You brought light to the darkness. You brought hope to the downcast. May the mantle of your peace cover those who are troubled and anxious, and may peace be firmly rooted in our hearts and in our world.

– St. Brigid

May you awaken to the mystery of being here

And enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.

May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.

May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.

May you respond to the call of your gift

And find the courage to follow its path.

May the flame of anger free you from falsity.

May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and anxiety never linger about you.

May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.

May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.

May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.

May you experience each day as a sacred gift, Woven around the heart of wonder.

– John O’Donohue

John 6:53-69

53 So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’ 59 He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

The Words of Eternal Life

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?  61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not believe and who was the one who would betray him. 65 And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

66 Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. 67 So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

If you are like me, you sometimes have weeks where you have to stop and pause in the midst of all that is happening around you and wonder if this world, or even your own world, is ever going to move towards becoming what you hoped it would be.

I know these past few years have been crazy!  It’s been up and down and in the midst of a season of so much change, adaption, and growth…growth that isn’t easy…if it ever is or is supposed to be.  

I also began to wonder if I could be my true self in this context that I have found myself in.  In times like that, I need to know that others are willing to be in this together, to be in a place of covenant, of depth, of relational fidelity, a place of believing in one another.   This church has been that kind of relational space for me…for many of us. 

I have had other friends as well who have believed in me and I in them. Rob Waddles, who I grew up with.  He died at age 46, but his belief in me continues into death.  As does my grandfathers, my mom, my dad.  Bruce Baker when I was with Campus Life, Phillip Roebuck at Northminster, my partner, Debbie, on numerous projects over the years.  Jay Borck, Sean Gladding, Troy Bronsink, Ed Goode, and so many others…as well as many of you already in a short time!  

A hallmark in that belief in each other is a sense of deep humility, authenticity, and willingness to be fully present.  That’s hard.  I wanted to share this morning one good example of my friend Phillip Roebuck.  Phil has been one of my close friends, he’s 17 years younger than me.  He was in our Young Life club, amazing athlete and valedictorian at Wyoming HS, and graduated in the top 3% of his class at Harvard.  Phil also has one of the best, purest hearts of anyone I know.  He’s also extremely competitive and has a high capacity and desire to achieve.  He is also honestly one of the smartest guys I know.

After I graduated from Seminary with my masters in divinity and moved back to Cincy from Pasadena, CA, Phillip, who had just graduated from Harvard, was in a place of deep searching.  He wanted to know how he could grow and become what God intended for him. That led him to doing an internship with me at Northminster in student ministry.

I love Phil, so we made it a point to meet weekly, to be fully present with each other, to make sure we willing to submit to each other.  Early on I pledged to him that I would invest in him fully.  In the course of those two years, our friendship deepened and, to this day, even through lots of arguments, disagreements, hard feelings, as well as joys, amazing things accomplished together, and sharing of life.  

Now, let me be clear, our student ministry didn’t explode with numbers when Phil and I teamed up, actually, the first year we declined in numbers as we thought it would be a great idea to move our weekly meeting from Sunday to Wednesday nights.  Phillip was, and still is, well known within our neighborhoods of Wyoming and Finneytown, we had an amazing group of adult leaders, we had great programs and were in the community all of the time.  The second year of the internship, something beautiful happened.  Community.  We began to see wonderful relationships deepen, community transformation, and a solid heading that continued on in the student ministry for quite a while…and, yes, some folks came into the church that are still there, even through some hard times at Northminster.

Why do I share this, because Phil and I made a commitment to believe, to donate trust in each other and to fight for each other’s friendship early on.  We built upon a foundation of my being in his life as his Young Life leader, to true friendship that gave us energy every day.  When we see each other, we echo the psalmists joy and feel as if we are in the Presence of God’s dwelling place.

Our gospel lesson this morning gives witness to that as well.  Jesus is continuing to share that to be with him meant to share in his life, to eat his flesh, drink his blood.  The very word, Sarx, means literally flesh…not sooma, which is another greek word that means body in the wholistic sense, the authors are using flesh to go to a guttural meaning…Again, sounds morbid, but what he’s saying is that we have to be willing to get into the very bowels of each other’s lives.  To love like we mean it, that each moment we are with each other, we are in the presence of someone made in God’s image and be willing to sacrifice for each other, to swallow our pride, to do things differently and to strive for authenticity.  Which, btw, authenticity is more than just being honest or “real”, it means being self aware and the surrendering of our self made identity in our work, projects, and even church.  It means living into the personhood that God created us to be, persons joined together with God, through Christ.  

The disciples are hearing this and realize that being this intimate with Christ and each other means deep change, deep awareness, and something that they couldn’t quite swallow.  They felt secure in the status quo and they let anxiety overtake them.  They realized that the hard work required for true community was too much.  I respect them for this recognition.  They were honest, and they left.  Jesus, at this point, was a failure at church growth.  Yet, Jesus also knew that something more beautiful, more lovely would happen.  Jesus wanted the disciples, and all of us to have life, real and full life.  It required taking in all of Jesus.  Richard Rohr talks about how hard this is, it seems like we in the church are constantly re-crucifying Jesus, constantly trying to put off our own death, yet Jesus says that’s exactly what we need to do, experience death so that we can experience resurrection life, true life.  

I have had to die so much in my relationships and even in my image of what could be. We all do.

We may be in that place today in our lives, we may feel like we don’t have anywhere else to go, but Jesus sticks by our side, believes in us, and calls us to partake in his life.  In so doing, we will change, it’s inevitable, we will also grow.  In this death and resurrection, we can trust that Jesus goes with us and we share in his life, even in the hardness.  Some of us may drift away, some may give up like many of the disciples.  But, for those of us willing to stick with Jesus and believe and trust in each other, like the disciples, we may see the world change…at least our worlds.  

John 6:51-58

⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

⁵² The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” ⁵³ So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.⁵⁴ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; ⁵⁵ for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.⁵⁶ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

“To be or not to be”…isn’t that the great Shakespearean question?  What does it mean to be?  “Be” is the English languages most irregular verb…it’s a word of action…to be something or someone.  It is a verb of existence or reality.  I am in a car, I am in church, I will be grilling hamburgers tonight.  It is also a verb that points to relationship.  I am friends with…I am a member of this community…

This is something that has been incredibly important to me these past few weeks.  Being in friendship, relationship, community…here, in our church, and in the generations of friends new and old and that I connected with while in Scotland and Northumberland.  

Today I’d like to talk to you about being, specifically being in a friendship.  Over the course of my life, I have been blessed with some wonderful friendships and great community like we have here at Westwood First Presbyterian Church. 

Through wild circumstances, I was asked to officiate my mother’s funerals a few years ago by the funeral director who knew my mom and my sister. I would never recommend that for any clergy, but given the dynamics of my mom’s life and our family and her openness and the closed-ness and conservatism of her Baptist Church, it seemed like I was the one that needed to do it as I could navigate those artificial divides better than our friend who was an Episcopal priest and my mom’s Baptist minister..  I shared this at my mom’s funeral while officiating it:  “Mom, like her father, my PePa, believed in people.  She believed in me.  That has shaped me in more ways than can ever be explained.  It has led me to so many others throughout my life that have also believed in me.  My friend John McKnight, the well known author, teacher, community organizer, and mentor to many of the folks who have helped shape our culture over the years, once shared with me and another friend that his entire life has been touched and surrounded by the presence of God.  Why?  Because he’s been in relationship with people that believed in him…and that gave evidence to God’s belief in him as God is ultimately all about relationship. 

Mom exhibited the very nature of God.  The power of relationship.  She loved growing up in her community, has been blessed by community all of her life.  Wherever she went, she built amazing friendships.  So many people have invested in her over her life, the return on that investment has far outweighed anything that folks have put in!

Throughout my life, and even in so many ways the past few weeks, this investment in relationships was so evident.”  

That makes sense, you see, we were all created to be in loving friendships or relationships with each other.  We were even created by a relational God.  It says in Genesis 1:27, that God created us in his image.  God’s image is one of relationship.  God exists in perfect unity as a three-in-one God…God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  Three distinct persons, but of one essence…God’s essence is relational and that relationship demonstrates perfect love.  Out of that essence, that loving essence, God, the uncreated created us.  

If that wasn’t enough, creating us…God gave us the gift of God’s self.  God desires to simply be in relationship with us.  Throughout history God has demonstrated God’s pursuit of us, rescuing humanity from itself.  Humanity has sought to know God, yet we have often forgotten that God knows us and loves us.  

When Moses was being called by God out of a burning bush to go and preach release to the Jews who were being held as slaves in Egypt, Moses sought to know God’s name, because in those days, to know someone’s name was to know who they were, to have them define, to be in relationship and to know them.  Yet, when asked, God gave a peculiar answer:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” ¹⁵ God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers–the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob–has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. (Exo 3:14-15 TNIV)

I am who I am.  The verb used here in Hebrew is “to be”. God is.  God is saying that he is wholly other and cannot be comprehended.  Yet, he goes on to say something more.  He is the God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Moses knew that God interacted with all of those people.  God is saying, in effect, I am a God of relationship.  I cannot be comprehended, but I can be apprehended.  

God with us.  God with us in relationship.  Ultimately that is displayed in God becoming one of us through Jesus.  Jesus is completely God and is the exact representation of who God is, a God of relationship.  

Our passage this morning is one of deep relationship.  We are continuing the theme of Jesus being the bread of life.  Jesus goes on to say that in order to have eternal life, or abundant life filled with meaning and purpose, a forever life, then we must consume Jesus’ body.  Again, the word flesh is used, it’s very graphic.  When some folks in the first or second century heard this reading from John after Jesus’ death, they actually thought Christ followers were espousing cannibalism!

Of course, that’s not true.  It’s a metaphor that’s implying that we must consume Jesus’ Presence, we must take Jesus in to the deepest parts of who we are, even the parts that are messy, our very bowels.  We cannot change, grow, become self/others/or God aware without the help of the Divine Spark within us and all around us.  We need Jesus’ life to rise up within and outside of us, to take Jesus in.  

Jesus goes on to say that we must remain in him, as he is remaining in us.  This is a phrase that is referenced in others parts of John.  

John 15:4 says this, “Remain  (or abide) in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”  Remain, or abide, live…Live in Christ.  How do we do that?  We are in Christ, he sustains all things.  We simply have the pleasure of saying thank you by living in the imperative of remaining in him.  Just like any relationship, we need to be with God and with each other in order to grow.  

Friends, we cannot truly live as we were meant to live separated from Christ or from each other…to attempt to do so makes us less than human.  We may not understand that completely, but our being our “I am” is found in the actions of Jesus.  Jesus is the exact representation of God to us and he is our truly human representative in the presence of God as God in the flesh.  

So friends, BE!  Be in and with Christ, consume Christ!  Christ brings your identity alive…you are not defined ultimately by the color of your skin, how much (or how little) is in your bank account, what political party you identify with, or what you have done or not done…YOU are defined by Christ’s actions on your behalf…Christ living in you!  Your wealth in this life is defined by the relationships you have which is defined by your relationship with Christ!  Friends, as you live and find you identity in Christ, know that God wants to be with you and will not let you go!