I Kings 19:7-8; Ephesians 5:1-2; St. John 6:41-51 
Finally! A Healthy Diet That Really Works!
Rev. Ronald Fink

I suspect that a good number of us at worship this morning have at one time or another attempted a diet of some kind. The number of diets available today, each promising success, is amazing. Just for fun, I searched Healthy Diets on Google. More than 7,300 entries popped up! If maintaining an acceptable body weight were as simple as many dietary strategies suggest, why do many of us, who have attempted those strategies [I include myself], continue to fight the battle of the bulge? Wouldn??t it be something, really something, if someone would offer a healthy diet that really works? Today??s reading from John??s Gospel has good news for us. FINALLY! THERE IS A HEALTHY DIET THAT REALLY WORKS! Keep that thought in mind as we move through today??s Scriptures, and talk bread!

I

For the last three Sundays the appointed Gospel texts from the sixth chapter of John have focused on bread. First, after Jesus?? Feeding of the Five Thousand, admirers are attracted to Jesus because He can miraculously produce Bread on Demand. In response, Jesus lays before them and us a powerful truth. A person??s deepest and hardest-to-satisfy hunger comes not from the stomach at all. It comes from the heart. It originates not in the body, but in the soul. As Martin Luther reminds us in his explanation to the fourth petition of the Lord??s Prayer, we ask God to satisfy all kinds of hungers when we pray, Give us this day our daily bread. However, even when we receive from God what we ask for, just as the Five Thousand miraculously received bread from Jesus, a deeper hunger still remains. Which is why in today??s appointed Gospel, Jesus turns our attention away from daily bread to a lingering hunger not easily satisfied, to things eternal, the things of God. The primary focus of the Bread Discourses of Jesus is not as much about us and our hunger for daily bread as it is about God and how God satisfies an even deeper hunger through the LIVING BREAD from Heaven.

A week ago yesterday, the Charlotte Observer, under the headline, WHY AREN??T WE HAPPIER? explored through the research of three respected scholars the disconnect between having more money and stuff but less happiness and contentment. The research of Harvard Professor Robert Putnam suggests that material possessions have little effect upon happiness, and that we will not be happier a year from now if we become wealthier. Intimate connections produce happiness, he suggests. Family connections. Spouses. Friendships. Work relationships. The connections we experience satisfy our deepest hungers, concludes Professor Putnam. I believe the Harvard Professor is onto something. 

His conclusion about intimate connections and happiness simply needs a good dose of Jesus. Our connection to God, who alone satisfies our deepest hunger, is precisely where Jesus takes us in today??s appointed Gospel. I am the Bread of Life, the Living Bread that has come down from heaven, Jesus informs us. If anyone eats of this Bread, he will live forever. This Bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. Jesus invites us to feed on Him, to consume within ourselves the divine, forgiving love that drove Jesus to the cross in our behalf. When we feed on Jesus, the Bread of Life, we absorb Jesus into our daily lives and take into ourselves the very mind and heart of God. The result is what St. Paul describes in today??s second reading. Imitating God as His dearly loved children, we live a life of love, just as Jesus loved us and gave Himself up for us as a sacrifice to God. And, almost as a bonus, our deepest hunger for God is satisfied. As one of the ancient church fathers once said, My soul finds no rest, until it finds its rest in God. 

II

A few years ago, automobile bumper stickers, some humorous, some religious, some profane, were popular, almost a rage. One bumper sticker, often posted on an expensive BMW or a Jaguar read, Whoever Dies With The Most Toys Wins. A Christian organization produced a reply. Whoever Dies With The Most Toys Still Dies. Sobering, isn??t it? It??s also true. Which is precisely why Jesus invites us to focus on what is eternal and to take into ourselves the forgiving love of God that never dies. The Gospel satisfies precisely because it gets at the deeper hunger of the heart and offers us Jesus, the Living Bread that has come down from heaven. Through the Gospel, Jesus offers us Himself. He invites us in faith to partake of a diet that really works because it satisfies the deepest hungers of the heart. 

Today??s first reading describes how God cared for the prophet Elijah at a very difficult moment. Running for his life from the notoriously profane King Ahab and his worse-than-profane wife Jezebel, who had issued a ?¨kill him on sight?Æ decree, he drops to the ground exhausted, wishing that he were dead. But God, having other plans for Elijah, sent an angel to bring him a special meal that would sustain him for the long journey that God had in store for him. 

To sustain us on our own long journey through this life to the eternal life that is to come, God through the Gospel has gone one better. He sent His Son, the Living Bread, who is Himself the meal. In sacramental bread and wine, He offers us Himself, His Body and Blood, to eat and drink. In the Eucharistic Meal, the assurance of God??s forgiving love pours through our veins and into our hearts, satisfying our deepest, eternal hungers, and transforming and equipping us for the long journey ahead, a journey that at times can lead us, as it did the old Testament prophet Elijah, through some pretty discouraging landscapes. The Lord??s Supper offers each of us a personal, and intimate connection to God and a contentment that we could never know apart from Jesus. It assures us that in Jesus we have found our rest in God.

Mahatma Gandhi, although not a Christian, said something very appropriate in respect to today??s Scriptures. Sharing your faith, Gandhi said, is like one poor beggar showing another poor beggar where to find the bread. Not a bad way to describe the ministry of Emmanuel Church and School, the Christian vocation that Principal Schmelzle and the Emmanuel School staff is affirming this morning, and the journey that God has in store for each of us. All of us are hungry beggars showing other hungry beggars where to find the bread. Jesus is the Living Bread, THE DIET THAT REALLY WORKS. In faith, eat the Living Bread and drink from the cup He offers. And never be hungry or thirsty again. Your soul will find its rest in God. Guaranteed! 

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Emmanuel, Asheville, 
Pentecost 12, August 27, 2006

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13th Sunday After Pentecost
Gospel Text: Mark 7: 14-37
by Seminarian Neil Ray


Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jesus said, ?¨If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Cast it from you. For it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Hell.?Æ But the most offensive appendage, that which gets us into the most trouble, that deadens our consciences and causes us to think of nothing ut pleasure and self as the blood drains from our brains is not the hand. If something is to be cut off to keep us from sinning, if one member of our vile bodies causes more trouble and places us into more peril than all the others, we know which appendage it would be. It is not the hand. It is the tongue.

The greatest and most dangerous temptations don??t come from our hands. They come from what we say. By the mouth of man his heart is known. Our hearts soil our lips. ?¨What comes out of a person defiles him.?Æ It is not merely by the foul language that we use. That is bad, too. But worse than that we dare to speak evil of those whom God loves. We fail to protect reputations or speak well of those who are kind to us, let alone those who are not. Sickest of all, we even betray our friends and our families. Could anything be more self-destructive than a husband speaking ill of his wife? We must repent, and trust in God??s unfailing mercy to grant us forgiveness.

The healing of the deaf man with the speech impediment was accompanied by quite a bit of ceremony. It is, after all, what his friends asked for. They begged Our Lord to put His hand on him. So Jesus took the man aside, apart from his friends, put His fingers into his ears, spat and touched his tongue, looked and sighed to heaven, spoke the word ?¨Ephphatha,?Æ and it was done. The touching indicates what was broken, what was being restored and healed. The spitting transferred something of Christ to the man. They became ?´blood-brothers.?? Looking to heaven, Jesus showed where the healing indeed came from. The sighing indicated the sympathy and compassion that Our Lord felt towards this sinner. And then He spoke- and it was done. He opened the man??s ears, heart, and lips with a single word.

But one ceremony gets less attention than the others. He took him apart from his friends. The deaf man with the speech impediment was a man of unclean lips. And he dwelt among a people of unclean lips. His friends were dangerous. Birds of a feather flock together. We know a man by the company he keeps. Consider their conversation, how they delight in gossip and slander, how raucous they are in sin. You, too, must be pulled away from your friends. Christ said, ?¨He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. He who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.?Æ Now that is a tall order. It is tough enough to think of loving Jesus more than friends, perhaps even more than father and mother. But it is very difficult to think of loving Him more than our spouse or children. Repent, for that is exactly what Christ means when He speaks these words. Love God above all else.

But we ask: ?¨How can God be so cruel, so strict, so absolute? Does He really want us to cut off our tongues, to be separated from our friends, to love Him more than mother and father, wife and children? Yes. He does. Now note well! Jesus?? statements about cutting off a part of our body and His other actions are a call for a change in us much more radical than literally carrying out those directives physically. For example, to mutilate our body would be breaking the spirit of the 5th Commandment which mandates us to care for our neighbors?? and our own bodies. We mustn??t judge God. Don??t decide for yourself what kind of a God He should be, or the kind of God you would have Him be.

Notice that all of these things have a spiritual sense. Our Lord removed the deaf man with the speech impediment from his friends, but He gave him back to them. Cutting out our tongues might stop us from slandering out loud, but it would not stop us from sinning. And it would deny the gifts God has given. It would keep us from praising Him. God seeks restoration and order, not paralysis or disfigurement. He does not simply desire that you don??t sin. He also wants good works for you. He has work for you to do in His kingdom, things He has prepared for you. He has a use for that hand that once caused you to sin, that tongue that once slandered and blasphemed. This work includes prayer, confession, and praise, as well as the nurture and care of children. Just because we are prone to abuse the good things God gives does not mean either that they are not good or that God does not want us to have them. Do not cut off your hands or any other members, but set them to use in service of God and neighbor.

It was not only the deaf man with the speech impediment who was changed by Jesus?? miracle. Jesus also changed the man??s friends. They were all astonished beyond measure at what He had done. They had asked Him to do it, but when He did they were astonished. They were changed. And so are all of you. God gave more than they asked, more than they imagined. He always does. He didn??t merely remove the impediment of speech. He also removed the impediment to praise and confess. He changed the man??s heart, declared it clean, took its filth and guilt upon Himself. And out of the man??s mouth and past his lips came the great ?´Amen?? of faith. He had been touched, fingers in his ears, spit upon his tongue. He had been called out, but it had been for mercy??s sake all along. And the burning coal of this love, the mercy of that spit, was also touched to the lips and tongues of the friends by faith. They were purified as well by the sacrifice and gift of God in the midst of His creation, calling it back into order, removing the curse, gathering the Church like a hen gathers her chicks, opening hearts and ears to receive Him and lips to again sin His praise.

Thus our Savior causes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak, the lame to walk and the blind to see. All things Christ has done well, for He is good. Hearing and speaking are metaphors of faith and of life, like seeing and believing, like eating and drinking. Our Lord does all these things for you, and all these things for free. Even though His ways are past finding out, He has made this love known to you. Christ loves you. He welcomes and is delighted by your prayers and your works. He gives you a family, true brothers and sisters, all with the very same Father. He gives you ears to hear and a tongue to praise. All these things, all that is you, heart and head and soul, have been washed in Christ??s blood and covered with His name. For His sake you are good. So too are the fruits of your lips and the sound of your praise, so too is the love of your family and friends. You have been healed and restored. You have been touched by God with water and Word in Holy Baptism. You are a blood brother with God in ways past finding out. So it is that He feeds you again this day in the grace and peace that passes all understanding. And who can be anything but astonished? Thanks be to God. He does all things well.

In Jesus?? Name. Amen.