First reading: Joshua 24:1-2,15-18
Psalm: Ps 34:2-3,16-21
Epistle: Ephesians 5:21-32
Gospel: John 6:60-69

—The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe.——¨

The club

You might say that we belong to a club – Christians that is. We have Jesus’ words which are Spirit and life. We partake in the meals that I spoke of last week. We follow the club’s rules and its traditions. It is pretty cool to belong to the club. We even have a distinctive name: Christians. The apostles chose to belong to the club. Peter put it this way:

—Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.—

For sure, they joined the club.

As human beings we generally abhor separateness. We like to belong and Jesus wanted us to live as community. Now hold that thought about separateness versus belonging.

Is there a not club?

We could say that those who reject Christ do not belong to the club. That was pretty obvious from today’s Gospel. Those who wanted out left after Jesus crossed the line from interesting preacher and miracle doer to a challenge.

many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer accompanied him.—¨

In leaving they said:

—This saying is hard; who can accept it?—

As Christians we have a tendency to beat non-believers and those who have left us over the head with this saying. We want to draw a distinction between club members and non-members, outsiders. We call them weak, unable to meet the hard saying, the narrow path. If we are the club and on the path then they must be the opposite — outsiders. We are the ones who accept the challenge of the club and the path while everyone else rejects it.

Is there any hope?

Club versus non-club, the path versus the wide way of corruption. There are tons of distinctives and a lot of Christian history has been an engagement in the drawing of lines. It was thought that we could tidily box in the club and dwell securely. We, on the inside, in the club, on the path — we have our destiny wrapped up. Everyone outside the club, well we made great paintings of hell fire and preached on it extensively. Stay in the club or die. If you’re not in the club it would appear that there’s no hope.

Is there any hope?

Jesus fixes our perspective:

Jesus fixed us but good for our perspectives didn’t He?

Look at the world — amass in non-club members. I think there’s more outside than inside. Look at the churches on Sunday. Many empty, many filled with the few and the aged. Look at the denominations. They’re out there making every accommodation possible. They’ve changed core beliefs, long held doctrines — perhaps not because of belief in any of it but rather as a marketing ploy. Everyone is running about and is trying to fix the club. But, we can’t fix it, not that way. Jesus is presenting us with a big challenge and He’s fixing our bad habits. The world has changed. We expected folks to join the club just because its a club — but it doesn’t work that way — it probably never should have.

The big club

Jesus challenge is to recognize the big club, the fact that all are entitled to the club. The fix Jesus is looking for is that we knock down the self-containing walls and that we get active — invite those we consider non-members into the club. Our call is to everyone regardless of what they call themselves. Jesus’ message is for all and all are entitled to hear it.

To do that we need to get busy. We need to remove the labels and the classifications of outsider and insider. We need to take the message of the Church to all, to the unbelievers, disbelievers, and believers in whatever else may be out there. We need to say that we are here, this is what we believe, and here’s how we live.

But…

But people will be offended, they’ll resist…

Certainly and we cannot force people into the club. Our membership is free. We have a free association of those who hold the faith. If someone were forced to be here we’d have diluted the truth of the faith — God’s open invitation through grace to be regenerated.

Our message is that the unchurched and the non-believer, the person caught up in a destructive way of living, the lonely, the sad, young, old, the rich, poor, and the in-between, the smart and the ordinary – everyone, everybody, everywhere is invited, that they have a place, a role in the Church. Our job — to invite all, to give them the opportunity to choose to believe as we believe and to uphold charity toward those who choose differently.

The message:

Our saying may be perceived as hard, and we can’t change who we are as an accommodation to the world. What we represent is all Jesus said and taught, the words of everlasting life.

The hard saying is a challenge because it initially confronts selfishness, the comfortable place a person has found, the easy chair of pre-conceived notions — but in the end the challenge is found to be an easy and light burden.

Think of the person who responds to your call by saying: —How can I be a member of the club, I’m too far gone.— At first we might think that sad. Rather than sadness we need to act, to invite: —You’re already a member and you are my brother. Come with me without cost.— We can echo the words of Isaiah 55:1:

come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.

Everyone, everybody, everywhere — our job, Jesus’ challenge, go out and invite them, sometimes over and over, and let them know that they are as much a part of us as we are of them in God’s kingdom. Some may not choose belief, membership, but our job, to put aside separateness and to offer belonging. Amen.