PRAYER: God of abundance, challenge us and enable us to live fully in the faith that you offer us. Show us how living without fear, and with hope can bring us to a life that is abundant and eternal. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you, O God, my rock and my redeemer. Amen.
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Starting in verse 51 today, we have this passage which – let’s be honest – can cause a lot of raised eyebrows. You know, for all those in the fundamentalist churches who claim that we’re supposed to take the Bible literally, I have to wonder how they reconcile this passage that says that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no shot at eternal life…
Of course, we know that Jesus’ words here are not supposed to be taken literally, but passages like this have been misread and misunderstood since they were first written down. In fact, the early church was actually accused of being cannibals specifically because of passages like this from John.
John wrote these words for a community of Jewish Christians who were being persecuted by the authorities for their beliefs in Jesus. This was a community that had already been sharing in a ritual meal based on Jesus’ words and acts during his last meal with his disciples. This group of Jewish Christians would have heard John’s words as a reference to the Eucharist where flesh and blood are symbolized by bread and wine.
If you’re from outside that group of believers however, and if you’ve never been exposed to the teachings of Jesus, then you’re probably going to come to some pretty uncomfortable assumptions about what those Christ followers believe.
But here’s the thing. We’re reading a few verses from a much larger narrative. Earlier in this same chapter, Jesus feeds the five thousand. A large crowd was following him around and Jesus gave a little test to his disciples. I can just imagine Jesus saying to himself, “Let’s see if they’ve been paying attention.” “Where can we get them some bread to eat,” he asked. The disciples balked at the idea worrying about how much all of that bread would cost. Maybe they weren’t paying attention after all. And of course, Jesus gave them a lesson on living in faith, putting their faith first, trusting in God above all else… and he fed all of the people gathered there… every single person. And he demonstrated once again the economy of abundance that is offered by God. 12 baskets of food were leftover… one for each of the tribes of Israel. Everyone who comes to the table is satisfied.
So in our reading today, the witnesses who saw Jesus feed all those people, are now hearing him talk about himself as the bread of life, telling them that they must eat of his flesh and drink of his blood. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.
He’s talking about something more than some grain and flour baked into shape and then eaten. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is always going deeper. Jesus is drawing a comparison to that bread – that temporary bread that those thousands of people ate and himself. Those people who ate that bread, they’ll be hungry again. With Jesus, there’s a deep satisfaction, a fullness that endures forever.
You see, for Jesus is not temporary. Jesus is more. Let’s go back and look at the opening verses of the Gospel of John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
And then, a few verses later: and the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
Jesus is connecting the dots from that moment where all those people are fed to the incarnation – his birth, the Word made flesh. But it still goes even deeper, because he is connecting the dots from that moment to his birth, and to creation itself.
I used to play this online poker game. It’s not real; there’s no money involved. But it’s online and people from around the world can play against each other. The good thing about it is that you can practice strategies… you know, as the Kenny Rogers song says, “You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, Know when to fold ’em…”
But as I said, there’s no real money involved; it’s all pretend. You build up a collection of chips, but ultimately, they’re worthless. So, often times, people come into this game and put all of their chips down before a single card is dealt. They go all-in with their meaningless chips, and they’re either going to double their chips or not. It doesn’t matter if they’re holding a pair of aces or a 2 and a 6. They’re don’t have any value, so who cares, right? Either way, going all-in playing this online poker game, there are no benefits, and there are no consequences.
It is significant that Jesus calls himself the living bread. Living implies for us an ongoing presence, something that is happening now and continuing. Remember the words Jesus said to the woman at the well. Jesus called himself the living water. Jesus, as living water and living bread serves to highlight the importance – the significance of Jesus’ words.
That which we eat and drink become part of us, they come together to assimilate into our whole being. Jesus points to eating and drinking as necessary for our survival, and following Jesus is necessary for us to live life fully and abundantly as God intends.
Jesus, the Word become flesh is inviting us deeper into the incarnation. The Word become flesh is inviting us to go all-in in our faith, absorbing the life and teachings of Jesus, incarnate in the world… incarnate in us.
John Chrysostom, a church leader from the 5th century, wrote that God’s love became incarnate in the flesh of Jesus, therefore we can do more than look upon or observe Jesus, we can “fix [our] teeth on his flesh and become commingled with Him”. By uniting our flesh with Jesus’ we unite ourselves to his presence, his body and his love. Just think about the change that would be possible in our lives, indeed in our world, if we were to take the nature and Spirit of Jesus into our entire selves so that we are transformed to become like Jesus.
Our lectionary readings this week include the story of Solomon from 1 Kings in the Hebrew scriptures. It is a famous story of Solomon’s request to God for wisdom. God offered him anything he wanted, but, facing the daunting responsibility of ruling over God’s people, Solomon asked for wisdom. He didn’t always act wisely through the years of his reign, but he is nevertheless mostly remembered as a wise ruler. The problem we have as we search for wisdom in our own lives and world is that we sometimes mistake wisdom as something that happens in our heads. Wisdom often does include an insightful mind, but there are many very intelligent people who have little wisdom at all. Solomon realized that he would need God’s help if he was to live with any wisdom at all.
As wise as Solomon was, Jesus was far more so, and so if we seek wisdom, we can do no better than to open ourselves to the Spirit of Christ and allow his wisdom to fill us, going all-in in our faith, in how we re-present Christ in our community.
One thing that I hope is clear this week, is that wisdom is rooted not so much in what we think, but in how we live. The choices we make, the actions we perform and the relationships we forge can all be foolish or wise. And it’s our deep connection with God in Christ that opens us to the wisdom of God, which empowers us to live wisely, which allows us to fearlessly go all-in.
I want us to think about and pray about how we can be all-in where our faith journeys are concerned. How can we put all of our chips into the middle of the pot, where the risk and reward are the greatest? And you know… you know this… that with Christ, there really is no risk; there is only reward.
It requires of us two movements in our daily living. First and foremost, we need the discipline of a daily spiritual practice. This includes our prayer time, scripture reading, and Christlike action. Prayer time and scripture reading, in and of themselves are fine, but there must also be Christlike actions in our lives. This is how we re-present Christ in the world. This is how we love our neighbor, how we offer hope to the brokenhearted, how we stand up in defense of those who are troubled or oppressed.
When we do that, then we come to the second movement in our daily living, which is to allow our union with Christ – our being all-in to overflow into lives of gracious, generous, gentle, and humble living. It is when we commit to union with God and to living from God’s wisdom, going all-in, that we are able to bring the life of Christ into our homes, our churches, our neighborhoods and our communities.
Going all-in in our faith is not just about how we think, but about how we live, and it is only in union with God and in the strength of God’s Spirit that we can hope to embrace this life. It is how we live – both as individuals AND as a church community. So, the church itself must also be all-in on working towards God’s kingdom here on earth. The martyred Salvadoran bishop Oscar Romero put it plainly: “When we feel that it is a ministry of the church to concern itself for those who are hungry, for those who have no schools, for those who are deprived, we are not departing from God’s promise. He comes to free us from sin, and the church knows that sin’s consequences are all such injustices and abuses. The church knows it is saving the world when it undertakes to speak also of such things.”
So, whatever chips you have in front of you, this is your opportunity to see what living in an economy of abundance is all about. Jesus offers us hope and peace, love and abundance. When we go all-in, we win and we double the hope, the peace, the love that we risk putting into the middle of the proverbial pot. Let’s not be afraid, for the reward is great my friends. Let’s go all-in and let’s allow this Living Bread to be the ultimate defining factor in our lives, as we offer this same living bread to the world.
To God be the glory.
