My body given for you my blood shed for you

 Based on a sermon preached 18th August 2024 

There are a number of reasons why I entered ordained ministry. But the most important probably is a sense of wanting to share communion. I can’t pinpoint when I sensed this, but I know that near the time I started the process of offering for ministry, I’d attended a communion service and seen the minister giving communion and felt this is something I wanted to do.

Now inevitably this begs the question “Why is it that only ministers can serve communion?” Or to be precise in the Methodist Church only presbyters. So why is it? It is a good question, and I cannot give you a definitive answer really. Though 2000 years of church history show that within a short time after Jesus’ death, the early church recognised that communion should be led by someone who had been ordained to that role.

The Methodist Church is no different in that sense. Our standing orders make clear that within Methodism there are two distinct types of ministries – Deacons and Presbyters. I am a presbyter, and a presbyter is “a person ordained to the ministry of word and sacrament”.

Communion is important to me both as a presbyter and as a person. Thanks to the plan, I lead a communion service nearly every week. And as such I take communion every week. John Wesley would approve. He celebrated communion at least once a week and if possible, every day. Though for me leading communion, celebrating communion is not the same as being given communion by another minister. That feels very special.

During my sabbatical it seemed to be that of the Sunday services we attended, in different places, everyone was a communion. We experienced a very simple service at Cirencester Baptist Church, and we experienced the full High Church Anglican communion complete with incense at Southwark Cathedral in London. And lots in between. All different but all special for me.

By the way, I tend to say “Communion.” It could be the Lord’s Supper. It could be Eucharist. It could be Mass. It is all the same in essence – setting aside the variations in liturgy depending on church tradition. I say “Communion” for it is a word suggesting a coming together, being in fellowship, a uniting. Communion with one another but most importantly with Jesus.

Today we’ve heard a reading from John’s Gospel. It comes at the end of chapter 6 and in a way the whole of chapter 6 is John’s take on the Last Supper. Unlike the other three Gospels John doesn’t specifically mention the Last Supper. But in this chapter, there are plenty of references to it and also to communion. For example, at the start of the chapter we have John’s account of the feeding of the five thousand. And John tells us:

¹¹ Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; John 6:11 NIV

Words that are reminiscent of the words in the Last Supper accounts. For example, in Luke 22

¹⁹ Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, Luke 22: 19 NIV

For much of the rest of chapter 6 John shows how Jesus then talks about him being the bread of life. Then in the passage we’re thinking about Jesus goes on to say this:

⁵³ So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; John 6: 53 - 54 NIV

It’s worth stopping there for a moment and reflecting on Jesus’ words., “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

We’ve heard these words many times. We know we are not literally eating Christ’s body and drinking his blood. The words are symbolic. They were a reminder to the earliest disciples and us that Jesus went to the cross for us. He gave up his body, his own flesh and shed his own blood, so that if we believe in him, we will have eternal life.

A few years ago, now one of the churches I looked after in Swindon had quite a number of small children. Grandchildren of church members. It was accepted that the children could come up for communion and receive bread and wine if their grandparents were happy with this. On one occasion a little boy – I’ll call him Stephen – came up with his grandma. It was the custom there for the congregation – maybe about 15 in all – to form a semi-circle at the front. I’d take the bread round and once we’d all received, we’d eat it. I gave Stephen the bread and he looked around, couldn’t see anyone eating and so I saw him put it in his pocket.

Afterwards a lady came to me (I'll call her Phyllis) and said it was disgusting what Stephen had done. He shouldn’t be allowed to receive communion as he clearly doesn’t know what’s going on. I said to her “Phyllis. Can you tell me what is going on in communion? I don’t mean the symbolism. What is really going on? The mysticism of it. I can’t.”

So what is going on? Firstly, we have communion to remember Jesus. In one of his 44 sermons The ways of obtaining God’s blessing – the means of grace John Wesley said communion, the Lord’s Supper, is a solemn remembrance.

The celebration of the Lord's supper is a way of commemorating his death in the presence of God and the angels, and mankind, by means of visible symbols. You show that you are solemnly remembering his death until he comes in the clouds of heaven.

But it is much more than that.

A few years ago, the Methodist Church produced small booklet called “The Methodist Catechism”. It contains a summary of what Methodists believe. Our theology. The booklet says:

In the Lord's Supper Jesus Christ is present with his worshipping people and gives himself to them as their Lord and saviour.

As they eat the bread and drink the wine, through the power of the Holy Spirit, they receive him by faith and with Thanksgiving. They give thanks with the whole Church for Christ’s sacrifice of himself once and for all on the cross.

The Lord's Supper recalls Christ’s Last Supper with the disciples. It proclaims Christ’s passion, death and resurrection, unites the participants with him so that they are a living sacrifice in him, and gives them a foretaste of his heavenly banquet.

So now you know! All that is going on when you receive bread and wine. No wonder Phyllis was for once lost for words when I challenged her!

But in fairness to Phyllis, she did sort of have a valid point. For John Wesley in that sermon I’ve mentioned says that when we come to the communion table we must:

“… firstly, ask ourselves whether we understand the purpose of this ritual, and whether we really want to share in the death of Jesus, before we join in breaking bread.”

Of course do we really understand what's going on? 

Wesley goes on to say that we need to remind ourselves that we are sinners. We aren’t worthy. That we are to die to sin and that also as followers of Christ we are called to take up our own crosses.

Nonetheless despite this Wesley says, we come to the table filled with joy and peace for we know that we are forgiven. And Wesley says.

“The Lord's supper is a way planned by God for us to receive his grace.”

Wesley continues:  The eating of that bread and the drinking of that cup are the outward and visible means by which God pours into our souls all the spiritual grace of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit which were purchased for us by the death of Jesus on the cross. So let all of us who truly desire the grace of God eat that bread and drink from that cup.

Communion, the Lord’s Supper, Eucharist, whatever we call it is also a reminder to us that Jesus says;

⁵⁶ Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. John 6:56 NIV

Through this bread and this wine, we are made one with Jesus.

More than that; eat the bread, and we live.

⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’ John 6: 58 NIV 

Eat this Bread and you will live, he promises. But even more than that, eat this Bread and I will abide with you, and you will abide with me Jesus says.

I like that word abide. Abide is an old-fashioned word but it is a comforting word. It suggests images of home, of dwelling, of staying with, of living in and with, of trusting and being there. To abide is to know that no matter what comes our way, we will not be deserted nor left to face whatever the matter is on our own. Christ comes to live within us, to take up residence in our spirits, and promises not to leave.

Whatever your intellectual, emotional, theological, or spiritual experiences with Holy Communion, I pray this sacrament will continue to be for you a holy, life-giving, mysterious magnet, drawing you ever closer to the love of God. God who sent his son that we might never be hungry nor thirsty; this day, tomorrow, and forever and ever.

 

Bread of life

 

Reflection 1^st August 2021

 

During 19^th century, missionaries started taking the Gospel into China. Initially there seemed to be a lot of success. Churches offered food as well as the Gospel and people were hungry for – food. Many were converted and baptised and joined the church. They remained active members if their physical needs were met through the generosity of others. But once their prospects improved and their families no longer needed rice, these so called “rice Christians” drifted away from church.

Of course, this isn’t just something seen in 19^th century China. It has been seen throughout church history. For example, I remember my grandmother telling me of when she was what we would call a teenager, during the First World War, the chapels in her South Wales village were full. (This was not long after the great Revival in Wales too.) But once the war was ended people drifted away. They had come to pray for family members but had no use for the church afterwards.

In the Bible passage we are thinking about today – John 6: 24 – 35 – we see the equivalent of rice Christians flocking to hear Jesus in the aftermath of his feeding the five thousand. They come to him for their own wants to be met. They had seen or heard about the miracle Jesus performed with the loaves and fishes, and rather than seeing it as a miracle, or sign pointing them to faith in the living God and God’s Son, they saw it as away of being fed.

‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. John 6:26

Jesus points out to them they have got it wrong:

²⁷ Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. John 6: 27

With the phrase “Food that spoils” Jesus is moving the discussion in a different direction. Jesus means the crowd must work towards a true faith rather than faith of convenience. Jesus is reminding those who are hearing him of the story of the Israelites in the wilderness. They received manna from heaven, but it did not keep fresh longer than a day. The manna did not “endure” but “spoiled” overnight.

There is a real danger for us in not seeking or expecting food that endures and instead looking for something that is for here and now or is just for our own needs and wants. We can think of the things of this world in that sense. So many people after all seem to try and satisfy their hunger by materialism or through drink or drug or sex. Mother Teresa in her book Life in the Spirit expressed it well:

 “The spiritual poverty of the Western world is much greater than the physical poverty of [Third World] people. You in the West have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness. They feel unwanted and unloved ... These people are not hungry in a physical sense, but they are in another way. They know they need something more than money, yet they don't know what it is. What they are missing really is a living relationship with God.”

However, there is that danger that even those of us who think of ourselves as Christians are not much more than “rice Christians”. If we only see being a Christian as being part of friendly club then do we really see Jesus as “the bread of life”? In terms of today we must be 7 day a week Christians rather than just Sunday Christians.

Bread for many cultures around the world is staple. It is an everyday thing. A basic food. Most of us may well have eaten bread sometime over the last week if not every day. And that is the point Jesus is making. He is that staple. He is someone we should be ingesting, consuming every day. Few of us have bread just once a week so why should be thinking of Jesus only on Sunday?

If you’ve ever been on holiday to France then chances are you will have visited a Boulangerie, a bakery. They are special places, for in small towns and villages certainly, the boulangerie is a key part of the community. And on occasions where we’ve come across a village in France where there is no boulangerie then there is something lacking. The French seem to treat bread with reverence, they do not take it for granted. And certainly, at most French meals bread is always present.

Jesus “the bread of life” should not be taken for granted. We should be seeking to include him in everything we do in our daily life. We should be praying with him, reading about him in the Bible, taking more of him in. Jesus the bread of life should be central to us. We should not be leaving him in our spiritual bread bins!

The truth being communicated by Jesus’ saying ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35 is difficult for us to understand and comprehend. And despite my exhortation in this Reflection to encourage you to “eat” the “bread of life” so that you won’t be spiritually hungry, it’s hard to really explain. But maybe that is the point.

We are so used nowadays to having an explanation for everything, that we aren’t comfortable with the not knowing. The 16^th century theologian John Calvin was once asked to explain the Eucharist (Communion.) He replied that he would rather experience it than understand it. And I think that is the point. To feed upon the truth of who Jesus is, to find spiritual sustenance in him, is better than trying to understand him.