Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "It's Not About Us "
Date: August 6, 2006
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  John 6:24-35

A student at a prestigious Eastern university went to see his professor because he was upset about the grade that he received in the course.  The student accused the professor of being “unfair,” of not “giving me a chance from the first.”

All of this surprised the professor.  He pointed out to the student that he had a poor attendance record in the classes; that of the three papers he handed in, two of them were handed in late.  The professor told him that he was surprised that he was upset by his final grade, considering his grades in the work of the course.

And yet the student persisted in his disappointment.  He suggested that perhaps the professor had a problem with his racial background (he was a Korean-American student).  Again, the professor was surprised.  He said to the student, “All of my dealings with people from your ethnic background had been positive, particularly in the classroom.  I couldn't imagine how you could think that your grade had anything to do with my prejudices against your race or national background.”

And then the professor finally focused on what the problem was.  “I thought that this was a course about philosophy,” he said to him.  “That was all I intended by your grade.  Your final grade is my assessment of how well, or poorly, you mastered the material in this course in philosophy.  You act as if this grade is personal, as if this is my attempt to give you my assessment of your personality.  This grade is not about that.  This grade is about philosophy.  This grade is not about you.”

How often as a pastor I hear of a situation and, upon evaluating it, realize it was not about you, or me.  It was about the matter at hand.  Someone goes to a meeting where discussion ensues about an issue.  Finally it is narrowed down to two choices and a vote is taken.  One side passes, the other doesn’t.  Someone feels offended, because she “lost”.  But it was a discussion about an issue, not a referendum on a person.  “This is not about you,” I say.  “It is about the issue.”

I visit someone in the hospital who has just received the results of the biopsy.  The news is not good.  “What have I done to deserve this?” the patient asks.  And I struggle to answer that it is not about anything they did or didn’t do.  Disease happens, caused by some infection, bacteria, virus, heredity, or physical problem.  God doesn’t look down and strike certain people and not others.  “It’s not about you,” I want to say; knowing full well at that very moment that particular patient feels it is totally about him or her.

Unfortunately, much of our culture in the past few decades has led us to believe that everything is about us.  We take everything—every vote, every comment made about an issue that might differ from our own opinion, what every organization does or does not do—as if it were all about us.

With such a prevailing attitude, church, and what we are here about, can be quite a reach.  You hear of people joining this church or leaving for another church based on what it can do for them:  what are they personally getting out of it; what are they receiving.  Well, the truth of the matter is, the church is not about them, and certainly not about the clergy.  Sometimes folks get confused into thinking the church centers around the clergy.  I’m well aware that I’m not the star of the show.  God Almighty is what church is about, not clergy all-adorable.

That’s similar to the attitude Jesus faced some two millennia ago.  You might remember from last week after he fed the 5,000, they wanted to make him king.  That’s when he got out of there.  He and the disciples headed across the water.  But the crowd found him over in Capernaum.  ‘More, we want more!’ they pleaded.  ‘More bread.  Bread, glorious bread!  Do the miracle again!’

Now might be a good time to remind you of a few things about John’s Gospel.  First, things are not always what they seem in John.  Back when Jesus inquired of the woman of Samaria about a drink of water, she implored him to give her this living water so that she would never thirst again.  Similarly, the bread that Jesus promises the crowd today is different from the bread they received on the hillside last week.  Throughout the Gospel of John, we meet words that mean more than they normally mean.  Water is more than water; it is living water.  Bread is more than bread; it is bread from heaven.

Secondly, while all four Gospels include a story about the feeding of the 5,000, John’s is the only one that does not include the Last Supper.  In John, Jesus is more involved with washing the disciples feet that last night than breaking bread.  So, the references these few weeks in John about Jesus and bread provide somewhat of a final Eucharistic meal.  And since the order of events in John differs from the other three about the feeding and whether or not walking on the water is included, this indicates John is working from some sort of already established traditional storyline.

So today the crowd asks, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”  What must we do?

Then they ask for a sign that will make belief easier.  Don’t we always want it easier?  Give us magical bread, like God gave our ancestors in the wilderness.  Then Jesus majestically pronounces, “I am the bread of life.”

The crowds (we) are fixated on their (our) needs, on bread, on proof that makes belief easier.  ‘Jesus, what are you going to give us, do for us?  After all, isn’t that the only reason why we could be interested in you?’

Once again, Jesus pulls us out of ourselves and our mundane concerns and lifts us toward himself.  It is not about us.  It is about Jesus the Christ, the bread of life.

When I pray with the choir before worship, my prayer often includes a reminder that what we are doing is for the glory of God.  While I may have thought I felt the call to ministry because I wanted to help people, I believe the overarching answer should be that I wanted to serve Christ.  Thus, helping others comes as a result of serving him.

If you did not know anything about the church, you might think that the church is basically a volunteer service agency, a collection of busy, earnest individuals, and nothing more.  Isn’t that about how we put it in the little children’s song that goes: 

“I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together,

all of God’s people, all around the world, yes we’re the church together”? 

The church is you, the church is me; it’s all about us.

That’s quite a long way from speaking of the church as “the body of Christ.”  It’s a long way from today’s gospel.  The crowds clamor after Jesus, thinking that he will produce bread on demand.  Jesus attempts to teach the crowds that they ought to hunger after that bread that is eternal life.  “I am the bread of life,” he tells them.  That’s what Jesus often does, particularly in the Gospel of John.  He turns our earthly, mundane needs away from ourselves and toward things eternal, things heavenly – the things of God. 

This Sunday, as on most Sundays, our gospel is not about us.  It is about God.

 

(Opening illustration from a sermon on this text entitled:  “It’s Not About Me or You”,

by William H. Willimon, Pulpit Resource, vol. 34, no. 3, July-September 2006, p. 28.)