The Choice is Yours
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; John 6:56-69
One of my usual sayings to our sons and their friends as they head out the door is, “Make good choices!” It’s a request, a hope, a reminder, a prayer all in one little phrase. When they say it back to me, “YOU make good choices!” I get a laugh. We all need the reminder.
Last weekend, we drove Carter to start his first semester at Univ of North Alabama. I thought about leaving sticky notes in various places in his room that said either, “Call home” or “Make good choices.” The choices started with what he could take with him based on what would fit in our two cars, but also what would fit in his small (shared!) dorm room. He made the bulk of these choices back in June when he packed up his bedroom in Birmingham knowing that anything he didn’t want for the start of school would be going into storage – where it was basically unretrievable until we moved into a permanent house. So, he poured over this task, making choices, determining what was important and what was not, while trying to be a minimalist. Some students put their energy into creating a cozy space in their room with cutesy comforters, pillows, wall decorations. Carter’s priority right after his phone / laptop was his hybrid bike, built for road or trail. He made sure there was room for it in the back of his car. Riding that bike is the way he blows off steam, burns energy, and gathers his thoughts. This was a good choice.
And there will be many more choices for him to make – socially, academically and otherwise. Each day is a steady stream of making choices. You made a series of choices that led to you being here today… will we go? what to wear, when to leave, what to drive, where to park. Daily there are a variety of choices to make. There are decisions about expenses, commitments, balance of work and family. Even today, you have received a survey that asks you to make some choices about opportunities here at Weatherly to grow and learn, to worship and serve. Before we make such choices, let us consider the call from today’s Gospel reading.
This is the LAST reading in the series on Jesus, the Bread of Life. It is fair to say that John’s gospel is repetitive. Scholars who study John appreciate that this “problem” with John reveals his desire to drag the reader into the theological depths of who Jesus is[1]. He’s casting a line in the same water hoping that we will take the bait, grab hold, lean in. In last week’s selection, we heard the complaints of his listeners and now things are getting more personal. Jesus continues to offer his entire self, and this is not what they expect from God. This is not the way God behaves, not who God is in their Jewish, religious upbringing – this person, this in-your-face, this bread in their midst.
Do you remember how eager these followers were earlier in the chapter? They pursued Jesus wherever he went believing he had the powers of Moses. And this might mean there would be manna every day like their ancestors had known. But they reject the idea that Jesus is manna! His own disciples admit (vs 60) that this is a hard teaching to understand – it’s too tough to swallow.”[2]
In the original manna story in Exodus, the Israelites complained to Moses. They did not trust that God would deliver bread each day. A version of that same word, complain, is used – very much on purpose – by John to describe the response of the followers of Jesus when he says that he is like the manna, Bread from heaven. Israel didn’t know they could trust God. And these listeners didn’t know they could trust Jesus yet either. What’s ironic is that these disciples respond to Jesus exactly the way Israel responded to God. Proving, in the way John writes it, that Jesus IS exactly who he says he is – manna – Bread of heaven.[3]
And so, a lot of his disciples walk away. We don’t talk about that part of the Jesus story much…
It isn’t easy - making the choice for God. Even after being such a determined followship as they were. Pursuing Jesus as they did across lakes and towns – reminds me that making the choice for God is not one we can only make once. To remain, to abide in Jesus, is a commitment that has to be renewed every day.
And he doesn’t make it easy. Jesus asks us to do hard things. Some are hard because we don’t understand completely, and others are hard because we understand… but they’re just too hard to do.
So, we ask for the strength to hang in there. Not just to remain good disciples, but to love our enemies,
forgive those who say mean things to us or about us;
· to keep on with the work of justice for the least of these;
· To help an ESL student get their citizenship;
· to stay non-hostile in a hostile election season;
· to get free of the grip of an addiction;
· to know the right thing to do in a bad relationship;
· to have hard conversations not for the sake of being right, but to gain empathy and understanding;
· to acknowledge unhealthy patterns in the ways we have handled conflict…
· to welcome the child who is different, or the adult who sounds demanding.
These are the tough teachings of Jesus! Hard to swallow!
It would be such a relief to just walk away.[4]
Jesus turned to the Twelve, his beloveds, and said, Do you want to leave, too?
It was such a human thing to ask by a man who was already so acquainted with loneliness. And Peter speaks up to say, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”[5]
This is a lovely, happy ending. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!
And I suspect that is why the lectionary “congress” decided to stop the reading there. There were just two more verses in the chapter. Verses 70 and 71 are the ‘leftovers,’ Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Judas' story is often left out of the lectionary readings.
And yet… let’s consider what John is doing here.
For John, betrayal is walking away.
In the gospel of John, Judas betrays Jesus in chapter 13 when he leaves the room of the last supper, not in the Garden of Gethsemane. There is no kiss on the cheek. Jesus turns himself over to the soldiers in the garden. The last time we see Judas in John’s gospel is at the last supper when he walked away from the Table.
When we hear the last two verses in the context of the whole reading, then verse 66 holds more meaning: “many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” It opens up a moment for us to consider ourselves in Judas’ place. When it gets hard, will we remain, or will we walk away?
In John’s unique point of view, the greatest betrayal is walking away from the gift of Jesus. It is John who said, For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son. And Jesus is giving himself, fully, to his disciples, to these followers. They have the choice to respond. Will they complain? Will they reject him? Will they walk away?
The text wants us to ask, How would we respond when Jesus offers himself to us?
What does it mean when we disengage from hard things?
Hard conversations? Hard topics? Hard people? When “boldly inclusive” gets hard…
An active faith asks us to continue showing up! Following Jesus means doing hard things inside the body of Christ and out there where the world so desperately needs compassionate people. The choice is ours.
One last, leftover verse from this chapter that was left out of the readings earlier in the month is verse 37 where Jesus says, “All those God gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”
He’s saying, you might leave me, but I will never leave you.
Have you been loved like that? When someone dropped you off at college, or at bootcamp, or when you moved into your first apartment away from home… You were so ready to be on your own, but they were excited and sad at the same time about letting you go. Because they loved you so much. That is the way God loves you.
Just as none of the leftovers of bread were wasted or lost, so none who belong to Jesus will be lost. Even if you fee like you have walked away from your faith, or your relationship with God, Jesus will never leave you. Following Christ is a choice we make every day.
Benediction
Filled to the brim with the goodness of God
And the nourishment of Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life and the power of the Holy Spirit,
May we take our place at Christ’s Table and make longer tables for all God’s children. Amen.
[1] “Ep. 52 Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost in Year B,” Mind the Gap, Annemarie Hartner-Cook, Pastor Rebecca Truland, guest Karoline Lewis
[2] Peterson, Eugene. John 6:60, The Message
[3] Hylen, Susan. Working Preacher commentary on John 6:56-69, 2018
[4] Garnaas-Holmes, Steve Unfolding Light, Worship resources for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost
[5] Peterson, Eugene, John 68-69, The Message