No imitations here !

from Helen

I once heard about an occasion when a man claimed that he had photographic evidence that Elvis was still alive. He phoned a newspaper and the news quickly spread. The excited media went to see this man so they could see the picture. When they arrived the man showed them the photograph. They looked and said, ‘this is a photo of you and your dog, not Elvis.’  The man replied, ‘yes, but Elvis took the picture.’

Sometimes we can be mistaken. One of my worst mistakes was when a woman was proudly showing me the new ring that her husband had bought her. The stone was very clear and so on looking she asked me to guess what stone it was. I said cubic zirconia which is a fake diamond. The problem was that the  ring actually was a diamond ring ! Thankfully she didn’t hear me but ..

Sometimes the things that seem real aren’t. This morning in our gospel reading (John 6:51-58) we heard of Jesus showing that He was not an imitation or a copy. Jesus didn’t say that He was a bit like the bread of life but that He actually was the bread of life. Jesus was showing that as the bread of life He was all that we will ever need. 

In this reading Jesus was showing the people that they only needed to look to Him. Going back in time a bit, Jesus had fed the 5000 and people were amazed. After this they followed Him and asked what else He could do for them. There was a sense that they were treating Jesus like some divine celebrity chef. He responded by telling them that they were missing the point.  

The point being that Jesus was all that they needed, He was offering bread for life. He said that not only was He the bread of life but He was the true living bread, the true food and drink. No imitations !

Jesus is not a copy, He is real but do we always treat Him in this way ? I recently read about young people who follow Jesus faithfully until they go to College intending to follow Him again when they finish college. One of the young people commented that it wasn’t very real if he said he followed Jesus but then put Him to one side. 

I wonder if we ever do this ? The young people wanted to be able to be wild and party and so felt it was better to not admit to being Christian. They didn’t want to be real about their faith.  It was almost as if they wanted to put God in a box that they could bring out when they wanted. Sometimes it can be as if we put God to one side by not following Him as we should. 

I don’t expect that we all go out partying, although if you do that’s an option .... but do we always live like Jesus. Christian means Christ in me. It means we are to be like Jesus. If God is in our lives we want to recognise how in the same way that Jesus is the bread of life and not a copy we are to be really like Him and not just following Him and being like Him sometimes.

If we are to be real and not an imitation then we need to be forgiving, loving, supporting one another and not talking about others in a way that is unkind, we are, as I have said quite a bit recently, a family. As the family of God in this place we need to be united and loving, showing the difference that God has made in our lives

Jesus by telling the people that He was the living bread was offering a life changing choice. The people could choose whether they took part in a relationship with Him which would lead to everlasting life or not. He makes this offer to us as well. To be real followers and not an imitation then we need to look to God more and more. 

As we do this we will be building our relationship with Jesus which is the main way that we can be real and not a copy,  Part of our relationship with Jesus is built through prayer, through Bible reading, through spending time with other Christians and through our acceptance of all that God has done for us. 

The way we accept Jesus, as the bread of life, and please excuse these words but I struggled to think of a better way to say it, but if we accept Jesus as the real deal then we need to be ready to love as He loved and to live as He lived on earth and as He lives now. When we do this then we remember that Jesus the real deal, no imitation, is life eternal, Jesus is life now and to be honest we have the words and the knowledge of the love of God and we can be selfish with them or we can share them.

We have living bread, we have life eternal and we can tell others about this by the way that we live. By being real about our faith by seeking to be more and more like Jesus every day. As we live to be more like God then we remember that we are looking at the bread of life, the real bread of life, we are looking at God who doesn’t just love but is love. That is amazing, it is not an imitation it is real. We are invited into a relationship with God who loves us and all we have to do is to show our love for Him as we try to be more and more like Him. 

As the words of the hymn, ‘God is love’ say,

God is love: let heaven adore him;

God is love: let earth rejoice;

let creation sing before him,

and exalt him with one voice.

He who laid the earth's foundation,

he who spread the heavens above,

he who breathes through all creation,

he is love eternal love. AMEN