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In the Name of God,
The Body of Christ: The Bread of Heaven / The Blood of Christ: The Cup of Salvation.
This day, the 11th of August, until 13 years ago had no special significance for me. But my father died on this day in 2011. One of his favorite things to say was “It’s a mystery.” That is, there are things we know, in our hearts, to be true that are not provable. He always said this with a smile on his face. So it is, in his memory and honor, I say to you: These readings appointed for today are full of mystery. They are also full of contrasts: words and silence, bread and water, imitations and the real thing, human frailty and God’s providence.
One of my personas is that of baker. I love baking bread. I believe bread is good for your body and good for your soul. Jesus asks us to remember him when we break bread. To keep him company. A word that actually means “with bread.” Today, this morning, let us remember that we are in God’s company; we are with God and with God’s people as we celebrate the Eucharist and reflect on Jesus naming himself the Bread of Life.
Although Jesus named himself the Living Bread, he also taught his disciples to include this request in their prayers: Give us this day our daily bread. On the face of it, these two statements appear to be in opposition to one another. But we know the Kingdom of God is both now and forever and the work of faith is holding the truth of the eternal alongside of the truth of right now.
Today’s gospel reading from John records one of the seven “I am” phrases that Jesus used during his ministry: I am the Bread of Life, I am the Living Bread. Elsewhere we find, I am the Light of the World; I am the Gate; I am the Good Shepherd; I am the Resurrection and the Life; I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and I am the True Vine. These claims are staggering and comprehensive. They address all of our needs and concerns, be it physical or spiritual. The need for food and water; to be safe and secure; the need to belong, to be connected; to have a sense of purpose, and to ease our fear of death and dying.
It's no accident that Jesus uses the “I am” phrase. God used that phrase to reveal God’s identity. We first heard it back at the burning bush when Moses asked God who should he say that sends him back to the Israelites. God answer? “I am who I am. This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.” Jesus is claiming kinship. The right to use that title in reference to himself specifically today: I am the Bread of Life. I am what nourishes and where nourishment is to be found.
In today’s Old Testament reading, we find a first course to Jesus’ claim. God’s angel bakes the prophet Elijah a little cake. An Angel Cake as it were. Taste and see that the Lord is Good. Our lectionary pulls this excerpt out of the longer story it is a part of. It is the lead-up to God’s self-revelation on the mountain top. The back story is that Elijah has just experienced a major triumph of God over the priests of Baal. As a result, the King of Israel at the time, Ahab, and his wife Jezebel, a Canaanite and Baal worshiper, want to kill him. So, he has run away into the wilderness. He is bone tired, demoralized, and ready to give up. He cries out “It is enough; O Lord take away my life.” Rather than sending death, God sends an angel who makes him that special little cake and says, “Get up and eat.”
This exchange feels real: the very-human complaints of Elijah and the frank and frankly caring, matter-of-fact response of God. This pattern of human complaint and Godly response continues on in the story. After eating the cake, Elijah travels for 40 days until he comes to a cave. He crawls inside to sleep. In the morning, the angel reappears and asks: “What are you doing here?” Elijah summarizes the situation, as if the angel didn’t know, to which the angel replies by saying “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
God does pass by. Not in the wind, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, though he could have, but in sheer silence. Then God speaks to Elijah directly asking the question again: “What are you doing here?” Unbelievably, Elijah repeats his rant, word for word. Patiently, God then tells him what he should do, where he should go, and how to find Elisha, who will become his helper and successor.
The story illustrates the power of God’s words and of God’s silence–silence that should not be equated to absence. The Silence that Elijah heard on the mountaintop was sheer, meaning absolute. Deafening. Maybe, akin to the Void before God ever spoke: a silence that was full to brimming– all things that were to be, waiting to be spoken into being. The first words attributed to God are “Let there be light.” A command and invitation all in one. And my goodness, did light come in a hurry. It came flashing out at 186,000 miles per second and kept on going with no end in sight because light can travel forever. So, when Jesus said he was the Light of the World, he wasn’t saying nothing. We acknowledge this mystery ourselves when we say the words of the Nicene Creed:
Jesus is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.
God cared for Elijah and God cares for us. We are on earth and earth is where God put it: where some call the Goldilocks or the habitable zone: not too hot / not too cold. It is this placement that allows water to be liquid. If the earth was too close to the sun, water would be gas; if it was too far away, water would be frozen. God created wetlands, oceans, springs, the cycle of rain: a fertile garden for us to live in and tend. Jesus is the Water that quenches our eternal thirst.
God from God. Water from Water. True God from true God.
God’s provision had abundance built in as a back stop. Bread ingredients are an example. Flour, oil, salt, yeast, and water. Yeast can be captured from the air. Salt comes from evaporation of seawater and never loses its salty taste. One pound of wheat seed yields 90 pounds of grain. One olive tree yields 2,500 to 17,500 olives per season and an olive tree can live between 300 and 600 years. It takes 20 olives to make one tablespoon of oil.
God from God. Manna from Manna. True God from true God.
We had the good fortune to have Amy Peterson as an intern a few years back. She was preaching on the parable of the Sower. Some of the Sower’s seeds fall on rocky ground, some on infertile, only some on good ground. She made this comment: God was not worried about running out of Jesus. That sentence and idea stunned me in its simplicity and scope. There is enough Jesus to go around. The world is not going to run out of the Bread of Life, the Light, the Way, the Truth. Jesus has power to heal, to nourish, to save.
God from God. Life from Life. True God from True God.
His words about himself are words you can stake your life to, build your life on. There is a similarity in the plainess of the language that Jesus uses and the language that God uses. It’s personal, direct, blunt, not flowery or long winded. It does not beat around the bush; it goes straight to the heart of the matter. Many of Jesus’ statements bear this marker.
- Jesus says to a young girl that had died: Child, get up.
- to Simon and Andrew: Follow me.
- to the leper: Be made clean.
- to the unclean spirit: Be silent and come out of him.
- to the wind and sea: Peace! Be still.
- to the dead and buried Lazarus: Lazarus, come out.
Jesus’ words had power, they had consequence: the young girl got up, the brothers followed him, the leper was healed, the demon came out, the wind and sea died down, and Lazarus walked out of that tomb.
What about our words? Let’s turn to the Epistle reading:
Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love . . .
This is my third sermon at St. Matthew’s. All three include the notion that kindness needs to be part of who we are as Christians. Like bread, kindness is good for the body and the soul. Kindness has been shown to increase self-esteem, empathy and compassion, as well as your sense of connection. It can decrease blood pressure, stress, and one’s feelings of loneliness. Kindness helps both you and the person to whom your kindness is directed. Kindness is being nice but with heart and soul. It turns out that God created us to have loving-kindness be the juice that makes our bodies work as intended.
God from God. Love from Love. True God from True God.
Sometimes being an imitator can help you become the real thing. You can practice being kind. Even doing the right thing for a flaky reason or from a selfish perspective does some good. Saying good morning to someone who hurt your feelings a week ago may begin the healing process. Sending a birthday card out of duty rather than love may kindle a more loving relationship. Just showing up when you said you would, now when you’d rather not, may lead to unforeseen positive outcomes. Who knows what may come of it?
That said, it is always a good thing to question the motives of our actions. What are our intentions? To ask ourselves: are we being imitators of God or of something else entirely? Who is it that we are following? If we consider the attributes of God and the example of Jesus, God did not show himself to Elijah in the destructive power of wind, earthquake, or fire, but rather in silence and that still small caring voice. Jesus showed himself in feeding hungry people, healing those who were sick, loving those who were unloved.
We are called to be imitators of God, to being Christ-like. We know ourselves to be flawed, broken, fallen folk. It is surprisingly easy to be unkind and hurtful, to be sorry excuses as standard bearers. And so, we come together as a church family to confess our shortcomings, to be fortified with angel cake, the sweet taste of Eucharist Bread, the Bread of Life, and so to become part of the living Body of Christ. As such, we are empowered to share the bread, share the water, share the seeds, share ourselves with those who need the bread, the water, our kindness and attention.
“I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
When Jesus says he is the Bread of Life, we should take him at his word. God does not waste time, ours or his, with false promises. God’s care for our condition, whiny and imperfect though we may be, is real.
The Body of Christ: The Bread of Heaven
The Blood of Christ: The Cup of Salvation.
Today, we know whose company we keep. God is with us. We are with God. Let’s lift up our hearts in thankfulness for the Bread of Life, The Light, The Way, The Truth we find in Jesus.
It’s a Mystery. Amen.