The Right Rev. Rayford High, Sunday August 25, 2024
The Right Reverend Rayford High, Sunday August 25, 2024
“I AM the bread of life”
Then he said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them”.
Many of Jesus’ followers heard this and said, “This is a hard teaching. In fact, it is tough to swallow”.
Difficult to understand? Actually, it could not have been too awkward for them to comprehend, because they knew what he told them repeatedly.
William Barclay says in his commentary on the Gospel of John, “Time and again it is not the intellectual difficulty of accepting Christ which keeps us from becoming Christians, it is the Moral Demand.
For the past four Sundays and again today, all of the Gospel readings have centered on only one chapter in the Gospel of John: the Sixth Chapter. It is here that the institution of the Eucharist is presented. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where the institution is an event, it is John who explains what the Eucharist does for Christians. John clearly establishes all of Jesus’ life as the Eucharist. This truth is captured in Jesus professing the fact: I “AM” the Bread of Life, the food that gives life, on earth as in heaven, Eternal Life. When Jesus says “I AM” the bread of life, He is saying emphatically I AM everything Christians need, now and forever.
Where we choose to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood, as we do when we take part in the Eucharistic meal, we abide in Christ and He abides in us.
Abide: what does it mean? If we abide in Christ and He abides in us? The Greek word actually means “to make your self at home in relationship” Christ makes Himself at home within us. How does this happen? When we participate in the Eucharist we are drawn into relationship with Jesus.
So the word abide “expresses the interrelationship of Jesus and the one who believes in Jesus. That is the source of every believer’s life. But it is more, much more than that. Hear what I say: the interrelationships of Jesus and each one of us who believes is actually an extension of the interrelationship of God and Jesus!
When we as Christians participate in the Eucharist, we partake of Christ’s Body and Blood. We are empowered, both as individuals and as faith communities to follow in Jesus’ footsteps of ministry: “to do justice, and to love kindness, and walk humbly with our God” (Michah 6:8). We are empowered to continue in Jesus’s work of healing, forgiveness, acceptance of all God’s Children, of showing God’s unconditional love with those we encounter.
A rector of a large parish greeted people as they left the church service one Sunday. He exchanged the usual pleasantries like, “it was such a nice sermon…your words were so comforting…” However, the rector spoke to one of the worshippers as she was leaving, saying “I don’t know if we have met, are you visiting today?”
The lady answered “I’ve been coming here for 20 years! You all have fed me every Saturday at the Saturday Sidewalk Breakfast for those in need of food. I have received meals from this church all of these years. Today, this Sunday, I decided to go inside to worship and see if you are real. I decided to find out if you really meant what you say, that God loves each and every one of us. I discovered that it is true. I recognized God’s love through your love. It is the same love I have experienced for 20 years at the Saturday Sidewalk Service. I experienced this love in the Eucharist this morning.” This parish abides in Christ and in doing so, the people they serve find relationships with God in Christ. The love of God gets passed on and others find life! She responded by saying “this is the first time I have been been treated like a human being. For years, I have been treated like a dog. These tears that you see are tears of joy, because you all treat me like a human. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Conclusion:
The table is set with the gift of God for the people of God, the life giving gifts of bread and wine, “of the flesh and blood of Christ”, as Jesus Himself says “whoever eats of me will abide in Christ and Christ will abide in us”.
At the end of communion, we here today at St. George’s will “take these gifts in remembrance that Christ died for you, and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with Thanksgiving”. We are sent, we will then do the work God has given us to do to love and serve as faithful witnesses of our Lord.
We go with the life of Christ, with the host in our souls.
Let us go as a host, offered with Christ and for the love of Him to all those with whom we shall meet.
The Blessing of God almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be with you and remain with you always. Amen.