The Rev. Ann R. Lougee September 3, 2006 Living Bread John 6:51-56 In John's story, beyond today's brief reading, many people were turned off by the imagery of eating Jesus' body, and stopped following him as disciples. It sounds like cannibalism, after all. But, as with so many words attributed to Jesus in the gospel of John, the meaning of them was spiritual, not physical. In the longer version of this story, Jesus makes reference to the manna that God provides for Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness. Manna was sufficient for the people's needs for the journey that they were taking, escaping from Egypt to the Promised Land. It was food, period – and after a while, the people were no longer grateful for it, but started complaining. It was not the living bread referred to in John's gospel. The word "bread" can have a broader meaning, of course, as in the grace we sometimes use which says "thanks be to God who gives us bread," meaning all of the food we're about to eat. Bread signifies sustenance. In the Lord's Prayer, "our daily bread" means "what we need for life." The term "flesh and blood" can also mean a vital, actual life. Jesus' bread of life is his own life, his own vitality. He gives this life freely. In his contact with others, he gives grace for living, access to God, forgiveness of sins, and much more. Jesus contrasts manna with the bread of life, or the living bread, which he says he is, which he says his own flesh and blood is. As John's gospel uses this language, it elevates the historical Jesus into the eternal, living Christ. This living Christ is what we experience when we're facing a difficult situation and suddenly find grace and peace. It's adaptable to all kinds of situations. The living Christ can feed us anywhere, anytime, giving us hope in difficulties, solutions we had overlooked to serious problems, lovely people who come into our lives unexpectedly at just the right moment, the peace that allows us to perceive God's grace rather than becoming stuck in our unhappiness and preconceived notions. But we can confuse manna, which can nourish us temporarily, for the living bread which nourishes indefinitely. Manna, too, is God-given, but not enduring for all time. For example, think of manna as the aspects of church life that are good and grace-filled, but fleeting. Manna is the preaching style of a certain pastor whom you love – but which must be replaced when a new pastor comes along with a different style. Manna is the program ministry of the congregation, or the church's music – all of which can be wonderful and beneficial but are sometimes a source of disagreements. Manna may be the small group to which you're attached, but then people move away or die, and the group magic disappears. Manna is the way the church was when you joined, the way that you love and that you'd rather would never change. But what if a crisis in the congregation brings out the worst in the people you've trusted as your spiritual models? Our walk with the living Christ can be hampered, even ruined, when we allow impermanent aspects of the church to define our spiritual journey. But the living Christ, the bread of life, is adaptable to all circumstances. No matter who the church leaders are, no matter how styles of worship may shift and change, no matter how the furniture is arranged, no matter what programs come into being and go out of existence, what is always central to life in the church is the way that our spirits are fed in our relationship with the Spirit of the living Christ. We experience this relationship, of course, in the eucharistic ritual we are about to share. But we also experience it in many ways in our life as a community of faith. We experience it as we pray for one another. We experience it as we support one another in hard times. We experience it as we work together to help those in need. We experience it as we enjoy each other's company, when we take the time to get to know each other more than superficially, when we sit at table together to eat and drink and talk and laugh with one another. "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them." Eating and drinking is something we must do continually. We can think of this ritualistically, but we can also think of this in terms of our need to "abide" in Christ, to take the life of Jesus into our own and become, ourselves, the Body of the living Christ. May it be so. Amen.