16 August, 2009: This is my body.

 The lesson that stood out for me was the gospel and in particular, the phrase, “I am the bread of life.” I used to like to make bread as some of you know, and after I first retired, I used to make it once a week. I loved the process:starting the night before with yeast and water, the next day adding simple ingredients—salt, and flour, kneading it for at least 18 minutes with a machine and by hand, watching it through two risings, putting it in to bake, taking itout when its internal temperate had reached 200 degrees. Especially I liked eating it when it was still warm,, with plenty of real butter.  I had to give up baking bread upthough, when I found that I was eating so much of my own product, that if I kept it up, I was soon going to too wide to get through the kitchen door.  I like the IDEA of bread—that you canmake something that good with just flour, salt, and yeast and that you can evenmake your own yeast if you want to, from spores that are floating in the air.

 As I’ve thought about it, it has grown clear to me what a beautiful comparison Jesus made--that three of the things associated with bread are also part of the life of Jesus and of the life of faith and in particular that part of faith that we call The Eucharist.  Let me name them: Destruction, Transformation, and Connection. Let us see what happens when we  trace each of these things through Bread, Jesus, and ourselves as we break bread together in the service we call Holy Communion.

 DESTRUCTION. Destruction seems like a harsh word to use in the context of Christianity, and if you prefer, you can use the word sacrifice. But remember that Hindu theology actually has a god named Shiva, designated the god of destruction. Certainly, in order to bake a loaf of bread, somethinghas to be destroyed. A seed has to fall on the ground,  shrivel and die, so that it can becomea stalk of wheat with a hundred or more kernels of grain on it. Then the wheat has to be cracked into pieces and the pieces ground into flour. Something has to die so that something greater can be born. You could say that the wheat had to be sacrificed to make the bread. 

 One of the things Jesus was thinking about in comparinghimself with bread was just this sacrificial destruction. Jesus was calling attention to the sacrificial nature of his own life and death. Jesus’ life wasa sacrifice that connected him to all the animal sacrifice that was a part of Jewish life. When he said “This is my Body,” he was identifying himself with the sacrificial lamb that was at the center of their Passover meal, and which recalled the lamb the Hebrews killed to get the blood to mark their doors in Egypt so the angel of death would pass over their houses.  But he did more than simply connect himself to those sacrifices. He replaced them, he fulfilled them. You could say that all those years of slaughtering bulls and goats were a rehearsal for the final sacrifice of Jesus s on the cross

 And when we turn to the Eucharist, we see the same principle at work. When we come to the altar, we are offering our selves to God, just as we did our money offerings a few minutes before. There is a line in one of the Eucharistic prayers, I think from Rite I, that says that we offer and present unto you our selves, our souls and  bodies as a reasonable and living sacrifice to you.  At the moment we receive communion, we are supposed to empty ourselves, to sacrifice the old Adam of self-centeredness and physically take into our bodies the perfect and divine life.

We aresupposed to bring to the altar all our fears, and disappointments, and sorrows, as well as our joys and leave them there, replacing them with the power and glory and majesty of Jesus Christ that is present in the bread and wine. From bread, to Jesus, to ourselves in the Eucharist, the thread of destruction runs clear.

 TRANSFORMATION: In baking bread, it is pretty clear that wetransform the simple elements of water, salt, yeast and flour into somethingrich and strange that we call bread. 

 In the same way, Jesus transformed the lives of those around him. The blind saw, the lame walked, the resentful and angry became gracious and peaceful. We know that Jesus has this same power today to transform the lives of those who grasp that the most important choice they can make is to become  disciples of Christ. It isa decision that sets loose powerful forces in our lives that, in the end will leave no part of our lives untransformed. The gospel makes it pretty clear that Jesus, in fact transformed the basic nature of Man’s relationship to God.  The life and death of an uneducatedJewish carpenter made it possible for us to live transformed lives in the powerof the holy spirit.

 That transforming power of Christ is dramatized for us in the Eucharist. In the sacred acts we do and say, we see bread and wine transformed before our eyes into the living bread and blood of the Son of God. Now how exactly that happens is the subject of some dispute. Romans call the process transubstantiation, the Lutherans call it consubstantiation, and Anglicans refer to the Real Presence. But all agree that something miraculous happened the night of the last super in Palestine, and that miracle is continued and projected in what we do here at this table and at tables around the world.  In bread, in Jesus, in the Eucharist, the thread of transformations runs deep and clear.

CONNECTION. In baking bread it is pretty clear that we connect things to other things. If you dig a little in the chemistry of baking, you find what you are doing is distributing  a powerful connecting agent, called gluten, from the flour to the rest of the bread. Tha tis what all the kneading is about and why you cannot cheat on that. You have to do it at least 18 minutes. When you clean up the kitchen, you see just howpowerful gluten is. It sticks to the bowls you mix the bread in, it sticks to the brushes you use to wash the bowls, so you find yourself uses brushes towash the brushes.

 In the same way, Jesus is a connecting force, binding together over time and space, all the billions of people who look to him a stheir savior and Lord.  But not just the people-- remember that the people in the kingdom of God are bound in song and word with the angels and archangels, with seraphim and cherubim, thrones, dominions, powers, prophets and martyrs, all singing praises to His name.

 This same connecting forces are at work in the Eucharist. Jesus and his disciples shared a common loaf and cup and in this way were reminded that they were all one body and one blood. Though we use separate wafers for technical reasons, we are supposed to understand that the image of the common loaf stands behind what we do. With the common cup the symbolism is more clear. Our protestant brothers and sisters use little individual cups, believing them to be more hygienic, though no evidence has been put forth that Romans and Episcopalians spread more germs than Methodists and Presbyterians. But for us the symbolism of the common cup is an important reminder that we are connected to one another through Jesus, at the deepest level. In bread,  inJesus, and in the Eucharist, the thread of connection runs clear and strong.

 So when Jesus says, I am the bread of life, we can see that at one level he is sharing a simple meal with his disciples, but on another, he is creating the deepest and most complex mystery ever revealed to humankind. It begins with bread, but it goes on forever, into all eternity.

 Amen.

 Sermon

16 Aug 2009

I am sorry that I cannot be with you today. Believe me, Iwould rather be with your than where I am, in room 457 of Trinity hospital. Butthere is every reason to think that my stomach problems will resolve themselvesand that I’ll look back on this as a small bump in a long road.

Before I got sick Friday night, I had been thinking and making notes abouttoday’s lessons, and I will ask Sally to share some of those with you. Thelesson that stood out for me was the gospel and in particular, the phrase, “Iam the bread of life.” I used to like to make bread as some of you know, andafter I first retired, I used to make it once a week. I loved the process:starting the night before with yeast and water, the next day adding simpleingredients—salt, and flour, kneading it for at least 18 minutes with a machineand by hand, watching it through two risings, putting it in to bake, taking itout when its internal temperate had reached 200 degrees. Especially I likedeating it when it was still warm,, with plenty of real butter.  I had to give up baking bread upthough, when I found that I was eating so much of my own product, that if Ikept it up, I was soon going to too wide to get through the kitchen door.  I like the IDEA of bread—that you canmake something that good with just flour, salt, and yeast and that you can evenmake your own yeast if you want to, from spores that are floating in the air.

As I’ve thought about it, it has grown clear to me what abeautiful comparison Jesus made--that three of the things associated with breadare also part of the life of Jesus and of the life of faith and in particular,that part of faith that we call The Eucharist.  Let me name them: Destruction, Transformation, andConnection. Let us see what happens when we  trace each of these things through Bread, Jesus, andourselves as we break bread together in the service we call Holy Communion.

DESTRUCTION. Destruction seems like a harsh word to use inthe context of Christianity, and if you prefer, you can use the word sacrifice.But remember that Hindo theology actually has a god named Shiva, designated asthe god of destruction. Certainly, in order to bake a loaf of bread, somethinghas to be destroyed. A seed has to fall on the ground,  shrivel and die, so that it can becomea stalk of wheat with a hundred or more kernels of grain on it. Then the wheathas to be cracked into pieces and the pieces ground into flour. Something hasto die so that something greater can be born. You could say that the wheat hadto be sacrificed to make the bread. 

One of the things Jesus was thinking about in comparinghimself with bread was just this sacrificial destruction. Jesus was callingattention to the sacrificial nature of his own life and death. Jesus’ life wasa sacrifice that connected him to all the animal sacrifice that was a part ofJewish life. When he said “This is my Body,” he was identifying himself withthe sacrificial lamb that was at the center of their Passover meal, and whichrecalled the lamb the Hebrews killed to get the blood to mark their doors inEgypt so the angle of death would pass over their houses.  But he did more than simply connecthimself to those sacrifices. He replaced them, he fulfilled them. You could saythat all those years of slaughtering bulls and goats were a rehearsal for thefinal sacrifice of Jesus of Jesus on the cross

And when we turn to the Eucharist, we see the same principleat work. When we come to the altar, we are offering our selves to God, just aswe did our money offerings a few minutes before. There is a line in one of theEucharistic prayers, I think from Rite I, that says that we offer and presentunto you our selves, our selves our souls and  bodies as a reasonable and living sacrifice to you.  At the moment we receive communion, weare supposed to empty ourselves, to sacrifice the old Adam of self-centerednessand physically take into our bodies, the perfect and divine life. We aresupposed to bring to the altar all our fears, and disappointments, and sorrows,as well as our joys, leave them there, replacing them with the power and gloryand majesty of Jesus Christ that is present in the bread and wine. From bread,to Jesus, to ourselves in the Eucharist, the thread of destruction runs clear.

TRANSFORMATION: In baking bread, it is pretty clear that wetransform the simple elements of water, salt, yeast and flour into somethingrich and strange that we call bread. 

In the same way, Jesus transformed the lives of those aroundhim. The blind saw, the lame walked, the resentful and angry became graciousand peaceful. We know that Jesus has this same power today, to transform thelives of those who grasp that the most important choice they can make is tobecome  disciples of Christ. It isa decision that sets loose powerful forces in our lives that, in the end willleave no part of our lives untransformed. The gospel makes it pretty clear thatJesus, in fact transformed the basic nature of Man’s relationship to God.  The life and death of an uneducatedJewish carpenter made it possible for us to live transformed lives in the powerof the holy spirit, to escape the fate of everlasting death.

That transforming power of Christ is dramatized for us inthe Eucharist. In the sacred acts we do and say, we see bread and wine transformedbefore our eyes into the living bread and blood of the Son of God. Now howexactly that happens is the subject of some dispute. Romans call the processtransubstantiation, the Lutherans call it consubstantiation, and Anglicansrefer to the Real Presence. But all agree that something miraculous happenedthe night of the last super in Palestine, and that miracle is continued andprojected in what we do here at this table and at tables around the world.  In bread, in Jesus, in the Eucharist,the thread of transformations runs deep and clear.

CONNECTION. In baking bread it is pretty clear that we connect things to otherthings.. If you dig a little in the chemistry of baking, you find what you aredoing is distributing  a powerfulconnecting agent, called gluten, from the flour to the rest of the bread. Thatis what all the kneading is about and why you cannot cheat on that. You have todo it at least 18 minutes. When you clean up the kitchen, you see just howpowerful gluten is. It sticks to the bowls you mix the bread in, it sticks tothe brushes you use to wash the bowls, so you find yourself uses brushes towash the brushes.

In the same way, Jesus is a connecting force, bindingtogether over time and space, all the billions of people who look to him astheir savior and Lord.  But notjust the people-- remember that the people in the kingdom of God are bound insong and word with the angels and archangels, with seraphim and cherubim,thrones, dominions, powers, prophets and martyrs, all singing praises to Hisname.

This same connecting forces are at work in the Eucharist.Jesus and his disciples shared a common loaf and cup and in this way werereminded that they were all one body and one blood. Though we use separatewafers for technical reasons, we are supposed to understand that the image ofthe common loaf stands behind what we do. With the common cup the symbolism ismore clear. Our protestant brothers and sisters use little individual cups,believing them to be more hygienic, though no evidence has been put forth thatRomans and Episcopalians spread more germs than Methodists and Presbyterians.But for us the symbolism of the common cup is an important reminder that we areconnected to one another through Jesus, at the deepest level. In bread, inJesus, and in the Eucharist, the thread of connection runs clear and strong.

So when Jesus says, I am the bread of life, we can see thatone level he is sharing a simple meal with his disciples, but on another, he iscreating the deepest and most complex mystery ever revealed to humankind. Itbegins with bread, but it goes on forever, into all eternity.

 
Amen.

   Sermon

16 Aug 2009

I am sorry that I cannot be with you today. Believe me, Iwould rather be with your than where I am, in room 457 of Trinity hospital. Butthere is every reason to think that my stomach problems will resolve themselvesand that I’ll look back on this as a small bump in a long road.

Before I got sick Friday night, I had been thinking and making notes abouttoday’s lessons, and I will ask Sally to share some of those with you. Thelesson that stood out for me was the gospel and in particular, the phrase, “Iam the bread of life.” I used to like to make bread as some of you know, andafter I first retired, I used to make it once a week. I loved the process:starting the night before with yeast and water, the next day adding simpleingredients—salt, and flour, kneading it for at least 18 minutes with a machineand by hand, watching it through two risings, putting it in to bake, taking itout when its internal temperate had reached 200 degrees. Especially I likedeating it when it was still warm,, with plenty of real butter.  I had to give up baking bread upthough, when I found that I was eating so much of my own product, that if Ikept it up, I was soon going to too wide to get through the kitchen door.  I like the IDEA of bread—that you canmake something that good with just flour, salt, and yeast and that you can evenmake your own yeast if you want to, from spores that are floating in the air.

As I’ve thought about it, it has grown clear to me what abeautiful comparison Jesus made--that three of the things associated with breadare also part of the life of Jesus and of the life of faith and in particular,that part of faith that we call The Eucharist.  Let me name them: Destruction, Transformation, andConnection. Let us see what happens when we  trace each of these things through Bread, Jesus, andourselves as we break bread together in the service we call Holy Communion.

DESTRUCTION. Destruction seems like a harsh word to use inthe context of Christianity, and if you prefer, you can use the word sacrifice.But remember that Hindo theology actually has a god named Shiva, designated asthe god of destruction. Certainly, in order to bake a loaf of bread, somethinghas to be destroyed. A seed has to fall on the ground,  shrivel and die, so that it can becomea stalk of wheat with a hundred or more kernels of grain on it. Then the wheathas to be cracked into pieces and the pieces ground into flour. Something hasto die so that something greater can be born. You could say that the wheat hadto be sacrificed to make the bread. 

One of the things Jesus was thinking about in comparinghimself with bread was just this sacrificial destruction. Jesus was callingattention to the sacrificial nature of his own life and death. Jesus’ life wasa sacrifice that connected him to all the animal sacrifice that was a part ofJewish life. When he said “This is my Body,” he was identifying himself withthe sacrificial lamb that was at the center of their Passover meal, and whichrecalled the lamb the Hebrews killed to get the blood to mark their doors inEgypt so the angle of death would pass over their houses.  But he did more than simply connecthimself to those sacrifices. He replaced them, he fulfilled them. You could saythat all those years of slaughtering bulls and goats were a rehearsal for thefinal sacrifice of Jesus of Jesus on the cross

And when we turn to the Eucharist, we see the same principleat work. When we come to the altar, we are offering our selves to God, just aswe did our money offerings a few minutes before. There is a line in one of theEucharistic prayers, I think from Rite I, that says that we offer and presentunto you our selves, our selves our souls and  bodies as a reasonable and living sacrifice to you.  At the moment we receive communion, weare supposed to empty ourselves, to sacrifice the old Adam of self-centerednessand physically take into our bodies, the perfect and divine life. We aresupposed to bring to the altar all our fears, and disappointments, and sorrows,as well as our joys, leave them there, replacing them with the power and gloryand majesty of Jesus Christ that is present in the bread and wine. From bread,to Jesus, to ourselves in the Eucharist, the thread of destruction runs clear.

TRANSFORMATION: In baking bread, it is pretty clear that wetransform the simple elements of water, salt, yeast and flour into somethingrich and strange that we call bread. 

In the same way, Jesus transformed the lives of those aroundhim. The blind saw, the lame walked, the resentful and angry became graciousand peaceful. We know that Jesus has this same power today, to transform thelives of those who grasp that the most important choice they can make is tobecome  disciples of Christ. It isa decision that sets loose powerful forces in our lives that, in the end willleave no part of our lives untransformed. The gospel makes it pretty clear thatJesus, in fact transformed the basic nature of Man’s relationship to God.  The life and death of an uneducatedJewish carpenter made it possible for us to live transformed lives in the powerof the holy spirit, to escape the fate of everlasting death.

That transforming power of Christ is dramatized for us inthe Eucharist. In the sacred acts we do and say, we see bread and wine transformedbefore our eyes into the living bread and blood of the Son of God. Now howexactly that happens is the subject of some dispute. Romans call the processtransubstantiation, the Lutherans call it consubstantiation, and Anglicansrefer to the Real Presence. But all agree that something miraculous happenedthe night of the last super in Palestine, and that miracle is continued andprojected in what we do here at this table and at tables around the world.  In bread, in Jesus, in the Eucharist,the thread of transformations runs deep and clear.

CONNECTION. In baking bread it is pretty clear that we connect things to otherthings.. If you dig a little in the chemistry of baking, you find what you aredoing is distributing  a powerfulconnecting agent, called gluten, from the flour to the rest of the bread. Thatis what all the kneading is about and why you cannot cheat on that. You have todo it at least 18 minutes. When you clean up the kitchen, you see just howpowerful gluten is. It sticks to the bowls you mix the bread in, it sticks tothe brushes you use to wash the bowls, so you find yourself uses brushes towash the brushes.

In the same way, Jesus is a connecting force, bindingtogether over time and space, all the billions of people who look to him astheir savior and Lord.  But notjust the people-- remember that the people in the kingdom of God are bound insong and word with the angels and archangels, with seraphim and cherubim,thrones, dominions, powers, prophets and martyrs, all singing praises to Hisname.

This same connecting forces are at work in the Eucharist.Jesus and his disciples shared a common loaf and cup and in this way werereminded that they were all one body and one blood. Though we use separatewafers for technical reasons, we are supposed to understand that the image ofthe common loaf stands behind what we do. With the common cup the symbolism ismore clear. Our protestant brothers and sisters use little individual cups,believing them to be more hygienic, though no evidence has been put forth thatRomans and Episcopalians spread more germs than Methodists and Presbyterians.But for us the symbolism of the common cup is an important reminder that we areconnected to one another through Jesus, at the deepest level. In bread, inJesus, and in the Eucharist, the thread of connection runs clear and strong.

So when Jesus says, I am the bread of life, we can see thatone level he is sharing a simple meal with his disciples, but on another, he iscreating the deepest and most complex mystery ever revealed to humankind. Itbegins with bread, but it goes on forever, into all eternity.

 
Amen.

      Sermon

16 Aug 2009

I am sorry that I cannot be with you today. Believe me, Iwould rather be with your than where I am, in room 457 of Trinity hospital. Butthere is every reason to think that my stomach problems will resolve themselvesand that I’ll look back on this as a small bump in a long road.

Before I got sick Friday night, I had been thinking and making notes abouttoday’s lessons, and I will ask Sally to share some of those with you. Thelesson that stood out for me was the gospel and in particular, the phrase, “Iam the bread of life.” I used to like to make bread as some of you know, andafter I first retired, I used to make it once a week. I loved the process:starting the night before with yeast and water, the next day adding simpleingredients—salt, and flour, kneading it for at least 18 minutes with a machineand by hand, watching it through two risings, putting it in to bake, taking itout when its internal temperate had reached 200 degrees. Especially I likedeating it when it was still warm,, with plenty of real butter.  I had to give up baking bread upthough, when I found that I was eating so much of my own product, that if Ikept it up, I was soon going to too wide to get through the kitchen door.  I like the IDEA of bread—that you canmake something that good with just flour, salt, and yeast and that you can evenmake your own yeast if you want to, from spores that are floating in the air.

As I’ve thought about it, it has grown clear to me what abeautiful comparison Jesus made--that three of the things associated with breadare also part of the life of Jesus and of the life of faith and in particular,that part of faith that we call The Eucharist.  Let me name them: Destruction, Transformation, andConnection. Let us see what happens when we  trace each of these things through Bread, Jesus, andourselves as we break bread together in the service we call Holy Communion.

DESTRUCTION. Destruction seems like a harsh word to use inthe context of Christianity, and if you prefer, you can use the word sacrifice.But remember that Hindo theology actually has a god named Shiva, designated asthe god of destruction. Certainly, in order to bake a loaf of bread, somethinghas to be destroyed. A seed has to fall on the ground,  shrivel and die, so that it can becomea stalk of wheat with a hundred or more kernels of grain on it. Then the wheathas to be cracked into pieces and the pieces ground into flour. Something hasto die so that something greater can be born. You could say that the wheat hadto be sacrificed to make the bread. 

One of the things Jesus was thinking about in comparinghimself with bread was just this sacrificial destruction. Jesus was callingattention to the sacrificial nature of his own life and death. Jesus’ life wasa sacrifice that connected him to all the animal sacrifice that was a part ofJewish life. When he said “This is my Body,” he was identifying himself withthe sacrificial lamb that was at the center of their Passover meal, and whichrecalled the lamb the Hebrews killed to get the blood to mark their doors inEgypt so the angle of death would pass over their houses.  But he did more than simply connecthimself to those sacrifices. He replaced them, he fulfilled them. You could saythat all those years of slaughtering bulls and goats were a rehearsal for thefinal sacrifice of Jesus of Jesus on the cross

And when we turn to the Eucharist, we see the same principleat work. When we come to the altar, we are offering our selves to God, just aswe did our money offerings a few minutes before. There is a line in one of theEucharistic prayers, I think from Rite I, that says that we offer and presentunto you our selves, our selves our souls and  bodies as a reasonable and living sacrifice to you.  At the moment we receive communion, weare supposed to empty ourselves, to sacrifice the old Adam of self-centerednessand physically take into our bodies, the perfect and divine life. We aresupposed to bring to the altar all our fears, and disappointments, and sorrows,as well as our joys, leave them there, replacing them with the power and gloryand majesty of Jesus Christ that is present in the bread and wine. From bread,to Jesus, to ourselves in the Eucharist, the thread of destruction runs clear.

TRANSFORMATION: In baking bread, it is pretty clear that wetransform the simple elements of water, salt, yeast and flour into somethingrich and strange that we call bread. 

In the same way, Jesus transformed the lives of those aroundhim. The blind saw, the lame walked, the resentful and angry became graciousand peaceful. We know that Jesus has this same power today, to transform thelives of those who grasp that the most important choice they can make is tobecome  disciples of Christ. It isa decision that sets loose powerful forces in our lives that, in the end willleave no part of our lives untransformed. The gospel makes it pretty clear thatJesus, in fact transformed the basic nature of Man’s relationship to God.  The life and death of an uneducatedJewish carpenter made it possible for us to live transformed lives in the powerof the holy spirit, to escape the fate of everlasting death.

That transforming power of Christ is dramatized for us inthe Eucharist. In the sacred acts we do and say, we see bread and wine transformedbefore our eyes into the living bread and blood of the Son of God. Now howexactly that happens is the subject of some dispute. Romans call the processtransubstantiation, the Lutherans call it consubstantiation, and Anglicansrefer to the Real Presence. But all agree that something miraculous happenedthe night of the last super in Palestine, and that miracle is continued andprojected in what we do here at this table and at tables around the world.  In bread, in Jesus, in the Eucharist,the thread of transformations runs deep and clear.

CONNECTION. In baking bread it is pretty clear that we connect things to otherthings.. If you dig a little in the chemistry of baking, you find what you aredoing is distributing  a powerfulconnecting agent, called gluten, from the flour to the rest of the bread. Thatis what all the kneading is about and why you cannot cheat on that. You have todo it at least 18 minutes. When you clean up the kitchen, you see just howpowerful gluten is. It sticks to the bowls you mix the bread in, it sticks tothe brushes you use to wash the bowls, so you find yourself uses brushes towash the brushes.

In the same way, Jesus is a connecting force, bindingtogether over time and space, all the billions of people who look to him astheir savior and Lord.  But notjust the people-- remember that the people in the kingdom of God are bound insong and word with the angels and archangels, with seraphim and cherubim,thrones, dominions, powers, prophets and martyrs, all singing praises to Hisname.

This same connecting forces are at work in the Eucharist.Jesus and his disciples shared a common loaf and cup and in this way werereminded that they were all one body and one blood. Though we use separatewafers for technical reasons, we are supposed to understand that the image ofthe common loaf stands behind what we do. With the common cup the symbolism ismore clear. Our protestant brothers and sisters use little individual cups,believing them to be more hygienic, though no evidence has been put forth thatRomans and Episcopalians spread more germs than Methodists and Presbyterians.But for us the symbolism of the common cup is an important reminder that we areconnected to one another through Jesus, at the deepest level. In bread, inJesus, and in the Eucharist, the thread of connection runs clear and strong.

So when Jesus says, I am the bread of life, we can see thatone level he is sharing a simple meal with his disciples, but on another, he iscreating the deepest and most complex mystery ever revealed to humankind. Itbegins with bread, but it goes on forever, into all eternity.

 
Amen.

Sermon

16 Aug 2009

I am sorry that I cannot be with you today. Believe me, Iwould rather be with your than where I am, in room 457 of Trinity hospital. Butthere is every reason to think that my stomach problems will resolve themselvesand that I’ll look back on this as a small bump in a long road.

Before I got sick Friday night, I had been thinking and making notes abouttoday’s lessons, and I will ask Sally to share some of those with you. Thelesson that stood out for me was the gospel and in particular, the phrase, “Iam the bread of life.” I used to like to make bread as some of you know, andafter I first retired, I used to make it once a week. I loved the process:starting the night before with yeast and water, the next day adding simpleingredients—salt, and flour, kneading it for at least 18 minutes with a machineand by hand, watching it through two risings, putting it in to bake, taking itout when its internal temperate had reached 200 degrees. Especially I likedeating it when it was still warm,, with plenty of real butter.  I had to give up baking bread upthough, when I found that I was eating so much of my own product, that if Ikept it up, I was soon going to too wide to get through the kitchen door.  I like the IDEA of bread—that you canmake something that good with just flour, salt, and yeast and that you can evenmake your own yeast if you want to, from spores that are floating in the air.

As I’ve thought about it, it has grown clear to me what abeautiful comparison Jesus made--that three of the things associated with breadare also part of the life of Jesus and of the life of faith and in particular,that part of faith that we call The Eucharist.  Let me name them: Destruction, Transformation, andConnection. Let us see what happens when we  trace each of these things through Bread, Jesus, andourselves as we break bread together in the service we call Holy Communion.

DESTRUCTION. Destruction seems like a harsh word to use inthe context of Christianity, and if you prefer, you can use the word sacrifice.But remember that Hindo theology actually has a god named Shiva, designated asthe god of destruction. Certainly, in order to bake a loaf of bread, somethinghas to be destroyed. A seed has to fall on the ground,  shrivel and die, so that it can becomea stalk of wheat with a hundred or more kernels of grain on it. Then the wheathas to be cracked into pieces and the pieces ground into flour. Something hasto die so that something greater can be born. You could say that the wheat hadto be sacrificed to make the bread. 

One of the things Jesus was thinking about in comparinghimself with bread was just this sacrificial destruction. Jesus was callingattention to the sacrificial nature of his own life and death. Jesus’ life wasa sacrifice that connected him to all the animal sacrifice that was a part ofJewish life. When he said “This is my Body,” he was identifying himself withthe sacrificial lamb that was at the center of their Passover meal, and whichrecalled the lamb the Hebrews killed to get the blood to mark their doors inEgypt so the angle of death would pass over their houses.  But he did more than simply connecthimself to those sacrifices. He replaced them, he fulfilled them. You could saythat all those years of slaughtering bulls and goats were a rehearsal for thefinal sacrifice of Jesus of Jesus on the cross

And when we turn to the Eucharist, we see the same principleat work. When we come to the altar, we are offering our selves to God, just aswe did our money offerings a few minutes before. There is a line in one of theEucharistic prayers, I think from Rite I, that says that we offer and presentunto you our selves, our selves our souls and  bodies as a reasonable and living sacrifice to you.  At the moment we receive communion, weare supposed to empty ourselves, to sacrifice the old Adam of self-centerednessand physically take into our bodies, the perfect and divine life. We aresupposed to bring to the altar all our fears, and disappointments, and sorrows,as well as our joys, leave them there, replacing them with the power and gloryand majesty of Jesus Christ that is present in the bread and wine. From bread,to Jesus, to ourselves in the Eucharist, the thread of destruction runs clear.

TRANSFORMATION: In baking bread, it is pretty clear that wetransform the simple elements of water, salt, yeast and flour into somethingrich and strange that we call bread. 

In the same way, Jesus transformed the lives of those aroundhim. The blind saw, the lame walked, the resentful and angry became graciousand peaceful. We know that Jesus has this same power today, to transform thelives of those who grasp that the most important choice they can make is tobecome  disciples of Christ. It isa decision that sets loose powerful forces in our lives that, in the end willleave no part of our lives untransformed. The gospel makes it pretty clear thatJesus, in fact transformed the basic nature of Man’s relationship to God.  The life and death of an uneducatedJewish carpenter made it possible for us to live transformed lives in the powerof the holy spirit, to escape the fate of everlasting death.

That transforming power of Christ is dramatized for us inthe Eucharist. In the sacred acts we do and say, we see bread and wine transformedbefore our eyes into the living bread and blood of the Son of God. Now howexactly that happens is the subject of some dispute. Romans call the processtransubstantiation, the Lutherans call it consubstantiation, and Anglicansrefer to the Real Presence. But all agree that something miraculous happenedthe night of the last super in Palestine, and that miracle is continued andprojected in what we do here at this table and at tables around the world.  In bread, in Jesus, in the Eucharist,the thread of transformations runs deep and clear.

CONNECTION. In baking bread it is pretty clear that we connect things to otherthings.. If you dig a little in the chemistry of baking, you find what you aredoing is distributing  a powerfulconnecting agent, called gluten, from the flour to the rest of the bread. Thatis what all the kneading is about and why you cannot cheat on that. You have todo it at least 18 minutes. When you clean up the kitchen, you see just howpowerful gluten is. It sticks to the bowls you mix the bread in, it sticks tothe brushes you use to wash the bowls, so you find yourself uses brushes towash the brushes.

In the same way, Jesus is a connecting force, bindingtogether over time and space, all the billions of people who look to him astheir savior and Lord.  But notjust the people-- remember that the people in the kingdom of God are bound insong and word with the angels and archangels, with seraphim and cherubim,thrones, dominions, powers, prophets and martyrs, all singing praises to Hisname.

This same connecting forces are at work in the Eucharist.Jesus and his disciples shared a common loaf and cup and in this way werereminded that they were all one body and one blood. Though we use separatewafers for technical reasons, we are supposed to understand that the image ofthe common loaf stands behind what we do. With the common cup the symbolism ismore clear. Our protestant brothers and sisters use little individual cups,believing them to be more hygienic, though no evidence has been put forth thatRomans and Episcopalians spread more germs than Methodists and Presbyterians.But for us the symbolism of the common cup is an important reminder that we areconnected to one another through Jesus, at the deepest level. In bread, inJesus, and in the Eucharist, the thread of connection runs clear and strong.

So when Jesus says, I am the bread of life, we can see thatone level he is sharing a simple meal with his disciples, but on another, he iscreating the deepest and most complex mystery ever revealed to humankind. Itbegins with bread, but it goes on forever, into all eternity.

 
Amen.