LAKE JAMES
NORTH CAROLINA
|
LAKE JAMES NORTH CAROLINA
|
|
|
Proper 15 B + August 20, 2006 + St. Paul’s Church, Lake James + In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. If you are at all like me, eating and drinking are not just needed to support life, but activities which are usually most enjoyable. In looking at the Bible readings for today, I thought how wonderful that the Hebrew Scripture includes the Book of Wisdom’s invitation to “come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.” Even the warning in today’s Epistle not to get drunk with wine at least implies that one can happily enjoy the fruit of the vine (especially Fowler wine) in moderation! But then came today’s Gospel! What did you think when you heard that opening sentence? What was your reaction to those amazing words “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you!” Eat human flesh? Drink human blood? From ancient days, most cultures have had strong taboos against such practices. Drinking any blood is a violation of the Old Testament’s dietary laws, so it’s no wonder that what Jesus said caused great dismay among his hearers. His words were shocking then, and they are shocking now. I suspect a major reason some of us are able to eat any flesh is because we buy our food the way we do. We can delight in a good steak, a roast turkey, or hamburgers grilled over a charcoal fire (in fact, I’m getting hungry right now from just imagining those meals) but strolling down the aisle in a supermarket is not at all the same as actually going to a slaughterhouse, is it? If we had to accompany an animal on its last journey, see it killed and cut into pieces, would we be as happy to eat it for our dinner? How very different it is to pick up a package of meat neatly wrapped in plastic! Jesus said: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you!” Are we able to receive Holy Communion because eating a thin wafer of bread and taking a sip of wine from the chalice is as sanitized as plastic-wrapped meat? One of the treasures to be found in the Book of Common Prayer is the 20 page “Outline of Faith” commonly called “The catechism.” There, the teaching of the Episcopal Church is stated simply, even bluntly. Referring to the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the catechism says “The outward and visible sign in the Eucharist is the bread and wine, given and received according to Christ’s command. The inward and spiritual grace in the Holy Communion is the Body and Blood of Christ given to his people and received by faith.” It’s not surprising that there have been, and even still are people who try to deal with Christ’s words as being merely symbolic, believing that Jesus didn’t mean them to be taken literally. But history shows that for the first 16 centuries of the Christian era, virtually all Christians understood that Jesus meant just what he said, an understanding which is still taught, and believed, by the vast majority of Christians to this day. In Holy Communion, we receive the sacramental Body and Blood of Jesus, not just a symbol, not just a reminder, not just a presence which depends on the belief of the receiver. Jesus is truly, objectively present in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar whether we believe it or not, whether we receive it or not, and even whether we like it or not! As they campaign against overindulgence in junk foods, nutritionists are apt to quote the old (but profoundly true) saying “You become what you eat.” An even older saying from the Jewish mystics is “Humans were created by God to make choices.” Both sayings are relevant for us this morning as we consider the words of Jesus about being the life and the life-giving Bread. To eat or not to eat is a choice, and if we choose to accept Christ’s invitation, we do become what we eat, we are given the divine life of the Son of Man, or, in the words of Saint Augustine of Hippo, “we eat the Body of Christ in order to become the Body of Christ.” Our Lord’s statements about being the Bread of Life, the Living Bread, were made while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. The context shows that he was not a kind of “Guest Lecturer” presenting a “learned paper” on some points of sacramental theology to a group of scholars. Rather, he was talking to ordinary people, his words were a response to the liturgical reading of the Hebrew Bible and he then commented on that reading which was about the gift of manna to the ancient Hebrews. His point was that manna was different from the holy food He would give, because what He would give was Jesus Himself. Jesus said “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you!” The reaction of Christ’s hearers, to say the least, was mixed! The Gospel is quite frank in reporting that many of those present simply rejected what he said as horrifying! Others, who up till then had been “more or less” in his corner, called it quits! Even some who stayed muttered “this is a hard saying – who can possibly accept it? Indeed, let me ask you, who can accept it? First of all, the Church accepted it. For over 2000 years, the Church has celebrated the Eucharist, feeding millions upon millions of people with the Bread of Heaven and the Cup of Salvation. Second, the Church
continues to accept it, continues to celebrate the Eucharist, giving to all who
choose to receive that Sacrament, the Body and Blood of the Savior. Two centuries ago, the poet Josiah Conder wrote: “Bread of heaven, on Thee we feed for Thy Flesh is meat indeed! Vine of heaven, Thy Blood supplies the blessed cup of sacrifice.” Powerful words indeed, later set to music and now found in our Hymnal. Again, Jesus said “Unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you.” Some people replied “Those are hard words to believe, who can accept them? That was the question then and it’s the question now. Who can accept Christ’s own words? May our minds and hearts move us gladly to answer we accept them, because we accept Him!
+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr. |
|
This page last modified on Friday, April 11, 2008 09:39 PM |
