Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
based on John 6:35, 41-51
by Rev. Karen A. Goltz

            There are so many different types of signs, and we’d be lost with out them.  Signs on buildings that tell us where we are, signs on roads that tell us where we’re going, signs to tell us when a business will be open or closed, so we can plan our lives accordingly.  To quote a verse from the 5 Man Electrical Band, “Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind.  Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”  The signs the singer encounters give him information about where he is and is not welcome. “Long-haired freaky people need not apply,” “anybody caught trespassin' will be shot on sight,” “you got to have a membership card to get inside,” and then finally, “Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down and pray.”

            Signs are a big part of our lives, bigger than we realize.  We have no trouble with printed signs, like the ones on the road and on buildings, the ones that give us needed information.  Some of us may check the fortune under our astrological sign in the newspaper or on the internet, just out of curiosity, not really expecting that there’s any truth to it.  But when we read of people like the ones in today’s gospel lesson, the ones who ask Jesus, “What sign are you going to give us, so that we may see it and believe you?” we have a little trouble relating to them, wondering why they need a sign when Jesus so obviously is who he is.

            The thing I really wonder about them is: what kind of sign are they looking for?  At the beginning of last week’s gospel lesson we read that the large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick.  After he fed the five thousand with the five loaves of bread and the two fish, we’re told that, “When the people saw the sign he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’” (John 6:14) So the multiplying of food must have been interpreted as a sign.  In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus says to the crowd, “You are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”  And after he tells them that the work of God is for them to believe in the one whom God has sent, the crowds ask him what sign he is going to give them so that they might see it and believe his words.  I read that and wonder, are they blind?  What more do they want?

            And then they make it worse for themselves by going on to use as an example the manna Israel received in the wilderness when they were following Moses out of Egypt.  They could recognize the bread from heaven as a sign, but they couldn’t see the same thing in the incident with the bread and the fish the night before?  I don’t get it.

            I think part of the problem might be our understanding of ‘sign.’  For the most part, we understand a sign to be something printed that gives information.  Only occasionally do we use it to mean something like a symbol that indicates something has happened or is going to happen.  Like in the movie Sleepless in Seattle Meg Ryan’s character is trying on her grandmother’s wedding dress in preparation for her own wedding, and the sleeves rip right out.  Skeptical Meg Ryan is suddenly frightened and says, “It’s a sign,” perhaps realizing for the first time that she may not be marrying the right man.  Her mother reminds her that she doesn’t believe in signs.  Signs like that are taken with a grain of salt in our culture and society.  Maybe some people believe in them, but it’s certainly not something objective and irrefutable, like the sign out front that proclaims to the world that this is indeed Trinity Lutheran Church.  Belief in that is non-negotiable.  Belief in what it may or may not mean that we’ve had lousy luck getting that sign lit up at night is entirely optional.

            For Jews like Jesus and those who followed him, signs had a much deeper meaning.  They were familiar with the Hebrew scriptures and they knew that God gave signs to signify the truth of something.  God gave Noah the rainbow as a sign that God would never again destroy all the living creatures on the earth.  To this day that sign endures, so that whenever we see a rainbow, we can remember God’s promise.  God gave Abraham circumcision as a sign that Abraham and his descendents were set apart from the rest of humanity as God’s chosen people.  Now here’s Jesus making claims that God the Father has set his seal on the Son of Man, who will give them the food that endures for eternal life.  And it’s understood that Jesus means that he himself is the Son of Man.  To make such a claim is both wild and bold.  For the people to believe it and have it turn out to be not true would be blasphemous for them, a sin grave enough that they would be cut off from the people of Israel.  They would be cut off from God.  For them to ask Jesus for a sign is prudent.  They want proof before they’ll take that kind of risk.

            Really, it’s not much different from people today who want proof that God is real, or that the Church has it right, before they’ll begin to believe.  And that’s a tricky dilemma, because we’re called to believe.  Belief means faith, and faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Faith is also something that lives and grows.  It’s also a gift of grace given to us by God.  In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that all are given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.  All are given gifts to equip the saints for ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.  We’re not there yet.  We grow in faith, as we grow in everything else, and understanding comes through hearing the living Word, and by living in the Word we hear.

            What sign was Jesus able to give the crowd, that the words he spoke were true?  What sign beyond all his miraculous healings, beyond his feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish, beyond his walking on water to where the disciples were in their boat?  The crowd gave bread from heaven as an example.  If Jesus could give them bread from heaven, then they’d believe.

            And Jesus tells them, “I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  The proof that Jesus’ words are true is the fact that Jesus is.  When Moses asked God in the burning bush for his name, God said, “I am.” (Exodus 3:13-14) And throughout the gospels, Jesus is.  Of the four gospels, John’s is the one that goes to the greatest lengths to show that Jesus is no ordinary man.  He’s not just a prophet, or teacher, or even a healer.  He is the Son, sent by the Father.  “The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, and I am the bread of life.”  In the verses that follow, the ones that we’ll read next week, Jesus goes on and expands what that means.  He tells them that he is the living bread that came down from heaven, and that whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and that the bread he will give for the life of the world is his own flesh.

            It’s a difficult sign to accept.  Jesus’ existence as proof of God’s love, as proof of eternal life.  Jesus’ life given for the life of the world.  The Son of God, sent by the Father, killed so that we may live forever.  Rainbows make much more pleasant signs.  Even circumcision is nicer to think about than murder and death!

            But there it is, the sign that was requested.  Every time we celebrate communion, we’re proclaiming that we accept that sign, and that we accept that gift.  We accept Jesus as the proof that God truly does care for us and provide for us.  We accept Jesus as the proof that as we eat the body of Christ, we are the body of Christ, called to live with humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  We accept Jesus as the proof that whoever comes to him will never be hungry, and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty.

            We can have our road signs and our building signs and our ‘Out to lunch’ signs.  We can even have our astrological signs.  But as the body of Christ, the sign that we give to provide necessary information to everyone else is the sign that says, “Everybody welcome.  Come in, kneel down and pray.” Amen.