Sermon 8.23.2015
Songs of Prayer and Promise
Aren’t there moments – maybe many! – when you want to say just what many of his
disciples said: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” Because what Jesus has been saying, and
what we have heard these past few weeks, it is indeed hard to listen to and sometimes even
harder to understand. That Jesus is the bread of life? That he provides the only food which truly
nourishes? That he gives us his own self, even his own flesh and blood, to sustain us on our
journey? These are hard words, hard to hear, hard to comprehend, hard to believe.
It is at this point that many of those following after Jesus now desert him and we’re not
sure why. It’s just too easy to write off those who give up on Jesus as people too lazy or unfaithful
to believe. But note that John, our Gospel writer, calls these folks not simply “the crowds,” as in
earlier passages, but rather now “disciples.” The people in today’s reading who now desert Jesus,
that is, are precisely those who had, in fact, believed in Jesus, those who had followed him and had
given up much to do so. But now, finally, after all their waiting and watching and wondering and
worrying, they have grown tired, and they can no longer see clearly what it was about Jesus that
attracted them to him in the first place, and so they leave.
And who can blame them? More to the point, are we really all that different? I mean, who
here has not at one time or another wondered whether you have believed in vain? During the dark
of the night, perhaps, watching and praying by the bedside of a child or grandchild in the hospital,
wondering why he or she is so sick. Or in the early part of the morning, maybe, waking up alone
and wondering why your spouse has left you. Or in the latter part of the afternoon, perhaps, while
cooking supper and thinking about your family – so full of ill-will toward each other – and
wondering why things have not turned out the way you hoped and whether they ever will.
It is at these times – and if we’re honest we must admit that there are so many of them in
this life that we lead – at these times we are looking for God, for some sense that there is a God,
and can have such a hard time seeing God that we also are tempted to conclude that the promises
we trusted were empty and the faith we once held was misplaced? Oh, perhaps we don’t renounce
or desert the Lord openly, we just don’t make the extra effort to get to church regularly, or we
reduce what we’ve been giving, are more reluctant to help others, or simply stop praying until, in
the end, we end up just like the disciples in today’s reading.
And so maybe the picture John draws for us in today’s reading may not a pretty one, but it
is a rather realistic one. It is, in other words, a fairly accurate portrait of disbelief, with Jesus
surrounded by folks who wanted to believe, who used to believe, who have been trying to believe,
but have gone through the motions too long and have finally given up.
At the same time, though, St. John’s picture is also one of belief, of courage, and of faith.
For as he writes, after many disciples drew back and no longer followed him, “Jesus said to the
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twelve, ‘Will you also go away?’ [And] Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You
have the words of eternal life.’”
Where, I have often wondered, do Peter and the other twelve get their faith. Or to put it
another way, what makes them different from all those who gave up on Jesus and went away?
These disciples were also plagued by doubt and fear, they suffered at times from an
overabundance of pride and a lack of courage, and they, too, eventually deserted Jesus, and at the
very time he needed them the most. So if they aren’t smarter, or more faithful, or more
courageous, or, in short, any better than the rest of Jesus’ disciples – then or now – then what it is
that sets them apart.
One thing.
Listen, again, to Peter as he says the words we sing in the Gospel acclamation: “Lord,” he
replies to Jesus’ question, “to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Peter, you
see, knew where to look. That’s it. That’s what makes him and the others different – it’s not their
brains or the ability or their status or even their faith: they simply know where to look.
And once again, you see, we find ourselves all of a sudden right back in the middle of our
discussion about the sacraments and the significance they hold for our life together. For as Jesus’
real presence in our world, the sacraments are the one place we may look and know for sure that
we will find God in Christ there for us.
And yet…and yet each of us knows just how difficult at times it can be to see God in these
places. When nature turns violent or government goes corrupt, when the family is a place of
discord and the church one of division, when all the things we usually count on come up empty
and we no longer know where to turn, then we may hear the sacraments calling us back to see
God clearly at work for us through water, bread, and wine, combined with God’s mighty word of
forgiveness, acceptance, and life.
Writing in the midst of a controversy about the nature of the sacraments, Martin Luther
says very much the same. “Although [God] is present in all creatures,” Luther writes, “and I might
find him in stone, in fire, in water, or even in a rope, for he certainly is there, yet he does not wish
that I seek him there apart from m the Word, and [thereby] cast myself into the fire or the water,
or hang myself on the rope. He is present everywhere, but does not wish that you grope for him
everywhere. Grope, rather, where the Word is, and there you will lay hold of him in the right way”
(LW 36:342).
“Grope where the Word is.” What a vivid way to emphasize the importance of the
sacraments, as they tell us not simply that God is present in general, but that God is present
particularly and personally for us. Because while Baptism is never a private affair, it is none the less
personal. We don’t baptize in general, that is, but individual persons joined to the promises of
Christ through water and the Word.
And it help explains why more and more churches from a variety of traditions have moved
in recent times to more frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper, recognizing that week in and
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week out, in the midst of all the craziness and haziness of life in our world, it’s incredibly helpful to
come to church and count on having the elements of bread and wine lifted into the air that we
might see and taste God’s particular promises of acceptance, forgiveness, and presence for us.
In Baptism and the Lord’s Supper God has joined us to God in promises through the Word,
to the simple, common, and ordinary elements of water, bread and wine – the very stuff of
everyday life – so what we who are simple, common, ordinary, and everyday people may receive
him with confidence.
To us, the message is Come… Come to God who binds God’s own self to us in Baptism, and
come to receive the powerful promise that God will stay with us, hold onto us, and love us forever.
And we come, sometimes wiping the moisture from baptism from our brow, sometimes reaching
our hands out for bread and wine, sometimes reciting words of belief and promise in the Apostles
Creed or the Nicene Creed that we will use today, we come to receive whatever God has chosen to
give us in that moment.
A favorite pastor of mine, and yours, Pastor Vic Johnson, often uses hymns as a source of
teaching an understanding of God’s Word…..The hymns we are singing today are connecting points
that bring the words of the Nicene Creed to life.
[Intro to Gathering Song at start of worship:] [The words of our opening hymn “Come, Thou
Almighty King,” written in the 1700’s, are strong and majestic, representing the times in which it
was written. One can almost hear the grand sounds of an Italian pipe organ filling the cathedral
halls. The first 3 verses of this song each focus on one person of the Trinity, starting with God the
Father in verse 1, Christ the Son in verse 2, and the holy Comforter in verse 3, ending with the
joining of the three persons of the Trinity, the One in Three, in verse 4. This hymn is the invitation
to believe, leading people to voice their love and praises to God, the glorious ruler of all. Think
about these connections God makes with us as we open our worship today.]
In a moment we will sing our hymn of the day “When Long before Time – The Singer and
the Song”. It is not only a song, but a poem, that beautifully tells the story of creation. Even the
title reminds us that God is the ultimate Creator and Manager of everything, and it is God’s song
that permeates and governs all existence. Listen to the ending words:
To you, God the Singer, our voices we raise,
To you, Song Incarnate, we give all our praise,
To you Holy Spirit, our life and our breath,
Be glory forever, through Life and through death.
And in our offertory song, “My Lord of Light” we hear again the words about the Trinity,
especially in the last verse:
My Lord of lords, one Trinity,
to your pure name be given
all glory now and evermore,
all praise in earth and heaven.
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Through these songs, this poetry, these words of prayer and praise, we put ourselves in
God’s hands to help us understand God’s word, and hopefully be a help for others to understand
and be drawn closer in relationship with God.
In a recent class where we were studying the Nicene Creed, our professor asked this
question. “What is the heart of the Christian message as I understand it?” We could take a minute
right now and ask ourselves the same question, and hopefully an answer will become known to
each of us.
For me, the heart of the message is that God created the world and everything in it, and
loves us unconditionally. Even when we succumb to temptation, and that is so normal behavior
for us as the sinful human beings we are, we receive the blessings of God’s forgiveness and
redemption through Christ’s death and resurrection. God comes to us in different ways,
sometimes as a loving parent, sometimes as a guide, sometimes as a teacher, but it is always
through the mystery of the Holy Spirit as we are acted upon to believe and have faith, and through
Christ’s unconditional love and forgiveness brought to us when Christ became man and walked,
lived, and died on earth and then was resurrected. Three persons, one God, as we hear
throughout the words of the Nicene Creed.
There is no way that we can possibly love God as much as God loves us, but with the help of
the Holy Spirit, through hearing God’s word and understanding how it works in our lives, we are
able to reach our limited human understanding of God’s message for us. As honestly and faithfully
as possible, we try to be the kind of people we understand God wants us to be. For me, that
means showing mercy and kindness, connecting to others, living by example not by command,
giving credit to God for what God does in my life, acknowledging there are things I don’t “get” and
may never understand, but still trusting God to help me accept God’s will wholeheartedly and
relinquish my doubts.
Amen.
Hymns, from the Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal:
ELW 408
ELW 861
ELW 832
Come, Thou Almighty King
When Long Before Time
My Lord of Light
Credit also goes to David Lose, for sharing his insights in “In the Meantime” from August 17, 2015.
This sermon incorporates many of Pr. Lose’s thoughts, along with my own, to be shared with
others.
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