"A Listening Heart" August 16,2015

I Kings 2: 1-4 John 6: 51-58 (This is a sermon of simultaneous words and actions. The preacher needs 4 bread bagetes, 3 large round loaves {about 12” in diameter}, 2 Communion Chalices and 1 white flat bedsheet or Tablecoth. Periodically throughout the preaching of the sermon, the preacher places an additional loaf upon the Communion Table. 1 Round loaf at the end of the Table. 1 Round loaf adjacent to the first. A bagete on either side of the second loaf. Another round loaf, then two bagetes, then the 2 cups. At the conclusion of the sermon, a large white sheet is placed over the elements, revealing the shape of Jesus' human body on the Table.) We went to the Latest Superhero Movie, and just before the lights went out, I whispered to my wife: “If you could have any super power, anything unique to you, what would it be?” Would you want to be invisible, to be invincible, to fly? The question for Solomon is that God promised David that his child would be King, then as king, is asked by God what would you want? To be rich, to be healthy, to be loved? We have paraphrased Solomon asking for Wisdom, what he literally requested was “A Listening Heart.” Compare this to Pharaoh's Hard-Heart! Compare this to Warriors with the Heart of a Lion. Compare this to those who die of a Weak heart, or Love. A Listening Heart is description of compassion. Ironically, like the Wizard gifting the Scarecrow a Diploma instead of a Brain, the Lion a Badge instead of Courage, the Tin Man a Clock instead of a Heart, what God gave to Solomon WAS Wisdom, and not a Listening Heart. Would that there could be a leader with Wisdom & Compassion! Heart and Mind, Flesh and Blood. The Lectionary only has us read a few verses, when the Book of Kings in total, describes both the right hand and the left. This is history similar to the Book of Deuteronomy where like the Book of Judges, each leader did what was right in their own heart, until they turned around and sought God. Once upon a time there was a prince, who following the death of his father, married a princess and settled down to live happily ever after, when God appeared to him in a dream offering whatever he desired. Being a humble man, the new King described, “I am only a child, therefore give your servant a Listening Heart to govern your people discerning between good and evil.” The wisdom of the King was written down as the Book of Proverbs, attracting blessings from nations around the world, as the king built cities, and a navy, temples and palaces, during a time of 40 years of peace and prosperity. This King is remembered throughout the histories of every culture of the world, as Wisest of Wise, Greatest of Kings, with the Greatest of Wealth, the Greatest of commitment from his people, the most grand temple ever built for God. Once upon a time there was a prince, who like Michael Corleone in The Godfather II, following the death of his father, killed his elder brother Fredo, I mean Abithai who was the principle competitor for power; then killed Joab his father's General for not doing exactly what the king commanded in being merciful to Absalom. Then believing himself to have divine wisdom and a divine mandate, he built the kingdom of his dreams, a kingdom of power, prestige, 700 wives and 300 concubines. To support his extravagance the king levied heavy taxes. To complete his building programs he forced thousands into slavery, as had happened under the Pharaohs of Egypt. To support his desire for spirituality, he brought together all the idols and sacrifices of every pagan worship intermixed with the faith of Israel, so that people could not differentiate between child sacrifice, abomination, and the Word of the Lord. After 40 years he died and the Northern tribes rebelled abandoning the Southern Kingdom of Judah and its Capital at Jerusalem. Both of these are equally true descriptions of Solomon. He was the wisest of Kings, he was the greatest of fools. He was the embodiment of everything Samuel had warned the Nation about having a King. The Temple he built was three stories tall, with 30 foot tall free-standing bronze columns the tops of which were carved with lilies. Cedar ceilings, Cyprus Floors, Olive wood doors, and enough gold ornamentation to have bankrupted Fort Knox. The Daily menu for Solomon's Court required 1,000 measures of flour; 10 Oxen, 20 Steers, 100 Sheep, ample sides of deer, antelope, gazelle, roebuck and fattened fowl. Reading the passages selected, there is an idea which often comes Mid-August of asking “SO WHAT!” Solomon was King over 900 years before Jesus Birth! Jesus had a lengthy argument over the quality of his sacrifice with the Judeans, over 2000 years ago! I recognize that Biblical Scholars from Augustine to Luther to Calvin to my own professors of Theology and the Bible have identified there was controversy in the early Church over the importance or lack thereof in celebrating the Lord's Supper. But what does bread and wine representing Jesus' flesh and blood, have to do with life, when a daughter is Anorexic, or a spouse has Parkinson's, or a loved one being in a life and death dangerous situation, or College loans becoming greater than Mortgage Debt? Like the crowds, we grow tired of abstract phrases and metaphors about Jesus being “the Bread of Life,” taking my flesh into your flesh and drinking my blood. And we want to scream “Stop all the Nonsense, we need something better than metaphors and empty abstract phrases!” To which, Jesus has one of those moments like an exasperated child speaking to an adult, where turning from the crowd, he speaks directly into the camera, right to us, saying “I am telling you the gospel truth. If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, not simply consuming religious ritual but gnawing on the bones of what this is about, you will not have life in yourself. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” Greek had two different verbs for eating, Phagein meaning to eat to consume, and Trogein meaning to gnaw and chew, working at digesting, and here Jesus used both, to emphasize communion is about receiving, but more an experience of life to be worked at. This passage, along with the New Testament Letters were the reason behind Roman persecutions of Christians for Cannibalism! In her book The River, Flannery O'Connor described a child trying to re-enact his baptism, by going too deep into the water to see the Kingdom of God. When criticized, O'Connor explained saying: In a world where nearly everyone is nearly blind, you have to draw really big caricatures. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are about Life and Death. This is not simply about religion, or good/ bad, or wisdom/ understanding. What Jesus said was “My flesh and blood are the real food and drink.” And suddenly we recognize Jesus is serious! This is not theory or metaphor... When the South Sudanese: Andrew, Jacob and John first arrived in Syracuse, I remember our members showing them that we had provided them everything we could think they might need or want, Can-openers, potholders, pots and pans and flower vases, coats and sweaters, dressers and beds and sheets and pillows and pillowcases. When one asked, “Thank you, but where are our Bibles? We were taken at gunpoint to a river filled with hippopotamus and crocodiles, and we did not know how to swim, and they shot at us as we made our way back into the war-zone that was our home, all the while praying to God that we wanted to believe, we wanted to read for ourselves the word of God. Where are Bibles?” When I went to South Sudan the first time, that night there was gunfire. The next morning at worship, it was explained that a man had come home and found his wife with another man and shot them dead. The Pastor had described how their blood had drained into the ground, and this sand that was their home and their bed, now contained their life blood. When I began to preach the sermon, I knelt down and taking a pinch of sand from the ground put it in my mouth and swallowed. “Your flesh is my flesh, your blood is in me. To eat flesh and drink blood was brutal animal-like slaughter. When we celebrate the Sacrament, we tend to treat this as sacred, holy, serving, it is a prayerful act; whereas what Jesus was naming was confrontation of our sin, claiming and owning our brokenness and unwillingness to forgive or be forgiven, the only remedy for which is for Jesus to offer his own flesh for our division and his blood for our redemption. It is difficult for us to imagine just how offensive Jesus' words were to the Judeans. 7 Times Jesus said “Eat Me!” In Aramaic, the common language of the Disciples' time, the title for the Devil was not Beelzebub, or Valdemort, Lucifer, or Satan, but “Flesh Eater!” In Judaism, eating flesh and drinking blood were Evil. According to Leviticus, blood and the fatty flesh were ritually dedicated exclusively to God, because this is the seat of life. Life blood is from God, and belongs to God, so to consume blood was to claim a sacrifice, to try to be like God! Jesus' Words sound like the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, “Eat of it, you will be like God!” Yet, here we are not at the beginning of Creation, but near the Climax of the Gospel with the Messiah with us. George Barna leads one of the great survey research programs internationally. A few years ago, the Barna group asked what are the words we all most long to hear? What they found were three phrases: “I love you” “I forgive you” and “Dinner Time” in offering his flesh and blood, Jesus said all three.