May I speak in the love of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

 What WAS Jesus thinking?  He walks into the synagogue at Capernaum B where they are kind of particular about keeping kosher  --  and says “Eat my flesh  --  drink my blood.”  Dietary laws in first- century Judaism were sacrosanct and tasting blood was expressly forbidden. And here’s this itinerant teacher -- Joseph and Mary’s kid from Nazareth -- who stays with Peter the fisherman just down the road --telling the congregation that he offers something even better than the life-saving manna that Yahweh showered on his chosen people in the wilderness.  Who does he think he is? Why is he saying these outrageous things and why is he saying them in the synagogue?  And what does it tell us about what we should say and where we should stand when we say it?

I was interested to see that the Episcopal lectionary, which we use here, includes that last sentence, “He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.” But the Revised Common Lectionary, which is now used by many Episcopal churches, drops it from the Gospel reading for today.  There isn’t much extraneous material in the Bible. Even all those begats have meaning.  And as any Bible student knows, place matters.  All first year students at General Seminary learn this in Old Testament in a rite of passage known with fear and affection as “the dreaded map quiz.” In this demonstration of geographic illiteracy, students are given a blank map of the Middle East and are asked to put towns, bodies of water, and countries in their correct places as they existed when Moses was wandering around. So let’s take a look at Capernaum and its synagogue in the first century and see why it’s significant.

The town of Capernaum was and is situated on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is mentioned often in the New Testament, and is also called the Sea of Tiberias, Lake Kenneret, and other names depending on who was doing the naming. The so called “sea” is actually a huge fresh water lake, large enough to behave like a sea when sudden storms arise, and which Jesus and his disciples crisscrossed by fishing boat in the years of his ministry in that area, traveling between the towns so familiar from the Bible -- Tiberias, Genneseret, Bethsaida, Migdal where Mary Magdalene was from, and Capernaum.

I’m not exactly an archeology junky, but I was really quite thrilled to find out that excavations in Capernaum have uncovered places where Jesus actually walked and taught. Work on the ruins of a fourth century synagogue revealed that it was built on the ruins of a first century synagogue, which is almost certainly the very synagogue where Jesus spoke the words we read today, where he said “This is the bread that came down from heaven.”  And Peter’s house really is just down the road -- very close to the lake shore. When the fourth century pilgrim Egeria wrote of her journey to Capernaum, she made note of Peter’s house, so it was still standing in tact then. That dwelling was an early house church mentioned throughout the Gospels, what Mark called a “place of formation” where Jesus gave his “private teachings” after the public ones.  House churches could not be public in that time and place, so the worship and teaching in Peter’s house was quite clandestine. There is now a beautiful Byzantine church built on that site, and it is centered on what is called the “venerated room” of Peter’s house. This was the room set aside from daily activities. The room where Jesus taught his disciples privately. The room where they worshiped away from the synagogue.

Capernaum was Jesus’ adopted hometown after he left Nazareth, and he spent a good deal of time there. It was where he called his first disciples, performed many miracles, and ultimately cursed it for its faithlessness.

First century Judaism was always under attack and persecution, so it isn’t too surprising that Capernaum was entirely Jewish and non-Jews were forbidden to live there. However, ancient historians mention that there was a group in the town called “minim” or heretics. These were the Jesus followers, the Jewish Christians. Some of them may have eventually joined John’s community.  They were definitely unwelcome, and they met secretly at Peter’s house church. So when Jesus goes into the synagogue at Capernaum and speaks of himself as the Bread of Life sent from heaven and offers his body and blood to the congregation, he is doing something very very risky.  Certainly in violation of sacred law and tradition. He is also doing God’s will and speaking truth with love.  But we know the cost.  We have just commemorated a modern-day risk taker, Jonathan Daniels, who paid with his life in a liberation struggle.  He should perhaps stand for the many unnamed and unremembered risk takers of the civil rights movement, and it seems appropriate as we consider present-day risk taking, that we should ask, “What should WE say and where should we stand when we say it?”

What does this seemingly crazy act of Jesus mean to John’s community -- and to us? This is the last of the four gospels, written well after the crucifixion and resurrection, probably late in the first century, after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 CE.  And it’s all about community – what’s going on in John’s community.  The story of John’s community is very complex and the subject of hundreds of volumes of research, thousands of esoteric lectures, and dense scholarly treatises in various languages, so please forgive me while I grossly oversimplify. 

John’s community was a conglomeration of people from different backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs, and they were a fractious bunch. Sound like anyone we know? The original mission of Christ’s ministry was to bring the Good News to the Jews, God’s chosen people, so of course,  Jesus and his disciples worked in the Jewish community and in the synagogues.  Where else? They were Jews practicing their own faith and bringing a new message to their own people.  They stood firmly on their own faith and tradition and preached a message of love to their own people.  We also begin in our own house with a message of love and the good news that God is continuing to do new things with us. It was only after the resurrection that Jesus gave the Great Commission of going to “all the nations.” And it was only after much rejection from the Jewish community that the disciples evangelized extensively among non-Jews. But in this particular message to John’s community the mission to the Jews is still alive. Don’t give up --even though it’s dangerous -- and no matter what happens, Jesus Christ promises life everlasting through his Body and Blood.

All the early communities of Jesus followers were in danger from various quarters: from Jewish authorities who saw them as heretics, from the Roman power structure that saw them as subversive troublemakers, and from their own internal conflict.  Imagine that -- conflict among the followers of Jesus!

John’s community went through an evolution, attracting different kinds of people who understood Jesus and his message in rather different ways. One group of believers remained in the synagogues, refusing to publicly confess their belief in Christ -- closet Christians, we might call them.  A second group broke with the synagogue to follow the Jesus movement but did not believe in the divinity of Jesus. A third group included both Jews and Gentiles, confessed Jesus as the Son of God, but did not understand the gift or function of the Holy Spirit -- among other things -- and John considered them not really members of his community, although he hoped for unity. There was division over the humanity and divinity of Jesus, the meaning of the Body and Blood, the work of the Holy Spirit, and whether Jesus existed before creation, among other issues of faith and doctrine.  One group regarded another as children of Satan -- the anti-Christ. Another group believed only in the divinity, not the humanity of Jesus and broke away from the community. From there developed gnosticism and a variety of sects and doctrines. The early church continued to evolve through various interpretations and persecutions and wars and schisms.  On through the centuries.  And we’re still here!! So what should we say and where should we stand when we say it?

Jesus spoke even though the people didn’t understand.  Over the years, many people who work for the liberation of various groups have spoken and acted knowing that they would not be understood and that liberation might not come in their lifetime.  We are called to that risky work. Even in the face of division we must be willing to speak truth with love in the church and in the public square.

These last few weeks we have been profoundly focused on issues of sexuality and honesty and respect. Those issues will not go away any time soon, and we are called to stand firmly in our belief in a loving God whose marvelous creations we ALL are, and continue to speak with the knowledge that the kingdom can’t exist where there is so much hate.  And there are other issues of inequality and injustice that concern this church -- this church and the Church.  Too many people still are not full citizens in the church. There are churches not so far from here where women and girls are still not welcome to serve at the altar. I know of a number of churches where women were not welcome to bear the chalice until the last year.  And of course there are still places where women cannot be ordained.  The old saying that Sunday morning is the most segregated time in this country is still true.  The Church has been very slow to look at its complicity in the institutional racism of this country.  The Denver convention three years ago passed a resolution that all church leaders, lay and ordained, must take anti-racism training -- and it isn’t happening in most churches, nor in most seminaries. People with disabilities do not find a ready welcome in many churches because of accessibility issues -- not just physical access, but because they can’t see or hear well and there is no accommodation for that.  And then there’s language ....  This convention had something to say about that too. Seminarians will soon be adding Spanish and other “living” languages to the traditional Greek and Hebrew.  What should we say and where should we stand when we say it?

And there is something that is very near and dear to the heart of this church -- hunger and homelessness. Every day, in God’s name, we see and feed and try to help hundreds of the city’s most vulnerable people.  The social service system is a maze full of Catch 22s and circular staircases leading back to the basement.  Last week a man came to the door looking for a shelter.  Because it was during the blackout and phone service was down in most places, there wasn’t much we could do for him.  Most basic services, whether it’s shelter or food pantry or clothing, don’t provide help without a phone call and letter of reference. A lot of what we do involves making that phone call and providing a reference.  For women it’s especially difficult because there are so few shelter facilities.  A woman came in recently with legs and feet ballooned with swelling from sleeping in a chair for the last few weeks.  Drop in centers do not provide beds, only chairs, and it can take weeks and months before a shelter bed opens up and the drop-in center can refer the woman out.  Many give up and just go back to living on the street.  Several people have come to us in the last few weeks desperate for detox from drugs and alcohol. The answer is the same everywhere. There are no available beds.  We stand in the face of a system that is not compassionate, is underfunded and understaffed, and when it works best dispenses Bandaids.

Jesus stands in the synagogue and says dangerous and radical things that change us and change the world, speaking to us across the centuries, bidding us to do the same.  What shall we say and where shall we stand when we say it?

If speaking out means causing division in the Church, should we keep silent in the Church?  If it means angering “princes and powers” -- even bringing their might to bear against the Church, should we then be silent in the public square?  Paul says to the Ephesians in today’s epistle, “make the most of the time, because the days are evil.”  The Church may splinter, divide, re-form -- it already has many times. The state may attack the Church -- it has many times.  But we should take both solace and strength from the knowledge that we are all united in Jesus Christ -- even to those who cause us pain -- and we need not be afraid.  We are all -- ALL -- sustained in God’s redeeming love through the Body and Blood of Christ, and by our own Beloved Community.

Thanks be to God!

Amen.