Canceled

A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli with Foundry UMC, August 22, 2021, the thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

  Text: John 6:56-69

Our Gospel passage is the conclusion of a story that began with Jesus feeding his congregation of more than 5000 people with one child’s lunch. (Jn 6:1-13) It’s a wonderful, crowd-pleasing story. But the next morning, Jesus preaches a sermon and things take a turn. Today we hear the last of many complaints that follow. The complaint making its way through the grapevine of Jesus’ grumbling congregation is, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” Jesus picks up on the grapevine grumbling and asks quite directly, “Does this offend you?” Evidently, the answer for most of the crowd was a resounding “yes.” Most of those in the crowd decided that they could NOT accept what Jesus was saying, that they could NOT accept what Jesus was offering, that they could NOT accept who Jesus WAS and they “turned back and no longer went about with him.”  // Y’all. Jesus got “canceled.” 

For some years now, there’s a thing called “cancel culture” that has been prevalent in public dynamics and has been a focus of concern and debate in the public square and in academia. “Cancel culture” at its most basic refers to the act of withdrawing support for someone or something in response to words or actions that are found to be offensive or inappropriate. There are certainly times when boycotting a business or critiquing an influential public figure’s words or actions are important ways to exert pressure for positive social change. And free speech is a critically important part of a democratic society. But the toxic environment of polarized, easily triggered, dehumanized and dehumanizing, either-or thinking and reactivity has been a perfect breeding ground for a version of “cancel culture” that is quite simply an exercise in public shaming and ostracism. It brands people with a proverbial scarlet letter such that they are no longer seen as worthy of any care, respect, or engagement whatsoever. “Cancel culture” is not unique to one “side” or perspective in our society. There are persons across the spectrum of so-called left to right of the political, religious, or academic spheres who “cancel” people due to perceived disloyalty to their brand of dogmatic purity, prejudice, or discomfort.

To be clear, the focus recently has often been on celebrities or powerful public figures who are not going to have their lives or livelihoods radically altered by the social outcry against them. Their egos and sometimes their jobs may get altered, but not their capacity to live or ultimately thrive. It’s important to recognize that there are some for whom getting publicly shamed—whether they did something egregious or not—really does threaten their lives. My point is simply that the public shaming at the heart of today’s “cancel culture” often leads to no good or more just outcome for anyone or for the larger society.

Today we are reminded that “cancel culture” is not really anything new. Most of those in the crowd—the followers or “disciples of Jesus”—“turned back and no longer went about with him.”  

What was so offensive that people would leave? What got Jesus “canceled” by so many?

Maybe it was the way Jesus talked or that his words were confusing. What does it mean to “abide in” Jesus? And what’s up with this idea that eating and drinking his flesh and blood has something to do with life “in” God? And is Jesus bread? And is it flesh or words that give life? 

And—oh, by the way—gross! Eating human flesh and drinking human blood? Perhaps they couldn’t stomach such talk. It is, by the way, a documented historical fact that there were those who persecuted early Christians due to the accusation that the Lord’s Supper was a cannibalistic rite. 

Maybe offense was taken at the fact that Jesus didn’t seem to be trying to “make nice,” but rather used provocative, earthy, unsentimental words to des