Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Word of the Lord which engages us this morning comes from our Old Testament (1 Kings 19: 3ff) and Gospel lessons (John 6: 41-51).

The Gospel offends people. The God of the Bible, even though He reveals Himself as a loving God, is slandered in this world. The Gospel goes against the grain of how we humans think things should be. Even from the mouth of Jesus Himself, the Gospel was met with rejection as often as it was with faith. Jesus' poor reception in his hometown is a clear example (Mark 6: 3-6). So also in today's Gospel lesson we see that many of those who were listening to Jesus were offended by his teaching. They grumble against him because what he says doesn't fit their self-constructed way of thinking. (paragraph modified from Rev. Aaron Koch, Concordia Pulpit Resouce, September 2000)

The Gospel offends people. This grumbling about the God of the Bible had gone on well before the Son of God appeared on earth. Elijah in our Old Testament lesson is running because Queen Jezebel is grumbling about him, actually threatening his life. You see, when she became queen, she expanded the worship of Baal, the idol god of that region, persecuted the worshipers of the Lord, and even was killing off the Lord's prophets at that time (1 Kings 18: 4). Elijah had, in the power of the Lord, challenged her 450 Baal prophets to that famous competition to see which god could send down fire from heaven to consume the offering on their respective altars. When I was in college I had the opportunity twice to sing in Mendelsohn's "Elijah." I always felt a bit funny, like I was blaspheming, when the men's voices were required to be the voices of the Baal prophets and sing "Baal, we cry to thee, Baal we cry to thee, Hear and answer us." Well of course we know that Baal did not answer, but the Lord, Yahweh, did answer with fire from heaven and burnt up the offering and the altar and the water that had been poured upon it. The prophets of Baal were exterminated by Elijah and the people and now Jezebel was more than just grumbling, she was furious and promising to kill Elijah for what he had done. As our text said, "Elijah was afraid and ran for his life." Elijah himself begins some grumbling, a despondent pity party to God even though the Lord had performed such a wondrous miracle through him. Elijah "prayed that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." The LORD has the distinct problem of having to listen to the grumbling both of those who don't believe in Him as well as those of us who trust in Him.

The Gospel offends people. What sort of grumbling do we still hear against our Gospel God Jesus in the world today? I heard a self-professed skeptic on C-Span the other day, decrying the foolishness of believing in God or Jesus. He was even advertising a website of "skeptics.org" that when I investigated it, found it had changed its name to "infidels.org." I feel a little like I'm singing "Baal we cry to thee" again even by mentioning the website names in a sermon. In this website they specifically said that their goal is to "defend and promote a non-theistic (non-God) worldview which holds that natural world is all there is (with) no need of a supernatural explanation." They assert there can be no God, and no reason to really look at the evidence for Him. In one article the author expressed skepticism about "Crop Circles", a skepticism I share. You know Crop Circles, these weird designs that show up in an occasional wheat field. Some people want to attribute them to UFO's, but the skeptic showed that many have been verified simply as the work of inebriated pranksters with lawn rollers, boards, and ropes. However, the skeptic couldn't stop with just Crop Circle skepticism. He then turned on Christ, and tiredly attempted to explain our Lord's resurrection as if it could be explained away like Crop Circles, claiming that wine-drinking disciples sat around and created a yarn to tell others.

Such wearisome explanations of Jesus' resurrection have been around for 2000 years, none of which explain why so many thousands of first generation Christians were willing to die martyrs' deaths rather than deny their resurrected Lord. As I read a few more articles on their site (not something I'm recommending), I realized that, ironically, my faith was being strengthened. As I saw their illogic and gross misrepresentations of God's Word, I became increasingly "skeptical about the skeptics." I tired of listening to their grumbling. Peter, one of the foremost witnesses of Christ's resurrection, prophesied God's Word correctly when he wrote (2 Peter 3) "3 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires."

But it's not just the grumblers at skeptics.org. The uniqueness and importance of the deity and resurrection of Jesus Christ is routinely dismissed by lodges like Masons and Shriners, by entertainment moguls like Oprah Winfrey, even by liberal theologians in other denominations. To them Jesus eternally answers like He did to the Jewish leaders: ""Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.'" The world has been taught by God. The Son of God, God Himself, "came down out of heaven" to teach us how much love the God of the Bible was willing to lavish upon us (1 John 3). He has given himself, His God/man flesh for the life of the world, letting the world crucify Him to the cross. Whoever believes in Him and Him alone has forgiveness for their grumbling. ��

Whoever believes in Him has eternal life. At this point though I need to stop grumbling about external grumblers and focus on our own tendency to grumble as well. Elijah was very much a believer when he began grumbling "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." Our grumbling may not be as blatant as Jezebel's or the Jewish leaders or skeptics.org, but like Elijah we can fall into a pity party, questioning whether or not our Lord is truly able to sustain us through the difficulties of this life. Unbelievers grumble against the Gospel God by saying He doesn't exist or that He can't be like He describes Himself in Scripture. We believers grumble against our Gospel God by thinking He's not doing enough to help us now. We get caught up in our earthly lives, the problems we're having, the people who are frustrating us, and we begin to look inward at ourselves. When we continue looking at ourselves, we discover our own weaknesses, our own inability to provide for ourselves, to protect ourselves, to save ourselves. Our sinful side wants to grumble at God and blame him for all the bad we have happening in our lives. But the new saintly side of us, the side that the Father has drawn to Jesus, admits our weakness and turns to Him again for forgiveness and strength. We ask for miraculous changes in our circumstances, and instead He gives us miraculous changes through Himself. Elijah was strengthened by the food the angel of the Lord provided him, because his journey was too much for him. That food strengthened Elijah for 40 days. It sounds a little mundane, not very miraculous. But our Lord comes to us in ways that the world and our own sinful flesh think are mundane, but yet are not � Word and Sacrament. He comes to us with the Words of Eternal Life (John 6: 68). He comes to us with the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1: 18). ��

The flesh of Jesus Christ that was given sacrificially at Calvary is now given to us sacramentally here for the life of the world, for the life of his believers at Immanuel. We go searching for God, yet we find He's here all along. Through his flesh, as mundane as it appears, he promises to forgive and strengthen us, to give us eternal life starting again today. Through his strength we can look beyond ourselves. Through his strength we can then "Lift High the Cross" and reach out with His Word to others who need to hear of Jesus, the Bread from heaven, in their lives.

A prominent urban businessman became fond of the little boy who had the mundane task of shining the businessman's shoes every day. The boy did such a good job that one day the businessman asked him, "Son, how come you are so conscientious about your work?" The boy felt complimented. He looked up to the man, and said, "Mister, I'm a Christian and I try to shine every pair of shoes as if Jesus Christ were wearing them." The businessman saw something genuine in this simple shoeshine boy. Soon after that he began reading his Bible. Through that Word, God the Father drew the man to Jesus and His Body, the Church. When he became a professing Christian himself, he credited his earthly conversion to the little boy who shined every pair of shoes "as if Jesus Christ were wearing them." Through this little boy living out his vocation faithfully, another life learned to eat of the Bread of Life and live eternally. (modified from Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!, C.S.S. Publishing Company, 1990.)

And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4: 7)