John 6:51-58
First thoughts toward Sunday’s message:
More bread talk here from Jesus. This is important – and difficult. It takes practice, repetition, like learning long division, or the periodic table – most of the time we look at it with glazed-over eyes, but occasionally, light breaks through and you understand, something, a momentary understanding that makes the difference, for awhile, anyway.
Bread here, we are finally beginning to understand, is not flour, water, yeast… Bread here is that which comes down from heaven, sustains us in our hunger, finds us in our wilderness, brings us back to life and gives us strength for the journey.
But while our story two weeks ago made us hungry for fish sticks and last week we headed home for honey wheat loaves, this week’s passage is not one to be read on an empty stomach. It is graphic and bloody, carnal in its very nature. A stranger from outer space would think we were cannibals and would hesitate to stay for lunch. In fact, the early Christians were accused of cannibalism, eating, as they did, “the body and blood” of Jesus.
So perhaps this passage is just startling enough to catch our attention. The incredible carnality of these words might just be what we need to remember the incredible incarnation of God through Jesus Christ.
Incarnation – God really is right here with us. That’s what we celebrate each week when we come to the communion table, and eat the bread and drink the cup.