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THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST August 18, 2024 Pastor Tom Steers Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto Our Opening Hymn is: “Blessed Jesus at Your Word” Lutheran Service Book, 904 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w07A9lg3B9A We begin our service with the Invocation: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Confession and Absolution Page 184-185 The Introit – Psalm 111:1-5, 9; Ps. 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name! Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! The Kyrie (Lord Have Mercy) Congregation: Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon us. Lord have mercy upon us. The Salutation: Pastor: The Lord be with you. Congregation: And with thy spirit. Our Collect Prayer: Almighty God, whom to know is everlasting life, grant us to know Your Son, Jesus, to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow His steps in the way that leads to life eternal; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Our Bible readings – Old Testament – Proverbs 9:1-10 Psalm 34:12-22 Epistle – Ephesians 5:6-21 Gospel – John 6:51-69 The Apostles’ Creed – I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Our Hymn of the Day is: “O God My Faithful God” Lutheran Service Book, 696 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgvef0GdPsU The Sermon, “I am the living bread that came down from Heaven” Brothers & Sisters, peace grace, and mercy be to you through God our Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s often been said the heart of the Gospel salvation message is in a single verse, John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And we can personalize that message in a way that takes it into our hearts and minds, “For God so loved you (each one of us can place our names here) that He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” The shocking truth we read in the Bible, is that God literally took on human flesh, came into this world ultimately to be beaten and crucified, died a horrible death on the cross for us to save us, and then was raised from the dead by God the Father. All this was due to God’s grace and love, and because there was absolutely no way any of us could save ourselves. It’s startling, sobering, even offensive to our sense of independence, self-sufficiency, our confidence. It runs counter to our pride that God had to take such an extreme step to keep us from being eternally separated from Him. It’s humbling. But God’s act of salvation through Christ was necessary because something has divided us from Him -- sin. When we reflect on the Law of God, we see our sin and know that we’re totally incapable of keeping the Law as God would have us. It’s like trying our best in school and being told that despite our very best efforts and hard work our grade is an ‘F’ and expulsion. But the Good News is that in God’s love, in the sacrificial love of Jesus, we see the salvation and solution only God could provide, and we get a pass, not through our own ‘merits,’ but through Christ’s payment for our sins at Calvary. It’s a shocking message today. A message that turns off many, turns many away. It was true 2,000 years ago as well. Today’s Gospel passage is part of what we call the ‘Bread of Life’ discourse. We learn in John 6, verse 2, that crowds were following Jesus because they saw the ‘signs’ He was doing in healing the sick. In John Chapter 6, we read the account of how 5000 men as well as their families were fed with just five barley loaves and two fish. Our Gospel reading concludes this Sunday with a teaching about bread and flesh that many, then and now, can’t stomach. The people who ate the miraculous meal that Jesus provided the 5000 plus, surely were hungry again in a number of hours. They appreciated and benefitted from the earthly physical food produced by a miracle. But they didn’t appreciate the source of the miracle, they didn’t understand that the person before them, who was both true man and true God, was here on earth to offer them spiritual food that would give them eternal life so they would never hunger again. Instead, they wanted Jesus as the bread king, a worldly leader, a cafeteria manager with a sign outside that said “free food.” Isn’t this true today, and even more to the point, is it sometimes true of the people we know, perhaps even of us. The world chases everything that seems to satisfy, seems to offer comfort, that makes us feel alive in the life, at least momentarily. It can be many things, many kinds of junk food ‘bread’ that the world chases after, while ignoring and disregarding the real food, Christ, found here in God’s Word correctly preached and taught, and in His Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. In verse 24 of John 6 we have crowds actually getting in boats to chase down Jesus, finding Him back in Capernaum. Jesus knows their motivation. They’re not seeking a Saviour, but a bread distributor. And when Jesus Himself tells them not to work for the food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, the crowd, again thinking in human terms and missing the Messiah for the meal, asks, “What must we do to perform the works of God. Or in other words what do we do to justify ourselves and get on God’s good side. Jesus explains plainly, and goes right to the point in verse 29, “This is the work of God (meaning not theirs), believe in Him whom He has sent.’ Christ tells us to believe. Later on, Jesus explains and reassures that it’s God who will draw them to Him. But they don’t get it, and neither do many in the world today. The crowd actually has the audacity to say to Christ, “What signs are you going to give us so that we’ll believe you.” Well after healing the sick and feeding the 5000 plus you would think they’d seen enough. But it wasn’t. They’re back on the worldly bread thing again. They want worldly proof. They want another free lunch, and so they bring up the manna that God gave their ancestors. Again, Christ explains that was food that satisfied the physical body, it wasn’t eternal spiritual food. Their ancestors still died even with the manna. And this is one of the essential differences between the Old and New Testaments – God’s Law and the Gospel. Although a person ate manna in the wilderness, the person still died. When a person ‘ate’ or lived by the Law and the Legalism of the Old Testament, that person was not feeding on the salvation and love found in the Gospel. They weren’t eating the food that would come down from heaven in the ‘flesh and blood’ body of Jesus Christ. Yet, incredibly, even when Christ clearly explains this, the people’s response is – ‘we know your family, how can you make such claims.’ Next, in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus ‘ups’ the theological ante. Christ now confronts, and brings the matter to a head. He says to those gathered: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in You. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” These words begin to reveal the price Jesus will pay in order to secure salvation for us. Jesus knew He would offer up His body on the cross. When He speaks of eating His flesh, He’s telling the synagogue crowd He will sacrifice His body for them, and they are to believe what that sacrifice will earn them through faith – resurrection into eternal life on the last day. When Jesus speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood He’s pointing forward to the cross. Christ isn’t instituting the Lord’s Supper here, His words are foreshadowing that Holy meal. Now the Jews of that time and in the Capernaum synagogue would have been, and were, offended by Christ offering His flesh and blood to them. That’s because they only saw Jesus as a man. In the Book of Leviticus Chapter 17, verse 14, God instructs His followers not to eat the blood of living things. Pagans did this, and God didn’t want Hid holy people to follow suit. In order for these words not to be an offense, Jesus would have to be more than a man. Jesus would have to possess the authority to change an Old Testament rule. He would have to have the authority of God on earth. And that’s exactly what Jesus had, because although they didn’t realize it, they were seeing God in human flesh right in front of them. Christ’s claims were radical. They ran counter to human knowledge and human reason. Then and now. And that’s why Jesus said no one can come to Him except by the Father. Our own reason fails. We don’t have the mind of God, even though at times we might be tempted to believe we do. The Apostle Paul explained this when he wrote in 1st Corinthians 1: 22-23, ‘Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.’ We don’t make a ‘decision’ to choose Christ as Saviour (John 15:16), nor do we ascend to Heaven on a mystical staircase. The easiest way to understand this better is to say we have a free will about those matters which are directed to things equal to or below us. We chose to marry a particular woman. I choose how I will spend my day, etc. The choices which are directed upward, however, are of another sort altogether. There, as Martin Luther said, our will is captive. We cannot of our own free will come Jesus or believe in him, but must be called, gathered, enlightened, and rendered holy by the Holy Spirit of God. The choice that people make at the beginning of their faith walk is not a choice in a vacuum, and Luther wanted Biblical Christian to remember that. It was God who awoke within the person the hunger and thirst for Jesus. It was God who created the appetite which reaches to Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who lowers the barriers of fear and natural rebellion so that the sinner can lift his eyes and look up to Jesus and say “Yes, Lord.” True, the credit for the “Yes” does indeed belong to Jesus and His Spirit, but it is still the Christian who speaks it. I often refer to baptism when I’m explaining this. We as Lutherans believe that God works in Baptism, He reaches out and touches the sinner, forgiving their sins, creating faith, establishing relationship. That is why we baptize infants, for the same reason that we hold them, because that touch of water is the way God puts His arms around them and says that He loves them. God comes to us through His means of grace -- His Word and the Sacraments of Baptism & the Lord’s Supper. And it is the Holy Spirit that works faith in Christ within us using these means. As our Lord said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” (John 6:63) The body and blood of Jesus are still stumbling blocks for many. There are those who claim human wisdom as the ultimate knowledge. There are many who either deny our Triune God or attempt to make Him justify Himself to them. All four Gospels tell us that there was a time when Jesus’ followers became fewer and fewer. As the crucifixion grew closer, Jesus made the cross clearer. And as the cross became clearer, Jesus’ congregation became smaller. For the next few minutes, I’d like to focus on two verses in John 6. In verses 53 and 54 we have a wonderful example of how God’s Word comes to us in the Bible: in Law, and in Gospel, and the correct distinction between the two. A retired Lutheran Pastor once said to me there was only one benefit in being a Lutheran Christian: we got the Word of God right -- but that that was enough. You might remember from your confirmation class the term ‘SOS’ – the Law shows us our sins -- the Gospel shows us our Saviour. In verse 53 of Chapter six, Christ tells us, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you.” So much for self-sufficiency, so much for spiritually pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. So much for the politically correct view that says all religions are a path to Heaven. And so much for thinking that we can ultimately and eternally survive and satisfy ourselves on the things of this world: money, power, the worldly flesh. “This is a hard saying,” they told Jesus, “who can listen to it.” Do we respond the same way today? Do we at times fall away or at least turn away? Verse 53 of John six is directed at non-believers, and those who believe they can save themselves. It makes us examine ourselves and realize we come up short. But verse 54 is pure Gospel: “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” What blessed assurance. What hope even over death! What mercy, and grace, and love. Jesus says, whoever the Father draws to me, and who believes in me, takes me into themselves, has been forgiven, and has been redeemed from the curse of the law. That’s Good News, the best news we can ever hear! SOS – the Gospel shows our Saviour. And so how do we respond? If we don’t turn or walk away, do we sometimes stand on the spiritual sidelines? When the world says, the Good News of Christ seems like a ‘hard saying,’ do we go silent. Or do we, in our own way and with the abilities God gives us, spread this Good News to our family, our friends, our neighbours, coworkers or fellow students. The response of the world, that the Words of Christ are difficult and offensive, confronts us daily. We hear it in the workplace as we do on TV and other media. The message and values of this world challenge us relentlessly. High school and university students are constantly bombarded with atheist propaganda. And we should pray for them. Christian parents and students are a light in the secular world’s darkness. They’re told in academia that all religions are equally valid, that it’s inappropriate to believe otherwise, that it’s philosophically ‘unfashionable’ to talk about our Saviour, or the universal need for forgiveness of sin that comes through His death on the cross. Two thousand years have passed, and people haven’t changed, but the good news is that neither has the truth of Jesus. So where do we find our strength as Christians and as a Christian community? -- in His Word, in His sacraments, in each other, the Church, the body of Christ. Jesus tells us clearly in John 6 and elsewhere that we need to have an abiding relationship with Him. We cling to and want to understand His word. We attend Church services when they’re available, and participate in Bible studies, even if only through Facebook. We read the Bible on our own, and in our homes. As we turn to Christ and abide in Him, feasting on Him, we’re strengthened in our faith, and in our lives. We say with the Apostle Peter, “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.” Brothers and Sisters, may the peace that truly passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ, our only Saviour. Amen. PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194 THE LORD’S PRAYER Page 196 THE WORDS OF OUR LORD Page 197 Pax Domini Pastor: The peace of the Lord be with you always. Congregation: Amen. THE DISTRIBUTION Post Communion Collect (Left-hand column) Page 201 Salutation and Benedicamus Page 201-202 The Benediction – The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and + give you peace. Amen. Our Closing Hymn is: “Lord Jesus Christ, Life-Giving Bread” Lutheran Service Book, 625 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTE0BvNeTmI