Here's the text to my sermon from Wednesday evening March 13

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“What More Do You Want?”

Based on John 6:27-40

Jesus would probably not have satisfied very many seminary preaching professors these days.  He certainly wouldn’t have satisfied the “church growth” consultants who feed off the insecurities of so many congregations. 

As a preacher he was often misunderstood.  Perhaps “misunderstood” is not the right word.  He spoke in parables that challenged the ways in which people lived their lives.  People often stood in denial of the truths that he was trying to teach them.  They couldn’t comprehend that God was actually moving among them in a way that just didn’t fit their image of God’s presence.  Jesus actually wanted them to change!

Just prior to the incident in tonight’s Gospel lesson, Jesus had miraculously fed thousands of people on a hillside along the Sea of Galilee, and the people were so impressed that they not only thought that he was a prophet but they even considered proclaiming him their new king.  Then he disappeared and mysteriously showed up on the opposite shore of the Sea.  Even his disciples couldn’t figure out how he did that.  But some of those who had been fed managed to find him. 

They didn’t come in gratitude.  They didn’t come in faith.  They came because they wanted to attend the Jesus dinner theater, eat some more and see a few more miracles.  A little dinner with some magic on the side.  You can almost hear them saying, “Last night was the best show I’ve seen in years.  What are you going to do today?”  Or possibly that greatest of all lines of ingratitude:  “What have you done for me lately?”

Had I been Jesus I would probably have asked:  “What more do you want?”  But he already knew the answer to that.

The people listening to Jesus were arguing among themselves. Jesus said to them: "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." The people were so taken up with their petty arguments that it never crossed their minds to pray and seek to discern God’s will for their lives. They shouted over one another to let everyone know what they thought about the matter; but not in the least anxious to know what God thought. Sounds a little like some of the church committee or board meetings that I’ve attended.

In an on-line issue of Christianity Today that came out this past week, the magazine asked three people noted for their pursuit of spiritual disciplines what spiritual discipline is most needed in our society today.  The three answers were different but certainly interlocked:  fasting, listening to Jesus and silence.  All three are really efforts intended to help us discern God’s presence in our lives and His will for our lives. 

It might well be that sometimes in our church committees and councils when someone is dominating and trying to push their opinion down other's throats that it would be better for us all to stop, be quiet, and ask God what He thinks and wants us to do. We need to discern the will of God in our lives. We misunderstand Jesus because we push for our own ways too often.

The first step in understanding Jesus is to listen to him. The people in the Gospel lesson listened to Jesus, but they did not have the courage to understand.

We will always misunderstand Jesus if we don't learn to listen. And we can learn to listen. Listening is an art that takes practice and experience to be good at.  It requires something that many American Protestants shy away from:  an intentional effort to be in spiritual communion with God with no desire other than to listen for God.

The 16^th Century produced two of the great historical giants of our faith:  John Calvin and Martin Luther.   We call them “reformers,” but they were really revolutionaries who founded a new vision of Christian faith and life.  I would argue that there was a third historical giant of our faith in the 16^th Century whom we Protestants not only don’t recognize but whose contributions we have shunned.  I’m speaking of the man known as Ignatius Loyola.  Loyola was the founder of the Jesuit Order, and he was a brilliant psychologist and spiritual leader.

Loyola shared a very important root belief with Calvin and Luther.  Although each expressed it in a slightly different manner, they felt that gratitude was the core of our faith; gratitude that Loyola defined so radically as to require the emptying of ourselves, our will and all of our being, to God’s purposes. 

He developed a spiritual discipline known as the "Examen” which he required his followers to carry out twice a day.  He knew that his followers were busy people, and that on some days they might not have the time needed to carry out all their ritual responsibilities to the church.  He told them that if their time was so tightly bound then they would be excused even from confession, but that they must carry out the Examen. 

The prayer of the Examen is designed to force us to stop, find a place of silence and solitude, and reflect on God’s presence in our life each day.  You reflect on where you feel that you have come close to God, and where you think that you have rejected God’s presence for reasons of your own.  Then you thank God for God’s presence and pray for the strength of faith to live your life each day more focused on those activities that bring you closer to God.  Through this discipline you seek to see more and more clearly with each passing day the direction of God’s will for your life.  It was also meant to be a shared act of discernment.  If you were certain that you knew what God wanted you to do, you needed to bring it into the fellowship of your congregation and ask their opinion of the authenticity of your discernment.

Is life as a Christian about us or about God?  Or about the relationship between us and God?  As I said earlier, the church growth gurus probably wouldn’t have approved of the way Jesus preached.  How many people do you know who have left the fellowship of our churches saying things like:  "I don't get anything out of it ... that church did not feed me ... it didn't meet my needs." 

For them, church is all about what it does for them, with little or no thought given to what they might do for the Lord. They run from fellowship to fellowship looking for the most recent famous convert or newest electronic gimmick. Like that crowd that followed Jesus, they are looking for a good dinner show.

Make no mistake: The way of discipleship is not easy and not everybody is ready to accept it. Jesus warns us that this would be the case: "In this world you will have trouble" (John 16:33). And it has always been so.  

God’s truth makes demands of us and the Gospel of Jesus has never been easy to follow nor popular among the majority. God’s truth is never settled by popular opinion.

At the end of our reading tonight, Jesus asks the twelve, "You do not want to leave too, do you?" (John 6:67). Why does he do that? He knows that his truth will still be true even if he stands alone, as indeed he is destined to do when he goes to the cross and even the twelve leave him.

Let’s use this Lenten season to examine our own commitment to Jesus. We are called to explore the presence of God in our lives and follow where He leads us.  Do we follow him for what we imagine he can do for us or do we take the time and make the commitment to learn who He is and what His will for our lives would have us do?

Jesus still asks those who say that are his disciples the same question.  What about you? Surely, "You do not want to leave too, do you?" If you will follow Jesus Christ, come and do so with all your heart! Amen.

Join your hearts with mine as I pray the “Prayer of Ignatius Loyola:” Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will.  All that I am and all that I possess You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will.  Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more. 

Amen.