Sustenance

This morning we gather to participate in a special celebration of the church, the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Of course, the lectionary planners, those who suggest what scriptures we might use for each Sunday, had no idea that we would celebrate the Sacrament on this particular Sunday, although many churches now do so every Sunday. But I find an interesting contrast between the scriptures we heard this morning and our celebration of the sacrament.

Isaiah (55:1-5) expresses God's astonishment at the way we live our lives. Why do we spend our money for that which is not bread and our labor for that which does not satisfy? Why do we waste our precious time and resources on empty and meaningless activities? Why do our priorities tend to focus on things that are fleeting and shallow? More to the point, why do we spend so much of our time looking for meaning and satisfaction with activities that have little or nothing to do with God?

God says, through Isaiah (55:3), "...come to me...so that you may live." God offers wine and milk without money and without price. God offers an abundance of sustenance and satisfaction. Yet we ignore God's invitation and seek to fill our lives with activities designed to entertain and to occupy our time.

"Listen carefully to me," God says (55:2), "and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food."

The story we heard from Matthew (14:13-21) presents a similar conclusion. Jesus withdraws from the people when he hears about John's death. But the people follow him, because they hunger for what he gives them. And, in this story, what he gives them is healing and food.

The disciples suggest that Jesus send the people away, for it is late in the day, and they do not have enough food to feed all these people. When Jesus suggests that they should feed them, they protest (14:17). "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish."

But Jesus gives thanks for what they have and blesses it and it turns out to be more than enough for everyone to be satisfied, with baskets full of the leftovers.

Two stories which talk about an abundance of good food. Two stories which talk about eating good food until we are satisfied. Yet, this morning, the meal we offer is a morsel of bread and a sip of juice. What kind of satisfaction does that offer?

After we have shared this "meal," we will all go home or go out and get some "real" food, right? We may go to McDonalds and even say, "Supersize me!" Because this meal we eat here together will not satisfy our hunger.

The language of Isaiah is all about food. Yet, it is not the physical sustenance that food offers that God is addressing. Jesus provides a meal that satisfies the hunger of thousands of people, yet that story is not primarily about the satisfaction of physical hunger.

The sacrament we celebrate this morning does not intend to satisfy our physical hunger. In fact, if it accomplishes its true intent, this "meal" will leave you hungry for more. "O taste and see that the Lord is good," says the Psalmist (Psalm 34:8); "happy are those who take refuge in [God]."

I have come to the conclusion that it is possible to enjoy life without any awareness of or interest in God. It is possible to be healthy and happy and even to know a reasonable level of satisfaction with life without any sense of God's presence in your life. When we suggest otherwise, as we often do in the church, I think we set ourselves up for failure to understand why people should be interested in what we do.

We often suggest that life is empty and meaningless apart from God. We like to assume that people who do not take advantage of what we offer in the church cannot possibly find life meaningful and satisfying. The truth is, many people who forsake what the church offers experience just as rewarding a life as we do who participate in the life of the church.

The question is, then, what do we gain by our participation? What do we gain by this meal we share this morning? What is the point of being involved in the activities we share together if life can be good apart from all of this?

When God created the world, God looked upon the work of creation and declared it good. Life in this world is filled with goodness and possibility and hope and joy. And it is the most natural thing in the world to enjoy this good life whether or not we acknowledge the God who has made it possible.

Where faith makes the difference in this life is not when life is going well. Where faith makes the difference is when life takes a turn toward the negative. How will we cope with a sudden illness that threatens to take away our life or the life of someone we love? How do we respond to the hatred that some people freely express about others? How will we choose to live if we discover that our current lifestyle is undermining the very future existence of the world as a good place to live?

We do not need faith to experience a happy life. We do not even need faith to experience a meaningful or satisfying life. But we do need faith to respond to the troubled side of life, because faith can sustain us and lift us and help us to make our way back to life's goodness once again.

It is no accident that the meal - this light snack - which we share this morning, is no great feast. It is not intended to celebrate the abundance of food. It is intended to remind us of life's troubling side, and it is intended to offer us sustenance which will enable us to endure and overcome the negative experiences of life.

The bread which we break together is the broken body of Christ. It is in his brokenness that Jesus brings us life. It is by his willingness to sacrifice even his life for the sake of love that he overcomes the evil that nails him to the cross. As we eat that morsel of bread, we are united as one in his body, and we are invited to offer up our own lives to a ministry of love.

The cup which we share contains the life-blood, the very life, of Jesus, which was spilled precisely because of his willingness to freely forgive sinners. Jesus generously forgave all who came to him, often before they even knew they needed forgiveness. Grace, for Jesus, was not something offered in response to repentance. Grace was something Jesus offered in order to inspire repentance.

But the religious authorities of his day, those who considered that they held the authority of God to hold the sins of the people against them and who enjoyed holding such power over the people, found this generous grace of Jesus a threat to their power. And so they crucified him.

When we drink that little sip of juice this morning, we are recalling the death of Jesus for the sake of grace, and we are symbolically drinking the life of Jesus into our own lives so that we might become as gracious with others as he has been with us.

The sacrament we celebrate this morning is a reminder that it is by the grace of God and by God's love alone that we can not only survive the dark side of life, but even overcome it. This meal offers what nothing else in this life can provide - a God- given sustenance which empowers us to celebrate life in all its goodness and through all its trials.

Thanks be to God. Amen.