"Those who eat my flesh and drink my
blood abide in me, and I in them."
This is
great! This is good news! This is a holy promise!
Except -
what does it mean? Have you ever stopped to ponder what it meant to the folks
first hearing it, or what it means to us today?
Let's
start with the first folks hearing this message. Jesus, in the flesh, is
standing there, repeatedly telling people they need to eat his flesh and drink
his blood. Obviously, with today's ears, we recognise this as the Eucharist,
that great feast that gives us a foretaste of the heavenly banquet. At the
time, however, it was likely heard in a very different way, more of a literal
interpretation. Eat my flesh, and drink my blood.
Two
thoughts:
1.
AWKWARD.
2. YUCK.
These
are startling images. They're uncomfortable. They're graphic. They're
unsettling. And you know what? They're meant to be. Jesus is saying these
things in such dramatic ways to do just that - unsettle the people; shake them
into a new reality; turn the comfortable status quo on it's head.
These
words that John uses are bringing in all sorts of imagery for the folks who are
listening to Jesus. It's coarse, it's crude - right back in the beginning of
the gospel, when we hear the Word became flesh - not body, not corporal, but
flesh. And Jesus, when he says in today's passage, that for the life of the
world he will give his own flesh - he's telling people who he is. He's inviting
people to make that connection. He's giving them the clue that he IS the Word
made incarnate. He IS the Word made flesh that dwelt among us.
And yet,
most of the people at the time totally missed out what Jesus was saying. They
were stuck on the earthly, literal, eat my flesh, drink my blood message being
spoken by the man right in front of them.
In
fairness, I'd likely have been in the same interpretive state - caught up in
the shock value - the "Awkward" and "Yuck" would overshadow
any deeper wisdom.
I wonder
if I still do that? Of course I do. I get caught up on earthly things, present
realities, literal here-and-now stuff. It's easy - the here and now is full of
shiny objects, interesting things, realities that can keep my attention trapped
here. To stay at the surface level, face value, what you see is what you get.
Yet
Jesus is giving an invitation - to the Jews in today's Gospel, and to all of us
who have followed, to dig deeper. We're all being encouraged to be aware of the
times when we focus not on spiritual things, but earthly things. And when we
become aware of those earth-centred thoughts and actions, we're being
encouraged to re-focus our attention on the spiritual side of things. We're
being gently reminded that Spiritual Wisdom is better than earthy knowledge.
As a
sideline, I think it was very clever of the folks who put together the
lectionary to connect this reading with the passage from the Book of Kings -
Solomon is asked what he wants - and rather than focus on the earthly riches
that he could have, he asks for that Spiritual Wisdom to help him be a good and
Godly leader to God's people. The focus shifts from the earthly, immediate
reward to the Spiritual, truly life-giving reality.
But
let's shift back to the Gospel, to the message Jesus is sharing, and let's be grateful that we've had time and context to develop a
broader understanding of what Jesus is saying. We know that he is talking about
the Eucharist, our communal spiritual feast, our great sacramental
thanksgiving.
So the message, then, is that those of us
who partake in the Eucharist will abide in Christ, and Christ will abide in us.
Lovely. Good news. Holy promise. Back to
our comfort zone.
Except.
Let's look at the second half of the
statement. The 'abide' part. Because 'abide' is not a word that comes up too
often in conversation. And it's one of those words that has multiple
definitions. The Greek form says 'menei' which is an equally complex word as
the English 'abide'. It means to stay, to dwell, to continue, to remain, to
endure.
So far, so good, right?
Jesus is saying that through our connection
with Him in the Eucharist, we are to stay with him, dwell with him, continue
with him, remain with him, endure with him. And that in doing so, he will
reciprocate with and in us.
This is a beautiful, wonderful opportunity.
Our challenge then becomes how we respond
to that invitation, that instruction. Our challenge is how we carry that
connection to God with us after we have left the altar. Because it's very easy
to keep our focus on loving God and God's people when we're here in this sacred
space. Yet it can be much harder when the earthly realities of 'out there'
become the background for daily life.
And the word 'menei' or 'abide' takes us
even further. It's also connected to words that mean to stay fully, to stay
near, to stay constantly in relation. Abide is the cornerstone of relationship,
of community.
So as we hear Jesus inviting us to partake
in the Eucharist, we are also meant to hear the challenge to carry that
relationship we have with him into our relationships with one another.
As we come to God's table, to God's real
presence in the Eucharist, we recognise that we are being invited to the feast
- thanks be to God. But we also hear that we must accept the deep truth of
being partakers of the feast - to live out the love of God in all we do. To humbly
ask for, and then to carefully and prayerfully exercise, a Spiritual Wisdom as
we go about our lives. To go about our lives, our ministries, our leisures -
having been changed by the Eucharist. For those of us with faith, we celebrate
the true presence of God in these elements - they are more than bread and wine.
They are a Holy Promise of love and mercy and connection and closeness. Our
participation in the Eucharist is a response to God's offer; it's an acceptance
of the gift, it's a commitment to live our lives in a way that shows the world
the Good News that comes from abiding in God.
So I'm going to challenge you to reflect on
the past day, or week, or month. Has the Eucharist made a difference in your
daily life? Have your actions been influenced by God's promises to you? Have
you, in your interactions with family - neighbours - strangers - have you
demonstrated that you are abiding with Christ? Would they say that they felt you
were dwelling in deep relationship with the Lord?
I'll now challenge you to consider how you
want to live out the coming day, or week, or month. I'll invite you to celebrate that the
Eucharist IS making a difference in your daily life, that your actions are
influenced by God's promises to you. I invite us all to go into the world and
boldly show that we are remaining in constant, full relationship with God.
We have been invited to abide in Christ,
and he has promised to abide in us.
May we have the Spiritual Wisdom and
heavenly focus to enter into this deep and profound relationship with God, and everyone
we encounter - for they too have received the same invitation to the feast.
No comments:
Post a Comment