Jesus Invites.  Do We Accept?
Preacher: Marcia C. Wilkinson

August 20, 2006

John 6: 53-60

Pictures and images are powerful forces that impress and influence us from every direction.  Their frequency on the screen, on the printed page can stimulate, numb, distort and provoke out thoughts and actions.  Images can bombard us to the point we become insensitive to warning signs that they are corrupting us, causing us to be cynical or apathetic.  Or, our imaginations are so stimulated we follow and emulate them.  When they distort they can destroy life.  When they inspire they help us to live more fully.

This week images have been important as All Saints’ family, friends and staff heard stories of our teens and leaders’ trip to Honduras.  I now have mental snapshots of them working side by side in the heat, worshiping together, making new friends, studying scripture, praying as a community, and horsing around as energetic young people.  I know from them the mission trip was filled with vitality.  Many lives were touched by strengthened friendships and forming new relationships.  God was there.  These images cause me to smile.  God took our people to Honduras, and will continue to nurture and use them.  This is the nature of a community in Christ, the Body of Christ, fed and sent out into the world,  It is also a pointer to our gospel message.

This is the third week Jesus gives a provocative image of himself:  I am the bread of life.  Jesus needed to stimulate his followers’ imagination so they would understand the reality of who he is, and who he is for them.  And so, he reminded them that their ancestors received manna in the wilderness: Simple bread, given each day as they traveled, enough to nurture and sustain them for that day only.  They would have to trust God for the next day.  Eventually, of course, the ancestors all died.

Jesus connects that manna, to his being the bread of life for them.  He, as bread, would feed and nourish, and he would be enough to sustain them.  To refuse him would mean they would have no part in him...To accept Jesus, as bread is to live forever in his presence, in the presence of God, even though physical death will come.  This bread, unlike the manna is not perishable.

The disciples must have been bewildered and uncomfortable because they couldn’t make the connection between Jesus as they knew him, and the image of his flesh and blood being offered as food, to last into eternity.
They couldn’t understand then.  We don’t fully understand either.  God’s way is always dependent on trust and faith.  That day, Jesus asked for his disciples trust.  And, today he asks the same of us:  trust me.  Jesus who freely gave his life on the cross makes it possible to be united with God.   Those who eat of Jesus, that is those who accept and receive Jesus as bread broken for them and their sin, will draw life from him, because they are united to him.

There was a small community of people with leprosy on a beautiful, but isolated peninsula in Panama.  On one particular visit, the R.C. priest was holding mass, and when it came time for Communion, people came forward, all except one woman who stayed in the back.  When I asked her if wanted help, she said she wouldn’t take communion because she wasn’t worthy.  I said none of us are worthy, but Jesus has made it possible because he did everything that needed to be done on our behalf.  When I said Jesus died for her, she couldn’t accept his gift because she believed her leprosy meant her sin was greater.  She was suffering inside, and couldn’t let go to receive the loving union Christ wanted to have with her.  She stayed in isolation.

The sacrament or sacred meal called Eucharist celebrates our union and belonging to Christ, and, because Jesus continues to redeem us, to restore and strengthen us, his forgiveness is offered every day.  Doing what Jesus asked us to do as his believers- that is to receive him as a loving sacrifice, to partake of his spiritual body, is made real by God’s holy spirit- in the elements and in the Body of believers.  Theophylact (11th c. theologian), reminds us we do not eat God for he is intangible and not in bodily form.  We can’t see him, nor can our teeth touch him.  Yet the flesh of Jesus makes it possible for us to have a union with God that defies explanation.  The Lord’s flesh remains flesh.  It is not changed. Yet, it has life giving power because Jesus is the flesh, the real presence of the word of God.

In Eucharist, then, we receive the essence of Christ, spiritual presence of Jesus with us. He is promise for the future.  He is hope today.  He is sustenance for every aspect of our lives. In this holy meeting we respond.  We acknowledge and celebrate that Jesus was not just a great teacher, prophet or an especially good man.  He is the real presence of God for us.  In Him, we live, and move, and have our being.  All of these truths come together in one holy moment.  God is the host, we are the guests, and as we share in the feast of the bread of life, we look forward to the great banquet that will take place when Jesus returns for his bride, the church.  There aren’t words powerful enough to offer explanation to this holy drama and interaction.  Yet, we as believers join together in faith, and God is there.

Our worship together and coming to the Lord’s table in faith preserves who we are as God’s church, ignites and restores our faith, and provides the inner sustenance we need for ourselves and to share our passion for God with others.  As we feed on him in our hearts with thanksgiving we are incorporating the worth that God has in glory, in eternity into our lives today.  Eucharist now is a foretaste of what is to come.  This is why Eucharist is for believers who profess faith in Jesus Christ and have made public affirmation in baptism and the creeds of faith.  Jesus’ life brings life to us, the gathered faithful. 

To enter into Eucharist as a community, then, is to believe in God’s word that Jesus sacrificed his life for the sin of the world so we can be in life with him.  If we come to receive the elements as believers but we have not done self examination or repented of our sin, or made humble confession before God, or made peace with our brothers and sisters in the faith before coming to communion- we are condemning ourselves, and God’s truth is not in us.

Maybe that is why Jesus’ words and images about himself are so graphic.  They are meant for the believing community.  In John’s gospel, people walked away from Jesus when he said he was the bread of life.  They couldn’t believe.  Many people walk away today because they cannot believe these words of truth.  Communion with God in the Eucharist is for the community of faith, and therefore cannot be a means to offer hospitality to one outside the faith.  Jesus ordained this remembrance and practice in the Upper Room with his disciples.  The tradition of the faithful gathering marks the essence of believers’ faith.

The presence of Jesus is real today, as is his forgiveness and covering for sin.  To believe anything less is not to believe what Jesus has taught and accomplished for his church and the world that still needs to know.  You and I and the church can best serve the stranger by offering the hospitality of caring and love; by inviting them into God’s truth, his word, and the life of Christ you and I have received.  Allow them to see God in your life.  Invite them into worship and fellowship, or midweek alpha.  Worship begs to be a glorious reflection of what we hold to be the most precious treasure- God’s love for us, and our desire to return our praise and joy, and thanksgiving to God.

Archbishop William Temple said that worship is:
Giving ourselves to our worthy God
The quickening of our conscience by his holiness
Nourishment of our minds by his truth,
Purifying of imagination by his beauty
An opening of the heart to his love
Offering our wills for his purpose.
In worship life is held together...

And, the bread of life is the one who holds us. 

Amen.