"The living bread"-Sermon for Proper 15, John 6:51-58
I want to begin my sermon this morning by scrolling through a few pictures of a similar theme from my family’s summer camping vacation in Colorado that we returned home from about three weeks ago. So, for those online who likely can’t see the photos, as I narrated, they are pictures, in particular, of some of the meals I cooked at our various campsites, as we traversed much of southwest Colorado. Though most of the meals I cooked while traveling were for the four of us who make up my immediate family, we actually cooked for many others, as we met up with many friends along the way and always invited them to join us at the campsite for a cookout whenever we could. Now, if you did not know this about me already or, at least, if not obvious by now, I love to cook…and, also, if not obvious from looking at me…I’ll say I love to eat as well! Most of the pics are taken of food sizzling on my cast iron flat top that slides out from the side of our camping trailer…that, as I have noted before, we affectionately call Trixie the Trailer. Though I find great joy in roasting vegetables in my oven or slowly braising a large piece of meat in flavorful liquids on my cooktop both in the comfort of my own air-conditioned home, I take greatest pleasure in cooking in the great outdoors…whether on one of the grills in my own backyard or at a campsite somewhere off the beaten path in the cathedral of God’s creation.
For me there is just something about fats and oils in meat or vegetables caramelizing over fire…the scents and smoke wafting up into the fresh air and blue sky above…that fills me all the way up even before taking my first bite. I would say the experience of cooking for me is first and foremost a matter of the heart, even more, than the stomach. For as the scents, sounds and flavors, cause you got to test the food along the way, build anticipation for the meal that follows…it is the sharing of the food, rather than the consuming of it, that I always most look forward to…that I anticipate the very most. That is the conversation that will follow during the meal…the laughter and sometimes tears that come when speaking from the heart when we sit at table together…the pleasure others take in my creative offering…filling those I love and share a life with…with good things that bring joy and delight and satisfaction. These are the sorts of things that I actually look most forward to whenever I get the chance to cook…which I might describe as a feast of love…rather than food. Thus, I would say, it is table fellowship that sets my heart on fire. As I said in the sermon I preached my first Sunday back from vacation…sharing food…feeling full…enjoying good company and conversation…that’s heaven on earth for me…those are the moments when Eden feels restored for me…that’s when I feel God’s ever present, palpable love most entirely...at the table, feasting on the love that is present among those I get to share a life with…along with the food of course!
Thus, it might not surprise you to hear me say, that though I am looking forward, more than words can describe, to every single thing that our new church will provide for us…I am perhaps most excited to complete our outdoor kitchen, which I will note, will follow a bit after moving in. For, from that space, I am imagining many hundreds…even thousands of people over time…being fed. And, again, not from food alone, but, even more so, through the rich connections made, as God’s own love is exchange, over the food that will be served…through the table-fellowship we will share together…filling each other up with God’s love…with God’s Spirit…as it flows one to another. For, as Jesus reminds us, human’s do not live on bread alone…but we are fed, filled and are made fully alive by and through God’s ever-present love that we share with one another in word and deed. And, I believe this love, God’s love, that we share and feast upon together is the living bread of which Jesus speaks to us today, which is the life of the world…and which provides not just the energy needed to make it from this day to the next…but heavenly food that gives us the spiritual sustenance to get us from this life to the next…our forever life…God’s forever feast that awaits each of us on the other side of glory.
Now, I am just speaking for this priest, Miles, but there is no doubt that my love for preparing and sharing food is deeply connected to my vocation as a priest. For I see sharing table fellowship at this altar…this table we share…as very similar to the dining tables we share in all of the other spaces and places in our life…in homes, restaurants, backyards and campsites alike. I get to help prepare a meal here twice each Sunday. And, in that meal we are fed and filled with the love of Christ. When Jesus says, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you”, he is not speaking of himself as literal food…but as a spiritual metaphor for the death-defeating and life-giving love that has taken root and grown among us through his flesh and blood sacrificed on the cross. Good Friday and Holy Saturday, the day Jesus lay in the tomb, is the moment in time/space when God, the head chef in the universe, is preparing the table, the very table described in the 23rd Psalm, a great and never-ending feast of love that then bursts forth…is set before us…in Jesus’ resurrection at Easter. And it is this feast of love, that provides unending life for the world…that we now feast upon…first at this table…and then the many others…where we share with each other the love, God’s own love, that grows, like good food from the field, out of the empty tomb of Easter. Perhaps you remember me noting in my last sermon that it was in a garden that Jesus was buried and raised. “The” garden whose produce is the life and love that God endlessly provides for the world…for you…for me…to feast upon.
Thus, each Sunday as we come to this table…as we take our place at this table…we receive in our hearts, minds and bodies…into our guts…Jesus’ own death-defeating and life-giving love. And, it takes root in us…Jesus’ own spiritual DNA co-mingled with our own…and we are filled to overflowing with eternal life and love. And, just as we have learned that eating good food, healthy food, lovingly and mindfully prepared food…literally heals us…heals our bodies…and sharpens our minds…and improves our mental health. As we receive the spiritual food offered at this holy feast, we likewise find healing for our souls, which is nothing less than our salvation…our eternal life. And, friends, as Kelly pointed out in his sermon last week, those words “eternal” and “salvation” are about more than just going to heaven when we die…they are about a quality and experience of life lived in the present. When we take our place at this table…at God’s feast of love and receive Jesus into the center of our lives…into our guts…which in Jesus’ time was understood to be the seat of our soul, intellect and emotions…we are eternally saved…we receive salvation…which means shalom, healing, peace and wholeness for the living of each day beginning in this present moment. Receiving such salvation is power and energy that burns within us and provides vision and purpose and direction and wisdom for a Christ-like, Christ-filled life that matters and makes a difference for us, for those we love, for those we serve…for those we feed with our, God-given, love.
And, what excites me most…what I most look forward to…just like when I am in the process of lovingly preparing a meal to share with those I care for…is what then follows…as we take the eternal love and salvation we are filled with at this table and share it…share it…as we laugh and cry with each other…as we hold each other…as we listen to each other…as we share our experiences and wisdom with each other…as we care for and serve each other around the countless expressions of table-fellowship where we meet and are fed by God’s own love in and through each other. For table-fellowship is, simply said, all the moments in life when God’s love is found and shared with others…our salvation is always tied up in each other…for, in the midst of the life we share, is the very place God has prepared and set before us the table spread with Jesus’ Easter feast. God’s own unending feast of love…heavenly food empowering the life we share now and the life still yet to come.
So, in conclusion, I make this invitation, just as one of our priests does each Sunday in this season just before we take our places at this table…on which sits wheat and grape…heavenly food…Jesus’ own spiritual body and blood…which is God’s great feast of love…come God’s people…come to receive Christ’s heavenly food. Amen.