It Is About Jesus

What is there which can bring them together, make them a unified congregation, and give Good News to them all, despite their different beginning points?

First, it is Confession and Forgiveness:

-the over-busy person recognizing that there need to be priorities

-the empty person coming to recognize that every person and every time is within the love and purposes of God.

-the person overwhelmed with guilt hearing that the mess we have made of things is not the last word about us and our lives, and that we can be renewed, refreshed, reinvigorated by the promise of the Lord Jesus.

And then in our worship service we turn immediately to song.

The rush is laid aside, the emptiness is filled, the sadness and guilt is replaced when we sing.

And in this song, we dare to see the world as God is intending it to be, not just its present messy state.

Soul, adorn yourself with gladness, our poet began today's first Hymn,

Leave the gloomy haunts of sadness

Come into the daylight's splendor,

There with joy your praises render.

We see ourselves as somehow caught up in the mystery of redemption.

How does this happen, with us who know ourselves to be so flawed, so broken?

The poet sings: Now in faith I humbly ponder

Over this surpassing wonder

That the Bread of Life is boundless...
Christ's own blood to us is given,

Pledge and seal of my salvation.

Our song spills over in thanksgiving for a gift so great we cannot comprehend it:

Peace beyond all understanding,

Joy into all life expanding.

Humbly now, I bow before you,

Worthily let me receive you,

And so favored, never leave you.

Singing hymns like this begins to shape us into what those hymns proclaim, namely, the Body of Christ.

Next, it is the Lessons that just will not leave us alone.

They may comfort us in our distress, and distress us when we're feeling comfortable.

They are not neutral, just a bunch of words.

They say what they mean and mean what they say, (to borrow the line from Dr. Suess)

and through them the Lord is more faithful than Dr. Suess's elephant ever could be.

The images that Jesus uses are vivid, memorable, and active.

Ones such as: --The Good Shepherd and his sheep.

--The Vine and its branches

--The Light of the world, and its effects.

We have been stumbling over the offensiveness of the image in today's Gospel reading.

The Bread of Life for the world is the flesh of Jesus.

As we have been exploring these passages over the past several weeks, we realize that language is being pressed to its limits in order to express the unbreakable union of human and divine in Jesus, and the mystery of how that life is become the chief part of our lives.

For those who receive Jesus, the whole Jesus, his life reshapes ours.

He can no more be separated from a believer's life than last Tuesday's breakfast can be snatched away from one's body.

They are completely intertwined.

That is why the martyrs of old and martyrs still today can face horrifying deaths so bravely; we are parts of the body of the risen Christ Jesus, over whom death does not have the final word.

This is something bigger than the idea which floats around the church sometimes that what is important is just the things with our minds, believing some religious truths.

But we cannot reduce the reception of Jesus into an intellectual exercise.

And that is a very good thing.

A person suffering from Alzhaimer's disease may not be able to grasp the point of a sermon long enough to think about it may still be able to hold the Cup of Blessing to her lips and receive the presence of Christ.

I'll never forget the first time this happened to me, when I was visiting a person in a nursing home who spoke not a word; she just stared.

Those one-sided conversations can be painfully awkward.

So I decided that the thing to do was to try to offer Holy Communion.

I did the familiar actions, spoke the familiar words, and the silence was broken when she said, “For you, for you,” and then joined in part of the Lord's Prayer before the silence took over again.

I should not doubt the power of God's Word to break through any kind of barrier.

At the other end of life, a child for whom theological affirmations about the real presence of Christ in the sacrament are as incomprehensible as molecular biology can still receive the blessings of this table and know that it is food for God's family.

And it is true for all of the stages of life between young children and faltering seniors.

Christ Jesus uses the words of a pastor, a gospel writer, a hymn-writer, a composer, and many more to come to our hearts, minds, and bodies.

Christ Jesus also uses the bath and the meal in his name to be the way he comes to our hearts, minds, and bodies.

And those two statements are not in competition with each other.

Since this is the truth about Christ in us, how should we behave?

And Paul in the Second Lesson today urges us to make good use of his gift of time.

Since we are the Body of Christ, are we “killing time” or using it well?

We have some thinking and sorting to do as we strive to answer that question.

And here in this hour set aside for worship, one of those things to do is to sing.

Sometimes we get stuck on the problem that our voices may not be the most elegant or accurate.

But you see hymn-singing is not about you and I alone; it is about us joining with brothers and sisters of all times and places to defy the sad and cynical world out there, and to give a shout of thanks for God's saving presence in our time and in us.

It's not about us; it is about Jesus!

Even if our voice is gone, or was never well-developed , still we can read the text, or at the very least, listen to it carefully as we pray:

Jesus, thy boundless love to me

No thought can reach, no tongue declare;

Unite my thankful heart to thee,

And reign without a rival there!

And this song and these actions will shape the course of our lives:

Oh, may thy love my heart renew,

Burn in my soul like heavenly fire!

And day and night, be all my care

To guard this sacred treasure there.

Lutheran hymn-writer Paul Gerhard wrote those words in the 17^th century.

Methodist John Wesley recognized their truth and translated the hymn into English in the 18^th century

Roman Catholic Henri Hemy in the 19^th century wrote the tune that we use with it today.

They all agree: it is not about them, or us; it is about Jesus. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.