In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

     To tell you the truth, I was slightly tempted this week, to be done with the John 6, "Bread of Life" passage, and to turn to our other two lessons for preaching this morning. I mean, how many weeks has it been we've been "chewing" on the Living Bread text from John's gospel? Has it been four or five weeks? I'd love to deal with our first lesson, where Joshua calls together all the tribes of Israel and says to them, "Now therefore revere the Lord.in sincerity and faithfulness.choose this day whom you will serve.as for me and my household," says Joshua, "we will serve the Lord." That-is a great text. As is our reading from Ephesians, where Paul encourages the Christians in Ephesus, writing, "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil." Either of our first two lessons would be great preaching texts for this morning, if we were ready to forgo our final Sunday reading from John 6. Next week, we will return to the Gospel of Mark, and wouldn't it be-oh, so easy-to just ignore John 6:56-69 this morning, as if we've done enough with the Bread of Life passage already? The only problem with doing that, is the fact that the verses we've heard today from John 6, really are the crux of the whole section. To skip our gospel reading this morning, would be to skip the section on which all the rest turns. All of what Jesus has been saying about Himself as the Living Bread come down from heaven, stands or falls, in a sense, on what happens in our passage today. Because, up to this point, Jesus has been telling us that He is the Bread of Life-that unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we have not His life in us. Now comes crunch time. Now, as Jesus concludes His teaching on the miracle of His presence among us; now as we have heard, fully, how Jesus provides His flesh and blood for us to eat and drink, so that He may abide in us, and we in Him; now that we have been confronted with this central reality of God's presence incarnate among us in Jesus' sacramental presence-now, we are faced with a choice-a decision. St. John tells us that when many of his disciples heard these teachings of Jesus, they said, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it said to them, "Does this offend you?" Then, John tells us, because of this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, "Do you also wish to go away?" And that, is the question on which all the rest of John 6 turns.

     Jesus, the Rabbi, the Master, the Lord-has said some things that are very hard to grasp-for his disciples then, and for his disciples now. To the Jewish mind that had ingrained in it very strict dietary laws, about which flesh could be eaten, and that blood must never be eaten, these words of Jesus did indeed offend. It sounded like cannibalism! It still does! I've heard Protestant scholars deny the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament, because they claim its cannibalism-the eating of human flesh. In our passage today, Jesus explains that this is not cannibalism-in the Sacrament of the Altar, while we are eating Jesus' flesh and drinking His blood, in, with, and under the earthly elements-His spiritual presence is incarnate in the physical matter. As with Jesus who was both God and man, the Risen Jesus is present for us, as His spiritual presence is united with the bread and the wine, in a miraculous incarnation that is best left a mystery-a sacramentum. Yes, Jesus is present for us in both His divine and human natures, in the elements of the Lord's Supper-but this is not cannibalism-Jesus says, "it is the Spirit that gives life-the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." Here, knowing that some were offended by his very carnal, earthy description of eating his Flesh and drinking His Blood, Jesus tries to make crystal clear, what He is saying about His followers, feasting on His presence. But still-still, immediately after, John tells us, "many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him." Perhaps Jesus expected some of his many followers to turn away-as there were always those who were the hangers-on, the crowds who liked to be around Jesus just in case something interesting happened. But now, Jesus turned to those closest to Him-now Jesus turned to the twelve-now Jesus turned to those He was counting on to stay with Him to the end, and beyond. Now Jesus turned to the twelve whom He had chosen to be with Him at the Last Supper, to go with Him to the Garden of Gethsemane, to stand at the foot of the cross and witness His death, just as they would be witnesses to His resurrection, to receive the Spirit from on high, to preach the Gospel and lead the Church. Now, Jesus wanted to know from these closest disciples-"Do you also wish to go away?" At this point, the twelve had a decision to make-Jesus was asking them to choose-even as Joshua was asking the tribes of Israel to choose, today, whom you will serve. And-Jesus is asking us, today, to make a decision, as well. Today, Jesus is asking you and me, to choose. For these past few weeks, we, too, have been sitting at the feet of Jesus, hearing his teaching, being confronted with the difficult notion that to abide in Him and He in us, we are to eat His flesh and drink His blood. We have been among the crowd of followers who have been listening, and trying to digest all that He's been saying-at times, grasping it, at other times, finding it hard to swallow. Most of us here, have been here through all of it-we've heard every word that Jesus has spoken about Himself as the Bread of Life-we've listened to it, we've chewed on it, we've pondered it from week to week. And now, Jesus asks, you, "Do you also wish to go away-or, are you willing to stay, and feast on His presence among us?"

     We have to admit, a call for decision, a call for us to make a choice, doesn't sit all that well with most Lutherans, as we see it as a little too "evangelical"-as in "making a decision for Christ", as in "responding to an altar call". And yet, if you think about it, Jesus is indeed extending an altar call today-He extends an altar call each and every Sunday, as each and every Sunday, He stands at the altar and asks, "Do you also wish to go away-or, will you come eat my flesh and drink my blood?" As you lay in bed early Sunday morning-early Sunday morning-don't you hear Jesus extending His altar call, asking you, "do you also wish to go away-or, will you come to the Temple of my presence, to receive me in Word and Sacrament? The truth of the matter is, disciples make a choice, each and every Sunday-about whether they will come to Jesus, or stay away-about whether we will serve the Lord, or serve some other gods, on the golf course, or the soccer field, or the mall, or the mountains, or the office. We sometimes convince ourselves that we aren't really making a choice-we have no option-we have to work, we have to recreate, we have to get the kids to their games. But as the saying goes, not to choose, is to choose. Jesus, has taken the initiative, in offering Himself to us, by incarnating Himself for us, coming to us in the Word made flesh in Holy Scripture, and the Word made flesh, in the Sacrament of the Altar. Jesus gives Himself to us as Living Word and Living Bread. And yet, as with the twelve, and all the other disciples, the question remains, will we receive Him, or will we go away-or will we stay away? Simon Peter responded, saying, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." Those are the words, in one form or another, that we use to respond to the reading of the Gospel each week. The question is, are we just saying them, or do we believe what we are saying? Do we say, when we're here, that we believe Jesus has the words of eternal life, but during the week, or on some Sundays, are we worshiping at the altar of some other god? Like so many parts of the liturgy, is it all too easy to mouth the words, while our heart isn't in it? Maybe that's why Jesus calls us, not once, but again and again, Sunday after Sunday, to choose-to decide, whether we will come, or go-whether we will come, kneel at the altar of the Lord, or stay away. The invitation for us to come, eat of the Living Bread-for us to eat Jesus' Flesh and drink His Blood, is nothing less than an altar-call; a call, to come to the altar. And we respond, not with our words, but with our lives, with our actions, as we either come, or don't come-we either eat, or we choose not to eat. We have the freedom to choose. We have the freedom to come, or not to come. We have the freedom to receive the Word of Life, or not to receive the Word of Life. So, in the words of Joshua-choose, today-whom you will serve-choose today--to whom you will come for eternal life!

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.