Sermons:

• We Know Who You Are, John 6:35, 41-51, anonymous  (see below)
   

• Remembering Our Source, Deuteronomy 26:1-11, by Rev. Thomas Hall
   

• How To Give Thanks Philippians 4:4-9 by Nail-Bender

• Thanksgiving,  Deut. 26:1-11, by Gary Roth
   

• The Blessings of Fruitful Fields, Deut 26:1-11, John 6:25-35, by Doug in Riverside

___________________________________________________________
 

We Know Who You Are
a sermon based on John 6:35, 41-51
anonymous

Have you ever noticed that it is very difficult to escape your reputation? Once people have an image of you in their minds, it is very difficult to change their perception.

Jesus encountered this attitude among those who thought they knew Him. He lived in a small town, in a small country. The little village of Nazareth where He grew up was tiny. In the time of Jesus, the village of Nazareth took up no more space than a football field. Everybody knew everybody in Nazareth. People knew Jesus' mother and father. They would have even known Him as He worked at His trade in His father's carpenter shop. Perhaps He had built a piece of furniture for them or replaced a handle on one of their favorite tools or made a yoke for their oxen. After all, He did not begin His ministry until He was about thirty years old. For most of His adult life He labored in as a carpenter or builder.

You can imagine how these people responded when suddenly Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the One prophesied by the prophets. We read in today's lesson that His fellow countrymen began to grumble about Jesus because He said that He was the bread that came down from heaven. They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose mother and father we know?"

We can appreciate their disbelief for we have done the same thing to people. We put them in a box. We assign them to a category. We know where they came from, we know who their parents are, we know where they went to school, we can tell by their accent or by their appearance about their background and we make certain assumptions. And because we make those assumptions, we treat them in a certain way. Maybe, if we are a teacher, we subtly overlook them in class. If we are a police officer, perhaps we are a little more aggressive when we pull them over to the curb. If we are the president of the company, perhaps it slants the way we regard them when it comes time for a raise or a promotion.

Oh, none of this is intentional of course. We may not even be conscious of it. It simply saves our brains the time and energy of sorting out people individually. So, we sort them out by category. That is what the folks in today's text were doing: "We know who you are. You are Mary and Joseph's son. You're from Nazareth. That's farming country, isn't it? People are a little slow there. Well, maybe we can find a job for you that's not too taxing mentally." Do you think such things do not happen? Then you are naive. That is the way the human brain seems to operate.

Robert Schuller once asked one of his colleagues, "What's one of the most vivid memories you have of going to school as a child?" Here's what his colleague told him:

"In the third grade, we were asked to stand up in front of the class and say what we wanted to be when we grew up. Now, I went to a fairly strict school, and every time you were asked to stand before the class, it was a pretty serious matter. I remember very distinctly one girl who stood up and said, 'I'm going to be a movie star.' As I remember, there wasn't anything special about this girl. She wasn't very pretty. Her grades were average, some of them were even below average. She didn't come from a wealthy family. In fact, the only thing I really remember about her was the class laughing at her. The whole class laughed at her. And I remember she just stood there smiling, as if she knew something the rest of us didn't. I don't remember ever seeing that girl again in school. Now I see her all the time. She's one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. Every time I sit in the movie theater and watch her up there on the silver screen, I think, 'She was always so proud of who she was. She had a dream she always held onto.' Back then," he concluded, "they laughed at her. Now they pay to see her. I'm glad I didn't laugh." [continue]