"Sacramental Living: Metaphors, Symbols and Sacraments"
Based on John 6:24-35
August 1, 2021
I begin this Sunday where Pastor Joe ended last Sunday’s message—quoting from Pastor Joe: “We have a God who takes up residence ‘in, with and under’ an ordinary loaf of bread. A God whose infinite presence is contained in a cup of wine. A God who satisfies our deepest hunger with a feast of love.”
Pastor Joe spoke of those very Lutheran prepositions “In, with and under…” That is how we Lutherans speak of the Sacrament of holy communion – referring to the Real Presence of Christ in the bread and wine.
I recall how this concept came alive to me as I was teaching about the Sacraments at a confirmation camp, long before I was ordained, way back in 1975. That particular class stands out to me because as I was teaching, I was caught and taught by an insight that has rumbled about within my heart and mind and life ever since. In teaching the Sacrament of the Altar or Holy Communion, I was attempting to explain the Lutheran concept of “consubstantiation” as opposed to the Roman Catholic teaching of “transubstantiation.” That though both traditions speak of the Real Presence of Christ, the concept of transubstantiation – “trans” meaning change –speaks of the elements actually being transformed or changed into Christ’s actual body and blood. (At least that’s what I was taught and what I was teaching) While in the concept of consubstantiation – “con” meaning with –the elements do not actually change, but that truly in-with-and-under these simple elements of bread and wine we receive the body and blood of Christ….believing Jesus’ words: “This is my body. This is my blood.” Claiming that – in, with and under the bread….. in, with and under the wine -- we receive the very life of Christ.
The new insight for me, as a teacher being taught, was to stretch the “in-with and under” even further into what I like to call Sacramental Living …… that in with and under all of life’s experiences – all that is -- we encounter and are encountered by the living Christ. That is, if we have eyes to see and hearts to believe. As I read it, this is what Jesus is calling for in today’s Gospel…. Eyes to see and hearts to believe. Our Gospel text from John abounds with metaphorical/sacramental language.
And, yes, communication can suffer when literal and figurative language become confused. I remember well as a little girl – after having filled my plate with more than I could eat – someone saying: “Oh! Your eyes were bigger than your stomach.” That seemed like something pretty silly to say, because I was quite sure that my stomach was bigger than my eyes. My stomach may not have been all that big, but I knew it was quite a bit bigger than my eyes. I didn’t say anything then, but I pondered for a long time what they might have meant. I hadn’t yet come to appreciate figurative language. It was something that I had to figuratively “chew on” for awhile before I understood the metaphor or simile or whatever kind of figurative language it was!
Jesus and the crowd that finally found him on the other side of the sea, were having the same problem…. Talking past each other—the one thinking literally, the other speaking figuratively. That happens a lot in John’s Gospel. We can think of Jesus speaking figuratively to Nicodemus saying: “You must be born again.” And Nicodemus responding literally saying: “Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Or, we can think of Jesus visiting with the Samaritan women at the well – a story that takes place a couple of chapters earlier in John. As I read it listen in this encounter also how mis-communication happens when literal and figurative language cross paths.
“A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ The woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir , you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir ,give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’”
Could you hear the parallels? In the bread conversation Jesus says: “You are looking for me, because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” And the crowd responds: “Sir! Give us this bread.”
In the water conversation at the well, Jesus says: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but the water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” And the woman responds: “Sir, give me this water.”
And in the central verse of all of John Chapter six John’s bread chapter – verse 35, we hear its essential central message. Here Jesus speaks to all who hunger and all who thirst for meaning, for love, for life: “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. WHOEVER COMES TO ME WILL NEVER BE HUNGRY, AND WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME WILL NEVER BE THIRSTY.” And for what it’s worth, I have to add that I checked it out and there are 71 verses in John chapter 6…. When there are 71 verses you cannot literally be more in the center than verse 35. Verse 35 is the close of today’s gospel reading and it is the opening verse of next week’s gospel reading! Literally and figuratively Jesus’ words are at the very center of this chapter. And they are the very substance of the Gospel itself: “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.”
Every Sunday at St. Mark’s we hear an echo of this proclamation as Jesus’ speaks to his disciples and to us: “Take and eat; this is my body, given for you. Take and drink; this cup is the new covenant in by blood, shed for you and for all people.”
Yes, even in this simple packet we receive these days before we enter the sanctuary…. Yes even here in, with and under this wafer and this grape juice we receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yes, I add, even in our daily living – in, with and under all that is we encounter and are encountered by the living Christ. Macrina Wiederkehr calls it “The Table of Daily Life. She writes: “There is a table to which we are invited each day. It offers us trees and stones, sunshine and stars, joy and sorrow, earth and fire, flesh and blood, death and life, night and day. It is the table that Love prepares for us. It is the table of daily life. Freely we are invited to come and eat. We only have to be willing to taste life and let God serve us.”
And, I add to her words, we are invited to taste and savor, to be fully present, ourselves, at each of these tables as we hear Christ say: “Find me in the breaking of the bread; find me in the breaking of each day.”
Yes, central to today’s Gospel and central to our lives are Jesus’ words spoken to the crowd and to us: “I am the bread of life.” And at the table of daily life -- our mornings and evenings, our work and our play, our struggles and our delights…. In, with and under all of these – with eyes to see and hearts to believe, we encounter and are encountered by the living Christ. May it be so. May it be so. Amen.
Pastor Joe spoke of those very Lutheran prepositions “In, with and under…” That is how we Lutherans speak of the Sacrament of holy communion – referring to the Real Presence of Christ in the bread and wine.
I recall how this concept came alive to me as I was teaching about the Sacraments at a confirmation camp, long before I was ordained, way back in 1975. That particular class stands out to me because as I was teaching, I was caught and taught by an insight that has rumbled about within my heart and mind and life ever since. In teaching the Sacrament of the Altar or Holy Communion, I was attempting to explain the Lutheran concept of “consubstantiation” as opposed to the Roman Catholic teaching of “transubstantiation.” That though both traditions speak of the Real Presence of Christ, the concept of transubstantiation – “trans” meaning change –speaks of the elements actually being transformed or changed into Christ’s actual body and blood. (At least that’s what I was taught and what I was teaching) While in the concept of consubstantiation – “con” meaning with –the elements do not actually change, but that truly in-with-and-under these simple elements of bread and wine we receive the body and blood of Christ….believing Jesus’ words: “This is my body. This is my blood.” Claiming that – in, with and under the bread….. in, with and under the wine -- we receive the very life of Christ.
The new insight for me, as a teacher being taught, was to stretch the “in-with and under” even further into what I like to call Sacramental Living …… that in with and under all of life’s experiences – all that is -- we encounter and are encountered by the living Christ. That is, if we have eyes to see and hearts to believe. As I read it, this is what Jesus is calling for in today’s Gospel…. Eyes to see and hearts to believe. Our Gospel text from John abounds with metaphorical/sacramental language.
And, yes, communication can suffer when literal and figurative language become confused. I remember well as a little girl – after having filled my plate with more than I could eat – someone saying: “Oh! Your eyes were bigger than your stomach.” That seemed like something pretty silly to say, because I was quite sure that my stomach was bigger than my eyes. My stomach may not have been all that big, but I knew it was quite a bit bigger than my eyes. I didn’t say anything then, but I pondered for a long time what they might have meant. I hadn’t yet come to appreciate figurative language. It was something that I had to figuratively “chew on” for awhile before I understood the metaphor or simile or whatever kind of figurative language it was!
Jesus and the crowd that finally found him on the other side of the sea, were having the same problem…. Talking past each other—the one thinking literally, the other speaking figuratively. That happens a lot in John’s Gospel. We can think of Jesus speaking figuratively to Nicodemus saying: “You must be born again.” And Nicodemus responding literally saying: “Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Or, we can think of Jesus visiting with the Samaritan women at the well – a story that takes place a couple of chapters earlier in John. As I read it listen in this encounter also how mis-communication happens when literal and figurative language cross paths.
“A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ The woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir , you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir ,give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.’”
Could you hear the parallels? In the bread conversation Jesus says: “You are looking for me, because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” And the crowd responds: “Sir! Give us this bread.”
In the water conversation at the well, Jesus says: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but the water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” And the woman responds: “Sir, give me this water.”
And in the central verse of all of John Chapter six John’s bread chapter – verse 35, we hear its essential central message. Here Jesus speaks to all who hunger and all who thirst for meaning, for love, for life: “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. WHOEVER COMES TO ME WILL NEVER BE HUNGRY, AND WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME WILL NEVER BE THIRSTY.” And for what it’s worth, I have to add that I checked it out and there are 71 verses in John chapter 6…. When there are 71 verses you cannot literally be more in the center than verse 35. Verse 35 is the close of today’s gospel reading and it is the opening verse of next week’s gospel reading! Literally and figuratively Jesus’ words are at the very center of this chapter. And they are the very substance of the Gospel itself: “I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.”
Every Sunday at St. Mark’s we hear an echo of this proclamation as Jesus’ speaks to his disciples and to us: “Take and eat; this is my body, given for you. Take and drink; this cup is the new covenant in by blood, shed for you and for all people.”
Yes, even in this simple packet we receive these days before we enter the sanctuary…. Yes even here in, with and under this wafer and this grape juice we receive the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yes, I add, even in our daily living – in, with and under all that is we encounter and are encountered by the living Christ. Macrina Wiederkehr calls it “The Table of Daily Life. She writes: “There is a table to which we are invited each day. It offers us trees and stones, sunshine and stars, joy and sorrow, earth and fire, flesh and blood, death and life, night and day. It is the table that Love prepares for us. It is the table of daily life. Freely we are invited to come and eat. We only have to be willing to taste life and let God serve us.”
And, I add to her words, we are invited to taste and savor, to be fully present, ourselves, at each of these tables as we hear Christ say: “Find me in the breaking of the bread; find me in the breaking of each day.”
Yes, central to today’s Gospel and central to our lives are Jesus’ words spoken to the crowd and to us: “I am the bread of life.” And at the table of daily life -- our mornings and evenings, our work and our play, our struggles and our delights…. In, with and under all of these – with eyes to see and hearts to believe, we encounter and are encountered by the living Christ. May it be so. May it be so. Amen.
