August 16, 2009 Sermon

Participation Needed John 6:51-58 Lawrence Jackman

It is clear to some of you, but probably not to all. There is this thing called a lectionary in many churches. Today, for instance, the readings we just read from the bible were read and are being discussed in Catholic churches, United Church of Christ, Disciples, Methodists, Episcopals, and a variety of other places. No one has to follow this set of suggestions, but I choose to. I choose that for two reasons—over the period of a year it makes me deal with a broad area of scripture. It becomes a sort of discipline rather than a focus on my pet issues. Secondly, I am forced to try to make sense of some things that just do not make much sense to me on the surface.

So it is today, I am forced to try to deal with some concepts that might be left out in my choices.

There is something absolutely primal here in the Gospel passage for the day. Anybody who says that the passage is easy to understand and accept is kidding themselves. This is “over the top” and on a literal level is a discussion of cannibalism.

That word and thought – eating human flesh – was as foreign and as totally repugnant to the first century Jew as it is to you and me. It is unthinkable. It was unthinkable. So Jesus’ statements are almost beyond heresy. It is no wonder that those listening to him were repelled and disgusted with this very literal discussion.

And yet, yet there is a level at which we may be able to at least consider something that is normative here. My daughter, my son, my grand girls all went through an interesting time of development. I am trying to remember how old they all were and I can’t. My best guess is it was about the time they were say eight months to one year of age. In that pre-critical state, without very many negative judgments, they totally adored me.

They got to a place where what appeared to be a kissing ritual was norm when they were held. Rear back, open the mouth, fall forward against your face and slobber all over creation. They would stand supported on your lap and continue that again and again till they ran out of slobber or something. That developmental behavior would go on for several months and then gradually wear out. Here is what I think really goes on in a nine month old brain. They totally adore the object of their love. The message is one of love, but it has a twist—the twist is, “I am going to devour you”. All that “kissing” is really an attempt to take in the person they love—to just eat them up.

Adults sometimes respond to the child with exactly the same verbal message. You hear people playing with a child and state, “I’m just going to eat you up.” OK so it isn’t quite the same as the “flesh eating” conversation in John, but the words themselves are pretty much the same sounding. Why do we use those words? Why do we talk that way?

We do it because the whole business points toward a primal expression that is deeper than any words. It is a reality that certainly is way past being Christian only. It is probably a reality that dates to human experience about the time we came down from the trees and began to walk upright. Now I don’t want to press this Sigmund Freud/ Desmond Morris/ primitive anthropology thing too far. I do want to call it all to mind. You can fill in the blanks and extend the logics on your own.

Bottom line is this. Belonging is the ultimate human drive. It is what the baby means when they give those massive messy kisses—I am going to take you in, you will be a part of me and I will be a part of you.

We do not often think out loud about this drive. This drive to belong. If we are being religious we talk about the prime search being for meaning or perhaps for God. If we are being very secular we may talk about the primal human quest being for reproduction or life itself. If we are talking biology we think in terms of the survival of the species. Somehow that all makes more sense to us.

But underneath any of those quests – secular or sacred – is the single real drive and primary need of humankind. That is the absolute need to belong.

This is the factor for which people will willingly die if need be. It is the element that nations bank on when they are creating wars—cause that is the only way to get men to make the ultimate sacrifice—to convince them it is about belonging. It is the component of life that drives family, and holds together institutions, even those of risky viability. It is so deep and so profound that we are not even aware of what it is all about—it is like the atmosphere that humans walk in.

Here is what I believe to be the most dramatic example. Marriage. Women and men will like up by the millions every year to pledge each other their “lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.” We bet it all on an institution that makes no statistical sense. Half the time first marriages will end in divorce. If folks end up on the loosing side of that, they will go out and bet it all again. Second marriages will end in divorce two times out of three. Loose again and the same people will line up for the “third place” window where the odds are one in four. That is just not logical; BUT, we need to belong and we will do anything to achieve that. This is way deeper than logic.

This is not a negative comment about marriage—it is just the opposite. It is a statement that the institution addresses a need that is written so deeply into our fibers that it probably shows in our DNA.

We do not seem to search for our souls, for God, for meaning, truth or beauty near as much as we quest for belonging. Look at the sensational success of “My Space” and “Facebook”. I signed up for “Facebook” a few weeks ago. People from 50 years ago and some from 50 days ago began to find me. In a couple of weeks I began to have “my people” in a defined virtual space. It is real belonging, just virtually enabled across time and geography. The kid in Guam, the octogenarian in Illinois and he high school fellow misfit in Virginia all are herded together into my connection list. They are “my people” and I am theirs. It is about belonging.

I always contended when working with kids that gangs were all about belonging. The campaigns to eliminate them were always doomed to failure unless a substitute form and format for belonging was part of the plan.

Normal teens who need to stretch beyond family and family defined institutions are successful only when offered other ways to belong. Fail to enable the good choices and the bad ones will express themselves. The need is so strong and so valid.

Well, as Yul Brynner said in the “King and I”, “etcetera, etcetera, etcetera”.

It is the whole point of the John passage where Jesus says, “we are going to have such a close belonging relationship with each other; that ‘you are going to eat me up’. “I will become a part of you and you will become a part of me”.

There is a lot of Old and New Testament testimony to God and from God. It says, “I will be your God and you will be my people”. Even God seems to want to belong. We are not servants, not subjects. We are instead God’s people. We are not little half finished works of art on some shelf, not players in a drama. We are instead God’s people.

That calls out all sorts of active participation in the salvation drama. Belonging is a two way process or more than two ways.

So what does this all mean in the here and now for the church? It is pretty clear that it means everything out there in the world. What about inside the “stained glass curtain”?

I see two profound messages for us at the moment.

One is that we practice, work on and evolve the most profound belonging experiences that we know how. That has implications for everything that we do and say. We need to raise with each other questions about , “How does this enhance our belonging?” and “Can we do it anyway that would make belonging more profound?” “What gets in the way of belonging in this place and how can we change that?”

Does that sound too obtuse to you? OK, how does this room filled with fixed pews that only face one way (and even the choir is over there) – how does that enhance belonging? Can we do it any better? Where in this congregation’s life is enhanced belonging to each other most profound? In what experiences of our life do we best belong to each other?

Two. It is time for us to discover what it is we can offer……. It is belonging in the most profound way and manner. That, boys and girls is what I believe our real product can be in this world. We are long on this product and the world is hungry for it. What do you say we figure out how to feed them?

Amen