Trinity 11: 1 Kings 19, 4-8; Eph 4, 25-5,2; John 6, 35; Preached in St. Paul’s Athens.

The Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan.

 

We note that in tragedies, as well as loss and suffering, there are great acts of bravery. Such bravery is not just among members of the emergency services, but in normal human beings. These are times when human nobility shines through the darkness. We should rejoice that we as humans can be transformed from our everyday lives, to actions of heroism – humanity at its best.

Sadly, of course, we don’t always see humanity at its best, and we can ourselves be the culprits. We can be examples of the very antithesis of the nobility I have referred to. We can so easily be attracted to the baser instincts of behaviour and attitude, and we can often say the wrong things. A deep reason for this is often boredom and complacency. In boredom we are not well motivated; in complacency we don’t seem to think it matters how we speak to someone else, or about someone else.

A friend of mine, who is a Greek priest, said to me not that long ago that Corinth is a difficult place – with difficult people living there. He is reflecting perhaps, the reason why St. Paul had to write such harsh things to the church people of Corinth 2000 years ago. On his visits he had seen unacceptable behavior, and inappropriate language.

In today’s second reading, it is not the church people in Corinth who are having to be challenged by St. Paul, but the Christian community at Ephesus. Corinth does not have a monopoly on the negatives of the human condition.

Paul’s words are a real challenge to the Ephesians, to us and all Christians when he urges us to ‘walk in the way of love’.

Part of our danger as Christians comes when our faith is tired and bored. When we lose the vibrancy of faith we lose touch with all that holds us together in love with Christ and with one another. When our faith is bored and sluggish we are tempted to say things about God that we would otherwise chose not to say; we speak to one another in ways that fall short of ‘building others up according to their needs’ as St. Paul phrases it.

When our faith is bored being a member of a Christian community can feel like just being a member of a club – a club with rules for membership but no real moral and spiritual core. Paul is going for the jugular when he criticizes the baser conduct of the Ephesian Christians, not just telling them what they should stop doing, but also encouraging them to follow Christ’s God-like example. He is entreating them to be changed and transformed into the likeness of Christ who is the foundation of our living faith.

Spiritual boredom though is very cancerous to our souls. The ancient fathers of the church (and some mothers!) were all too aware of this. They spoke often of being alert, paying attention, being ready, awake to the possibilities of God’s action in themselves and in other people. They refer to this awakenness as nepsis.

It is when we are alert to Christ in ourselves and in each other that we truly see and experience who Christ is. In our gospel reading we have a good example of the failure to see who Christ is.

When Jesus says to the people that he is the bread of life come down from heaven, the folks say, and maybe not surprisingly, “What? Who does he think he is? We know his mum and dad, so what does he think he is saying to us – because it won’t wash; we know better.’ The crowd is playing to the baser side of their human personality. Their inherited religion is bored – they keep the rules and the protocols they have received, but the faith is dead, and because of this they are a complaining and grumbling people, of the sort that Paul addresses in Ephesus, of the sort that we all can so easily become when we lose sight of our calling to be Christ’s witness to the world.

Each time we are invited to draw near and receive the bread of the eucharist, we are receiving signs of Christ – Christ as he promises his church to be. He is present to us and we come just as we are in order to receive him – this is surely one of the great joys and beauties of our Christian faith. We are accepted for who we are.

Yet who we are now does not mean that we are static and fixed as people. As we receive the Eucharistic bread each time we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ – we are called to become more and more like the one who gives himself in bread and wine.

As this happens we begin to see ourselves more and more in the image of Christ – this is not idolatry; it is actually the Christian vocation, our baptismal calling. We begin also to see Christ in others as we hope and pray that they can see Christ in and through us.

So St. Paul had to say some hard things to the ordinary Christian community in Ephesus, as he challenges the more basic side of their human nature. Paul will for them to walk in the way of love; to walk with Christ alongside them; to walk a common path with each other.

This we do, as we draw near to Christ, who makes himself  known to us in the transforming bread and wine of our Holy Eucharist.