Please read John 6:51-58 first. This meditation came from reflecting on this Sunday’s Gospel.
Can you imagine telling people about yourself — a truth about yourself — and they disagree with you? Here you are, revealing yourself to them - inviting them into a relationship unknown by their ancestors - and they start to quarrel among themselves.
“How can this be?”
“This man — do you know where he’s from?”
“Do you know who he associates with?”
“Do you know who is father is?”
Finding it unbearable to listen to your testimony because of the implications it might have for them — they start to tear apart character. At this point in the Gospels, Jesus amassed quite a following. He’d fed over 5000 men plus women and children - and they were “here for it” as we might say today. …until, THIS. (and this Gospel is actually a sticking point 2000 years later for Christians) THIS is where lines get drawn.
The Jews are faced with cognitive dissonance. What they have known — what they have trusted in — what they have been taught as things “good religious people do” (or don’t do) — has just come against a teaching that flips their expectations and understanding and shakes them out of their safety.
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
“Truly —plainly — I tell you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”
His message to them carries a blessing - REAL HOPE - ETERNAL LIFE! Yet, his message is rejected…because rather than yield their hearts and ask God to help them see, they chose their own understanding.
As Christians, we can become used to viewing the Gospels through Messiah-tinted glasses. We have the privilege of knowing who Jesus is - so, we sometimes read encounters like this incredulously. How could they walk away from Jesus-in-the-flesh? I wouldn’t have.
Lest you be so bold - remember, you don’t get to go back in time with your secret decoder lens, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One empowering us to both see the Truth and receive the message. The Holy Spirit allows us to recognize Jesus as He is - and also Jesus in our midst. Our original sin, since the dawn of humanity until now, prevents us from viewing the world with God’s perspective.
This new way of seeing requires humility of heart. To see a perspective other than your own - to listen, to hear, and be moved with compassion. This new way requires courage to love one another radically and boldly. This new way requires strength to walk in your calling.
As humans, we often wonder how we might have acted if we lived in another time. I remember as a child thinking, “If I had lived when Jesus did, I wouldn’t have let him be crucified!” It’s noble, sure - but inaccurate. All but one disciple deserted. Maybe, because I was a woman, I would’ve been with the other women - but because I was a woman, I would’ve held no power to stop anything.
I am coming to realize that we don’t need to wonder. How we respond to the injustices in our world today - this is our measure. In Acts 17, St. Paul writes that the times and places for all men have been set, so that we might encounter God and find him. As Esther is counseled, “For such a time as this, you have been born.”
For many of us, this has been a year of cognitive dissonance. First the pandemic and now the call for racial justice. The earth is being shaken; the soil tilled up around us to see if we will bear fruit - or be thrown out (like Jesus with the fig tree).
As I have been reflecting on what privilege has afforded me - primarily the ability to be innocent - including growing up trusting others and believing that all people are looking out for my good to being provided the benefit of the doubt in my limited encounters with the law. I am realizing this affords me a privilege to ensure that all have this ability to grow up like I did. To be believed - to be given the benefit of doubt - to LIVE WITHOUT FEAR - this is the right of all Americans. But this is not the experience, currently, of all Americans.
I was 23 the first time I heard a group of Black Iowans telling me what it was like to grow up in Iowa as a Black person. It didn’t make sense to me. It didn’t fit with what I knew to be true. …and now, 17 years later, I realize that is the lens of privilege. That wasn’t my world; how could that be your world?
There are many different lenses viewing the world. We default to our own perspective. It takes work to accept another’s. Sometimes, it’s easy - if the view is like ours. When it’s not, it becomes work. There is dissonance.
Every time one of my Black friends shared a story about being followed, being questioned, being afraid - there was a chord struck in my heart. Discord. These experiences - that’s not what is supposed to happen. These people are just like me - the only difference is skin color - and…how? How is this happening?
Did you know that learning actually requires dissonance? To learn is to cause a change in your brain’s neural pathways. The normal way of processing is disrupted. Seeking to gain clarity and understand a new concept — rather than just reject it outright is a good exercise for your brain. (and your heart) So, if you are asking questions right now - that is GOOD.
The BEST NEWS that God delivered to my heart was helping me understand that racism is a sin. The sin of racism has been described as America’s original sin. Like the OG original sin - we didn’t do anything, we were just born into it. It just “is”…embedded into laws and policies in discreet and overt ways. SO - like the OG original sin - we (personally) can be cleansed from racism. It’s baptism for your American soul. This baptism must be accompanied with repentance: confession of the sin - how it has separated you from others, from your mission - and action. Because racism is a sin - we don’t need to be afraid of it. Sins are for redeeming! By the power of the Blood - this can be overcome. It will require others-centered love empowered by the life-giving Spirit.
In the Great Commission, Jesus invites all of us to share not only in His presence but also in His mission. In Luke 4, Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah 61: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
This is the year of the Lord’s favor. This is the time ordained for your existence. This is our time to recognize Jesus alive, in our midst, and participate in his ministry of reconciliation and healing. After Jesus proclaimed these words, he sat down and said, “Today, this is fulfilled in your presence.” The action - the invitation to conversion - is an on-going one. TODAY is now. Today, are we partnering with the Holy Spirit to bind up the broken-hearted? Today, are we partnering with the Holy Spirit to release captives? Today, are we allowing sight - including our own - to be restored?
This participation starts with a surrendered heart.
What does a surrendered heart do?
It listens.
It listens to understand.
It listens to understand - and when it does not - when the message it’s hearing doesn’t fit with what has been known or taught - it asks the Holy Spirit for enlightment.
God, help me understand the Truth.
God, help me see your hand here.
God, enlighten the eyes of my heart.
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill the hearts of your faithful. Enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created - and you shall renew the face of the earth.
