Pastor John Wright

The order in which we hear these passages make a big difference. Do the OT and Epistle readings lead to and "activate" the Gospel reading or is it the Gospel reading that elevates and enables and illuminates the OT and Epistle reading? Let me explain.

If one begins with the OT, moves into the Epistle, and then to the Eucharistic images of the Gospel of John, the Eucharist, Jesus present as bread to eat, becomes the result of the social reality of the human community that we produced through our obedience. Community becomes more basic than Christ's Eucharistic presence. Christ's presence in the sacrament is fundamentally memorial, not real -- or real because it's memorial. Christ is manifested in the church as the gather at the Table. This is a common way that people from radical Protestant groups such as Mennonites tend to live such readings.

While there is some truth to this understanding, this is a very dangerous for a congregation's practice of life together celebrated in Jesus as Bread. Such an understanding makes the Christ's presence in the Eucharist the result of the church as community as a type of incubation ritual. As the church, we make Christ present to the world. Works produce grace; humans make God. The Eucharist becomes something like rituals understood by an important French sociologist Emile Durkheim who argued that "rituals" provide the unifying projection of communities -- the church makes the Eucharist through its solidarity. It reduces the Eucharist to a sociological reality; if this sociological reality is not there, the Eucharist is not valid because it cannot symbolize the unity of the community.

But the church does not make the Eucharist; the Eucharist makes the Church. As Christians, grace comes before works, and works flow out of what the grace has already accomplished. The Eucharist represents the "already" as we live towards its full reality in the "not yet." Christ's presence in the Eucharist is real by the descent of the Spirit on the Bread and Cup in the Eucharistic prayer lead by the elder at the altar. As we participate in the One Body that is Christ's presence in the Bread, we then go out to live what we read in Deuteronomy and Ephesians -- now with no reason to not do so, because it is only by God's grace, not our merit or worth, that we have been made participatants in Christ's body.

This may sound esoteric, but it is important for us. By placing an emphasis on "community" as lived in the "Eucharist", we subtly shift the center of the faith to human relationships and demands that are made upon each other. Community becomes more central than Christ, as Christ's presence depends on community. Ironically, it makes community much more difficult to live out because we spend energy trying to keep everyone's demands met, rather than living for the presence of Christ among the poor in direct action. We can fragment because of disappointments of "lack of community" end up severing the community. In the culture of white middle class America, community bears psychological therapeutic weight for getting through "tough times" or for having me recognized for the gifts that I bring into a group of people. Community is forced to be its own end, and cannot bear the weight of the expectations.

The Good News is that the Church as a community is a a reality already formed in Christ's presence in the Eucharist. It is not formed for its own sake, but for the sake of Christ's presence found as we engage in the works of mercy in witness to the world. In other words, the social reality of the church as community happens, whether we actualize it or not, in the
Bread that is Jesus Christ is the Eucharist. The community is a necessity for us to engage in the witness as the church formed by the Eucharist in the world. Our center is Jesus Christ, sent from the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit, incarnate two thousand years ago in Palestine, and made really present among us by the Father's gift of the Spirit descending on the bread and the cup in the Eucharist, participated in by faith for those baptized.

I hope that this is not too confusing. I hope that it helps read the Scriptures. I will reverse the Scriptures here, starting with the Gospel. What was the purpose for the manna in the wilderness? What is that "manna" in Jesus' teaching? What is the relationship between Christ's incarnation and eating his flesh today? What is the result of eating Jesus as bread?

John 6:37-51

Start reading at the end: "I am the bread of life." Don't miss the Sacramental images or the images of feeding the hungry as a result.

Now go back and read the first part of the passage. Why did the Father send Jesus? What did the Father send Jesus as? For what end or purpose? What is objectionable about this? How does Jesus meet the objections?

Ephesians 4:(25-29)30-5:2

In our culture it is easy to read this as a list of rules -- which, in some way, they are. Yet it can be reduced as well to a certain type of "niceness". What is the role of truthfulness in the instructions? Why? Why should all work? What is "evil talk"?

If you notice, the passage presumes "bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice" is present, but needs to be "put away". Why is it to be put away (notice that it is about God in Christ to us, not for us). What is the most basic reality that provides the potential to live these instructions? What is the result of a congregation that might live this way? How would it handle disputes and conflicts?

Deuteronomy 8:1-10

Finally, what is the purpose of keeping the commandments? What must one remember? What is the role of remembering God's graciousness? What is the purpose of keeping these commandments? For us, what and where is the manna that is talked about in this passage after reading the Gospel passage.

Have a wonderful evening. If you want additional dialogue, let me know!