Pentecost 10

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 10
PROPER: 15 B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: August 20,2000


TEXT: John 6:53-59 - “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”

ISSUE: - This passage calls the disciples into an intimacy with Jesus Christ. It is a call to abide in Christ, to be assimilated into him. The language is startling today, as it was in John’s and Jesus’ time. Yet it expresses the fact that Jesus is not merely one to be remembered, as in do this in memory of me, but as the on going incarnation. In the beginning was the word, and the word became flesh, and dwelt among us. (John 1:1,14) Today we are fed a lot of stuff in terms of materialism, fads, modern philosophies, but people still feel empty. What is truly nourishing and fulfilling is the way of Jesus Christ.
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The passage we read from John’s Gospel today is somewhat disconcerting to the modern ear and mind. Eating flesh and drinking the blood even of Jesus is grating upon human sensitivity. I’ve known little children who became reluctant to come to the Eucharist simply because of their discomfort with the idea that partaking of the bread and wine was the body and blood of Jesus. More mature persons understand the eating of the bread and wine of the Eucharist as a sacramental act of participating in the Last Supper of Jesus. Some prefer to think of it more as a memorial of the Last Supper. Yet John’s Gospel does not have an institution of the Eucharist like Matthew, Mark, and Luke do. John’s Gospel has Jesus saying clearly, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”
While the passage may seem strange to us, it was equally strange to the people who first heard it. There were taboos and Hebrew laws that forbid the consuming of the blood of anything. Leviticus 17:10,14 reads, “If any man of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people. . . . For the life of every creature is the blood of it; therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.”
Last week, I talked with you about the fact that Adam and Eve had been cast out, driven out of the garden as a result of their disobedience. Yet Jesus in John’s Gospel says that anyone that the Father gives to him will in no wise be cast out. This statement is one of redemption, of renewal, of hope. All that was cast out is recalled never to be cast out. In this passage today, while eating of blood and flesh is forbidden by Hebrew Law. The blood is what belonged to God. In sacrifices the blood of the animal is given back to God as an offering. But here again is another reversal, and if not a reversal a significant catch twist that gets peoples attention, “Unless you eat of the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you can not have life within you.” What John is saying in this Gospel is startling and unique. When you eat Christ, you become one with him, the Son of God, and you become the children of God.
John is conveying that who Jesus is and what he did is not something merely to be remembered.. Rather the life and ministry of Jesus is incarnational. (John 1:1,14) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the Word who who has come into the world and expresses what it is that God has to say to his people for all times and all places. We are to consume the Word, we are to partake of the Christ. We are to abide with him, live with him. We are to have a living on going real intimate relationship with Jesus Christ who lives. The church today continues to be the body of Christ, his flesh and blood living in the world with the message of God’s redeeming love.
In the synoptic gospel accounts, there is an institution of the Eucharist, or Last Supper. Just prior to Jesus crucifixion, Jesus breaks the bread and distributes the wine to his disciples and says, “This is my body, this is my blood which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.” The eucharistic action is seen as a memorial (Luke 22:14, Mk 14:22, Matt. 26:26) just prior to his sacrifice on the cross. It symbolizes the pouring out of Christ for his people. In John’s Gospel there is no Last Supper institutional words. Rather, there is the feeding of the 5,000 in the wilderness, followed by the demand, “Unless you eat the my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.” Christ is the Bread, the nourishment that feeds. He is the very spiritual presence of God for the people of God. He is the grace that passes human understanding.
In ancient times bread was extraordinarily important food. Fifty percent of all calories consumed came from bread. It was one half a person’s diet. Bread is what largely kept people alive. The Torah, that is the law, the instruction of God, was also seen as spiritual bread. John’s Gospel is saying Jesus is the new Torah, the new spiritual bread, and unless you eat of that bread, the flesh and blood, of Christ there is no spiritual life in you. What is involved here is that we have in the Word of Christ, in the teachings of Christ our nourishment. What’s more, in the participation in the Eucharist in the consuming of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist we have the sacramental participation in the eternal living presence of Christ in our lives. Thus, for us as Episcopalians we have a balance of the Word of Christ in Scripture and the continuing sacramental presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Its a healthy balance. Jesus is what God has to say. But Jesus Christ is more than just words on a page; Jesus Christ is a living presence as well upon which we may feed regularly.
There is a saying, and a book too, I believe that is entitled, “You become what you eat.” Eat fat and you become fatty. Eat leaner meats and vegetable you become less fat is what I would guess the basic premise of the saying is. Thus, to partake of Christ Jesus is to partake of the divine. It is to consume love and become loving in the way of Jesus Christ. It is to become forgiving. It is to become hopeful. It is to be intimately apart of the likeness of Jesus Christ and to become his body in the world. Let’s not get too carried away. No one can be Jesus Christ. But in a sharing corporate sense, we become the community of Christ in the world.
We Americans, and some of the British and Canadian folk, some Indian too, I suppose, are great consumers. In the American culture we consume and swallow a lot of stuff. Look at our attic, garages, and basements. Lots of stuff do we consume in a material sense. Look at the grandeur of some of greater Kingsville’s castles. Look too at the umpteen billion “Big Macs” that we have consumed. We love and spend much money on junk food. We Americans are also great gullible swallowers of many fads and philosophies. We like to indulge ourselves and feast upon many things from sports and athletics, TV, to alcohol, drugs. We become enamored with health programs, new age philosophy, and dieting. Yet we become a stuffed overweight sluggish society that is not fulfilled. Happiness, worth, dignity, fulfillment is often missing. Stuffed but empty. In the difficulties of our lives, we are not always supported and strengthened by all the things that we gather to ourselves, and that we consume. There is a fair amount of emptiness and meaninglessness in our world. We can possess many things and be very dissatisfied with our lives, what we do, who we are, the way we are. People can be perceived as happy, but underneath the surface depressed and downcast, starving for meaning. We can have many gifts, talents, abilities, but as St. Paul put it without love we are little more than clanging cymbals. We can have so much, and be so alienated from one another. Seeking more things and stuff, we can be come that much more spiritually malnourished.
Human souls, creatures of God need more than what the world offers. We need the spiritual fulfillment that can only come from God. We do need the Bread of Life that comes down from heaven. We need the food that only Christ can ultimately give. The food that Christ gives is love, a sacrificial love that forgives, respects and gives dignity to our lives. It is the love that gives worth to our being. It is the presence of Christ that brought healing to so many people, restoration of their worth and being.
What keeps the Christian Community, if really nourishes itself on Christ from becoming stuffed, overbearing, self-satisified, and self-righteous, is that partaking of Christ is partaking of the food that gives and serves. The point of eating the flesh and drinking the blood is that it nourishes us and strengthens us for service and mission. It strengthens us for accomplishing God’s Will and for serving God in others, as Christ has first served and come to us.
“Unless you eat the my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life within you.” is one startling statement for sure. But it sure gets attention. It sure reveals one profound truth. Until we put away our junk, and junk foods, our selfish philosophies, our addictions to materialism and consumerism there will be no real life in us. It is only in feeding upon the Christ of Love, the God of Love and all that that implies that we become nourished to be the creatures we were meant to be . . . them that care for one another, that are their brothers keepers, good faithful husbands and wives, that care for those in need around the world.