Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18 Psalm 34:15-22
Ephesians 6:10-20 John 6:56-69
Lectionary Link
Pliny the Younger, was a Roman governor in early second century who persecuted Christians, for merely being Christian. And he wrote about the secret crimes of Christians, one which was "ritual cannibalism."
Probably the Christian Eucharist was mainly a very private event in the homes of early believers, but information would get out about eating flesh and drinking blood giving rise to the rumors of ritual cannibalism.
And of course, if one is very literal about the Gospel of John words of Jesus, one can understand the rumors about cannibalism. "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of me."
The irony about these words in John's Gospel is that Protestant interpreters read these words as not literal, but figuratively, and Roman Catholics have read these words in the more literal way leading to the presence of Christ being called a transubstantiation. A changing of the real substance of the bread and the wine into the real substance of the body and of Christ. And so Christians have disagreed about one of the central rituals of the Church, the Holy Eucharist.
And we might want to explore how the bread and the wine can become known at the real and substantial presence of Christ.
The first rule of interpretation is to interpret within the framework of the writer's entire work. And when we look at John's Gospel, we cannot be shocked about non-literal metaphors of difference. Metaphors are literary features, not literal features.
Was Jesus a Lamb? Was he the Paschal Lamb? Was Jesus a light? Was he a door or gate to a sheepfold? Was he a Shepherd? Was he Bread? Was he a vine? Jesus was not literally any of these metaphors of difference, but he was in the figurative sense as the writer was using the symbolism familiar to an audience who knew the stories and themes of the Hebrew Scriptures.
John's Gospel is about the literary, spiritual and figurative significance of Jesus the Christ. The writer gives it all away in the opening words: Christ is the Word who was with God and was God in the beginning.
The expansive notion of Word includes what undergirds and generates all word products in languages such as speech and writing. Word includes the organization of human acts or body language in our deeds and manifold behaviors. Word is included in our seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, and hearing because Word provides the meaning grids through which we interpret all experience. When we see something, at the same time we are coupling the seeing with the word or words for what we see.
Many times in the Gospel of John, Jesus is rebuking people for being so literal and missing the spiritual point.
Since John's Gospel was written so late, one can assume that passage we've read today refers to a separation in the early community regarding the Holy Eucharist. Some persons are offended by the brute physicality of the words, "eat my flesh, drink my blood." If one takes these words literally, then one is involved in an impossible cannibalism. And this is silly.
The consistent literary device of the Gospel of John is to use the physical as a metaphor of certainty about the equal certainty of the inward and spiritual meaning and how the inward and spiritual meaning becomes physical.
What is the doubting Thomas story about? "Thomas, you touch and see my physical body for being certain; blessed are those who have not touched or seen me but believed my words."
The clue to not taking these words literally are found in this very reading. Jesus Christ who is also called the Eternal Word of God, said, "My words are Spirit and they are life?" What does this mean? It means that Word and language are the internal spirit or unseen part of us which determines the meaningful truths of our lives. And when we partake of communion we renew the Real Presence of Christ within us which is as real and certain as his physical presence.
And how do we know the certainty of the real presence of Christ in a very physical way? When our hands are used to help and heal others. When our feet walk to help others. When our words and lips speak words of love and comfort. When our hearts are moved to give and help. When we perform love and justice in our bodily lives we prove the physical reality of the Real Presence of Christ.
Christians should stop arguing and being offended by the Holy Eucharist; we should just prove the transubstantiation of the presence of Christ in our physical and inward lives. We should be the physical presence of the transubstantiated Christ in lives of love and justice.
For Christ's sake, let's stop arguing about the Gospel and the Eucharist and just be it and do it. Amen.
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