Sermon for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh gains you nothing. The words I speak to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63)

This verse might seem to refute everything I said last Sunday about the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the bread and the wine of Holy Communion. You see, Jesus tells us today that the "the flesh is useless" (New Rev. Standard Version). What difference does it make if Jesus is "really" present? It's his spiritual presence that matters. The flesh means nothing, right? It turns out that too many Christians have thought that and said that for far too long. And before we understand the relationship between spirit and flesh in Holy Communion, we need to bring spirit and flesh back together in our understanding of them. Spirit and flesh are both meant to live forever. If we assume that it is only the Spirit that lives forever, then we have sold short the flesh which the risen Jesus was born in, died in, and lives in today.

Spirit versus Flesh. That has been the great and tragic wrestling match throughout our history as a church. Far too often, our flesh has seemed like an enemy to our souls. And there is no time where our bodies and souls seem more like enemies than at the death of our bodies. When we or someone we love is near physical death, we know that the spirit inside us is not meant for death but for life. And we want that spirit to be free of all that weighs it down. And the body at that time seems like a burden of which we want to be free. It is understandable for us to want that for ourselves and for those we love.

But before you take that leap, look back at that body, which has been the source of so many joys, and ask yourself: Were the 40, 50, 60 or 70 years really "useless?" If the answer is yes, then why were we born at all? If the answer is yes, why did God become a flesh and blood human being? By itself, the flesh gains us nothing. But that does not make the flesh which the risen Jesus was born in, and died in, “useless.” The word that the NRSV translates as “useless” actually means to “profit nothing.” Thus, what Jesus is saying is that by itself, the flesh will not gain you anything lasting, not that the flesh is useless. The Spirit of the risen Jesus will gain everlasting life for our flesh, just as the risen Jesus continues to live in his human flesh.

Every Sunday that we break the bread at this holy table, we relive Jesus’s death for us, for our sins. But what makes this bread more than bread, and this wine more than wine, is that Jesus rose, not just in the spirit but in the body. He appeared to over 500 witnesses. And they became his witnesses, many if not most of them choosing death rather than deny what they had seen. And that testimony was given to the next generation of witnesses. It was between that “handing on” of the testimony from the first generation to the next that our Gospels were written. That is the written testimony. But there is also the testimony that has been handed down from generation to generation, the testimony that Jesus is risen.

And so every Sunday, we repeat Jesus’s words, and his words give spirit and life to this bread and wine. And when we eat Jesus and drink Jesus, it is not a dead Jesus that we consume, but the risen Jesus, who gives us a foretaste of eternal joy, eternal peace, and eternal life. Yes, the flesh must still die. But the risen Jesus who has already passed through death is waiting for our souls. And he will protect our souls until that day when Jesus’s resurrection will be ours as well. That is the promise that we taste each Sunday, that the risen Jesus will give spirit and life to our bodies. All that we suffer, and enjoy, in this physical life is simply a preparation for the joys that will forever be ours.

These are the words of spirit and life that Jesus speaks to us every day of our lives. Where else shall we go?