Year B
John 6:56-69
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Choose to Look Up
Norman Rockwell has a painting titled Lift Up Thine Eyes which features the magnificent entrance to a cathedral. Vaulted high above its carved gothic doors are statues of the prophets, apostles, and martyrs. Right in the center is Jesus Christ, sitting on a throne at the right hand of God. On the sidewalk below the cathedral move the busy throngs of people amidst the noise and fumes of cars and trucks. The priest has just finished changing the public bulletin board which reads: “Lift Up Thine Eyes!” The irony, of course, is in the scene below. Each person in the passing crowd is caught up with his or her own thoughts looking gloomy, harried, and depressed. No one looks up. Their eyes are glued to the pavement.
I have to wonder, if even one person took the time to look up, could that choice have been a life changing moment, a turning point for their lives. In each of our lives there are those kinds of moments when if we had made the choice to look up or even left or right, it may have been a moment that changed our lives. This is what we see in each of our readings today; a turning point, a life changing moment of no return. C. S. Lewis reminded up in his writings that we are not sprung into this world as fully formed moral or religious creatures. Instead, choice by choice, choosing the good or the grey, taking a well-traveled highway or navigating the path through the wilderness, we become more heavenly creatures or more hellish demons. In reality, it’s probably a little of both.
For Israel, under Solomon’s leadership, his choices brought a new era of political, social, economic, and religious strength. Now the transition from desert people to settled nation is complete. The ark, the symbol of the presence of God with them during all their years of wandering from Egypt to Canaan, finally comes to rest in the inner court of the Temple. The cloud symbolizes to them that the same God who led them in former days will now be with them at this time and in this place. Solomon then dedicates the temple with a magnificent prayer. This grand and glorious dream, this vision that David first had but could not do and left to his son, Solomon, has now come true.
Building began about 960 BC and was complete seven years later. It would be the center of Israel’s worship for over three centuries and Solomon’s words have continued to echo through thousands of houses of God on days of dedication for millennia. The temples enormous size and beauty, the reports about its furnishings and decorations, witness to what Israel thought about God. God is an ever-present help in the time of trouble. God is good and is worthy to be praised. God never sleeps. Thus Solomon’s temple is a witness to what God did for Israel. It is a monument of praise; a standing monument of everlasting praise to a gracious God. They have survived the early years with all their threats and breakdowns. Now they renew their vows and make the choice to settle in for the long run.
The temple as a standing monument of everlasting praise to a gracious God comes over into the New Testament in a unique way. Paul’s converts in the early church are no longer members of temples but of house churches and Paul in his letters has acknowledged that the physical bodies of believers are now a place where God lives. They are a new temple of God through faith in Jesus Christ. From the passage today in Ephesians, we might assume that they have been coming under attack or persecution. Paul is writing his letter from house arrest and Christians were not exactly welcomed with open arms in every community or by the governing power: Rome.
In a world of enemies-not just of earthly rulers but of destructive powers of spiritual forces-the Christians are counseled to go about their duties for God in Christ fully outfitted in what Paul calls “God’s armor.” As the new temple of God, God’s dwelling place, not as grandiose as it was through Solomon’s construction, Christians are to make the choice to stand firm having been fully armed with the attributes of God to witness their faith in the living God through their bodies and in their works for Christ. The battles are real and our defense, “the whole armor of God” is truth against the falsehoods that are accepted as truth, righteousness in a culture that seems to value ruthlessness, peace when others call for war, faith against disbelief enabling us to quench the flaming arrows of the evil one, a helmet of salvation, and finally the “sword of the Spirit.”
The sword of the Spirit is the “word of God.” That word of life which is meant to save everyone even our enemies. It is the reason that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., cried out for nonviolence in the Civil Rights struggle-because it would be possible though the choice of nonviolence to save even those who were the enemies of God. This is not easy. But this is God and these are the hard choices disciples are called to make and this is why we need Jesus in our lives. Dwelling in him is like living in God’s own house, being constantly in God’s presence. If we want to get close to God, we need to get closer to Jesus. This is at the heart of the Christian faith.
This happens through faith, through believing in Jesus, trusting his teachings, seeking to serve him, through worship, study, prayer, Holy Communion, and gathering with fellow Christians for service and fellowship. We need at the core of our beings to be in relationship with God. We hunger and thirst for it as much as we do for food and water and the good news, of which we have been hearing about for weeks now in John’s gospel, is that this hunger and thirst can be met. God has sent down bread and rain from heaven in Christ. In this whole chapter of John, Jesus, the true temple and presence of God, has been trying to reveal that he is the source of life, real life, life that lasts forever.
Just as we must consume bread to live, so we must consume him, take him into our hearts and lives to live. But this kind of talk is hard and when many of his disciples heard this, they deserted him. Their faith in him was shallow. People go to lots of places and try lots of things in order to meet this this deep hunger inside them. Thankfully Peter looked up. He says to Jesus, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” They found God in him, words in him that gave life. They tasted of him and found bread for their souls. It was a life changing moment for Peter and for the rest of the disciples. Yet, the temptation to be and do other is always present. At the end of this passage in verse 70 which is not in our reading today, Jesus informs his disciples, “Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, who was later to betray him.)”
Our love for God, for the church, us as the temple of God, enables us to stay focused…to look up and keep our eyes on Christ. The psalmist says today, “How lovely is your dwelling place, /Lord Almighty? /My soul yearns, even faints, /for the courts of the Lord; /my heart and my flesh cry out / for the living God.” “Those who put their strength in you are truly happy; / as they pass through the Baca Valley, / they make it a spring of water. / Yes, the early rain covers it with blessing. This is what the good news is all about—praising God for God’s blessings that culminate in his Son, the living bread that came down from heaven to give life. Let us choose to eat and find bread for our souls, then go witness to the word; the presence of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, not only in the church but in the world. As the Rev. Billy Graham always noted, today is the Hour of Decision.