Over the Edge

Over the Edge is our worship theme for the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, August 26, 2012. Our focus scripture is John 6:56-69.

This Sunday concludes five opportunities that the Lectionary gives us to explore the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. Over that time we investigate Jesus feeding a huge crowd with nothing but five barley loaves and two fish, and then consider an arresting dialogue with a part of that crowd that probes who Jesus is and what his miracle of feeding the crowd really means. The crowd remembers the stories of Moses in the wilderness, prevailing on God to feed the people not once, but day after day with manna from heaven. Jesus counters by claiming to personally be the true bread from heaven. “Your ancestors ate the manna,” he tells them, “but they still died. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever.” As compelling a promise as that is, it is deeply offensive to those who hear it, including Jesus’ own followers. Why?

In Leviticus 17:10-14, which is part of the Torah – the five books of the law considered to be written by Moses – we read:

If any Israelite or foreigner living among them eats blood, I (God) will disown that person and cut him off from his people, for the life of an animal is in the blood. I have provided the blood for you to make atonement for your lives on the Altar; it is the blood, the life, that makes atonement. That's why I tell the People of Israel, 'Don't eat blood.' The same goes for the foreigner who lives among you, 'Don't eat blood.' Any and every Israelite—this also goes for the foreigners—who hunts down an animal or bird that is edible, must bleed it and cover the blood with dirt, because the life of every animal is its blood—the blood is its life. That's why I tell the Israelites, 'Don't eat the blood of any animal because the life of every animal is its blood. Anyone who eats the blood must be cut off.' (The Message)

According to Leviticus, the life force of any animal is in its blood. It is God who gives life, and therefore the blood is sacred. It can only be handled in two ways. It can be poured back into the earth that God fashioned at creation and then covered over with dirt. Or it can be poured upon the Altar as a sacrifice to God to make atonement for sins committed. To eat the blood is to debase something that is sacred and it results in being cut off from God.

But now Jesus is re-interpreting the Torah based on his conviction about who he is. In John 6:51 he has told his listeners: “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.” What he means is that his blood spilled upon the altar of his cross in his crucifixion and death will be the sacrifice that prepares the whole world to be at one with God. Then those who eat his flesh and drink his blood will be taking into themselves his life force, his living Spirit, in such a way as to become aligned with him. As John says in his prologue, they will become Children of God.

Now John may see the eating of Jesus’ flesh and the drinking of his blood as happening in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper which was certainly being practiced at the time he wrote his Gospel. But Jesus pushes many who hear him say this over the edge, including some of his own followers who leave him. And his words about seeing the Son of Man ascending to where he was before the creation of the world are no easier. If you are already on John’s wavelength and have read the prologue to his Gospel, his incarnation and ascension make perfect sense. But if you are not on John's wavelength then, Jesus' words call for a spiritual imagination that not many possess.

In the end, many fall away from Jesus, with their loyalty to the Torah winning out over their sense that there is something special about him. The Twelve, however, affirm their faith. “Lord,” Peter says, “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.” The choice they make is the choice that remains before us today. Who is Jesus? Does he push us over the edge? Or is he the key to eternal life?

Here is a Call to Worship based on Ephesians 6:1-18. Please use or adapt anything that is helpful to you.

Call to Worship    Ephesians 6:10-18

L: Sisters and brothers, let us be strong in the Lord and in the strength of God’s power!

     Put on the whole armor of God, so that you can stand against all the tests of the devil.

P: For we struggle not with mortals, but against cosmic powers of darkness;

     against spiritual agents from the headquarters of evil.

L: Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may stand your ground.

P: Let us fasten on the belt of truth, and the breastplate of justice.

L: Let us plant our feet in the Gospel of peace, and pull on the helmet of salvation.

P: In one hand we will grip the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

     And in the other hand, the shield of faith to quench every flaming arrow of evil.  

L: And always, let us pray in the Spirit, asking help for all God’s children.  

All: Thanks be to God! Let us worship God!