simple intergrity, ta

edited transcript of an ad lib sermon ...    

SERMON PREACHED AT ST PAUL’S, ARROWTOWN

AND ST PETER’S, QUEENSTOWN

SUNDAY, AUGUST 8^th, 2024

John 6: 24-35

 

There are, as I said last week, several accounts of feeding miracles in the New Testament. Last week we had the feeding of the 5000 which appears several times across the New Testament. Six times altogether if you count the two of 4000, if you get my meaning, and that motif of feeding goes on into this passage but there’s something else going on in in John’s working of the of the Jesus story.

The key theme that runs through this I think is the theme of integrity. Another theme that runs right through the Fourth gospel is the question of searching for Jesus, and when John was writing Jesus story he was writing for his own community in the north of that whole half of the world that’s is in turmoil now, Israel Beirut, Palestine somewhere up on the eastern Mediterranean in his little community. And he wanted to encourage them in their integrity as followers of Jesus so he depicts the scene of searching for Jesus but at this point – or searching for meaning even – but at this point he presents a crowd that really isn’t looking in the right places or for the right reasons.

And in in our modern world we might say we’ve got a crowd that is kind of looking for entertainment the entertainment value of Jesus which I don't think is what we’re meant to be doing, and I think John is trying to instruct us that that’s not what we meant to be doing.

Some of you will remember either the musical or the film Superstar, and in that you get that wonderful  – I think I clever moment, when Herod tells Jesus “walk across my swimming pool. You know I’ve heard you can do lots of miracles, let’s see you walk across the swimming pool."

And I think sometimes the church in all its forms can slip into that performance-based expectation of God and God revealed in Jesus, So it’s not so much in what the natrator says, but in what Jesus says back to this crowd, who are once again hungry, once again spiritually and physically hungry, it’s in what Jesus says that we begin to see a their lack of integrity. They want to see a sign.

Now wait a minute … if we go back through the chapter, which we’re not gonna do today because we did it last week, but we’d find plenty of signs. He’s just fed 5000, he’s just walked across a bit of water and their response is “Oh yeah but show us something decent.”

I think it’s incredible human nature but it’s incredibly not what we’re meant to be doing as a people of God.

Funnily enough,you know I was back up in the Mackenzie country on Friday for a meeting, and you know you look up at the hills, you look at the complexity of creation, you look at the magnificence of nature and I think at that point, if I say “Yeah, but  show me a sign,” I’m probably falling into the same trap.

And it can be not just at that level, but why as a human being, who has no physiological need to see beauty should I be allowed to see beauty?

I mean an ant doesn’t look up in the morning – and they’re pretty clever little things – and say “My goodness that’s an amazing sunrise.” We do, and we have to be fairly hard-hearted if we don’t.

So somethings are purely biological. I won’t talk about walking down the street and seeing a Pretty Woman, but I imagine that song “Pretty Woman walking down the Street,” you know, or let’s not be sexist it might be something else or the other way around or whatever, you can just boil that down to a biological need. Sunset, beautiful piece of music … there’s no biological reason. So they’re part of this imprint of God that the Old Testament calls the image of God.

And that human need to see a sign infiltrates this passage. This mob who have just seen some pretty good clues that Jesus is fairly special, want a sign. And I think Jesus is kind of patient but with that, almost a holy irritation,  saying “now come on guys I think I'm probably showing you enough.” To go back through the miracles, and as John constructs them, they’re all incredible moments; the overflowing ouof wine at the wedding at Cana which I spoke about in the context of the wedding yesterday … you know that’s 180 gallons of wine where there wasn’t any just before, so that’s a reasonable sign in the narrative of what God can and will do for human lives.

I think John also in this passage wants to contrast this kind of flippant “show us a sign, walk across my swimming pool, with authentic searches for justice, for compassion, for integrity, for hope. And I think wherever we see them, and you’ll see that line in John's account of the gospel of “there are others not of my flock who are the sheep of my pasture.” John says “let’s not narrow our vision down so we’re just self-congratulatory. where else might we see the work of God outside the boundaries of our faith communities?”

So there’s a lot going on in this passage. In the end Jesus in this passage shows no tendency to showiness. There’s nothing flashy. He doesn’t walk across the swimming pool or whatever its comparison might be. But he turns just to what I call “powerless compassion of love.” His heart goes out to the crowds, his heart goes out to people all the time. And throughout John’s account of the gospel he embodies this love, he doesn’t rely on eloquence he doesn’t rely on being a smart orator. He’s a good storyteller … later on we will find Paul in the epistles also says “Hey I’m not very eloquent, I just want the integrity of my words to carry the gospel message.”

Jesus allows the integrity of his being to do the talking, as Paul was to do later on.

So I think what we take away in a sense from this little glimpse of Jesus in this passage is this sense of how do we ensure that our lives are lives of integrity?

And I mean I get impressed within the community of faith that I see so many lives of integrity. I’m not gonna embarrass you by saying, you know, to what extent I see it, but it is heartwarming. I see people in these little faith communities living out by and large wonderful lives which express justice and compassion and hope. And that is what we called to be. And awe we gather together each Sunday and do our best to be here and to serve God we just are renewed in that attempt to be a people of authenticity or integrity.