On Sunday, we heard Jesus’ words from John 6:27, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life.” Jesus is echoing the prophets, who said, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread?” (Is. 55:2) and “My people have…hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13).
A life-coach or mentor might also say that we often spend our lives on empty things, but the prophetic warning is more pointed. It isn’t just, “Don’t waste your life; pursue your true goals.” God’s message to his people is that there is only one goal, one food. We spend our energy on things (no matter how good and noble they are) that cannot deliver what we ask of them. In the end, there is only one source of life—God himself—and all good things derive their goodness from him. To make pleasure or success, or even friendship or family, our goal is counter-productive. These are places God blesses us with life, but they are not life itself, and when they displace God, they cease to be blessings. In other words, we are made for him; our lives are meant to be filled with his life—nothing else is big enough.
One of the startling aspects of the prophetic warning is that we have to spend energy on these other things (we work for the food that perishes), and yet the true food—God himself—is free. In the words of Isaiah 55, “he who has no money, come, buy, and eat!” Jesus offers himself freely; the only “work” is to come to him and believe in him (Jn. 6:35). This is something that worldly wisdom cannot understand; earning and deserving what we get is deeply engrained in us! That we do not deserve this overflowing life, and yet are given it freely, is difficult for us to accept.
The offer is free, and yet it is very costly. God does not tolerate rivals, and those who turn to him for this free gift of life must relinquish their false gods. Success, pleasure, even friendship and family, must be put on the altar when they vie for God’s place. But perhaps the biggest cost is our pride. It is our pride, after all, that makes it so hard to accept the fact that we cannot earn God’s life. It is our pride that struggles to acknowledge our poverty before God. It is our pride that makes us say, “I deserve what I have received.”
The fullness of God’s life is offered to us freely. Jesus came that we might be delivered from the sin that destroys and have life in abundance. And yet, to come to him and receive, our pride must be killed. The two—our pride and God’s life—cannot coexist.
Steven+
The Gift of the Eucharist
Last Sunday one of our family’s favorite songs was our recessional: “We Will Feast in the House of Zion.” This song, with its verses full of the realities of life as a people called to follow the Suffering Servant and its chorus painting such a beautiful picture of the coming Kingdom, is an apt telling of the arc of this world – beginning and ending with glory, with glory always throughout. We have been made by God and we are going to God, and as Paul reminded us in our New Testament reading from Ephesians, “But now [now!] in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
We have been brought near, near to the one in whose presence there is fullness of joy. In the shadow of death our God is with us; he prepares a table before us. Indeed, as he did for his sheep on the side of the mountain in our Gospel reading from Mark, our Lord continues to make us sit down on the green grass that he might feed us. Jesus, we are told, endured the cross for the joy set before him. You and I also can endure, by the grace of God and in the power of the Holy Spirit, when we keep our eyes fixed on the joy set before us—even the wedding feast of the Lamb in the new heavens and the new earth! Can you imagine? Every sheep of the Great Shepherd, none forgotten or overlooked, with our resurrected feet under the table of the Lord, the Firstborn from the dead. We can say with Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”
But as Julian, our Honest Abe, pointed out the other day, how do we know God is with us? You can’t see him, I can’t see him, maybe he’s on the other side of the galaxy! This surely is a truth that is hard to hold onto on our own. But we are not alone! When we come together in worship, we are brought into fellowship not only with one another but with all the church on earth and all the company of heaven, into the very presence of our Father. And there he feeds us, every Sunday morning (or afternoon, as in our case) by his Word and the body and blood of Jesus, and in this feast, we are reminded and pointed towards the coming Feast.
Next Wednesday evening will be the potluck and instructed Eucharist. Come to learn more of how we are gathered into the presence of the Lord in our service; come learn how we can better usher one another into his presence! As Paul said to the Ephesians (and to us!), “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Our liturgy, the way we prepare for, receive, and respond to our Lord giving himself to us in the Word and Sacrament, is a beautiful tool for the building up of the Church, a real gift. Avail yourself more fully of it by coming to learn more of what it all means, to ask your questions and hear answers to the questions you wouldn’t think to ask. Come to feast with your brothers and sisters as we will one day feast in full joy and peace!
Hannah
Scripture Reflections
On Sunday, Justin+ preached a beautiful sermon from Ephesians 1. (If you weren’t at church, I encourage you to go the website to listen to it!) He began with verses 9-10, where Paul speaks of God’s plan to unite all things in Jesus Christ, and noted that this uniting, or gathering of all of the heavens and all of the earth into the very life of God, begins with Jesus gathering all of our weakness and sin into himself. Because Jesus gathered us, including our brokenness, into himself, we are given the fullness of God’s life.
The fact that we are given the life and joy of God because Jesus gathered up human sin and brokenness into his own life is an especially important reminder this week. After all, this past weekend we saw a profound picture of human sin and brokenness when a man attempted to assassinate former President Trump.
It is striking that Cain’s murder of Abel is the first sin recorded after Adam and Eve sought to claim the right to determine good and evil for themselves. Murder is a capstone sin, a final product of our sinful heart, because it is an attempt to destroy someone God created and loves—it is war against God himself. According to Jesus, it is in the same family of sins as hatred and judgmental malice, and according to James, it flows from our covetousness and dissatisfaction with our station in life. In other words, the seeds that give birth to murder are in all of us—hatred, a critical spirit, and covetousness. Even though those seeds won’t grow to full fruit in the vast majority of people, they still need to be rooted out, because they are evil. What happened this last weekend (regardless of what you think about the former President or American politics) was an example of humanity’s wickedness and rebellion against God.
And yet, Jesus was willing to bring the full scope of human wickedness into himself (including this act!), so that we would be united to God in him. The malice and evil that is rampant in our world (and in our hearts!) was gathered up into Jesus’ very heart, where it was carried in love and suffering, so that we might be able to participate in the joy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’s love for each other.
As you see the darkness of the world, remember (each time you are confronted with evil, whether in your own heart or in someone else) that “this too Christ carries.” There is no evil that he does not willingly gather into his heart, because he longs for us to possess the life of God in joy.
Steven+