August 20, 2006,   Pentecost 11, All Souls' Episcopal Church

Jesus’ Presence to each and to all
John 6: 51 – 58

You’ve heard the old adage, “When the cat is away, the mice do play.” Now, I don’t think that this is true in all circumstances. For instance, I am definitely not suggesting that this was true here at All Souls when Fr. Bright was on vacation a few weeks ago, but a person’s presence is generally very vital in the dynamics of life and relationships.

 One of the most necessary elements in human love is presence. When we love someone,  we want to be near that person..to be with that person. On those sad occasions when we have to be apart from loved ones for whatever reason….work related travel, going off to school,  whatever……. we try our best to keep in touch by phone, by e-mail or letter.  If the separation is caused by death, even then we try to be present to our loved one through pictures, through stories, through memories…..anything that will be a strong reminder of our loving presence to each other.

 This would seem to be the big reason why Jesus continued to speak these words in today’s Gospel as He did in last Sunday’s Gospel about Himself being the Bread of Life. He was speaking about a way by which we can remain united to our Living Lord………remaining in His Presence. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

It is true that the Jews who had heard Him on that occasion, could not understand, much less believe, how this could be. “How can this man give us his flesh for us to eat?”. And in the long history of Christianity, even up to the present day, there are still people who question the reality of these words of Jesus…….words that speak about His bodily presence to us through Living Bread.

 Eating the bread of the Eucharist is meant to remind us that we need the nourishment of who Jesus is…… of what He stands for …….and to what it is that He is calling us to do. We must feed on His Humanity!

 Doing this, we obviously must ask ourselves what would He do in the situations and the decision-making challenges in which we often find ourselves. Should I apologize for what I said to a co-worker? Should I move on to another job opportunity? What would Jesus do in the face of terrorism? In other words, we lay it all out at Jesus’ doorstep.  Bringing Jesus in to our contemporary world, some have suggested that if Jesus was here today, He would not be able to win an election. If this is true, what does that say about the values with which we feed ourselves? What are the values with which we feed ourselves?

 Our minds and hearts today are fed by so much that does not nourish. Sometime, it seems, there is no room for that which does give life. The topics of our conversations, our entertainment are so shallow at times. What comes to us from our car radios, computer screens or family room television all feed us with ideas….some are very good….some not so good.  But, if this is all we turn to for nourishment, then these ideas and values can also become our spiritual food, and little by little, they become part of us. But do they give life as Jesus promised He could do?

 When we were very young, our parents fed us because we did not know how to feed ourselves. Once we had learned the mechanics, we still did not always know what was best for us to eat. Even as adults, we do not always make the wisest of choices when it comes to our physical nourishment and particularly when  it comes to spiritually nourishing our minds, our hearts and our souls. So we do well to listen: “He who feeds on me has eternal life.” 

Yes, the only way to begin to know the answers to these questions is to feed on , to reflect on His Word, to come to know Him on a level that is more nourishing than simply being able to retell some of the stories about His life.  What might happen, for example if we became as familiar with the Sermon on the Mount with its promises and its many challenges………as we are with the story of the shepherds and the wise men in Jesus’ birth story?  There is a huge difference between knowing some things about a person and feeding on that person.  Jesus invites us to feed on Him.

 He merely says to his listeners, long before modern health food enthusiasts picked up on it, that you are what you eat.   And if you “swallow” the Lord of life, you will have the life of the Lord in you.  It’s as simple and as complicated as that.

 Now, if we delve into our Gospel a little deeper, we find that there is a real passion, real excitement, about life in these words.  Jesus uses the word “life” or “living” nine times in the passage.  He continues to describe  Himself and His presence not in static terms, but in dynamic ones.

 “I am the living Bread, the Bread of Life.  I have life because of God, you will have life because of me.” Powerful words!

Throughout this discourse on the Bread of Life, Jesus invites His followers to passionate living, to see, both in His person and His message something, someone, alive.

Jesus was no wild-eyed romantic, he knew that the quality of people’s lives is often compromised. Some have to scratch out a living…….literally. Sickness and death become routine. Life becomes brutish, hellish and short. Heaven knows we see that all over our world today. 

But, Jesus pleaded with people not to give up on life.  Here is the passion of  Jesus.  It runs through all the Gospels.  It drove Him to call people from death to life frequently.  He passionately loved men and women……….. passionately pitied the poor …passionately fought immorality in all its forms…passionately sought for people to choose the Abundant Life with Him……… and passionately felt the need to be present…. To offer His presence to us in some way even after He had to leave the world.

 And this presence brings about an important Christian truth:  When He says, “whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”, He is not only speaking about His presence to us, but also our presence to each other.  In other words, we become identified with Him and our fellow man, we become the Body of Christ in this day at this time.

 I believe in John’s thought the altar table, the feeding of the 5000 on the hillside, the last supper in the upper room, or today, 2000 years later,, the receiving of Holy Communion on an over-bed table in a hospital are all alike. In that in all these settings, we may taste and touch and handle the bread and wine which brings us to Christ.   Christianity would be a poor thing if Christ and the sacraments were confined to churches.  It is John’s belief that we can find him anywhere in a Christ-filled world.   It is not that He is belittling the sacraments, but He is expanding them so that we find Christ at His table in church and then go out to find Him anyplace where men and women have a loving sacramental relationship in Holy Communion with God. At any of these meals, we can find again, that bread which speaks of the manhood of the Master and that wine which speaks of His blood….. which is life. 

So…..let us all remember that as the Body of Christ, we are connected to each other. It has been said that no truly great man comes to true greatness that has not felt to some degree, that his life belongs to mankind, and that what God gives him, he should share with his fellow man. That is the Christian dynamic!! You and I are in physical and spiritual relationship with one another because we are together the Body of Christ.  We can plead for one another.  We can pray for one another.  We can offer up acts of courage, endurance, suffering, service, forbearance and forgiveness for one another.   Why, we can even die for others and somehow, in the great mystery of Christian life and love, it can benefit others.   

It is not just that Sidney Carlton took the place of his friend on the gallows in Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities.”  It’s not just that St Maximilian Kolbe took the place of a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp and died in his stead.  It is not just that innumerable young American servicemen and women in the various wars of our history died for us so that “we can be free”. 

What is more important for us to remember is that we ordinary human beings can do these things because we are spiritually united in and through the Body of Christ. Because we are united, we can direct our energies and our prayers and our suffering on behalf of other people for their welfare. We are united in Christ through His Presence with us, through His love for each one of us, through His desire that we be gathered together in His Body.

 And please remember, we must look to those who are poor and sick and living in misery of any kind and be inspired to reach out and help, because they, like us, are fellow-members as the Body of Christ.

 So as we come to the altar….this table… to partake of His Body and Blood, let us never forget that Christianity is not a theory. It is not a speculation nor is it a philosophy of life. Christianity is a Life

It is your life and it is my life reflecting the Living Presence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.