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SERMONS

The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
August 24, 2003

What do you want? What do you really want? What do you yearn for in the depths of your soul? One way to approach this question is to complete the statement: I would be content if ... Or, my life would be fulfilled if ...

If I never had to worry about money again. If I could retire. If the Saints would win the Super Bowl. If my wife really understood me. If my child would clean up his room. If everyone had enough to eat. If all people really were treated as equals. If there were no more wars.

What do you yearn for?

This unfulfilled desire-this sense of yearning-is not unique to our age. Throughout history people have searched for that which will truly satisfy. In the fourth century Augustine spent the first thirty years of his life searching for fulfillment: through education, through physical pleasure, through philosophy, through cultic belief. Always searching for that one thing that would satisfy his longing.

The people of the first century were no different. The crowds that followed Jesus were there for a reason. They were looking for something. They needed something, or someone. And they hoped to find it in Jesus. What were they looking for? For some, perhaps a king, a great warrior who would overthrow the Romans and lead the people of Israel back to greatness. For some, perhaps a teacher who would answer all their questions. For some, perhaps a healer who would end their pain and suffering. For some, perhaps material wealth.

In Jesus they got more than they asked for, and yet less. Jesus would not be all things to all people. Jesus would not promise greatness; he would not promise wealth; he would not promise an end to pain and suffering. Jesus promised only one thing. He promised life. He promised true life, the life they were created to live. Life in communion with the Father.

But for many that was not enough. They wanted "life and." Life and security. Life and good health. Life and power. Life and wealth. Life and comfort.

So they took offense. When Jesus refused to give them what they wanted-when Jesus promised them only what they needed-they took a hike.

But to those who recognized what Jesus had to offer, he gave what they needed. Peter said, "Lord,... you have the words of eternal Life." And Augustine, after his thirty years of searching for meaning, found that meaning in Christ. "Our souls," he said, "are restless, until they find their rest in you."

What Jesus offered to Peter and the twelve, what Jesus offered to Augustine, this he offers to us. Life. Eternal life. True life. Life with the Father. Rest for restless souls.

As the people of Israel approached the promised land after forty years of traveling through the wilderness, Joshua offered them a choice. "You must choose," he said. "The Lord is jealous. You can serve him, or you can serve the other gods. But you cannot serve both."

The choice offered to the people of Israel is the choice offered to us. We can choose to accept what Christ offers, or we can take offense and turn back. But if we choose to follow Christ we must follow him alone. We cannot choose Christ and wealth, or Christ and power, or Christ and country, or Christ and a good name.

We can choose life.

Or we can take offense and turn back.

What do you really want?

David Christian
The Chapel of the Cross
Madison, Mississippi

Proper 16B
Joshua 24.1-2a, 14-25
Ephesians 5.21-33
John 6.60-69