This has been a great VBS week thanks to the work of so many volunteers and workers. And I think everybody had fun: Did you?
But it just wasn’t about having fun. We spent time learning about Jesus, about who he is and our relationship to him. We did this in the context of teaching about a few of the major feast days we celebrate here in church.
But some of this, I think, is pretty heady stuff for these kids. Just think— talking about Christmas– the Incarnation—God comes to earth as a man—but he is still God—who existed before he was born!!
Holy Week and Easter—Jesus, after celebrating the Passover meal, on Friday himself becomes the Passover lamb crucified and dying for our sins—then he is raised from the dead on Easter!! and offers us eternal life.
Pentecost—after Jesus ascends to heaven he sends his holy spirit to his disciples—appearing as tongues of fire on their heads—empowering them to do the things Jesus did and gives us the promise that He actually dwells in us, and is in our lives today.
All Saints—that we are called to be holy: Literally to reflect Jesus into the world and we learn about some who really did that exceptionally well.
And Thanksgiving, not really a Christian feast day but capturing a bit of what God has done for us and encouraging us to be thankful for all he does for us day to day—not to forget that he is active today.
That is a lot for these little minds to grasp. Some of it is beyond them, but we hope they get enough to know Jesus loves them.
One little one when asked what Lent is, said that’s the stuff mom takes out of the dryer!
Another when asked, what is the most important thing about Christmas?, said: smoke! He was referring to incense.
Discussing the saints, it was mentioned that St. Catherine was well educated and had read Plato. When asked what stood out about the saints, another little one said: St. Catherine used Play-Do!
I think we who have been raised up in the church forget about just how radical, how preposterous the Christian faith must sound to those not familiar with it.
It seems that some of those we hear about in this morning’s gospel lesson felt this way.
In the Gospel Jesus is addressing his followers – and today he makes some pretty radical statements.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats of my flesh will live because of me.….this is the bread which came down from heaven….he who eats this bread will live forever.
What if you were to see the son of man (meaning himself) ascending where he was before? The have I spoken to you are spirit and life.
Is it any wonder that Jesus says: but there are some of you that do not believe.
By now it should have been fairly clear to his followers who Jesus is. They saw his miracles, they heard his teachings.
By action and word he demonstrated that he is the son of God, that he is the bread of life; the very and only source of eternal life.
But this teaching today creates a moment of decision. They must decide, based on what they know, what they have observed and experienced, whether he is who he says he is.
And some of them said, this is a hard saying; who can listen to it, who can understand it? And many just quit; they left. They could not or would not believe, in Jesus and they cut themselves off.
Did they leave because of what they understood, or what they did not understand?
No one can understand it all, but he has revealed enough for us to answer the question: Do you believe that I am who I say I am, who I have demonstrated myself to be?
When Jesus turns to Peter and the twelve and asks, “Do you also wish to go away?” I am pretty sure he and the rest of the twelve were scratching their heads over the eating of my flesh statements.
Indeed they would not know and could not fully understand Jesus until Pentecost, after they see him crucified, –after they witness his resurrection, –after they see him ascend to heaven. Only then does the picture become full.
But right then, they knew enough to make a decision—a profound decision that affects everything in life.
Representing the group he says: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God.
He proclaims that Jesus is his Lord. And there is nothing in life more significant than that commitment.
This summer we were in Gatlinburg, TN and we visited the Titanic exhibit and museum in Pigeon Forge.
It was an amazing presentation of that tragic event in history; when in April 1912, the largest, most sophisticated, most luxurious, and thought to be unsinkable ocean liner at the time; HMS Titanic, hit an iceberg and sank.
The most memorable part of our visit occurred as we entered a mock-up of the ship’s bridge. It was dark. Through the windows you could see the black night sky, with the stars twinkling exactly as they appeared the night the ship hit the iceberg.
Just outside the starboard door there was an iceberg, a massive piece of real ice that you could touch, and basins that held circulating water, in which you could put your hands, and experience that 28 degree Fahrenheit water in which 1,500 people perished.
An actor, the spitting image of the original, was impersonating, the Titanic’s own Captain Edward J. Smith.
He was telling the story of the clergy who were aboard that night, one being Revd. John Harper, a Scottish Baptist minister on his way to Chicago to preach at Moody Church.
He told how Harper went about the deck as the ship settled shouting: “Women and children and unsaved people get into the lifeboats.”
Harper’s daughter and sister-in-law later stated that he took off his life vest and gave it to a man who was not a believer in Jesus Christ so as to give him more time make a decision to trust Christ.
The ship gone under, Harper was treading water as a man drifted by on a piece of wood. Are you saved? Harper asked him.
No, said the man.
As the man drifted off into the freezing darkness Harper shouted after him: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved!
Shortly the man drifted back toward him and again Harper cried to him: Are you saved?
I can’t honestly say I am, said the man. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Harper cried to him again, and with that, Revd. Harper disappeared under the water.
One of only seven survivors pulled into lifeboats that night, that fellow later gave testimony in churches describing himself as the Revd. Harper’s last convert.
Then the captain/actor looked at us and said, that night 1,500 people faced eternity, only God knows how many were prepared. Each of us is just like those 1,500, facing eternity just as sure as they, and I ask you, are you saved? Have you made a decision to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
We can never know everything about Jesus, but most of us already know enough.
When Jesus asked the twelve: Do you also wish to go away? He was asking them if they believe in him.
Peter answered he was staying, trusting that Jesus was who he said he was.
And we know most of those twelve, by how they lived and ended their lives, that they knew enough to truly believe and follow Jesus.
It seems Revd. Harper, in how he lived the final hours of his life, concerned only for the eternal destiny of other souls, knew enough to truly believe and follow Jesus.
The Captain Smith impersonator knew enough about Jesus to believe and follow Jesus and to proclaim that faith to others.
But what about us here today? We are not on the deck of a sinking ship…or maybe we are. Life can certainly feel that way at times. And ultimately we will all face our mortality at some point.
Do we hear Jesus’ question today: What about you? Will you leave me also, or follow me?
We need to remember our baptism. We need to listen intently to what this liturgy says about Jesus, and then we will know enough.
And when we come up to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, the very things Jesus was talking about in the gospel, make Peter’s answer our answer, so that Jesus’ life is assuredly our life.
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God.
No doubt this is one of the most important answers we will ever make in our lives.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard C. Marsden
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
13th Sunday after Pentecost
23 August 2015