[Propertalk] Proper 13b 2018 - part 1

[Robert P Morrison]

I'm going to have to cut back - the first mailing of the first part
was rejected....
Bob

	THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST 

	2 SAMUEL 11:26 – 12:13a  PROPER 13 b 

	EPHESIANS 4:1-16  5th AUGUST, 2018 

	JOHN 6:24-35 PSALM 51:1-13 

	 “Is it gluten free?” 

	 “What?” 

	 “Is it gluten free? Is the bread gluten free, Jesus? I have food
intolerances.” 

	 We all have our difficulties, and seldom are they inconsequential.
The reactions can range from discomfort to something severe enough to
require hospitalisation. 

	 The question of whether or not the bread is gluten free, is safe for
everyone to eat, came to my mind, however, when I read the Gospel for
this morning. Bread, along with water and wine, is one of the three
basic symbols for Christians. It’s a sign of invitation, that ALL
are welcome at the table of God, that no one is or can be excluded,
unless he or she chooses to stay away. And, of course, not only is the
Bread and Wine present here on the Altars of the World, as the Body
and Blood of Jesus. The Bread and the Wine also represent to us, also
speak to us, of the fact that we are ALL invited to participate in the
heavenly banquet to all eternity. We are ALL, without exception,
invited to live in God’s joyful, loving Presence for ever. NOTHING
should keep us away, then, nor should we EVER think of trying to keep
anyone away from being a participant in this Eternal Feast. 

	 But concentrating on the bread without digging deeper into the
readings probably brings us to miss the point. Yes, as John’s Gospel
tells it, Jesus used the word several times in these few verses. And,
yes, Jesus certainly DOES want us to know that He commands us to share
bread, to enable everyone to find satisfaction in a physical sense as
well as spiritual and emotional ones. But when Jesus invites us to
take the Bread, and t share the Bread, He was saying, Take Me. Become
Me. Make your life so parallel to Mine that, soon, people will look at
you and see Me. 

	 “Of course, they’ll still see you. They’ll see the size, the
shape, the hair and eye colour. Yet, as mystical as it sounds, and it
IS mystical, when people look on you they’ll see that you’re
filled, you’re committed, you’re in love with Me.” 

	 It has everything to do with how you understand what the Bread is
and does. 

	 The scholar, Bruno Barnhart, wrote in Jesus’ voice, saying,
“‘I am your food. I have come to be consumed and assimilated:
first into your hearts and minds through listening and faith; then
into your very bodies which I will transform into my own …’ 

	 “Jesus is the divine light and life made visible, audible,
touchable … and finally ingestible. To ‘see’ him, to listen to
his words and believe in him, and thus to feed upon him, is to begin
to surrender the boundaries of one’s own consciousness and one’s
own being.” 1 

	 Surrendering to Jesus is what life is all about for a Christian, not
so that one loses all sense of identity, but because of who Jesus is,
we still retain all our characteristics. These are changed, of course.
No longer is there anything that will inflict harm, or distress and
other – whether knowingly or unknowingly. 

	 There is no longer a need to be in charge. There is no longer a need
to bully people or to put them down. There is, instead, a strong
desire to build people up, not into OUR image, but into the image of
Jesus who lives in us. 

	 It’s amazing how many things we learn when we’re young and have
taken them for granted. 

	 “Your will be done, here, now, exactly as it is in heaven. And
done by me.” 

	 Too often we try to alter the recipe for bread. Too often we only
serve it to particular people. Too often we try to control how big or
how little a piece we give to others, and to ourselves. This, despite
the fact that Jesus said that He exists that EVERYONE will be
satisfied, and not experience hunger of any sort. 

	 IF Jesus is within us, then we make Him known by how generous we
are, and how vitally important to the whole world do we understand
bread to be. __

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