Our family attended Christ Church in Appomattox this past Sunday. Christ Church is an Anglican church and meets in the chapel at Cornerstone Christian Academy. Dr. Geoffrey Hubler is the pastor.
I enjoyed the beauty of the hymns and the responsive liturgical readings. The following is Dr. Hubler's sermon based on John's Gospel, the sixth chapter.
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Dr. Hubler is preaching a series on the "I Am's" of Christ.
He reviewed last week's message based on the story of Christ walking on the water of a storm swept sea. The disciples were frightened when they saw Jesus but He said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." The words "It is I" are another way of saying, "I Am He."
Life has its fearful circumstances.
When God comes close to you it is a frightful thing to see Who He is and all that you are not. We learn the fear of the Lord as we approach God and are approached by Him. We also need to learn the release of fear and move on from being afraid of Him.
The words from the song, 'Amazing Grace' aptly phrase that concept: "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved."
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Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two small fish. When everyone had eaten and the leftovers were gathered up, some of those who had been fed wanted to come and take Jesus by force and make Him king, so He went off to the mountain to be alone.
The next day, after the event on the stormy waters, people came looking for Him on the other side of the sea. Jesus told them that they did not come looking for Him because they saw miraculous signs, but because they had eaten their fill. He exhorted them to labor for food which endures to everlasting life by believing in the one God sent.
They asked Him for more signs in order to believe in Him.
He told them that He was the bread of life sent from God.
(He was the sign.)
But even though they saw Him, they did not believe.
They wanted their free lunch.
We are alot like them.
We like to fit God into our lives which is different than enthroning Him as the God of our lives.
What do we pray for?
Do we pray about the Kingdom of God and His righteousness?
Do we concern ourselves with the Bread of Heaven?
In the midst of His dialogue with these people, Jesus said,"I have come down from heaven,..." He went on to say other things, but they could not hear anything else. "What does He mean when He says ' I have come down from heaven? Don't we know His family?"
And they were offended in Him.
Jesus had said that whoever comes to Him would never hunger and would never be driven away. He said that He would lose none that the Father had given Him.
The great irony is this:
Because of His hard sayings, many of His disciples 'walked no more with Him.'
They were ready to make Him King the day before because they had eaten their fill.
But when they heard His teaching that He was the Bread of Life and that they should feed on Him, they turned away.
How should they have responded?
How should we respond?
The sick woman reached through a crowd. "I'm going to lay hold of this man."
Jacob wrestled with God and his name changed from Jacob to Israel. "I will not let you go until you bless me."
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God, please give me to Jesus because He will not cast me out.
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Too often we do not hunger for the Bread of Life. We go through life without a sense of alarm because we are not hungry.
We are passive.
O God, please give me a hunger for the things of God and for the Bread of Life. Give me a thirst for You.
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The people got stuck on one spoken line and didn't hear the rest. The metaphor was lost on them. Jesus' body was broken and His blood was shed for us. We have to have the faith of the cross.
The Bread of Life is the message of the cross.
His broken body is God's provision.
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After his sermon, Dr. Hubler invited us to the communion table to share in the Bread of Life.
He said, "Come Beloved; all is prepared."
And we went up and received the symbols of Christ's broken body.
He laid his hands on the foreheads of the children who had not yet been baptized and blessed them.
We were blessed to be part of this service.
I want to write the words,"Come Beloved; all is prepared" on one of the pieces of wood salvaged from the old barn that fell on our property.
If I should never get around to doing that, no matter. Those words are now engraved in my heart.
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