Sunday Homily - July 29, 2018 - I AM the Bread of Life: Part 1

The Holy Eucharist
Orthodox Icon

I.
You are walking a cobblestone street in the city of Rome,
a city in the territory of Italy, Caesar’s territory..
There are no cars,
but a lot of livestock,
because we are living in 120 A.D.

120 A.D.
within a century of when Jesus Christ
fulfilled his earthly ministry.

You walk with a nervous pace.
Every time you see the legionaries,
the Roman Soldiers,
golden eagle wings
blazoned on their shields,
you know your life
could end
at any moment.

Because you are a Christian,
a follower of Jesus Christ,
a faithful follower of an illegal Faith.

As the evening sun sets,
you know that what you are about to do is illegal.
You know that you are taking your life
in your hands.

You walk into the local sepulchre,
the local tomb where many people are buried,
              and you descend into the catacombs.

But you know that these catacombs,
        this local tomb,
              is about to become a place where Jesus
                    becomes present yet again.

Because you are gathering to celebrate the Eucharist
the Mass,
the Holy Communion
that our Savior Christ has taught us
to continually keep
until the day of His
Coming.

You gather in a small, cramped area,
dimly lit by a few torches and candles.
There are frescoes and mosaics
                          of Jesus’s resurrection
painted on the walls of this tomb.

You see a man dressed in a long white robe walk out
       and you begin to say your prayers.

You acclaim the Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
and you say “Glory to God in the Highest…”

You hear bits and pieces of Holy Scripture.
Then you hear written commentary,
sometimes written by the Apostle Paul,
sometimes Holy Peter,
or others of the Apostles.

The man in the white robe,
         whom you know as the elder, the presbyter, the priest,
                reads John 6
about Jesus being the Bread of Life
how he is our Cup of Salvation.

How he walks on the surface of the water
just like the Holy Spirit rested
above the water in Genesis chapter 1.

You see unleavened bread on a small plate
a cup with wine
and you hear the man with the white robe say,
as he takes the cup of wine in his hands:

* “We thank you, our Father, for the holy vine of David Your servant, which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory forever.”

Then, with the bread, he says,

*“We thank You, our Father, for the life and knowledge which You made known to us through Jesus Your Servant; to You be the glory forever.”

----
*[Language above is taken from the Didache, which (according to some textual scholars) contains the earliest reference to Christian worship practices that has ever been found outside of the Bible. This document is dated (at the earliest) around 60s A.D. and it, along with Biblical attestation and other similar evidence from the first and second centuries (c.f. Justin Martyr’s First Apology and Second Apology along with the Apostolic Constitutions and Hippolytus’s Apostolic Tradition) shows that the Holy Communion was THE common practice of any worship gathering of early Christians].

For more information on the Didache, see the following link:

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/didache.html

To read the actual Didache, see the following link:

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm
----

And you realize, suddenly,
       in the darkness of those moments,
             that same mysterious Transfigured light,
                   the same Jesus you love,
                         is present among you faithful Christians
                                who had gathered that night
                                      under cover of darkness.

Because, even though following Jesus is dangerous,
life-threatening,
you know whom you have seen
and you have seen that Jesus
is ever present in the mystery:
  the Holy Communion.

“I AM the Bread of Life,
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,
and whoever believes in me
shall never be thirsty.” (John 6:35 NRSV)

II.

And now, friends, we flash forward to present day.
We now rejoin your previously scheduled program
of Holy Eucharist at Trinity Parish Church.
Thank you for your patience.

Now, y’all are probably thinking,
“Wait a minute….
that didn’t sound like our Gospel reading this morning!”
And to that I would say,
“You are exactly right!”

Instead, we are going to be looking closely at the real,
the ancient, the vital
               Sacramental theology of our church.

And the verse you heard me say, John 6:35,
        does occur in NEXT week’s Gospel.
       BUT it is THE THEME VERSE
      of the entire chapter
     of John 6.

We are going to be reading through John 6 on Sunday
for the next 5 weeks
              because it is that important to our faith!
And remember, I don’t get to pick
the readings from Scripture!

That verse, John 6:35,
is one of the most important verses
for us who claim the early Church’s faith,
otherwise known as the catholic faith,
the universal Christian Faith.

These readings are important enough
for us to spend multiple weeks unpacking them.
And you may discover how important
that it is for our present.

Because, as you may have sensed,
that trip we just took,
that plane ride to first-century Rome
that we just went on
                              sounds a lot like what we Episcopalians do
                                      every time we celebrate the Eucharist!

Jesus, who is the Bread of Life,
who is fully God, fully human,
who is the great I AM
says to us today,

“I AM the bread of life.”
“This is my Body given for you.”
“This is my Blood poured out for you.”

And in the earliest Church practice
even up to present day
Christians around the world
still see by Faith
                                Jesus Christ’s particular presence
        in the Holy Communion
                                               the Mass
                                                      the Eucharist.

And everytime we come on Sundays to meet Jesus,
we join with thousands of Christians living,
and with all of the faithful now dead
Angels, Archangels, all the company of heaven,
in that One and Same Eucharist
that happened on the night before
Jesus died for our salvation.

And this same Eucharist has continued to happen
in every gathering of Christians
to celebrate the Holy Mysteries
of Christ’s Body and Blood.

As Jesus instituted this Blessed Sacrament,
so the power,
the love,
the blessed sacrifice of those moments
reverberate into all eternity
even into this very hour
on July 29th, 2018.

III. 

We join a majestic tradition
of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church
when we come on Sundays to receive this
Most Blessed Sacrament.

And sometimes,
when you talk about stuff that is too big to grasp,
you just have to sing about it.

So, in closing,
I want to let you know that this truth
              is too big for one sermon.

We will be continuing with this sermon series
for the next several weeks that we are in John 6.

But we will conclude today with a hymn text,
        from a theologian that we will meet again next week
              named St. Thomas Aquinas.

In the great hymn attributed to St. Thomas
        about the Holy Communion,
      Number 314 in our Episcopal Hymnal 1982,
                     St. Thomas explains Jesus’s presence
                             in the blessed theology
                                     of hymnody and poetry.

Here is what he says:
      “Taste and touch and vision
       to discern thee fail;
     faith, that comes by hearing
     pierces through the veil.

I believe what-e’re
        the Son of God hath told
        What the Truth hath spoken
         that for Truth I hold.

Jesus, whom now hidden,
I by faith behold,
what my soul doth long for
that thy word foretold

Face to face thy splendor,
I at last shall see,
in the glorious vision,
Blessed Lord, of Thee.”

---
Perhaps what cannot be explained
       what cannot be shown by good argument
              can be experienced in the common invitation
                     to all of the faithful followers of Jesus our Lord:

Let us draw near to Our Lord by faith
and meet our Loving Savior
Face to Face.

In the Name of the + Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

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