Sermon 12th Sunday after Pentecost 2012

Sermon:

Text: John 6:51-58

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who in communion makes us who we are.

            We are now on week 4 of our mini-series through the 6^th Chapter of John. We have seen Jesus feed people with bread and fish, we have heard about Jesus referring to himself as the bread of life, he compares himself to manna from heaven, saying he is more than that, that he is the living bread come down from heaven. His flesh is the bread that will give itself for the life of the world, making connections between himself and the Passover lamb.

            That’s a lot of food. I find food fascinating. And not just the cooking and eating side of it. The fact that eating a ham and cheese sandwich causes my hair to grow, or drinking that glass of milk keeps my bones stronger, or a bunch of carrots help eyesight, or gross, gross Brussels sprouts give you super powers. (Not sure about that last one, maybe that was just my mom getting me to eat my veggies.) I find the whole digestion process amazing. You obviously eat, take the food in and chew it, it mixes with saliva which starts starch digestion, it’s then sent into your stomach where stomach acids start protein digestion. It sits in your stomach for a couple hours where it becomes a slurry paste, then begins to enter your small intestine where all the nutrients are absorbed, and the rest is, well, disposed of.  It’s church, so we won’t get into those details.

            After it’s all been broken down into amino acids, polypeptides, fatty acids, glucose, sucrose, and fructose, it enters your blood stream and circulates around your body reaching the various cells and organs that use each item, some being used right away and some being reconverted into fats for later usage. It’s a whole long process of turning a ham sandwich into hair cells.

            You’ve all heard the line, You are what you eat. I’m guessing that 50-75% of sermons are going to use this week. It’s often used today to refer to people who don’t eat like they should and they start to look like doughnuts, or we call them couch potatoes. In some cultures, especially many Native American traditions, it’s even more so. They would say that if you eat a lot of chicken you have chicken energy, you move around a lot quickly, or if you eat a lot of beef, you would have heifer energy, you move slow and deliberate, power behind each step. We don’t really think that way, it’s all metaphorical and simile language. If you eat only beef you’re not going to turn into a cow. Eating plants are not going to turn you green. Of course saying that only eating carrots can cause a condition where you are sort of orange, but it’s rare and is treated by changing the diet to less carrots more other things. But, when we look at the whole digestion process. That ham sandwich becomes my hair, that glass of milk becomes my bones, those Brussels sprouts are left uneaten on my plate. But, if I would eat them, they would become part of my cells, not as they are, but transformed by the digestion process. The food courses through us, becoming us. So you could really say, that yes, you are what you eat.

            Today, Jesus’ message changes slightly. As I mentioned he’s been talking about bread. Bread, bread, bread, bread. But, today he talks less about bread, but about his flesh and his blood. “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.”

It’s something that those listening to him can’t understand, in fact nobodies going to understand what he’s talking about until we get to the Last Supper, and then Christ’s death and resurrection. Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, there are many words for it, but it comes down to bread and wine. Simple bread and wine, but also something more.

            We, as Lutherans, hold that the bread and wine stay bread and wine, but the Christ is in, with, and under the bread and wine. They are still bread and wine, but at the same time, they are Christ’s flesh and blood.

            When we partake in communion we eat the bread and we drink the wine, but we are at the same time, eating Christ’s flesh and drinking Christ’s blood. We are eating Christ, we are taking him into ourselves.

            You are what you eat. And we eat Christ. Jesus enters our blood stream and becomes part of who we are. Jesus becomes our hair, becomes our bones, becomes our hands and feet. Jesus courses through us, giving us himself. When Jesus says Those who eat my body and drink my blood abide in me and I in them, he’s not using figurative language, he means it. Jesus is part of us. Jesus becomes us, and we become Jesus.

            Throughout these weeks we’ve been hearing Jesus make all these promises. In today’s reading we hear that those who eat his body and drink his blood will have life ongoing, be raised on the last day, abide in him, have Jesus abide in them, live because of him, and live forever. These are promises that Jesus gives to us, and they are not just floating out there. They are in us, they are a part of us.

            Jesus is love, love that courses through us, and we exude it into the world around us.

            Jesus is grace, grace that flows into us, and we extend it those in need.

            Jesus is wisdom, Jesus is goodness, Jesus is joy, Jesus is life, and Jesus is resurrection.

            All of that enters us when we eat Christ’s body and blood. Because of Christ we receive love, grace, wisdom, goodness, joy, life and resurrection. Because of Christ, we become love, grace, wisdom, goodness, joy, life and resurrection.

            So, when we go out into the world and fueled by ham sandwiches and milk to make this world a better place, we realize that we don’t have to search for God’s love, patience, and strength, because of Christ, it is already a part of us. We can change the world, because Christ fuels us. We go out and bring Jesus to the world, by being present to the world, by showing forth that we understand that Jesus courses through our beings, and has become us.

We are what we eat, and we eat Jesus’ body and blood. It course through us, it fuels us, it gives us promises, it gives us life and resurrection. And because of it, we are made new, we can see the world like Christ because our eyes are now Christ’s eyes, we can touch the world like Christ because our hands are now Christ’s hands. We can walk this world, entering the dark places that scare us, free of fear, because our feet our now Christ’s feet.

May the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you and keep you in his grace.  Amen.