11 Pentecost Cycle B, Proper 13 August 5, 2018
Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 Psalm 78:23-29
Ephesians 4:1-16 John 6:24-35
The community which was responsible for the writing of the Gospel of John spanned the decades after Jesus of Nazareth left this earth. The community probably consisted of Jews, former followers of John the Baptist, and Gentiles, who had gradually became the majority in the Christian communities.
The communities from where the Gospel of John came, were Eucharistic, that is, they had as their common practice the eating of the common meal of remembering Christ. During the life of Jesus, he was not Eucharistic; the famous Passover Meal was not until the last days of his life. The Gospel of John includes writing about how the Eucharist became the practice of their community even though the Last Supper in John's Gospel does not include words of institution and is not a Passover Meal. The writers of John's Gospel wanted to show how the Eucharist derived from the life of Jesus and how it represented a development from the Hebrew Scriptures.
When I administer Communion and place the bread into your hand, I say, "The body of Christ, the bread of heaven."
One of the metaphors of Jesus in John's Gospel is this; he said, "I am the bread life...the bread of God is the true bread which comes down from heaven."
Where did the symbolism for the bread of heaven come from? The Gentile members of the church had to be taught the symbolism of the bread of heaven that derived from the Hebrew Scriptures.
New members to the church would wonder about this Eucharistic meal tradition. They would wonder why bread and wine would be called the body and blood of Christ. In fact, outsiders who heard rumors about this secret community meal said that Christians were cannibals, because they heard about this eating of the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ.
The Eucharistic had to be explained to new members. The cannibal rumors about the Eucharistic meal derived from people who were very literal about language.
John's Gospel is a writing full of metaphors which are not meant to be taken literal. Jesus is not literally light, lamb, shepherd, bread, way, truth, life in a scientific empirical sense, but he is all of these in the mystical poetry of the Christians of the early churches.
The meaning of the life of Jesus was found in the poetry of the early church and it was also found in the liturgy of the early church, especially in the Eucharist.
The gathered church received the bread and the wine as a way of celebrate the specific renewal of the presence of Christ in their lives. If the Risen Christ is always inside of us, why do we need to be renewed in the presence of Christ? The Eucharist is a meal of dynamic remembrance; we need to remember because we know the human tendency to forget. We can be so distracted by other things, we can easily forget the presence of Christ. So the Eucharist is a gathering meal to remember in a liturgical way that Christ is inside of us even as close as the bread and wine that become a part of us.
So when Gentiles would see the Eucharist event, they might ask, "What's this?"
So the church leaders taught about the "What's this?" bread. When the children of Israel complained about not having food and began to think that God and Moses had abandoned them in the wilderness, they needed a remembrance meal.
Moses offered a prayer of intercession and God sent a special frosty substance on the ground. Moses told them to collect and eat the frosty substance on the ground. And when the did, the people asked, "What's this?" The Hebrew words for "What's this?" are Man na. And so, in a quite humorous way, "What's this?" became the name for the special bread that came down from heaven each day to remind the children of Israel that God was present to them each day of their life, even though they often forgot that God was present to them.
The early church believed that the Risen Christ was present to them each day of their lives. They did not want to be like the often forgetful people of Israel. The Eucharist was a meal of dynamic remembrance; the church was reminded about the real presence of the Risen Christ within each member.
The early church also believed in the literal meaning of bread because the members took care of each other. In their eating together, they made sure that each member had enough to eat, but they also understood that they did not live by bread alone. They lived by Jesus, the Word of God, who was the living bread and whose presence was renewed and remembered in each occasion of the Eucharist.
The church has often asked about the Eucharist, "What's this?" Because the Mass became made into the occasion to enhance the authority and power of the priests of the church, it also became the occasion for it to be abused. The Protestant Reformers reacted against the way in which the Mass was practiced, mainly the custom of the paying for private votive masses for the dead. Some Reformed churches diminished its importance in their churches and often reduced it to but once a month or less. They elevated reading of Scripture and preaching to the center of the liturgy and even rid their churches of the priestly office.
What we aspire to in our Gospel understanding of the Eucharist is the celebration of its full meaning. We believe in both the literal and figurative meanings of the Eucharist. Even though bread is a symbol of participation with Christ in the Eucharist, it is not divorce from the requirement that we have to ensure that everyone has enough to eat. We believe that Christ is really present in the Eucharistic element even while we don't try to pretend to know how Christ is literally present, except that Christ becomes literal in our hands and hearts as we literally work and act to do the works of love and kindness in our world. When we do the works of Christ, we make Christ literally present within us. And that a significant literal presence.
The Gospel challenge for you and me today is to respect the Eucharist both by regular participation in the remembrance liturgy but also by Eucharistic living. In the Eucharist we ask for heavenly assistance to be able to sit down in peaceful fellowship with one another and invite the entire world to be a part of this love feast as well. We respect the Eucharist as a meal of remembrance because we often forget that we belong to Christ and that Risen Christ is within us.
Today we come to the altar today and we say, "What's this?" Man na? And we believe that we receive the body of Christ, the bread of heaven; the blood of Christ, the cup of Salvation. Amen.
When I administer Communion and place the bread into your hand, I say, "The body of Christ, the bread of heaven."
One of the metaphors of Jesus in John's Gospel is this; he said, "I am the bread life...the bread of God is the true bread which comes down from heaven."
Where did the symbolism for the bread of heaven come from? The Gentile members of the church had to be taught the symbolism of the bread of heaven that derived from the Hebrew Scriptures.
New members to the church would wonder about this Eucharistic meal tradition. They would wonder why bread and wine would be called the body and blood of Christ. In fact, outsiders who heard rumors about this secret community meal said that Christians were cannibals, because they heard about this eating of the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ.
The Eucharistic had to be explained to new members. The cannibal rumors about the Eucharistic meal derived from people who were very literal about language.
John's Gospel is a writing full of metaphors which are not meant to be taken literal. Jesus is not literally light, lamb, shepherd, bread, way, truth, life in a scientific empirical sense, but he is all of these in the mystical poetry of the Christians of the early churches.
The meaning of the life of Jesus was found in the poetry of the early church and it was also found in the liturgy of the early church, especially in the Eucharist.
The gathered church received the bread and the wine as a way of celebrate the specific renewal of the presence of Christ in their lives. If the Risen Christ is always inside of us, why do we need to be renewed in the presence of Christ? The Eucharist is a meal of dynamic remembrance; we need to remember because we know the human tendency to forget. We can be so distracted by other things, we can easily forget the presence of Christ. So the Eucharist is a gathering meal to remember in a liturgical way that Christ is inside of us even as close as the bread and wine that become a part of us.
So when Gentiles would see the Eucharist event, they might ask, "What's this?"
So the church leaders taught about the "What's this?" bread. When the children of Israel complained about not having food and began to think that God and Moses had abandoned them in the wilderness, they needed a remembrance meal.
Moses offered a prayer of intercession and God sent a special frosty substance on the ground. Moses told them to collect and eat the frosty substance on the ground. And when the did, the people asked, "What's this?" The Hebrew words for "What's this?" are Man na. And so, in a quite humorous way, "What's this?" became the name for the special bread that came down from heaven each day to remind the children of Israel that God was present to them each day of their life, even though they often forgot that God was present to them.
The early church believed that the Risen Christ was present to them each day of their lives. They did not want to be like the often forgetful people of Israel. The Eucharist was a meal of dynamic remembrance; the church was reminded about the real presence of the Risen Christ within each member.
The early church also believed in the literal meaning of bread because the members took care of each other. In their eating together, they made sure that each member had enough to eat, but they also understood that they did not live by bread alone. They lived by Jesus, the Word of God, who was the living bread and whose presence was renewed and remembered in each occasion of the Eucharist.
The church has often asked about the Eucharist, "What's this?" Because the Mass became made into the occasion to enhance the authority and power of the priests of the church, it also became the occasion for it to be abused. The Protestant Reformers reacted against the way in which the Mass was practiced, mainly the custom of the paying for private votive masses for the dead. Some Reformed churches diminished its importance in their churches and often reduced it to but once a month or less. They elevated reading of Scripture and preaching to the center of the liturgy and even rid their churches of the priestly office.
What we aspire to in our Gospel understanding of the Eucharist is the celebration of its full meaning. We believe in both the literal and figurative meanings of the Eucharist. Even though bread is a symbol of participation with Christ in the Eucharist, it is not divorce from the requirement that we have to ensure that everyone has enough to eat. We believe that Christ is really present in the Eucharistic element even while we don't try to pretend to know how Christ is literally present, except that Christ becomes literal in our hands and hearts as we literally work and act to do the works of love and kindness in our world. When we do the works of Christ, we make Christ literally present within us. And that a significant literal presence.
The Gospel challenge for you and me today is to respect the Eucharist both by regular participation in the remembrance liturgy but also by Eucharistic living. In the Eucharist we ask for heavenly assistance to be able to sit down in peaceful fellowship with one another and invite the entire world to be a part of this love feast as well. We respect the Eucharist as a meal of remembrance because we often forget that we belong to Christ and that Risen Christ is within us.
Today we come to the altar today and we say, "What's this?" Man na? And we believe that we receive the body of Christ, the bread of heaven; the blood of Christ, the cup of Salvation. Amen.
