ermons

Deacon Tar Drazdowski

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Deuteronomy 8:1-10
Ephesians 4:(25-29)30-5:2
John 6:37-51
Psalm 34 or 34:1-8  

  + In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Good morning!  Congratulations! Amid the strife of this life you have come to the banquet, where you will eat the bread of life, which is your spiritual food, and in eating this food you will have eternal life!

            It has been a difficult week. Scotland Yard has unfolded yet another plot to create havoc and destruction in our world. All of our lives are complicated with family, work, and with all the many blessings of this life.  In this world of uncertainty, many of us look to the Scriptures for answers to our questions of what is right and how we should conduct our lives.  We desperately want stability, and we search the Scriptures to find answers to the questions that place heavy burdens on our hearts.  For some of us, instead of finding answers, we only find more questions.  As Christians, we read the same Bible, but somehow we come up with entirely different ways of interpreting the meaning of the text.  Even in the Anglican Communion, we are trying to decide who has the correct interpretation of the precepts taught in the Bible and who does not. In essence, we are trying to decide who is in and who is out. In the Gospel lesson this morning, we are given an answer.  We are told that no one comes to the Father unless he is drawn by Him. Imagine that! The Father draws you and me, and that is why we are here this morning.

            In the OT lesson this morning, we hear Moses reminding the Israelites that in order to live and prosper in the Promised Land, they need to obey the commandments that they have been given.  He reminds them that while they have been in the wilderness, God has met all of their needs. Moses recounts for them that while they were in the wilderness their hearts were tested and were humbled, but their clothes did not wear out, their feet did not swell, and they were feed with manna from heaven everyday.  Moses is reminding them that by walking in God’s ways and by fearing Him, God will bring them into a new land.  Moses describes this new land as a place where they will eat bread without scarcity, where they will lack nothing-- a land where they will eat their fill and be blessed by the Lord.  Moses is actually painting for the Israelites, a picture of the kingdom of God. It sounds pretty promising, doesn’t it?  It sounds like a much better place than the one we are experiencing today.  

 We are no different from the Israelites. Our human nature wants to believe that everything should be perfect and wonderful in our lives but it does not want us to remember that in order to live and prosper, we must follow the commandments in their entirety. 

            In John’s Gospel we find Jesus still talking about bread.  Why is he still talking about bread?  A few weeks ago we heard the story of the feeding of the five thousand.  If you will remember the disciples still did not understand about the bread. I am not sue that we really understand the bread either.   Philip asked Jesus where they were going to get enough bread to feed all of the people who had followed them.  Jesus answered Philip by saying “You feed them.” Last week we heard the story of the Transfiguration. Moses appears representing the Law, Elijah appears representing the prophets, and then we hear God’s voice saying, “ This is my Son, listen to him.” 

            In this morning Gospel reading, we find Jesus, talking to the people, the same people who were following him after the feeding of the five thousand.  He says to them, “ Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.  And this is the will of him who sent me. That I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.”  Jesus’ remarks pretty much sum up the question about who is in and who is out.  He says, “NO one can come to me unless the father draw him, and I will raise them up on the last day.”

Congratulations! Because you are here this morning, the Father has drawn you to hear His word and to eat at His table. In just a few minutes we will be invited to repent of our sins, and then we will be invited to come to the banquet table. As we walk to the rail, we will be bringing ourselves to God in all manner of human conditions.  Some of us are ill, some of us have broken hearts, some of us are grieving, and some of us are disappointed with the life in this world.  The Good News is that God knows our hearts and minds and GOD knows what we need to continue to live in this world.  We will be presenting our souls and our bodies as living sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. God will in turn feed us with the Bread of Life. This is not the same manna that the Israelites ate in the wilderness and then died. This is the bread that will give us eternal life.  It is our spiritual food.  When we eat this bread and drink this wine we are nourished and given the strength to live in this world through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit empowers each and every one of us to act as Christ’s Body and to engage in the work of Christ in our homes, in our jobs, in our churches, and in our everyday lives.  When we eat this food and drink this wine, we are re-membered back into the body of Christ.  We will be transfigured, and therefore, we will be in the kingdom of God.  Christ tells us that if we eat of His body and drink of His blood we will never thrust or be hungry again. 

But wait…… what do we know about human nature?  If you are like me, when I eat at this table, the transfiguration is sometimes short lived, not because of what God has fed me but because of my human nature. And that is why we need to keep coming back to the table, day after day, week after week, and year after year.  If we continue to confess our sins and eat at this table, we will become so filled with Christ, that our hearts will become satisfied. We will not have to look to this world for nourishment and strength.  We will instinctively know that this is the table that draws us back to Christ; this is the table that centers our lives in Christ.  By coming back to this table, we will learn to live by the commandments in their entirety.  We will learn to live as resurrection people.

Come and eat!  Come to this table and be filled with the Holy Spirit and then go forth into the world fully nourished with strength and courage to do the will of God who has drawn you to His table!

Amen.