This is the last in a run of five sermons related to that Gospel reading - the continuation of the story in John's Gospel of the Feeding of the 5,000. But in these last five weeks we've also been reading, as our Epistle, from Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. In a sense, our sermons have been a response to what Paul was writing to the Ephesians. It started with his challenge to 'tell the truth to fellow believers so as to build up their faith', which I think applies also to preachers. Last week we heard his warning to 'be careful - live as wise people not as ignorant'.
Paul goes on to urge the young church at Ephesus to put on the whole armour of God, to put on, that is - the belt of truth, tight round your waist, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Good News of Peace, the helmet of salvation & the shield of faith. Now that well-known list of the armour of God can be interpreted in many different ways. One way I would like to interpret this armour is as a right understanding of our faith, in other words, again - truth, a truthful understanding of the Gospel stories.
Today's Gospel reading moves the story on a bit from the actual feeding of the 5,000 men. You'll remember about the little lad with his sardine sandwiches & how there were twelve baskets of bread left over. John's gospel, as we saw the week before last, seems not to be the actual words of Jesus but more the writings of those who took Jesus seriously & tried to follow him - after his death & Resurrection - & not just straight after, when the memory was still strong, but who were still following 70 or 80 years later, as the memory faded & had to be replaced by other ways of remembering - like worship, like ritual actions - 'do this in remembrance of me' or 'do this to remember me by!!'
Whoever wrote John's Gospel, or whoever over some years copied & re-copied it, edited & re-edited it, adding in bits to underline the main point - whoever did that - seems to be wanting us readers to grasp the main point - & the main point is that this man Jesus was the Son of God, or God-in-the-flesh, if you like!
Whatever happened with the five barley loaves & two fishes, what we have in this morning's gospel passage is more of this discourse, this dialogue between Jesus & the crowd, & between Jesus & his disciples, this dialogue about eating Jesus's flesh & drinking his blood. For that group of Christians who produced this Gospel - the Eucharist, the sacrament of bread & wine, body & blood, had become so important to them that they needed to write about it in this special, dramatic way.
In this dramatic script, they have Jesus comparing the bread of his body with the bread that God provided for the wandering Israelites in the wilderness - manna from heaven. Of course, those earlier Jews all died, but those who eat the Bread of Jesus will 'live for ever' or will 'have eternal life' or a better translation, will 'have life in all its fullness'.
The Dramatists then move the scene from the lakeside at Galilee to the synagogue at Capernaum - the place where right & proper teaching was delivered, the place where the Jews were most certainly wearing their full & proper 'armour of God'? And what happens? - what, in John, does Jesus do to synagogue teaching?
Well, for a start, Jesus challenges them. Many of Jesus' followers can't cope with this eternal life idea. 'This is a hard saying - how can we take it seriously?' they say. Yet, as the end of this dialogue makes clear, it is not a literal eating of flesh & drinking of blood, nor even a literal eating of bread & drinking of wine, that is the source of eternal life. Rather, it is the faithful hearing of the words of Jesus that are spirit & life. It is by hearing the words of the 'Word made flesh' - & doing them - that they would get life, & life in all its abundance. And by those same words, we also will have life in all its abundance.
At the end of this passage, many of those who had followed Jesus from Galilee, those who had seen the miracles & had even tasted the miraculous bread, they turn away; it's all too difficult for them; it demands too much from them. Jesus knew they would turn away & he is just left with the faithful Twelve. He challenges them - "do you want to leave, too?"
Their spokesman representative, Peter, declares his allegiance, 'Lord, where can we go - we have come to believe that you are the Holy One of God." Here is another example of the Christian community writing back into the Gospel texts those beliefs that later on it came to own, its faith in Jesus, dramatising it here into words for Peter to say - a script for all to read, a script that reveals the community's faith & its salvation.
This whole 'Bread of Life' discourse that we have been dealing with over these last five weeks underlines the need for individuals to respond positively to Jesus in order to receive eternal life. WE also get further clues about how this distinct group around Jesus came to be formed. The people who wrote the Gospel may have seen the Twelve disciples as a model for their own community so wrote about them as a way of giving meaning, giving validity to their own group.
The group around Jesus, those who stuck with him, no doubt included the Twelve, the named men, but also would have included others, notably the women - but the patriarchal society of the day, & of the later hierarchical church, could not include women among their names.
These were the ones who accepted Jesus' sayings & also enacted a ritual which they understood as drinking the blood & eating the flesh of the Son of God. If we can read this long story of the feeding of the 5,000 as the story of the people of the Fourth Gospel, then we can see how this 'flesh & blood language' shows us just what they did to bind them together - they practised a eucharistic ritual within their community.
The story also suggests - from that bit about some people finding Jesus' sayings too hard & walking out - it suggests that this eucharistic ritual was a source of disagreement within the original group & led to the departure of some of its Jewish members. Remember that the Gospels are not accurate newspaper reports - but they are recollections from years afterwards & that's why they are true for us still!.
Whatever happened with some Jewish members, this dialogue portrays the Jews as ultimately refusing the gift of life. Though they had been willing enough to eat the bread that Jesus had provided on the mountain, they turned away from his offer of "living bread". So, the Gospel came to be proclaimed for the Gentiles as well, reached out to embrace the whole world - & years later reached even to us!
The challenge that Jesus made to the Twelve is, of course, also a challenge to us. "Would you, people of All Saints, St. Andrews, also want to turn away or would you stay?? Is it too difficult for you; does it demand too much of you? Would you say, as Peter did, "where else can we go?; you have the words of eternal life". Yes, it is difficult; yes, it does demand too much of us & sometimes we don't get it right, at times we can't meet the challenge. There are many other places to which we could go to get words which promise eternal life; many, many more places than ever existed in the days of Peter & the other Disciples.
But no, we choose to come here, we choose to carry on our eucharistic ritual which binds us together. May God richly bless you all in this eucharistic community, that you may also have life & have it in all its rich abundance. AMEN.
Sermon by: Malcolm Aldcroft