Chew

Chew

Rev. Karla Jean Miller   August 19, 2012    Proper 15B

I had a friend, once, who hated to eat. 

Seriously.  

It wasn’t that he had issues with food, or suffered from any disorders, like anorexia or bulemia (which are horrible and destructive and wrenching).

He just didn’t care about food, and wished that all we needed for sustenance was just to take a pill that had all the nutrients and vitamins and protein and whatever else to keep his body fueled.   

Seriously.   

I marveled at him, and in a way, felt sorry for him.   

I think eating is one of the loveliest pleasures in life!

I don’t think I have ever had a bad feeling for any kind of carbohydrate; and I am willing to eat pretty much any exotic vegetable or fruit, or cuisine (as long as it is vegetarian.)  However, I have been known to relish even not so healthy food, McDonald’s cheeseburger and fries.  (Everything in moderation, right?)

Before I go on, I feel like I need to make a statement.  The context of my words are from the perspective of a middle class middle aged American woman, where going to the grocery store to pick out whatever I want to eat is my normal; abundance and choice are my normal;  being overweight and wanting to be healthier is my normal.  And in my normal world, I am aware of the first world problems of eating disorders, and early onset of dangerous diseases such as diabetes, and heart disease in a land where many of the citizens are overweight.  I am also aware of the problems of not enough to eat in developing countries, and even in our own country, where there is more than enough to go around, but the distribution of healthy, nutritious food is sinfully a normal for too many.   All I am saying, is that relationships with food, or the lack thereof, can be complicated and serious. I suppose, however, that when Jesus says, I am the Bread of Life, well, that is complicated and serious, too.   

What about you? 

What do you like to eat most--I am curious!

What is your favorite comfort food? 

What is your go-to-recipe? 

Do you like to cook? 

Don’t you think that a tomato fresh from the garden is the closest thing to heaven you will ever taste here on earth?

Think of all the food metaphors we use to  describe our feelings and actions.  Think of what we call each other:   Sweetie, honey, cupcake, peanut, sugar, dumpling, bad apple, couch potato, cornball, fruitcake....

And then, how many times have you ever said, 

“Oh I could just eat you up, you are so sweet!”  to express delight, or “let me chew on this for awhile” to express the need to think, to ponder, digest (that’s another one!) or problem-solve.

This is where our text is headed today--in fact, Kurt Walker, a former seminarian here at Eliot and now pastor in Indiana remarked that he would entitle the reading for today as either:  “Jesus: He’s good enough to eat”  or, “Jesus: He’s what’s for breakfast!”.  

 “I am the Living Bread of Life!”  Jesus proclaims.  To our ears, it does sound like a catchy phrase for breakfast cereal.  100% of your daily requirement of ethical vitamins and moral minerals.  Eat Jesus, and you are set for life eternal!  

And if Jesus would have stopped there, it probably would have sounded like that to the first century hearers of these words.  But Jesus never stops “there”--you know, that place where it’s all easy. Nope, Jesus goes on, making his teaching dense, layered, confusing, and challenging, even offensive.   

You see, when Jesus goes on to say, you must eat of the bread of Me for eternal life, those that heard it, were offended.    In many quarters of the Mediterranean world, the identification of the Divine with flesh would have seemed outlandish and offensive.  This physical world is impure and corrupt, and no self-respecting god should have anything to do with it.  This was a common view in Greek philosophy, and came to be the view of certain Christians--the "gnostics.”

So, the Judeans argue about this concept, and Jesus continues to emphasize his confusing point, by making all the more offensive.  Listen to this translation:  

 "Truly, truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the son of humanity, and drink the blood of him, you do not have life in yourselves.  The one chewing my flesh and drinking my blood has life eternal and I will raise that one up at the last day, for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”  

YEWWWW!

Eating flesh was forbidden.  It was associated with vultures (Ez 39:17) and evildoers (Zech 11:9).  Drinking blood was equally offensive.  "You shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood," said Genesis (9:4).  "You shall not eat...any blood," said Leviticus (3:17).  "You shall not eat flesh and drink blood," said Ezekiel (39:17).

Well, I would say that it is just as offensive to hear this today, wouldn’t you? If you were in church for the first time ever, today, and heard this passage that sounds like Christian Cannibalism, wouldn’t you run for the door?  

(I kind of want to, myself!)

So, what is Jesus getting at?   Most scholars say that in the Johannine Community, that this text is clearly about the meaning of Eucharist, of communion.   And that Jesus was trying to make a point that his message, his presence in us and with us is real. Solid. You can feel it. Touch it. Taste it. Substantive.  Chew on it. 

So, I have been thinking, what does it mean for us, to chew on Jesus? 

Or to chew on the presence of God in our life? 

To chew on where we are with God? 

Where is the glorious, challenging taste of God in your life?

How do you savor the Holy?   How are you strengthened by eating the Bread of Life? 

This week, I made a huge mistake.   You see, I had bought a GroupOn pass to a yoga studio earlier this summer.   GroupOn is a website that sends you daily offers from local businesses that you can buy. Usually at least up to a 50%  savings--so for $25 I got 5 yoga classes, worth $75!   The pass expires in September, so I thought I better go ahead and use it.  

So, on Thursday, I caught a class before my evening meeting.   I walked in, signed up, and then went into the studio, which was HEATED, people. I didn’t read the fine print, and kind of yoga I signed up for was hot yoga, where the studio is heated to 100 degrees.  Holy cow, friends--it was crazy.  I was grateful when the young, handsome instructor decided to start the 75 minute class with a meditation instead of downward dog!  

He asked us, 

“What if we thought who we are was enough?  That what you are doing right now is enough?  However you do it?  What if we stopped pushing ourselves to be better, or stopped having regrets about what we did or didn’t do, how we performed, what if we just allowed that who we are and what we offer is enough.”

I realized, as I was sweating buckets and buckets (just sitting there, mind you)  I don’t spend enough time giving myself the food of introspection like that.  In those hot, uncomfortable stifling moments, I found myself chewing on his words, words that I imagined the divine speaking to me. It was gift, and a point of growth.    I am enough!

This week, at the Film Festival, we watched “The Apostle” starring Robert Duvall.   The main character, Sonny, is a womanizing itinerant evangelist.  He is a complicated, sinful character that you can’t help but question and love at the same time.   Out of all of his foibles, one thing is real--the way that he chews on his faith, yelling and screaming at God one moment, preaching in the next, and helping a family in need in the next.   

I love Sonny.

His faith is his bread...he chews on the Holy, and spends a lot of time talking to God, wrestling with God, loving God. God is not an ephemeral fleeting idea to Sonny, but rather a real and substantive presence that feeds his life, and who he is.  And Sonny knows that he is enough, cracks and all. 

Now, you and I aren’t pentecostal evangelists. We aren’t holy rollers, we aren’t even southern Methodists!  Most of us probably don’t spend hours praying and shouting  to God in the middle of the night, or asking God is we should take a left turn or right turn.  

But we are Christians, whatever that means in post Christian world.  For some reason, we find sustenance in the Bread of Life.  How do you grow into this,  in your daily life?  What difference does it make? 

How do YOU eat and drink the living God, 

How do you chew on this Bread, 

of Life? 

Amen.