John 6:51-58
The
thing about communion is --that at the same time, it is both the simplest part
of our faith AND that most mysterious and theologically dense part of our
faith. In the early church, they argued
about it endlessly, and to some extent, we are still arguing about it. Matthew,
Mark and Luke all share the story of the Last Supper, where Jesus gives
instructions about how we are to remember him.
We use those instructions in the words of our Eucharistic prayers (which
is the prayer the priest says before we all come to the altar to receive
communion). The words we use come from
the Gospels.
The Gospel of John
shares the story of the Last Supper, but Jesus does not present the bread and
wine as his body and blood. Instead he shares a meal with his disciples and he
washes their feet and encourages them to do likewise. The language of the body and blood instead
appears in today’s Gospel reading, which comes right after the miraculous feeding
of the 5000 but way before the Last Supper.
This language is rather explicit. “Very truly, I tell you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you. 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.”
Flesh and blood. It’s kind of
gross. There is no mistaking what Jesus was talking about. He was talking about flesh and blood. Why did he get so specific? Prior to this
reading for today, Jesus described himself as the bread of heaven. That is a
lot more palatable. But Jesus was never
about making things easy. Notice he said that his flesh was true food and his
blood was true drink. Saying that
something is true is another way of describing something as real. Jesus wanted all those listening (and those
of us listening now) to know that this was the real thing—that he was the real
thing. He was real and true, and he
still is today.
A
lot of new age spirituality encourages us to find the divine in each one of us.
I think that’s find and good. We are
created in the image of God, and that includes divinity to some degree. Yet what Jesus was teaching people in our
Gospel reading from today was the goodness of humanity, of our flesh and
blood. Often over the last 2000 years of
the history of the church, flesh has gotten a bad rap. Religious leaders have been critical of the
flesh, saying that the body is sinful and weak.
Yet if that were true, why would Jesus make such a point of highlighting
his humanity---so much so that he asked us to eat his flesh and drink blood?
Our bodies are weak. Even
at their strongest and youngest, these bodies of ours are painfully vulnerable.
Despite that, Jesus still took on a human body so he could experience what we
experience. You know that saying that you have to “walk a mile in someone’s
shoes?” Jesus did so much more than
that. He lived a life in our bodies, so
that we would never doubt that he understands our pain and that he isn’t some
god stuck on high mountain judging from afar.
He is down here with us.
By
celebrating the Eucharist every week, we are remembering the realness of Jesus.
We are not elevating him, as much as we are bringing him down to be with us.
Then we are taking it a step further by consuming him. One of the last things the priest says before
all the people come to receive the bread and wine is, “These are the gifts of
God for the people of God.” Then there is an optional addition. The priest can
add: “Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in
your heart by faith with thanksgiving.”
I always include the 2nd part because I like the image of
feeding on him in your heart. We don’t
normally associate the heart with food, but there is no doubt that our heart
and our soul needs that kind of nourishment. It’s not enough to simply consume
the body and blood. We are to be consumed
by it.
Augustine of Hippo was a great theologian of
the 5th century. Catholics
and Protestants are always arguing about who gets to claim him (which means
he’s totally an Episcopalian). He wrote
a lot about the Eucharist. One of things he said was, “Come to the table to
receive what you are. Then go into the
world to be what you received.” Augustine was saying that we the people are the
body of Christ. Therefore, when we come
to the altar, we are receiving something we already are, but we are still being
transformed by it.
When
God created humans, God declared us good.
That never changed. Each one of us is good because we are made in the
image of God. When Jesus came down in the flesh, he was reminding us that
humans are still good. In some ways,
communion is another way to be reminded of the goodness that resides in each
one of us. Imagine how the world could
be if we lived into that goodness---if we acted as good as we are? So come to the table. It will not make you good, it will remind you
of the goodness that is already in you.
It will feed your body and heart.
It doesn’t matter if you can’t describe exactly what it means. Eat the bread. Drink the wine. Then leave
this church and share that goodness, because our world is desperate for that.
Our world is starving for goodness, and we have an endless supply of that kind
of nourishment, more than enough to share.
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