John 6:56-69
Here we are in week five of Jesus' I am the bread of life. This week the crowd has heard enough. It is hard to understand what Jesus is trying to convey here. We understand when actual food and drink is put before us. We usually sit down and eat or at least enjoy conversation and snack. The difference is true sustaining life is found in the person of Jesus and this is hard to swallow. It's hard for us even today.
I grew up in an alcoholic system. My grandfather was an alcoholic, he never got well and never kicked the habit. We would go to Al-Anon for guidance and in Al-Anon one of the things you have to do is surrender control of the situation to a higher power. Now this is hard. Everyone in the system is used to trying to control what is happening. Sometimes they hide the alcohol, or pour it all out, hide the keys to the car to keep the drunk person from driving, and everyone is used to trying to cover and keep the secret. Yet all the neighbors know, the alcoholic just goes and buys more drink, they learn to find other keys. So surrendering control is hard.
This is not different from what Jesus is saying today. I am the bread of life, the Greek word here is translated believe, but it would be better translated as rely on me, surrender your control of life to me, and you will never hunger. No wonder some didn't believe and went away. How do you really feel about relying on God? Do we fully trust Jesus to come through for us in the darkest days? Do we still try to feel as though we are the ones in control of our lives? Do we ever ask Jesus if what we are doing is from God or of ourselves?
See surrendering so we rely fully on God our higher power is hard. We like to know things will be the way we want them to be. We don't ever question or expect to hear from God or Jesus what we might need to do next and trust the situation will be taken care of. It's why Jesus in Matthew talks to the crowd about not worrying about your life, that God takes care of even the sparrow or the lilies of the field. They don't worry, they don't have to have control and control is something we all like to have or at least think we have.
See there are things which spin our lives out of control and we realize we have to rely on Jesus to bring us forward. A good example of this is in our missions and companion diocese relationship with Lui. Here we have had people say what good is this relationship when we can't do anything. When all we can do is pray. This relationship has something to teach us about trust, about being out of control, about relying on God to bring this relationship into something new. We can't fix the war, we can't help people go back to Lui while it is going on. We can pray, we can be friends still and there are some who have gone to visit the refugees in Uganda.
Being in the first world and not being able to do something tangible is a struggle. We need to learn there are times of surrender for us. Where we can only rely on Jesus, where we can only do the things we do in times of trouble pray, worship, hear the scripture and take in communion because in trusting comes faith.
This is what Jesus is talking about today. Faith, do we have faith? Are we the disciples who will walk away because faith is too hard? Trust is all we have when everything else has failed. Trust is all we have when we sit in a hospital room, trust is all we have when we loose our job, trust is all we have when the markets crash. Reliance on the one who is greater than we are. Take the steps of faith and see what it means to truly surrender, truly trust, truly rely on Jesus. Then we will know what the bread of life is and be sustained.
Here we are in week five of Jesus' I am the bread of life. This week the crowd has heard enough. It is hard to understand what Jesus is trying to convey here. We understand when actual food and drink is put before us. We usually sit down and eat or at least enjoy conversation and snack. The difference is true sustaining life is found in the person of Jesus and this is hard to swallow. It's hard for us even today.
I grew up in an alcoholic system. My grandfather was an alcoholic, he never got well and never kicked the habit. We would go to Al-Anon for guidance and in Al-Anon one of the things you have to do is surrender control of the situation to a higher power. Now this is hard. Everyone in the system is used to trying to control what is happening. Sometimes they hide the alcohol, or pour it all out, hide the keys to the car to keep the drunk person from driving, and everyone is used to trying to cover and keep the secret. Yet all the neighbors know, the alcoholic just goes and buys more drink, they learn to find other keys. So surrendering control is hard.
This is not different from what Jesus is saying today. I am the bread of life, the Greek word here is translated believe, but it would be better translated as rely on me, surrender your control of life to me, and you will never hunger. No wonder some didn't believe and went away. How do you really feel about relying on God? Do we fully trust Jesus to come through for us in the darkest days? Do we still try to feel as though we are the ones in control of our lives? Do we ever ask Jesus if what we are doing is from God or of ourselves?
See surrendering so we rely fully on God our higher power is hard. We like to know things will be the way we want them to be. We don't ever question or expect to hear from God or Jesus what we might need to do next and trust the situation will be taken care of. It's why Jesus in Matthew talks to the crowd about not worrying about your life, that God takes care of even the sparrow or the lilies of the field. They don't worry, they don't have to have control and control is something we all like to have or at least think we have.
See there are things which spin our lives out of control and we realize we have to rely on Jesus to bring us forward. A good example of this is in our missions and companion diocese relationship with Lui. Here we have had people say what good is this relationship when we can't do anything. When all we can do is pray. This relationship has something to teach us about trust, about being out of control, about relying on God to bring this relationship into something new. We can't fix the war, we can't help people go back to Lui while it is going on. We can pray, we can be friends still and there are some who have gone to visit the refugees in Uganda.
Being in the first world and not being able to do something tangible is a struggle. We need to learn there are times of surrender for us. Where we can only rely on Jesus, where we can only do the things we do in times of trouble pray, worship, hear the scripture and take in communion because in trusting comes faith.
This is what Jesus is talking about today. Faith, do we have faith? Are we the disciples who will walk away because faith is too hard? Trust is all we have when everything else has failed. Trust is all we have when we sit in a hospital room, trust is all we have when we loose our job, trust is all we have when the markets crash. Reliance on the one who is greater than we are. Take the steps of faith and see what it means to truly surrender, truly trust, truly rely on Jesus. Then we will know what the bread of life is and be sustained.
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