the same way, what I preach to this community might be different than what I preach to another faith community right here in Key West, or another MCC community in another part of the country or the world, depending upon many factors including history, tradition, belief, identity, style of worship, etc. The underlying principles might be the same, but the choice of words and the interpretation might be very different.
The point is not in doubting the validity of the difference of the words but to listen for authenticity in the content and context.

Contrary to this, we can believe different things said about Jesus to varying degrees, and still take the overall intent or purpose to heart. A scriptural account of an event may not ring true with regard to probability, but at the same time, the underlying meaning may hold a very important and valuable lesson for us. In this case, the literal interpretation is less important than the message the author is trying to convey.

This is especially true in our lesson today. Jesus declares: “I am the bread of life. No one comes to me unless they were drawn to me by God. I am the living bread, unlike manna, which, also from God, did not sustain life forever. But whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

We can get hung up on semantics and literal interpretation of what Jesus meant, or we can look to what is meaningful about this passage to each of us individually.

I’ve talked recently about the bread of life. I’ve spoken about us as a community in that same context—that, symbolically, we are the bread of life. Through this particular interpretation, what I meant was that we, as Christian community, are the continuation of the work and the life, and the ministry of Jesus.

When Jesus said, “All who are true to their faith must come through me,” did he mean himself personally? Or did he mean through the belief and practice of his teachings—that we love one another and care for one another?

Ultimately, the choices we make about what these stories mean and as to what the truth really is are best made by the hearer, not by religions, not by governments and not by overlords or people in positions of power.

If so, in that context, we might say that Jesus was the bread of life because of who he was, what he believed, what he practiced, and what he asked of his disciples and his followers, then we, too, must live up to that standard. We too must be the bread of life, and the body of Christ, as Christian community.
In a similar way, Christians have traditionally viewed the sacrament of baptism from the position that since Jesus was baptized by John, though baptism was not part of his own tradition, we, too, should be baptized as a symbol of our oneness with Jesus and our oneness with God.

But John the Baptist also said, “I have baptized you with water, but one who is coming will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Again, we might interpret this in a number of ways.

Most Christian churches require baptism in order for a person to become members of the church. Some of us were baptized as children and didn’t have the option to be baptized. Others made the choice as adults that this was the way they could demonstrate their oneness with God and firmly establish their spiritual connection to Jesus.

Others view baptism as merely one of many symbols of a faith or belief that can be demonstrated in other ways. In this way, Baptism become a very personal choice based on an individual’s understanding, belief, and how they choose to participate in community.

At MCC, our bylaws currently state that Baptism is a requirement for membership in our church. I believe that we, as a very special and unique community that explicitly conveys our desire for inclusion and diversity, may want to have further exploration of this rule, to pursue all perspectives and understandings about what baptism means to us as a community and what it means to us as individuals. But the time for that discussion is not today.

There is one among us today who has chosen to be baptized and then, to become a member of this church. She has done so completely of her own free will, with her own understanding of what baptism means to her life, what is symbolizes for her as a child of God, and what the implications of that are as she and three others officially join this community.

Henri Nouwen describes all of life as a commitment to God. He spoke of being forced to write Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam—to the Greater Glory of God—on all of his writing assignments in school. I recall writing “JMJ” (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) on my homework (I attended “Holy Family Catholic Church”).

But Nouwen goes beyond a basic understanding of symbolism and ritual and points to deeper symbols and rituals: the symbol of our love for each other and the love of God and ritual of the work we do and the efforts we make every day to be better human beings and to all of this for the glory of God and in thanksgiving for all that God has made possible.

This does not necessarily change the importance of symbolism and ritual in our faith. But the capacity is there to enhance it.

Water symbolizes new life; bread symbolizes sustenance—things we need in order to thrive and to live. This becomes true in both a practical sense and in a spiritual sense.

Baptism means that we take on a new layer of identity, even if that identity is known only between us and God. It isn’t important what we collectively know—it is important what we individually know, and what God knows to be true about us.

Membership also takes on new meaning when it happens in this church. It means that we believe in the ideals of the church, in the purpose and mission of the church. It means that we wish to participate fully in achieving the goals that will fulfill that mission.

It means that we will support the church in every way possible whether we agree with it or not; and it means that when we do not agree, we promise to make our voices heard in a helpful and healing way so that others may hear our perspective and advice.

Most often, it is this last part is the most difficult to fulfill. It’s a heckuva lot easier just to pack up our bags and leave so we don’t have to speak the truth and face possible confrontation. But the ability to do so—to stay with it—
really says more about our trust in community and our faith in God and our love for one another than anything else.

Last week we learned that faith without works is dead. So it is with the action of belonging through membership; the solemn pledge that we make when we officially join this community that cements us one to the other. We don’t have to be a members to participate here. Non-members are not treated differently.
But membership does have special meaning; it is an added commitment, a statement of purpose, a pledge of cooperation, a promise that we will not abandon this community of faith, and would consider leaving it only after serious soul-searching, self-examination, discussion and a full exploration of being called elsewhere.

Speaking the vows of membership is an opportunity to stand before the entire community and say “Yes” both to the community and to God.

And baptism is the opportunity to invite God in to know us in every personal and intimate way without shame, regret or hesitation.