Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "A Dirty Word"

Text: John 6:55-69

"You are the holy one of God."

Most of us here could probably join with Simon Peter

in affirming that.

Jesus Christ is the Holy One of God.

A fairly simple statement.

Where we eventually go astray

is not usually in the affirmations we make,

the things we say about our faith.

Where we seem to miss the mark –

I mean all Christians, not just those of us here this morning –

is when we start trying to live out the faith we affirm.

Then …

how easy it is to become like some of the other, nameless disciples

in this morning’s gospel story.

The ones who murmured and complained about Jesus’ teachings.

Who found his sayings difficult,

and took offense at them.

Who eventually turned back,

and no longer went about with him.

The real stumbling block for most of us is: obedience.

And I admit,

it’s one of my least favorite words in the English language,

or any other language.

Obedience … yuck.

But, obedience is in large part

what this passage is about.

When Jesus talks about

our eating his flesh and drinking his blood,

that has several levels of meaning.

As we discussed last week.

Obviously, he didn’t mean it literally;

nowhere do we find him offering a knife to his followers

and suggesting that they carve off a piece.

But it’s not entirely symbolic, either …

Jesus means more than just

taking communion every month, or every week, or even every day.

To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ

is to take him into ourselves,

to make him a part of who we are.

To acknowledge that he is the nourishment we need

in order to live as God intends for us to live.

In short, let him guide us from within

in the living of our days.

And that, inevitably,

brings us back to the touchy issue of obedience.

It’s a dirty word for many of us.

It conjures up childhood images of our parents and other adults,

and how we sometimes perceived them as tyrants,

whether they were or not!

It reminds us how confusing – and painful –

life can be for a child,

feeling like you don’t have much say in your own life,

and are pretty much controlled by someone else.

It reminds us of scenarios like:

"Eat your green beans."

"Why?"

"Because I’m your mother, that’s why!"

It reminds us of forced compliance

with rules we didn’t understand,

and/or didn’t agree with,

or that we felt were only appropriate

for someone several years younger than we!

So we’re leery about "obedience,"

even as adults.

And we do some of the same things to avoid it

that we did as children.

Which of us who has ever spent time with children

hasn’t encountered the phenomenon of "selective hearing"?

You know,

how when you shout "Clean up your room!" or "Take out the trash!"

they manage not to hear you,

but so much as whisper the words "ice cream,"

and they’ll catch it from a block away!

Of course, it’s not only children who practice this …

We sometimes do it to our spouses, don’t we?

Heck, my dogs even do it to me sometimes …

Tell them it’s time to go outside because mommy has to leave,

and they’re deaf as posts …

Quietly open up the cookie jar that their treats are in,

and suddenly there are five wagging tails at my feet.

My brother and I

once learned a great trick from our friends up the street.

Whenever anyone said something that we didn’t want to hear,

we’d simply say, "Eh? Eh, boy? Couldn’t hear you. Eh? Eh?"

Very annoying.

But it’s what all of us do from time to time,

literally or figuratively.

If you don’t like it, don’t hear it.

And let’s face it, we do that to God

more often than we like to think about!

I don’t mean that we are all openly rebellious little people,

running around being as disobedient as we know how.

We’re not.

But I think that most of us practice

a kind of "selective obedience."

There are some areas of life

in which we really do toe the mark,

do what God expects of us,

and do a good job of it.

But there are other areas

in which we are not obedient.

Perhaps because we have chosen not to be obedient.

Or perhaps – and more likely, I think –

because at some level

we have been unable or unwilling to hear

God’s call to obedience

in a particular area of our life.

Most of us tend to err in one of two directions.

For the sake of easier understanding,

I’ll call them simply

the "traditional" or "conservative" direction,

and the "liberal" direction,

although that’s a gross oversimplification.

And keep in mind that I’m talking more about

labels of theologically liberal or conservative,

not necessarily politically.

Traditional/conservative Christians

place a high emphasis on obedience in one’s private life,

in one-on-one relationships with other people,

and with God.

Their basic philosophy is,

obey the rules … especially the basics like the Ten Commandments …

attend church because that’s where God wants you to be,

and keep your nose clean!

They are not much concerned about

the larger problems of society …

at least, not from the standpoint of their faith.

Liberal Christians, on the other hand,

are very concerned about social justice,

and about relationships between races, nations,

sexes, economic classes.

Their basic philosophy is,

people of faith need to fight for a just society,

and persuade others to join us in the fight.

They are not as much concerned about

one’s personal, private life,

and obedience in that realm,

and tend to think that if you’re not harming anyone else,

then your personal behavior is your own business.

For the traditional Christian,

the "dirty words" are things like

lust, theft, greed, adultery, drunkenness …

The liberal Christian’s "dirty words" are

oppression, hunger, injustice, racism, poverty.

But the clincher –

the dirty word for all of us –

is obedience.

Nearly all of us have a hard time letting God be God

in both the public and private aspects of our lives.

And we have a hard time getting along with

Christians on the other side of the fence from us,

who try to call us to different levels of obedience,

and who often seem to think that our chosen form of obedience

is meaningless.

And that’s a shame.

Because both sides are basically correct

in what they affirm.

Jesus did say

that he came to fulfill the law, not abolish it.

He was concerned about faith and obedience in private life …

he himself was obedient even though it meant death.

But he was also concerned about the poor and downtrodden –

he spent most of this time with them –

he spoke out against injustice,

and did what he could to help.

For Jesus, the "public" and the "private" sectors of life

weren’t really separate.

And that’s something we need to work toward,

even though in our complex society

it’s much tougher to accomplish.

To practice obedience,

whether it involves social change and transformation,

our relationship and interaction with just one or two other people,

or even in our own very private and personal realm

where it’s just us and God.

Another "obedience image" that I have from my childhood

is of a particular phrase we would use

when we knew we were going to have to give in

and do whatever it was we had been asked.

We’d say – and you have to get the tone of voice just right on this –

"I’ll do it because I want to,

but not because you tell me to."

Now that’s a silly way of putting it,

but really, that is the goal of our Christian life…

To do the right things –

in private life and in public life –

not because we have to, but because we want to.

The prophet Jeremiah talked about a time that would come

when God would no longer have to

give out the law to the people,

because they would already have it

written on their hearts.

That time is here …

or at least, that possibility is here.

It is here because of Jesus Christ

who takes our disobedience on himself

and leaves us with a clean slate.

It is here because Jesus offers us the opportunity

to make him a part of ourselves;

to feed on him, through faith …

and thus, to begin living our lives

in joyful obedience to God.

And, once obedience becomes joyful,

it isn’t a dirty word any more!

It hardly even feels like "obedience" any longer.

It’s just … life.

It’s the way we live;

it’s the way we want to live,

and we can’t imagine it any other way.

Now, I will freely admit

that I’m a long way from that goal.

Any of the rest of you feel that way?

… yeah, I thought maybe so.

That’s the bad news of the morning.

But the good news is that

in Jesus Christ we have hope.

Hope that we can someday live lives

that are both faithful and joyful.

My friends, let us live and grow into that hope!

Amen.