August 5, 2012
The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
Robert P. Wadley
"The Bread of Life
I've just returned from two weeks vacation, during which I had a lot of time to think about what I might say today. In fact, I've known for two months that I would be preaching today, so I've had ample time to read the assigned lectionary and try to find a theme on which I could focus. Unlike our clergy, who preach much more often, and rarely have extended, uninterrupted periods of time to prepare, yet deliver wonderful messages week after week, I am given a lot of time to prepare. That doesn't mean you will get a better, or maybe even an adequate, sermon. But, hopefully, ten minutes from now, you will still be awake and I won't have made a complete fool of myself. One of the things I thought about was reflecting on Fr. Howard's sermon four weeks ago in which he described his call. What he said then made me ask myself, what are you doing up here? Well, only God knows the answer to that, but I can say that the path has been very indirect, often unexpected, and, sometimes, with the benefit of hindsight, absolutely amazing. It has been a gift from God that I have only been able to live my life one day at a time.
Including the Psalm, we have heard four readings today, and as is nearly always the case, when the lectionary was compiled, the readings chosen fit together. There are several themes in today's readings, threads if you will, that all seem to come together into a single blanket in the final verse of the Gospel reading, in which Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” This comes one day after Jesus has used five barley loaves and two fish to feed five thousand people. Many of those five thousand may not have realized the miracle in which they had participated. Now, many of them just wanted to be fed again. But is Jesus talking about physical hunger? No, and, obviously, this isn't to be taken literally. There were many hungry people in the world then; there are many today right here in Knoxville. Ask Jim Wright, or any one of our many parishioners who volunteer at FISH and hand out 11,000 bags of food every month. So, how does this statement make sense to us?
Let's start with our Old Testament reading and begin to weave the threads together to see if we can find an answer to that question. David, chosen by God to be Israel's king, had been bad, really bad. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba, who was married to Uriah. Now I don't know if she actually looked like Susan Hayward, for those of you old enough to remember the movie “David and Bathsheba,” but the Bible says she was very beautiful. So David sends Uriah to the front of a battle knowing he will be killed, freeing Bathsheba to become his wife. The Bible says “the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” Imagine that! So, God sends Nathan to talk to David and when David acknowledges the seriousness of what he has done, he says, “I have sinned against the Lord” and, in the rest of the verse, which is included in next week's reading, Nathan says, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.” David has been saved.
We'll return to that in a few minutes, but first let's look at what David writes in his anguish. Because the King James version sometimes says things more beautifully, I'd like to read the beginning of the Psalm for you again.
Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to thy lovingkindness;
According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions;
And my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in thy sight;
and then a few verses later, these words, which are the same in the King James as in our Prayer Book:
Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
David had been saved. A major step in his salvation was repentance, as we have just read. However, in Ephesians, Paul says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God...” Saved, a gift from God. What does that mean? Or maybe I should say, what do you think it means? Are you saved from something? Are you saved from going to hell when you die? Or are you saved for something? Are you saved so that you will go to heaven when you die? Or are you saved to serve God? Recently, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew spent two months in our weekly Thursday morning meetings discussing a book entitled, “Love Wins” by the Rev. Rob Bell. This book explores the concepts of heaven and hell. In so doing, it talks about being saved, about judgment and separation from God, and about how we continually find grace waiting to pick us up after we have fallen.
So, back to my question. What does it mean to be saved? Is it a one-time, lightening bolt experience or a lifetime journey? Or, maybe, for some people, both. As a young boy I attended a non-denominational church. One night, the final night of a week-long revival, I went forward and, on my knees with the preacher's hands on my head, I accepted Christ as my savior. At that moment, it was like a lightening bolt. A few years later, the intensity of that moment had passed. I was in college, and although I had twinges of guilt, being saved was not anywhere near the top of my consciousness. In fact, if God had taken me right then, I have no doubt that when I knocked on St. Peter's door, he would have said, “Son, what makes you think you belong here? That being saved experience you had was not a license to test God's patience and forgiveness.” Obviously, for me, it has been, and still is a journey. However, I have known people who genuinely had life-altering experiences in which they were so moved by the Spirit that they point to that moment as the exact point in time when they were saved. Let me share a story with you about a man who had just such an experience.
His name is Rob. Rob is a very large, powerfully built African-American man and he was a drug dealer. Apparently, in the course of one of his transactions, he became violent. He never admitted to me exactly what he had done, but if he hadn't killed someone, he had seriously injured them. He was convicted and sent to the Federal Prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. One night, while at the prison movie theater, a fight broke out between rival gangs, which quickly turned into a riot. Just as quickly, the doors were sealed and the lights turned on. The man sitting next to Rob ripped the wooden armrest off his seat and advised Rob to do the same. Rob asked why. The man said he would need it to protect himself when the guards entered and starting swinging their clubs to put down the riot. Rob said he wasn't involved in the riot. The man said it wouldn't matter; the guards wouldn't discriminate, they'd hit everyone. Then, the doors burst open and an army of guards poured into the theater. And just as the man had told Rob, they were indiscriminately swinging their clubs at anyone in their path. Rob was terrified. This big, powerful man got down on his knees in front of his seat and began to beg God to save him from being beaten. About that time, the man next to him screamed as a guard hit him. Rob covered his head with his arms and felt the man's blood splatter on him. He was simultaneously praying and bracing himself for the blows he knew were coming. And then he heard a voice say, “Are you OK?” He looked up and standing over him was a guard. Rob said, “Yes sir, I'm OK.” The guard held out his hand and said, “Then let's get you out of here.” Rob believes Jesus answered his prayer; Rob believes Jesus saved him in that moment. When I met him, a few years later, he was one of the most gentle, caring persons I have ever known. He became one of my closest friends. He took to heart our reading in Ephesians which says, “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.”
So, what has all of this to do with the bread of life? Going back to the reading from John, and rearranging the order of the verses, it says, “it is my father who gives you the true bread of heaven. For the Bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life...” Wait, did that say we are to work for the bread of life, the bread that endures for eternal life? Earlier we heard that we are saved by grace and not through our own doing. Hmm. Maybe we need to rethink what it means to be saved. Maybe, being saved isn't just about where we will live in the next life. Maybe, as Jesus says, the kingdom of God is at hand; heaven and, maybe sometimes even hell, are both here and now, as well as in our next life. As Emily Dickinson wrote, “Who has not found the Heaven below will fail of it above.” Maybe hell is separation from God, whenever and wherever it occurs, and heaven is being in God's presence, this moment and for eternity. And, maybe, being saved is living for God, this moment and for eternity. Living for God. Working for God. Partaking of the bread of life, as we will in a few minutes during the Eucharist. And when you look at it that way, it all makes sense when Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.”
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