St. Luke's Episcopal Church
Cleveland, Tennessee

9th Sunday after Pentecost
August 2, 2009
The Rev. Deacon Art Bass

The Bread of Life and The Presence of Christ

Today's gospel from the Sixth Chapter of John begins a three Sunday discourse on the Bread of Life. The gospel readings for the next two Sundays will begin just as this Sunday's gospel ended - - with Jesus saying: “I am the Bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

This saying by Jesus and his teachings regarding this saying come just on the heels of his miraculous feeding of the five thousand. Therefore, to us as Episcopalians and to many Christians, especially those in other liturgical churches, the words of Jesus, “I am the Bread of Life” imply Eucharist; they imply the presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and they imply nourishment for our spiritual lives through our experiencing of that presence.

When I think of these themes and when I think how we are to dwell on them for a full three Sundays, I cannot help but be reminded of a story I heard years ago.

There were two boys once growing up together in a small southern community. They played together, they fished together, they went to school together, and they were the best of friends. But on Sunday mornings, they would go their separate ways because one happened to be Catholic and the other happened to be Protestant.

One day as they were out fishing and talking, curiosity led them to decide that each one should visit the other's church. So the next Sunday, the Protestant boy went to Mass with his Catholic friend. It was his first time in a Catholic church.

They were well into the service, when the priest took a large wafer of bread, lifted it up, and a bell was rung. The little Protestant boy whispered to his friend, “What's that all about?” The Catholic boy replied, “Well, this is the high point of our service, this is when we believe that bread up there becomes for us the Body of Christ.”

Just a minute later, the priest lifted up the chalice of wine, and again a bell was rung. The Protestant boy again asked, “What does that mean?” His friend answered, “This is when we believe the wine in that cup becomes for us the Blood of Christ.”

The following week, the two boys together attended the Protestant Church. There were prayers and hymns, and then all grew quiet as the minister ascended the steps to the pulpit. Once in place, the Protestant minister performed his own customary ritual. He reached into a pocket and pulled out his reading glasses. He held them up high, turning them this way and that, before finally putting them on.

The Catholic youth asked his friend, “What is that about?” The Protestant boy replied, “He's getting ready to deliver his message for the week, explaining to us the word of God. This is the highpoint of our service.”

Then the Protestant minister reached into another pocket. He pulled out a big gold pocket watch on a chain. He opened the watch, then held it up high by the chain, before placing it carefully before him on the pulpit.

The Catholic boy asked, “And what does that mean?” The Protestant boy looked solemnly at his friend, and said, “Not a darn thing.”

Being very much aware that you have two more Sundays to hear about Jesus as the Bread of Life, I promise not to labor too long on the subject today. Instead, I want to use my sermon this Sunday just to give sort of an introduction to the topic.

First of all, let's remember that we are reading from John's gospel and that the fourth gospel is different from the three synoptic gospels in a variety of ways. One of these differences can be found in how John's gospel lays the foundation for the two great sacraments of the Church: Baptism and Eucharist.

As to Baptism, John tells us of the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus in which Jesus explains that to see the Kingdom of God one must be born again from above. And then there is the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus tells the woman that the water which he offers to the world is living water, water which gushes up to eternal life. These stories are unique to John's gospel and are not found in the synoptics.

As to Eucharist or Communion, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all relate how at the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and wine, blessed them, and specifically identifying them with his body and blood, he gave them to his disciples, telling them to do this likewise.

John tells of the Last Supper, but he tells of how Jesus washed the disciples' feet and commanded them to love one another. John makes no special mention of bread or wine at the Last Supper or the words of Christ which we have come to call the Words of Institution.

In John's gospel, the sacrament of Eucharist is addressed primarily through this discourse which we are now studying: “I am the Bread of Life.” The Communion Cup, the wine, is also addressed, a little less directly, in another Johannine “I am” statement, in which Jesus says, “I am the true vine.”

The synoptic gospels use Christ's Words of Institution at the Last Supper to make a sacrificial connection between the Bread and the flesh or body of Christ and between the Wine and the blood of Christ.

John will make this same specific connection later in the discourse which we have started today. But John is primarily interested in making a connection between Eucharist and the Presence of Christ.

Episcopalians and other Anglicans, like Roman Catholics, like Eastern Orthodox Christians, like some Lutherans, like almost four-fifths of all the Christians in the world, maintain that Christ is really present in the Eucharist.

This is not to say that we endorse transubstantiation or consubstantiation or any other specific theory of how Christ becomes present. These theories are nice to study, and you are welcome to believe in one if it suits you to do so. However, the Anglican Church as a whole has always chosen to look upon Christ's Eucharistic presence as a great and holy mystery, and to leave it at that without further elaboration.

Of course God is always present - - present in heaven and on earth at all times. But in the Eucharist, Christ becomes present in a special way. Through our sharing of his body and blood at the Communion rail, Christ becomes present in us. He becomes present in our lives, and we take his presence with us into the world.

Some five hundred years ago, Thomas Cranmer put it this way: “[Let] all who partake of this Holy Communion worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son, Jesus Christ. . . that he may dwell in us and we in him.”

In the Eucharist, Christ gives himself to us as heavenly bread. And like the children of Israel, we are thus fed with divine food. Except in our case, it is not food to sustain our physical bodies, but food to sustain us in our spiritual lives. As we wander each week through the wilderness of our daily lives in this world, we are strengthened and nourished in our journey by Christ's presence in us. We are empowered by that presence, and by the grace which it imparts, so that we are able to do the work which God has called us to do - - so that we are able to do mission and ministry in the name of Christ - - so that we are able to be and function as the Church. It is for this that we are here fed.