Satisfied in Christ
Sermon
Eyes of Faith
Cycle B Gospel Text Sermons for Pentecost First Third
A comment during a conversation I had not long ago has stuck in my mind. We were speaking about how casually some people seem to take religion. The person with whom I was talking is a dedicated member of her congregation. Just to show you how dedicated she is, she was the one her church turned to when they needed someone to head the search committee for a new minister. On top of that, she is a professional in her own field of medicine. She has plenty to look after to keep her own affairs in order, as well as caring for her family. The one thing you might think she didn't have time for was this kind of consuming church work. However, she cares for her church so much and loves the Christ in whom she finds so much support that she could hardly say no when the call came.
What she did find amusing, though, was the reaction she received from one of her friends at a dinner party shortly after she assumed the responsibility. When she told her friend what she was up to at the church, his reaction was terse and a bit disarming: "Oh, are you still into that? We were into church once, but we gave it up a long time ago." The comment illuminates the way much of the world views religion in general and church involvement in particular. It's something one can take or leave, if so inclined. That is, "if you are into that sort of thing." One recently called it, "God as a hobby." My friend said that she replied as kindly and directly as she could, "My faith and my church happen to mean more to me than that." She just as well could have put it this way: "I'm afraid you don't understand. You see, I am not into religion; I'm 'in Christ.' " My friend was satisfied with her life and work because she was "in Christ." Her colleague was not because he did not hang around long enough to find out.
This idea, "in Christ," is a recurring one in the New Testament. In the gospel of John, it's more commonly stated as "abide in me." I don't think it's going too far to say that these words can be used to sum up the Christian faith. When we understand what being "in Christ" or "abiding in Christ" means, we understand what's important about the Christian faith and our relation to it. I know that is a rather large claim but I don't think it's an outrageous one. When we consider these words, we have a better conception of what we mean when we sing such familiar lines as "In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth."1
What does "being in" anything mean? We say, "He's in business." "They are going into sales." "She's in school." "He's no longer in nursing but has switched to physical therapy." Most of the time, this little word, "in," means more than just "being into," dabbling around in something or looking into it. For instance, I once was into jogging but that lasted for only about two weeks. Then I was into swimming and that lasted for several years. For the last three or so years, I haven't been into any sort of physical exercise except taking occasional walks and as my waist line shows, I'm now "in trouble," or at least my body is. Yes, being "in" is something more than dabbling in or flirting around with it. There are lots of people who hang around churches but how many of them can truly be said to be "in Christ"? At least, if outward signs are any indication of inward commitment.
To put it succinctly, to be in Christ, Christ has to be in us. That's really what the search committee chairperson was trying to tell her dinner guest. It's the truth around which the entire gospel of John revolves. Nowhere do we see it more clearly than in chapter 6.
Sometimes it's easier to see what's going on in a chapter of the Bible if you look at the end of that chapter first. This is certainly true with John 6. Most commentators agree that embedded in John's account of the feeding of the 5,000 is a symbolic, eucharistic meaning. On one level, it's a story of a miraculous feeding of a great number of people from a rather meager supply of food. On another level, the story points to the church's ongoing celebration of Holy Communion on down through the ages. So toward the end of chapter 6 we find these words of Jesus:
Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
-- John 6:53-56 NRSV
It's easy to see how these verses might refer to the experience of communion we share with Christ at the Lord's table. What can we point to in the earlier verses, especially verses 1-15, that indicate they might also contain hidden eucharistic meanings?
Many of us know the story by heart. Though we might have it confused with feeding stories in the other gospels. In John's gospel, the feeding of the 5,000 comes on the heels of a conflict with the authorities about who Jesus is and what his relationship is to God. It's a rather heated argument. Coming to his own defense, Jesus takes the offensive.
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed in Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?
-- John 5:45-47 NRSV
In other words, Jesus turns the tables on his accusers.
No doubt Jesus was more than ready to get out of there and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee after all that. I'm sure that he had had it with them. So he and the disciples hightailed it over to the other side of the lake only to find that it didn't completely work. As with many things in this life, simply changing locations does not always completely change the situation. The large crowd kept following him. They had seen the powerful acts of healing Jesus could do. Added to that, the time for the celebration of the Passover was upon them and that meant there was more than the normal number of people in the area. It stands to reason that after this journey of racing after Jesus, they were probably famished or at least hungry by this time.
When Jesus surveyed this large crowd, he puts a question to Philip, one of his disciples: "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" (John 6:5 NRSV). John tells us that Jesus did this to test Philip, for Jesus himself knew what was going to take place. Philip, being Philip, exclaims, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little" (John 6:7 NRSV). Simon Peter's brother, Andrew, was one of those guys who was always ready with a solution. Andrew noticed that there happened to be one little boy with five barley loaves and two fish but how could that ever feed a crowd as big as that one?
It's here that we can see how this feeding story is amazingly similar to that of the Last Supper. For one thing, the pattern of the feeding of the 5,000 is reminiscent of that of the Upper Room. "Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted" (John 6:11 NRSV). Furthermore, here in the feeding of the multitude, it is Jesus who distributes the loaves over which he has given thanks, just as he did at the Last Supper.
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only public miracle in all four gospels. In John, the miracle seems to contain a different message, a message about how Christians continue to be fed to this very day: " 'Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.' So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets" (John 6:12-13 NRSV). When we read between the lines, a good case can be made that the abundance of this holy feast suggests that there is more than enough food for everyone. Everyone's hunger is satisfied and not only for the 5,000 present that day on the Galilean hillside (more if you add in the women and children who would not have been counted) but enough for all the generations yet to come. Everyone is satisfied in Christ.
In fact, the inclusion of the number twelve is surely a tip-off that we are dealing with more than meets the eye. In the Bible, twelve is a highly symbolic number. Perhaps these twelve baskets filled with fragments of the five barley loaves point to the twelve disciples and their upcoming mission to continue feeding hungry people in much the same way that Jesus, himself, did while on earth.
There are also several parallels in this story that can be drawn between the feeding of God's people by Jesus and that of Moses feeding God's people in the wilderness. The fact that this miracle takes place right before Passover and after a big discussion about the importance of Moses' teachings, says in effect, that John intended this story also to be a Passover story.
All that we have called attention to should be enough to underscore that there is a message in this miracle for the church that continues to gather at the Lord's table. There has always been and will always be food enough and more to satisfy every hungry heart.
Yet a problem remains. Jesus was speaking on one level; his disciples were hearing on another: "When many of his disciples heard it, they said, 'This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?' " (John 6:60 NRSV). It still happens and not only with regard to matters like communion.
This is what happened to my search committee friend and her dinner companion. She was speaking about what being "in Christ" meant to her and he was surprised to learn that she was still "into" that. That kind of misunderstanding goes on all the time. While Jesus is trying to tell us what he means, we're busy trying to figure it out all by ourselves. What results is a crossed transaction and crossed transactions most often result in confusion and misunderstanding. Sometimes the more we try to straighten things out, the deeper we dig ourselves into a hole. Jesus was trying to tell his disciples that we are dealing with a mystery but even they had trouble comprehending what he was talking about. We still do.
Jesus was saying he wanted them to enjoy the same perfect union he had with his Father through the Holy Spirit. Once again, to put it simply, to be in Christ. But to be in Christ, Christ has to be in us. How does that happen? Or better yet, how can we know when it happens?
It happens in many places, in many lives, but the one place we see it most clearly and feel it most deeply is at the Lord's table, "When we eat this bread and drink this cup." Here Jesus abides in us and we in him. When we eat this bread and drink this cup, Christ enters our minds and hearts spiritually just as surely as the physical elements of bread and juice enter our bodies. That is, when we eat and drink with faith, when we receive the elements of communion with understanding and with appreciation. That was what Jesus was trying to get across to those disciples that day and to all of his disciples this day. When taken with faith and proper understanding, the broken bread and the poured out cup bring union with Christ and with all who love him. Maybe even union with all who do not love him. For the love poured out and represented at this table is not only for us but for the whole world. Christ did not die at Calvary just for Christians, just for the church, but for people everywhere and for all time.
I saw this vividly when I was in Greece on a "Journeys of Paul" tour. We happened to be in Athens in March on Mary Day. It's also the day of Greek Independence. What surprised me was not the expected parades, but churches filled to overflowing for the three-hour Divine Service. There was standing room only -- the people were most gracious: an elderly lady, sensing that we were visitors, offered to give up her pew for my wife and me to sit but we motioned for her to keep her seat. Throughout the service, there were the mysterious sights and sounds of Greek Orthodox priests and cantors. It was a delight to both the eye and the ear.
Another surprise came when it was time for the distribution of the elements. Huge baskets of bread piled high were lifted up above the heads of the young men carrying them around the church. The real surprise for me came when we left the church and saw that baskets of leftover communion bread had been placed outside on the church steps where anyone who so desired was welcome to come and take as much as they felt they needed. I noticed one elderly lady in particular filling a couple of Ziploc plastic bags with bread from the feast. I wondered if that might be her food for the day and, perhaps, the next day too. Whatever the experts may say about the ties between the feeding of the 5,000 and the Last Supper, I saw with my own eyes that the connection still exists to this day. Those inside the church and those outside went home satisfied. Maybe this is what John meant when he wrote, "When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world' " (John 6:14 NRSV).
Outside Paris, Kentucky, is the Cane Ridge Meeting House, the setting for a great revival that resulted in the formation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of which I am a minister. I confess that it took me a long time to get around to visiting this site, even though I was a native of Kentucky. When I arrived after all those years of putting it off, I was glad that I had waited. For during a restoration project, the slave gallery that used to be in the Meeting House was rediscovered in a nearby barn, undisturbed. Now the gallery has been put back in place displaying our heritage as it was. What's amazing to me is that even though there was that balcony -- for those deemed inappropriate to sit in the pews downstairs -- during worship, a transforming event took place weekly, Sunday after Sunday. It was an event that eventually led to the balcony being torn out. For when it came time for the distribution of communion, the slaves were invited to come down and partake, along with their owners. With that kind of thing going on Sunday after Sunday is it any wonder that one day the walls of slavery came tumbling down? With the gallery literally torn out and barriers erased among us and between us, truly, how wonderful it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in harmony!
That's the day when everyone is satisfied in Christ, both those inside and outside the church. Amen.
__________
1. "In Christ There Is No East or West" words by William A. Dunkerley, 1908 and music by Alexander R. Reingle, 1836. In the public domain.
What she did find amusing, though, was the reaction she received from one of her friends at a dinner party shortly after she assumed the responsibility. When she told her friend what she was up to at the church, his reaction was terse and a bit disarming: "Oh, are you still into that? We were into church once, but we gave it up a long time ago." The comment illuminates the way much of the world views religion in general and church involvement in particular. It's something one can take or leave, if so inclined. That is, "if you are into that sort of thing." One recently called it, "God as a hobby." My friend said that she replied as kindly and directly as she could, "My faith and my church happen to mean more to me than that." She just as well could have put it this way: "I'm afraid you don't understand. You see, I am not into religion; I'm 'in Christ.' " My friend was satisfied with her life and work because she was "in Christ." Her colleague was not because he did not hang around long enough to find out.
This idea, "in Christ," is a recurring one in the New Testament. In the gospel of John, it's more commonly stated as "abide in me." I don't think it's going too far to say that these words can be used to sum up the Christian faith. When we understand what being "in Christ" or "abiding in Christ" means, we understand what's important about the Christian faith and our relation to it. I know that is a rather large claim but I don't think it's an outrageous one. When we consider these words, we have a better conception of what we mean when we sing such familiar lines as "In Christ there is no east or west, in him no south or north, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth."1
What does "being in" anything mean? We say, "He's in business." "They are going into sales." "She's in school." "He's no longer in nursing but has switched to physical therapy." Most of the time, this little word, "in," means more than just "being into," dabbling around in something or looking into it. For instance, I once was into jogging but that lasted for only about two weeks. Then I was into swimming and that lasted for several years. For the last three or so years, I haven't been into any sort of physical exercise except taking occasional walks and as my waist line shows, I'm now "in trouble," or at least my body is. Yes, being "in" is something more than dabbling in or flirting around with it. There are lots of people who hang around churches but how many of them can truly be said to be "in Christ"? At least, if outward signs are any indication of inward commitment.
To put it succinctly, to be in Christ, Christ has to be in us. That's really what the search committee chairperson was trying to tell her dinner guest. It's the truth around which the entire gospel of John revolves. Nowhere do we see it more clearly than in chapter 6.
Sometimes it's easier to see what's going on in a chapter of the Bible if you look at the end of that chapter first. This is certainly true with John 6. Most commentators agree that embedded in John's account of the feeding of the 5,000 is a symbolic, eucharistic meaning. On one level, it's a story of a miraculous feeding of a great number of people from a rather meager supply of food. On another level, the story points to the church's ongoing celebration of Holy Communion on down through the ages. So toward the end of chapter 6 we find these words of Jesus:
Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
-- John 6:53-56 NRSV
It's easy to see how these verses might refer to the experience of communion we share with Christ at the Lord's table. What can we point to in the earlier verses, especially verses 1-15, that indicate they might also contain hidden eucharistic meanings?
Many of us know the story by heart. Though we might have it confused with feeding stories in the other gospels. In John's gospel, the feeding of the 5,000 comes on the heels of a conflict with the authorities about who Jesus is and what his relationship is to God. It's a rather heated argument. Coming to his own defense, Jesus takes the offensive.
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed in Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?
-- John 5:45-47 NRSV
In other words, Jesus turns the tables on his accusers.
No doubt Jesus was more than ready to get out of there and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee after all that. I'm sure that he had had it with them. So he and the disciples hightailed it over to the other side of the lake only to find that it didn't completely work. As with many things in this life, simply changing locations does not always completely change the situation. The large crowd kept following him. They had seen the powerful acts of healing Jesus could do. Added to that, the time for the celebration of the Passover was upon them and that meant there was more than the normal number of people in the area. It stands to reason that after this journey of racing after Jesus, they were probably famished or at least hungry by this time.
When Jesus surveyed this large crowd, he puts a question to Philip, one of his disciples: "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" (John 6:5 NRSV). John tells us that Jesus did this to test Philip, for Jesus himself knew what was going to take place. Philip, being Philip, exclaims, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little" (John 6:7 NRSV). Simon Peter's brother, Andrew, was one of those guys who was always ready with a solution. Andrew noticed that there happened to be one little boy with five barley loaves and two fish but how could that ever feed a crowd as big as that one?
It's here that we can see how this feeding story is amazingly similar to that of the Last Supper. For one thing, the pattern of the feeding of the 5,000 is reminiscent of that of the Upper Room. "Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted" (John 6:11 NRSV). Furthermore, here in the feeding of the multitude, it is Jesus who distributes the loaves over which he has given thanks, just as he did at the Last Supper.
The feeding of the 5,000 is the only public miracle in all four gospels. In John, the miracle seems to contain a different message, a message about how Christians continue to be fed to this very day: " 'Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.' So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets" (John 6:12-13 NRSV). When we read between the lines, a good case can be made that the abundance of this holy feast suggests that there is more than enough food for everyone. Everyone's hunger is satisfied and not only for the 5,000 present that day on the Galilean hillside (more if you add in the women and children who would not have been counted) but enough for all the generations yet to come. Everyone is satisfied in Christ.
In fact, the inclusion of the number twelve is surely a tip-off that we are dealing with more than meets the eye. In the Bible, twelve is a highly symbolic number. Perhaps these twelve baskets filled with fragments of the five barley loaves point to the twelve disciples and their upcoming mission to continue feeding hungry people in much the same way that Jesus, himself, did while on earth.
There are also several parallels in this story that can be drawn between the feeding of God's people by Jesus and that of Moses feeding God's people in the wilderness. The fact that this miracle takes place right before Passover and after a big discussion about the importance of Moses' teachings, says in effect, that John intended this story also to be a Passover story.
All that we have called attention to should be enough to underscore that there is a message in this miracle for the church that continues to gather at the Lord's table. There has always been and will always be food enough and more to satisfy every hungry heart.
Yet a problem remains. Jesus was speaking on one level; his disciples were hearing on another: "When many of his disciples heard it, they said, 'This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?' " (John 6:60 NRSV). It still happens and not only with regard to matters like communion.
This is what happened to my search committee friend and her dinner companion. She was speaking about what being "in Christ" meant to her and he was surprised to learn that she was still "into" that. That kind of misunderstanding goes on all the time. While Jesus is trying to tell us what he means, we're busy trying to figure it out all by ourselves. What results is a crossed transaction and crossed transactions most often result in confusion and misunderstanding. Sometimes the more we try to straighten things out, the deeper we dig ourselves into a hole. Jesus was trying to tell his disciples that we are dealing with a mystery but even they had trouble comprehending what he was talking about. We still do.
Jesus was saying he wanted them to enjoy the same perfect union he had with his Father through the Holy Spirit. Once again, to put it simply, to be in Christ. But to be in Christ, Christ has to be in us. How does that happen? Or better yet, how can we know when it happens?
It happens in many places, in many lives, but the one place we see it most clearly and feel it most deeply is at the Lord's table, "When we eat this bread and drink this cup." Here Jesus abides in us and we in him. When we eat this bread and drink this cup, Christ enters our minds and hearts spiritually just as surely as the physical elements of bread and juice enter our bodies. That is, when we eat and drink with faith, when we receive the elements of communion with understanding and with appreciation. That was what Jesus was trying to get across to those disciples that day and to all of his disciples this day. When taken with faith and proper understanding, the broken bread and the poured out cup bring union with Christ and with all who love him. Maybe even union with all who do not love him. For the love poured out and represented at this table is not only for us but for the whole world. Christ did not die at Calvary just for Christians, just for the church, but for people everywhere and for all time.
I saw this vividly when I was in Greece on a "Journeys of Paul" tour. We happened to be in Athens in March on Mary Day. It's also the day of Greek Independence. What surprised me was not the expected parades, but churches filled to overflowing for the three-hour Divine Service. There was standing room only -- the people were most gracious: an elderly lady, sensing that we were visitors, offered to give up her pew for my wife and me to sit but we motioned for her to keep her seat. Throughout the service, there were the mysterious sights and sounds of Greek Orthodox priests and cantors. It was a delight to both the eye and the ear.
Another surprise came when it was time for the distribution of the elements. Huge baskets of bread piled high were lifted up above the heads of the young men carrying them around the church. The real surprise for me came when we left the church and saw that baskets of leftover communion bread had been placed outside on the church steps where anyone who so desired was welcome to come and take as much as they felt they needed. I noticed one elderly lady in particular filling a couple of Ziploc plastic bags with bread from the feast. I wondered if that might be her food for the day and, perhaps, the next day too. Whatever the experts may say about the ties between the feeding of the 5,000 and the Last Supper, I saw with my own eyes that the connection still exists to this day. Those inside the church and those outside went home satisfied. Maybe this is what John meant when he wrote, "When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world' " (John 6:14 NRSV).
Outside Paris, Kentucky, is the Cane Ridge Meeting House, the setting for a great revival that resulted in the formation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of which I am a minister. I confess that it took me a long time to get around to visiting this site, even though I was a native of Kentucky. When I arrived after all those years of putting it off, I was glad that I had waited. For during a restoration project, the slave gallery that used to be in the Meeting House was rediscovered in a nearby barn, undisturbed. Now the gallery has been put back in place displaying our heritage as it was. What's amazing to me is that even though there was that balcony -- for those deemed inappropriate to sit in the pews downstairs -- during worship, a transforming event took place weekly, Sunday after Sunday. It was an event that eventually led to the balcony being torn out. For when it came time for the distribution of communion, the slaves were invited to come down and partake, along with their owners. With that kind of thing going on Sunday after Sunday is it any wonder that one day the walls of slavery came tumbling down? With the gallery literally torn out and barriers erased among us and between us, truly, how wonderful it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in harmony!
That's the day when everyone is satisfied in Christ, both those inside and outside the church. Amen.
__________
1. "In Christ There Is No East or West" words by William A. Dunkerley, 1908 and music by Alexander R. Reingle, 1836. In the public domain.
