Loading...Sermon – August 16, 2015
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
Pentecost XII Proper 15, Track 2
…for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. John 6:55
Please be seated.
I cannot think about bread without remembering my mother’s father. Philip Monforte was born in Riposto, Sicily in 1903 and entered the United States illegally in 1925. He eventually settled in Fulton, New York, a town between Syracuse and Lake Ontario. There he rented land and farmed the muck – beautiful, black dirt. He grew red onions and lettuce.
He learned English, but always spoke with an accent and used some Italian phrases and slang. And he made wonderful, homemade Italian bread. Grandpa used King Arthur unbleached flour – 5 pounds of it. He used a cake of yeast. He poured out some salt in his hand and sprinkled that in. He took a small pan of water and added that. All of this was mixed in a round, porcelain-coated tub about 8 or 9 in the evening and covered to rise all night. He punched it down once before going to bed.
Because grandpa was a farmer, he went to bed in the early evening and was up by 4:30 or 5am. He’d take the dough and cut it into loaves, sometimes braiding it. He’d put these loaves on a cookie sheet to rise just a little longer. Then in the oven they’d go to bake. Many mornings I’d awake to that fabulous smell of fresh bread. Grandpa would have gone to the muck already, but the bread would still be warm and melt the butter I put on it.
Now maybe grandpa made the bread because he liked it best. I know I certainly liked it best, but I also believe he made it out of love for us. He knew we loved it and enjoyed it. It was a sign of his love for us to take that time and make this gift.
So what are we to make of all of these Sundays where Jesus says he is the bread of life and today where he says we must also drink his blood? In the Gospel of John, this is said over and over again.
Jean Vanier in his book, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John says that we not only need physical nourishment and intellectual nourishment, but also “nourishment of the heart.” (p. 116) What is this nourishment of heart that Jesus offers to us?
It is to love one another.
To love one another, we must give up some of the focus on ourselves and let in others. We must see ourselves and others as worthy of love and being loved. We must become vulnerable to one another, showing not only the beautiful parts of ourselves, but also those things about ourselves that we find difficult or may not even like. We must give up this notion of being perfect and being able to do everything ourselves. We must join and be in relationship with others.
Even on our best days, that is a tall order. For some of us, it’s easier to see what others did wrong. For some of us, it’s easier to hold on to our way as the only way. For some of us, it’s easier to believe we’re all wrong and no good. We are self-centered…centered on our individual selves.
Jean Vanier says, “We cannot move out from self-centredness to self-giving unless we receive a new force from God.” (p. 117) And it is in self-giving that we find life…abundant life.
Jesus says he is that force from God that will give us life. When we allow Jesus to live in us…to abide in us…When we know that Jesus is the bread of life and the drink of life…the sustenance of life. . .we can love one another. We become, in the words of Jean Vanier, “…more human, more compassionate, more open to others.” (p. 117)
And you know this. I know you know this, because every Sunday you show up at 9:30 in the morning. Oh, it’d be easier to sleep in. It’s discipline to get up and get moving and drive here. And sometimes the sermon is too long or boring and the music isn’t what you’d choose. But you show up, because you need heart nourishment. You find that heart nourishment in this body as we gather together and see each other and say the prayers and sing the hymns together.
And then comes a very moving part of the service for me. You come to this altar…every week you come to this altar. You need God. You need heart nourishment. You hold out your hands and look up to receive that wafer and hear the words, “The body of Christ, the bread of heaven.” Then you take the chalice, “The blood of Christ, the cup of salvation.” Every week.
The simple act and symbol of wafer and wine centers us. We confirm and remind ourselves that Jesus is in us…lives in us. We are not alone and we are loved and free to love others.
It is an amazing act of faith. It is an amazing act of love.
Amen
