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“Good news: you might be wrong” The Rev. Aaron M. G. Zimmerman (08/11/2024, The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost)



I had a friend in high school, his name was Dixon, and he was older than me, about two years,
which means he was cooler than me, he was more self-assured in the world, he played guitar,
he knew about cool bands that I'd never heard of, and he was in youth group and swim team
with me. So we had a lot of time to spend together, we'd have our youth group on Sunday nights,
we'd meet at St. Paul's, a biscuital church in Winston-Salem where I'm from, and we would,
man, it was a strong youth group, the Holy Spirit was up to something, be careful youth and
parents who send their kids to youth group. Out of this youth group, there are three people
in ordained ministry, and many people in lay ministry, so the Lord was working through Laura Smith,
our youth leader, and it was a great time. Dixon, my friend, like I said, we were on swim team
together, just, it doesn't matter, but I was co-captain my senior year.
That's not important. What's sort of interesting is that Dixon, as he went through life and ended
up at seminary, we attended the same seminary at different times, but same school, and he was
ordained in a ministry in the Episcopal church, and eventually found his way back to St. Paul's,
and is now the director of St. Paul's in Winston-Salem, and so when I go back to visit my family,
in North Carolina, we've been able to keep in touch. We've gone out for lunch and coffee,
and I've stopped by the church, and it's been really, really one of those cool things.
When I have introduced people to Dixon, I say, yeah, this is my buddy Dixon, we're both in
ministry, went to seminary at same school, and we've known each other since youth group, and
we were on the swim team together. That was my standard thing. And last year, when I was visiting
my dad, Dixon and I went out to lunch, and my older sister, Lucia, came along,
and I was telling Lucia, this is Dixon, my buddy, we were in youth group together, and we were on
swim team together. And Dixon, sitting at the table, looked down at his ex-benedict,
looked up at me and said, Aaron, this is awkward, but we were never on the swim team together.
I was not on the swim team, and my brain sort of shifted in my head because I realized that
that thing that sometimes happens when you have a memory, sort of a core and important memory,
sometimes they are wrong. I read about a woman recently who had grown up with this very central
core memory of her dad. Her dad died when she was 10, so all of her childhood memories were
especially precious to her, and he would read this same book to her every night, her bedtime story,
and she loved this book so much, and she would tell people how her dad read this book to her,
and later she was writing an article about that, and she looked up the book and realized it was
published five years after her dad died. This thing, I mean our brains, you know, they kind of,
sometimes the wires get crossed, and we insert a memory from a different place into an older one,
all those sorts of things, and so I give you these stories to invite you to consider the possibility
that in some things in life, this is controversial, you might be wrong.
Not about a lot of things, I mean I'm sure about the vast majority of things, you are 100% correct,
but there might be a few areas in life where you have gotten things mixed up, you may not be right,
and that is my point, just hold that thought that we might be wrong about things, you might
actually be wrong about some things. Now this is not a new problem, you heard a reading from
Johns Gospel chapter 6 where Jesus is meeting people who have the wrong idea. They have the
wrong idea about what someone from God is supposed to look like. Jesus has just said this thing,
it's rather striking, I'm living bread who's come down from heaven, it's a claim to divinity,
he's done miracles, he's forgiven sins, which generally is something God does, not people,
and they think, no way, this is not possible, we know you Jesus, they say, they're offended,
we went to prom with you, you know, you, we watched the Super Bowl at your house, and Joseph was
super uptight about feet on the upholster, you know, there's, we know you, there's no way you're
from God because if someone is from God, if someone is a divine messenger in the Jewish context,
if someone is the Messiah, they are a political leader, they are a military leader, they are a
religious leader, they have magical powers, maybe they look like Halis Alassi, you know, he was the
emperor of Ethiopia until 1974, and he was revered with God like quality even people today,
still think he was divine. The Rastafarian way of thinking sees him as a divine figure, and I mean,
he got a give it to him, he's got the helmet with the plumes, he has all the medals, I mean,
the gold braids, all of the stuff, I mean, that is a very dignified, impressive figure, sure,
that's what a divine military leader should look like, my father was a diplomat in Adis Ababa
in the 70s and met Halis Alassi, he also had a little dog, he brought with him everywhere, so
all these things convey divine power, and that's what a person who's a Messiah should look like,
you know, Halis Alassi did not invent that, if you go back to the Roman times, when Jesus was
teaching and doing his work and in his ministry, the emperors of Rome were called sons of God,
Julius Caesar was a son of God, Caesar Augustus, a son of God, that was their divine title, they
were divine beings. We think if someone comes from God, they should be able to, at the very
least, shoot lasers out of their eyes, you know, kind of a Superman, Captain America vibe,
should be going on, a little black panther, should have some amazing martial arts skills,
all these things, and of course, you know, what God comes to do when he is on earth, he should be
rewarding the do-gooders, giving out merit badges to the holy, and should be punishing, giving
to merits to those who are not, and Jesus' entire ministry, up to this point, has been to show
these folks that they are wrong. The idea that they've been carrying in their head about who
God is and what God is like when God is on earth, that idea that they have is wrong, because he's
been forgiving sinners and spending time with him going out of his way to be compassionate to them,
giving good gifts to those who don't deserve them or earn them into the religious people,
the Holy Rollers, he has some really strong words, not a rebukes, so he is not following the right
plan, and they are so wrong, the people around Jesus, they have this wrong idea, they reject him.
In Jesus' ministry can be compared to that of Shock G, who was the rapper in the digital underground,
remember 1990, the Humpty Dance, some of you remember the Humpty Dance, and Shock G begins,
thank you Richard Guy, blessings to you, thanks be to God, stop what you're doing, because I'm
about to ruin the image and the style that you're used to, is how Shock G begins that song,
and Jesus' ministry is to ruin everybody's image of what they think God is supposed to be like,
and he does it throughout his ministry, and he does it in this passage today, the thing that he
said that got them all upset was, I am the bread of life, in verse 35, he says, I am the bread of
life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me, believes in me, not like
your coach is like, I believe in you, Megan, but like believes in me, I am the bread of life,
and this is the divine claim, you know, we might think it's this kind of metaphorical thing,
and in a way it is, he's not a loaf of wonder bread stand and they're talking,
but there's something more to this, and the people who are listening to him know that he's
connecting himself to mana, that thing in the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus, when the Jews
were wandering in the desert for 40 years, no food or water except God would provide food,
every morning they'd wake up, there'd be this divine bread on the ground, mana, that they would
eat, and it would sustain them, and he's saying, I am that, but I am living that, I am an alive
version, living and breathing version of that, and I've come down from heaven, and in case it wasn't
weird enough, he says, I am the living bread that came down from him, whoever eats this bread will
live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
Ew, it's kind of gross, eat my flesh, it's no surprise that in the early days of the Christian
church, the Romans rejected Christianity because they thought it was this weird cannibalistic religion
because they always talked about eating some guys flesh. When children come to church,
that's the thing you do, you grow up in youth group, you go to summer camp, you accept Jesus,
college, you take a break, and then you get married 27, 28, you have a child, and you're like, I
have got to get this kid to behave, we're going back to church, and you bring your child to church,
they're about six or seven, so they're old enough to know what's going on, and they hear us,
like holding up this thing, and we're breaking it, and like, this is my body, and it's given for you,
and then you have a conversation on the car ride home, who's this guy that we're eating?
Right, they hear it literally, which is sort of what Jesus wants us to do, it's sort of a shocking
thing because we have these ideas about God that are wrong, and Jesus gives us this swift,
spiritual kick in the head to quote many driver and gross point blank, to wake us up.
He wants us to realize that the idea we've carried around, the image and the style that we're used to,
of what God is like, is actually completely off. He is the bread of life, and he uses us to say
some really important things, to get us to understand him, you know, this was a system religiously
where Jesus was working, where people thought, we were the ones that brought food to God, that's
the whole sacrificial system, the oil, the wine, the bread, the livestock, all this was seen as
we offer the stuff to God, you know, there were bread offerings and grain offerings and wine offerings,
all this, and Jesus saying, no, I'm the one that's supposed to offer that to you, and it's me,
and he says, bread of life, he doesn't say, bread is something common and earthy, and it's right
next to you, it's in your home all the time, it's the staple of your diet, it's not saying, I'm the
lobster thermidor of life, the thing you never have, I am the bread of life, and he wants to nourish you
and sustain you, because he knows, as he says, that we are hungry and thirsty, and he's talking to
people that know God, they're religious people, they've been raised in this faith and it's important
to them, and yet he acknowledges that they're hungry and thirsty, and for people who are in
church, sometimes we are taught that we're not supposed to have any more questions or doubts
or difficult times or fears, I remember when I was a kid and I heard Bono sing in 1986's Joshua
Tree album, the greatest album of the last half of the 20th century, in the song, I still haven't
found what I'm looking for, that line, which I thought was shocking, because here I am, this young
earnest Christian, and I was sort of taught that you're supposed to be confident all the time,
in Jesus, and yet he's saying, I still haven't found what I'm looking for, he says, you carried the
cross and all my shame, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for, he's giving words to the
reality that even for Christian people, we've got a dose of the ghosts, we're washed in the blood,
all of it, we can still have those moments where hungry and thirsty, and he names that and says,
I want to be your food, I want to be your drink, so you're never hungry or thirsty again,
and the way he says it is, you have to receive this bread, eat this bread,
and you know what that means, he doesn't say, hold the bread, you know, take this baguette
and just tuck it under your arm, have a pita, put it in your pocket,
he says, eat it, and when you eat something you destroy it, to make it a part of yourself,
it is destroyed, and he says something about God, you have thought that God is powerful, far away,
laser beams, all of that, but I'm right here with you, I'm for you, I'm to nourish and sustain you,
and I am willing to give myself up to be destroyed for you, and that may sound a little intense,
Jesus was an intense guy, but it reveals something else about God too, which is that
the death of God is the channel through which we begin to understand that God wants to forgive and
love us. What do I mean by that? Well, I hope you get it into it in some way when we come to this
table, as we do every Sunday, but I think it sort of came to life to me in something that
Bernay Brown said, St. Bernay lives in Houston, you know, podcast, best-selling, author,
HBO, special, Netflix special, all the things that she's a social scientist and researcher,
and in her, and has the top, one of the top 10 most watched TED talks of all time, but what's
important about her is that in her midlife, she had the crisis, the midlife crisis, and here she
was this progressive person who'd sort of left the religion of her childhood and moved on from
that and was not really a church-going person or religious person in a significant way, but her
therapist said, you know, some people in your situation find a religious community helpful,
encourage you to visit a church, and she said, okay, well, I'm a progressive person, so it can't
be a place that talks about God too much, and it can't have Jesus in the name, you know, St. Agnes would
be fine, but it can't be Jesus, it can't be too Jesus-y, so she ends up at Christ church.
The Episcopal Cathedral in downtown Houston, and she said, I was expecting church to be like an
epidural, you know, numb the pain, platitudes, comforting sayings, rainbows and bunnies,
that sort of vibe, and in her words, she says, I got there and there was blood on the floor,
metaphorically speaking, they're always talking about this guy, because it was an Episcopal church,
so they're doing what we do here, they talk about Jesus giving himself for the world, the sacrifice
for our sins, all of that language, and she said, I realized that church, it's not to numb the pain,
this bread of life who's giving himself for the world, she realized it was a place where
God meets us in our hunger and our thirst and our pain. The Dean of the Cathedral that time,
Joe Reynolds, two deans ago, he told her, in order for forgiveness to happen, something has to die,
I mean, that's the experience we have in our own lives, if you've been hurt and you've had to
forgive someone, you know that there's a death for yourself involved in that, because you're letting
go of something that you'd rather continue to hold against that person, or that institution,
or that experience, forgiveness requires a death, and Jesus coming to earth and saying, I am the
bread of life, and I give myself my flesh for the life of the world, that's the death that,
in a mysterious way, that if you claim to understand it, you don't, because it's God's work,
God's business, but somehow, this is the vehicle, the vessel, the channel, through which God
communicates to you, I am willing to give up everything into face death for your forgiveness,
because that's my love for you, and this is, if you've ever loved someone who has been in pain and
wanted to take the pain and have it for yourself, so they didn't experience it, this is on homeland,
people, you know, you think this is a lofty theological concept, you know, the embassy and Islamabad,
and there's bad guys coming in, and they're threatening this person, and the little CIA agent
is like, no, take me, it's a lame example, but I'm like, if it's happening on homeland with
Claire Daines, this dynamic is something with which humans are familiar, and this is what Jesus
is saying, I am the bread of life, to give myself for the life of the world, this is how God feels
about you, take this bread, eat it, know that God wants not just to be far away, but with you next
to you, in your homes, in your heart, in your life, and he wants you to know that God is one who
takes all the evil in the world into himself, and wants to give himself up for you, God is here
for you, so you may continue to have wrong ideas about all kinds of things in life, you may
continue to be tempted to have wrong ideas about God, I do it all the time, I always revert back to
that thing that God's probably not happy with me, and God's angry at other people, and God's
need to be judged, and all the people I don't like, I'm fine, but the other people he needs to judge,
and you know, that's the thing we do all the time, and yet Jesus reminds us, Sunday after Sunday
here in this place, he is the bread of life, given for the life of the world, he gives himself for you,
which means many things, but the thing I want you to take home today is when God looks at you,
his love is staggering, and he could not love you anymore, your sins could not be more forgiven
than they are, all of them, even the ones you think are too heavy, he takes them, and offers you
himself, life, and love, and grace, let us pray. Almighty God, thank you that you are the bread of
life, living bread, grant that we would receive that today, we pray in Christ's name, amen.