Receive the Bread of Life

John 6:22-40

August 6, 2006 (Communion)

Betty Berghaus

            The hymn was written in 1877, words by a woman named Mary Lathbury, music by William Sherman.  The words may be familiar to some of you:

                        Break Thou the Bread of Life,

                        Dear Lord, to me,

                        As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;

                        Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;

                        My Spirit pants for Thee, O Living Word!

                        Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me,

                        As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee;

                        Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall;

                        And I shall find my peace,

                        My all in all. 

Even with the old language that is sometimes hard for us to understand, this hymn in many ways summarizes the message from today’s lesson. 

            Earlier in chapter 6 of John we read John’s version of the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on the sea.  As our passage for today starts, the crowd followed this man who could do such marvelous signs.  They were surprised that Jesus, who had not gotten into the boat with the disciples, reached the destination before they did.  But the Jesus of John has great powers.  Jesus did not answer their question and even rebuked them a bit.  “You’re following me,” he basically said, “because your bellies are full.  But that is not the sign that matters.  This is not the food that matters most to save you.  Eternal food is more important.”

            The next comment from the crowd did not seem to follow either.  “What must we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.  But perhaps they remembered the words of Jesus in John 4:34: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to accomplish God’s work.”  Yet the people wanted more.  They wanted a sign, like Moses and the manna from heaven.  Jesus answered that God gave the manna, not Moses, and that God gives him, as the Bread of Life.  The people asked for this bread always.  Jesus continued to explain, knowing that they did not really comprehend.  “I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” Then he said, “You have seen but you do not believe.”

            And as the dialogue continued, after our reading for today, the Jews complained about Jesus’ claim to be the bread of life.  So Jesus carried the analogy further, saying (v.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.” 

            This made the Jews complain even more – “How can he give his flesh to eat?” they asked.  Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you….Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them….Whoever eats this bread will live forever”  (v. 53, 56, 59).

            These words are not so astounding to us, perhaps, especially as we prepare once again to approach the Table for Communion. But imagine that you are a stranger to the area, a stranger to the faith, and you walk into this sanctuary today just in time for this little meal.  You come forward, and I give you bread, saying, “This is the body of Christ, broken for you.”  The elder offers you the cup, saying, “This is the blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.” 

            That must seem very strange indeed to one uninformed in the Christian faith.  It might even sound a bit cannibalistic, to think of eating someone’s flesh and drinking their blood.  And that was the reaction of some of those hearing Jesus’ words.  When the gospel was written and afterwards, there were a lot of debates over the true nature of Jesus, and later, the true substance of the elements of communion.  Docetists, for instance, would not have liked the earthly act of consuming the bread and drink, because they looked at life in strictly spiritual terms, and saw Jesus as one who seemed to be human, who was disguised as human in order to fulfill God’s will.  The Catholic Church developed the theory of transubstantiation to explain how the substance of the bread and wine is actually transformed into the substance of the flesh and blood of Christ at communion.  Theologians and churches still debate the nature of communion, and this is sometimes a strong dividing point, especially for any kind of joint worship services. But all these arguments and musings may miss the main point, as Jesus tries to point out in today’s passage. 

            For Jesus is the bread of life. While we still live in the world, Jesus takes us beyond the world into the mystery of faith when we come to the Table and accept the bread as his broken body and the cup as his spilled blood.  It does not matter if we think the substances are magically transformed or not. It matters only that we believe in Christ and all that he has done for us.  Ambrose, an early bishop of the Roman church, said:  “This food which you receive, this bread which comes down from heaven, holds the substance of eternal life.”  Ambrose was key in the conversion of one of the greatest church theologians, St. Augustine, whose writings are still studied by seminary students.  Augustine said, as if addressing Christ himself about the sacrament, “There you are on the altar, there you are in the chalice.  In this sacrament you are united with us – we are joined together, we drink together, because we share life together.”    

            We talked last week, as we read the story of the feeding of the 5,000, about how God provides food for us, daily sustenance to keep us going.  Today’s story shows us how Jesus took this further.  Jesus is the Bread of Life, which sustains us forever. Understanding this mystery and believing it is not something I can give to you today.  It is a matter of faith.  It is an inner experience, confirmed and supported in this outer experience, the corporate act of Communion.

 John Calvin, who is purported to be the founder of the Presbyterian Church, said of the mystery of Christ’s presence in this sacrament, “I would rather experience it than understand it.”  And yet there is more to experiencing this sacrament than coming to it as if for the first time like the stranger in the sanctuary.  We come to the table remembering the history of this sacrament.  There is the history of the Passover, the context in which all the gospels place the meal.  The Passover is a crucial point of salvation for the Jewish faith, and it is an Old Testament sign for us of God’s great care throughout the span of salvation history.  So we come to the table as students of the Old Testament. And we come to this table remembering New Testamant, the other gospel stories of Jesus sharing the Last Supper with his disciples.  In that sense communion is a somber time.  But we also come knowing the rest of the story from all 4 of the gospels.  We know that Jesus is risen, and that he invites us in glory to the Banquet still to come.  So we come to the Table with anticipation and with joy. This table gives us a mystery that we cannot fully explain.  This meal is an experience that we share uniquely as Christians believers.  If we but believe, this bread and this cup will mysteriously fill us and prepare us to do God’s work in our world. 

            John’s story continues in chapter 6 with the response of the disciples to Jesus’ teachings.  The disciples in John at this point were not the specific 12, but were all those following Jesus.  But the text tells us (v.60), “When many of his disciples heard it, they said: This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”  We also read (v.66) that many of turned away and left Jesus because of this strange teaching.  It is not easy to understand the mystery of Jesus as the Bread of Life.  Some will not understand and will fall away.  And yet we know that many, many more have joined the faith, and many more will, who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  We believe, and we come to the Table, and yet we do not fully understand – and that is alright. 

                Imagine now at this table the joining of any baptized Christians in this remembrance.  There are young children who have recently learned about the sacraments in worship classes.  There are African American Baptists, and there are Hispanic workers who speak little or no English.  There are widows in Russia, struggling to make ends meet in a culture where there is no work for them.  There are soldiers in Iran and Iraq and Afghanistan coming to the table, weary from battle and duty, mourning the fall of fellow troops.  There are many more. Our brothers and sisters, whether Presbyterian or Methodist or Baptist or of any other Christian faith, join us at this table, where we can all be united in the one Body of Christ, the true Bread of Life.      

            Prepare your hearts and minds to come to the Table of our Lord.  AMEN.