To Whom Should We Go?

To whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

In the 1970s, Bob Dylan had this great song

that he won a Grammy for called, “Gotta Serve Someone.”

It went like this:

“You might be an ambassador to England or France.

You might like to gamble or you might like to dance,

but you're gonna serve someone…

You may serve the devil, you may serve the Lord,

but you're gonna serve someone.” [i]

It was an ode to the culture of the time,

which is no different today.

The challenge of the culture today is that

our American culture is so addicted to our rugged individualism,

our freedom associated with being able to do whatever we want.

It was a commentary that you are not really free.

You are going to serve someone one way or the other.

You are going to serve someone.

I suppose that is why that song is still so haunting today.

We hear it play out in our society today

that on all sides we think that we are free

and yet we are serving someone, in whatever aspect of life.

But the truth be told it is an ancient problem.

We hear it even on the spiritual level today, from the Prophet Joshua.

Joshua is doing what Moses did before him as he is about to die.

He stands up, gathers the people,

and reminds them of the covenant

that they made at Mount Sinai.

And he said, “Do you want to go back to your gods of Amorites?

Do you want to go back to other gods?

You just have to choose.”

He says, ‘You have to choose who are you going to follow?”

And then he says something really important

“For my part, I am going to choose the Lord.

I am going to choose the Lord.”

And then goes on to say why he testifies before tomorrow

that I choose the Lord our God.

And then of course they go on to renew their covenant

by saying the same thing. It is the same words we hear today.

Over the last month we have been hearing

from this fantastic chapter six of the gospel of John called

“The Discourse of the Bread of Life.”

And Jesus is now coming to the end of this part.

You can hear the sadness in his voice

because it is just all too much for them.

We do not know quite how many of them walk away,

but obviously it was a significant number of them that

walk away, disenchanted, disheartened.

And Jesus is disheartened.

He has been feeding these people, healing these people.

And now he tells them the truth,

that he is the God and that you must feed on his flesh and his blood.

“I am the true God that came down from heaven.”

It is just too much for them and they walk away.

So he turns to his twelve, the twelve disciple, his closest friends.

And you can hear the sadness in his voice

when he says, “Do you also want to leave?”

These are heartbreaking words.

But Peter says the most eloquent and stunning words of all.

He says, “To whom would we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Messiah.”

Wow. Beautiful words.

And of course, Peter will go on to betray Jesus.

But he keeps coming back.

He keeps coming back to believing in those words.

When we hear those words from Peter, “To whom else will we go?”

These words reverberate through all of history

and they still do today.

Why do so many people leave the church?

Why do so many people walk away?

Because it is all just a bit too much.

It interferes with our, well, with our freedom.

You know, Ron Rolheiser says it very well.

He says, people treat church like teenagers in a family.

They want to be there for all the major occasions.

Our birthdays, our celebrations.

They want to have all that at home.

But do not ask them to take out the trash.

Do not ask them to show up for a day-to-day dinner or help go shopping.

They do not want any of that responsibility.

But they just want all the benefits of family life.

He says, it is the same for the church.

People want the church there for when they get baptized

and to get married and to receive first communion

and then maybe an odd anointing here and there.

But come for Sunday mass.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

I have a lot to do on Sunday morning, man!

I have to sleep in. I have to chill.

Like that is my day. That is my day.

It is too much. It is just too much.

And it is not that important anyway.

It is not that people are consumed with the badness of life.

That is not the issue.

We are often consumed with the busyness of life.

We are busy about many things, but whom do we serve?

It goes back to that ode from Bob Dylan,

whom to serve because we are going to serve someone.

Are we going to serve ourselves and our freedom,

or are we going to serve our Lord and  

delight in whatever he wants us to do.

It makes us happy or full

or we are going to sacrifice for the sake of others.

We come to church not just for ourselves.

We come for the sake of others.

If there was only one person here,

it would not be a celebration.

It is a celebration because so many of us

have made the decision to come here.

That is what makes church.

That is why it is so awesome to see the church full as it is today.

We have to be honest, church is hard sometimes

because the church does not do everything that we want it to do.

It is not all that it cracks up to be.

And it says, and leaders can say,

some really stupid things

and really hurtful things.

And even when they are right,

they can say it in such a way that are so divisive

that it leaves us just jaw dropped.

Not even to mention the awful stuff

that has happened in the child sexual abuse,

and the stupid things that some of them come out with.

It is just like oh my gosh,

you are trying to make our job harder.

It is heartbreaking.

I really feel so frustrated with my church.

Sometimes there are people inside our church,

you would think are so righteous

and yet they want to exclude certain groups of people.

They want to keep the LBGTQ+ people out,

the divorced people out.

They want to keep women down.

They want to keep this out or that out.

They have nothing to do with Jesus.

None of it has to do with Jesus.

And yet they are bishops.

These are our leaders.

So my church offends me or hurts me, but I am with Peter.

To whom else would I go to where?

Because wherever else we go,

we are going to be full with utter imperfect human beings.

There is nowhere that has a perfect set of human beings.

You have to just understand it never will work that way.

An Italian spiritual writer wrote a beautiful essay

and put this perfectly.

I want to quote it because it says it so well and encapsulates it.

His name is Carlo Carretto, an Italian lay spiritual writer.

Oh, how much I must criticize you my church, yet how much I love you.

You have made me suffer more than anyone.

And, and yet I owe you more to you than anyone.

I should like to see you destroyed.

And yet I need your presence.

You have given me so much scandal,

and yet you alone have made me understand holiness.

Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised, more false

yet never have I touched anything

more pure, more generous, or more beautiful.

Oh, countless times I have, I have felt like

slamming the door of my soul in your face.

And yet every night I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms.

No, I cannot be free of you for I am one with you,

even not completely you.

Then to where would I go to build another church?

But how I could not build one without the same defects

for they are my defects.

Again, if I was to build another church,

it would be “my” church and not Christ’s Church.

No, I am old enough now. I know better.

I stay because I love you my church.

You are mine.[ii]

It says it so beautifully.

I love my church too.

I love the Eucharist.

I love what we celebrate here each week.

I love you all as a community.

It saddens me that so many walk away.

It saddens me that so many do not come to church regularly.

It saddens me, but I cannot leave.

I must remain and I must remain faithful.

My plea is the same to you.

Remain faithful to your church,

love your church, and not forget its imperfections,

but love it beyond the imperfections

and love Jesus Christ who is in each and every one of us.

And come back often enough to remind yourself of that reality.

That we need Jesus in his true blood and his true flesh.

We need it, but we need to be that in the world.

We need to be his living body of Christ in the world.

We must be willing, like Joshua to testify for my part.

I am going to serve the Lord for my part.

I choose the Lord and I promise to keep coming back.

What will you choose?

Please choose the Lord.

To whom shall we go.

You have the words of eternal life.

[i] As quoted by Mary McGlone, National Catholic Reporter, (Scripture Reflection for 21st Sunday, Cycle B, 2024)

[ii] As quoted by Ron Rolheiser, https://ronrolheiser.com/old-and-new-struggles-with-the-church/