A Sermon for Proper 15, Year B

 

“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.”  

 

 

Some years ago when I served at Christ Church, Toms River, a young girl was brought by an older friend for the first time to an early morning celebration of the Eucharist.  The congregation was gathered around the altar so I could clearly see her reactions as I said the words of the Eucharistic Prayer.  When I held up the bread and repeated Jesus’ words,   “Take, eat, this is my Body,” she grimaced.   When I said, “Drink this, all of you, this is my blood,” she shuddered, and hid her face against her companion. 

 

I had two resections this girl’s visible discomfort with idea of eating someone’s body and drinking his blood.  My first impulse was to try to comfort her by saying,   “Its alright, its not really flesh and blood.”  But my second reaction was,   “I wish the rest of us reacted to those words with the same intensity you do.  We’ve gotten too used to these words.  We aren’t awed by their strangeness anymore.  We not amazed that we eat the flesh and drink the blood of our incarnate, crucified and risen Lord.  We aren’t astounded when we hear that Jesus say: “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”  We don’t take Jesus’ words as seriously as you do.  

 

Christian faith claims that the Word of God has been made flesh and has come to abide with us and in us -- not just in our hearts; not just in our souls, but in our whole selves,  including our bodies.

Taken seriously, that is an overwhelming reality.  That young girl got that reality as she heard me speak about eating Jesus’ Body & Blood.

 

I’ve gotten that reality hearing this earthy description of the disciples’ experience at the Last Supper in Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel, The Last Temptation of Christ.

 

“Each of the disciples ate his mouthful of bread and drank his sip of wine.  Their minds reeled.  The wine seemed to them thick and salty, like blood;  the portion of bread descended like a burning coal into their very bowels.  Suddenly, terrified, they all felt Jesus take root within them and begin to devour their entrails.  Peter leaned his elbows on the table and began to weep.” 

 

“My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink,” says Jesus.  “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.” Kazantzakis, like that young girl, takes Jesus at his word. He knows that when we eat this bread and drink this cup,  Jesus comes to abide in us, to take root in us, to grow in us.

 

Whenever we celebrate the Eucharist, two things are obvious.  Our eyes, hands and tongues tell us that what we eat and drink is bread and wine, not flesh and blood.  And yet we say:  “This is the Body of Christ,   This is the Blood of Christ.”  

 

Christian have debated for centuries how best to explain the seeming contradiction between what our senses tell us and Jesus’ words.  I could tell you in detail about those debates, and our time would not be wasted, because some of the explanations come nearer the heart of this mystery than others.

 

But ultimately those debates are not what matter.  What matters is taking Jesus’ words seriously as that young girl & the famous novelist both did.  We need to take Jesus seriously when he tell us that he is here in the Eucharist as true food and true drink,   here to nourish us, to feed us in body and in soul;  here to enter into us, to take root in us, to grow in us;  here to abide with us & in us.  How bread and wine can be Jesus’ flesh and blood is not what matters.  Feeding on Jesus is what matters.

Abiding in Jesus is what matters. Having Jesus in us as we is what matters.  

 

That is why we come here each Sunday.  We come here to allow Jesus to enter our bodies and take root in us.  We come here to feed on Jesus. His flesh is true food and his blood is true drink, and we receive them at this altar.  We feed on Jesus in the Eucharist so that, as he promised, he may abide in his and we in him.

 

So come today and let Jesus enter you, body and soul.  Come and feed on the true food and the true drink.  Come with awe, come with a child’s amazement and a novelist’s earthy  passion.  And then go into the world as Jesus  sends you, knowing that you do not go alone;  knowing that he abides in you as you abide in him.  For this indeed is his promise:  “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.”

 

 

The Rev. Jack Zamboni

August 16, 2009