You are the body of Christ, broken for the world

Clare L. Hickman

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church

August 25, 2024—Proper 16B

Joshua 24:1-2a,14-25; Eph 5:21-33; John 6:60-69

This guy’s totally whack! Who’s gonna buy this? (“This saying is difficult, who can accept it?”)

Difficult, yes, because Jesus has been talking about chewing on flesh

(as Juli discussed last week)

                    But perhaps they actually understood his deeper meaning:

To take the body and blood of Jesus deep inside

          to allow it to abide in you, and you to abide in it

                    is difficult, because to be united to his flesh and blood

                              is to be united to both his life and his death

either way, to the way his flesh and blood

were broken and poured out

                                                            for the healing of the world

Who indeed, can bear to hear that?

          to hear that THIS is what it means to follow him, to CHOOSE the Lord?

                    We can only do it blithely if we are telling ourselves lies

lies about what we’re actually getting ourselves into

                                        lies about what we’re actually capable of

Maybe wishful thinking is a fairer word

          Like the tribes of Israel at Shechem in today’s story from Joshua

                    deliriously promising that they will choose the LORD:

We shall serve the Lord, because he liberated us from Egypt!

We shall serve the Lord, because he protected us along the way.

We shall serve the Lord, because he drove out the peoples

from this land He has given us.

They felt *chosen,* and they were

          and they surely meant it when they promised to choose God back

                    but it got harder than they expected (even though Joshua DID warn them)

It’s pretty easy to claim the name “God’s people,”

extremely easy to use the right name when you pray

          it’s much MUCH harder to BE God’s people

Abide here, God said

          Hoping, surely, HOPING that giving them this land

would keep their hearts turned toward him

          would keep them grounded in his ways

Spoiler alert: it didn’t

They kept the land, but wandered away from God

          looking for the easy fix,

for a new god who would give them some more goodies

                    for an easier path, one that didn’t require so much attention

to the poor and the foreigners in their midst;

that didn’t demand economic justice;

that wasn’t so focused on the flourishing of all people

                                                            and might let them just worry about themself!

This is why we need the message of the Prophets my friends:

          forever calling God’s people back to God’s core values

And when Israel lost touch with the work of being God’s people

          God kicked them out of the Land

                    again and again

Because it’s not enough to just claim the name,

          Not enough for God to just give you the Land

          Being God’s people is something that you DO

                    and any aspiration to faithfulness, any claim to God’s favor

                              is only as true as the level to which we live out those values

This saying is indeed difficult.

Who could possibly be brave and crazy enough to accept it?

I mean, listen again to the choice that is set before US this day:

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood will abide in me, and I in them”

          To choose Jesus, we must take his life and death inside us

must allow ourselves to be broken,

to risk, to give more than is comfortable,

more than is safe

Choosing Jesus isn’t just about taking the Name

          the Name of Jesus is extremely powerful (see Acts!)

                    but it matters what you do with it, and for what purpose

Those who try to use it to increase their own wealth,

          or build their own reputation, are literally destroyed.

The purpose of the power of Jesus is for it to live in us

          enabling us to break open and pour ourselves out for the glory of God

and the healing of the world

in response to those who are hungry,

in response to those who are sick,

in response to those who are imprisoned

          in response to injustices that keep some of God’s people

down, so someone else can prosper

It is this way of living

          the “broken and poured out for others” kind of living

                    that truly marks us as Christ-followers

Abide here, Jesus says

          right here within me

                    No land to distract you

                              just my power, my faith, my courage and my conviction

                                        to take hold of your heart and strengthen your spirit

                              just my love and compassion,

                                        which will fill you until you break wide open

This word is difficult … But it is also beautiful and wild, and it calls to me

          I am afraid,

I have little more ability to be faithful than the tribes of Israel

and I am just as prone to fits and starts

But the words, as Peter says, carry the promise of heavenly life, God-shaped life

So I shall point myself in their direction

          and trust God to draw me forward, and deeper into their truth.

                    deeper into their power.

                              may it be so for us all, my friends. Amen.