I Will Give You Rest || Christ Vision 2/5
Year B: Proper 13
Over the next four weeks, I’ll be preaching through series called Christ Vision. We know that Jesus is like God, and we know that God is like Jesus. This is really good news. This series is about how Jesus came to show us how he sees the Father, as the Source of infinite love and compassion. Jesus wants us to know that God loves us just as God loved Jesus from before the beginning.
Once we begin to understand this, we will be transformed in such a way that the Love of Father, Son, and Spirit will overflow from ourselves and churches into the world around us.
This second video is about Jesus’s invitation to come to him so that we might have rest. How can Jesus give us rest? Jesus asks us to lay down our traditions, preconceived ideas, and what we think we know about God and allow him to show us who the Father really is. Jesus is the only one who knows God as God truly is, so he invites us to take sides with him against our delusion and trust in who he reveals the Father to be.
For those of you who enjoy the lectionary posts, they are sill here. Just look below the video!
Year B, Proper 13, August 4, 2024
First Reading: Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15
Psalm: Psalm 78:23-29
Second Reading: Ephesians 4:1-16
Gospel: John 6:24-35
Sermon - Never Hungry and Never Thirsty
After the episode of Jesus rejecting the people’s offer for him to be king, he went across the sea. When they found him, they were confused as to why he left so suddenly. Jesus’s response might shock us. He basically says, “You aren’t here because you actually believe in me; you are here for more bread.” He follows this up with a mysterious statement: “Do not work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal” (John 6:27).
“Do not work for the food that perishes…”
I wonder what we can do to get around this passage. If you’re like me, you have a job, a retirement, or some source of income, and you’re probably wondering what Jesus could possibly mean by this statement. The way I see it, there are at least ways of reading this. The first is that Jesus is calling his disciples to put radical trust in God as the One who will provide them with their daily bread, as in the Lord’s prayer. This will free them up to focus entirely on spiritual things.
On the other hand, we might read this passage like this: “Do not only work for the food that perishes but work so much more for the food that endures for eternal life.”
Of course, there is always a third option: both readings are true. That is, we should trust in God to provide us with daily bread, even if it is through a regular job, and we should allow this trust to give us the freedom to focus on spiritual things.
The crowd responds to this by asking for the gift of multiplying bread: “what must we do to perform the words of God?” They want to do miracles like Jesus. Jesus responds by telling them that the greatest miracle would be inner transformation.
Growing up, I used this passage to counter those who taught that we are not saved by works. I’d say, “Well, John 6 says that even faith is a work!”
This was a misrepresentation of what is being said here.
Jesus is the bread of life. When we absorb and observe his teaching, walk in his steps, and allow him to heal us, we are feasting upon the bread of God. Jesus fulfills the three gifts of the exodus. Here he fulfills the imagery of the manna. In the next two chapters, Jesus embodies the water of life and the pillar of fire—that great light which led the people at night.
When we listen and read some teachers, we come away hungry and thirsty. We hear about the conditional love of God, or we might be given a laundry list of things we need to do to win God over, but when we sit at the feet of Christ, we come away full.
I invite you to listen to the video at the top of the page, which is unrelated to this text on one level, to see just how much God loves you.
Second Reading: Speaking the Truth in Love
“…but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).
There is nothing new under the sun; I know that. But it seems like social media has amplified our tendency to speak truth while forgetting love. It is so easy to hop online and say a few things that may be true but are filled with hatred at the worst or apathy towards our neighbors at the least.
As Mr. Tony put on the sign this past week, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
Or as Paul wrote to the churches in Colossae, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6).
Why does Paul want us to watch not only what we say but how we say it? Because the very people we may be tempted to speak evil against or to malign are the very ones for whom Christ died. That is, when we say something mean or ugly about someone else, even if it is true, we are treating an object of God’s Divine Love poorly, and, in doing so, we jeopardize our chances of reaching them with the gospel.
They might even think, “And that right there is why I could never be part of their church or follow their God.”
The truth matters, but without love, even truth suffers.
As the fires of politics heat up over these next three months, let us remember to whom we pledge our allegiance: the Father, Son, and Spirit. As people become more ugly, as each side maligns the other, let us remember who we are. Let us speak truth that is baptized in love.
Thanks so much for keeping up with this blog. If you have any suggestions, recommendations, or critiques, you can always comment here or reach out through my website: https://danielr.net.