11th Sunday after Pentecost: August 12, 2012

John 6:35, 41-51

Sermon – We are starving

PREACHER: Pastor Paul Cannon

First, I should introduce myself.  I am Pastor Paul and this congregation – Bethany Lutheran – has called me to be the Pastor of Children, Youth and Family.  And I have to say…you all have no idea what you are getting.  During my whole application process I had to track down some people to give me recommendations (harder than you think), and I was fond of telling these people that I chose them specifically because they had the unique distinction of being the best … liars that I knew!  And they really must have tricked the call committee because here I am today.  So I say all this to let you know that if you have any complaints about me, you can take them directly to Brian Bromley was the chair of the committee or even Jack Heisler who was also part of the vetting process.

And before I start, I just want to say briefly that we very intentionally included the “family” portion of my title to let you know that my role here is not simply going to be the “Youth” guy.  We are all a part of a family – whether it’s our home family, this church family, and of course, God’s family.  While my primary duties here will be to oversee the programs for our young people, I am also here to bring Christ to all the generations that are here under this roof.  So know that my door is open to all people in the congregation.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I think that there is a sense in this country – maybe even in this very congregation – that people are becoming less and less religious.  That people are starting to care less and less about God.  Have any of you ever felt that way?  I’m just curious, by show of hands, who thinks that people today are less religious than they used to be?  Is there anybody who thinks that people today are more religious? 

Well the truth is that in some ways both answers are right.  Researchers look into this question all the time.  And if you go around and ask a bunch of people if they consider themselves to be “religious,”  it’s actually true that fewer people would tell you “yes” than would have told you 20 years ago.
And so maybe you know some folks who would tell you that they are not “religious” per se, but will still tell you that they are “spiritual.” Have you ever heard that before?  Or maybe you’ve heard people tell you that they believe in God, but they just don’t like organized religion.  Or…maybe you’ve even heard people quote Mahatma Gandhi who famously said, “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”  

Those are hard words for me to hear, but to my ears they ring very true.  The truth is, that even in the church – maybe especially in the church – we have been very unlike Christ. Where Christ broke bread with prostitutes and tax collectors – the most notorious sinners – we have made such people feel unwelcome.  Where Jesus would listen to people’s sins and forgive them, it seems to me that too often Church has become a place where we hide our sins from each other and pretend like everything is perfect. 

But I think that there is good news embedded in the words of Gandhi as well.  “I don’t like your Christians” he says, “But I like your Christ.”  To me it says what we’ve known all along – that the God we worship is worthy, even when we are not.  It says that people are hungry – they are spiritually starving – for a God that comes to them free of prejudice and sin that all of us Christians bring to the table.  I think that people are hungry for a God that looks less like the millionaire preachers on TV and more like the poor carpenter’s son who walked with them, listened to them and loved them.

To me it says that there is something magnetic and powerful about Jesus – that even a hindu leader feels drawn to. “I like your Jesus,” Gandhi said.  Even in the face of all the bad things that have been done in the name of Chirstianity -- wars, hate crimes, oppression – people are still drawn to Jesus.
And isn’t that what we read in our gospel today?  That it is God – not ourselves, not fancy church programs, not a dynamic Pastor --- that draws people in.  “No one comes to me” Jesus tells the crowd, “unless drawn by the father.” 

There is tremendous hope in that. It’s not about how great we are, it’s about how great our God is. And I think that’s why people haven’t given up on Christianity entirely.  Now don’t get me wrong – Bethany has done some great things.  From what I’ve seen so far, this church is very welcoming and friendly; We’re sending people on mission trips abroad; we have a great team of dedicated and faithful staff and volunteers; but nothing that we do on our own could bring people together like sharing the bread of Christ does.  Because no matter what we do, people will still hunger for a God that is greater than us Christians.

I’ve been working with kids for a long time now and I can tell you that they are not any different.  They too are hungry to hear about Jesus even if they are not all that excited about coming to church.
When I was teaching Confirmation back in 2006-2007, I had a kid in my class named Mitch, who made a big impression on me.  Mitch was a really interesting 6th grader because he was a self-proclaimed atheist.  Thinking about that just drove me crazy because I couldn’t wrap my mind around how this kid—whose parents were faithfully bringing him to church every week—decided that he was an atheist. 

And of course he never took it easy on me either. In class every week, Mitch would inevitably interrupt what we were doing by asking a really pointed question about God.  “If God exists, then why is there evil in the world?” he would ask. Or “If God were real why wouldn’t he just come down and show himself to us?” or “If God is good, then why is there suffering?”

I wish I could say that I had really clever answers to tell him.  Words that could wrap up those questions in a neat bow that would make him understand everything magically.  But I didn’t have any answers and I certainly didn’t have a bow to put on it. I don’t know why there is suffering.  I don’t know why there are parents out there who abuse their children.  I’m not really sure why a good man might die of a heart attack too young and an evil man might live to be 100.  Those are the kinds of questions that there aren’t any answers too.

But what I could tell Mitch was that our God knows our suffering – and not just that he understands it – but that he suffered it himself.  I could tell him that we have a God who was flogged and beaten, then nailed to a cross to die a traitors death – and that he did that for our own sakes. I could tell him that he broke bread with sinners and scorned the self-righteous hypocrites. I could tell him that our God is a God of grace, forgiveness and love regardless of what evil exists in the world.

Well, towards the end of that year there was one confirmation night where Mitch put his hand up in the air, and I thought to myself, “oh no, here we go again” and though he preceeded to make one of his usual objections to Christianity, he started it differently.  He said… “I believe in God, but…”  and I don’t even remember what exactly he said next, because all I remember is those first four words:  “I believe in God…”

I was blown away.  Here was this trouble-making atheist 6th grader telling me now that he believed in God.  And I had to wonder “How did that happen?”  And the only answer that I can come up with was that perhaps Mitch was hungry for God all along.  But maybe he just couldn’t believe in a God who had fake answers to questions we don’t understand.  Maybe all along he was starving for a God that was worth believing in – a God who knew suffering the same way we know suffering.

And I can’t help but reflect on Mitch when I hear our Gospel story today.  “I am the bread of life” Jesus tells the crowd.  “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” The bread of life is the man who gives himself on the cross.  “The bread that I will give for the life of the world” He tells the crowd, “Is my flesh.”  I know that Mitch was drawn to that sort of bread – even Gandhi was drawn to that sort of bread – and my guess is that you are too.

We are all starving for a God who is worth following.  We are hungry for a God who calls us to take up the cross and follow him wherever that may be.  We need a God who calls into hard places that are out of our comfort zones. Instead of a God who gives us easy answers to hard questions, we yearn for a God who walks with us in our suffering.  This is the God that we are all hungry for.  And this is the God that Jesus is. 

So come, find the bread of life here at the table.  Find the bread of life, here in Jesus.  Amen