Come. Eat. Live.

It is late now in the week. As I sit at my desk and think about all the things that have been said and done in ministry, I cannot help but ponder a phase from the past… “It’s been a slice… no its been the whole oaf!” And it is at this moment that I have to admit that I like the heel off a loaf of home-baked bread. I like it with butter (yes, butter not margarine) spread evenly to the edges all the way around. There is nothing better on earth than that.

   

In a sense, this is the call that Jesus makes to each person, that would come to him and eat and live. The Gospel this week (John 6.51-58) continues the theme that Jesus is the living bread which has come down from heaven. Jesus offers himself to us so that we may partake of him and life the new life in him and with him. Many within the Church do not seem to recognize that the life Jesus offers does not begin when one dies, and we get to go off into a place of eternal bliss because we say we believe. The life that Jesus offers, begins in this moment. We live his incarnational life in this moment, moment by moment to make Jesus present and represent Jesus to the rest of the world.

The life that Jesus offers is an eternal life and therefore has a divine quality to it. Eternity and the things of eternity belong to God – this includes those who believe that Jesus is the Christ. And because they live this way, they take on the qualities of Jesus’ own life (of the Divine life in God) and these qualities become part of them. Such life brings those who trust and participate in Christ renewal and transformation so that they become the people that they were created to be by God…                                      

One of the ways in which we grow is by learning to be feed by God from the word and from the Table. Jesus is revealed to us in various ways – through water in Baptism, through hearing the word proclaimed, through bread and wine in the Eucharist or in oil applied for healing. Jesus is going to give to the life of his Church what is needed and necessary to be the Church in mission. The Church needs to be a fed and feeding people so that they and others with them can eat and live. Being fed enables us to continue in the journey, to be God’s people, his holy nation, and his priests in the world.

And if there is something that we all need to face, it is that without death, there is no food, no fruit, no life. The life of the Church must of necessity be like its Lord’s. It cannot be like the life of the world because we are meant to produce the fruit of the life of Christ through the Spirit. We are meant to live lives that are producing light in the darkness. The life of Christ makes a daily difference in us so that we can make a difference in the world day by day. How we live our lives in Christ directly affects how we live with each other and with the wider community. How we live in Christ and move in the Spirit has impact on how we witness and minister to those around us who are in need, in body, mind or estate.

Time is time to stop for a slice. I can smell the bread from the oven already. Come. Eat. Live.

Jason+