136 Drawn by God

   (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Drawn by God”, originally shared on August 2, 2021. It was the 136^th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Have you ever made a decision for Jesus? Have you ever sung the hymn, “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” with enthusiasm? Unless you speak and sing those words with a lot of qualifiers and alternative meanings, you might not be a Lutheran, certainly. And maybe you might have some room to grow here as a Christian. Today, we’re going to find out if that’s true.

   The Revised Common Lectionary is a system of Bible readings used by the vast majority of churches in the world today. It is set up so that there is a First Reading, usually from the Old Testament, a Psalm that almost always comes from the book of Psalms, a Second Reading that almost always comes from a book of the New Testament other than from the gospels, and a Gospel Reading that comes from one of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

   The same readings repeat every three years. One of the synoptic gospels (because they are similar in content and structure), Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are featured in one of those years, with John sprinkled in throughout.

   The readings are spread out so that a preacher is not encouraged to preach from a relative handful of favorite texts, and so that if you came to church every Sunday for three years, you would hear all the major themes of the Bible read out loud.

   And, you would hear the entire history of salvation, the life of the early Church and the future of humankind read from the Bible every year.

   These days, however, I’m beginning to suspect that whoever put this lectionary together was a baker.

   We have five Sundays in a row in which the theme of the Gospel reading for the day, from which most preachers regularly preach, is bread.

   We celebrated Christmas in July and made a traditional Norwegian flat bread, lefse, the week before last and krumkake, a Norwegian Christmas treat, last week. You need some special equipment to make krumkake, but it’s pretty easy to make, especially compared to lefse.

   You assemble a batter from eggs, flour, sugar, butter, cornstarch, vanilla extract and cardamom. Then, you spoon it onto a special griddle that can also be used to make Italian Pizzelle, close the griddle, heat for 35-seconds, then remove and roll into a cone shape, and you’re done.

   Krumkake is s a food that points Norwegians to their past and present. It feeds the body and the soul.

   But is it bread? It has flour in it. Or is it a cookie?

   So, what’s the difference between a bread and a cookie?

   What’s the difference between Jesus and the many things that people claim are Jesus?

   Here’s what Jesus says from today’s Bible readings, John 6, starting with verse 35:

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

   What’s the difference between bread and a cookie? Who cares? No matter how much we eat of either one, we’ll be hungry again.

   No matter how much our soul food means to us, it will perish, as will we. And then what?

   Bread used to be called “The Staff of Life” that is, the staple food at the foundation of our diet. Grains and beans fall into this category. Rice is the Staff of Life for most of the world’s population. The central agricultural area of a country is sometimes called “The Nation’s Breadbasket” or “Rice Bowl”.

   Remember old food pyramid? It’s still around. The USDA food pyramid still lists breads, cereal, rice and pasta at the foundation. You should have 6-11 servings a day. 

   Wheat bread may be the Staff of our Life, unless you’re avoiding carbs. But carbs are making a comeback as a necessary part of our diet among dieticians.

   When I was competing on a Masters Swim Team, carb-loading the night before a meet was a common practice among swimmers because the body consumes carbohydrates as energy.

   But Jesus points to an even greater need. Our reading jumps to verse 41:

⁴¹ Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴² They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

      At least they refer to Joseph as Jesus’ father in a patriarchal society (unlike in Mark where they refer only to Mary), and at least they realized that Jesus’ sign is pointing to what was in God’s Creation and what will be in God’s restoration, and not literally to literal bread.

   But they complain because they only see Jesus as the son of Joseph, not as God.

   To see Jesus, we need the initiative of God. Our sin separates us from the one true living God. God is holy. What can the sinful have to do with the holy. How can those who are separated from God by their sin know their need of a savior?

   Miracles point to God’s Creation in the past and to God’s Restoration in the future. The central miracle to which all of Jesus “signs” (the word John uses for “miracles”) point is the cross.

   God dies for us. God takes the initiative to overcome our sin and its consequences: death and the power of all the forces that defy God. God bridges the gap between us and God with cross, God’s redemption.

   We may think we have made a decision, but we cannot. We have confused the mechanics of salvation with the maker of salvation. Here’s what Jesus says, continuing in John 6 with the 43^rd verse:

 ⁴³ Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. ⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 

  Martin Luther, the 16^th century Church reformer said this about the Holy Spirit in his Small Catechism, a pamphlet he wrote to learn and to teach the basics of the Christian faith and from which he read every day:

   “I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

In this Christian church day after day he fully forgives my sins and the sins of all believers. On the last day he will raise me and all the dead and give me and all believers in Christ eternal life.

This is most certainly true.

   You can get a copy of the whole pamphlet for free at https://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/22879/Luther-Small-Catechism-App

   We’re at a point in the pandemic where a cloud of variants is forming, especially for the unvaccinated adults and children. As a result we may be pulled back to greater restrictions. We make progress, and then we’re pulled backwards. And some of us see it but don’t get the point. It’s like what a friend of ours said earlier in the pandemic, that it’s like we’re in kindergarten again and none of us can go out for recess because a few kids won’t follow instructions.    Where do we find something that moves us forward and endures because it doesn’t depend on us but on God?

   The bread of life comes from God’s grace.

   Even though we perish in this world Jesus is the bread from heaven that sustains us now and forever.

   Turn away from everything that separates you from God, the gift that will lead you to life and salvation right now. We can’t achieve it, but we can receive it because of the blood of Jesus shed for us on the cross.

   It may appear to us that we are making a decision for Jesus, but we cannot. We are separated from God by our sin. Jesus, the bread of life, overcomes our sin and the separation that comes from our sin by his death on the cross.

   All who believe, who accept the gift of faith that leads to life and salvation, do so because they are drawn to God by God.

   Open your heart and receive that gift today.