READING: John Ch 6 v 51 – 58

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he (or she) will live forever. This bread is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.

Then the Jews began to argue sharply (quarrel) among themselves “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him (or her) up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him (them). Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died but he who feeds on this bread will live forever”.

SERMON:

One Sunday morning, an elderly priest was searching his drawers for his clerical collar when he found a small box containing 6 eggs and a hundred pounds. He called his wife to ask her about the box and its contents. Embarrassed, she admitted having hidden the box for the entire 30 years of their marriage. Disappointed and hurt, the priest asked her, “Why?” The wife replied that she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. He asked her how the box could have hurt his feelings. She said that every time he had delivered a poor sermon, she had placed an egg in the box.

The priest felt that 6 poor sermons in 30 years was certainly nothing to feel bad about, so he asked her what the one hundred pounds was for. She replied, “Each time I got a dozen eggs, I sold them to the neighbours for a pound!”

In defence of the elderly Priest, I must say that sometimes God’s word is not received well. We might hear things that we do not want to hear and so God’s word creates discomfort. This is more so when it falls on the ears of those who have a hard time believing.

It seems to me that to the Jews who listened to Jesus that day in our gospel reading, his message was foolishness. They did not like to hear Jesus telling them to eat his flesh and drink his blood!

Earlier in the chapter when Jesus suggested that he was the bread of life, they began to murmur and complain. Matters became worse when Jesus said “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you”. Their murmuring has now gradually escalated into quarrelling among themselves. They were confused and angry at what they have heard.

To the Jews, Jesus is a stumbling block; but to those who believe, the broken body and shed blood of Jesus is the only means of salvation.

Notice that Jesus likened his body to bread. He spoke of himself as the bread from heaven and goes on to say that unless we eat his flesh, we will have no life in us. The only bread from heaven that the people were familiar with was “manna”. “Manna” fell from heaven in the form of little flakes and was a substitute for bread. While in the wilderness, God satisfied their physical hunger with this heavenly food. But, even though manna was food from heaven and in that sense holy, it only filled their stomachs. It supported earthly life but did not take away death.

But for those in a spiritual wilderness, Jesus offers bread, which is his body. This real food is not for the belly but for the soul. It is the “real food” that Jesus spoke about and one that supports everlasting life. “Your fathers ate manna and are dead” Jesus said, “but I am the living bread and ….whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life… My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink”.

Jesus never attempted to undermine the work of his father in providing manna but was simply making the point that he had come to give His people something better, something superior and something that would satisfy them in a way that they would never hunger or thirst again.

The people never fully understood and took Jesus’ words literally in terms of eating his flesh and blood. You and I cannot literally eat the flesh of Jesus even if we wanted to, but in subscribing to His life and values, we are indeed feasting on him spiritually.

In the Gospel of John Ch1v14 we hear The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. The verse tells us that the “word” became flesh and dwelt among us. Therefore, when we feed on God’s word, in a sense we are also feeding on his flesh. Jesus’s holy life and values is “real food” because it is eternal.

Jesus also likened his blood to “real drink”. The Jewish people had a hard time dealing with blood. For centuries they sacrificed animals but God commanded that they do not drink any of the blood. On the one hand they knew blood was a means of atonement for their sin but on the other, they were forbidden to drink any form of it because it represented life.

There may be some of you here today who are struggling with this issue of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood. You come in faith to the Lord’s table to eat bread and wine but the idea of eating His body and drinking His blood is a hard saying – and surely it is if taken literally but if we understand this in a spiritual sense, it is a simple truth.

I wonder how many of us can define “blood?” We get a human perspective from the dictionary which says, blood is “the vital fluid of life”. The bible tells us in the book of Deuteronomy 12:23 tells us that “blood is life”. So both from a human understanding and from what the scriptures tell us, we know that blood is life.

The life of every flesh is the blood (leviticus.17:14). Flesh without blood is dead. And so, using this similarity of “blood being life” the blood of sacrificed animals that were sprinkled on the sinners, changed their status and conferred on them new life.

Similarly when Jesus’ blood was shed on Calvary, it changed the status of all who believed and conferred on them new life. Jesus’ blood is not just the “vital fluid of life” it is the vital fluid of “eternal life”. Jesus wants to share this eternal component of life with you and me and so He offers to us his blood. His blood was poured out for us so that you and I can take it and drench ourselves in it.

There are times when we mingle physical life with spiritual life, and when we do that, Jesus’ words would be hard to understand.

We must remember that Jesus was talking about spiritual life. The spiritual eating and drinking of Jesus’ body and blood is a partaking of his life and values. Just as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father, so too, we are in the Son and the Son is in us when we clothe our sinful life with his body and blood. If we do not want his body and blood to infuse into ours, how can we expect to be identified as his children?

Just as blood examination helps establish parentage in the medical world so too, in the spiritual realm, our life when analysed must point to Jesus. As we continue to feed on Him, we gradually become more like Him.

It might not be intentional but for too long many of us have stripped this celebration of its deeper meaning. There is a mystery and reality in the bread and wine which goes beyond a remembrance of Christ and His sacrifice and unless we fully understand the implications of what this means, we would be no different from the crowds who quarrelled among themselves.

Jesus is the Host of the Supper and Lord of the table – it is he who gathers us together to feed on Himself. His invitation is to eat his flesh and drink his blood – but when we water down this command, we are in danger of losing the promise of eternal life.

At the communion table when the bread and wine is consecrated and blessed, it is no longer the bread and wine/juice from the store. The Spirit of God descends upon and enters these sacraments and it becomes holy and life giving. When you and I then partake in faith, we are not just eating bread and drinking juice or wine but rather we are taking into ourselves or receiving into ourselves the body and blood of Jesus.

To the believer, the body of Jesus is “real food” and his blood is “real drink”. As you and I continue to feed on Him spiritually, our lives will gradually be transformed and we will reach a point when it is no more that we live but Christ who lives in us.
Amen.

PRAYERS:

Gracious God, this ordinary Sunday we gather today as your people, only a fraction of the community who live around us. We gather on their behalf, with the privilege of representing them before you, the One who unreservedly loves all people and sustains all things.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

Look with mercy and love on those who are going out today to take their children to sports, to visit parents and grandparents, to keep up to date with friends, to catch up on the weeks shopping or simply to have lunch together and perhaps a day out. Bless the people of the community within which we love ads they pursue their dreams, fill their lives or just hope to get by. We pray especially for our neighbours and the people who live down the road from where we live.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

This ordinary Sunday, look with mercy and love on those people who have to work today in our shops, hospitals, emergency services, power companies, transport services, and those who have to work at home preparing for next week. We know we’re deeply dependent on each other in a complex society. Bless those who are working on our behalf today, and give them rest and pleasure when their day ends.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

This ordinary Sunday, look with mercy and love on the poor of the world and those who are looking for a home, those who are ill in body, mind or spirit, and those who are struggling with life or with themselves. We call to mind particular people who are on our hearts……. Jesus came that we should all have life in abundance; bless those for whom that seems far away. Put in the way of each one of us this week someone we can help towards that abundance of life.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

Look with mercy and love on us, gathered as your people on this ordinary Sunday. We each have our part to play in the body of Christ. Help us to grasp again, on what seems like an ordinary Sunday, the great truth that the world is hot through with your presence, that nothing is foreign to you, that you are always there before us and that nothing, therefore, is really ‘ordinary’. And in that confidence we offer you again all that we have, all that we are and all that we could be, as agents of your love this week.

Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

And so we bind our prayers together in the words that Jesus taught his disciples …

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen

Revd Kevin.

Associate Priest at St.Wilfrid and St.Thomas