For those who asked after church, here is the slide that followed the sermon time, and I have also posted the benediction some asked for, after the sermon below.
Cries of
the Heart: the complaining cry
Some of you
know that the gospel of John is not my favourite; some have even heard me use
stronger language than that! When it
comes up in the readings, I groan and complain and would like Chris to
preach! John’s language has been used as
an excuse for anti Semitism down the centuries, he is deeply theological and
not very practical, and he tends to the mystical. Which is why Chris doesn’t mind John at
all! So, knowing that about myself, I
take a deep breath this week and read all this repetitive stuff on Jesus and
the bread of life that Chris opened us up to last week.
And what
strikes me? They complained about Jesus
because of what he was saying. Oops –
just what I’d been doing.
Who are
“they”? John says “the Jews”, which is
what he says any time there is opposition, whence we get the idea of anti
Semitism. We should understand that John
is writing at the end of the first century.
It’s long after Jesus, and the people of the Way, mostly Jews like
Jesus, had not long begun to be called Christians, and they’ve been expelled
from synagogues; Judaism and Christianity begin to go their separate ways. It’s a time of upset in the institution of
faith. So his gospel in part is an
apologia, argument for Christianity compared with Judaism.
What is
clear though is that “the Jews” are clearly the elite, the ones in power, the
‘haves’ of the establishment. They want
to run things their way, control religious beliefs and make sure everyone
agrees with them. Sounds a bit like 21st
century U.S. politics, doesn’t it?
And Jesus
messes with their power, their beliefs, their rigidity. The Message says he tells them, “stop
complaining. You’re not in charge; the One who sent me is in charge”
So what’s
the complaint? These were Jewish
religious leaders, who would certainly get the metaphoric language of bread
from heaven….they would know their faith history, how God provided manna, bread
from heaven, during their wilderness wandering.
Well, the
metaphor wasn’t the problem; that he comes from heaven is a problem, the
implication that Jesus calls God father.
They’re right brained enough to understand metaphor of bread from
heaven, but left-brain dominated, so they
literally see Jesus’s claim to be of divine origin as heretical. So they complain, not to him, but “among
themselves”.
Grumbling
often masks a deeper issue. Just
like I grumble about John because it is too troublesome to my status quo
beliefs. It requires me to reflect and
work at my faith. I think we would rather complain about what we
don’t understand than be open to some new understanding. Because if I’m grumbling, I’m not listening.
We see that
in our hearts, in our relationships, in
our politics. Here I want to make a
distinction between grumbling and complaining—a bit semantic perhaps but
there’s a truth in here somewhere…..the psalms for example have lots of
complaining, but they are based on an intimate relationship with the God
they’re conversing with. And it’s
legitimate complaining; sometimes life is awful. But they usually include, as ours does today,
“wait for God” “listen for God”.
And that’s
exactly what doesn’t happen in this text.
They have no relationship with Jesus, so they have not learned to
listen. And they’re threatened,
probably because they know they ought to have been listening to God, so they grumble. Scholar Raymond Brown points out that
the word translated
"complain" in verse 41 is the same word as the Septuagint uses for
the murmuring of the Israelites in Exodus 14. This is a hint that John is
drawing on ancient story and memory here in speaking of murmuring, manna, and
bread from heaven. These people, who resist Jesus, are God's people. They
are like the Israelites of old, pushing back against God's demands and God's
provision.
{Ἐγόγγυζον: IAI 3p, γογγύζω, 1) to murmur, mutter, grumble, say
anything against in a low tone 1a) of the cooing of doves 1b) of
those who confer secretly together 1c) of those who discontentedly
complain }
The
complainers are God’s people, pushing back against both God’s demands and God’s
provision
That
repetitiveness of Jesus I mentioned now takes on a new meaning – he confronts
them, and us, on our grumbling unwillingness to be open, then tweaks the same
message slightly but goes right back to repeat the point: people are starving for spiritual food, and I am it, he says.
God, not us, is the source of our strength, the power for our growth,
the center of our lives.
I am
reminded of a modern day psalm, from Ted Loder’s Guerrillas of Grace, where
the plaintiffs complaining cry of the heart is to a God he knows and trusts…..
“Sometimes it just seems to be too much”………. (first part)
When we have
that relationship, our deepest souls are fed by God, and any challenge to our
dogma and doctrine and beloved deep set beliefs must rest ultimately in that
‘other’ authority that isn’t our selves.
We must learn to listen, and risk hearing something new.
And then
more, we must answer the God to whom we listen…..Ted Loder’s psalm, after all
the “too much” stuff, ends with this:
Or is it too little?.....
Benediction:
go now, go with god and with an open spirit. May you come to know God well enough to complain, deep enough to listen, and trusting enough to respond.
