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Finally! A Healthy Diet That Really Works! - Rev. Ronald Fink |
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I Kings 19:7-8; Ephesians 5:1-2; St. John 6:41-51
Finally! A Healthy Diet That Really Works!
Rev. Ronald Fink
I
suspect that a good number of us at worship this morning have at one
time or another attempted a diet of some kind. The number of diets
available today, each promising success, is amazing. Just for fun, I
searched Healthy Diets on Google. More than 7,300 entries popped up! If
maintaining an acceptable body weight were as simple as many dietary
strategies suggest, why do many of us, who have attempted those
strategies [I include myself], continue to fight the battle of the
bulge? Wouldn??t it be something, really something, if someone would
offer a healthy diet that really works? Today??s reading from John??s
Gospel has good news for us. FINALLY! THERE IS A HEALTHY DIET THAT
REALLY WORKS! Keep that thought in mind as we move through today??s
Scriptures, and talk bread!
I
For the last three Sundays
the appointed Gospel texts from the sixth chapter of John have focused
on bread. First, after Jesus?? Feeding of the Five Thousand, admirers
are attracted to Jesus because He can miraculously produce Bread on
Demand. In response, Jesus lays before them and us a powerful truth. A
person??s deepest and hardest-to-satisfy hunger comes not from the
stomach at all. It comes from the heart. It originates not in the body,
but in the soul. As Martin Luther reminds us in his explanation to the
fourth petition of the Lord??s Prayer, we ask God to satisfy all kinds
of hungers when we pray, Give us this day our daily bread. However,
even when we receive from God what we ask for, just as the Five
Thousand miraculously received bread from Jesus, a deeper hunger still
remains. Which is why in today??s appointed Gospel, Jesus turns our
attention away from daily bread to a lingering hunger not easily
satisfied, to things eternal, the things of God. The primary focus of
the Bread Discourses of Jesus is not as much about us and our hunger
for daily bread as it is about God and how God satisfies an even deeper
hunger through the LIVING BREAD from Heaven.
A week ago
yesterday, the Charlotte Observer, under the headline, WHY AREN??T WE
HAPPIER? explored through the research of three respected scholars the
disconnect between having more money and stuff but less happiness and
contentment. The research of Harvard Professor Robert Putnam suggests
that material possessions have little effect upon happiness, and that
we will not be happier a year from now if we become wealthier. Intimate
connections produce happiness, he suggests. Family connections.
Spouses. Friendships. Work relationships. The connections we experience
satisfy our deepest hungers, concludes Professor Putnam. I believe the
Harvard Professor is onto something.
His conclusion about
intimate connections and happiness simply needs a good dose of Jesus.
Our connection to God, who alone satisfies our deepest hunger, is
precisely where Jesus takes us in today??s appointed Gospel. I am the
Bread of Life, the Living Bread that has come down from heaven, Jesus
informs us. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever. This
Bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. Jesus
invites us to feed on Him, to consume within ourselves the divine,
forgiving love that drove Jesus to the cross in our behalf. When we
feed on Jesus, the Bread of Life, we absorb Jesus into our daily lives
and take into ourselves the very mind and heart of God. The result is
what St. Paul describes in today??s second reading. Imitating God as His
dearly loved children, we live a life of love, just as Jesus loved us
and gave Himself up for us as a sacrifice to God. And, almost as a
bonus, our deepest hunger for God is satisfied. As one of the ancient
church fathers once said, My soul finds no rest, until it finds its
rest in God.
II
A few years ago, automobile bumper
stickers, some humorous, some religious, some profane, were popular,
almost a rage. One bumper sticker, often posted on an expensive BMW or
a Jaguar read, Whoever Dies With The Most Toys Wins. A Christian
organization produced a reply. Whoever Dies With The Most Toys Still
Dies. Sobering, isn??t it? It??s also true. Which is precisely why Jesus
invites us to focus on what is eternal and to take into ourselves the
forgiving love of God that never dies. The Gospel satisfies precisely
because it gets at the deeper hunger of the heart and offers us Jesus,
the Living Bread that has come down from heaven. Through the Gospel,
Jesus offers us Himself. He invites us in faith to partake of a diet
that really works because it satisfies the deepest hungers of the
heart.
Today??s first reading describes how God cared for the
prophet Elijah at a very difficult moment. Running for his life from
the notoriously profane King Ahab and his worse-than-profane wife
Jezebel, who had issued a ?¨kill him on sight?Ć decree, he drops to the
ground exhausted, wishing that he were dead. But God, having other
plans for Elijah, sent an angel to bring him a special meal that would
sustain him for the long journey that God had in store for him.
To
sustain us on our own long journey through this life to the eternal
life that is to come, God through the Gospel has gone one better. He
sent His Son, the Living Bread, who is Himself the meal. In sacramental
bread and wine, He offers us Himself, His Body and Blood, to eat and
drink. In the Eucharistic Meal, the assurance of God??s forgiving love
pours through our veins and into our hearts, satisfying our deepest,
eternal hungers, and transforming and equipping us for the long journey
ahead, a journey that at times can lead us, as it did the old Testament
prophet Elijah, through some pretty discouraging landscapes. The Lord??s
Supper offers each of us a personal, and intimate connection to God and
a contentment that we could never know apart from Jesus. It assures us
that in Jesus we have found our rest in God.
Mahatma Gandhi,
although not a Christian, said something very appropriate in respect to
today??s Scriptures. Sharing your faith, Gandhi said, is like one poor
beggar showing another poor beggar where to find the bread. Not a bad
way to describe the ministry of Emmanuel Church and School, the
Christian vocation that Principal Schmelzle and the Emmanuel School
staff is affirming this morning, and the journey that God has in store
for each of us. All of us are hungry beggars showing other hungry
beggars where to find the bread. Jesus is the Living Bread, THE DIET
THAT REALLY WORKS. In faith, eat the Living Bread and drink from the
cup He offers. And never be hungry or thirsty again. Your soul will
find its rest in God. Guaranteed!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Emmanuel, Asheville,
Pentecost 12, August 27, 2006
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