SUNDAY SERMON
TAKE IT TO THE LORD IN PRAYER
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost, Year B
August 24, 2003
Gospel: John 6:60-69
Last year about this time Charlton Lyon and I began to facilitate a small group, using the Companions in Christ program. For nine months, each member of our group prayed and studied the scriptures at home. The group came together each week to reflect on what we had read and how we thought God might be working in our lives. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and spiritual growth.
Members of our various Companions groups were encouraged to use a Bible of our own choice. Many of us used a brand new Bible that Robbie McQuiston discovered and recommended. It's called "The Spiritual Formation Bible."
This Bible is one of a newer generation of Bibles which have study questions built right into them. These are not, however, the kind of questions you might expect. Rather than scholarly or academic, these questions focus on the spiritual life of the reader.
Now, in preparing a sermon, preachers look for help for their ideas. The sources include: different translations of the Bible, commentaries, meditations, other sermons, other clergy, prayer. I have learned through the years that I need to choose my help carefully. The kind of wisdom various commentators and others offer me may be good answers, but they are often answers to questions that I am just not asking. A flip way of saying this might be, "Jesus may be the answer, but what's the question?"
Well, here's a question from the Spiritual Formation Bible about Jesus and about our Gospel text today. When I first read this question, I knew it would be the focus of my sermon. I believe that it is the kind of question, the kind of spiritual question, that strikes every heart and soul, time and again, in the course of human life.
This powerful question is grounded in the behavior of the disciples. Some disciples find Jesus' teaching about the bread of heaven to be so outrageous, they just can't follow him any longer. "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" (John 6:60).
Jesus asks the twelve apostles, his faithful friends, if they want to leave, too. Peter's answer is poignant, clear. "To whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God" (6:68-69).
Can you hear the tension? It's as if Peter were saying: Jesus, you are the One, the Only One for me. But how in heaven's name can I possibly follow you THERE?
Here's the way the Spiritual Formation Bible asks the question (p.1407):
"What is Jesus asking you to face that seems too hard for you right now?"
"What is Jesus asking you to face that seems too hard for you right now?"
There it is. Fifteen words. "What is Jesus asking you to face that seems too hard for you right now?" I don't know about you, but there's a part of me that REALLY doesn't want to deal with that question, let alone answer it. If that's the way you're feeling, trust that you are in good company.
Let me invite you simply to sit with that question for a bit. Put it away if you like. We'll come back to it.
I want to suggest that it is questions like that one that make us know just how challenging it is to be a Christian. The spiritual journey is not straight and narrow. We may talk about the "plain truth" of scripture, but the words of Jesus, the truth Jesus speaks is so often anything but plain.
Jesus' teaching about the bread of heaven is, of course, not Jesus' only difficult teaching. There are many things Jesus tells his disciples and us that are not easy, not simple, not plain. Remember with me just three of his other difficult teachings:
"Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."
(Mark 3:35)
"Whoever is not against us is for us." (Mark 9:40)
"Whoever does not enter the kingdom…as a little child will never enter
it." (Mark 10:15)
And here are three more difficult teachings, which we'll be hearing on Sunday mornings in the second half of next month:
"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take
up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose
it…." (Mark 8:34-35)
"Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."
(Mark 9:35)
"If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who
believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around
your neck and you were thrown into the sea." (Mark 9:42)
Sifting my way through the gospels, I found more than thirty difficult teachings. Jesus spoke anything but plainly. Mark's gospel account says that "he did not speak to them except in parables" (4:34), like the parables of the lost sheep, the mustard seed and the prodigal son. He loved to use symbolic language, including similes throughout John's gospel account, like: I am the good shepherd, I am the vine, and (the image we have heard for the past four weeks) I am the bread of life that comes down from heaven.
I believe Jesus calls us to be like children in order to enter God's kingdom. I also believe Jesus is talking about a childlike faith, not childish thinking. And it is childish to think that God doesn't want us to face our fears and to grow up in our Christian faith.
Let's return to the question we left awhile ago. "What is Jesus asking you to face that seems too hard for you right now?" If you're not sure how to go about considering this question, let me give you some suggestions:
Maybe it's something at work - a skill you know you need to develop but fear you can't, a co-worker you need to confront, a supervisor to whom you need to give some feedback. Maybe it's something at school - a class you will likely fail without a tutor, a classmate who won't give you the time of day, a teacher who knows less than you do? Maybe it's something at church - a fellow member next to whom you can't stand to sit, a leader whose decision you don't think you can ever accept, a difference between you and your church that feels totally irreconcilable?
Or is it something at home - a parent with whom you're always at war, a child who has broken your trust, a sibling from whom you are estranged? Is it something in you - an attitude you can't adjust, an addiction you can't shake, a fear you just can't face? Is it something about God? Is Jesus just too blessed much for you to face today?
Often it's a combination of these things. When a major personal crisis arose in my personal life a few years ago, I had to consider what it meant for the parish I served in Kansas, for my children, for my ministry as a priest. In the deepest way I had ever known, I was forced to examine what it meant, honestly, to face myself and my God.
One of the results of dealing with all of those things: I was unable to pray. After years of regular, daily quiet time, during which I would often be filled with an awareness of God's presence, I stopped. It stopped. I simply could not pray the way I always had.
Most of the time, all I could do was just show up for work, preside at the Eucharist and preach a little bit. Slowly, gradually, I came to understand that, while I could not pray, dozens of people all over the country were praying for me, praying about me, praying in my stead - including many of you. I came to understand that, when I could not take my problems to Jesus, I could still take them to the body of Christ.
Which brings me to the end of the Bible question - and to the Good News. There is an invitation at the end of that study question. Here it is: "Go to Jesus and tell him all those things that seem too hard for you." That's it. That's it. Just go tell Jesus. And tell your friends, the body of Christ. Tell anyone who listens…and trust you will be heard.
Just pray. But pray as you can, not as you can't. Get down on your knees. Get into your chair or onto your bed. Go out for a walk or a run. Get with a friend or do it alone. Ask others to pray for you, whether you can pray or you can't. No matter how hard it is to hear what Jesus says, tell Jesus how hard it is! Tell Jesus how hard HE is.
Prayer is the answer, no matter what the question.
I close with a hymn text that's over a century and a half old. It's not in your father's or your mother's Episcopal hymnal. Hear the plain truth of those old words:
What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry ev'rything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry ev'rything to God in prayer!
Are we weak and heavy-laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge - take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he'll take and shield thee - thou wilt find a solace there.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged - take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our ev'ry weakness - take it to the Lord in prayer.
(Joseph M. Scriven, circa. 1855)