The Living Bread

Several months ago my wife and I purchased a bread-making machine.  We determined that if over time we bake 60 loaves of bread it will pay for itself and the bread should be at least as good as any we could buy at the store.  I am not sure how many loaves we have made so far, but we are enjoying many different kinds of bread.  It’s also fun to watch as the dough sets, kneads, rises and finally bakes.

The bread machine came to mind as I thought about our reading from today’s Gospel.  Jesus said, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Events involving food happen all the time.  Churches are often have potluck suppers, May breakfasts, ecumenical or interfaith gatherings usually around Thanksgiving, and food pantries, soup kitchens and meal sites that serve those in need.

Jesus referred to himself as the “bread of life.”  He said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life…for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”

Like so much of the language in the Bible, Jesus used bread as a metaphor to point to a deeper reality.  An article I read some time ago stated, “It is human nature to want to know what food we’re being served.  So, what is the flesh and blood of Jesus, ‘the bread that came down from heaven’”?  (Paul Stroble, The Christian Century, August 8, 2006, p.17)

We hear these words in our service of the Holy Eucharist. When we bless the bread and wine it is a solemn moment: “Jesus took the bread; and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.”

The word, “bread” in the article I read “can also stand for sustenance; in the Lord’s Prayer, our daily bread generally means ‘what we need for life.’  Flesh and blood can also mean a vital, actual life.  So Jesus’ bread of life is his own life, his own vitality.”

St. Paul comments on the kind of life we should live. It is our vitality through life in the Spirit.  As we heard in his letter to the Ephesians Paul wrote, “Be careful…how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time…. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is…. Be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When we gather for worship every week we share the Holy Communion, the Eucharist, and we consume a simple meal of bread and wine.  As we do this we recognize that Jesus gave himself, his vitality and his life, given for us.  “We remember his death; we proclaim his resurrection; and we wait for his coming again in glory.”  This is a profoundly spiritual and sustaining meal.  It enables us to endure all that life can deliver, both joys and sorrows, because we know that it is God’s life freely given for us.  It is the grace of God that passes all understanding, and it enables us to live gracefully through every circumstance.

Next month we hope to resume worship in our restored sacred space upstairs, and our Sunday School will also resume. We invite our children to join with us at the time of the announcements and share in the Communion service with their parents and friends. We offer hospitality and welcome everyone to the Lord’s Table. 

The food that Jesus gives, the bread and wine in the Eucharist, leads us to the heavenly banquet of eternal life.  We are called to be “bread for the world,” and to offer kindness, compassion and forgiveness to one another, and to be thankful.  It is God’s compassion through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that has been bestowed us.  Amen.