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Sermon - Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (B) - 23rd August 2009
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7 & 8am
Our Lady Help of Christains Catholic Church Epping 10am
Readings: John 6:56-69 (60-69)
Last Sunday the Gospel reading from John reported Jesus as saying,
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
When Jesus says, “I am the bread of life” images of bread drawn from the Old Testament are transformed. The traditional images that pointed to God in the Old Testament now point to God through Jesus.
When Jesus says that his flesh is the “living bread that came down from heaven”, he is saying that he himself is the food that gives life, not the manna or the multiplied loaves. It is through eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood, through the eucharist, that the believer partakes of this food.
Jesus is the bread that people must eat to have life and Jesus is also the bread to whom people must listen in order to have life. The use of the word bread in John’s Gospel is characterized by a richness and depth that defies reduction to a single meaning. Jesus is the point of access to God. Jesus can be met as the Holy One of God and as the bread of life; as the presence of God who walks upon the water and as the only one who has ever seen God.
The richness of the bread image is essential to the presentation of the eucharist. The manna in the wilderness, the Word of God that gives life, the multiplication of the loaves are all present when the believer eats Jesus’ flesh and drinks his blood. One does not have to choose among the symbols and images, because all are at play in the eucharist for John. The symbolic richness of the eucharist is one of the reasons why the eucharistic images are found in John and not in the passion. The eucharist does not belong exclusively to Jesus’ death for John, but belongs to all of Jesus’ life.
The sense of participation is conveyed in last weeks Gospel reading. When the believer eats Jesus’ flesh and drinks his blood, the believer and Jesus abide together. Participation in the eucharist places the believer in relationship with Jesus and the believer receives life through Jesus’ abiding presence. John does not draw a line of demarcation between participation in the eucharist and the faith response; rather, what is important is the centrality of Jesus in the believer’s life and the believer’s relationship with Jesus.
John’s theology presents several challenges to the eucharistic theology and practices of many churches today. It challenges those Protestant churches that understand the eucharist primarily as a commemoration of Jesus’ death or a meal of community fellowship. For John, the eucharist is a meal of Jesus’ presence, not primarily, if at all, a meal of remembrance. The eucharist is feeding on and being fed by Jesus. The “fellowship” derives first from the mutual indwelling of Jesus and the believer, and community is formed from those who share in Jesus’ presence.
John’s theology also poses a challenge to those churches, Catholic and some Protestant, such as the Anglican Church, that elevate the role of the person who presides at the eucharist. John emphasizes the personal dimension of the sacrament rather than the institutionalization and institutional control of the sacrament. The eucharist is not Jesus’ gift to an elite group of twelve who then mediate that gift to others; the eucharist is Jesus’ direct gift to those who believe, the believer’s participation in the eucharist thus revolves around Jesus’ gift and the believer’s relationship to Jesus.
The immediacy of Jesus’ gift of the eucharist is anticipated in the feeding of the five thousand at the beginning of this chapter. Jesus, not his disciples, distributes the bread and fish to the multitudes. In each of the other Gospel accounts, the disciples are responsible for the distribution of the food. John’s version thus places the emphasis on Jesus’ own feeding of those who are hungry.
Everything in John’s gospel, including the eucharist, is included in the person of Jesus. John is not anti-sacramental. He places great theological value on the eucharist; it belongs to Jesus’ gift of life. The eucharist, however, belongs to the believer, not to the church. It is for Jesus alone to give. All of Jesus’ life is given to the believer when he or she eats Jesus’ flesh and drinks his blood.
What then does John’s eucharistic theology offer us in the contemporary church? First, it provides a fresh perspective on ecumenical debates about who is welcome at the table. No one can claim exclusive rights to Jesus’ flesh and blood, because they are Jesus’ alone to give. Second, John’s emphasis on the relationship between Jesus and the believer in the eucharist calls the church to ponder the role of the ordained clergy with respect to the eucharist. John’s eucharistic theology seems to suggest that no one other than Jesus can control access to the eucharist. Clergy may be given responsibility to ensure that believers are provided with opportunities to participate in the eucharist, but it is Jesus’ presence, not clergy privilege, that governs the eucharist. John’s eucharistic theology provides a healthy vantage point from which to ask questions about power and access in the eucharistic life of many churches. Finally, John’s theology may reinvigorate static divisions between word and sacrament in the life of the church. For John, the eucharist belongs to and is inseparable from the revelation of God in Jesus. At the heart of both word and sacrament is the urgency for people to see God in Jesus and believe.
Jesus said; “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
This sermon prepared using The New Interpreter’s Bible Vol IX.