Sunday, August 26, 2012

"Eat my Flesh" - The Rev. Dr. Kurt Gerhard, August 26, 2012


John 6.56-69

It is a custom around the world to welcome people to our homes for gatherings. There are those who excel at making visitors feel at home. We call the skill or talent, hospitality. I have discovered in my tenure here at St. Patrick’s that the people here excel at hospitality. Take, for instance, the many gatherings this summer organized by parishioners either at homes or restaurants that helped us continue to build strong relationships across the parish. I hope that you enjoyed an opportunity to take part in these gatherings and might attend next week’s ice cream social for families with kids


Every one of us, some more often than others, shares the gift of hospitality with our neighbors. Some are good at it and for others, like me, it is more a challenge. I hosted a party at my home this past week for the Camp EDOW committee and staff members. I put a little more energy into cleaning, moved the clutter to an inconspicuous place, and arranged the furniture so that it would encourage good conversation and easy movement. The day before, I hung pictures that had been stacked on shelves since I moved almost six months ago. In welcoming guests, I made every effort to make the place look good. You have probably followed these or similar steps before.

Most parties have at least a little bit of food. For a camp party, I warmed up the grill, opened bags of potato chips, and chilled a watermelon. There were other things, but the food enlivened our conversation to share stories and rekindle relationship. It allowed us to connect, once again, as a team. Food has a way of doing that. There are some who say that food is the 8th sacrament of the Church. What they mean when they say this is that food is that outward sign of the inner grace that permeates our lives together. I am not a foodie, but I have to agree that gathering around one of the necessities of life, shared as one, binds us in a special way.

Hamburgers and potato chips are the American equivalent of a meal that has been shared for thousands of years. For many cultures throughout history, the staple of the common meal was and is bread. Many restaurants serve bread either with the meal or as a gathering appetizer. Some restaurants would cease to be without bread. I’m thinking of Pizza Hut. Bread often serves as the base of various entrees including the hamburger. Even for diabetics and celiacs, bread is an important staple and a primary source of energy for nearly every human around the world.

Over the past several weeks, our gospel lesson has included portions of Jesus’ long metaphor about bread. It makes us, just as it did the original disciples, squirm.  Squirm because Jesus talks about people eating him as a way to live forever. His disciples heard it and said, “What? We can’t do that.” The disciples didn’t know about communion; they had not shared the last supper with Jesus; they hadn’t been instructed to reenact the breaking of bread in remembrance of Jesus. So when Jesus speaks metaphorically about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, the disciples recoil. Even after Jesus explains that he is not talking about his physical flesh but his Spirit, disciples turn away from him.

So maybe Jesus overestimated his audience, or the meaning doesn’t come together until the entire puzzle is put together. Whatever the reason, it took a while for it to sink in. Even today, thousands of years later when Christians and non-Christians know more about Jesus’ message and significance than those who literally walked beside him, it is not unheard of to hear people question the power of sharing God’s bread. There is certainly a diverse understanding about the true substance of the Eucharistic feast. Is it a metaphor or is it really the body and blood of Christ? The most disturbing mode of thinking that I encounter from day-to-day is that people don’t understand why we hold the Holy Eucharist to be the central sacramental experience of the worshiping community in the Episcopal Church (and in other sacramental churches).

I hear from some who say that it is outdated in modern times. That in a rational and scientific world, the supernatural has no meaning and that the Church should get rid of the old-fashioned traditions and rely on logic.

I understand where they are coming from, as I grew up in the same age and have been educated in the sciences (to some extent). At the same time, I hear in the concerns of the modern, skeptical, and in many cases secular opponent of communion the response of the first disciples who in many cases were uneducated, often illiterate, and quite susceptible to unexplainable miracles.

See, many of the disciples pushed back on Jesus because they didn’t quite understand why they would need to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood. They were doubters just like we are. We like to think that we are much more sophisticated than our long ago ancestors, but the truth is that we have much more in common with them than we like to admit.

Jesus turned to his skeptics and explained why. He said, this spiritual food is different from the food we share at our common table, instead it is something that feeds the spirit, that provides strength that last longer than the calories. It is the food that feeds the soul. Last week, I spoke about the soul in relation to wisdom, but the soul is greater than wisdom, there is something that we tap into when we encounter the soul. There is something in the soul that makes us who we are. If we just let it sit there, undeveloped and unexercised, then we have failed to respond credibly to the power of God that exists within each of us.

So in this modern era, which is very similar to other eras, the Church and believers must explain why we gather to share the gifts of bread and wine. It isn’t about the calories or the taste or the texture. The bread and wine that we eat are instruments to connect us with one another. They provide a bridge to a greater community that cannot be seen or engineered, but which gives us an ability to see our role in the larger community, in something greater than ourselves.

In addition to connecting us to a community that is not confined by the space-time continuum, the spiritual food is a reminder of what Jesus gives to us. Yes, it is easy to say that Jesus died for us, but I am talking about what Jesus gave us in the sense of helping us see our role in an ever-changing world. Jesus didn’t teach that we needed to be set in stone, but that we could adapt and change by faithfully remembering the essentials of the faith. We can do this only if we are continuing to take in spiritual sustenance, recalling our connection with Jesus who loved everyone equally and expected us to attempt to do the same. This spiritual food is greater than the fabled manna from heaven, it is the food that continues to give even in the smallest of quantities.

The modern critics are right. There is not a scientific reason to share the communion meal, but there is a reason. It is the gift that keeps us grounded in who we are, in why we are here, and how we are to respond to that blessing. It cements our relationship with each other and helps us deepen our lives. It is an outward sign of something amazing happening deep within us, something that can’t be tested in the laboratory or understood using logic, but contains the power to provide us with the strength, comfort and resolve to be God’s face to the world.

So as we gather together every week to join together with a diverse group of people at this altar, I am hopeful that you will discover the spiritual sustenance that will provide us with grounding in faith, love, and community.

Our altar is a table open to all, because I am convinced that Jesus would want it that way. Jesus, the greatest host, demonstrated radical hospitality even to those who were on the margins. Jesus opened his kingdom to all people and recognized the faith of those who didn’t know God. He gave them spiritual food.

As we share our common meal, I pray that we can do the same.

August 26, 2012

1 comment:

  1. Thanks, Kurt. As you say, this is a good understanding for Christians and non-Christians alike. It is the performance and participation of the Eucharist that make it a part of our lives.

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