Turning Back

The New Revised Standard Version The Bread from Heaven

56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” 59 He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” 61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. 65 And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

66 Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. 67 So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He was speaking of Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for he, though one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Introduction- Welcome Home!

It’s so very good to be back!

Sarah, the boys, and I spent a week in Delaware with our family goofing around at the beach and eating entirely too much.

Then we came home, and I spent a week trying to catch up on chores and projects and, you know, recovering from a week away with family! :)

That word home has really struck with me these last few weeks though.

When we were in Delaware, the house was about a half hour away from…well, everything!

It was a half hour away from not one, not two, but three beaches.

It was a half hour away from a pretty solid candy shop that we frequented.

It was a half hour away from a bunch of outlet shops, including build a bear, which brought the boys and their grandparents great joy.

So when we wrapped up at any of these places, when we were about to head back to my Aunt Beth’s house, I would look at the boys and say “Ready to go home?”

And by that I meant Aunt Beth’s, not our home here in Pittsburgh.

Every time it happened, I would think to myself: This is nice, but it’s not our home.

This is nice, but it’s not home.

Do you ever get that feeling about this world we live in?

There are plenty of nice things about this place:

I haven’t been around for a while, but I’m betting that a few of you have seen some pretty serious blessings these last two weeks.

Friends came over to visit.

Family came to town.

Maybe you got your own vacation.

Maybe you found $10 in the laundry.

Whatever it might be, there’s plenty of nice things about this place.

But I also feel like in the last few weeks we’ve had plenty of reminders that this is not our home.

The Delta Variant is out there, and whatever our opinions about various aspects of this virus or our response to it, there are brothers and sisters in Christ in deep pain because of this thing.

I am sure you like me watched in horror at the events going on in Afghanistan, the way that the people of that country are being treated, the way that our men and women of service who spent time there are questioning everything about their mission and sacrifice, about the way the world is viewing the word and commitment of the United States.

And again, I haven’t been around in a bit, but I bet there are reminders like this happening in our individual lives.

Some of you might have said something you regret to someone you love.

Some of you might have had someone you love say something they regret.

Some of you might have gotten a terrible diagnosis.

Some of you might have had a rough day at the office.

Some of you might have lost someone you love.

This place is nice, but it’s not our home.

Actually, I think our text today has a lot to say about that.

Bible Breakdown- This is a Confusing Text!

Christian Cannibals.

In the early days of the church, Christians were often accused of being cannibals.

In texts like this, and the practice of Eucharist that follows, folks thought we were literally going around eating humans.

Gross.

And this sounds as gross to us as it would have sounded to them at the time.

Christianity is weird

It’s worth remembering that however normal our faith may seem to us, it can actually sound remarkably weird to someone who doesn’t know what we’re talking about.

You eat the body and blood of somebody? That’s gross!

When you’re in trouble, you talk to yourself?

You get together with all those strange people to sing along to a pipe organ?

Jesus is making a bigger point that we’ll take a look at here in a moment, but still...

When we’re talking to our friends who are on the outside of these walls, it might be important to remember that what sounds perfectly normal and rational to us might sound off putting and weird to them.

We have to move slowly and deliberately.

Manna and Jesus

This goes back to the last sermon I preached here, which was two weeks ago.

Now, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast two hours ago…let alone what I preached two weeks ago!

But we read about how God, through Moses gave the people in Israel Manna, the weird “what is it” kind of bread-like stuff.

And Jesus came around and said that he was the manna, that he was the bread of life for the whole world.

So here Jesus is doing a few different things:

He might be intentionally shock-rocking the crowd, trying to see who will leave and who will stay.

He’s continuing to draw attention to that metaphor, that he is in fact the bread of life.

And, he’s pointing to the communion feast, something that we will turn our attention to in not too many weeks.

But this isn’t about Jesus having snack time, or even the ritual meal we share here in church from time to time.

Actually, there’s this tiny word that means the world buried right here in the first verse of our story this morning:

Abide- The real story

We have taken a look at this word before in the Greek, but it is so central to John’s gospel, and to what we’re studying here today.

It’s the word Meno, which is where we get our English word “remain.”

But another way to look at it is to translate it as “make one’s home.”

So this first verse we studied this morning would sound a little more like this: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood make their home in me, and I make my home in them.”

Which is one of these phrases in the Bible that really gets under my skin.

I love the idea!

I love the sound of me making my home in Jesus, and Jesus making his home in me!

But I feel like I don’t have an adequate understanding of what that looks like!

What does it look like to make our home in Jesus?

I think central to this question is to answer the question I was thinking about on vacation.

This is nice, but it just isn’t home.

Jesus is home.

Let’s think through a couple of examples:

The School Bully

Somehow, we’ve been in a time warp or wormhole or something, because this coming Tuesday my infant twins are starting kindergarten!

While I’ve been working through the existential crisis that comes along with that, I’ve been thinking about my own schooling experience.

And as someone who wore deep thick glasses, carried around comic books, more than once dressed up as Superman, and preferred listening to the Beatles to everything my classmates were in to on the radio, I was on the receiving end of my fair share of bullying.

Nothing major, or worth calling Dateline over or anything,

But also enough that when I got to middle school I tried it out for myself.

And the reason that bullies keep bullying is because it feels good in that moment, doesn’t it?

It feels good to knock someone down a few pegs on the social ladder, if only to feel like you’re climbing for the smallest of seconds.

But…this was a pretty easy place in life to say “This is nice, but it’s not my home in Jesus.”

I might feel good for a minute, but Jesus told me my home was in loving my enemies, not bullying them.

I might feel good for a minute, but Jesus told me that my home was in lifting others up and not knocking others down.

I might feel good for a minute, but Jesus told me that love was better than hate in every instance.

It’s nice, but it’s not my home.

Twitter and Facebook

It turns out that while I’ve been on vacation, there’s a lot that’s been going on in the news.

I watched in horror as my brothers and sisters in Haiti are crawling out from under yet another earthquake, just weeks after political unrest led to the assassination of their president, and it seems like absolutely no help is headed their way.

I watched in horror as after 20 years of work, money, resources, and most of all sacrifice and grit of our service men and women, the country of Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in exactly 10 days, subjecting it’s citizens, particularly the girls and women, to horrifying conditions and torture.

And I continue to watch in horror as our own country, almost in spite of ourselves, continues to struggle with a virus that seems bent on ending as many lives as it possibly can.

And…I have thoughts on all of these issues!

So a few times on vacation I pulled out my phone to write up a snappy tweet or facebook post.

You know, the kind of thing that is absolutely sure to make those who disagree with me feel some sort of shame and change their ways and see the lights.

Probably I’ll do this best with sound logic, deep research, and a baby yoda meme.

But then…every time I think about what little satisfaction will come from such a post, I’m reminded that while it might be nice for a little bit, it’s not my home.

It might be nice to feel a surge of confidence in my opinions as those who already agree with me like and thumbs up my posts, but Jesus told me my home is not in pleasing people.

It might be nice for a little bit to feel like I’m the smartest guy in the room, but first of all I almost never am, and secondly, Jesus told me my home was not to Lord anything over anybody, and to rather be a humble servant.

It might be nice for a little while to feel like I’m winning some kind of arguement in the comments section, but Jesus told me that my home when I disagree with someone is face to face, one on one conversations, and not cowardly comments.

One thing I came up with to help with this particular issue:

I realized just about every time that I composed one of those tweets or facebook posts that for all the energy and effort I might be putting in to expressing my opinions and feelings, that energy and effort would be better spent on praying.

And so I’m fervently praying for the people of Afghanistan, and I hope you’ll join me in that.

I am fervently praying for my brothers and sisters in Haiti, and I hope you’ll join me in that.

And yes, I continue to pray this day and every day for the countless people who are suffering untold effects of a pandemic that I’m so very sad to say is still not over, and I hope you’ll join me in that.

Destructive Behaviors/Substances

A few weeks ago I got to catch up with an old friend on a long drive.

This friend is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, and has been doing an incredible job of working through his recovery.

But as we were driving for a few hours, our conversation turned to what he was experiencing in life when he was on drugs or when he was drinking, and you guessed it. For him, it was nice, but it wasn’t home.

For him it was nice to have that buzz going on all the time, but it made him unable to appreciate the moments of life that he was experiencing, and some mornings made it impossible to remember anything at all.

For him it was nice to have parties going on all the time, but he slowly started to realize that the work he was called to do was being left undone, and others were starting to notice.

For him it was nice to have lots of friends that wanted to hang out with him and girls that wanted to flirt with him, but he slowly started to realize that his marriage was crumbling right underneath him.

Look, we get this around here, right?

We’ve got an awesome NA group that meets right across the street on Wednesdays and Fridays to help move folks from the place of addiction into the proper home of healing, restoration, and recovery.

But I wonder if there are other examples we’re living in our daily lives?

It might be nice to be addicted to shopping on Amazon and getting that free two day shipping, but Jesus has reminded us that our home is in a simple life where we get by with only what we need.

It might be nice to drown our sorrows in snack food and over-eating, but Jesus reminded us that our home is in a place where everyone gets enough to eat, and no one abuses the resources of the earth.

It might be nice to be addicted to the praise of others, our co-workers, our friends, and even our family, but Jesus reminded us that our job is to praise God, not ourselves.

And all of those examples, just so no one feels particularly pointed at, are straight out of my own life.

These things are nice, but they just aren’t home are they?

Jesus is offensive?

What’s shocking here is that at the end of all this, some people who had been disciples of Jesus find it offensive.

Maybe, maybe, it’s the whole cannibal thing, the idea of eating someone’s flesh and drinking their blood that made folks turn back.

But I don’t think so.

I think it was this idea of making our home in Jesus that so many found offensive.

I think some people would much rather stay in the vacation home of their own desires than to come home to Jesus.

I think some people would much rather stay in the vacation home of their own opinions, their own political world view, their own understanding of the world than to make their home in Jesus’ kingdom vision.

I think some people would much rather stay in the vacation home of whatever makes them feel good, be it drugs or alcohol or consumerism or junk food, than to make their home in the sustaining power of Jesus’ love.

This is all a way of saying what C.S. Lewis noticed a long time ago: Better to be a Lord in Hell than a servant in heaven.

Words of Life-The Holy One Of God

After all of these would be followers of Jesus turn away, Jesus looks at the 12, his closest disciples and friends, and you can almost hear the sorrow in his question:

Are you leaving too?

Peter, usually a ready fire aim kind of disciple, has a rare moment of clarity here:

Where can we go? You have the words of life!

What, do you think we’re going to go to any of these other vacation homes?

Do you think we’re going to get lost in our own selfish desires?

Do you think we’re going to satisfy our own needs?

Do you think we’re going to try to sit in the throne that is rightfully yours?

No.

In fact, we’ve come to understand that you have the words of life.

No matter how much those words are hard to hear, they give life.

No matter how much those words challenge our lifestyle, they give us life.

No matter how much we’re going to have to leave behind, these are the words that bring us back to life in a better way than we could imagine.

My friends, the question for us this morning is simple, but impossible all at the same time:

Are we going to be like those disciples who turned back, looking for their own nice vacation homes?

Or will we be a people who dedicate ourselves, right here and now, to abiding in the home of our king Jesus?

Let’s pray.