2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33 Psalm 130 Ephesians 4:25-5:2 John 6:35, 41-51
Five thousand people are fed by Christ with no more than five loafs and two fish, so they follow him – and not just across the street, they follow him across the sea. Their initial response to his teaching and the miracle of that meal was to believe he is the messiah, the one they have been waiting for. They ask him to perform more signs and remove all doubt – but then, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” He speaks to them of coming from the Father and being that bread of eternal life.
It isn’t difficult to believe Jesus is the one when you see him perform miracles – but when he says things like “I am the bread of life,” it is hard to follow what he is saying. Someone asks, isn’t this the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. The people argue among themselves. They each have an opinion about what they have heard.
Sound familiar? People at the grocery store, at work, in organizations, and even the church standing around tossing in their two cents worth. At some point, the people who came to hear Jesus, had stopped listening. They stopped listening to what Jesus said, and starting commenting – the Gospel says complaining, another translation says grumbling.
Being still and listening for the voice of God is perhaps the most difficult challenge we all face. It is hard enough to listen to others, let alone God. It is becoming more and more difficult to find a place to enjoy a quiet dinner conversation with friends or family. Restaurants have televisions on the walls, and virtually everyone has a cell phone. We are distracted from what others are saying by the pictures on televisions, phones ringing, and people using cell phones. Everywhere we go, we can look around and see people talking or texting others, while the people they are with, look bored. Recently I heard that a group of kids gather at McDonalds and spend much of their time texting each other. Sitting together, they text each other! Listening to the person in front of us seems to be a lost art – or is it?
Standing before our Lord Jesus Christ, the people begin to complain among themselves. They stop listening to Jesus and turned to each other – not to talk with their neighbor, but to give their own opinions. We are all guilty of talking when we should listen. Listening is not a lost art – it is a gift of the Spirit, and one that needs to be cultivated.
Most of the people standing before Jesus certainly failed to listen – to Jesus and to each other. Complaining is just one of the many ways we avoid relating to others. Complaints tear down others and work against the Spirit. Listening, however, builds relationships and feeds the Spirit. Listening to others is not passive; it requires active involvement on the part of the listener.
A woman visits a church and finds a seat in a pew. A middle aged man and his wife enter after her and turn to sit in the pew beside her. Her smile is met with a grimace from the man as he sits down. He closes his eyes and exhales loudly as if he is unhappy she is sitting in his pew. The visitor concludes this is not a friendly church and vows never to return. After the service she slips quietly out of the side door – glad to have escaped without having to talk to the couple beside her.
The next day at the grocery store she runs into her neighbor. Her neighbor is talking with the wife of the man from the church. They recognize each other and the man’s wife says “I’m sorry I didn’t get to speak to you after church. It was my husband’s first day back in Church since his accident,” she continues. “He broke his back and he’s been in a great deal of pain. I think yesterday was probably too much for him, he said his back started hurting as soon as he sat down and when we got home he could not take his pain mediation soon enough – anyway, I’m so glad to met you. I hope you enjoyed our service and will come back.”
Smiles and grimaces are non verbal means of communicating our feelings, but even these can be misinterpreted. When we listen, we must suspend judgment and try and understand the world from the other’s point of view. In order to listen, we must ask questions and seek clarification. Listening is more than sitting quietly, for many people sit quietly arguing with what they hear said – just never out loud. Listening, really listening, requires us to do as Paul says in his letter to Ephesians, “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Easier said than done – I know.
Yet, when we listen we often find the pain behind the feelings. Have we not all found ourselves angry or hurt more than seems appropriate? Our feelings don’t always match the situation. In grief, people get upset over little things – lashing out at the young girl in the checkout line or the person who simply offers to pick up the contents of a dropped wallet. Feelings and emotions are not always as they seem, just as the man’s grimace reflected his pain and not his feelings toward the guest at his church.
In this passage from Ephesians, are two statements which I find curious together. The first is, “be angry, but do not sin.” And the second immediately follows: “do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” Be angry, but do not sin. This gives us permission to be angry and reminds us to control that anger. I have no problem with this message – but the second seems a little farfetched to me, “do not let the sun go down on your anger.” How many of us, really, can resolve all issues in the same day they occur? Many of us need more time to work our way past our differences. Does Paul really mean we are to make peace immediately – or is his real point not to make room for the devil?
Anger is a normal human emotion – and like all emotions, it can be healthy or unhealthy. Anger alerts us to problems in our lives and society – problems of injustice. When we or someone else is willfully hurt by another, we should respond with anger. It becomes a problem when we get it wrong or find ourselves unable to forgive. So Paul says, “Be angry, but do not sin . . . Put away from you all bitterness, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” We certainly cannot control the hearts of others, but we can let go of our own angry. When we hold onto our anger – it controls us. It colors our view of the world so that what we hear and see is distorted. After we’ve been hurt, it may be necessary to protect ourselves from further pain – so forgiving is not forgetting. But holding onto the hurt only weakens us – it makes room for the devil. It leaves us hungry.
Jesus says, “I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, will never be thirsty.”
From Paul’s letter and from John’s gospel we know what we need to do. That’s why we are gathered this morning – we come to Christ – together. We are all sinners, we have all failed to listen, and we have all been hurt.
The good news is that in this Holy Sacrament of receiving the bread and wine we can come together and be feed the bread of life. Christ can make us whole. Christ can help us be kind to one another, be tenderhearted, and forgive one another, as God in Christ has forgiven us.
