Fullness, Welcome and Hope | John 6:35-40 | A parish memorial service
On Friday we had the funeral of my mother.
Although it is a bit too soon, it is good for me to be here, to remember, together with you.
We are coming for them and for us – to say that they matter. Whether their death was a few days ago, a year ago, or many years ago, they mattered to us and they still do matter.
We come to remember who they were, what they gave and to express our love.
For each of us grief will be different.
For me it is a deep sense of sadness and emptiness, and – if I’m honest now – a weariness at what seems the futility of it all.
For others it will be an emotional overwhelming, like a huge wave breaking over you. You are swept off your feet and there is nothing to hold on to.
Or it may be, especially after the death of a lifelong partner, a sense of utter isolation and loneliness, of being on my own. And no other person will ever really be able to fill that gap, however loving and supporting are our family or friends.
And that can all come with a sense of fear. We just are afraid. We are not sure what we fear, but we just fear. And that fear knocks us. We lose all confidence.
It was, for me, that sense of emptiness which drew me to the reading from John 6.35-40
Although it is a bit too soon, it is good for me to be here, to remember, together with you.
We are coming for them and for us – to say that they matter. Whether their death was a few days ago, a year ago, or many years ago, they mattered to us and they still do matter.
We come to remember who they were, what they gave and to express our love.
For each of us grief will be different.
For me it is a deep sense of sadness and emptiness, and – if I’m honest now – a weariness at what seems the futility of it all.
For others it will be an emotional overwhelming, like a huge wave breaking over you. You are swept off your feet and there is nothing to hold on to.
Or it may be, especially after the death of a lifelong partner, a sense of utter isolation and loneliness, of being on my own. And no other person will ever really be able to fill that gap, however loving and supporting are our family or friends.
And that can all come with a sense of fear. We just are afraid. We are not sure what we fear, but we just fear. And that fear knocks us. We lose all confidence.
It was, for me, that sense of emptiness which drew me to the reading from John 6.35-40
Because these verses are a promise: a promise of fullness in our emptiness, of welcome in our loneliness and of hope in our fear.
Jesus has just fed 5000 plus people with the 5 loaves and 2 fish.
There is a 5th Century mosaic of loaves and fishes in a small village on the NW shore of the Sea of Galilee where this miracle is said to have taken place.
This was an event that had a huge impact on those who were with Jesus and saw it. It is one of the few miracles which he did that is written about in all four gospels.
But what is also important is how Jesus interprets it.
1. He promises his listeners fullness in their emptiness
‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry’.
Jesus is making two big claims
The first is the statement ‘I am the bread of life’. God had said in the Old Testament that his name was ‘I am who I am’. When Jesus says, ‘I am ..’, he is claiming to be the divine presence among us.
The second is the promise that whoever ‘eats’ him will never again be hungry.
Now of course we should not take him literally.
One woman at the time did misunderstand Jesus when he told her that he could give her life-giving water which would mean that she never was thirsty again.
She asks him to give it to her, so that she doesn’t need to keep coming to a well to get water.
But what Jesus is saying is that if we welcome him in, if we listen to his words and take them into us, so that they become part of us, and begin to shape us, and if we keep on doing that – we will never be spiritually hungry or thirsty again; we will begin to find fullness, even while feeling the emptiness of grief
We have the picture of this in our communion service.
Every Sunday people receive the bread and wine. And as we receive into our mouth and stomach the bread, so by faith we believe that Jesus comes into us, into our heart.
And even though we are broken, lonely, sometimes under dreadful pressure, at times in pain – he offers to come and live in us, to give us meaning and hope, strength and peace. He offers to fill us.
2. Jesus promises us welcome in our loneliness.
‘Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away’.
This is a verse that was very important for me at one time of crisis in my life. I was having panic attacks and felt utterly alone and abandoned by God.
I was reminded of this verse. And I recall praying, ‘Jesus, I don’t understand what this means, but I have come to you’.
And if we come to him, he is there, and he will not turn us away.
There is a story in the bible about a woman who came to Jesus, and Jesus is silent and then offensive. His disciples tell him to send her away, but that is the one thing he does not do. He refuses to send her away. And she perseveres, and he welcomes her.
Jesus has promised that he will never drive us away, he will welcome us
It is a promise for those we love who are no longer with us
It is a promise for us.
We may be physically on our own, but we are not ultimately on our own. He will welcome us if we go to him. He is with us.
The 23rd Psalm has been very special for believers since David spoke it about 3000 years ago. It was special for my mother.
She knew it and she would go back to it in her mind, even when her mind was going all over the place at the end. She held on to it as the promise that she was not on her own as she went into death: ‘The Lord is my shepherd’
3. Jesus promises us hope in our fear.
‘I will raise them up on the last day’.
This is the hope of the resurrection from the dead.
Our conviction is that this life is not all that there is.
Decay and death do not win in the very end.
It looked as if Jesus had been defeated as he hung on the cross. But it was not the end. Three days later he rose from the dead and appeared to his followers. He talked with them, ate with them, prepared breakfast for them, allowed them to touch him.
And that experience transformed their lives.
It is very hard to explain the expansion and survival of Christianity without the physical resurrection of Jesus.
And for us it is the hope of the resurrection that is our assurance, and it is the hope of the resurrection that can transform our lives – even when we are gripped by fear, loneliness and emptiness.
It is the hope of the resurrection which tells us that this world is not all that there is
Jesus’ promise is that if we put our trust in him, we will be raised up on the last day.
So we gather to remember and to give thanks. To entrust those we love into the hands of Jesus our shepherd.
Decay and death do not win in the very end.
It looked as if Jesus had been defeated as he hung on the cross. But it was not the end. Three days later he rose from the dead and appeared to his followers. He talked with them, ate with them, prepared breakfast for them, allowed them to touch him.
And that experience transformed their lives.
It is very hard to explain the expansion and survival of Christianity without the physical resurrection of Jesus.
And for us it is the hope of the resurrection that is our assurance, and it is the hope of the resurrection that can transform our lives – even when we are gripped by fear, loneliness and emptiness.
It is the hope of the resurrection which tells us that this world is not all that there is
Jesus’ promise is that if we put our trust in him, we will be raised up on the last day.
So we gather to remember and to give thanks. To entrust those we love into the hands of Jesus our shepherd.
Jesus does not promise that we will stop missing them, but he does promise us that even in our emptiness, loneliness and fear, he will give himself to us. And he offers us hope and welcome and ultimately fullness.
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