Tag: Ephesians

Trinity 13: To Whom Can We Go?

Great crowds followed Jesus as he preached the Good News, 2004 (w/c on paper) by Wang, Elizabeth (Contemporary Artist);

25/8/24
Trinity 13

Psalm 84
Ephesians 6:10-20
John 6:56-69

We have finally reached the end of John 6 as today is Sunday five of five. I have mentioned the various threads and themes that run through this rather carb-filled chapter over the last few weeks. At each turn, Jesus is ratcheting up what is at stake for both that early crowd and for us now.

One golden thread running through this chapter are the words very truly and believe. Jesus is telling us very truly to believe in Him. I spoke last week about how the way we trust in things and people can influence how we trust God.

We all have our own ways of coming to trust things and people. Maybe some of us trust the wrong things or don’t consider the things we trust until they prove themselves to be untrustworthy. Maybe some of us set the bar so high that we trust almost nothing and no one. Jesus wants us to trust him; for anything and everything, all the time and forever. He died for us; his death and resurrection is a very clear indicator of his willingness!

Those first listeners did not yet fully appreciate what Jesus meant about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. The response from many was, ‘this teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ Jesus has challenged his listeners on everything from their extensive rules on food preparation and eating to what happens (or does not happen) when they die. Jesus has thrown down the proverbial gauntlet with his final question, ‘do you also wish to go away?’

Jesus was giving them and still gives us that choice. To follow Jesus or not is a choice; the ultimate one. Christianity is based on making that choice; being a Christian is not an automatic event, it does not just happen. There is a lot of talk in various magazines and websites about being a ‘cultural Christian’.

A quick internet search with some AI help: A cultural Christian is someone who identifies as Christian but may not be religious and may not have a personal relationship with Jesus. They may have been influenced by Christian values and culture through their family background, personal experiences, or the social and cultural environment in which they grew up. They may also identify as cultural Christian because they believe that attending church, being baptised, or being a good person makes them Christian. For cultural Christians, religion is something they add to their lives to make things better.

This sounds rather good. Religion should make life better. Most of us want to be good people. Unfortunately this is the pinnacle of achievement for many; not the basic starting point. Just behave and all will be well.

However, at some point in this life we all have to make a choice to follow Jesus or not. Follow Jesus. Not cultural Christianity. These are the values and virtues; not salvation. It is salvation, eternal life with God that is at stake.

The people Jesus puts this question to in John’s Gospel are not newbie followers. These are people who have heard the teaching, seen the miracles, followed him around, maybe some were healed, they were certainly all loved by Jesus.

Often the discussion around salvation and the saving work of God turns to ‘what about those people who never hear about Jesus’ or people of other faiths. This is the modern day approach to the redirection that Jesus faced when his parentage was questioned in John 6. Personally, I do not worry about those who have never heard as much as I do about those people who hear the teaching, have been to church, know something about God and yet choose not to believe.

I think of some of my cousins, my friends, people I have worked with in the past. The only people who cannot or will not be saved are the ones who put themselves beyond the reach of God. God does not put people beyond his reach; people put themselves there.

It is sometimes an hourly, daily, moment by moment decision to choose God and live fully as the people we were made to be. It is hard work. You might notice that Jesus does not make it easier! He doesn’t make excuses or argue back when his followers take offence and claim it is too hard. He is not offering a lighter version. Many disciples left, not just a couple or a few. Many.

Debie Thomas, the American essayist wrote, ‘What does it mean to choose God? According to Jesus, it means eating his very essence, taking the incarnation so deeply into our own bodies and souls that we exude the favour of Christ to the world. It means doing what Jesus did and living as Jesus lived. It means turning the other cheek. It means loving our enemies. It means walking the extra mile. It means losing our lives in order to gain them. It means trusting that the first will be last and the last first. It means seeking God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness. It means denying ourselves. It means the cross.’

What is amazing in the closing of John 6 is that Jesus had any followers left. Maybe the real miracle of the bread and fish story is not that the multitudes were fed but a handful of those stuck around when he finished teaching. By asking them, ‘do you also wish to go away?’, those who are left are free to walk away.

It is an uncomfortable question. Imagine Jesus asking it with sadness and compassion as He knows that some will walk away. He knows what is asking them. He wants them to know that his love is a freeing love. I find this an uncomfortable question because sometimes I want to say yes.

Yes I do want to go away. I want to quit, I want to be more comfortable, pick an easier, less demanding, less costly, more culturally acceptable version of the Gospel. However, I know that there is no lighter version. It just does not exist.

In the final verses of Ephesians 6, Paul is telling his readers to get ready for the battle. War was a frequent reality then so this language would not have been strange or off-putting. Paul is putting the struggles of small Christian communities as a cosmic battle against supernatural evil. The people are to stand firm and not run away. They have been given the equipment they need.

We too need to stand firm, ready and rooted, if we are to choose Jesus, choose real Christianity. Not only stand firm, but use the equipment we have been given properly. It is sort of like PPE, great to have but only gives protection if used correctly. It means understanding the truth of the Gospel, being ready to proclaim it, being faithful when the arrows come, and knowing the word of God.

We also need to know, like Peter, that Jesus has the words of eternal life. Who else is there to go to? Nothing and no one will ever satisfy us like Jesus does.
We are called to make that choice over and over again. When we come together to celebrate Communion, this is what we are doing. Coming back, choosing again the one with the words of eternal life. Feeding on Jesus is our only hope.

Trinity 12: I am the Living Bread

18/8/24
Trinity 12


Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58

This is Sunday four of five in John 6! Jesus is continuing to turn up the heat as he pushes the crowd and the Jews in their thinking and believing. One of the many golden threads running through this chapter are the words very truly and believe. Jesus was telling them and continues to tell us to very truly believe in Him.

How many of you this morning, before you sat down in a pew asked, ‘can I trust this pew not to collapse under my body weight?’ Or when you went to turn on the bathroom tap wondered if you could trust the water that was coming out of it?

I am not sure how you go to come to believe in people or things, let alone God. What is your process? I am naturally and rather naively a trusting person. I tend to trust people from the start. It does not take much to win my trust and I will take what I see at face value. I trust the water that comes out of the tap will be perfectly fine to drink. I did think about the engineering and craftsmanship of the pews and trusted in them but only asked myself this because I knew that I would be asking you!

We all have our own ways of coming to trust things and people. Maybe some of us trust the wrong things or do not consider the things we trust until they prove themselves to be untrustworthy. Maybe some of us set the bar so high that we trust almost nothing and no one.

The theme for this morning is to look at the implications of putting our trust in Jesus, the bread of life. I have just had us think about how we trust in people and things. It is likely that these processes can and will influence how we trust Jesus. If you are a trust-first-ask-questions-later-type like me, you might find it easy to trust Jesus. If you are a slow-truster, what proof do you need to be satisfied that Jesus is trustworthy?

There could be a lot of ways to get us to do that however Jesus announces that people need to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Jesus intended to shock his audience. This reference to flesh and blood as food would have been particularly startling to the Jewish culture Jesus was speaking into. Jesus’ eating habits were causing comment and criticism at the time as he was seen as a glutton and drunkard who dined in bad company.

The Jewish people were particularly sensitive to food issues. A glance in the Old Testament shows us the vast number of rituals and taboos surrounding food preparation and what could and could not be eaten.

God has always used food to tell his story: the apple in the story of creation, manna and quail in the desert of Exodus, the Passover meal of lamb and unleavened bread. In the New Testament the stories of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fish is told 6 times in the 4 Gospels. Jesus eating the grain on the Sabbath. The bread and wine of the Last Supper. All these stories have food at the heart of them.

Jesus is saying that he is the bread of life, his body and blood are the true food that we all need.

What then are the implications for feeding on the body and blood of Jesus?

The Ephesians reading gives us three ways that trusting in and feeding on Jesus will benefit our lives.

Firstly: Wisdom. This is a whole other sermon on its own. It is different from knowledge, which is facts and figures, the things we get from education. Wisdom is deeper than that; it is a knowing that comes from experience and circumstance, wisdom is common sense that is not so common.

Ephesians tells us that we are to live not as unwise but as wise people (v. 15) and this means being careful in how we live. I don’t know about you but I have never prayed to the effect ‘Dear Lord, I would like to do more stupid things. Please help me do this. Amen.’

You don’t need to be smart to ask for wisdom. We all face situations where we need more wisdom than what we currently have to make the right or best decision. Pray for it!

Secondly, by trusting Jesus we can better understand God’s will for our lives (v. 17). We will never fully understand what we are doing on earth apart from God’s plans and purposes. If we want to know what we are supposed to do then we need to be close to Jesus, feeding and following him. Notice the second plea to avoid foolishness. ‘So do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is.

To avoid foolishness and understand God’s will for our lives we need wisdom. Wisdom comes from trust. Trust comes from feeding on the body and blood of Jesus.

How are you doing on working out God’s will? Not always easy but try to see it as a journey. Maybe a slow one at times but it is not a race. But know that God loves you and has a will for your life. He is not hiding it or keeping it from you but it is something that needs to be worked out.

Thirdly, trusting in Jesus helps us in being thankful and filled with the Spirit. Verse 20 ‘always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Always and everything.

A Bible study in a previous parish included a ‘thankfulness exercise’ where we divided our current age by four. In each quarter of our lives, we had to write down the things/events/people that we were thankful for. It was quite an enlightening exercise. I had much more to be thankful for as I thought through each of my quarters. This might be helpful if you find yourself struggling to be thankful to God.

Sometimes it is hard to be thankful when we are facing difficulties and there does not seem to be much to say thanks for. Do not forget the small things! Being thankful for the small things can only help us to be thankful for the big things. It also creates consistency in us.

Try to avoid letting the troubles in the present wipe your memory of the good things in the past. God is faithful and has done things we should all be thankful for regardless of our current situation. He can be trusted.

If we live in the Spirit, we will never be over or under fed. The body and blood of Jesus will always satisfy every need we can ever have. Feeding on Jesus is our only hope. What the world offers us is not real food as it will not satisfy – however much we eat.

When we give thanks to God we are building trust in Him that he will provide all that we need. In the big and the small stuff. We generally thank people if we have enjoyed a meal together. Jesus has given us the ultimate meal; one that we will all share very shortly. We come together as His family to share in the meal so let us be trusting, wise, understanding and thankful.

Trinity 11: The Bread of Unity


11/8/24
Trinity 11

Ephesians 4:25-5:2
John 6:35, 41-51

Throughout the month of August we are stuck into John chapter 6 which begins with the feeding of the 5000 on a mountainside in Galilee. This crowd witnessed the miracles Jesus had been performing. They began to follow him and the disciples around with curiosity and in hope of another free lunch after Jesus met the physical hunger of the crowd in the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

Next, Jesus walked on the water through a storm in the dark of night to the fear and amazement of the disciples. There is no mention whether the storm stopped or not; what seems to matter is that the disciples’ fear was dissipated when Jesus reached them. One of the beautiful things about the Christian faith is the amount of creativity and imagination it requires of its followers.

The next day, the hungry crowd is back for more fish sarnies but none are on the menu. Jesus tells them not to work that food that will perish but the food that endures for eternal life. The heart-breaking and beautiful proclamation of ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whosoever believes in me will never be thirsty’ follows. This is where we start this morning.

At each turn throughout John 6, Jesus is ratcheting up what is at stake. He is making it clear he is not just a miracle sandwich-maker or a favourite history teacher as he corrects the beliefs of Jewish people listening to and arguing with him. Jesus is reminding them the bread that came down from heaven after they crossed the Red Sea was given to their ancestors came from God; Moses was only the means of delivery. This would have been difficult for the Jews to hear. Their beliefs were firmly held, rules were rules and needed to be followed.

We are living in a world right now, in a country right now where people are hearing things they do not like and reacting. Firmly held beliefs, however right or wrong, or extreme to either end are being challenged. It feels very unsettling and knocks our security. Riots over immigration, Facebook posts decrying the cut to the winter heating credit for pensioners. I am a Canadian so will not comment on the US election. Ukraine, Russia, Israel and Gaza. This is a sad state of affairs.

What can be done? Imagine for a moment that we took Paul’s instructions in the letter to the Ephesians. Paul is instructing the churches to focus on God and for the new believers in Jesus to to live in the light of Christ with specific moral commitment, to conduct relationships in the right way.

We spoke the truth to our neighbours instead of lying to them?
Paul says it is okay to be angry but do not sin. Be angry in the right way about the right things; the true injustices of the world.
Do not steal. Get a job and work honestly.
Share with those in need.
Don’t gossip and slander other people with either your tongue or your thumbs – let your words be graceful and kind.
Put away bitterness, wrath and anger, slander.

How about we be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you.
Live in love and Jesus loves us and gave himself up for us.

This is the world that all children, all of us should grow up in!

Maybe there are better ways to resolve differences and challenges to beliefs. Jesus is trying, I think, to expand their thinking and believing about God. Some of the crowd are willfully determined not to understand. Have you ever met people like that? They are not stupid or unintelligent, they are willingly incapable of seeing any other point of view. The crowd tries to divert the question by turning attention to Jesus’ family (son of a poor carpenter) and ‘who does he think he is?!’

Jesus is offering the crowd something better. Eternal life. Like all offers from God, we are free to turn it down or not recognize it at all. We can choose dust and ashes over the bread of life. Jesus knows this. We choose death rather than the life we were made for. Jesus chooses death too. He chooses to be in our death. He chooses to be the bread of life who dies so that we may live.

We need to choose life. We have all been given physical life; of course. We have all at some point experienced birth. Some more recently than others. There is more to life than just what we can see, touch, smell and experience. Again, back to imagination and creativity! We need to choose life because one day death will come. It is not the end of life but the start of eternal life, safe in the everlasting arms forever.

We all need to be fed spiritually. This is what we are doing in Communion. In the breaking of the bread we are receiving our bread for the next stage in the journey. We are choosing the bread of life over the dust and ashes. Jesus is the bread of life. May we choose this bread always.