Sermon for August 23rd

In my household we have a rule for our family at meals. “You have to at least TRY everything.” Beyond that, if we’ve had a kind of food before, we expect everyone to eat the food they’ve been given whether it’s brownies, brusselsprouts or beets. I like these rules, they are a good idea, I think everyone should have these rules—that is, unless I have to eat beets. I don’t like to eat beets. It’s one thing to make grand talks about eating everything, but it’s quite another to eat beets. To actually have to gulp them down myself past a sensitive gag reflex.

When it comes to your faith in Jesus Christ, what do you gag on? How big of a bite are you willing to take? Does it make you queasy just thinking about swallowing particular theological arguments? Perhaps you nibble at the smorgasbord of faith, but you are not willing to pay for the whole buffet, or swallow anything in its entirety.

During the siege of Leningrad, the city elders had a difficult decision to make. The Nazi’s had cut off most supply routes to the city. The few remaining truck routes across the frozen lake were bombed daily. It became clear that there was only one-third enough wheat to get them through the winter. Should they feed only a third of the people? What choice did they have? They decided to mix their bread with one third wheat, one third saw dust and one third manure. That winter tens of thousands of children went to bed every night starving to death on a full stomach. What have you added to Jesus to make him more palatable? Or is he just the little pinch of spice that you have added to your other belief systems. In order to “fit in” with the society. To fit in with your family or with your spouse. What if you were asked to swallow Jesus, and all of his teachings, whole? Or have you become so accustomed to the manure that you’re not sure you’d like the real deal?

Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.” “To eat” is another way of saying “to believe”, but it gets to the point doesn’t it? When you think about believing in Jesus it’s easy to just THINK about it. To think about how nice being a Christian is. To think about how you should read your Bible more. To think about it. Just like you watch the latest movie about refugees and THINK about helping them or hear your wife doing the dishes and THINK about helping her. Thinking is easy, eating demands more commitment. An idea, you can take or leave, but once you’ve swallowed something, it’s tough to get the taste out of your mouth, it’s even tougher to get the crumbs out of your stomach.

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” Believing in Jesus is about more than your mind—it’s about more than thinking. Thinking is important. There are many Christians who don’t like to think and that is a problem, but many of us have a different problem—it’s not that we think too much, but we think about Jesus and that’s about it. We don’t want to commit any more than that. But believing in Jesus demands your mind, your mouth, your heart, your stomach, your hands, your feet, your life, your all. When you eat something it becomes a part of you right down to the cellular level. When you not only believe in Jesus, but when you eat Jesus, faith becomes a part of you as well, a part of your life that you can’t separate yourself from.

Here’s a story I read recently from a magazine called Voice of the Martyrs, “Dora and her husband, Ferley, gathered their children together for family devotions night. Dora and Ferley were teachers in Santana Ramos, a farming village deep in the Colombian jungle about five hours away from the nearest town. Night had fallen, dinner was finished and Marcella, their oldest daughter had done her schoolwork and was ready for devotions. For the most part, it was routine, but Marcella saw small tears forming in her mother’s eyes. And when her stepfather began to cry, the 12-year old knew something was wrong. After the family’s devotions, Dora looked at her oldest daughter and said, “Mommy may be going to sleep tomorrow for a long time.”

“Marxist guerrillas and the Colombian government were terrorizing the farming village Dora taught in. “Christians are dangerous,” the guerrillas repeatedly said. “Christians cannot lie. If the army asks them about us, they will tell the truth!” On Monday morning, Nov. 17th, 2008, Dora began her day like any other school day—praying with the students. During the day, a neighbor came to see the young teacher, “I’m sorry Dora,” he told her, “but the guerrillas will kill your brother tomorrow.” Later in the day, the neighbor returned. “I am so sorry,” he told her, “I have made a mistake. It is not your brother who will be killed . . . but it is you and your husband. You can take your family and run,” he said, “You can leave this village right now.” Dora reassured the guerrilla messenger, “You do not have to worry,” she said. This is better. My brother was not ready to meet the Lord. But my husband and I are.”

The next morning they began the day like any other. Around 10 am two armed guerrillas, ushered the couple to the back of the schoolhouse to say goodbye to their family. The 12-year old, Marcella cried as the armed men walked her parents across a field to a river just 300 yards away from the school. Marcella could not see her parents, but she remembers hearing the two shots as her parents were executed. “If I met the men who did this I would forgive them,” Marcella said months are her parents had died. I know this would be hard, but I know God forgives them. So I have to as well.” Dora and her daughter didn’t just believe in Jesus, did they? Their faith in Jesus was something they could not separate themselves from, their faith was more than an idea. They had eaten Jesus.

Faith is wider, stronger and deeper than just a thought. It is more than an idea. It involves all that you’ve got. It’s love, passion, and even hunger. Jesus knows what kind of people we are, the kind that nibble on things just in case we don’t like the taste and want to spit it out. But when it comes to Jesus, he wants you to swallow him whole so that he might make you whole.

How is eating different than simply believing? When you volunteer to prepare and dish out meals at the soup kitchen. We all KNOW that feeding hungry people is important. We all UNDERSTAND that Jesus tells us to do this. We believe all this right? But when you find yourself in front of fifty or sixty people coming for a meal and when your hands get sweaty from the heat in the kitchen under your plastic gloves, you might realize that what you believe has just become a part of you—you’ve eaten Jesus. And your life has been swallowed up in Christ’s victory over the suffering in this world.

How is eating different than simply believing? When you pray with people. We KNOW that we are supposed to pray. We all UNDERSTAND that there is a power to prayer. We believe this, right? But when a friend tells you her family struggles and you find yourself with your arm on her shoulder carrying her hopes and fears right into God’s ears you might realize that what you believe has just become a part of you—you’ve eaten Jesus. And your hopes have been swallowed in the promise of God’s victory.

When Jesus talked about faith, he was talking about more than thinking the right way about things or doing good things for people. Faith is about all of that and so much more. How would you describe your faith? Do you believe in Jesus or have you eaten him? I’d like to end today with one of Martin Luther’s most famous quotes about what faith in Jesus, the bread of life, truly is, “Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and brings us to birth anew from God. It kills the old Adam, makes us completely different people in heart, mind, senses, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. What a living, creative, active powerful thing is faith! It is impossible that faith ever stop doing good. Faith doesn't ask whether good works are to be done, but, before it is asked, it has done them. It is always active. Whoever doesn't do such works is without faith; he gropes and searches about him for faith and good works but doesn't know what faith or good works are.”

“Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God's grace; it is so certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it. This kind of trust in and knowledge of God's grace makes a person joyful, confident, and happy with regard to God and all creatures. This is what the Holy Spirit does by faith. Through faith, a person will do good to everyone without coercion, willingly and happily; he will serve everyone, suffer everything for the love and praise of God, who has shown him such grace. It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from fire.”

Faith is more than thinking, it’s eating. Faith is not your work before God, but God’s work in every part of you.