Reverend Betsy Scott, Sunday August 4, 2024
August 4, 2024
John 6:24-35
Today’s Gospel reading in John 6: 24 to 35 is monumental. Jesus tells us in these verses Who He is: “ The Son of Man, On Him God the Father has set his seal”. What He can do for us: the Son of Man will give to you food that endures for eternal life and what we need to do: “This is the work of God that you believe in Him who God has sent”.
Through the millenniums, so much of the emphasis of the Church has been on eternal life but today, many theologians are in addition emphasizing life in the here and now such as the recently deceased Jurgen Moltmann who is widely known for his theology of Hope, Hope for an abundant life here on earth.
It is the quality of the life here and now that these verses most forcefully speak to me and perhaps to you as well.
In these verses, the people ask Christ what they must do: Christ answers: “This is the work of God. You must believe in Him whom He has sent”.
When I heard these verses as a child or young person, I thought it meant to just say I Believe in Him, but it always confused me and didn’t make sense. How can saying I believe be all there is to it?
Since then, I have learned that Belief in Him is a powerful statement meaning believe there is love in this world and we are meant to seek it. It is a call to action: to seek, to spend time, to take very seriously, to have faith, to not give up hope to listen. It is a call to keep going under difficult circumstances believing there are still many blessings in store for you.
In the spiritual world, there is a huge contrast about belief compared to the secular world and this is one of the major points I want to leave with you. In the secular world, one first sees and experiences and then believes but in the spiritual world, one is called to first believe, seek and then one will experience. You must believe in Him first. This is absolutely major. I had someone arguing with me recently who said he was a scientist and he only believed in evidence and argued against a belief in God for there was no scientific evidence. This person’s mind was made-up and nothing I said budged his thinking at all. He had missed the whole point that one must first believe, seek, knock and then one will experience the love of God, the kind of love where you will no longer hunger and thirst—where you will no longer be lost, anxious, unable to concentrate. You will be able to fulfill all you are created to be on this earth. This is Christ’s promise in John 6.
It is very interesting, however, despite what I just said above, that what Jesus has been telling us for millenniums, now science is pointing in the same direction. Scientific experiments are now demonstrating the tremendous power of belief.
One such book of science is the Biology of Belief which talks about the mind body connection and the power of our own thoughts on our health—not just our DNA as previously thought. So Christ exhorting us to believe is telling us to meditate on his words, on love which fills our minds which in turn are tremendously powerful—in fact life giving. All the cells of your body are affected by your thoughts. Robert H. Lipton PHD. a renowned cell biologist, describes the precise molecular pathways through which this occurs. He goes on to say that thought develops the grey matter in our brains. By our believing in Him, we are affecting our own growth. He further says that those people whose thought are filled with fear instead of love, are prone to disease of all kinds and their brains do not develop in a healthy fashion.e
Quoting from the Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton: “We can choose what to believe. You can filter your life with rose colored beliefs that will help your body grow or you can use a dark filter that turns everything black and makes your body/ mind more susceptible to disease. You can have a life of fear or a life of love. You have the choice, but I can tell you if you choose to see a world full of love, your body will respond by growing in health”.
There are studies going on in colleges showing that those students who have a spiritual component in their lives have much better coping skills than those who do not. Doctor Luisa Miller has written a book entitled The Spiritual Child where she explains the power of the spiritual life in growing the brain. As a psychologist she has taken many brain scans and has proved her theory that the college students that have a spiritual component to their lives have a part of their brain more developed and much better to cope with the stresses of college.
“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent”. The promise is that he who seeks finds, he who knocks the door will be opened unto him. 2000 years ago, Christ knew the power of belief in Him. He told us --You will find the Bread of Life where you hunger and thirst no more.
What is the Bread of Life? The Scriptures tell us that God is love so the Bread of Life is love.
“He who dwells in love, dwelleth in God and God in Him.” John 4:16
The person who lacks the Bread of Love, has spiritual hunger and thirst which is manifest as restlessness, nervousness, irritability, behavioral difficulty, impulsivity, anger, aggression, lacking purpose.
We are being given here the fundamental truths of human existence: without love, we humans cannot grow and with love we will blossom. We love because He first loved us.
We love because we fist were loved.
Where is this Christ that we are exhorted to believe, to seek. I have come to believe that it is within each one of us.
I have to relate to you a story from my own life of experiencing the kind of spiritual love where I hungered and thirsted no more. I had a spontaneous spiritual happening that is not scientifically explainable and yet changed my life. I talked with two ministers about this and they both told me it was important and right that I share my stories.
When I was forty-three years old with two young children, eleven and fourteen, having just moved to a new community, my husband died an instant death in a car accident, totally out of the blue. No warning. We were all in the midst of daily life. Then he was gone forever.
I had no idea how to proceed. Everything I had believed no longer applied. I went seeking. I decided to enroll in Union Theological Seminary in New York City in their three year MDIV program hoping I would find a new path for my life. I was in a dark night of the soul period of my life but still believed that there was something left for me even though I had no idea what it was or even how to proceed. I felt very alone as my mother had died a decade before and we had recently moved to a new community. I entered Seminary and spent my time studying the scriptures, going to worship services, studying psychology and religion, going to a therapist and mourning, talking and praying with this seminary community. In my second year, after listening one noon to a Good Friday sermon about Christ feeling abandoned on the Cross, “My God, My God, Why have you abandoned me” I had an incredible experience.
As I stood outside the chapel talking with fellow seminarians, the great pastor and preacher whose course I had been taking, James Forbes, tapped me on the shoulder from the back and said to me: “You know what they are talking about in there but can no credit for it for it has been too hard on you, but you know what others would like to know”.
I was stunned, speechless, almost frozen for he had named the unnamable. He had articulated how I truly felt but had never dared acknowledge. Abandoned. Yes, I truly felt abandoned. I ran through the refectory unable to speak to anyone who asked me what was happening and down the stairs to a small chapel in the basement, closed the doors and lay on the floor and stayed there alone in the dark just trying to deal with this information. All of a sudden, I became aware I was not alone in that chapel for there was a presence there, a spiritual presence with me. I knew there was Christ with me. I sensed His presence totally knew me, accepted me, and I knew and accepted Him. I knew for a certainty that I was not alone in this universe. I was not abandoned. The Holy Spirit knew me and loved me. I experienced unconditional love, the kind of love where one hungers and thirsts no more. The Holy Spirit met me where I had the need. My heart had been torn asunder and the Holy Spirit healed my heart. My belief had been replaced by knowledge by the Bread of Life. I was free. I was filled with smiles and new life so that friends would stop me and ask why I was so radiant? My whole life changed after that for people seemed drawn to me rather than running away and I entered a new path in my life which included becoming a therapist, an ordained minister, and a wonderful new marriage that was a blessing to my children as well as myself. I did not have to believe because I knew there was a God who was with me and loved me.
I spent considerable time at Seminary after that trying to understand what had happened to me. It is called grace and/or mystical experience which has been reported down through the ages. I also heard of other examples. I talked with some nuns who worked on the Aids floor of New York hospitals and they told me those wards were filled with joy.
These passages in John 6 came true in my life, and they will come true in all of our lives, that is the promise. Believe in Him so that you may know the Bread of life where you will no longer hunger and thirst.
Of course there are many different ways that believers have sought this Bread of Life, this Holy Spirit. Traditionally people have experienced the Holy in nature, in the Scriptures, in meditation, on pilgrimages, in art and music, in prayer, in worship services. Believe, seek and you will find. This is the great promise that has been witnessed over and over in the lives of the seekers.
To summarize today’s great Scripture reading, Jesus is putting out a call to all of us to believe in Him, to believe Love is available to you, waiting for you, longing for you, that there is saving love in this world and we are to seek it by believing that it exists and entering the spiritual path. He promises us that this bread he offers will satisfy forever our spiritual hunger and thirst.
Oh Heavenly Father, we thank you for the innumerable blessings you bestow upon us.
Amen