PENTECOST 9, B – August 2, 2009

SCRIPTURES – Exodus 16:2-15; Eph. 4:1-16; John 6:22-35; Psalm 78 

During a speech last week at a National Press Club luncheon, Congressman John Conyers, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in response to calls for the members of Congress to read the health care bill they were writing:

“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill.’ What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”

The best response I read to this outrageous statement was a quote from John Adams:

“In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a Congress.”

Now, besides being an absolutely despicable thing to say, perhaps Congressman Conyers’ statement is an illustration of a huge problem that afflicts us: we don’t make time for what is truly important. Why? Because we set our focus upon, and so fill our time with, far less important things. 

The Gospel readings in recent weeks have told us a number of very significant things:

q   A woman was healed simply by touching Jesus’ robe;

q   Jesus raised to life again a young girl who had died;

q   Jesus fed over 5,000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fish;

These miraculous events should have led those who were there to run to Jesus and bow down before Him in awe and with joy. He had obviously come from God, and He came with help and blessing! But, why do they seek Him out? Because they want more food. They want Him to make their daily lives easier. They miss what is truly important – eternal blessings from God – because they are focused on their present desires. Are you doing this, or are you setting your heart on Christ for eternal life? The answer is seen is what you make time for.  

When you heard of Congressman Conyers stating that the health care bill was too big and confusing to read, were you angry with him? You have a right to be angry. That’s his job! How can he vote on a bill that will have a huge impact on all of our lives, and the lives of our children and the generations after them, without first reading it carefully and considering everything it will mean?

 

Well, you: how can you believe in Jesus; believe that there is a life after death that lasts forever; and know that God will judge your life and determine where you will spend eternity; but then not make time to read and learn what He tells you about Himself and how you receive life in Him? We make time for TV shows that are pure fiction, and at times even attacks on our faith; we make time for games and other activities. How much time do we make to bow down before your God in thanks and praise, or to sit and read the Bible and consider all that He has done for us? 

Now, when it comes to reading the Bible, I suppose some would argue, “The Bible is a couple thousand pages, and it’s hard to understand! You would need two theologians to explain it, and they themselves often disagree on its meaning!” Whenever it seems this way, remember that God does not want to be distant and unknown to us. He wants us to know Him and love Him.

q   Look at how He came to us: as a man, one just like us. Jesus was not a spiritual guru who lived on a high mountain and spoke in lofty and confusing words. He was not a powerful ruler who established a kingdom by conquest. He was a common man who grew up in a poor Jewish family. He lived among ordinary people and spoke to them in plain, ordinary words. And, even when He did great and extraordinary miracles He used ordinary things – like five loaves of bread and two fish, or simple words, or water – to do them. Jesus made Himself and His works easily accessible to the people of His day.

q   It is the same with the way God chooses to communicate with us to this day, with the Bible, His Word. For the most part it is written in plain, ordinary language, in words that are not difficult to understand. Sure, there’s the occasional book like Revelation, which is full of strange visions and symbolic language which is very confusing. That is not most of the Bible, however. Jesus taught it in simple parables. What is hard to understand in today’s readings?

By His Word, the Bible, God gives us the food that endures to eternal life – namely, His Son. He doesn’t lay out before us a bunch of rules to follow so that He’ll be happy with us and reward us with life in heaven after we die. That’s the way the Jewish people had come to view God in Jesus’ day, and still do to this day. “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” they ask Jesus. Did you notice, they ask in the plural. What works, what things did they need to do to make God happy with them? Jesus answers them in the singular: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” There’s only one thing God wants: that we believe in His Son. He has given us His Son, given Him to die for our sins and remove their judgment from us. He has given Him to keep all of His good Commandments perfectly, and to do so for us. God has set His seal on Jesus, so we must look upon Him alone. All that He did is pleasing to His Father. And so, if you believe in Jesus, God’s seal of approval also rests on you. To believe in Him is not just one thing, however, nor is it a small thing. It is everything. “I am the bread of life,” Jesus promises. “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Through faith in Jesus you have everything. Every sin of yours is forgiven, for He bore them all on the cross. And, every good work calls you to do in His Ten Commandments is done, for Jesus has kept them all. This is what the Bible is all about: life and salvation in Jesus. The apostle John tells us at the end of his Gospel: “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31) 

Labor, then, to listen to your Savior; labor to receive Him as He offers Himself to you in simple things like words, water, bread and wine; labor to learn of Him. “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.” Christ gives you Himself, the food that endures to eternal life, in His Word and worship. Seek Him there. Labor to be in His presence there. For, those who so labor have the best health plan of all: eternal life in heaven!