Sermon Tone Analysis

Gospel Reading

John 6

Consuming Eternity

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

So far, throughout the discourse, we have discussed how Jesus invites to a deep abundance.

That we can rest.

That an abundant life is built around compassion for others - the same compassion Jesus had for all of those who were following him.

That to those who were hearing then - and perhaps now - it feels a little unbelievable, and for some of those who knew Jesus and his family, a little scandalous.

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Take for instance this whole “flesh” business.

Here, more than anywhere else, these images become their most vivid.

John is inviting us to first remember what was written earlier in the Gospel - that the Word became flesh.

The word that John used wasn’t a metaphoric word, but this one - sarx, meaning meat.

John is inviting us to think about God becoming meat, visceral and real in every way.

And we come to and we see this same word - flesh.

And moreover, Jesus is inviting us to consume it - the words here are not polite, dinner party terms, but more like chewing, gulping.

We are to ravenously feast on Jesus.

Again, this might be another reason to be a bit sympathetic with the crowds again, who started to argue a bit.

Those of us who have been conditioned to think through cool, detached, distant, and dispassionate consideration will find it strange to be told that if we are to think about the Word made flesh, we must think through ingestion, consumption, and intimate, deep engagement.

The metaphor reminds one of Paul’s claim of “no longer I … but … Christ who lives in me” (Gal.

2:20).

There is no knowing who the Christ is without visceral, total engagement.

We will not be able to comprehend him by sitting back, comfortable in the pew, and coolly considering him as if he were an abstract, disembodied idea.

Incarnation means that we must get up, come forward, hold out empty hands, sip wine, chew bread (the verbs in the Greek here move from polite ones about eating and drinking to more visceral verbs of chewing and gulping).

But it almost seems like they’ve missed the point here - and if we get too buried in the scandalous nature of this passage, we can, too - that Jesus is invited us to be ravenous when it comes to him - that our life with Jesus Christ is not just meant to be a detached, dispassionate one, abstracted and disembodied.

Instead of an image of a slight distracted and disengaged person sitting in a pew lightly nodding off, we’re better to imagine standing in line in the narthex, the kitchen window just recently thrown open, revealing what our other senses intuited - another delicious potluck Sunday.

All of the dishes you look forward to on the counter.

And you didn’t eat breakfast.

So you fill up, you stack your plate.

And you chew, gulp, consume - you laugh with your friends, you’re meeting new folks.

It’s good… really good.

It’s a taste of home.

Jesus is asking the same of us with him.

Devour the choicest meal from your best moment but better.

But there’s been one more part of this discourse that is even more scandalous, even more unbelievable - that we are eternal.

If we are consuming Jesus - with all of the gusto we can muster, and he is in us - we are invited to an entirely different way of living.

Even more unbelievable may be that if we take him at his word, as folks who may have deeply consumed Jesus, we are eternal right now.

There’s no waiting for being eternal, after all - we’ve been eternal people.

So let’s say we do take Jesus at his word - what doesn’t give us the how.

How do we live as eternal people?

So how do we live as eternal people?

Put another way - how do we live as people of whom time has no influence?

What is timeless living?

This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about time during in the last couple months - we have calendars that at best order and at worst control our lives.

We still have schedules, we still have watches on our wrists.

I’m thankful for a clock that faces towards the pulpit so that I can track my timing.

The world rotates on its axis, around the sun.

We are not babies anymore.

Grey hairs pepper my beard and my hair, but I have been here less time than some of you, and there are some of who have been here less time than I have.

As a result, time feels pretty well set into the way that we do things - that the universe is set by some kind of divinely ticking clock, ever moving.

But Scripture doesn’t just explore time in one way.

Instead, the Greek has two words that it would use to describe time.

The first one is chronos - it describes a defined time, the time we have in our calendars.

That makes sense, too because when you think of a lot of words that have “chronos” in it that we use in English - chronometer (time measurer), chronological (time ordered), anachronistic (an error in chronology) - they deal with being able to piece out time.

But then there’s a second type of time: kairos - which is definitely a word Old Stone has heard a few times.

And kairos is described less by its measure, but by its moment - the due season that something should occur.

It’s God’s time - God’s holy inbreaking into our world.

We carry both of these kinds of time inside of us, but we so often live into only chronos without sensing the kairos around us.

As we watch time move in chronos fashion, we may watch the measurements move from one end to the other.

We may start to become fearful of what we have left in chronos.

There’s never enough time.

Time is running out.

We cannot collect it, but we are beholden to it.

The questions being to creep into our conscious - about the use of our time.

I’m reminded of TS Eliot’s famous poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” where the main character is looking a portion of his life.

He considers where he’s been and in his own internal monologue, tries to justify his actions, saying:

And indeed there will be time

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

Time to turn back and descend the stair,

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —

(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)

My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —

(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)

Do I dare

Disturb the universe?

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”

Time to turn back and descend the stair,

Time to turn back and descend the stair,

Time to turn back and descend the stair,

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair —

(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)

(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)

My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,

My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin —

(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)

(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)

Do I dare

Do I dare

Disturb the universe?

Disturb the universe?

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”Time to turn back and descend the stair,With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—        40(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)Do

I dare        45Disturb the universe?In a minute there is timeFor decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all:Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,        50I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;I know the voices dying with a dying fallBeneath the music from a farther room.