“…anyone who comes to me I will never drive away.” (John 6:37b)
On
Wednesday Pope Francis made an alarming statement about divorced and re-married
Catholics. The Pontiff said “People who started a new union after the defeat of
their sacramental marriage are not at all excommunicated, and they absolutely
must not be treated that way.” His Holiness stopped just short of saying that
divorced and remarried Catholics would be permitted to receive the bread and
wine of Holy Communion.
Whew!
I thought. That was a close one. Whenever Pope Francis makes a truly
compassionate and Christ-like statement—which he seems perpetually in the habit of doing—I get worried. After all, if the
Roman Church were ever to get its act together, what would be the point of
being a Lutheran? I might be out of a job!
But,
in all seriousness, the Pope’s remarks seem timely this week as I look at the
third of our five consecutive “Bread of Life” gospel lessons from the sixth
chapter of John. This week the Revised Common Lectionary gospel reading starts
with Jesus’ statement in verse 35, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me
will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” It then
jumps down to verse 41 where the “Jews” (read this, presumably, the Jewish
religious leaders) get their shorts bunched up because Jesus has claimed to
come down from heaven. Unfortunately, the RCL cuts verses 36 through 40 where
Jesus actually makes that claim of
heavenly origin. It also cuts verse 37 which I’ve quoted at the top of this
essay—a radical statement from the early church about Jesus’ gracious
inclusivity. Maybe Pope Francis was thinking about this when he made his
announcement about divorced people. Jesus is not in the business of driving folks
away if they come to him. And for good reason.
In
verse 43 Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent
me.” This seems to me to echo an earlier statement of belief from Saint Paul
who wrote, “…no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1
Corinthians 12:3b) Both of these statements can be a bit uncomfortable if your
favorite hobby is narrowly defining who is or is not a brother or sister in
Christ.
In
the gospel story, the Jewish leaders can’t accept Jesus’ statement that he has
come from God. They know his mom and dad, and they know he came from Nazareth
and not heaven. They don’t seem to be too open to the idea that the compassion,
wisdom, healing, and atoning forgiveness of the Creator God could ever be
present in this dirty peasant teacher from up in the sticks. Neither do they
warm to his calling himself the “bread that come down from heaven.” This bread,
as they understand it, can only be the providence God gave their ancestors in
the wilderness in the time of Moses. And why did God give this bread..? Because,
obviously, God likes people like them better than God likes anyone else.
But
the true Bread of Life transcends time and culture and our petty taxonomy and
our limited understanding. This bread feeds all who come with the hunger for
it, understanding that the very hunger itself comes from God.
God bless you, my hungry friends. You can hear Pope Francis' statement by clicking on his name.
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