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If No Sound
In the Presence of God©
August 23, 2009
1 Kings 8:1,
6, 10-11; 22-30, 41-43
Psalm 84
(UMH 804)
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69
Amy DeWitte
The Gospel lessons for the past several weeks
have come from John 6 in which Jesus says some things that can be hard to
swallow. This week’s sermon is the final in a series of sermons on these
passages where Jesus says some interesting things about the Bread of Life: "I am
the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes
in me will never be thirsty” (vs 35). “I am the bread that came down from
heaven” (vs 41). “This bread is my flesh which I give for the life of the world”
(vs 51). “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you
have no life in you” (vs 53). “My flesh is real flesh and my blood is real
drink” (vs 55). These things were troubling to many of the people who were
following Jesus. These words were hard to understand, much less accept. What
does it mean to have eternal life? And what does it mean that this life is found
in this man they knew as Jesus? And what does it mean that God the Father
abides in him? And what does he mean when he wants us to abide in him and he in
us? This was all truly hard to stomach – so much so that some of the people
that had stuck with him this far couldn’t hang in there anymore and they stopped
following him around and went back home.
With that, Jesus asked the twelve disciples
whether they were going to leave, too. But, in a rare light bulb moment, the
disciples realized that Jesus was who he said he was and there was no reason to
turn away. Where else could they go? Jesus was the Holy One! God was right
there abiding with them in the body – the flesh and blood - of Christ!
Now
that Jesus has resurrected from the dead, the church is the Body of Christ, with
Christ as our head. Wherever we gather, wherever we go, God promises to be with
us and in us. Why would we ever want to be apart from the place where God is?
Even when the going gets tough, then, even when what Jesus is saying to us is
hard to understand, even when what we are called to believe and do is hard to
accept, let’s remember the promise that this community, this community of which
you are an integral part is the place where God abides – and may we say with
the disciples “where else could we go? We have come to believe that Jesus is the
Lord, the Holy One. This is the place of eternal life. This is where it’s at.”
Copyright © 2009 Amy DeWitte. All Rights Reserved. No portion of
this writing may be reproduced in any form without specific, written
permission of the author.
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