[Propertalk] Fwd: [Goodsermons] Free Preaching Resources John 6:35, 41-51

[joeparrish at compuserve.com]

Forwarded:


-----Original Message-----
From: Office <office at goodpreacher.com>
To: Goodsermons at GoodPreacher.com
Sent: Tue, Aug 4, 2009 12:42 pm
Subject: [Goodsermons] Free Preaching Resources

PREACHING THE LESSON: John 6:35, 41-51

The connections between this text and the Eucharist are strong. Jesus’ 
words in verse 35 bring comfort like an old familiar hymn sung by 
saints of every time and place. The final verse of this passage (v. 51) 
has sparked debate among liturgical scholars for centuries. By paying 
close attention to the verses in between, as well, preaching may be 
able to provide new relevance, not only for our Eucharistic practices, 
but for our daily lives.

If the qu
 estion which began last week’s sermon was, “What’s for 
lunch?”, then the question for this week’s sermon text is, “Who’s 
making supper?” In this week’s text we find questions about who 
actually can feed us in a life-giving way and what is being served. In 
a nation where one out of every ten people is underfed, these are not 
trivial questions. For ancient Christians, as well as contemporary 
ones, these questions are crucial in revealing how God intends for 
people to live and be fed.
 
Who is making dinner? Drive with me over to the local grocery store and 
watch those weary weekday warriors searching for a parking space and 

 I’ll show you who is making dinner. It is 5:35 p.m. following a day of 
work and the aisles are clogged with moms and dads, singles and 
seniors, all searching the shelves for affordable food for themselves 
and their families. Gathering into baskets their daily manna, now 
packaged in boxes, cans, and cartons, they take their place in a line, 
silently waiting for their items to be weighed, scanned, and assessed, 
their daily wages to be exchanged for nourishment. No wonder the faces 
of people in supermarkets look so empty and lifeless. Making dinner is 
often a thankless task and a duty for those who see the future holding 
only the preparation of their next meal. It is made even more
  mundane 
by the contemporary supermarket that sterilizes, compartmentalizes, and 
depersonalizes this essentially social custom of eating and drinking to 
the point that it no longer seems to have any relationship to God, the 
earth, or human community.
 
Do churches correct that misperception? Our concern over sanitation has 
changed the sacramental practices of some Christian churches. Nothing 
reflects this change more than the pre-packaged, individualized 
communion elements that are passed from stranger to stranger in the 
pews. Pull back the cellophane to unveil the uniformly constructed 
“body of Christ” conveniently nestled over a plastic container of “the 
blood of Christ,” a
 s if the portable bread and juice have been taken 
 from a heavenly lunch box packed by Jesus. It is hard to call this 
stuff “living bread.” When congregants complain about eating from a 
loaf after it has been touched by the hands of other people, the 
intended “communion” with God and neighbor has already been shattered 
by “murmuring.”
 
People of all religious traditions practice some form of common meal as 
a sacred ritual that connects humanity with God. The sharing of food 
models the interconnection of human beings with each other, the Source 
of creation, and the earth itself. For Christians, this “breaking 
bread” provides a window 20into the nature of God as Trinity, an eternal 
life shared among three persons. The self-giving of Jesus revealed in 
this meal introduces a model of ongoing community through the 
continuous cycle of self-giving in God’s economy on earth.1 When asked, 
“Who is making dinner?” Christians may answer, “Jesus, the self-giving 
of God in human flesh” is making dinner, not just for us, but for the 
whole world.
 
So, what is Jesus serving? “The bread that I will give for the life of 
the world is my flesh,” says Jesus. Remember the earlier words in 
John’s gospel (1:14) that declared that the same Word that was 
participating from the beginning
  in the creation of the world actually 
became flesh and lived on earth. This fleshly, eternal Word sent from 
God will share himself completely with everyone who is willing to be 
connected to his humanity and who can believe that this connection will 
bring life, even in the face of death.

In our city, faith groups provide most of the support for persons 
without permanent homes or adequate supplies of food. One of those 
groups is the Metropolitan Inter-faith Association (MIFA),2 formed in 
Memphis in 1968 as an outgrowth of inter-faith efforts to address the 
social inequities of that time. The presenting issue was the sanitation 
worker’s strike (an event which brought Martin Luther 
 King, Jr. to the 
city where his life was ended by an assassin’s bullet). When clergy 
came together to speak out against racial and economic injustice, the 
community responded in outrage that these people of God dared to take a 
stand on such controversial issues. This reaction convinced religious 
leaders that future efforts to combat injustice must arise from unified 
voices and actions, so they joined in a common action to create MIFA. 
Now over fifty years old, MIFA provides services for 60,000 persons 
annually who find themselves outside the circle of self-sufficiency in 
society. People are fed. Lives are saved.

Another simple program in the city is called, “More on Monday,â€
  because 
it supplements what other programs are already doing. The director of 
this effort is a young adult who knows first hand what life is like on 
the streets. Although years of reckless living left this person with 
limited resources and a life-threatening illness, this person has 
entered a life of service to others who hunger and thirst on a daily 
basis. On each Monday afternoon, a group of homeless people receive 
baggies of food and bottles of water from the trunk of a car driven by 
a person who knows their needs, having once walked the same pathways 
that they now walk.

Who is making dinner and what is being served? Jesus sets the table of 
God’s cosmic ban
 quet and invites us to dine on the generosity of his 
own self-giving. Within this economy all receive what they need each 
day, not because they are good consumers, but because God is a good and 
merciful provider.

Mary Lin Hudson
Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics
Memphis Theological Seminary

Notes
1. For a newly published perspective on this subject see Angel F. 
Mendez Montoya, The Theology of Food, Eating and the Eucharist 
(Illuminations: Theory & Religion), (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).
2. www.mifa.org/ourhistory

(Subscribers to GoodPreacher.com have access to more than 60 articles 
and sermons on the texts this week like the one above. For a limited 
time, we invite all pastors to=2
 0subscribe at the student rate of $49.99.)

Be sure to check out the free preaching resources at 
www.GoodPreacher.com (Homiletical Hot Tub) and see below for a free 
preaching article on this Sunday's Gospel text.

Register for the 2010 Festival of Homiletics and then purchase audio 
recordings of the 2009 Festival of Homiletics.
Go to the revised Festival of Homiletics site at www.GoodPreacher.com 
and click on link to purchase recordings.

Reserve your room at Go to the revised Festival of Homiletics site at 
www.GoodPreacher.com and click on link to purchase recordings.

Reserve your room at Scarritt Bennett Center, (866)-420-5486, 1008 19th 
Ave. South, *near Vanderbilt University; not within wal
 king distance to 
First Baptist Church; approximately 10 minute drive; on bus route to 
downtown (see nashvillemta.org); $45 (standard), $62 (upgraded: tv and 
high speed internet). These rooms will fill up fast since we have 
another great lineup of speakers and musicians.

Free article for 08.09.2009: (Subscribers to GoodPreacher.com have 
access to more than 60 articles and sermons on the texts this week like 
the one below. For a limited time, we invite all pastors to subscribe 
at the student rate of $49.99.)
To unsubscribe from this email list please send an email to
Office at GoodPreacher.com
and put UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.
_______________________________________________
Goodsermons mailing list
 0AGoodsermons at goodpreacher.com
http://goodpreacher.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/goodsermons