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eSermons at St. John's
August
17, 2003
Rev. Jim Bradley, Rector
IN THE WILDERNESS
In today’s gospel, Jesus told the crowds in Capernaum: Very truly,
I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you will have no life in you….My flesh is true food and my blood
is true drink….Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in
me, and I in them….”
What today’s gospel doesn’t tell us is the reaction of the crowd. We learn that next Sunday, but let me give you a preview.
When they had heard his words, many of his disciples said: “This word is hard! Who is able to listen to it?”….After this, many of his disciples turned back and would not walk with him any more….
*
Someone asked me a profoundly important question this week. He said to me, “how can you be so certain that the decisions of General Convention were right?”
“Whoa!” I answered, “I’m not certain about that. I believe what General Convention decided was an Act of Faith, not Certainty.”
*
When I was a brand new priest, back in late 70’s of the last century…(Lord saying that makes me feel old)…one of my jobs was to be the Episcopal Chaplain to West Virginia State College. Something I did, as chaplain, was to talk with students in freshman seminars—required but non-credit classes. Many of the students were Fundamentalist Christians who clung to “certainty” in their religion. So, in order to bring some balance to how they looked at Christianity, I would give them a metaphor for the greatest disagreement among Christians.
Some Christians, I would tell them, see ‘salvation’ as a destination…sort of like “being in Waterbury”. (I always said, “being in Charleston”, but I’m changing the metaphor for us….) It’s pretty clear and certain whether or not you’re in Waterbury. Wolcott or Prospect or Middlebury AREN’T Waterbury. For those Christians, who’s SAVED and who isn’t is easy to tell and certain.
But other Christians see “salvation” as a journey instead of a destination. So it isn’t so certain who is saved. Since there are countless ways to “get to Waterbury” and countless streets in Waterbury to travel, all we can do is ‘share the road’ with each other as long as we can.
All these years later, I still believe the greatest single disagreement among Episcopalians—among all Christians—has something to do with that: something to do with CERTAINTY as the cost of “freedom” versus FREEDOM at the cost of “certainty.”
CERTAINTY and FREEDOM are both good things in their own ways. But I don’t think they can meet each other and kiss.
*
I have a
dear and wise friend named Brendan McCormick. Brendan is the Rector of
St. Paul’s in Wallingford. Before he was an Episcopal priest, Brendan
was a Benedictine monk in the Roman Catholic Church. For several years
he was a cloistered monk—one who had no contact with the outside
world. Brendan was so cloistered that he didn’t know President Kennedy
had been assassinated until 1965!
Once I said to Brendan: “Sometimes I wake up in the night in a cold
sweat and wonder, What if the Fundamentalists are right?” Then I
asked him, “do you ever wonder if the Fundamentalists are right?”
“Of course I do,” Brendan told me. “You and I have ‘faith’ rather than ‘certainty’ and faith doesn’t exist without ‘doubt’.”
Because Brendan is so wise, I felt much better about my doubts. But he wasn’t through.
“But let me assure you of this,” he continued, “Fundamentalists never wake up at night and wonder if you are right!”
*
Last Sunday I said several times that the Episcopal Church is a church in the Wilderness because of the difficult and divisive decisions about human sexuality that the General Convention made. And that is true. But there is a larger truth: the Church of God is always in the Wilderness.
The Wilderness is simply where we live, you and I, as the Body of Christ in this world. We are always somewhere between the slavery of Egypt and the Promised Land. We are a People set “free” by the truth of the gospel—and “freedom” always leads us away from the Certainty of slavery into the Wilderness. The biggest difference between slaves and free people is this: free people never know what’s going to happen next, but slaves always do.
There is a grinding, brutal “certainty” to slavery. Slaves—whether they are “literally” slaves—or whether they are “slaves” to their possessions or their self-image or their addictions or their dogma…slaves ALWAYS know what’s going to happen next. And there is a reassuring “comfort” to that Certainty. Remember how the Children of Israel turned on Moses in the Wilderness and demanded to go back to Egypt. The “certainty” of slavery was, in some ways, more bearable than the ambiguity of Freedom.
And, when Jesus suggested to his disciples that they must taste his flesh and abide in him, the uncertainty of such radical freedom was too much for some of them. They turned back and would not walk with him any more.
I know how they felt. I long for Certainty, for safety, for the comfort of the familiar, for knowing what’s going to happen next. The Wilderness of Freedom is not certain or safe or comfortable. I wake up in the night wanting to turn back and return to Egypt. However, as an old saying goes, ships in a harbor or safe, but that’s not what ships are for….
Ships are built for the open sea. You and I are called to the Freedom and uncertainty of the Wilderness.
*
There is some remarkable wisdom in a little book called The Anglican Vision by James Griffiss. Fr. Griffiss makes a distinction between believing things about Jesus and believing in Jesus.
There is a comfortable certainty in “believing things about Jesus”. We can believe he came to be our Savior. We can believe his birth was miraculous. We can believe he did miracles. We can believe he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We can believe he died for our sins. And all that is good. But those are things “about” Jesus. Believing “in” Jesus is riskier business.
Believing “in” Jesus cuts the anchor ropes that keep us moored in the harbor. Believing “in” Jesus compels us to abide in his radical freedom and his unrelenting love. Believing “in” Jesus requires us to “be his Body” in the uncertain and dangerous Wilderness of life.
The problem with Certainty—it seems to me—is that when “uncertainty” shows up, the reaction is fear and “fear” is the opposite of “faith”. Things about Jesus are set and certain and sure. Believing in things “about Jesus” is safe. Believing “in Jesus” isn’t safe at all.
*
What faces us today is the choice between Certainty and Freedom. What faces us today is deciding whether we believe things “about” Jesus or whether we believe “in” Jesus.
When we come to reach out our hands for the Body of Christ today, we can either be reaching out for something “about” Jesus or we can be reaching out to truly take the flesh of the Son of Man within us so that Jesus will dwell “in” us and we “in” him.
There are
lots of interesting conversations “about” the Body and Blood
of Christ. Is it transubstantiation or consubstantiation or the doctrine
of the Divine Presence? Is it a memorial or a symbol or a sacrament? Does
it’s reality depend on our “believing” it or is it’s
reality “ontological.” Lots of interesting stuff to discuss
“about” Christ’s Body and Blood—we can argue with
each other and try to get it right and “certain”.
There’s not much to say about believing “in” the Body
and Blood of Christ.
“Believing IN” this sacrament is a dangerous thing. If you’re willing to truly “abide” in Christ and let Christ “abide” in you, then certainty is gone. We are radically, indescribably FREE to be Christ’s Body in the Wilderness. There is power and joy to be had in the Wilderness, but there is a cost—the cost is our “certainty”, our safety, our knowledge of what happens next….
The cost
of believing “in Jesus” is high—but the joy and freedom
and challenge would be cheap at twice the price….