Sourton, Bratton, Germansweek, Trinity 9, 5/8/2012 [Proper 13]
Ephesians 4.1-16 , John 6.24-35
In last week’s reading - of the story of the feeding of the five thousand - we considered the present moment, in which our country is in the grip of an Olympic obsession, and considered if this was a ‘famished craving’ - a drivenness which crowds have to look for the next celebrity, to crown the next king - and then, after a while to grow bored with them, kill them off, move on to another.
We also considered our culture’s driven desire to shop for that one item which will satisfy us - and having purchased that, to need to shop for something else - whether that is a famished craving.
Our need to gain the attention of others; our hunger to be fed, physically and emotionally, is insatiable. The famished cravings we have for people close to us who we rely on to help us and fulfil us, people who we unhealthily depend on to do things for us, and even when they do those things for us we then very soon find ourselves asking them to do something more.
John 6 shows us this very thing happening, as the crowd wavers between being impressed with Jesus and being bored, craving a new sign. The crowd persistently seeks out Jesus and asks him, ‘What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?’ This crowd ‘kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.’ Then, they witness one of Jesus' greatest miracles, his feeding of the five thousand, which they recognized as a sign. But still they kept coming, looking for a sign. There is a big irony in this chapter of John: in the contrast between the crowd's famished craving and Jesus' ability to give bread that satisfies. [1]
In their famished craving the crowd want more bread from him. They want a sign like the manna in the wilderness; They quote scripture at him to try to persuade him, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ But Jesus wants them to understand that the bread that he gives is the bread that satisfies.
Then Jesus said to them, 'Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.' John 6.32-34
The words of the crowds echo the words we say in our prayers, 'Give us this day our daily bread'. And when we do that we know that means more than just asking God for food on the table. It also means asking God for food in our hearts, food for our minds, food for our souls.
Jesus said to [the crowds], 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’ John 6.35
Jesus knows that the only food which will cure our famished craving is the food he offers. Jesus knows that to become fully human, fulfilled in their life, a person must have faith in him who can help us be healed of our famished craving for others, and instead to be fulfilled in him. What truly enables us to be fully human, fulfilled, mature people is this: having faith in the One who is the ground of our Being. [2]
When Paul urges the Ephesians believers to come to maturity in Christ he says that our aim as Christians must be to:
... come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. Ephesians 4.13-14
Paul's concern is that we should become mature Christians - that we become fully human in Christ. And this means putting away our famished cravings and feeding ourselves with the bread of life, learning to give our heads and hearts over to Jesus and to him alone.
Now, a room full of mature adults like this one will have plenty of ideas about what maturity means. I imagine you’d agree that it’s about growing away from a childlike dependency on significant others into healthy relationships built on wholesome self-understanding and a confidence which comes with experience and knowledge.
Growing into maturity in Christ parallels this exactly. The mature Christian is one who has moved away from unhealthy dependencies - famished cravings - into healthy relationships with self and others based on a wholesome self-understanding and a confidence born from a healthy relationship with God.
Mature Christians are able to share their experience and knowledge of the life of faith with others; telling the stories of Jesus which have sustained and grown them over the years.
By their Teaching in this way, and sharing what they know of scripture, mature Christians can enable other Christians to grow in their faith. Likewise by their example in “loving their neighbour as themselves the mature Christian can help the the church as a body find ways to serve the community in the way Jesus intended, to stand up for what is right and stand against what is wrong, to respond to God’s call to be stewards over his creation.
I visited a zoo park the other day and put 20-pence into a set of scales which then told me that I weighed as much a a small dolphin. It was a wake-up call to get fit. And an analogy of my inner life too. I know that all too often my diet is unedifying, and that if only I could eat more of the bread of life I'd be filled, I'd be fulfilled, my cravings would fade and faith would make me whole. God help us all - whatever our maturity in years - to keep growing in our maturity in Christ, and enjoy all that goes with it. God help us to keep encouraging each other in our growth to maturity in Christ.
Notes
Previously preached in Liverpool, August 2009. and referring back to last week’s sermon, John 6 - The famished craving.
[1] and [2] These sections adapted from Paul Nuechterlein's Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary, PROPER 13 (July 31-Aug. 6) -- YEAR B which rely especially on Gil Bailie's audio tape series, ‘The Famished Craving: The Attention of Others, the Fascination for the Famous, and the Need for Faith’. This in turn reflects on T.S. Eliot's poem ‘Gerontion’, in which which the poet writes, ‘And what [History] gives, gives with such supple confusions That the giving famishes the craving....’
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