August 9 Proper 14
My Grandmother Payne wasn’t anything like the spirited and demonstrative German relatives of my mother’s family. She was a soft spoken, frail woman who was not very sociable and seldom left home. She was not a member of the neighborhood coffee klatch. She spent her time keeping the large frame Victorian home in which she and my grandfather had reared 11 children. She baked sugar cookies and kept her fridge stocked with Dr. Peppers for her grandchildren.
One morning while I was raiding the cookie jar, there was a light rap at the back door. Company? I wondered. My grandmother answered it, but she returned alone to the kitchen. The smell of fresh baked bread filled the room. She cut a slice, buttered it, and offered it to me. Ummm! Delicious!
From the expression on her face, I knew that something more than a simple loaf of bread had been shared. A sweet smile crept across her face, her eyes twinkled and she had the look we get as we ponder something important.
A neighbor’s rap at the door and offering of home baked bread was a symbol of the love of one neighbor for another, just because they were neighbors. By offering her own bread, Mrs. Young, the neighbor, chose the same medium Jesus chose to express the love and the deep bond we share.
Bread is still baked in some homes today. We have some talented bakers around town, but most of our bread is baked, packaged, and “store bought,” like our communion wafers. Never mind, we still know fresh baked bread it imitates.
When Jesus traveled the streets of Nazareth as a child, and later as=2 0he traveled from town to town in Galilee, the air was filled with the aroma of baking bread wafting from every oven in the village. Bread was the staple of life in a culture with few resources.
Fresh baked bread fed and nourished people. Bread was broken as families gathered for meals, sometimes with neighbors and strangers who were always welcomed. Meals brought people together.
Jesus chose bread as a symbol of life and love, his and ours, because bread was the staple of sustenance. Good language for the Christian life fed and meant for us by Christ is bread: delicious, nourishing, simple, and hearty.
I am the bread of life, Jesus said. In me you will be fed, you will know love, and you will be filled with everything you need to live as I live. Jesus offers this bread with all it represnts in the Holy Eucharist.
Communion bread is sustenance for the journey of life, whether today’s journey for you is a journey of the heart, a journey in the wilderness of life’s questions and challenges, or the journey of another ordinary day. The early journey of children is a journey of the heart along with their curiosity, delight and sometimes frustration. Because their hearts are so open, children have a special knowledge of Jesus and the bread of Eucharist. Young children live quite naturally in both the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit. They are just learning to articulate what they experience, but when you bring young children to Eucharist, you find that they are innately aware of the connection between Jesus and the bread of Eucharist.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is the Christian Formation program we use to help children connect their heart knowledge and head knowledge – learning to express what they know of God through Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
One of my favorite Catechesis stories comes from the parish where I did my field education during seminary. The mother of four year old Katie shared it with me one Sunday morning. Katie was ready for church before the rest of her family. Her mother heard her playing in the living room and went to see
what she was doing. Just as she entered the room, Katie held a plate up before her, just as she had seen her priest do during the communion prayer, and she said, “There is plenty for everyone.”
This is just one example of the way in which children innately understand Jesus — not only that Jesus feeds us at that moment of receiving, but that Jesus includes everyone in his life and the feast of life. The love implicit in Jesus’ offering is not simply an idea of love or a mysterious concept to children. Love is the longing and actions of giving and receiving, including and being included – there is enough for everyone – for me and my family, for my friends and for strangers, too. Jesus said, Unless we become like children we will not see the kingdom of God.
There are many experiences and articulations of what Eucharist is and what communion with Jesus means to different people. The expressions Jesus used of himself in the gospel according to John are some of the ways we might describe our relationship with Jesus.
Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd.” Day by day, I am with you, guiding you who follow me, forgiving and searching for you when you go astray. “I am the gate” or the door. Knock and I will answer. Ask and you will receive what you need. “I am the true vine.” I am the deep taproot and sturdy stalk from which you grow. I am giving you nourishment. I have taught and continue to teach you what you need to know, and I prune away your dead and diseased ideas and actions.
“I am the bread of life.” Jesus is the bread, broken and shared, with each of us as we give thanks and break bread together here, in our homes, at gatherings with friends, family reunions, and celebrations, or in the offerings of food in times of loss and grief. I am with you, Jesus says, not only to sustain you but to give you vitality.
Jesus is the resurrection and the life, the new life – new life that can be ours in every encounter and in every gain and loss. Christianity is meant to be a simple, nourishing, delicious, and hearty life offered freely to each and every one of us and there is plenty of bread for everyone to share. Amen.