Flesh And Blood

Sermon-Year B Proper 13-August 16, 2009
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Two quick personal stories. Most of you know Kyle, our kid. From time to time someone will say to me, “Debby was married before-so Kyle’s not your flesh and blood is he?” And I always try to remember to say what I believe is the truth, “no, he’s more than flesh and blood, he’s my son.”
It was 1971. I was taking confirmation classes. Again. The first time I didn’t feel “ready”. In those days you couldn’t take communion until you were confirmed. And when I didn’t get confirmed the first time, a year later, I couldn’t stop thinking about communion. I would never receive, I kept thinking. And then the day came, I was confirmed, but most of all what I remember is this place in the palm of my left hand where the wafer was put by the bishop. I thought to myself, “I’ll never forget this moment, when I first felt the body of Christ in my hands.” I probably will some day. But so far… I thought I knew what communion was back then. But almost 40 years later, I am less confident, less positive. I know that it is sacred, I know that it’s holy. I can talk all day about the Doctrine of the “Real Presence” which is how we define what happens at the Eucharist. But what words can describe a spot in your hand, a place in your heart that you still remember?
Jesus is STILL in chapter 6 of the gospel of John (this is the 4th week of this lectionary), and we are STILL listening to him tick off people by telling them that he is the Bread of Life. I told you last week that theologian William Countryman calls this “obnoxious discourse” (something I’m familiar with) because everything Jesus says seems designed to irritate the people listening. Jesus went from having a crowd of thousands following him early in this chapter, to having just a few at the end. Increasingly as he describes who he is and what he is, he is offending and scandalizing those listening. He tells them that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood! Do you have any idea how upsetting this had to be to good Jews? Judaism was the first near eastern religion to ban the eating of any meat with blood still in it. They were the first religion to go out of their way to forbid the consuming of certain foods because they were unclean. And here is Jesus telling people to devour his body and blood, teaching people that they HAD to eat his body, drink his blood in order to live.
It is a scary passage today, with Jesus saying that he has to come into us, if we are to come into him. In the earliest days of the church (and even still today) Christians were constantly accused of cannibalism in the Eucharist. How can Jesus talk like this? And what does he mean telling people that they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood if they are to live forever? It is shocking and offensive.
There is a great story from World War II. A wounded soldier is captured. the doctor attending him, tells him that he must receive a blood transfusion in order to survive. The soldier demands to know whose blood is it. the doctor tells him there is no way of knowing, that it’s just blood. the soldier responds, “I would rather die than receive the tainted blood.” And so he did.
Did you know that the Gospel of John is the only gospel without the story of the last supper? Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have accounts of Jesus eating with his friends the night before he dies, but in John, Jesus washes their feet. I bring this up every year at the Maundy Thursday service. Scholars think that John the writer didn’t want to put it in his story of Jesus because Jesus devoted so much teaching about it here in chapter 6. Jesus spends this whole chapter, as you have been hearing, actually trying to shoo people away, trying to explain how followers are supposed to connect with him-in the days to come. It drove people away. It was too hard, too difficult a teaching. John is dealing with the issue of how people will connect with Jesus when he is no longer physically present. How will we do it? How will we know him, when we no longer see him? Remember it’s at the end of the gospel of John, that we hear the story of Thomas saying, “Unless I see and touch the risen Lord, I will not believe…” John knows how hard this is for the early church. How do we believe when we can no longer see and touch? How do we believe when Jesus is gone?
And so we have this long teaching with Jesus saying, my body will live in you, and you will live in me-through this meal. It horrified the Jews. It outraged Jesus’ followers. How can a meal keep someone real? Another war story.
Psychologist Robert B. Cialdini once told about a German soldier during World War I whose job it was to capture enemy soldiers for interrogation. Because of the nature of trench warfare at that time, it was extremely difficult for armies to cross the no-man's land between opposing front lines; but it was not so difficult for a single soldier to crawl across and slip into an enemy trench position. The armies had experts who regularly did so to capture an enemy soldier, who would then be brought back for questioning. One particular German expert had successfully completed such missions. He was sent out one day to cross the distance, slip into the enemy trench, kidnap a British soldier, and bring him back to the German interrogators. As he entered the British trench, the unsuspecting soldier, who had been eating at the time, was easily disarmed. The frightened captive with only a piece of bread in his hand then performed what may have been the most important act of his life. He gave his enemy some of the bread. So affected was the German by this gift that he could not complete his mission. He turned from the British soldier and re-crossed the no-man's land empty-handed to face the wrath of his superior officers.
John the gospel writer recorded today’s words trying to help Christians long into the future understand how Jesus could be in them, and they in him, when they could not see him or touch him.
We describe the Eucharist as a sacrament, an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. We teach that it is our way, at every service of worship, in which we can be joined again to someone who lived 2000 years ago and thousands of miles away. It is not easy to explain, it is difficult to put into words. All we can do is tell the story of the connection we experience, the life we feel, the reality we live. Is Jesus alive in us? Are we alive in Him? We may have difficulty describing how it happens, but the key is what it means in our lives. Because of taking this bread and wine, do we believe that Jesus lives in us? Because we receive this meal do we live in him? This is our challenge. Can a simple meal of a crumb of bread and a sip of wine grow life in us, and us in Christ? Is this flesh and blood? Yes, and it is more than that-it is a spot that stays in our hearts forever. A Baptist once asked an Episcopalian, “Why don’t you have altar calls, where people are invited to come forward and accept Jesus into their lives?” The Episcopalian replied, “We do. It’s called, the Eucharist.”
John 6:51-58
6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
6:52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
6:53 So Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
6:54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day;
6:55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.
6:56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
6:57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.
6:58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever."