11th Sunday after Pentecost / Year B

Proverbs 9:1-6, Psalm 34:9-14, Ephesians 5:15-20, John 6:51-58

Pastor Gayle M. Pope

Like Milk for a Baby

Grace and peace to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

One of the most amazing things about a newborn baby mammal – whether human or animal – is its instinct to nurse. When a newborn finds its way to the source of its mother’s milk, it instinctively begins to suck it in.

It’s simply a matter of survival. The newborn has zero understanding of what it’s doing or why – it just sucks and swallows and lives.

As simple and pure and automatic as that act of nursing is, there is an amazingly complex science behind it. Just think about all the biological and sociological phenomena that plays a part in this simple act.

Sun, water and soil yield food, eaten by the mother and transformed into milk ingested by the baby and transformed into energy for the growth of cells. Think of all the processes involved.

And then there’s the whole sociology of family relationships … the fact that a male and female join to form this new life and that the mother is designed to nurture the child.

And then the newborn grows and learns to get its own food and, in the case of humans, sometimes eats and drinks to its detriment and even its death – even when it knows better!

Just think of all the books, research papers, magazine articles and other information written and produced about the biological and behavioral science of eating and drinking, not to mention producing, distributing and marketing food.

All this knowledge about the whole process of nourishment and growth is wonderful. But the newborn knows nothing about all this and it doesn’t need to know. It simply eats and lives.

Now, everything I’ve been saying so far is about physical eating for the body. But, as we can see in the Scripture readings for today, there are analogies that can be drawn between food for the body and food for the soul.

Just as our bodies hunger and thirst for the food and drink we need to survive physically, so our spirits hunger and thirst for the food we need for the life and nurture of our souls;

Just as we can make poor choices and eat and drink in ways that harm or kill our bodies, so we can make poor choices about what we feed our souls. We can and do choose to take in ideas and beliefs and knowledge that result in spiritual sickness and death.

Just as a mother provides perfect food for a newborn and just as good parents attempt to guide their children in eating right as they grow, so does our heavenly Father provide the perfect food for our spirits and gives us guidance about right eating and drinking for spiritual health.

And, just as there is both simplicity and complexity in the act of physical eating and drinking, the same is true of spiritual eating and drinking.

Thousands, probably millions of books, articles, papers, sermons, and multi-media productions have been disseminated about the deep theological principals that underlie the concept that we are children of God, nurtured by his Word and fed by the body and blood of his Son.

It can be complex, overwhelming and downright mysterious. We can think and pray and ponder for many lifetimes about how it works and how it can be.

We can study and learn from the Old Testament how God’s Word, revealed in Scripture, was wisdom and insight and life for the Hebrew people … how the law was a gift from their loving God which taught them how to live good, peaceful and prosperous lives if they would walk in its ways.

We can learn about Wisdom, the personified expression of God’s Word, who calls out in today’s reading from Proverbs: “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity, and live.”

We can find numerous references in the Old Testament encouraging and admonishing the people to so submit and saturate themselves in God’s Word that it becomes second nature to walk in God’s ways – to live within God’s will. Not simply to read the words, but to “consume” or “eat” them – to make them a part of one’s being.

As we study the Scriptures, however, we can also see how relentless the problem of sin is. Right from the start, in Genesis 3, Eve gave in to the serpent’s temptation to eat of the forbidden fruit.

“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil," said the serpent – and Eve took the bait. Hence began the problem of eating to spiritual death – choosing self over God.

As we follow the Word of God into the New Testament – the New Covenant – we can learn of the solution God provided to this problem of sin and death. God had given His Word for His people to read and hear and learn and follow and, by walking in it, the people were blessed and knew God, but sin and death still separated God from His people.

So finally, God sent his Word in the flesh. And somehow, by his death and resurrection, that Word made Flesh – Jesus Christ – defeated death for all who believe.

We still have God’s written, revealed Word, which still teaches and nurtures us just as it did for the Hebrews in Old Testament times. But now, we also have a New Covenant in Jesus blood – the law prophesied by the profit Jeremiah that is, “put within us, written on our hearts” so that we “know the Lord” intimately because he “has forgiven our iniquity” and “remembers our sin no more.”

Somehow, through faith in Jesus, we are united with God for all eternity. By participating in Jesus’ death – by “eating” his body that he sacrificed and “drinking” his blood that he poured out for us – we participate in his resurrected life.

It is deep and profound and complex, indeed – beyond our understanding.

And yet, at the same time, there is something very simple in the words, “Take, eat, this is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you.” There is something simple and almost effortless in our act of coming forward, taking a piece of bread and a drink of wine and returning to our pews.

We don’t really HAVE to understand HOW it works, all we have to do is take Jesus at his word and eat. Our faith and trust that Jesus IS who and what he says he is lead us to the table.

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. … The one who eats this bread will live forever.”

These words are like milk for a newborn baby. “The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life,” Jesus will tell his confused disciples in the gospel we will hear next Sunday.

We don’t have to understand it, we simply believe and receive – forgiveness, peace with God, eternal life – all gift. Mysterious. Amazing. Wonderful.

As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”