John 6:66-69 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV): 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?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

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John 6 reports a roller coaster couple of days in the life of Jesus.

It all started with 5000+ hungry people. Jesus fed them all with a kid’s lunch.

Later that evening, Jesus came a walking on the water to his nervous disciples in midst of choppy waves.

The next day, rumors began to spread that Jesus strolled atop the waves in the Sea of Galilee.

The crowd, already huge, grew more so.

And then Jesus said the wrong thing.

Concerned over many of the followers’ motives, Jesus declared that he was the bread of life, come down from heaven above.

Immediately the religious trouble makers began to question Jesus legitimacy, after all, he didnt come from above, he was the kid of Joseph and Mary and grew up in the squalor of Nazareth.

Even more controversy arose as Jesus said that not only was he the bread of life but that his flesh was the bread and unless his followers eat the flesh they can’t be his disciples.

Yuck! Debates broke out among Jesus followers. The religious leaders among them helped stir the trouble.

And people started to leave.

First a couple, then a few, then a steady stream, and finally, kind of a stampede.

Which brings us to the amazing passage that was read this morning.

“At this, many of his disciples turned away and no longer accompanied him. Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered, “Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are God’s holy one.”

Jesus asks a real question, “Are you going to leave me as well?”

Peter’s profound existential answer came in the form of a question, “Where would we go?”

Sometimes I ask the same question because sometimes I get so frustrated!

But unlike John 6, I don’t get frustrated about Jesus, or Jesus’ teaching, or Jesus’ call on my life.

As the Doobie Brothers sing, “Jesus is just all right with me. Jesus and me, we’re cool,

My problem is with the people who say they speak for Jesus. Folks who speak like they have some authority to speak for God. My issue is not Jesus,it is cultural Christianity and the way it does not reflect the person and teachings of Its founder.

Sometimes in my frustration, I think to myself “oh what else can I be because I don’t really want to be lumped together with these people who say they speak on behalf of Jesus but say things that I find detestable, Inaccurate and mean.

You have heard me say before, that I struggle with what label I call myself.

There was a day when I proudly called myself an evangelical. But what evangelical meant was very different in that day, and I cannot call myself that when I listen to the line that so many evangelical leaders press.

I call myself a Christian, and yet so many things that are done and said in the name of Christianity are the absolute antithesis of what I believe about being a Christian.

I learned racism in the church. I didn’t learn it because I took a class in it. I learned racism by listening to people in the church talk about people of color, and migrants, and people who came from places they did not.

I didn’t learn sexism and misogyny in the church. But it is like there is a masters course taught within the church. I have had serious discussions with church leaders about the limits to the role that women may play in the life of the church. I have been in churches where women weren’t allowed to teach men. I have been in churches where women in leadership were dismissed as deficient.

And don’t even get me started about homophobia in the church. As a pastor and the parent of a gay child, I have heard it, been offended by it, and mourned over it.

And in a culture where the church seems more bent on acquiring political power then it is on preaching the gospel of Jesus, I find myself saying time and time again, I don’t belong here in this.

And Peter’s question “where would we possibly go?” becomes the existential question for us when the religious community and religious leaders seem to think and act and believe so differently than we do.

Where could we go?

And this is where I get stuck. Because there’s no place I want to go other than with Jesus.

The Jesus that I experienced when I was 15 years old and the Jesus that I experience now that I’m 61 is enough.

As Peter finishes his thought, “Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life, We believe and know that you are God’s holy one.” I agree with Peter. Right on dude, I get it.

the gospel of Jesus- Love, Grace, Mercy, Comfort, Kindness, Service.

That’s the message of Jesus that I read in the gospels and I buy into it whole heartedly, so how could I possibly think about going somewhere else.

So then the question becomes not so much “where can we go?” but how can we reflect the Jesus that we understand from the gospels who is so unlike the Jesus that we see represented by so much of the religious establishment?

I think there are two basic answers to that question.

The first answer is that we, regardless of what we see other people say or do, we strive to stay faithful to the teachings of Jesus as we understand them.

There is a great scene near the end of the movie, The Last Jedi. The rebels are hiding in a cave on the planet of Crait. A huge blast door is all that separates them from Kylo Ren and the First Order.

A Battery Ram canon is about blast the door open.

Finn, flying an old rusted skim speeder decides to fly into the Canon hoping to blow it up. It is a suicide mission.

At the last second, another skim speeder piloted by Rose knocks him off course saving his life. Finn challenges her decision to protect himagainst the canon, “why did you stop me?”

Rose responds, “I saved you, dummy. That’s how we’re going to win, not by fighting what we hate, but by saving what we love.”

People who say they speak for God may say serious nonsense. We respond not by hating, or despising, but by reflecting Jesus to the world,

Treat others the way you want to be treated

Turn the other cheek

Pray for your enemies

Love one another

Practice kindness.

Seek God.

Where might we go? Straight to the heart of the teachings of Jesus.

The second answer to the question is that we find fellow believers with whom we share commonality in our understanding of who Jesus is.

I’m not saying we ignore everybody else, but I am saying that it is important for us to be connected to a community where there is a common understanding that the God of love revealed through Jesus Christ is the God we will worship and follow. We will choose love over hate. we will choose grace over judgment. we will choose acceptance over rejection. we will choose inclusion over exclusion.

Today, as frustrated as I sometimes am over the religious posturing that I see in our culture, I am equally as proud of what I see happening at Second Baptist church week after week.

We recognize that we come from different places and have different ideas. We realize we’re not always going to agree with each other theologically or doctrinally. But we also know that we are bound together by the love of God which causes us to live out the gospel in kindness and grace.

We are bound together by a commitment to the God of grace, and by a commitment to support and encourage and lift up and challenge and care for each other.

Where would we go? We will go right here in this beloved community that strives to hear and practice the love of God which is been revealed to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.