Proper 14, Yr B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Proper 14, Yr. B (2024) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Ephesians 4:25-5:2 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
John 6:35, 41-51
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
This morning I want to talk to you about two things:
Jesus…
and community.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”
And not only that but “I am the living bread.”
“Whoever eats of this bread will live forever.”
Now exactly what does that mean?
Jesus is the bread of life.
Let’s think about bread for a minute.
Bread is one of the most basic foods we have
– whether you go into a specialty food shop or your corner market,
you can find bread.
It is plentiful.
Bread is available everywhere.
Let’s return to Jesus’ saying:
“I am the bread of life.”
I may be stating the obvious here,
but it seems to me that Jesus is saying that he is our most basic sustenance.
Jesus is the most basic thing we need to sustain our lives.
Yet, Jesus says that he is living bread.
And whoever eats of this bread will live forever.
How does that work?
We share the Eucharist every week where we eat the Body and Blood of Christ.
Is that it?
Or is there more?
Jesus says, “I am the bread of life….
“Whoever eats of this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
It seems that Jesus is saying that his life
– his living –
has something to do with eternal life.
The way in which Jesus embodied God has something to do with eternal life.
Jesus lived out God’s radical love for the world.
He challenged many things that the religious world thought was important
in order to love others.
He ate with sinners – with tax collectors and prostitutes.
He healed on the Sabbath.
He challenged the demons and touched the unclean.
All in the name of God…
in the name of love.
In so living,
he risked rejection by his family, his friends, his religious community.
So, it seems that Jesus is saying that if we take into ourselves this Living Bread –
if we inherit and live out the life that Jesus lived –
we will live forever because we will know what it is to truly Live.
Whatever we risk –
even our own physical lives –
will not matter…
because we will know what it means to be sustained by the life of Jesus.
It is only by the Grace of God that we are able to do what we do.
I realize that it is not I who sustain myself,
or even friends (as much as I sometimes lean on them),
but it is God.
What would happen if, each night before we go to sleep,
we offer to God our worries,
the pain of others,
the lives of those who need to be healed,
and ask God to sustain us with living bread?
_____________________________
I now turn to community which is, in every way, related to Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to be a community?
Our reading from Ephesians begins with these words:
“Putting away all falsehood,
let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors,
for we are members of one another.”
In community “we are members of one another.”
That is quite a statement.
Living in community,
as members of one another,
is difficult.
The first year after I graduated from college,
I lived in an intentional Christian community.
There were six of us who had just graduated.
None of us knew each other,
but we had come together for a common purpose.
We were working in Atlanta through an organization called the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.
We each spent our days working with people in desperate need.
Our lives were stressful as we talked to people all day who were in pain and suffering,
and we often felt inadequate as we tried to meet their needs.
At the beginning of the year,
we had committed to live intentionally as a Christian community.
About halfway through the year,
the tensions in our community were escalating.
We finally brought someone in to meet with us and facilitate a conversation.
The topic of our conversation was:
do we want to remain a community and work out our differences,
or do we want to merely co-habitate and live our separate lives?
When we began our conversation,
we had no idea that this was what we were going to talk about.
We thought the burning issue was that someone kept leaving dirty dishes in the sink.
We discovered that the underlying issue was one of personality.
Five of us were introverts,
and one of us was an extravert.
So, five of us would come home,
go to our rooms and read or take a nap.
That was how we renewed our energy.
The sixth person,
being exhausted from his day,
wanted to gather with the community
and talk, or play volleyball, or ride bikes in the park.
After a great deal of honesty about the costs for each of us to all remain in community,
we decided we would try.
It was difficult,
and one of us almost left,
but each time problems arose,
we worked through the issues with honesty, commitment, and love.
It is indeed difficult to live together in community!
The letter to the Ephesians speaks of how to live in community together:
speaking the truth to our neighbors,
putting away bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander,
being kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving one another.
And all of this is to the end of building up one another –
living in love –
as Christ loved us.
Living together in community means listening to one another,
being willing to risk the truth,
learning to live with differences,
and bearing one another’s burdens.
I guarantee you that there are as many opinions in this place as there are people.
On some matters we may agree;
on other matters we may disagree.
I pray that as we discern together where God is calling us,
that we will each speak the truth,
share our dreams and listen to one another
– for the purpose of building up this community,
and for the purpose of building up the Body of Christ,
knowing that it is Christ who sustains us and provides us bread for the journey.
I have no grand conclusion to this sermon.
Our lives are the conclusion….
whether we choose to receive the living bread from heaven,
allowing Jesus to nourish and sustain our lives…
guiding us and leading us as the community of the Body of Christ in this world.
Who shall we be?
What - in the name of love - are we willing to risk?
In what ways will we reveal the Kingdom of God in this place?
AMEN.
