Pentecost VIII, Cycle B
The Bread of Life--the One, True God
August 3, 2003
The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel
Lessons: Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15; Ephesians 4:1-16; St. John 6:24-35
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread
of life…for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives
life to the world."
In our book study on Monday nights, we
are looking both at the catholic epistles of the Bible, and the Catholicity of
the Reformation. Last Monday night, our
book chapter focused on "the Catholic Luther", suggesting that in
spite of how "protestant" many protestants would like to paint Martin
Luther, the fact is his desire for reform was not to make the Church of Jesus
Christ more Protestant, but, indeed, more truly catholic, with a small
"c"; catholic in the sense of
right, true orthodox teaching, that has been agreed upon everywhere, and by
all. In this discussion, the author of
this particular chapter, Lutheran professor, David Yeago, points out that
Luther's question may not have been, so much, "How can I find a gracious
God?", but "Where can I find the one, true God? How can I know the one, true God, as opposed
to other idols and false gods?" In
some sense, we might hear the two questions as not all that different, because
as Christians, we know God to be gracious, giving His only Son, to die on the
cross, for us and for our salvation. We
believe this God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to be the one true God. But you see how the two questions are not so
much the same, when you consider, most religions of the world, believe their
god is a gracious god. Those who
believe in, and worship Gaia, the earth goddess, believe Gaia to be a gracious
god. The corrupted, mistaken medieval Roman
church, which taught that you are saved by your works, rather than by faith in
Jesus Christ, believed that God had graciously given us this system of works
righteousness, through which we could save ourselves from eternal damnation. So, although the two questions, might not
seem all that different, there is an important distinction to be made. Luther's search was not, just for a gracious
god--but for the one, true God! Luther's
biblical, spiritual quest, was not just a seeking for a god who would love him,
and provide him with a means to receive good things--Luther wanted to find the
God who was truly God, and who was worthy of being worshiped, and who would,
who could, finally, lead Luther, and all Christians, to salvation, to heaven,
to eternal life! And in discovering the
one true God, or to put it more accurately, in receiving God's true revelation
of himself, Luther experienced, not a more protestant god--not a new, improved
god…Luther simply experienced, received, came to believe in God, as God had
revealed himself in Holy Scripture.
Luther simply experienced, received, came to believe in God, as the
right, true, orthodox Church had always believed in the one, true God.
And what is it about this God, that is
more than just God being gracious? What
is it about this God, that is different, distinctive, worthy of our
worship? It is that the one, true God,
became incarnate. It is that the one,
true God, did not remain, distant, detached, apart from His creation--but that,
in love, God entered into His creation;
God became flesh, to dwell among us, not to condemn us, but to save
us. That, Luther discovered, is where
the one, true God may be found, because it is where God, incarnates,
himself--in the Word, which was born as His Son, who died on the cross and was
raised from death, and who now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, may be found
in, what Luther came to call the "means of grace"…the Word, and the
Sacraments. And this, is not something
that Luther created--it is not a new, Lutheran, idea. It is, in fact, the truth, as revealed by God, and believed by
Christians, always and everywhere, from the beginning. That the one, true God, may be known, as the
God who incarnates, enfleshes himself, in word, and bread and wine. In other words, although God may be present,
spiritually, everywhere--his presence everywhere, we can't see, or touch, or
know, for certain. God may be in my
hospital room, or in my cubicle at work, or up on Pike's Peak. I may think I experience God in those places--but
can I ever know for sure? Is it God
warming my heart, or is it my bulky sweater?
Is it God pushing me to find a new job, or is it my desire for a bigger
salary? The one true God wants us to know Him, and to experience Him, so that
we may believe in Him--but how can we know, for sure, that it is the one true
God, and not some false god, some evil spirit, leading us astray?
So that we may know, for sure, the one
true God has located himself in definite, concrete places--in other words, He
has incarnated himself, in places where He may always, for sure, be found. And those places, for sure, are in His word,
written, read, and preached, and in the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. That's why God became flesh, in the first
place--that's what catholic Christians have always believed, and where catholic
Christians have always found God, and that's what Luther re-discovered at the
time of the Reformation. That, in spite
of where we may want God to be; in
spite of where we may think God may be found,
the one true God may always, and certainly be found, in the Word, and in
the Sacrament of the Altar. And just as
the Scriptures talk in many places about Jesus being, the Word of God, become
flesh to dwell among us, full of grace and truth--the Scriptures talk, in many
places, about the one, true God, incarnating himself, in bread and wine. There are the passages in Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and Corinthians where we hear how Jesus "took bread, gave thanks, and
gave it to his disciples, saying, 'this is my body'. " And there are the passages in the Gospel of
John, where Jesus speaks, repeatedly, through signs, and wonders, proclaiming
to the Church that He is the bread of life, the bread of God who has come down
from heaven, to give life to the world.
We saw, last week, how Jesus, through the feeding of the five thousand
on the mountainside, communicated to his followers, that he was demonstrating,
not how fish and loaves could feed the multitudes, but how He, himself, would
become bread for the world. This week,
as we continue our reading of John 6, He continues to teach us, saying, this is
not about loaves and fish, nor is it about food that perishes. What Jesus is showing us is about the food
that endures for eternal life. And that
food, is God, incarnate in Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life. That food is, God, in Jesus, in the bread
and wine of His holy supper. And why
does God need to incarnate himself in this way? Why does Jesus need to enflesh himself in bread and wine, that
become His very body and blood? Why is
God's presence in the Word, not enough?
Luther explains our need to literally eat and drink Jesus' presence, by
comparing the Word, preached in a sermon, with the Sacrament of the Altar. In an essay based on three sermons preached
to the Wittenberg congregation in the Easter season, 1526, Luther says,
"When I preach the Word in a sermon, for example, it is a public act
within the congregation, in which I am addressing myself to no one
individually; whoever grasps it, grasps
it. But when I distribute the sacrament
of the altar, I designate it for the individual who is receiving it; I give him Christ's body and blood, that he
may have forgiveness of sins, obtained through Christ's death and preached in
the congregation. This is something
more than the congregational sermon;
for although the same thing is present in the sermon as in the
sacrament, here there is the advantage that it is directed at definite
individuals. In the sermon one does not
point out or indicate any particular person, but in the sacrament it is given
to you and to me in particular…for when I say:
"This is the body, given for you;
this is the blood, poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins",
I am there proclaiming and announcing his death and resurrection, not publicly in the congregation…it is
directed at you, alone."
This is why God incarnates himself in
Jesus, and why Jesus, the Word of God, incarnates himself in the bread and wine
of the Lord's Supper, to become the bread of life, come down from heaven…FOR
YOU…TO GIVE LIFE TO THE WORLD…AND TO YOU!" God wants us to come to Him, and to believe in Him, and we can
do so, by receiving Him, experiencing Him, as the one, true God, who makes
Himself available to us, not just in words, that may or may not be grasped,
cognitively, intellectually--but in the
Word, made flesh, in bread and wine, that become the very presence of
Jesus, who is Emmanuel--God with us.
God wants us to come to Him, and to believe in Him, and He enables us to
do so, by coming to us; by coming down
from heaven to be, for us, the bread of life;
the bread that gives life; the
food that endures for eternal life. And
just as we say, "Sir, give us this bread always!" God gives us Himself, always, in and through
Jesus, the bread of life; Jesus, who,
as He stands at the table, promises, "This is my body; this is my blood."
This is where the one, true God may be
found--in Jesus, who is, the bread of life;
in Jesus, whose body was broken, whose blood was poured out, for you…for
the forgiveness of sins, for life, and
eternal life. In Jesus, who is present
for us, every Sunday--every Sunday we come to receive Him, as the bread of
life, every Sunday we come to receive, the one, true God, in the flesh.
In the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.