Remember

                         Remember

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

August 16, 2015; Proper 15, Year B, Track 2

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

John 6:51-58 – Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever."

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"I am the living bread that came down from heaven." No, don't mishear me. I'm saying that I, Lowell, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. I am created in the image and likeness of God. God's Spirit dwells within me. And God acts through me in ways that God has no other way to act because I am a unique incarnation of God's living Spirit. Christ has told me, "Lowell, I am in you and you are in me, and I am in the Father and we are one." The Apostle Paul has told me that God has accepted me completely, just as I am, just like God accepted him completely when Paul was a persecutor. God looks at me with divine grace, the unqualified, infinite love that God's delights to give me as a sheer gift, unearned and free. So, if God loves me so completely, what can threaten me? I am completely secure in God's infinite love. And the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead also promises me eternal life. Not just some form of life after I die, but a quality of life that makes the eternal present here and now. The life of the forever, now.

I hope you know, of course, that everything I just said about me is also true for you. You are the living bread that came down from heaven. God's Spirit is in you, and God acts through you in ways God has no other way to act, because you are a unique incarnation of God's living Spirit. You are one with Christ and one with God, and we are all one with one another. God's grace is your gift – free, unqualified, infinite love. You are safe. Secure. Forever. Relax and be.

But, I am also a mess. I get tossed off my game so easily. If my needs and expectations aren't met, especially if I'm the one not meeting them, I get so flustered and frustrated. Sometimes I think I'll never learn anything. And I'm dying. Can't be very long now. I'm way over half-way there. I can look in the mirror and see all the white hairs. I can feel the aches and limitations that didn't used to be there.

But you know, that's okay. It's the most natural thing in the world. It's absolutely certain. We all die. The bigger issue is the living business.

And so much of my life is a living death. Every time someone says something to me that I hear like a cut or a putdown, part of my dies for a moment. Every time I get anxious or fearful, I'm actively dying. I've got so many bad habits. Every time I reinforce one of those things I'm reinforcing a death spiral. When I judge others, or when I ignore them because I'm caught up in myself, I'm like the walking dead and I'm dealing death to others. I've got the same deadly disease that Paul had. He was full of performance anxiety. "How am I doing?" If I think I'm doing okay, I'm great. But if I'm failing in some way, sometimes even in something small and relatively insignificant, I'm all bent out of shape, dying. It's mostly about self-centeredness. When I forget myself and simply get into whatever is before me, I'm alive. When I'm stuck in my self and my self-centered concerns, I'm dying; I'm a mess.

Am I going to live as if I am the living bread that came down from heaven, or am I going to live like I am a mess? Well, both, I'm sure. I am heavenly and I am earthy. But I can make some choices to put more of my energy and attention into my deepest identity and reality as an eternal being. Whenever I do so, my earthy being seems to go so much better.

This dual nature, this double identity, is ever present. Theologians speak of Jesus as "fully human and fully divine." In a minute we will take bread and wine; it will become body and blood. Oh, it's still bread and wine, but it is also even more truly the divine presence of Christ's reality, a heavenly communion here in our lovely little church, a thin space that breaks the boundary between the finite and the infinite, the dying and the living, the broken and the whole. Bread that is so much more than bread. Shift your attention just a bit and you will realize you are feasting on the bread of life and living in the forever of eternity right now.

I'm going to repeat something I said a couple of weeks ago, because I liked it, but also because I believe we need to be reminded of the deeper truths over and over. We have to remind ourselves of the great spiritual realities because it is so easy to forget and get stuck in the mess we regularly make of ourselves.

Remember – you are God's beloved child, infinitely loved and cherished.

Remember – every person on the planet is God's beloved child, equally and infinitely loved and cherished.

Remember – the present moment is all we have; be awake; live in the present; here and now is the only place I can know God; here and now is the only place I can do God's will. The present moment is the eternal now.

Remember – love is the most powerful thing in the universe; under everything, Love is.

Remember – the story of the cross tells us that God turns our human evil and tragedy into new life.

Remember – all is one, and ultimately it is good.

Welcome to the feast, the heavenly banquet. Feed on the bread of life and the cup of salvation. Become what you eat. Be the living bread which came down from heaven, and go help God feed the world.

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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance and love.

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