8/1/21 “Looking for Life in All the Wrong Places” by Nancy E. Petty
John 6: 24-35
In June of 1980, country singer Johnny Lee released the song Lookin’ for Love (in All the Wrong Places) as part of soundtrack to the film Urban Cowboy. The song rose to No. 1, for a three-week stay, on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart; and was a No. 5 Billboard Hot 100 hit as well. The song is now recognized as a standard in country music, praised by country music fans and critics alike. Lookin’ for Love was certified gold in the same year for shipments of a million units by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The lyrics, it would seem, connected to listeners from all walks of life, speaking a truth that is all too familiar.
I spent a lifetime lookin’ for you
Single bars and good time lovers were never true
Playing a fools game, hopin’ to win
And tellin’ those sweet lies and losin’ again.
I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places…
Who hasn’t been there?
Some 2000 years earlier, in a time and space quite different from 1980’s America, an itinerant rabbi wrote his version of this song. Instead of looking for love in all the wrong places, his song was about looking for life in all the wrong places. While Lee sang of lookin’ for love in single bars and good time lovers, the rabbi’s lyrics spoke of lookin’ for life in empty signs and a kind of food that leaves us hungry. Whether looking for authentic love or abundant life, Lee and Jesus caution us about turning to all the wrong places for love and life.
Our culture throws all kinds of things at us about what makes for a good life. T-shirts with images that proclaim the good life. Branding messages about this product or that product that will make for a happy life. This car, that phone, this house, that vacation, these clothes. And it comes at us at all ages. For kids, it’s this toy. For youth, it’s hanging out at this cool place, doing these cool things. For young adults, it’s going to this college, getting that job, having these friends. For adults, the good life is often symbolized in the romantic love story, financial success, making your kids happy. We become obsessed chasing after these things, which only leaves us exhausted, stressed, depressed, bewildered and empty at the end of each road.
We even play this scenario out in our search for faith hoping this faith experience will bring us the life we are looking for. We try this church only to be disappointed with its worship. We go on this spiritual retreat returning home still feeling the high from the mountain top experience only to hit the lows of the valley two days later when we realized the laundry is piled as high as the mountain we just came down off of and nothing has changed at our stressful work place. In desperation, we turn to Oprah’s reading list to see which spiritual guru will lead us to the secret of life – a life filled with purpose and meaning.
In a sense, this is where we find the crowd in our lectionary text. No so much with Oprah’s reading list in hand but definitely looking in all the wrong places for the life they desire. Our text says they are looking for Jesus, and they are. But I wonder if what they are really looking for is what Jesus can do for them. If we look back at the events in the 4th gospel leading up to this story, we get a glimpse of some of the things the crowd had seen, heard about, and experienced from Jesus. He had turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana. He had caused a scene in the temple disrupting the money changers who were taking advantage of the worshipers. He had had an encounter with Nicodemus in which Nicodemus was questioning him about all the “signs” Jesus had been doing. He had baptized people in the Judean countryside adding to his growing entourage. The crowd had heard of his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well; and how he had told her about this “living water” – a kind of water that would never leave her thirsty again. They all knew the story of how Jesus had healed the royal official’s son who lay ill in Capernaum. They knew how, by the pool at the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, he had healed the blind, the lame and the paralyzed. And then, just prior to our text, Jesus feeds a large crowd with five barley loaves and two fish.
Given all of this, I have to wonder if the question here, for the crowd and for us, is: “Was the crowd searching for Jesus or were they searching for what Jesus could do for them?” The difference is subtle but significant. I get how confusing it must have been to his earlier followers and how it can be for us, too. Jesus was going about doing all these signs – turning water into wine, healing people, adding people to followers, and putting those who were taking advantage of the vulnerable in their place. He was doing miraculous things for people that changed their lives. Who wouldn’t want that? That someone, or something, to step in and fix what is broken or challenging or missing or causing us pain and suffering in our lives. After all, is that not what we do/are doing when we go searching in all those places our culture sends us to, for that next thing to make our lives better, more meaningful, more fulfilling? Is that not the definition of looking for life in all the wrong places instead of recognizing that what we need is to connect to the source of what gives us life? Not the miraculous signs that source can do for us. At the heart of life, especially the life of faith, is it not about connecting to the intangibles of this world rather than the tangibles – the things that come and go in an instant. But rather things like hope and courage, feelings of the heart and soul, integrity and authenticity, passion and compassion, values and wisdom and faith – those things that Jesus came to teach us.
The people were looking for signs. They said to Jesus, “What might we do so that we might work the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you might faith into that one whom God sent.” To a careful observer, you might have noticed that when Kiara read verse 29, it read differently. The NRSV and other translations typically translate pisteuein, the Greek word in verse 29, as “believe” – believe in the one whom God sent. But pisteuein is a verb which means “faith.” Unfortunately, using faith as a verb sounds odd in English which is why the translators made the regrettable leap to the word “believe” instead. The actual Greek phrase is pisteuein eis – “faith into.” The fourth gospel uses this phrase quite often – 26 times. It does not mean “believing” things about Jesus – the signs he can perform. It means, rather, “trust into” Jesus, which is an orientation of one’s entire self. In other words, it’s not about signs – what Jesus can do – but rather about our willingness to “faith into” or “trust into” Jesus. Said another way, searching for Jesus is about faith and trust not about searching for the signs that he can perform for us.
When we simply look for the “outward signs” for a meaningful and purposeful life, we look in all the wrong places. Everyone has their sign out shouting at us – look here at this product, look here at this latest gimmick, look here at this latest guru, look here at this latest vacation spot, look here at this popular self-help path. The signs get us all turned around. They have us looking backwards, like the crowd looking back to their ancestors eating manna in the wilderness when actually God is always doing a new thing. The signs have us comparing ourselves to others – why did they receive healing and I didn’t.
Looking for life is about looking inward and faithing into, trusting in the connection with the one who sent Jesus and who sends us. It is about trusting or faithing that God is always doing a new thing within us and with us and through us and beyond us. Signs are seductive and inviting, but they don’t lead to life. Faithing and trusting in something that we cannot buy or hold or see or earn is a lot harder. But when we “faith into” life we experience more fully the life that our faith proclaims, an abundant that does not abandon us, a life that does not disappoint us, a life that is not propped up by something external that comes and goes. When we “faith into” life we find an inward connection that steadies us in the roughest of waters.
Jesus never intended his message to be about the signs he performed or believing in him. It was always about what his life pointed to and having faith in that: loving God, loving one another, seeing the face of God in one another, caring for the poor and the vulnerable, pursuing justice-love. It is in these places that we discover life – meaningful and purposeful life.
Life is not found in “things” no matter what all the branding companies in the world will tell you. We say we know this, but do we really? A quick audit of what we own and how we spend our time might shed some light on where we are looking for life. If you have the courage to do that audit, don’t let it guilt you. Rather see it as a way to faith into a new way of life. To faith into and trust into the One who calls you the beloved and welcomes you just as you are. If you are looking for life, look inside your heart. Look into your neighbor’s face and see the face of God. Look around your city and see where people are hurting and suffering and sit with them. Look for examples of courage. Look at where God’s grace is holding you in this very moment. Look for those places where you have put your faith and trust in the One who from the beginning calls you beloved. There, where your heart and soul connects to God’s heart and soul is where you will find life. Little more is needed for a meaningful and purposeful life.
We come to this table hearing the words: “I am the bread of life. Whoever faiths into me will never be hungry, and whoever faiths into me will never be thirsty.” Jesus is not the bread of life because of what he can do for you. Jesus is the bread of life because of what his life represents. We come to this table searching not for what Jesus can do for us. We come to this table in search of the life that he taught us to live: a life that is constantly pointing us to the places that affirm that we, all of us, are God’s beloved; and that when we faith into that love we find life.
