8/9/09 at St. Mark's and St. James
I received this in an email the other day:
Satan called a worldwide convention of demons. In his opening address he said, "We can't keep Christians from going to church." "We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth." "We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their Savior." "Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken." "So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.."
"This is what I want you to do," said the devil: "Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!" "How shall we do this?" his demons shouted. "Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow..." "Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles." "Keep them from spending time with their children." "As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of life!" "Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice." "Entice them to play the radio, CD player or iPods whenever they drive. To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly." "This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ." "Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers." "Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day." "Invade their driving moments with billboards." "Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes.." "Keep skinny, beautiful models in the magazines and on the TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. " "Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night." "Give them headaches too! " "If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere." "That will fragment their families quickly!" "Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas." "Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about His resurrection and power over sin and death." "Even in their recreation, let them be excessive." "Have them return from their recreation exhausted." "Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creations. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead." "Keep them busy, busy, busy!" "And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences." "Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus." "Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."
"It will work!" "It will work!" It was quite a plan!
The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and there. Having little time for their God or their families. Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives. I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his schemes? You be the judge.
We fill our lives with so much clutter, so much noise, that we block out God. We forget that our hunger is for God, and we fill ourselves and our lives up with things that don’t satisfy, things that actually keep us from God. Somewhere else I read that one of the devil’s greatest weapons is distraction. We get distracted by our own worries, hopes and fears. We get distracted by television and radio and talk and news. We check email and blogs and search the Net. We fill up the silence, consuming anything and everything but the bread of life.
Once again I will take issue with the lectionary, wishing our gospel text starting two very important verses earlier, though I believe this was the end of last week’s text. Beginning at John 6:35 here’s what we missed:
35 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. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
These verses introduce our Gospel reading, and Jesus makes on of his I AM statements. I am the bread of life. Before he was living water, and now he is bread. The essential stuff of life. Bread and water. God’s provision. In the Exodus story of the Old Testament people grumbled and cried out for water and for bread—and received the gifts of water and manna. In the Psalms and the Prophets their hunger was for wisdom, for the sustaining presence of God. And now Jesus is that food, he is that bread. And still they do not believe.
In the next few verses Jesus confidently discusses his work and mission, because he knows that his success is entirely due to the work of the Father. Jesus is the one who is sent by God and God is the one who calls people to Jesus; those who come to Jesus with faith will not be cast out. And even that faith is a gift from God. It’s not so much about Jesus welcoming those who come to him as about taking care of those who the Father has given him. There is always a tension between God’s sovereignty, God who calls and draws individuals—and the responsibility of individuals to respond. The initiative is always God’s. It is God who supplies the bread of life, and anyone who eats of this bread will live forever.
Jesus is misunderstood—they grumbled because don’t know who he is. Sure, they think they know him. Isn’t he the son of Mary and Joseph? Don’t we know his family? They don’t know, they don’t see, that he is so much more than what they see. And Jesus doesn’t really defend himself against their complaints but insists that God is the one who initiates their faith, the Father is the one who enables them to see. He is the bread, he is the one who must be consumed. He said:
“This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 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."
Jesus is the bread who must be eaten; and we make the decision whether to eat—whether to believe—and receive the gift of eternal life. Jesus would give his own life, his own flesh as a sacrifice for the life of the world. He is the sacrificial lamb. Jesus is the bread of life and those who come to him will not hunger, those who believe in him will not thirst.
What is it that we hunger for—what is the bread that we pursue? What is our thirst, our insatiable desires for those things that do not satisfy? How do we try to feed our hunger? Better yet, how can we be fed by God? Remember, even religion, even the church can be poor substitutes for the living God, and will not satisfy our hunger. Being fed by God is simplicity and silence. Being fed by God is spending time with Jesus. It’s about love, about relationship, about Jesus the bread of life. It’s not about being a Christian, but about knowing Jesus and his transformational presence in our lives. God the Father is willing and eager to give us the bread that satisfies, to give us life and peace if we silence the noise around us.
I am the bread of life, the bread that comes down from heaven, the bread of eternal life.
You are what you eat.
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