August 27, 2000
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

LECTIONARY READINGS
from the Revised Common Lectionary

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 and
Psalm 34:15-22
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69

[ Read the texts at the Vanderbilt Divinity On-Line Library ]
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Discipleship
IV. Commitment to Christ *

Have you ever had a time in your life when "everything came together?"

It might have been a class in high school or college.  Something the teacher or professor said suddenly made sense and the whole subject came together for you.

 Or maybe it was something simple like your mother repeating to you over and over again, "Haste makes waste."  As a child and especially as a teenager, she drove you nuts with her, "Haste makes waste."  But then that day came when you had your own family and children and you were rushing around like a juggler trying to keep all the balls in the air and as the old saying goes, "...the faster you went, the behinder you got..."  One mistake piled up on another and soon you wanted to pull your hair out.

And your mother's words found their way through the chaos...  "Haste makes waste," and you stopped -- and slowed down -- and you thought, "So this is what she meant."

If you are blessed and fortunate, you were able to call your mom and say thanks.  If you are blessed but not so fortunate as to be able to call your mom, you say something like, "Thank you God...  tell mom I get it now!"

***

Our gospel reading this morning is about the time Jesus' closest followers experienced a time when it all came together.  And when it did, they had to make a decision and a commitment. But their commitment did not just happen,  there was a process they went through and a progression that took place in their coming to the point of commitment to Christ.

The first stage we might call the consumer stage. Remember the crowds from a few weeks ago who came looking for Jesus?  Jesus said to them that they came looking for him only because they had eaten from the loaves he provided and were back for more.  The came for what they could get.

Do you see that dynamic at all in our contemporary world?  People coming to religious institution for what can be had in the way of services to children and families?  I've had people actually call and ask just that question. "We're looking for a church.  Can you tell me what you have to offer?"

And that's not all bad.  Some years ago, I preached at a rescue mission in Kansas City, Missouri.  The "soup kitchen" provided clean clothes, a shower, a meal and a night's lodging to homeless men.  They had to come to a preaching service before they could have their meal. (Attendance was quite good!)

Reaching out in the name of Christ is a good thing and the church offering services to families and their children is a good thing.  It is important, however, to know that our relationship with Jesus Christ and the family of faith has an implicit journey from, "What do you have to offer and what can I get?" - to - "What can I offer and what can I give?"

A second stage  takes place when those who come for their own needs suddenly discover that the one who meets their needs is more than a provider of food.  He is the food they need.  They come for physical food and encounter one who claims to have the ability to meet their deepest spiritual needs.

"I am the bread of life," Jesus told the crowds who came, "Whosever eats of this bread will live forever..."  It was puzzling to many of them at first.  They did not fully understand what he meant.  As a matter of fact, some of them were offended and did not like his claims to such spiritual greatness.  They argued about his words and what they meant.

Sound familiar?

People are arguing about Jesus to this day.  Was he a great teacher, the Son of God, a wonderful prophet or a deluded pretender? The discussion goes on endlessly, but sooner or later we come to the same place the crowds did so long ago.  "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

One of the wonderful things about Jesus was that he never rejected people for asking questions or having doubts and struggles.  It was most often out of difficult circumstances that people encountered Christ in a meaningful way.  For a synagogue leader, it was a time of grief when his little girl died and Jesus came.  A woman had suffered hemorrhaging for years and Jesus brought healing.  Another woman was the town's social reject and met Jesus out at the village well, encountered the One who brings freedom and became the town's greatest witness.

We, like the people of his own day, come to a time in our lives when we encounter Christ and his claims and move from the edges of the crowd to the center of the drama. Is this the One who can feed our deepest hopes and dreams and mend our broken lives?

The third stage in the faith journey is when we move into "communion" with Christ. Whether it was taught to us as children or caught by us as adults, our knowledge about Christ became a relationship with Christ. We live our lives in light of this friendship with the divine.  We talk with him and we bring our loved ones to him in prayer.

Being citizens of this world, we will necessarily find ourselves experiencing what Robert Robinson expressed in his hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love..."  Yet, when all is said and done, there is that sense deep within that our lives are never far from the God who sustains us from day to day.

Life is communion with Christ.

The fourth stage of our faith journey is a part of and the natural progression of communion with Christ.  Authentic communion with Christ will lead to a commitment to Christ. Commitment to Christ means that we have a conscious attitude of being a follower of Jesus Christ in this world.

When the crowd in John six had fully heard Jesus' claims, many of them had enough.  "We're outta here!" they said. Or in the words of scripture, "...many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him."

Did you catch that?  It wasn't just Jesus' detractors who were put off by his claims, these folks were among his disciples.  They were okay through stages one when there was good teaching, healing  and occasional luncheons on a Galilean hillside, but when Jesus made it clear who he was and what he was all about, they left.

Those who stayed made a very conscious commitment to stay the course and become not only followers of Jesus, but followers who would be attentive to his words and obedient to his commands.

***

The last portion of our text is filled with drama.  Simon Peter's relationship with Jesus is one of the most powerful examples of a disciple's life which is filled with highs and lows.  There is very little middle ground with Peter.  He is either at the top of the mountain ahead of the class with brilliant insight into who Jesus is and why he has come -- or he is hitting bottom, reaching new lows with his foot in his mouth.

But if Peter is anything, he is in with all his heart.  He may be a frail follower, but he does not hold back.  When the nominal followers leave, Jesus asks if Peter and the rest will also leave.

"Lord to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life!  We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God!"

Peter does not identify Jesus as a good or even great teacher or the greatest social worker who ever crossed the face of the earth.  This is "The Holy One of God."  The uttering of these words must certainly have brought all activity in heaven and on earth to a screeching halt!

If the crowd had trouble with Jesus saying he was the bread of life, the words Peter spoke came dangerously close to the words of Isaiah 43:3.  Through the Prophet Isaiah God says to Israel:

"For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."

Peter identifies Jesus as the Savior of Israel, the One who came to redeem the world.  With these words, Peter expresses the faith of the whole Body of Christ throughout the ages.

***

There is one final part of the journey of faith that Peter's journey points to.  The gospel reading today ends on a high point for Peter.  But you and I know the rest of the story.  Beyond this time there lies the denial.  The day when this man who knew there was no where else to go for true life, would say about Jesus in front of another crowd, I do not know the man!"

I find that a very hopeful thing.  Difficult -- but hopeful.  Hard --  no -- crushing for Peter, but hopeful for you and me.  You see, there are times when I feel like I absolutely fall on my face as a follower of Jesus Christ.  I keep quiet when I should speak up, talk when I should stay quiet and fade into the crowd when Jesus Christ could use someone with courage to stand up and be counted for the right.

But Jesus would never stop loving Peter!  As a matter of fact it was the love of Christ that nourished and fed Peter into the chief of Apostles.  Notice that Peter wasn't nagged into discipleship, he was nourished.

To make a commitment to Christ is not the end or completion of something, it is the first step in a lifelong journey of faith.

May God give us the courage to affirm the faith and live the life of discipleship which Christ desires for each one of us. May we know the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as the meaning of being a follower of Jesus Christ comes together in our spirit.

* Note: This sermon addresses the gospel lesson for today, but it is particularly germane to those who have followed the gospel readings from John 6 since the last Sunday in July. The theme of discipleship is brought to a center point in the issue of "Commitment to Christ."

NOTE:  You can find some good resources for discipleship in local church ministries by >>> clicking here 

Connections in the Text

Joshua and Peter set something absolutely critical before us.  There is a decision to be made and a commitment to be engaged.  "We will serve the LORD, for he is our God."  Joshua brings the People of Israel to this commitment.  "'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."  Peter expresses the commitment of all those who choose to follow Jesus Christ in a world where few things are worthy of commitment. 

The Hebrew Scriptures and the Gospel reading point to the "two roads" Jesus talked about.  "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. [Matt. 7:13-14]  There is a choice to be made in the direction our lives will go and the homiletician's task is to make clear the fact that following Christ is frequently to go against the grain of our world's values. 

How can we make the right choice?  The epistle for the day has an answer.  We are to be, "...strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

This Sunday ends the journey through John 6 and the insights on discipleship we have been trying to glean from the gospel texts.  It would seem to be important to press the case  for an answer to Jesus'  question.  "Do you also wish to go away?"  Ask your folk to ponder the question of what it means to stay the course when others want to leave.  Nothing plagues the contemporary church more than a "decisionless" Christianity.

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18

John 6: 56-69

Ephesians 6:10-20

 Worship Helps

A Call To Worship (Based on Ps. 34:15-22)

Leader:   Let us lift up our voices to the Lord,
People:  For God hears us when we pray.
Leader:   The Lord is near to those who are brokenhearted,
People:  Whose mercy is everlasting.
Leader:   No one who places their trust in the Lord,
People:  Will ever suffer condemnation,
              they shall rejoice forevermore!

A Prayer of Confession

O God of grace and mercy, we acknowledge our wandering ways before you today.  We are too easily moved from the path you set before us and stubbornly persist in our self directed ways.  We give ourselves to things that do not count in the long run and withhold ourselves from those things that make your heart glad.  O Lord of glory, we beg your forgiveness and ask that our hearts would be renewed and set aright by the work of your Holy Spirit, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen

Assurance of Pardon

Friends, hear the gracious words of the Lord spoken by the prophet, "I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you."  [Is. 44:22] Rejoice in the good news.  In Christ we are forgiven!  Amen. 

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

There are times, O Lord God Almighty, when we are simply amazed that you should care for us.  The Psalmist looked out at the night sky and wondered that One so great should care for the likes of we poor human beings.

And yet, your love is so much more stunning than that you should care for us.  Not only did you care, but you came!  In Jesus Christ you abandoned the glory of heaven for the darkness of this world.  Where there was no light for our spirits, you sent the brightest light of all.

And yet, your love is so much more amazing than that you came for us.  In the face of rejection, scorn and evil suffered at the hands of mortal beings, your love was poured out -- even for those who turned against your Son. Your love has overcome us and set us free to become everything we never dreamed of and kept us from everything we would have done to ourselves without you.

O Lord God, help us to love you with all our our hearts and our minds and our souls and our strength.  We can not do this on our own.  Yet, even in this thing, you are able to give us everything we lack in order to make of us everything we need to be.

We praise your Holy Name and rejoice in your steadfast love!

Amen.

A Prayer of Dedication