The Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Sermon

11 August 2024

The Reverend Canon Richard Ames-Lewis

I want to share with you why I am a happy man. I am happy because every day I eat the most delicious bread. It is homemade sourdough bread made by the chief baker of the household who makes two loaves a week. Her baking of bread is a great everyday expression of love, and each batch shows forth the mysterious alchemy of leavening, rising and baking. Not only this but also our daily bread has an interesting history. The sourdough culture, which lives in the fridge and gently grows, was given us by an American friend about 10 years ago. She had brought it from the States in her suitcase. She had inherited it from her mother, who claimed, and who am I to disbelieve her, that it had been in the family for generations, and that it had originally been brought over from England with the Pilgrim Fathers. So our daily bread has a venerable history to add to its nutritional and emotional benefits. When I take communion to members of the congregation at home, I take a slice of this bread to share at the Eucharist, which gives special resonance to the offertory prayer “Blessed are you Lord God of all Creation through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made…..”  So today I want to talk about bread.

Those of us who are interested in the Church of England pattern of Sunday bible readings, our lectionary, will know that this follows a three-year cycle: year A, the year of Matthew’s gospel, followed by year B, the year of Mark, followed by year C, the year of Luke. There is no year of John, but Mark’s gospel being shorter than the others incorporates some passages of John’s gospel during his year. Now I am sure you all know that we are currently in Year B, the year of Mark, but what you might not have twigged is that we are currently enjoying some weeks of John. In fact this year through the whole summer season we have five glorious weeks devoted to John, chapter 6. A kind of Summer School on John. And the whole of John chapter 6 is devoted to, guess what, bread. And not ordinary bread alone, but Jesus and bread.

·        Two weeks ago, verses 1-21, we had the famous story of the feeding of the 5000 – Jesus breaking bread and sharing it to satisfy the hunger of all those people, and so abundantly that 12 baskets of leftovers were gathered up afterwards.

·        Then last week, verses 24-35, we had Jesus claiming “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never be hungry; and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

·        Today, in the middle of the sequence, verses 41-51, we have Jesus saying “I am the living bread that came down from heaven, whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; the bread that I will give is my flesh.”

·        Next week, verses 51-58, we shall hear Jesus cry out “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me.”

·        Finally at the end of August, verses 56-59, we shall hear Jesus say again “The one who eats this bread will live for ever.” And we shall hear how the disciples are convinced that Jesus is the son of God.

This sequence of readings allows us to enter into the mind of the gospel writer John as he reflects and meditates on the words of Jesus and the mystery of bread. Perhaps during the holidays you may like to set yourself a project to read John chapter 6 straight through. You may even like to follow a commentary to help understand it some more, and I recommend David Ford’s “The Gospel of John”.

In today’s passage we have Jesus proclaiming himself “I am the bread of life” and comparing himself to the manna which the children of Israel ate in the wilderness. “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die”. Bread, as we have seen, sustains and nourishes and is an expression of love. But Jesus takes this one step further. He says, “the bread that I will give for the world is my flesh.” We may live forever if we eat the bread of Jesus, which is his flesh. This is a shocking text. Is bread synonymous with flesh? Are we to eat flesh? The very word flesh is difficult. Remember at the very beginning of St John’s Gospel is the sentence “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”. The scandal of the incarnation is exactly this: that Jesus was God in flesh and blood. How are we to come close to him and be part of him?  Do we have to eat him? No wonder the religious leaders of the time complained about Jesus, and indeed that some of his followers turned away.

This intimate connection between bread and flesh takes us straight to the Last Supper. There Jesus took bread and said “Take, eat; this is my body” – words which we use at every Eucharist. He attributed to simple nourishing bread the qualities of his body, the very flesh and blood which was shortly to be crucified and broken.

So what is happening at the Eucharist? Are the bread and wine of the Eucharist really transubstantiated into the flesh and blood of Christ? Or are the bread and wine simply signs to stimulate remembering him in faith through the Spirit? These are broadly the Catholic and Protestant understandings of how we seek to do what Jesus has told us to do. The Anglican position falls somewhere in between. But though there are disagreements about the meaning of the real presence in the Eucharist, no one has ever affirmed a real absence. Jesus is with us as we eat bread. We receive Jesus in faith and believe thereby that we shall be in him and live for ever.

So this bread, this simple nourishing meal, this transformation of grain and yeast, this proved and risen and baked food – this is more than a metaphor. The bread of the Eucharist is more than bread, for it conveys Jesus.

But also our daily bread, for which we pray, that which we eat for breakfast, lunch and tea is also more than bread. In a world of hunger, it reminds us of our need for sustenance; in a world of violence it reminds is of unity; in a world of sorrow it reminds us of delight. For it conveys the love of our creator and sustainer, God himself. And Jesus took bread and broke it, just as his body, his flesh, was broken for us on the cross.