Remember Me

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

August 5, 2012

Remember Me

John 6:24-35

“What must we do to perform the works of God?”

This sounds like such a simple question.

“Tell us”, pleads the eager crowd.

“Tell us, Jesus, what we must do.

After all, we have followed you from Tiberias to Capernaum;

we’ve sailed across the Sea of Gailiee just to learn.

Tell us;

tell us: what must we do to perform the works of God.”

                          

And so Jesus does, he tells this hungry throng,

this group who the day before had witnessed

what we now call the miracle of the feeding of the 5000.

Jesus opens his mouth to speak,

the crowd is hushed,

even the wind is stilled,

as these words float over the people:

“Believe in him whom God has sent.”

“Believe in me,”

is what Jesus wants the people to hear.

“Believe in me, believe in what I am telling you.

Believe in what I am teaching you.

Don’t worship me;

don’t proclaim me king;

don’t fawn all over me,

Don’t make me anything other than what I am.

Just believe in me,

listen to me,

follow me and my words.”

But “believe in him whom God has sent.”

is what the people hear.

The crowd murmurs in the hot morning sun,

looking at one another,

some nodding,

yet most somehow not satisfied,

expecting something more,

something deeper, more profound,

words worthy of a great prophet, even a king!

                                                     

Finally, one person responds to Jesus,

giving voice to the crowd’s thoughts:

“What sign are you going to give us then,

so that we may see it and believe you?

What work are you performing?”

The crowd wants a little magic!

Just a small miracle, nothing big;

they are not greedy.

It need not be on the scale of the previous day’s grand act:

that was impressive -

to take five barley loaves and two fish

and feed 5000 men, women, and children,

with leftovers, no less!

The crowd would be satisfied with Jesus reprising

the miracle of the manna from heaven,

just as Moses had done for their ancestors.

Heads nod – yes, that would do it,

that would help them to believe this man:

some bread for their bellies.

They still may not believe in him,

but it would certainly go a long way

to helping them believe his words.

After all, they know Jesus,

they know his parents,

Joseph the carpenter and his wife Mary.

Could anyone blame them for being

a bit skeptical of this young man’s claims?

Only God could hear Jesus sigh.

Only God could hear Jesus’ thoughts,

words Jesus wanted to say to the crowd:

“You are looking for bread made from grain,

bread for your belly,

bread that will fill you for a few hours

but then leave you hungry again.

Why are you so short-sighted?”

But instead he says to them,

“The bread of God

is that which comes down from heaven

and gives life to the world.”

This excites the crowd,

this sounds like Jesus is going to make good

on the manna from heaven!

“Give us this bread always!” they cry.

But no manna falls from the heavens,

no loaves appear to multiply.

The crowd sees nothing.

They hear only Jesus’ words,

cryptic, almost disappointing:

“I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,

and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Looking back from a distance of 2,000 years

should be we at all surprised that

the crowd began to complain,

to turn testy, quarrelsome, angry?

They didn’t believe Jesus,

they didn’t believe in Jesus.

They didn’t see in him Emmanuel,

God himself with them,

God revealed,

God revealed not as an angry, smouldering God,

a punishing, wrathful God,

but God made flesh

full of grace and truth.

They were so concerned with filling their bellies

that they could not see the God who had walked in the garden

so long ago with Adam and Eve.

They didn’t see in Jesus the Christ,

the Savior,

the Messiah.

They could not see the one whose life

was intertwined with theirs so completely,

as St. Patrick would later so famously capture       

with the prayer on his breastplate:

“Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”

All they saw was a man who could,

if he only would,

fill their stomachs.

This same Jesus says the same words to you and me:

“Believe in him whom God has sent.”

Believe in the Word made flesh,

the one full of grace and truth.

Believe in this Jesus,

not one of your own making,

your own design,

but the one who stands before us,

before you and me

and calls us to live not for the bread that fills our stomachs,

but for the bread that gives us life.

“Come to this, my table,” our Lord says to us.

“Come and eat this meal

and remember me –

remember who I am,

and who sent me,

and for what purpose.”

“Remember me,

and then show me -

show me to all the world,

show me for who I am,

who I truly am,

the Jesus of the gospels – the good news,

the Jesus who reveals God for all his love and goodness,

all his compassion and generosity and mercy,

for all his grace.

“Show me through you,

as you live full of grace,

full of mercy,

full of love.

Welcoming all,

judging none,

building up.”

“We have it in within us to be Christs to one another,”

writes the Reverend Frederick Buechner.

“We have it within us to work miracles of love and healing…

We have it within us to bless with Christ,

forgive with Christ,

love with Christ.”

We have it within us to believe in

the one whom God has sent us,

remembering him,

listening to him,

learning from him,

following him,

showing him.

seeing him in the faces of friend and stranger alike.

The Christ who is within us,
behind us,

before us,
beside us,

beneath us, above us;
the Christ who comforts and restores us;

The Christ who feeds us -

feeds us the bread of life. 

Amen