By Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven….If you eat this bread, you will live forever. The bread that I will give you is my flesh, which I give so that the world may live.” …Many of his followers heard this and said, “This teaching is too hard. Who can listen to it? Without being told, Jesus knew that they were grumbling about this, so he said to them, “Does this make you want to give up?” John 6: 51, 60-61
I was with the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew 15th National Conference last week as their learning provider for Intentional Discipleship. To those who are not familiar with this fraternity, it started in 1883 in a cold wintry day of November 30 at St. James’ Episcopal Church in downtown Chicago.
Homeless men were sleeping on the city’s downtown streets – and it was these men the fledgling Brotherhood wanted to save. Today, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew is a worldwide ministry with chapters in Africa, Japan, the Philippines, Great Britain, Canada, Haiti and the United States.
***
The scheduled conference was threatened by the continuous onslaught of monsoon rains that caused some portions of the routes leading to the venue, St Gregory Episcopal Church in Bagnen, Bauko, Mtn Province almost impassable due to landslides. But more than a hundred men from different dioceses persisted and finished the 3-day convocation. As their national chaplain I feel obligated to be with them even with limited time to give the much-needed orientation and spiritual direction. I am not going to write about that event but rather, connect the persistent spirit that prevailed which led to the successful completion of the conference. BTW, this was the reason why this column did not appear last week. The deadline timed out while I was traversing back to Baguio City.
***
When the sailing gets rough a true sailor’s gut is tested and men and boys are separated. By convenience and expediency turncoats swarm in politics. We see this reality this early as we witness amazing and unbelievable political alignments and accommodations as the midterm elections approach. The same dilemma happens to all followers of Jesus then and now. The continuation of the gospel lesson this week which happened after the miraculous feeding and Jesus’ pronouncement that he is the bread of life has taken a twist. Some of the overjoyed and contented followers of Jesus has abandoned their idol.
***
A popular adage has regularly been applied to the person of Jesus—he comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. This was true for his original audience and continues to be so for his contemporary readers. Sometimes this is true even of the same party, at the same time. People often enthusiastically embrace some of his teachings while deploring other parts. Indeed, his early followers sensed this challenge: “On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’ Even if we see the obvious truth but somehow rub on us we become selective on what we accept and internalize. Yet there comes the moment and we can’t do otherwise just like some of Jesus’ followers, to follow the easy way out.
***
The declaration of Jesus that he was the living Bread come down from heaven and the source of eternal life, proved too much for some of his followers. They could not believe in such a claim and started to drift away. This was intolerable language and they were no longer prepared to walk with him. Neither surprised nor disappointed at their reaction, Jesus did not take back anything he had said nor try to make his teaching more acceptable. It was the parting of the ways. He turned to his disciples and said: “Will you also walk away?” This was a moment of crisis, of standing up and being counted. What Christ was demanding of them was not understanding, but faith in himself. There was no way they could avoid making a choice of being for or against Jesus. Peter spoke for everyone: “Lord, where else shall we go? You have the message of eternal life and we believe.”
***
A preacher observed that what happened then, still happens. We, in our generation are faced with a decision to make about following our Lord – do we stay or do we go away? This is the drastic choice that faces all who come in contact with Jesus. Whether they will follow him without conditions or not, nobody is forced because Jesus respects our freedom. Our baptismal vows likewise put this question to us. Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbour as yourself? Whom do we want to serve? It’s not just a matter of accepting that certain beliefs are true but it involves a commitment at the level of the heart and of the mind to live by the values of Christ. The personal option to belong to Jesus regardless of where life may lead us is at the center of our faith; and is an ongoing struggle. This is further put succinctly in the Baptismal Covenant, ‘Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?’ And our prescribed answer, ‘I will, with God’s help.’ (BCP pp320-321) It is so easy for us to promise and compromise and pick and choose from Christ’s teaching that suits ourselves; God does not always correspond to our idea of him or to what we would like him to be. Christ invites us to surrender and entrust ourselves to him to follow him on the way to the Father. This means learning to rely on God rather than on ourselves when the road ahead is uncertain and the light is dim.
***
Here we can ask ourselves a question: Why was Peter and some of the disciples stayed with Jesus, while others left him? The answer is simple: Peter and his companions stayed because they had more faith in Jesus. Why was this so? They had more faith because they listened closely to what Jesus said and let it sink into their hearts. The same is true when they saw what Jesus did: they observed everything closely and decided that, indeed, he must be the Messiah, the Son of God.
***
The gospel points to the importance of faith as well as the need to persevere in the face of difficulties. If we hold on when we encounter a problem or a stumbling block, we will overcome. How can we do this? The important thing is to try to see what happens in our daily life is related very closely to God. And, indeed, what is not related to God! This is the way we must see life. There may be hard sayings or teachings in living our religion but these make our faith stronger and sure footed when more of this life’s wondering and wandering come our way. May we continuously try to deepen our faith in God. And may we say, like Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
***
We bless you,
God of Seed and Harvest
Provider of our daily bread
And we bless each other
That the beauty of this world
And the love that created it
Might be expressed though our lives
And be a blessing to others
Now and always. /faithandworship.com
