As for me and my household....

Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, summoning their elders, their leaders, their judges, and their officers. When they stood in ranks before God, Joshua addressed all the people: “If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your fathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

But the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD for the service of other gods. For it was the LORD, our God, who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of a state of slavery. He performed those great miracles before our very eyes and protected us along our entire journey and among the peoples through whom we passed. Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.”

Jn 6:60-69
Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, “Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.”

Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

In the previous chapter to the reading we heard today, Joshua tells the people of Israel to follow the laws and customs and continue their covenant with the Lord. He calls to mind the great people and events that constitute them as God’s own people. Then he asks them "the" question.

Based on all that the Lord has done for Israel, which way will they choose? They have been invited to look backwards through their national history to see God’s goodness to them. Joshua is asking them to look forward now. Joshua declares that he and his folks choose the Lord. The people reply that they too know their history and they are sticking with the winner who has made them victorious themselves.

In the Gospel—remember that this discourse has been going on for the last five weeks at Mass—we finally reach the great conclusion of the discussion about Jesus’ being the “Bread of Life”, and his being the one ”sent”. Some of His disciples—in fact some theologians say “most”—find these words offensive to their senses and so boggle their minds. They have to leave and return to their former ways of seeing, thinking and believing. They saw the miraculous distribution of bread and fish with their own eyes and ate their fill. Their senses told them something they could grasp. Jesus stretches their minds and asks them to be as open to something even more miraculous, but which goes beyond the information provided by the senses. They choose the path of the “flesh” while Jesus is inviting them to walk the walk of the Spirit. They stumble over what they can’t see or imagine.

Many leave, but some stay including Peter. So Jesus puts the big question to them and to him specifically, “Do you also want to leave?” Just like Joshua, Peter professes that they have seen enough to trust what they can not see with the eyes of their “flesh”.

This affirmation comes at the end of the first half of John’s Gospel’s “Book of Signs” in which John presents Jesus’ doing “signs” which actions are sense-based, but intended to lead to such an act of believing as we hear from Peter. In other sections of this “book of Signs”, there are miracles of water becoming wine; blind and lame being healed as well as bread being multiplied. There is evidence, but just enough to allow the act of believing to be made freely, leaving the option that non-believing is also possible. Jesus tells us that the “spirit” draws some and the “flesh” attracts others.

In today’s world we can bring up an almost miraculous amount of data, facts, records, pictures, and collections. We sometimes even grow impatient when something does not come up immediately or when we have to click the mouse a few more times. Hand-held phones, MP3s, Ipods and all kinds of other devices, allow us to take a great amount of this information anywhere we go. We can have maps in our palms and lights to make sure we get there even in the dark. When we arrive we can phone or email those whom we left behind to tell them we’re safe, and to check if there is anything “new”.

I sometimes think faith of any kind and trust in anybody has been injured by our increased reliance on technology .We desire to the point of demanding to see the replay before the play. Signs lead only to wanting clarity and conviction.
It seems that faith in the “beyond” or “transcendent” or “God” was more a part of a time past when night was dark, trails and roads led “out there” and signs were both indicators and invitations to continue.

God continues to offer us invitations, or “signs” which are invitations to trust, while they can also be taken as nothing more than “nonsense” and not to be followed. There are signs that can indicate there is no God, that religion is absurd and the Church an “opiate of the people”, or man-made to make people compliant. Belief is a “non-sense” experience, in a sense. Faith is a human way of responding to what we sense, but our senses can take us only to the threshold where the signs say, “Go beyond!” Living with and through faith is not an easy way to go. We rely on the Spirit of God to draw us beyond what we can see, taste, touch and reason to. For us, it is the way we desire to go against our technological security-centered human inclinations.

"As for me", I’m with Peter who has seen enough, but not enough as his stumblings (and mine) will prove. And "As for me", I think after finishing this, I will turn off the computer, the lights, the phones, the radio, the TV, and try to believe that there is life without them all. (At least until tomorrow, when I will NEED these things to earn a living.)