August 23, 2009
(Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 16)

(From The Lectionary Page)

Looking for Life in the Bread

Photo of The Very Rev. Dean Terry White by The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean

There is the familiar story of a priest teaching an inquirers’ class of new Episcopalians on the ritual surrounding the celebration of the Holy Eucharist.  Gathering around the altar set for a liturgy with chalice and paten, bread and wine, the class walked through the service. Everyone had a chance to handle everything at the altar. One young man picked up the large celebrant’s host and held it for sometime. The priest asked if he had a question. With great innocence the young man said, pointing to the large host, “I have no trouble believing that his becomes the Body of Christ. My trouble is I don’t believe it is bread.”

In today’s Gospel reading, something similar is going. The disciples are having trouble with the concept that Jesus is bread.

Today marks the fifth Sunday of Gospel readings from the sixth chapter of John. Next week we return to Mark’s Gospel. This chapter is known as the Discourse on the Bread of Life, beginning with the feeding of a multitude with fives loaves of bread and two fish. When we hear that story, or hear Jesus refer to himself as bread, we think of the Eucharist. But since the Last Supper has not yet occurred, the disciples wrestled with what all of this imagery meant. And as we reach the end of the chapter today, it is clear that many of them have had enough and a confrontation occurs which is a pivotal point in our Lord’s relationship with the community of disciples.

The New Revised Standard Version reads that many disciples said, “This teaching is difficult, who can accept it?”  More explicitly the New English Bible reads: “Many of his disciples on hearing it exclaimed, ‘This is more than we can stomach! Why listen to such talk?’”

It is equally clear that Jesus’ takes the position that there is no room for compromise. Upon hearing how difficult many followers are finding these words, he does not tone down his teaching nor put a different spin on the content to make it more palatable. He considers all that he has said about himself as the bread of life, and the need for his disciples to abide in him, as essential teachings.  Difficult to accept? Yes. Understandable.  Optional for a disciple? No.

The result, John writes, is that many followers walked away from that point. So Jesus calls together the Twelve and asks if this is a deal breaker for any of them. He asks, “Do you wish to go away? Do you also wish to leave me?”

And Peter replies of course not, there is no one else to go to, because Jesus alone gives them eternal life.

The pivotal nature of this episode should not be underestimated.

The question Peter responds to was not the first time Jesus placed it before the Twelve. Way back in the first chapter of John, as Jesus is calling these very disciples to follow him, he asks them, “What are you looking for?”

Now, in this moment in their journey together, they have reached a literal crossroads. Jesus asks, Remember what I first asked you: Am I what you are looking for?  Are the words of eternal life truly what you are seeking?  If so, here is how you must follow me.  You must feed on me, and abide in me. We must be one in every aspect of life. My life must be what you consume, what you live on. The choice is yours – but you must choose.

This is the question we must answer every day. It is the question the Body of Christ must respond to daily.  Will we be one with Jesus in all that we do, in who we are, in every situation? Will we:

Today we are called to confront the reality that, we, too, are known to respond with our actions if not our words: Lord, these are hard teachings. This is more than we can stomach!  So why not give us pass?

In baptism we committed ourselves to Christ. Those parts of the Christian life that are hardest for us are precisely those things we need to better.

Each day Jesus asks: What are you looking for?  And what are you willing to do to find it? What are you willing to be and become?

Our Lord gives us the means to grow in Him. It is grace. And one of the most readily accessible vessels of grace is the Holy Eucharist, the bread of life, heavenly food.

This Most Holy Sacrament gives us comfort and strength. Through the humble forms of bread and wine, we receive the Real Presence of the Incarnate Lord and we are changed.

When the Sacred Host is offered to us and we say “Amen” we are, in effect, answering the questions asked of the disciples: What are you looking for? Do you wish to go away?

As we abide with Christ in this great Sacrament, we pledge ourselves, all that we are, to be disciples who engage the hard teachings.  As we open our hands we empty ourselves, so that we might be filled with Christ and act and live and serve as Jesus commands.

The awesome moment of holy communion calms our doubts, banishes fear, instills holy courage, and assures us of our Lord’s great promise: I am with you always.  Here, indeed, is what we are looking for.

How blessed we are to be honored guests at this Table. The gifts of God, for the people of God.  Taste and see how gracious the Lord is, be forever one with your Lord and Savior, then go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Is it bread?  It is, and so much more.