Believing = Staying in Relationship

 These are thick readings we have today

A lot to chew on

 

In the reading from Joshua

It is CHOOSING 

“Choose this day whom you will serve”

And then that famous line 

As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord

[…Joshua’s next few lines…]

 

And then in Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians

At the end…It is a kind of recap

We hear some hefty military imagery 

Which is understandable as Paul is a guest of the Roman prison system.

 

But paying careful attention

We can notice that the image is static…calmly defensive.

Therefore 

Take up the whole armor of God

So that you may be able to stand firm
fasten the belt of truth

Put on the breastplate of righteousness

As shoes for your feet 

Put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace.

 

And for the Gospel

We have been reading from Chapter 6 of John for 5 weeks

We have been hearing A LOT about bread and life
actually more about LIFE

 

In John’s gospel LIFE

Is being in relationship with Jesus…the one who comes from God and returns to God

And who invites us into that shared life.

 

From the first reading we get the idea of Choice/Choosing

and from Ephesians it is Peace, proclaiming the Gospel of Peace

 

And in the Gospel
Let’s paint a picture
the crowds that have been following Jesus

Signs and wonders have kept them close by

But the closer they get to Jerusalem 

The harder the teaching

I can see the back of the crowd

Its getting thinner

People are beginning to do the “I wanna get of here” shuffle

 

Many of the disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.
And then the question to Simon Peter
Do you also wish to go?

“Lord, to whom can we go?
You have the words of everlasting life.
We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

 

The next lines 

(which we didn’t read but which give important context and contrast to this passage) 

are about Judas for whom the teaching is just too much
Judas’ betrayal in John’s gospel is not about handing him over…
Jesus hands himself over in John’s Gospel

For John

Betrayal is walking away

Not staying in relationship

Not believing

 

This believing or not believing…isn’t about cognitive ascent.
Peter doesn’t do that
Peter rests in a relationship that he has come to trust

Even though his understanding is limited 

 

 

SO

We have these two characters

Peter and Judas

One staying

One walking away

 

This past week 

Rob and I were watching a couple episodes of 

Season Four of The Chosen.

 

Do you remember, in the sermon on the mount

Jesus says:

“If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile,

Carry it two miles.”

 

This becomes an actual scene in the series
Jesus and his disciples are walking down a dusty road

All of them carrying a portion of their nomad-life essentials 

When a cohort of Roman soldiers

Pulls up alongside them

Acting in full-on bully mode

They make the Jesus-group drop their belongings and pick up the soldiers’ equipment.
Mockingly, the soldiers put their heavy helmuts on the disciples, including the women,

And there is all the predictable laughter and jeering.

 

This is the law

Romans like their laws .

The road is marked with stone mile markers.

When the requisite distance is reached, the soldiers begin to take back their belongings…

But Jesus keeps walking
his disciples follow His lead

And they quietly, without discussion, carry the burdens another mile

 

This completely baffles the Romans

And slowly

Time seems to be in slow motion

The soldiers begin to take back some of the burden
Nobody is jeering

Confused and questioning faces appear on the screen
They simply don’t know how to understand this…

 

I tell you about this scene 

Because the camera focuses in on both Peter and Judas from time to time

Judas, has been struggling
and he just kind of scrunches his face and shakes his head

 

He is trying

Really trying

But he is beginning to get angry

Peter, on the other hand, while not understanding fully, he is untroubled.

 

This scene stuck with me 
As a kind of image of belief 
that I can hold on to

For me, it offers Both a WHO and a WHAT 

That I trust that I believe in

Karoline Lewis 

a Lutheran scholar of the Gospel of John 
is quick to say that the hard teaching referred to in todays tet

is not only the Bread of Life discourse

but everything that has come before

This tough teaching is all of it.

 

This worship service

Is full of statements of belief
Maybe, like me, you have wrestled with most them over the years
often believing, like Peter, more with trust than with full understanding

I’m not sure full understanding is necessary, or even possible

For Jesus in John’s Gospel 

The criteria for discipleship

Seems to be a continual

“Coming to believe”

Staying in relationship with Jesus whose life comes from the Father
And who bids us to join in that love.

Staying in relationship…might sound easy

But we know better…
It demands our prayer, our eagerness
our attention…

 

 

In that scene in the Chosen
The disciples, following Jesus’ lead to walk another mile
Were doing the work of “staying in the relationship”

And something changed…in the disciples and in the soldiers…something changed

And it had everything to do with proclaiming the Gospel of Peace.

I found myself thinking of our NH Food Pantry this week
Many of you know that Ken (and Rose) are retiring from their years of good work
leading the NH Food Pantry.

 

For someone, for a few someone’s, maybe for you, maybe for me 

This is that next ‘Coming to Believe’ move

 

What does it mean, today…

To “stay in relationship”

To “proclaim the Gospel of Peace”???