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“The Sword of the Spirit”
John 6:60-69;
Ephesians 6:10-20; Psalm 84
Rev. Sandy Nuernberg
Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, Cambridge, WI
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time -
Higher Education Sunday
August 27, 2006
We are at the culmination of eight
weeks in the Gospel of John, and primarily in the sixth chapter, learning of
Jesus as the bread of life; bread that is life and if we eat it like the
Israelites ate the manna from heaven, we will live forever. Our question and
answer session with Jesus and the disciples, as happens often in the Gospels, is
specific in that Jesus gives them reasons for their belief and they give Jesus
reasons for their unbelief! He tells them ‘I am the bread of life’ and they tell
him, ‘But how can you be for real?’
The setting is real; it is what
the disciples were going through with Jesus. How difficult it was for them to
believe after viewing his teachings and miracles, being told that Christ Jesus
was the flesh, ‘the true food, the bread, and the true drink, the blood. Those
who eat and drink of it abide in me and I in them’ (v. 55-56). And almost
immediately, Jesus stops in his tracks with, ‘Don’t whine! It is the spirit that
gives life; the flesh is useless.’ (v. 63). Now, I surely asked in this setting,
how much more contradictory can one be? First the flesh, now the spirit–both
invisible and both incomprehensible.
It becomes apparent to us, though,
as to who was the genuine disciple. Jesus said, ‘There are some who do not
believe–among you’ (v.64). And we know that others, and one of the twelve (
Judas Iscariot) bust away and betray Jesus; right then and there? Can we blame
the disciples for their misery? And we can ask how is this Jesus for real;
talking the talk and walking the walk?
These texts in John and Ephesians
are very powerful, personal, and rather pungent (sharp) and peculiar for us to
understand, because they attest to believing and yet they describe non-belief!
We know the dreaded question was then, and is now; who in the world is
this Jesus, anyhow? Can he be for real? And the real reason they asked it then,
and we ask it now is because they were and we are uncertain about our faith, our
securities, our own life!! What does this Jesus person mean for my life? Can the
bread and blood of life be the Spirit?
(Pause a bit); I can bet my own life that yesterday, at
least one person was asking at our service of celebration for the life of Jill
Ellen Runge, ‘who is this Jesus’, this God in person who would allow this sorrow
and darkness to happen to us? I know because at least one person asked me! She
said, ‘how can I get through this that has just happened to me? I’ve just lost
my friend and I keep asking myself why?’ But the big reason we want to know the
who and the what about Jesus is because we want to know what
happens to us whose life ends in death? We know that Jesus, the man, whose life
perhaps unjustly does end in death and at the cross, is the Revealer of God! We
know that Jill, the woman, whose life perhaps unjustly does end in death, is the
person abandoning all of her securities in her disease/illness and she
surrendered herself to life itself through the love of God for her and revealed
in her. This is powerful, personal, and it is somewhat pungent and peculiar
because we can not identify with it in the here and now.
Until we truly understand
the heart of the text in John that tells us the true meaning of the flesh and
blood of Christ. “Take this blood as my life into the very center of your
being’, the very core of your hearts! That life that you are placing in your
hearts is that life that is mine and it belongs to God. Until we truly
understand the heart of the text in Ephesians that tells us to put on the armor
of God and be strong in the Lord. Truly, if the flesh is the Spirit, we are led
by the Spirit; the word of God! Jesus asked if the disciples were offended? But
the disciples will never know the true offense of the cross, until they
know that the true body and blood of life is in Christ Jesus-the true flesh. We
will never be able to stand firm unless we have the armor of God to
protect us; this armor is the mental equipment we carry with us, the sword of
the Spirit, the word of God, not the physical, warrior warfare. And the words of
God are the spirit and the life!
This discovery of the ‘who is the
real Jesus’ is ongoing, it seems. It’s similar to taking the mystery book off
the shelf and beginning to read. You have books you just have to read, but when
will you have time to curl up and read them; and when you do, you become
fascinated, enthused, and thrilled to want to know and read more. You become to
believe and grasp more!! We know the disciples reacted with a kind of
enthusiasm, as Simon Peter told Jesus, ‘You have the words of eternal life. We
have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’
But what it really is for me is
the external becoming the internal, and Christ Jesus of faith and life is
believed, and now is internally being felt in our flesh and blood as the Spirit.
It’s kinda like those at Presbytery who wanted to know who I really was last
week at examination time; they asked questions of me in order to find out if I
was ‘the real deal’! They asked me what it was that I felt in my heart about
transformation, resurrection, cloning, sacramental ‘language’ of the ‘bread and
cup’ and even a few more questions. It’s like you folks here at
Oakland-Cambridge wanting to know, ‘is she for real?’ It’s perhaps an ongoing
process of the activity of the Spirit in all of us.
The good news for us is that in
believing it is the spirit that gives us life. We can be sure of it, just as we
can be sure that there are those who will not believe and even one who might
betray and walk away. But for those of us who come to believe and search for who
God, through Christ Jesus, is in our lives, we can put on the armor of God, the
sword of the Spirit, the word of God. We can depend on it; Christ Jesus is for
real!
AMEN.
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