Proper 16, Year B
August 27, 2006
Christ Church, Covington
“Lord… you have the words of eternal life” (Jo. 6:68).
There are a couple of good sermons about our second reading, from Paul’s Letter
to the Ephesians, posted on our web site (look under 2000 & 2003). I know
they’re good, of course, because I preached them; in fact, I’ve preached on this
reading at Christ Church on every occasion on which it has been read in the past
nine years. So I encourage you to go on-line and read the sermons, if you’re
keen on it; there’s no doubt it’s an important subject, worth untangling, but I
hope you will understand if I don’t say anything further about it today.
Instead, I want to direct you to our Gospel today, and point toward the grand
theme of the Gospel of John. The Gospel writer keeps bringing it before us, and
today is no exception: Jesus comes to bring life, and to share that life with
us. You might say that this is the entire theme of the Gospel of John; the point
of Jesus’ life is life for us.
Life is basic, but mysterious. Scientifically speaking, it’s precise origins are
obscure. Yet everybody here knows what we’re talking about when we talk about
life. Life is characterized by growth and vibrancy; by “liveliness”. Life has
immediacy; it’s best perceived “in the moment”. Life is good (you’ve heard that
before), and we nurture life because we are human beings. Strangely enough, life
seems most precious and most worth living when it’s at risk. We know that life
is significant and it matters immeasurably, yet it is also fleeting and hard to
pin down with words.
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jo. 10:10). That’s
Jesus, in another part of John’s Gospel. Jesus calls himself “the Way, the
Truth, and the Life” (Jo. 14:6), and in our Gospel today the disciples
acknowledge that he has “the words of eternal life”. He speaks the words because
we’re meant to hear them and to live. The life that he comes to bring is
something more than the life we enjoy now, though it’s continuous with it:
abundant life, eternal life, resurrection life. Paradoxically, the life he comes
to give us is granted through his own encounter with death and its defeat
through the offering of his own life.
So what does life mean to you? Where are growth and vibrancy, “liveliness”, for
you? What makes life worth living? What image is coming to mind? That question
is something you might take away with you today. Whatever the answer to it may
be for you, however modest or exalted it might seem to be, it’s just the first
installment of the abundant life that Jesus has come to bring you. God’s
speaking through your experience of life, pointing you beyond it to something
bigger and larger.
God is at work to bring life. I said in a sermon some time ago, in the immediate
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, that in South Louisiana after the Storm we would
need to learn how to live again. We used to be pretty good at living down here,
and on the Gulf Coast, life tends to make a way for itself. It can’t be
extinguished, though we are perhaps more conscious than others of how fragile
and tenuous existence can be (especially this weekend). But that is precisely
the point at which life is most precious and worthwhile, when it’s at risk and
when it seems in danger of disappearing. I don’t think I really understood that
until a year ago, so I’m grateful. Life in South Louisiana hasn’t disappeared,
in spite of past challenges, or of new challenges that certainly lie ahead.
Maybe we can see those things that make life worth living in South Louisiana, as
fleeting and hard to pin down as they may be, as a first installment on the
promise of the Kingdom. God is speaking, through our experience of life, and
pointing us toward a life that is bigger and larger and of everlasting
significance.
John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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