Our Trouble with the Divine

On Sunday we will continue working our way through the “Bread of Life Discourse” from the 6^th Chapter of John. Having had two weeks off from preaching in a pulpit—my family had to deal with me sermonizing them on the beach last week—I am excited to jump into the middle of this five week block. During my first reading of this coming Sunday's Gospel lesson my eyes fall upon the conflict between Jesus and some Jewish leaders. 

The Common English Bible translates it this way: “The Jewish opposition grumbled about him because he said, ‘I am the bread that came down from heaven.’ They asked, ‘Isn’t this Jesus, Joseph’s son, whose mother and father we know? How can he now say, “I have come down from heaven”?’” (John 6:41-42). These words stand out because the trouble that the Jewish elite have with Jesus we all have with the Divine, or rather with people who say that they are from God.

Followers of Jesus today are quite certain that he came down from heaven, but in his day claiming that he had come from heaven was blasphemous and reason for not just alarm but persecution. Today we still feel this way, at least in parts of the Church. If someone claims that they are a messenger of God or have heard God speaking we tell them to seek professional help, run them out of town, or write them off. Why is this?

Well, we in the Church tend to differentiate between Christ Jesus and us. Clearly in his life, death, and resurrection we see as the centurion did that “Truly [Jesus] was God’s Son” (Mark 15:39). Jesus showed in his actions, his healings, his teaching, his prayerfulness, his faithfulness, and his love that he had come down from heaven. However, we are not so quick to connect ourselves or others with the Divine. We do not recognize that while we are different from Jesus we are nonetheless children of God.

All of us are made in God’s image. All of us are grafted into the Body of Christ. All of us are adopted through Christ into the household of God. And yet, whenever someone talks about a pre-birth experience with God or an encounter with the Divine we, in the Episcopal Church, shut them up. I get it we love good theology and orthodox religion, but if we are not willing to share how we are part of God’s family, enmeshed in God’s limitless love, and filled with God’s Holy Spirit what are we doing? How are we continuing to share the Good News of Christ Jesus not only according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but also the Good News according to us?

To follow Jesus is not only about worshipping God on Sunday mornings as we join together at church. No, following Jesus calls us into remember something very important on a daily basis. Those of us who eat the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the Bread of Heaven, are in that moment remembering that we are part of God’s household. But, we are called to always re-member the Body of Christ and to know that we are God's children always. Every day we are challenged to live into the truth that we are Christ’s friends and through him fellow children of the Divine.

We do not like when people claim that they are of a higher position than we think that they are. We want them to prove it first, but the truth is that all of us are children of God by no effort of our own. All of us are members of God’s household. All of us are called to live into the limitless love that Christ showed us. Don't be troubled with the Divine. Remember that you are one of God's own children!