The Reading from Galatians 2:16-20 The Reading from St. Mark 8:34-9:1 Mark 6:34 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. We sometimes feel this way. What are sheep like without a shepherd? Directionless, harassed, vulnerable to attack, no leader. No priorities. Unable to survive. We were like that but no longer. We have come to Christ and He will teach us many things. He is our Good Shepherd. But we have to follow Him, listen to His voice. Our compassionate Lord lifted you out of the water when you were in danger of drowning, and He put you back in His boat, His Church. So here you are, a sheep with a shepherd, listening to His voice and He is teaching you many things. Never stop seeking, never stop knocking, never stop asking Him for help and healing. Let’s look today at some of His teaching. We continue to celebrate the Feast of The Elevation of The Holy Cross today and the readings for today are very instructive reminders of what is at the core of authentic Christianity. These readings will enable us to re-align our priorities, re-center our lives, and encourage us to Godly discipline. And today as we have these readings ringing in our ears, I want to go further with these thoughts and stimulate us with some focus on the work of Jesus Christ for us. The Lord said, “If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it.” And what I want to do today is lead us into an understanding of this passage that is so essential to us, and yet how many really know what it means in our day to day life. To begin to dive into this I want to look into John chapter 6. I implore you to spend some time in the Gospel of John and today we will focus on a major turning point in the ministry of Jesus. So first let me remind you of what is happening in chapter 6. 1. Feeding of the 5000 2. Calming of the storm on the sea, walking of the waves, and saving the disciples 3. Jesus teaches that He is the Bread of Life: John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. So, to sum this up so far, Jesus has demonstrated Divine power to provide for His people, multiplying resources. He has demonstrated Divine power to control weather, to walk on water, and to keep His people safe, overturning the natural order. And then He claims to be Divine Food, eternal nourishment, He is better than the manna that saved Israel in the wilderness. He is saying that He is God, the God of the universe, the creator of the universe; The Giver of Life. So we are being taken from earthly, temporal concerns to heavenly, eternal concerns in His words. By word and deed He is showing Himself to be Messiah. And then there comes a 10 verse section that ramps that up a notch. John 6:48-58 I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” This was scandalous to those who heard, John 6:66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. They also said: John 6:60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” Jesus is also talking about two kinds of life. One is biological life, the other is spiritual life, eternal life When He says if you don’t eat and drink His body and blood you have no life in you He is saying that He rules over both biological life and spiritual life. This is demonstrated in what has just happened in John 6. Let me remind you that He says: Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. This is a major difference between being truly alive and merely surviving. This is the very thing that we need the most. To abide in Christ and for Him to abide in us. This does not happen by merely speaking some words of prayer in asking Him to forgive our sins. This is a major component of the Life in Christ. Many believe that communion is a symbol, that bread and wine symbolize the Body and Blood, because that is what it looks like. They believe that it is a memorial that we keep to remember His death and resurrection. This contradicts what I just read to you from John 6. It also contradicts what St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11. 1Cor. 11:27-30 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. If it can make you sick, if some die from eating and drinking in an unworthy manner it must be more than just a symbol. It contains Real Power. The Power of our God who is a consuming fire. In John 1, the great apostle says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Hear this word from St. John of Kronstadt: And the Word became flesh!…in order to make us earthly beings into heavenly ones, in order to make sinners into saints; in order to raise us up from corruption into incorruption, from earth to heaven; from enslavement to sin and the devil – into the glorious freedom of children of God; from death – into immortality, in order to make us sons of God and to seat us together with Him upon the Throne as His royal children. O, boundless compassion of God! O, inexpressible wisdom of God! O, great wonder, astounding not only the human mind, but the angelic [mind] as well! This is the Great Glory of our God, that He takes dust, forms it into His image, fills the dust with life, both biological and spiritual, eternal, and fills us with new life, with great and amazing gifts. He tells us to eat His own Body and drink His blood, in a proper way, with orthodox understanding to give us what we need, along with all the gifts of His Church, so that He will be glorified in us!! Here is a little more from St. John: Human nature is deified (made God-like) for the sake of the boundless compassion of the Son of God; and its sins are purified; the defiled are sanctified. The ailing are healed. Upon those in dishonor are boundless honor and glory bestowed. Those in darkness are enlightened by the Divine light of grace and reason. The human mind is given the rational power of God – we have the mind of Christ (Cor. 2, 16), says the Holy apostle Paul. To the human heart, the heart of Christ is given. The perishable is made immortal. Those naked and wounded by sin and by passions are adorned in Divine glory. Those who hunger and thirst are sated and assuaged by the nourishing and soul-strengthening Word of God and by the most pure Body and Divine Blood of Christ. The inconsolable are consoled. Those ravaged by the devil have been – and continue to be – delivered. Let it be understood, we serve a Holy God, a consuming fire who fills us with His life, so that if we purify ourselves by His grace, we become like Him, we become like the burning bush, as we see in the Most Holy Theotokos, who was preserved by Grace as the consuming fire filled her womb and she was not consumed. We eat and drink fire, eternal fire, when we approach the Holy Chalice. Let us have proper fear as we approach the chalice, and let us also make proper preparation before we approach. But let us also approach the chalice with holy boldness, knowing our destiny, knowing the amazing grace of our God and His command to eat and drink. And knowing that humility is the key that opens all doors with God. We do not know what we don’t know, we don’t know the glory that God longs to bring to us and to show forth from us. His goal is that we become whole, holy, sanctified, above reproach, without guile, with no hidden agenda. As we face the various difficulties of life, the wounds of life, let us come to the Healer, The Giver of Life, the very source of life, light, truth, and beauty and spend the rest of our days inviting Him into our hearts to transform us. For unto Him are due all glory, honor, and worship; to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.