John 6:51-58
8-20-06
11 Pentecost

There IS a point to this sermon; remember this statement: what we do at the Table of our Lord is a mirror of what we do with our lives.

Were you able to listen carefully to what Jesus says? Disgusting isn't it? Surely Jesus must mean something other than what he says. But here it is: "I tell you," he says, "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....for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink." What a scandalous, repulsive thing to say! What a crazy thing to say! Yet ... how else is Jesus going to say this? How else can he put it? - that we who name him our Lord, who bear the mark of his cross ever since our baptism in his name, who fiercely proclaim ourselves "Christ-ians" are so close, so intimate, so enmeshed with this Jesus that he becomes our FOOD! How else, but to say that we eat and drink JESUS?

You and I who exist in this culture of ours often get so mesmerized with science, so brainwashed into understanding that if we can't see it, taste it, touch it, smell it, or hear it then it isn't real; we get so constricted by the claim that "truth" is revealed by simply observing empirical "facts," that Jesus' words about himself as flesh and blood for us to eat and drink gets beyond our shrunken abilities to appreciate this revealing of himself. There is a saying of the Native Americans among us that is a corrective for our rather pithy formula "seeing is believing." Native Americans say it better: "believing is seeing" they say. Work with this in your lives for awhile; a whole new reality may open up.

Jesus says, "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them."

In North America, centuries ago, a young warrior stands alone in a clearing in the deep forest, gasping for breath, skin shining with sweat, face and chest smeared with fresh blood. Like all people of his culture, and the culture of distant continents, this brave senses his oneness, his UNITY with the wind in the tree tops, with all of the living animals, with the sunlight and streams and plants, and with the great spirit who has brought all of this into existence. All things are a part of him, and he is an inseparable part of all things. His life, his essence, his spirit is also connected with other human beings who people his life, even his enemies. For this warrior has just been in battle with rival warriors and has triumphed. He had rushed into wild fight and touched two enemy fighters and he has withdrawn untouched by them. He has, in other words, taken strength from his adversaries. And from the one brave that he has killed he has taken his heart and consumed it, that that warrior's braveness, skill, power might now be his in his own life. All life is intimately connected for this gratified man.

And in Middle Eastern Palestine almost 2000 years ago walks Jesus, who teaches his followers "I am the bread of life ... those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them." Putting these two accounts side by side, the victorious warrior and the teaching Jesus, may seem to be primitive. But Jesus' plea to us becomes sharper: "I want to be your Lord," he is saying, "and I want to be so intimate with you, so close to you, so much a part of your life, that you literally need me as your FOOD - to sustain you, nourish you, strengthen you. You need me to survive, not only immediately, but even into a new transformed life that I can give." This is the whole point of this sixth chapter of St. John's gospel that began 5 Sundays ago with the story of Jesus feeding 5000 people with bread and fish, and will end for us next Sunday with Peter's desperate confession, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life!"

Now, sisters and brothers in Christ, you and I can do a lot of fussing with these words of Jesus, "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them." And many biblical scholars do this kind of fussing (that's why we need scholars to help open up these words for us). We could say, as some folks do, that Jesus is merely using one more metaphor about himself like he uses elsewhere with his many "I am" statements - as in "I am the good shepherd" and "I am the vine" and "I am the light of the world" and "I am the open door" and even "I am the resurrection and the life." Here Jesus says, "I am the living bread." You and I use metaphors when we're trying to describe something unknown to someone by using what they know to picture the new thing. But metaphors tend to break down when we push them too far. Is Jesus literally a shepherd? Of course not. Is he a vine with leafy branches, or a burning torch, or a door, or a hunk of bread? NO, but these images disclose who he is, the reality of his presence with us. So in one sense to eat Jesus' flesh and drink his blood is to "take his very life" into our lives - to have, as St. Paul says, "Christ live in me."

Then there are the folks who say, "Aha! Jesus speaks here of eating his flesh and drinking his blood because he is describing the Eucharist, the sacrament of Holy Communion." Well, you and I certainly see the truth of this also (as we week after week gather at the Table to ingest bread and wine, body and blood); but to reduce Jesus' words JUST to the event of the Lord's Supper is to encourage us to come to the table this morning, munch a little bread, sip a little wine and return to our seats thinking, "Now we've done it! We've partaken of the Lord's body and blood; now we have fulfilled Jesus' wishes. Now we can return to our lives as they really are and feel we've 'done our thing with Jesus.'" What a shallow understanding of the Lord's Supper! - when Jesus is inviting us to become so filled with him, so fed by him that it is for him to ABIDE in us and we to abide in no less that the Triune God.

In his description of the expression of Christianity called Methodism, Archbishop William Temple once said that his faith is "a transforming friendship with God." This could apply to any expression of Christianity. Most of us would have no difficulty with the "friendship with God" part. We all like to think that we can cozy up to God. But it's the "transforming" part that's not easy. It means that we will be different, changed when this food of Jesus feeds us. Sometimes it is easier to fuss over the meanings of metaphors than it is to change, to let Jesus transform us. But if we are not transforming, changing might we then not be truly letting Christ nourish us into new life? Might we not be honestly Christian?

Our Lord Jesus ushers into a life-long growing process. He asks to be the food for our lives and amazingly promises, "I will abide with you, and you will be in me." It is my hope that this longing to abide with Jesus brings each of us to his Table, because .......

What we do at the Table of our Lord is a mirror of what we do with our lives.

Pastor Scott McKinney

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