Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Lectionary 20B Proper 15B
August 16, 2009
Texts: Proverbs 9:1-6; Psalm 34:9-14; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58
Meals are at the heart of relationship.
As witness to the bonds that form over meals,
Think about the multitude of meals served at this church
Or by people of this congregation in the past several months.
There certainly have been a string of meals in the past few months:
A dinner to kick off our Natural Church Development effort,
A fund-raising dinner,
VBS and Sunday School BBQ luncheons,
A New Member BBQ
Wednesday night community dinners at the Methodist Church,
A funeral luncheon at my aunt’s Memorial Service,
A reception yesterday for the family and friends of Dr. Henry Brown,
And a potluck BBQ that we will share after this service.
And that doesn’t even begin to mention the meals
That have shown up at some one’s house
In a time of trouble.
When I think about meals being at the heart of relationship,
I can’t help but reflect on what happened yesterday.
During the past week,
Members of this community,
Organized, baked, cooked and prepared
So that the life of a well-loved member of the Enfield community
Could be recognized and celebrated.
Out of this work, a wonderful reception emerged.
Family and friends of Dr. Brown mingled,
Reminisced and generally celebrated the life
Of this modest, generous town doctor.
This reception did not involve just preparation,
But food made and served in love.
Meals strengthen the relationships
Among those who prepare and serve them,
As well as among those who consume them.
In some cases such as with a funeral reception,
Or meals sent home
The shared food functions as a symbol,
Reminding the recipients that the meal
Is only the tip of the iceberg of the Christian community
Which is there supporting them.
The Holy Spirit inspires each of the meals
Prepared by our community.
Many times when we prepare a meal for someone
Thoughts and prayers for the person
Accompany the mixing, cooking and baking.
Prayers, along with the wonderful aromas,
Waft up during the meal preparation.
These meals are life-giving
Because they offer the opportunity
For one isolated by death or sickness
To yet again be part of the community.
Bonds of friendship and community are forged
When people share meals together.
There is a good reason
Why business is often conducted over dinner
And why visiting heads of state
Are entertained at a feast.
When you have broken bread with someone
It is harder to think of that person as the enemy.
Much Biblical imagery involves bread or meals
And our lessons today are no exception.
Lady Wisdom is opening her home
And serving a life-giving meal,
And Jesus goes deep into the symbolism
Of giving himself as the life-giving bread from heaven.
Lady Wisdom, who has been present with God
From the beginning of time, at creation,
Gives us a window into the God
Who wants to be in relationship with us.
Wisdom invites all, even those who are simple or foolish
To a meal which not only nourishes,
But which also shows the way to life and peace.
If bonds are formed over meals,
Then Lady Wisdom’s invitation to come to a meal
Is a call to us to enter into and deepen our relationship with God.
No matter where your life has been going,
Even if you have become distant from God,
Lady Wisdom seeks you out,
Calling you to return,
To come to a meal.
To sit for a spell
And hear her words, calling you to the way of insight.
Lady Wisdom’s carefully prepared meal offer
Is in direct contrast to an invitation from Ms. Folly,
Which follows only a few verses later in the Book of Proverbs.
Ms. Folly tempts with hidden bread and stolen water,
A meal that gives not life, but death.
This fast food meal deal has no sustenance
And no life-giving path to a relationship with God.
Jesus, who is often thought of as the fulfillment of the Wisdom tradition
Like Lady Wisdom, also offers a life-giving meal,
The bread from heaven, which is his body.
These words caused much aggravation
Among the seriously religious leaders of Jesus’ time.
They could not picture what Jesus meant
With his words that he was giving his flesh as bread for the life of the world.
You can imagine them standing around in long robes
Questioning what Jesus meant by the command
To munch his flesh as bread.
Even more alarming to them was Jesus’ command to drink his blood.
The observant religious leaders, who followed the Law,
Would not dream of drinking the blood of any animal,
Much less human blood.
Was Jesus promoting cannibalism?
Did he really expect people to munch on his flesh and drink his blood?
This command seems no easier today
Than it did to the people who hung around Jesus in the first century.
It is a whole lot easier to talk about the first of the bread passages
In the Gospel of John:
The miracle of the loaves and fishes,
Than the command to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink his blood.
Both Wisdom’s command to eat at her table
And Jesus’ command to consume his body
Are filled with mystery,
A mystery that cannot be comprehended in reason,
But can only be absorbed in faith.
Lady Wisdom’s command: “Come and eat at my table and live.”
Or Jesus’ words: “Those who eat my body and drink my blood
Abide in me and I in them.”
Although we can’t really understand these commands
They pull and tug at us,
And offer a glimpse of a promised relationship.
Jesus’ command scared off many of his followers;
However, his immediate disciples were not deterred.
They heard in those words,
Not just the command,
But the promise—the words of eternal life.
We take, too, take comfort in the promise contained in those words.
We crave the relationship,
That abiding one with another.
And so, on some days, we simply rest in that abiding,
Without getting tangled up
Trying to reason out all the details.
At funerals, we often sing
“Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.”
We pray that Jesus might abide in us
And lift us past the veil of grief.
If meals are at the heart of relationships,
Then the meal of Jesus’ body and blood,
Is a meal that brings Jesus in our midst.
The community to whom John was writing
Was threatened by Roman persecution
And had already been expelled from the synagogue.
These words loaded with the promise of relationship
Were a comfort to them
In the midst of their grief over lost connections with friends and family.
This promise of a relationship grounded in a meal
Are words of comfort to us too.
Yet, much of the time
We struggle with what in means to be a Christian
In the 21st century in a pluralistic society.
We are tempted to turn away,
From the difficult and seemingly incomprehensible.
Offer of bread and wine, that is Jesus’s flesh and blood.
It seems easier
To grab and run with Ms. Folly’s fast food meal
Of secret bread and stolen water,
Than to accept Wisdom’s invitation
To a sit down carefully prepared meal,
Embodied with a relationship.
One is fast and empties,
The other is slow and fills the soul.
In this Christian community
There are many meals,
At the heart of relationships,
Which fill both body and soul.
Today, in this time and place,
You will be offered two meals,
Both complete with relationship.
The first will be a simple, but slow meal,
One that fills the soul,
A meal that consists of a taste of bread and a sip of wine,
Body and blood, given and shed for you,
For the forgiveness of your sins.
The second meal will be a meal
Of fellowship and physical sustenance.
Of meal of BBQ
And the hot dishes,
That Lutherans are famous for.
A meal that Garrison Keillor could tell a good story about.
In a few minutes you will be invited to this first table
For the living bread from heaven,
So that you may eat and live forever.
In a short while,
You will be invited to the second table over there,
For a meal prepared by God’s hands in the world,
A meal that will offer fun and fellowship,
Relationships and food that sustains the body.
God invites you for both living bread and whole grain bread.
God wants to nurture your soul, your body
And the relationships that develop over those meals.
Amen