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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sermon text looking at John chapter 6 today, especially about bread. Bread is such a common thing. Most cultures use bread in some form, but here in the United States, bread is very common. It’s even got its own aisle in the grocery store, and it’s full of all kinds of bread: white, wheat, rye, pumpernickel, 8-grain, 12-grain, whole grain, oat grain, raisin, swirl, and gluten-free. Some stores even sell day-old bread.
And bread comes in many forms: sliced, unsliced, rolls, croissants, biscuits, buns, bagels, sticks, English muffins, even crustless bread. You can buy bread that the crust has been removed. Isn’t that handy? There’s bread in the deli, in the bakery, and even in the frozen foods section. Bread is very common to us.
Well, the gospel readings for the past, it seems like umpteen Sundays, have been from John chapter 6. And it deals a lot with bread in that chapter. It starts with Jesus feeding the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish. And then he goes on to call himself the bread of life. And today we hear Jesus kind of finish this bread sermon, talking about the necessity of eating the bread which came down from heaven, and that his flesh and blood are that bread. He talks about needing to eat the bread of life, of eating his flesh and blood.
Well, like the people in the gospel reading today, we too might respond with, “This is a hard saying. Who can listen to this? Who can understand this?” Well, I’d like to explain it this way. I’d like to explain it as God taking what’s common… and making it uncommon. God making common uncommon.
First off, we all have a common problem. No, I don’t mean climate change or terrorism or the economy, or the traffic or property taxes in Austin. The problem we have, the common problem we have is what God calls sin. Sin is something that we share in common. Sin. And it’s very common to us. And sin isn’t just imperfections or making mistakes or failures. Sin is rebellion against God, against His law and design for our relationship with Him and our relationship with each other. Sin is common, just as common as bread, maybe even more so.
Just look around at this world. Take a look at the newspaper or the internet news feed and articles there show that this world is twisted and broken and full of sin. If you really want to see it, read the comments after articles in the news feed. That’s where we really see, like bread, this world of sin can be crummy, crusty, stale, moldy. That’s the world of common sin today that we live in. And we contribute to that. We’re just as responsible for making life crummy and crusty and stale and moldy.
And like bread, our sin comes in many forms: sin against God, sin against others, sin against ourselves. Some common sins that we commit are doing, saying, or thinking hurtful things, lying, cheating, being insensitive, posting things on the internet you probably shouldn’t, looking at things we probably shouldn’t, being concerned about ourselves, being self-centered, just being downright selfish. And well, you know what sins are common to you. You are, and I am, a common, sinful human being.
But God doesn’t leave you there. He doesn’t leave you as a common sinner. He doesn’t leave you as a common sinner. Because God has done something uncommon for you and your sin. God takes common, sinful human beings and makes them uncommon. He makes them holy and righteous and forgiven. See, God did something really uncommon. Really uncommon for a God to do, that is. He sent his son, Jesus Christ, into our common sinful world, taking on common human flesh and blood, and he died a very uncommon death on a cross. All of this to forgive your common sin. That’s pretty uncommon.
Somebody dying for something wrong that somebody else did. Uncommon that Jesus would die for something wrong that you did. But that’s what he’s done. And it gets even better. It gets even more uncommon. Because Jesus did something even more uncommon—he got back up. He was raised from the dead. That’s pretty uncommon. Even in today’s technology, somebody dying and rising again is uncommon. Uncommon.
And Jesus did it to give you life. Eternal life. Eternal life in the forgiveness of your common sins by his death and resurrection. You see, because Jesus is the bread of life. In John chapter 6, when he’s talking about the bread of life, he’s talking about himself. And the bread that’s come down from heaven, that’s him he’s talking about. He’s that bread. He’s the bread that we eat. Jesus’ uncommon actions of dying and rising again forgive us and give us life.
Jesus has taken the common sinner, you and me, and made us uncommon saints. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 says this. St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says to them, “You were once like that. You were once sinners,” he says. “You were once sinners, but you were cleansed. You were made holy. You were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
And all of this, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how uncommon or bad a sin you have done seems. And some sins can be like that, can’t they? Some sins we do just really stick. They can become like day-old bread, or month-old, or year-old, even decade-old bread that we hang on to—sins that we hang on to. They just don’t seem to go away sometimes.
I know someone who held on to two sins for 30 years each before they finally, completely let go of them. In the grace of God, you don’t have to hang on to those sins. They don’t have to stay common to you. In Jesus, God takes them away. He takes your common sin away from you and wants to make it uncommon to you. God wants to replace your common sin with his uncommon grace and mercy and forgiveness in Christ for you.
And God delivers that uncommon grace and mercy and forgiveness. He delivers it to us in some very common ways. God uses means to deliver his grace to us. He uses common things and makes them uncommon. One is the means of words. We understand words. We use words all the time to communicate. Words are very common to us. Some people use too many words or use them too long or too loudly, but words are common to us. Words that are either read, spoken, heard, written, sung, or even signed. God delivers his grace to us in words.
And we hear about that in the gospel today, that Jesus has words of eternal life. Jesus takes common words and he makes them uncommon. He fills words with the promises of eternal life. Peter confessed that today in the gospel reading when he said about Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life. Where else can we go for that?” And the answer to the question is nowhere. There’s no other place you can go for words of eternal life. The world is full of words—very common words—but none of them are full of eternal life. Only Christianity offers that promise. Other religions have words full of demands and laws. Jesus has words full of promise of eternal life.
The world has bread that you can eat, but it’s not the bread of life. It’s just bread that goes into your stomach and passes through and leaves you hungry still. Jesus has words of eternal life. And he uses words, common words, to deliver that to us.
So words are a common means that God uses, but so is baptism. Water—a very common thing. Sometimes not very common as much as we’d like it to be here in Central Texas, but it’s common. We can turn on the tap at any time and there it is. We understand water. It’s needed for washing and for nourishment. It’s common. But God takes common water, and by his word, his words of eternal life, he makes water a spiritual washing and cleansing of rebirth and new and eternal life.
We got to see that this morning at the earlier service for Joanna Ruth Norton as she was baptized here. When she was cleansed and made holy and made right with God by those words of promise with the water. And he did that for you in your baptism too. And he will for anyone who has yet to receive the blessing of baptism. In baptism, God takes common water and, with his word, makes a common sinful person clean, uncommon and part of his kingdom.
And another common means that God delivers his uncommon grace to us is in the Lord’s Supper. And this is the most pertinent means in the Gospel reading today. We understand eating and drinking. It’s very common. We do so every day—sometimes three meals a day, snacks in between. Food is very common to us. Eating and drinking is very common. But in the Lord’s Supper, God takes something very common, bread and wine, and makes them uncommon.
By his words, the bread and the wine are uncommon. They are Christ’s body and blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus says it himself. He says, “Take and eat, this is my body. Drink, this is my blood.” The Lord’s Supper is where you receive Jesus—Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. His flesh and blood are the uncommon thing that God has given to you on the cross and in this supper for that forgiveness, given to forgive your common sins.
So, I like to say this about the Lord’s Supper. Let me see if you can keep up with me here on this: The Lord’s Supper is an uncommon meal with common elements for common people with common sins to make them uncommon. Again, the Lord’s Supper is an uncommon meal with common elements for common people with common sins to make them uncommon, to make them forgiven, to make them clean and holy and right with God.
The Lord’s Supper—it’s where we receive, in a very real way, the bread of life. The bread that’s come down from heaven in Christ’s body and blood. Common elements, bread and wine, made uncommon by Jesus’ promise in his flesh and blood for us.
It’s a hard saying. It’s hard to understand. But today, in the communion hymns—really great hymns today during communion—if you usually don’t look at them, I really encourage you to do so today. But the hymns, “Let all mortal flesh keep silence,” and the hymn, “What is this bread?” really talk about and nail what’s going on up here. How uncommon this meal is for us common sinners, for our forgiveness. So I encourage you to really pay attention to those hymns during communion today.
God has a knack for taking common things and making them uncommon. God is good at that, using words, water, bread, and wine, and taking you, a common, sinful human being, and making you uncommon, making you forgiven, cleansed, holy, and right with God.
So we praise him for that. And we praise him as we prepare now to receive this uncommon meal to forgive our common sins. Amen.
