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"You Are What You Eat"
PENTECOST 11B
August 15-16, 2009
John 6:51-58
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ!You are what you eat! I suspect most of us have heard that at one time or another in our lives. Let’s think about that for a moment or two… I like chocolate chip cookies, I eat chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookies are sweet, I’m sweet, incredibly sweet, I am what I eat. Now, I admit that thinking about cookies, sweetness, my sweetness, makes me wonder. Up until now, I always thought my sweetness was innate, just part of my being, no doubt from birth. Well, maybe we should move on. You are what you eat. With the exception of the odd cookie or two, I generally have eaten “healthy” since I was a teenager. Oatmeal and whole grains, lots of fruit and vegetables, some red meat, but overall, more poultry and fish. Now a while back I was having a physical and my doctor was going over the results of various blood tests. I was borderline in nearly every category, cholesterol, blood sugar, even my blood pressure. I commented on this, noting that I ate “healthy” virtually all the time and had for my years. He said “Imagine what these numbers might be if you didn’t eat healthy.” Food for thought. And in our Gospel this morning, we receive more “food for thought.” Jesus tells the people listening to him that day, and us as we listen to him today: “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.” Then he continues: “…for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” Now consider what Jesus is saying here. The idea of eating human flesh was as repugnant to the people of 2,000 years ago as it is to us today. The idea of drinking human blood even more so, especially to the Jewish people whose strict dietary laws not only forbade eating/drinking blood, but even eating meat unless the blood had been drained. Scandalous! No wonder they disputed among themselves as to how Jesus could give his flesh to eat. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14) And God set upon Jesus his seal. (John 6:27) And Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Son of Man referred to in Daniel, received all authority, honor and power from the Ancient of Days. This is the man who is also the “suffering servant” in Isaiah, who gives himself for the life of the world, reaching out to be Jews and Gentiles. You know, scholars argue about this Gospel text, as to whether or not Jesus is referring to the Eucharist, the meal we commonly call the Lord’s Supper. I can’t answer that, and frankly, neither can anyone else, but I consider it a foreshadowing of Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, “…my body broken for you… my blood shed for you… for the forgiveness of sins… do this in remembrance of me.” But here’s the thing – how do we eat of his flesh, drink of his blood? Is it in Holy Communion? Yes, and we do this by faith, we appropriate the flesh, the body and blood of Jesus by faith, before we partake, in and through Communion, and after. By faith. By grace through faith. Because it points us directly at the cross, directly at saving work of Jesus, done on the cross, “crosswork” done for us. St. Augustine writes “Believe and you have eaten.” Believe and you have eaten. You are what you eat and here what we eat gives us life, eternal life. It is in and through this believing, this eating, that we are transformed and Christ abides in us – not a temporary abode, but permanent! Once for all as the actual Greek words tell us in that it is a one time continuing action – our belief, our faith. Jesus tells us that he lives because of the Father. He also has told us that his own meat is to do the Father’s will. We receive life that comes only from God, it is our true bread, our true meat, our true life-sustaining sustenance. There is no other. Jesus isn’t a snack on the way to more urgent matters, not a quick stop on the way to a ball game, fishing or anything else. This my friends is life! Jesus is the Word of eternal life and there is no one else to whom we should go. You are what you eat. What do you eat? Do you eat of materialism, greed, selfishness? Or do you eat of the living bread from heaven? Every now and then I hear someone say that they have or are asking God for all things that they may enjoy life. The fact of the matter is that God gives us life that we may enjoy all things, joy that stems from the life we are given, that is sustained in and through Christ Jesus. And when this is the case, everything else in life is seen through a different vantage point, a different perspective. Christ is the bread of life, the true life, the center of life. May it be so in our lives! AMEN. Rev. Bruce Hannem, Associate Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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