Proper 21, Year B

Where Can I Go?

Readings: Readings: 1 Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43; Psalm 84; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

A friend was telling me about a colleague who had left his church in a huff because he felt that the clergy had let him down at a time of great need in his life. He knew that my friend was quite involved in her church and conversation often centered on the Christian faith. She found him to be a caring person, a person of great integrity, and it bothered her that he had left over a bad experience. She found it sad, not only for him, but for his parish. As much as she empathized with him, she was not about to let him off the hook. “It’s no good staying outside and complaining about things,” she told him. The only way to make a difference is to come in and be part of the solution. The church is like a family. Sometimes people let you down, but they never stop being family to you.”

He left his work at the company to begin a new career. She phoned him up to see how things were going. His first week had been particularly difficult. He asked her to pray for him. At first she thought it was a joke, but she realized that he was totally serious and wondered if perhaps her words had struck a chord in him.

People have all kinds of objections to God and to the church. There are numerous excuses for being offended at the Christian faith. People get offended that we say “God bless you” when they sneeze. They are offended that we want prayers in schools and public places. They are offended by anything religious. A young person I know was told to turn her tee shirt inside out at school because it was offensive. You might think that it was because it used foul language. Actually it said, “What would Jesus do?”

So no wonder when we come across passages of Scripture like the Gospel for this Sunday, people find it offensive. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them,” Jesus says in John’s gospel. And as Anglicans, Christians in a liturgical tradition, we have a pretty good grasp of what that means. We meet Sunday by Sunday to break bread and drink wine in remembrance of God’s great gift to us. While we may not understand the nuances of consubstantiation, we do know that the Eucharist is about being nourished at the table so that we are able to spiritually nurture those around us. At the same time it is not difficult to understand the kinds of questions that could arise about those words. Certainly the claim that people should eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood is grossly off putting when taken literally. Let’s face it! It sounds like cannibalism.

If it is off putting to those of us who have some understanding of where it is coming from, then we can probably gather that such language was enormously offensive to the Jews of Jesus’ time. Jewish law forbade anyone to drink blood. Drinking blood was a terrible offense against Jewish law. Even the secular Romans during the early stages of Christianity considered Christians to be practicing cannibalism, and in fact wrote against it.

One parishioner commented this past week that many years ago when a Jewish friend questioned her about it and commented that it sounded like cannibalism, she did not know how to begin to respond. No wonder! They are words that offend. There is no doubt about it. It seems unrefined. It brings things down from the sublime to the ridiculous.

As Christians we are to understand that eating the body and blood of Christ gives eternal life. How could “eating his flesh and drinking his blood” do such wondrous things as giving eternal life? That is the promise that is given repeatedly in this text. Those who eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood receive eternal life.

No wonder many who heard the words of Jesus fled in disgust. Even the disciples wondered if they were on the right track. “This teaching is difficult,” they said to Jesus. “Who can accept it?” They are finding the claims about Jesus to be over the top, more than they can handle. And so Jesus explains it in a new way. He assures them that he is not speaking literally; he is speaking a spiritual truth. And then he asks them a very telling question. “”Do you also wish to go away?”

It is a time of reckoning. They need to make a decision. They need to make a commitment. It is Peter who puts their thoughts into words. “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” They have been on a spiritual journey with Jesus. They have seen him in action. They have a personal relationship with him. They know and trust him. Through him and his actions they have come to know God in a very real way. They still suffer from doubts, but they have already made the choice to follow him.

It was not just the first disciples that grumbled and questioned difficult teachings and chose not to follow Jesus. Many people wonder if Christianity has anything of value to say to them. Does it speak to the human condition? Is it simply wishful thinking? Is there any truth to it? What should I believe? Our faith can be offensive. It is difficult to be at ease with our faith’s paradoxes and demands. It requires commitment to God’s purposes. That strikes at the very core of our self-centred lives. We recognize sin and evil, but not necessarily in ourselves. Until we understand like the disciples that Jesus has the words of eternal life, the Christian faith can indeed be offensive.

If we continue to grapple with the faith, there comes a time in our spiritual life when we realize there is no turning back. It becomes inconceivable to us to follow any other path. That is not to say that we do not go through periods of doubting. Life is fraught with difficulties, for the Christian as for any human. Yet we come to a point where we know what choice we have made.

Some, of course will choose to be offended. They will choose to be offended by the little things. I know that I have been the cause of offense. I have caused offense to more than one person by simply being a woman priest. One person was offended that I wore sandals without nylons on a hot summer day. People are offended all the time that in this parish we insist that parents attend baptismal preparation before we baptize their children. People become offended at us as Christians when we uphold what is important in our faith. There is little we can do about such things except to pray for those who take offense.

We are fast approaching Back to Church Sunday. That is the Sunday that this church is going to be filled to overflowing with people who used to go to church but have gotten out of the habit. It is an opportunity to seek out those who have been offended, or who have simply drifted away. Pray for them. Send them a card, or better still visit them and personally invite them. Invite them to come to church with you on September 27th. Remember to ask them what time you can pick them up. It may not be easy. But it will be rewarding if they find they their way back to God. And you may find yourself becoming more centred in the faith, more committed.