August 23, 2009 Sermon
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Proper 16 - B 2009
August 23, 2009 Allan Conkling
Several years ago I was invited to a rehearsal dinner at the La Posada on the River in Laredo where I once served as Rector of Christ Church. The bride was a member of my parish and as I remember, her fiancé was a young man from a prominent Hispanic family in town. They had hired a Mariachi band to provide music during dinner. The band strolled from table to table serenading which was fine until they came to the table where I sat. All conversation stopped...because it was impossible to compete with two guitars, two violins, a trumpet at my shoulder and the singer crooning the chorus of Cielito Lindo: "Ay, yi, yi, yi!" It was a show stopper.
Hearing is so important to communication. As we look at today's readings we encounter two types of people, neither of which had to compete with a Mariachi band:
Those who could hear and did respond, as in our Old Testament lesson;
And those who could hear but did not want to listen which is the theme of the Gospel.
The story has been building for several weeks now in John's account of the Feeding of the 5000. So important is this story to our tradition of the Holy Eucharist that we have split it up over three Sundays. Each week Jesus has been identified as the Living Bread, the Bread of Life, whose body is spiritual food and whose blood is spiritual drink. For some in the story it had finally become too much. This itinerant carpenter made claims of himself that were beyond that of any mortal.
"This teaching is difficult" they said. "Who can accept it?" The Greek word used is skleros which means hard. That is it was not difficult to understand, as in a foreign language. Nor was difficult to hear as it was with the Mariachi band. But when Jesus spoke his words were hard to tolerate. They were offensive. We are told that many left. At that point, Jesus turned to the 12 and asked them: "What about you? Do you also wish to go away?" And right then they had a decision to make.
There are moments in the life of every Christian when we find ourselves challenged to hear the message of Christ and consider deepening our understanding and commitment. As a young person I thought being a Christian meant just coming to church, following a list of rules, staying out of trouble, and saying the Creed. Later on it was taking the sacraments, making a pledge, serving on committees. It wasn't until much later that I came to see that life is about making choices, and those choices ultimately define who we are. The classic poem by Robert Frost comes to mind for me here:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
The poem ends with:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Most of the time the world's path runs very close to God's. Most of the time the two roads run parallel and it is easy to walk with one foot in one path and one in another. There are times however when the paths grow apart. God bids us, "Choose this day whom you will serve."
And here comes the hard part. Do we dare accept the challenge to live out our faith Monday through Saturday? Do we dare to open our selves to be all it can be in God’s sight? Do we strive to seek and serve all persons, to respect the dignity of every human being, and love our neighbor as our self? At times the battle seems to be beyond us. St. Paul speaks of the spiritual battle which often assails those who choose to live out their faith.
"Take up the whole armor of God" he says. Keep alert...Stand firm...Pray in the spirit at all time...Persevere in supplication for all the saints."
These are words we all need to hear.
I think about the serenading Mariachi band. I liked their music, even more so after they had stopped playing! I could hear again. Hearing is a gift. But listening is something only we can do.
Joshua gathered the tribes of Israel and challenged them to take the less worn path. He said, "As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
Jesus taught his disciples that they must follow a path, one that has brought us to this place before this altar. Where in fact can we go that would offer us the promise of life in abundance, grace to sustain us, and unconditional love so exceeding? Indeed as Simon Peter answers,
"Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."
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Revised: 09/06/09