The Liturgical
Churches Union of Jersey City and Vicinity
Lenten Worship
Service
March 16, 2016
John 6:22-27
Looking for Jesus, Hungry for Jesus
One
of my favorite things to do – one of my greatest privileges as an Episcopal priest
– is the opportunity to administer Communion, to give the Bread of Life to
everyone who presents themselves to me at St. Paul’s.
Now,
I know that we have at least somewhat different theologies and practices when
it comes to the Lord’s Supper.
But,
over at St. Paul’s the way we do it is during the Sunday service people line
up, come forward, and either kneel or stand at the altar rail.
As
I make my way down the line, I’m often touched, really moved, by the different
ways people receive communion.
Some
raise their outstretched hands high while others keep them low.
Some
seem to want to make eye contact with me, eager for a human connection in this
sacred moment, while others keep their eyes downcast, humble in the face of
this most personal encounter with the Lord.
I
love seeing all the many hands, all the different colors, the old hands creased
by a lifetime of hard work, bent by the pain of arthritis, and the young hands,
smooth and barely lined, full of the promise and hope of youth, and the middle
aged hands beginning to show some wear and tear.
And
then there are the children.
At
St. Paul’s we leave it up to the parents to decide when their baptized children
are ready to receive communion.
Some
parents let their kids receive at a very young age, and usually they come
bounding up to the rail, excited, overjoyed, even. Do they really understand what they are about to receive? No, but neither does
anybody else!
And
then there are the children whose parents won’t let them receive yet. Often the
kids will put out their hands expectantly, maybe even defiantly, only to have their mom or dad gently push them down and
ask me to simply bless the child.
But,
you know, their disappointed faces show all too clearly that those kids know
that they’re missing out on the good stuff.
All
of those people – all of us – old and young – gather at the Lord’s Table to
take the Bread of Life into our bodies and souls.
Whether
there’s communion or not, we come to church – on Sundays or on a Wednesday
night or any other time because we are looking for Jesus – and we have at
least some idea where to find him.
Looking
for Jesus.
Say
it with me: “Looking for Jesus!”
We’ve
been having a blessed Lent, haven’t we?
It
has been a gift these past few weeks to travel around to our different
churches, to see all these different holy places where people look for and find
Jesus, a gift to hear the preaching of my clergy sister and brothers, and to soak
in the sound our amazing choirs.
I’m
thankful to Rev. Legay for his kind introduction and Rev. Dorothy Patterson for
the honor of preaching in her pulpit. With God’s help, I hope to be worthy of
your trust.
Looking
for Jesus.
This
Lent we’ve been traveling around Jersey City and now we’ve come to Bayonne, because
we’re…looking for Jesus.
Say it with me: “Looking for Jesus!”
And,
thank God, we have some idea where to find him.
And,
in tonight’s lesson from the Gospel of John we heard about some other people
who were looking for Jesus, too.
We
need to back up a little, though, to the day before the events we heard about
in tonight’s reading.
Because
that day was a really big day.
The
Evangelist John tells us that a huge crowd had been following Jesus, seeing the
signs he was performing for the sick, but it had gotten late, probably people
were so focused on Jesus they lost track of the time!
Anyway,
because the hour had grown late, Jesus asks Philip, “Where are we to buy bread
for these people to eat?”
Philip,
he has no idea – all he knows is there’s definitely not enough food and
certainly not enough money to feed all these people.
Andrew
helps out, managing to find a boy who’s got some food, but it’s only just five
barley loaves and two fish, surely nowhere near enough.
But,
you know the rest, right?
With
Jesus, there’s more than enough for everybody.
I
imagine the people sitting on the grass that day, passing around the seemingly
bottomless baskets of bread and fish, stretching out their hands, their hands
worn from first century hard work, taking this mysterious food into their
bodies.
They
didn’t understand at all what was happening but they knew that this was the good stuff – and knew that they wanted more!
John
tells us later that night the disciples got into a boat without Jesus and
started out across the sea. A rough storm kicked up and suddenly they saw Jesus
walking towards them – and they were terrified – terrified to see their Lord
walking on the water.
Jesus
tells his terrified friends, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
Which
can also be translated, “I am; do not
be afraid.”
The
disciples are beginning to realize that Jesus is more than a teacher, more than
a prophet, more than a miracle-worker.
In
and through Jesus, God, the great “I Am,” has come among us.
It
was a really big day.
Now,
we pick up the next day with this evening’s lesson.
The
crowd from the day before who had eaten all of that bread and fish, all that
good stuff, they discover Jesus and his disciples have departed and so they get
into their boats and row to the other side, looking for Jesus.
Say
it with me: “Looking for Jesus!”
They’re
looking for Jesus, but like us, they don’t really understand who Jesus is –
they don’t understand the meaning of the bread and fish they had received
yesterday.
They
call Jesus “rabbi, “ which is true enough, but we know - and the disciples are beginning to
realize - that he’s so much more than that.
Jesus
tells them that they’re only looking for him because they ate up all the bread
yesterday and now they want some more.
Can’t
you imagine him saying that with a little half-smile?
And,
you know, maybe they do want more bread and fish, maybe they were hungry to see
what Jesus would whip up for breakfast, maybe they were eager for another
miracle, another spectacle, another sign.
But,
the bottom line is that those people from long ago who rowed across the sea,
with their imperfect understanding, they were looking for Jesus.
Say
it with me: “Looking for Jesus!”
And,
you know, we’re not so different from those people long ago who were well fed
by Jesus, who got a taste of the good stuff, who didn’t understand everything –
how can we?
Like
them, we know where to look for Jesus.
We know to come back to our churches
week after week where we are fed by the Word of God, where we are fed by the
preaching (no comment, St. Paul’s!), where we are fed by the music, where we
are fed by the sacraments, where we are fed by the fellowship, where we are fed
by the gift and privilege of serving and loving one another.
Like
those people long ago rowing their boats across the sea, we’ve gotten a taste
of the good stuff – a taste of the best stuff of all – and we want more, so we
go looking for Jesus – we go looking for Jesus in our churches – we go looking
for Jesus right here during this Lenten series.
We’re
looking for Jesus – and, thank God, we know where to find him.
Amen?
Amen!
But…but,
there are so many people out there who are hungry for Jesus. So many
people out there who can’t find Jesus, or who haven’t found him, yet.
There
are so many people out there who
don’t even know where to begin looking for Jesus.
We
know these people, don’t we?
In
fact, maybe we used to be them.
We
know those men and women overwhelmed by life, all those bills that somehow need
to get paid, the challenge of raising children in hard, dangerous neighborhoods
with substandard schools, the burden of being stained forever by past mistakes,
the seemingly pointless search for a job, the fear of illness and death, the
enslavement to drugs or alcohol.
We
know these people who are hungry for Jesus.
Say
it with me: “Hungry for Jesus!”
So
many people are hungry for Jesus but they don’t know where to begin looking for
him because maybe they’ve been hurt by the church. Maybe they’ve been abused by
the church one way or another – we know that happens more often than we’d care
to admit.
So
many people are hungry for Jesus but they can’t find him because maybe they’re
turned off by the loudest and most famous and, yes, I’ll say it, richest
“Christian” leaders in our country who preach the law before love, who are
quick to judge and condemn and slow to forgive, who throw their considerable
power and prestige behind political candidates who promote hate and feed fear.
So
many people are hungry for Jesus but they don’t know where to begin looking for
him maybe because of “Christian” leaders who puff themselves up, who live in
mansions and fly around in private jets while supposedly humbly following Jesus
of Nazareth - Jesus who had no place to rest his head, Jesus who called on the
rich young man to give away his possessions to the poor and follow him.
Say
it with me: “Hungry for Jesus!”
And,
yes, so many people are hungry for Jesus but they can’t find him because of us.
Our
churches can so easily become safe little clubs where we get to hang out with people
just like us, people we’ve known a long time and love and trust – safe little exclusive
clubs where too often the stranger is looked at with suspicion or, maybe even
worse, is pounced upon as he or she walks through the door for the first time:
fresh blood who can do some of the church work we’re so tired of doing.
Our
churches have so often retreated into ourselves – into our little church
politics and our irrelevant disputes that look completely ridiculous to the
outside world.
We’ve
stopped going out to the street and stopped being with the people, being with
the people who are so hungry for Jesus – who are starving for Jesus.
People
are looking for Jesus.
People
are hungry for Jesus.
My
favorite definition of evangelism is one maybe you’ve heard. It’s from a 20th
Century Sri Lankan Methodist pastor named D.T. Niles.
He
said, “Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find
bread.”
“Evangelism
is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.”
I
love that.
My
brothers and sisters, we are the beggars who know where to find the
bread.
We
are the beggars who know where to find the good stuff.
We
are the beggars who know where to find Jesus – we may not always understand him
– how could we? – but, we know where to look for Jesus and we know where to
find Jesus.
Now,
maybe more than ever, we’re called to be the beggars who tell the other beggars
where to find the bread.
Through
our deeds and words, we’re called to tell the people in our own families.
Through
our deeds and words, we’re called to tell the people across the hall or across
the street who are burdened and worn down by life.
Through
our deeds and words, we’re called to tell the people who’ve been hurt,
disappointed, or just plain disgusted by the church.
Through
our deeds and words, we’re called to tell the kids on the corner, maybe just
hanging out or maybe up to no good.
We’re
called to tell them all – tell them through our very lives – through our lives
of love and generosity – we’re called to tell them that we’ve looked for Jesus
and, yes, we’ve found him – we know where to find the bread – we know
where to find the good stuff.
We
know, so come on over.
And
if we share this Good News – if we share this best news of all time – more and
more of us will gather with our hands of different colors, our hands lined,
creased and bent, our hands smooth, our hands lifted up, hungry and ready to
find Jesus and be fed by Jesus, ready to take Jesus into our bodies and our
souls.
People
are looking for Jesus.
People
are hungry for Jesus.
So,
my fellow beggars, it’s time, actually it’s long past time, for us to tell
those beggars out there, to show them where to find the bread, where to find
the good stuff, where to find Jesus.
Amen.
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