When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This
teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ But Jesus, being aware
that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend
you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to
where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh
is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. – John 6:60-63.
Sometimes reading the gospel
of John is almost like reading Paul. Paul is wordy, with not a lot of
punctuation and answers to questions that have been asked but not stated so we
can figure out the context of his response. John is a mystic and, like Jesus,
sometimes talks in what seems like riddles even though they quote Jesus and
some of his more mysterious teachings. This passage, part of the longer gospel
reading for this morning’s Daily Office, was like a two-by-four hitting me
between my eyes. It partly translated itself into what is going on today, “ ‘…This
teaching is difficult, who can accept it?’” I know that the quotation reflected teachings
on eternal life to the disciples. Still, it also applies to some of the lessons
we either have or have not learned over the past few years.
Jesus had been teaching
to a large crowd about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. It immediately
sounds cannibalistic to us and possibly did to the people hearing it in person.
We understand that he was referring to
the Eucharist, the bread and wine which he had blessed. We believe the elements
are blessed and made holy, if not necessarily as the actual body and blood as
some denominations believe, or merely representations as other denominations proclaim
it. For those of us who are Episcopalian, it is somehow neither – and both.
Jesus’s presence is within it, and thus we accept it as food from heaven to
bless and mark our joining in the celestial banquet.
But that wasn’t what
grabbed me in the reading. Just as the teaching Jesus gave to the crowd was
hard for them to understand, there are many things today which we have been given
but which seem to be equally as puzzling. One of the hardest things is “Love
your neighbor as yourself.”
Loving some people is relatively
easy. They are wise, not seeking fame and earthly goods, and may have a charism
about them that almost seems visible. People follow them and try to let their
lives reflect the faith they have in these saints-on-earth-sans-haloes. Many of
these will never be remembered except by a few who knew them, and within a few
decades, their memories will fade away. We will recall them along with all the
saints that surround God’s throne in the eternal home in heaven. People have
been trying for millennia to learn and live up to that commandment and haven’t
all mastered it yet. Still, we keep preaching it and, hopefully, practicing it
as well.
Today, it occurred that
even simple teachings, laws, ordinances, or wise sayings appear to be
impossible to be understood. For instance, take “Wear Your Mask.” Three short words that are demonstrations of “Love
your neighbor.” I wear a mask during this pandemic to keep myself safe, sure.
Most folks do. But some folks also have the idea of keeping others safe from
the virus that can be lethal to susceptible people. Those are our neighbors
that we are commanded to love. Yet some “Christians” seem to demonstrate that their
personal rights to go maskless everywhere supersedes “Love your neighbor.”
Granted, Jesus didn’t tell us to wear masks or even love our neighbor in this lesson.
Still, he knew that not all would hear,
obey, or even believe. Many left him after the teaching he gave earlier in the
chapter. They still leave him, being unwilling
to understand or accept his words and lessons.
How much does loving our
neighbors today reflect in our daily lives? Would cutting someone off on the
freeway to save us a minute and maybe cause an accident that takes other lives
show our love and caring for others? How about passing legislation that benefits
a group of people who already have a great abundance of wealth but crushes the
poor under the foot of the rich? Does targeting members of other racial or ethnic
groups, even religious groups, make our faith stronger?
Do “Hate Crimes” act as “Love
Acts” by those who perpetrate them? Do they actually “love” their own group so
much that they have to preach against others to prove they love their group
more? I seldom (if ever) see signs, billboards, and posters that say anything
loving about groups that proclaim hatred for others. Church signs, and occasionally
posters and billboards, sometimes proclaim the basic tenets of their mission –
loving others as God loves us.
Maybe Christians as a
group need to do more things like wearing masks, regardless of dirty looks or
snide comments from others who are maskless. Perhaps we should be first on the
front line with tools to repair, replace, or clean damage caused by haters who
have marked buildings, graves, and houses. There are thousands of things that
could be done, like donuts to first responders, volunteering to help at soup
kitchens and child care centers, offering rides (while wearing masks) to aged
and infirm elders who have no one to rely on for assistance. Kids (and adults)
could make posters and hang signs thanking the people who have been so vital in
keeping our lives running as smoothly as possible in these past trying months.
I could go on and on with
ideas, but hopefully, I’ve sparked something that the reading sparked in me. If
a problem (or teaching) seems difficult, don’t reject it out of hand. Keep
wrestling with it, meditate on it, pray about it, try looking at it through
different eyes. Start with simple things like “Love your neighbor” and work from
there. It might be more straightforward than it first appeared.
God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment