I have something of a
confession to make. I was somewhat troubled when I first read this morning’s
Gospel. I find it all too easy to moan about all sorts of things. The Church of
England is often a target, but one amongst many. It’s something which Our Lord
tells us not to do, and so I pray that through God’s grace I may live a life
which more closely imitates Jesus, and follows His commands. It reminds me of a
passage in the sermons of St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo and Doctor of the
Church: ‘“You all say, ‘The times are troubled, the times are hard, the times
are wretched.’ Live good lives and you will change the times. By living good
lives you will change the times and have nothing to grumble about.”’ (Sermo 311.8) It reminds us that the work
of the Gospel is at one level up to us, the Body of Christ, His Church.
In the Old Testament reading we see the prophet Elijah being
fed, we see God providing food which gives strength, strength for the journey.
It prefigures the Eucharist, the reason why we are here today, to be fed by
God. We can have the strength for our journey of faith, and the hope of eternal
life.
In the letter to the Ephesians we see that as children of
God, loved by God, we are to imitate him, after the pattern of Christ, who
offered himself, who was a sacrifice who has restored our relationship with
God. It is this sacrifice, the sacrifice of Calvary, which has restored our
relationship with God, which will be re=presented, made present here today,
that you can touch and taste, that you can know how much God loves you; that
you can be strengthened and given the hope of eternal life in Christ.
In this morning’s Gospel we see Jews complaining, ‘how can
he be from Heaven, from God, we know his Mum and Dad’. It is a difficult thing
to understand, especially before Jesus suffers and dies, and rises again. It
can be hard to understand who and what Jesus is. The Jews see him in purely
human terms, they cannot see beyond this, the Messiah whom they long for is in
their midst and they fail to recognise him. The notion of consuming human flesh
and blood is so abhorrent to Jews that it would represent something sinful and
polluting. Jesus’ answer is simple and challenging: stop complaining. We are to
accept, we are not to moan, to complain, but instead to trust him who is the
Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Jesus is the Bread of Life, the true nourishment of
our souls. It is through him that we can have life as Christians. He came down
from heaven and became incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary. He was
born as a human being, and in him our human flesh has been raised to eternal
life, to glory with God. Jesus speaks of the Eucharist, the sacrament of his
body and blood as providing us with eternal life, of opening the way to heaven.
So we come to be fed by God, to be fed with God, to have a pledge and foretaste
of the joy of heaven, of eternal life with God, to experience true love in the
source of love – the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We can have such a hope because Jesus gives himself, to suffer
and die, and rose again, for love of us. It is this life of love and sacrifice which
we are to imitate. Jesus gives himself to us for the life of the world – it is through
being fed by him that the world can truly live. It is in experiencing God’s self-giving love that
the world can find true meaning. Life in Christ is what true life means. Fed by
him, strengthened by him, to imitate him and live out lives of self-giving love.
We are fed with Christ’s body and blood not only as a foretaste
of heaven, of eternal life and joy with God, but so that we may be strengthened
for the journey – strengthened to live lives of faith, to live lives of self-giving
love, so that the world may believe. In Christ, fed by him, and following his example,
our lives have their true meaning when we live like him, nourished by his Body and
Blood. This is how we live out our faith in our lives, so that we can be an example
of Christian love and faith which attracts people and give glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just, all might, majesty,
glory dominion, and power, now and forever.
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