St. Paul’s United Church
Thanksgiving & World Wide Communion
To Satisfy the Hungry Heart
– Rev. David Mundy
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
John
6:25-35
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There was a Christian congregation where
everything needed to be perfect on the Sundays when communion took place – at
least perfect by someone’s definition. Everything had its appointed place on
the table at the front of the sanctuary. The plates with the bread were covered
with pristine white cloths and the silver containers for the tiny cups of juice
gleamed.
At the centre of it all were the chalice and
the loaf as symbols of Christ’s broken body and shed blood. It was the loaf
that got people thinking. Of course it had to be replaced every time communion
took place, so a suggestion was made. Why not come up with a more permanent
solution, one that could be used every time? After all, everyone ate the tiny
pieces of white bread which were on the plates.
Several ideas were offered until someone
wondered out loud if the loaf could be coated with something to preserve it.
After several experiments the solution was found. A loaf was shellacked, and it looked great.
It gleamed almost as brightly as the silverware.
And it lasted and lasted. For years the loaf
was carefully unwrapped and put in place on the table, before being stored away
again. There was a certain comfort in the familiarity of the ritual and the
image – after all, it never changed. The loaf became the Loaf, capital L.
Then one communion Sunday the minister became
ill and another was called to lead worship on short notice. No one remembered
to tell her about “the loaf.” At the moment of consecration she picked it up
and said “this is Christ’s body,
broken for you.” The congregation
watched in horror as the loaf disintegrated before their eyes, a pile of
shattered pieces and dust littering the communion table. No doubt the guest
minister was even more surprised and horrified.
This gathering of the Christian community had
not only forgotten to share a vital piece of information, they had missed the
truth that the enduring memorial of communion was also meant to be the living
presence of Christ. Just as bread is the small miracle of wheat and water and
salt recreated each day to feed the hungry, Jesus is the bread of life, the
holy mystery who feeds us and feeds us and feeds us
again.
From time to time what we call World Wide
Communion and Thanksgiving Sunday fall on the same day, so we celebrate the
abundance of life, including the harvest, along with our celebration of the
eucharist or holy communion or the last supper.
So one of our readings
for the day is about bringing the first fruits of the harvest before God as
gratitude for God’s provision.
The people of God who had escaped from slavery in Egypt were to always remember
that there had been a time when they had wandered in the wilderness, searching
for a home. And during that sojourn God had provided for them the manna which
was on the ground like dew each morning and the water which gushed from a rock
to sustain them. The manna was always just enough for the day except before the
Sabbath as a sign of trust.
In the sixth chapter of the gospel of John
Jesus has just the day before performed the miracle of feeding thousands of
hungry men, women and children as he taught by the sea
of Galilee. You might remember that everyone got a simple meal of bread and
fish and there is even plenty left over. It goes on to say that people arrive
in boats searching for
Jesus and eventually he shows up in the hometown of Peter, the fishing village
of Capernaum.
Then there is one of those curious Jesus
moments, at least in John. The people ask Jesus a question, and as is so often
the case in this gospel, he doesn’t answer it! In John Jesus is marvellously
evasive, constantly leading those who have sought him out along pathways to new
insights.
So instead of answering the “when did you show
up” question, he tells them that while they have been drawn to him by the
prospect of full bellies, he has come to provide full spirits and the food
which are abundant and eternal life. As Jesus speaks, he takes them back to the
wilderness and reminds them of the “bread from heaven” which was the manna
provided each day and which God will still provide. The audience Jesus spoke to
actually experienced physical hunger and often struggled to have enough food to
sustain them each day. Yet he invites them to go beyond this hunger and the
others which preoccupy us. Then he offers that well-known, wonderfully
mysterious phrase: “I am the bread of life.
Whoever comes to me will never be
hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. “
Jesus satisfies the hungry heart,
although even those of us who have chosen to follow Christ lose sight of this
we search to fulfill other hungers and thirsts. When Jesus makes this
statement, which is really a promise, he is calling us into a life of radical
trust that when we seek him he will provide enough for the day.
We tend to chase all over the place looking to
have our hunger for meaning addressed. We are part of a society that obsesses
over physical beauty and makes idols of those who seem to fit the image, at
least until they fall from grace. At the same time we are warned regularly that
our physical health is compromised by the overabundance of food which we consume.
We are sure that we must gobble up the latest
toys which an advertising industry tells us will be the much better replacement
for the last generation of really cool stuff. I was rummaging around in a
storage box under my bed recently and found the portable audio tape player
which I haven’t used for years because it was replaced by the portable compact
disc player which has now been replaced by my MP3 play which I don’t use a
great deal, yet may be replaced by . . . who knows how many generations of alternatives.
The goal is that we will never stop being “consumers,” never stop desiring the
latest and supposedly the best.
We can be ravenous in our ambition, assuming
that achieving goals in our work will provide everything we need.
Even in our religion we can assume we are
hungering for the living God when we are actually seeking security and
familiarity which will not satisfy and which quenches the work of the Holy
Spirit.
Dr. Gerald May wrote a book called Addiction
and Grace which I have turned to
many times through the years because of its wisdom. As a psychotherapist and
Christian, May was convinced that our deepest desire is to be in relationship
with God but we seek satisfaction for our spiritual longing in so many other
directions, only to be disappointed. Often we become physically or
psychologically attached to the wrong values or experiences or material
objects. We do this he offers
because looking into the loving face of Christ can seem too much
for us compared to these lesser gods.
As we come to this table with bread made for
this day we say that we desire something more than “empty calories,” We desire more than
a “fossilized” faith which is safe and predictable. We come for an experience of the living
Christ, to be fed by the bread which gives life to us and our world.
Although we have decided to call this World
Wide communion Sunday we do need to acknowledge that the way we share the
elements of this holy meal and even our understanding of what they represent is
substantially different from denomination to denomination. Of course our Roman
Catholic brothers and sisters
believe that once the wine and wafers of the eucharist are
consecrated they literally become the body and blood of Christ.
When I was at seminary, we would regularly celebrate
communion in our chapel services and afterward the juice and the bread would be
disposed of once the
congregation left. On one occasion a guest, another student who was preparing
for the Roman Catholic priesthood watched, aghast, as the last pieces of
communion bread were thrown to the pigeons. “You
just threw out body of Christ out the window!" was
the exclamation.
While as Protestants we don’t share this
conviction of the actual transubstantiation, we can allow Christ into this
sacrament in a way that is alive and real.
At our table today there are breads from other
cultures. There are tortillas and chapatis and pitas, pointing us toward
different directions on this planet, all of this unleavened bread which would
have been much like the bread of the last meal Jesus shared with his followers
before his dark death on the cross and the startling events of resurrection
day. There too, Jesus promised that his followers would never be forsaken.
You may come to this table today feeling
depleted in body or spirit. You may wonder if your presence here matters or
whether you will ever feel spiritually whole and satisfied.
As you make your way to the bread and juice,
be open to the miracle of renewal! The bread maker in my family, the one who
made the bread for today’s communion, reminds me that bread is unpredictable
and has a mind of its own. The same recipe prepared in the same way yields
different results at different times. It is both the pleasure and mystery of
bread-making. As she let the bread for today’s communion rise the dough only
filled the bowl, it flowed over the sides in a bread “gusher” enlivened by the yeast.
Christ will nourish you. Christ will feed you
and give you strength for another step on your journey. Taste and see that the Lord
is good, as the psalmist said. Seek and you will find, Jesus promised.
We move into our celebration of communion with
a prayer by Ruth Duck which reminds us of Christ’s promise to satisfy the
hungry heart.
God, like a bakerwoman,
you bring the leaven
which causes our hopes to rise.
With your strong and
gentle hands,
shape our lives.
Warm us with your love.
Take our common lives
and touch them with your grace,
that we may nourish hope among humanity.
We pray trusting in
your name,
through Jesus our Christ. Amen.