gaps

There's a passage in John's account of Jesus' ministry which dispels any notion which folk might have that the Jesus bandwagon rolled sublimely on, gathering not moss but multitudes.

"From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." [John 6.66]

I smile a bit when I note the chapter and verse reference: 666. Not a good number in the bible!

But this situation happens. There came a time for Jesus himself when many of his disciples turned on their heels and left.

Why? Well, I don't suppose they told him. They would doubtless have come up with all sorts of well-argued reasons. But you don't have to be all that smart to be able to read between the lines of what has gone before and see what was going on.

"This is a hard teaching...." these folk had been saying in response to the teaching of Jesus.

Strange. He'd been feeding them the very bread of life: not simply meeting their bodily needs in a quite remarkable way, but giving them himself. And suddenly these folk are suffering from a spiritual indigestion. They can't, or won't stomach, what he's giving.

They are consumers. As long as their needs and desires are being met: as long as Jesus is there to do their bidding: as long as Jesus will solve life's practical problems - they're happy. Content to give him their vote.

But Jesus is plainly not into 'consumer-religion'. He's looking for relational commitment. He's offering himself as the very bread of life: he's proclaiming a Christ-centred, cross-centred gospel.

And suddenly they're all getting shifty. They're grumbling. Suddenly they're not quite so keen on the sermons that Jesus is giving (he'd been teaching, we're told, in the synagogue at Capernaum).

And from that time many of his disciples turned back.

It happened to him. And it happens to us as well.

It's not a comfortable thing at all. And I get the sense that Jesus, too, felt at least a measure of that discomfort himself.

It's something I'm wrestling with much myself at this time. Those gaps are appearing here.

From that time. I'm struck by that. This often doesn't happen in an entirely gradual manner. Often there is a definite point in time. You can pinpoint the drift to a certain period of time.

There are seasons, I believe, in the work of the Lord. Recognisable seasons.

I've long held the view (loosely based on what Moses was urging when he said that every seven years his teaching in Deuteronomy should be read all over again) that when the Word of God is faithfully preached and expounded, seven years down the line you have, effectively, a different congregation.

Which obliges the preacher and pastor to stand back and reflect and in some ways to start all over again.

This past year we moved into my 22nd year here. That's to say, this past year has been a 'starting all over again', as I've moved into a fourth cycle of seven years. And yes, there has been without a doubt a greater urgency and a clearer challenge in the preaching of the Word.

This past year has been a watershed. And the gaps have started to appear.

Many of his disciples. Not just the odd one or two. These were big-sized gaps which opened up.

Not a comfortable experience. But it's happening here. We're having to ask what's going on. We're having to pause and consider our life and reflect on just where the drifting away has its roots. We're having, with due humility, to see if there haven't been failings in how things are done.

But I'm also so very aware that the Lord himself has been speaking, and that what he's been saying - in love and with grace - has been searching our hearts and putting us all on the spot.

Sometimes it feels a whole load easier simply to walk away. To look for some church where there's not the same challenge: where the summons of Jesus to radical, godly discipleship isn't so plainly proclaimed: where religious-consumers can get what they actually want.

666 stuff.

Times like this put us all on the spot.

"You don't want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the twelve.

It's a comfort to know that Jesus has been there too.