For the last couple of weeks our gospel has concentrated on Jesus’ claims to be the bread of life and today, once again (John 6:51-58), we are thinking about that claim, and its importance for us all.
Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever…”’ In those words he is clearly once again challenging us to make a decision about him.
And we also heard from Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (5:15-20) where he is pleading with his readers or listeners to live lives worthy of God, and enjoy life as he intends. He is reminding us in these words that actually our faith is not about rules for the sake of rules and misery and glum faces, and frowning at people who seem to be having fun – our faith is about sharing in an exciting partnership with God, as we seek to enjoy life – life which we are supposed to celebrate.
Going back even further this is also the sense we have from our reading from Proverbs (9:1-6) as Wisdom says, ‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed… Lay aside immaturity and live…’
Jesus, Paul and the writer of Proverbs were warning of a kind of spiritual anorexia, where there is a danger that we may be starving ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, of what we need to live a good spiritual life. And like someone suffering from anorexia, we must learn again how to feel hunger – how to feel excited for God and for his message.
The theologian and philosopher, Paul Tillich was addressing a distinguished audience of theologians. He apparently said something about Jesus not being real. An older gentleman stood up at the end of the talk, and eating a juicy apple, addressed Mr. Tillich. As he spoke, he bit into the apple. When he finished the apple, he asked Tillich if he could tell if the apple was bitter or sweet. Tillich replied, "No, sir, I haven't tasted your apple." The man replied, "And if you don’t think Jesus is real you haven't tasted my Jesus either."
Jesus is the living bread, upon whom we are challenged and encouraged to feast, and we do that in a number of ways.
Firstly we do it through the celebration of communion, as we eat the bread and drink the wine which reminds us of the sacrifice of Jesus and his love for us today. If we are joining in properly, then through the mystery of communion we are being filled with his strength and his power to go out and live our lives according to his will and his purpose.
We are joining together as his people committed to giving thanks for his sacrifice and his love, to remembering all that he has done and said, and continues to say, and also to offering our lives up for his service. We are also, and this is perhaps too often forgotten, dining together, as a fellowship, and as a family…
We are warned in the Bible not to take communion lightly, and that is because in this celebration we are making promises to God, and promises to each other. There is no magic ingredient that allows us to partake in communion and then live as we please – communion must change us, hour by hour, day by day…
To receive communion and go and talk nastily about someone behind their back is not acceptable; to receive communion and not to care about the plight of those less fortunate than ourselves is not acceptable; to receive communion and then judge others is not acceptable… the list can go on and on. Last week’s readings contained the words of Paul who said we are to try and be ‘imitators of God’ and that we are to ‘live in love’.
And so, as Jesus commanded, we are feasting upon him through the communion meal. But we must also remember that the communion meal is not an end in itself. We receive God’s grace, we remember his love and we accept his mercy, but we must then go out and celebrate these gifts through our lives.
We need to be proclaimers of the gospel message – there is a need to go out and tell people the good news about Jesus and what he’s done and continues to do for us – and that’s not some good sales idea for the Church of today – it is surely just a natural response to Jesus if we really are considering what he has done for us… if we really are changed by the gospel of Jesus.
In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (5:15-20) he is, as I mentioned earlier, offering some guidance on how to live – Christians often get quite a bad press for being judgemental and making rules which make life a bit boring, and Paul doesn’t help with this as he warns people not to get drunk on wine, but Paul is offering a much wider message.
He is urging people to live lives based on Jesus – he is taking the teaching of Jesus, and encouraging people to follow – not to misery and not to boredom, but to the fullness and joy of life that Jesus intends for us.
It is a fact that people are making judgements on Christianity which are based on our lives – they are judging Christ by our standards… Our lives must look right if we are to give the right picture of Jesus. We must have the right priorities – we must be following Jesus as the bread of life…
Priorities are important, and the time and attention we give to God are important – time spent in prayer, Bible study, fellowship and in service.
And then after communion and after our lives another thing that we are encouraged to consider is our worship and thanks. And these are things that again we can actually feast upon… Again Paul writing to the Ephesians writes of being filled with the Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and giving thanks at all times.
Paul is suggesting that these are things that we must be doing not just occasionally, and not even just in Church, but on a regular basis, but let’s begin with Church – our worship on a Sunday is very often the shop window that people see if they visit for any reason.
That worship must include the appropriate times of quiet and reflection, it must include the right times of confession of the things we’ve done wrong, it must include prayers for ourselves and for others, but it must also include celebration and joy, because in all circumstances we know that we have a God who loves us, we know that we have a God who has offered us salvation, and we know that we have a God who will never leave or abandon us.
In short, our worship must include an element of celebration and thanks to God for all that he’s done and continues to do for us.
And so through the partaking in the bread and wine of communion, through the way we live our lives, in the way we make time for prayer and bible study and through our worship, we are feasting on the goodness of Jesus.
And as we do that we are accepting his challenge to see him as the living bread, living and working still today, through his Spirit in our lives.
This week I went to the dentist and as I was laid back on that chair with the dentist about to put all kinds of instruments in my mouth there was a feeling of vulnerability in some ways – I couldn’t move easily and I’d put my teeth and my mouth completely in his hands… Well, God is even bigger than a dentist and we are invited to be vulnerable before him – to put our lives in his care, to trust his strength and his mercy and his love… To be changed by him and to enjoy more and more of the fullness of life that he offers to each one of us day by day…
And so to extend those words from Proverbs a little bit, ‘Let’s lay aside our immaturity, our fears, our stubbornness, our worries and live – really live secure in the knowledge that we have been promised forever the bread of life which will sustain us, refresh us, strengthen us forever’
Safe in the everlasting care of Jesus, may we live, really live… AMEN
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