Being Alive

We are currently in a series of lectionary readings from the Gospel of John that direct our attention, again and again, to the topic of bread. It’s making me hungry! The reading for today is the second in a series of three scripture readings that talks about Jesus as the bread of life. Some of us might be asking, “Didn’t we already cover that?” While others of us might find our curiosity piqued, wondering why the gospel writer keeps circling back to this.

And while our reading for today continues with the language about Jesus as the bread of life, it goes a step further and moves into language that is familiar to some of us from our Communion liturgy.  “Take.  Eat.  This is my body, broken for you.”  Those of us who are newer to Christianity might have an advantage here and be more able to perceive how shocking these words were to Jesus’ contemporaries.  Folks who gathered around Jesus, including his own disciples, balked when Jesus started talking about “eating his flesh” and “drinking his blood.”  And who can blame them?  At face value, it’s a fairly gory notion.

But in this passage Jesus says, “Unless you do this…you have no life in you.”  That’s the piece we’ll focus on in worship today.  What does Jesus mean when he says this?  Is Jesus talking about physical life?  Eternal life?  Or is there something else?  How do we reject or receive this “life” that Jesus offers?  Join us this morning, in person or via the livestream, to explore the life that Jesus offers and intends for us.