Bread From Heaven, August 2, 2009

2 Samuel 11:26-12: 13
John 6:24-40
This morning our focus is on that which was Useless becoming Useful, Replenishing that which was Dried Out, LIFE being stronger than Death, Forgiveness overcoming Guilt, this life being but a clouded reflection of the Kingdom of God. The Old Testament passage before us speaks of a Child's death, of Guilt & Power, BUT ALSO of Repentance, Forgiveness and Life after Death.

King David was the embodiment of Power and Success, everything in his life, blessed.
The people wanted a strong warrior king, David was the 7th son of an obscure family.
Israel had been intimidated by the Philistines, David representing Israel went into battle against the Giant Goliath, without sword or shield or defense and was victorious.
David went into battle against Israel itself; against King Saul & Jonathan and David won. David led forces against the impregnable city of theJebusites making it the City of David.
David was promised by God that his descendants would sit on the throne forever.
This was a man who could have anything and everything.
And yet, even those with absolute power are human and need to be reminded to repent.

I remember one Sunday, years ago when our youngest son Nathan was about four, and hearing this passage read, listening to the Parable, the 4 year old climbed off the pew beside his mother walked up the aisle, and in a bold voice this 4 year old Nathan declared “You are the Man!” I do not recall having done anything, but I do recall thinking about it.

We hear this story, and like so many news broadcasts we hear “The Powerful are Guilty”.
But the story does not end there.
Instead of a reporter shoving a microphone in his face and asking Bernie Matoff or the CEO of Enron or One of the Big Three Auto makers, or Michael Jackson's Dermatologist to describe feelings of Guilt, David immediately repents and is forgiven. In the Centuries before the printing press, when this text was copied by hand in Hebrew, which has no punctuation, the Scribes would always leave a space in the middle of verse 13, after hearing the parable and seeing himself in it, King David declares “I have sinned against the Lord.” and before Nathan pronounced forgiveness, there was this pause, in which the reader would turn to Psalm 51 and recite the words of David which we sang in prayer this morning “I have sinned against the Lord, create in me a clean heart O God and put a right spirit within me.”
The Hebrew interpretation of “REPENT” is literally to TURN a DIFFERENT WAY” not to go Back, because the world has changed and we can never truly go back, but to choose a different way, that is not about ourselves and our abuses of power.

There is a poisonous side to this passage, that we do not like to hear, God kills this child. David had Uriah killed, and in judgement God kills the child. That is offensive. And yet, as much as this is a parable within a story of Judgement and Guilt, it is also a story of Forgiveness. According to his own decree, the King deserves to Die for having stolen the one love of the neighbor who had so little, but repenting he is forgiven.

I wonder, How different our lives, the World might be, if instead of focusing upon Guilt, upon Judgement and who did what wrong to whom, how big a settlement to pay for the guilt; if instead when we did wrong, we would repent and know forgiveness? If rather than identifying one another as accuser, or as enemy, even competitor, we could see the other as more than a thing, as part of the body of Christ?

One Sunday morning a little after 7am, a car pulled into the parking lot, and someone walked into the church weeping. I asked her what was wrong, and she identified that she had been working the last night as an Emergency Room Nurse. A family had brought in their daughter who had had a bad cold and had difficulty breathing. She had gone to the Medicine locker to get a vial of Codeine, and instead mistakenly grabbed a vial of Cocaine. Immediately the patient had gone into convulsions, and only then did she realize what she had done. She was wracked with guilt at the possibility the child might die, or have other serious problems. From somewhere the question came, “Would it make any difference if you recognized this family were part of the church, part of the body of Christ?” The nurse responded, “Perhaps then they could forgive what I have done.” She went home to change and come to worship. About 9 o'clock, a young couple came to my office, describing that they had had the worst night of their lives. They had taken their child to the emergency room, and a nurse had given her the wrong medication. Again the question was asked “Would it make any difference if you recognized her as part of the church, part of the body of Christ?” In a different setting from the hospital and courtroom, without uniforms and roles to play, the two families came into worship, and for two years of litigation, the families never recognized each other. The child appeared to have no long term effects. One Sunday morning we were celebrating Communion, and the Nurse who was an elder was holding the cup as the family came forward to receive, when suddenly they recognized one another and both began to cry.

This passage from John has been a point of argument and contention between the Churches for centuries. The question being “How Communion Takes Place?” The very definition of a Sacrament is that a Sacrament is a Mystery, beyond human explanation , that we receive as a SIGN and SEAL of God's love. Within the Catholic Church the elements are consecrated as Holy, so that which is eaten is not bread but mystically transubstantiated as being the literal Body of Christ. Raising questions of whether like some cure-all, it matters not what we believe or understand, only that you receive. In Protestant Churches there has been a similar confusion, that the Sacrament is only a remembrance of what Jesus did on the night he was arrested. The point being that there is no question about the elements being the Body of Christ, no real importance that we receive, only that we forgive. This fundamental issue has kept separate the Churches for 500 years.

The Gospel of John as a whole presents Jesus as being the incarnation, Immanuel = God With Us; as being God transubstantiated into human flesh and blood. The people come searching for Jesus to feed them, they demand of Jesus a sign, that they might worship him, like Moses had given to prove God is with them, by Moses providing Bread from Heaven, Manna in the Wilderness. Instead, according to John, Jesus explained that the Manna in the wilderness did not come from Moses, the Bread of Heaven came from God and He, Jesus came from God, as the incarnation for all to receive, repenting to find a different way, and recognizing one another, recognizing our guilt knowing forgiveness, we serve one another. We are the Body of Christ, God present with us.