The Old South Church in Boston
"Are You
Hungry?"
June 4, 2000
*John 21: 1-14
It's with those words we prepared for Easter. Nearly eight weeks ago, before our celebration of Christ's resurrection, we marked the day of his death, that excruciating time of trial and torture. We remembered how he hung on the cross and cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and with those words we felt his pain. It was Good Friday, and for those of us gathered here in the Gordon Chapel and in sanctuaries around the world we offered countless prayers expressing our need for God's presence. Recognizing the mystery of Christ's sacrifice and the depth of his suffering, we came in touch with our own pain and despair. As a community of faith we were able to acknowledge our hunger for renewal and redemption.
Now with this liturgical season coming to a close we return to that place of need. Gathering around this holy table today we remember the brokenness that brings us to this sacramental moment as we hear Christ's words ring through the ages." This is my body, broken for you, my blood shed for you.Eat, drink, in remembrance of me."These words remind us that we're called to renewal through the acknowledgment of suffering, offering redemption through the confession of our deepest needs.
Are you hungry? Do you long for peace and hope and purpose? Are you tired of finding everything but those things in your work, your relationships, the many tasks that fill your day?
"I am the bread of life.Whoever comes to me will not hunger; whoever believes in me shall never thirst."Christ's remind us that we're offered peace through his teachings and Spirit.God incarnate, he leads us to dynamic understandings of how we're called to live and love.Recognizing our despair, our brokenness, accepting our hunger and yearnings, we meet the power of God through this human form, an encounter that then changes our own human existence."Are you hungry?" Jesus asks each and every one of us this morning. And to that question he ties a compassionate response:"Let me feed you.Allow me, through the grace of God, to offer you hope and understanding."
This is the kind of encounter we witness in our scripture reading this morning:Jesus, reaching out to those in need.Seeing the disciples struggling to get a day's catch he tells them to drop their nets down one more time.The result is almost cliché.The nets come back up brimming full, an image that offers an assurance that God will provide.The disciples, of course, are stunned not only by the catch but by this third appearance of their risen Lord.It's a majestic, surreal meeting as we imagine those men eating that breakfast together on the shoreline.
The meaning of this scene only increases as we appreciate the context in which it was written.Looking at this final chapter of John from the historical perspective we see that it's an addition to the original gospel."The appendix" it's called, as scholars believe some later disciple took the initiative to add its content to the previous twenty chapters. While no one threatens to strike it from our Scriptures, the value of these twenty-five verses is sometimes questioned, it's relevance pushed aside. With the importance of historical accuracy held in such esteem these days, an appendix is often rated quite low.What possessed someone to add this scene to John's previous writings?
I'd say the motive could be captured by a single word:hunger.Like us searching for an assurance of God's abiding presence today, so the community of John was hungry for the same.There, at the close of the first century, the men and women of Christ's early community were looking for another sign that this was the Messiah, the One to follow. It was the mid- to late-nineties, after all, meaning that no one who had actually walked with Christ was still alive.People were searching for other proof, new assurances.And so, like any caring mentor, like most devoted teachers and guides, this writer worked to offer a comfort for their fears.
Jesus appears on the beach. The nets miraculously become full.A meal is prepared and served.It's a beautiful account, one that may well have actually unfolded and one that certainly points to the loving nature of our God.The bounty of a hundred and fifty-three fish -- a number thought to represent the amount of original disciples -- is an incredible catch.Time spent with the beloved Christ is a gift that answers one's deepest prayers.This scene, with it's sacramental image of the breaking and sharing of the bread and fish, is one that feeds the soul.This "appendix," as its called, clearly offers hope and understanding.
Hunger.Albert Einstein called it, "The worst political advisor," yet the ancient philosopher Persius named hunger, "The teacher of the arts and the inspirer of invention."Being hungry, indeed, is a double-edged sword, one that can make us helplessly dependent or lift us to higher levels of understanding.For this ghost writer in John we see that the motivation was one leading to inspiration and renewal.
What about us today? How do we perceive and react to the gnawing reality of hunger, whether physical, emotional, spiritual?Finding ourselves in a culture that thrives on consumption we can appreciate how our hungers are preyed upon at every turn."Feeling down, inadequate, all alone?Buy this and you'll feel better; do that and you'll be complete."Through captivating advertisements coupled with our most mortal fears and desires we're continually seduced into believing the marketers' appeals."I just have to take care of myself," we may be lulled into thinking."I just need to be able to afford this or that and everything will be okay."
Coming around this table in the sanctuary of our faith we know this isn't true.Here, gathered as a community of seekers and believers, we trust that there's another way, one that offers ultimate renewal and fulfillment. Like those hungry men and women of John's community, we arrive here hoping to receive a sign that this is the Way we're called to follow, that Christ is the God of our salvation. We come, each in our own way, seeking a little bit of heaven on earth, wanting to trust that even in our broken, empty places we will not be forsaken.
There's a folktale from China that lays out an incredible vision of life in God's realm, one that applies quite well to what we're about to do here today.The story unfolds like this:
But when he looked closely at the diners this fellow saw that they were all starving despite the food before them.You see, everyone had been given chopsticks which were three feet long!There was no way they could carry the food to their mouths with these long chopsticks.No one could eat a bite and he realized, what a hell indeed, to sit, ravenous at a banquet and yet be unable to eat a bite.
The man was then taken to heaven to observe life there.To his surprise he saw people seated around a banquet table in exactly the same situation.Each person had been given three-foot-long chopsticks in heaven too!But here everyone was happily eating the delicious food.The residents of heaven, you see, were using their yard-long utensils to feed each other.
This ancient, simple story points to the beauty of our faith and the power of the Holy Communion.Gathering at the sacramental table as we do today we act out this kind of redemptive vision, particularly as we practice the congregational model of receiving this sacred meal.As we come together as the body of Christ we pass the plates of bread and wine to each other.Like the image in the folktale we create a heavenly, harmonious dominion as pew by pew we feed one another by the grace of God.Reaching for the bread of heaven, and the cup of salvation, we receive them gratefully and then offer them to our neighbor.Like those disciples given breakfast that morning on the shoreline, like the members of John's community receiving a third vision of the resurrected Christ, we demonstrate that we are a renewed and a renewing people, continuing the story of the Christian faith through the actions of our lives.
The novelist, George Eliot, who experienced her own unique struggles and torment, once wrote, "What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?" Recognizing the commonality of human suffering as we do through the life and teachings of Christ we realize that it's precisely through our hunger that we come to fully embrace our need for God and one another. Carrying the cross we are joined as a community of disciples, committed to helping the starving and homeless people of this world, the forgotten and afraid.Are we forsaken? Are we alone and abandoned? No.Today we remember that we are continually embraced by the loving mercy of God.With our hunger we come together at this table and are nourished by the living, resurrected Christ. This is the message of the Easter season that leads us onward, preparing us to receive God's Spirit through Pentecost and beyond. We are a hungry people, nourished and nurtured by a loving God.
Let us pray.
Holy Christ, you reveal God to us in
such miraculous ways.You lead us to accept divine mercy with patience and
compassion. Help us to embrace your offer of hope and salvation, we pray, that we
may be made one with you and one another. For we are hungry, Lord Christ. We
come in need of God's care and compassion.
Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
John 21: 1-14
The Old South Church in Boston
645 Boylston Street
Boston, MA02116
(617) 536-1970