So this week, as I was mulling about the gospel of John and Jesus, who is the bread of life, on one hand. And on the other hand … thinking about us…the church,…who, according to the letter to the Ephesians. are the body of Christ…I was struck by the words of St. Augustine. Augustine was a monk in Africa in the late 4th and early 5th century, who is considered one of the early church “fathers”, who shaped the theology of the growing church. Anyway, when Augustine lifted up the communion bread, the bread of life, each Sunday before his congregation, he would exhort them to …”Behold what you are…become what you receive: the body of Christ.” Some churches still use those words each Sunday. I rather like them.
But… what does it mean? We hear the expression so often …but what does it mean to say that we are the body of Christ?
We believe God became incarnate…flesh and blood and body and hands and feet and heart…in the person of Jesus. Jesus was the body of Christ in this world. And that body was subject to hunger and sweat and exhaustion. But that body was also at the mercy of the powers of this world – corruption, jealousy, betrayal, greed, and hate. And ultimately, that body was tortured and killed on a cross. In the body of Christ Jesus, God was willing to enter the world and risk all the awful things we do to one another…why? To love us. To redeem us. To save us from ourselves.
So…when Jesus offers his disciples…and us…the bread and says “this is my body”. Eat.
Jesus is reminding us that he the bread of life. He is saying, “Fill yourself with me.” And in filling ourselves with him — filling ourselves with his life and love and presence and forgiveness… he says that we now we become his body. We become God incarnate. We are now God in flesh and blood and hands and heart…in the midst of the world.
So what God’s really doing is totally upping the ante here…taking an even greater risk than before. Because in entering the world through us…God becomes subject to our weaknesses and failures. In proclaiming the church to be the body of Christ in the world…in using ordinary, weak and sinful people to incarnate God’s presence…God risks looking very foolish in the world, to say the least. Because we so often lose our way. The church, after all, has its own legacy of corruption, jealousy, betrayal, greed and hate…which has prompted more than one person to say they “think Jesus is alright…but wouldn’t want to share a room with the folks who follow him.” It is one thing to enter the world in Jesus’ as flesh and blood…but to use us seems to have been a deep mistake.
But, as inexplicable and foolish as it seems, it appears that this is the way God has chosen to be incarnate in the world. Through the church. Through us. Through people who sometimes drive each other a little mad, through people who have made a mess of their lives and others…but who seek to follow Jesus. Through you and through me.
God has chosen to come into the world through us. And though the church has lost its way, and still does, so often, It is through the church…pouring ourselves out for each other in acts of love,
It is through the church …mending broken fences…
it is through the church…using our differences, our different gifts, our different voices to touch the world with peace and hope and kindness….
it is through the church…that God loves the world. Redeems the world. Saves us from ourselves.
We are aware of the ugly legacy of the church — used as justification for slavery and cruelty, violence and abuse, misogyny and racism.
But the legacy of the church is also one of hospitals and schools. It is a legacy of soup kitchens and food pantries. It is a legacy of shelters and treatment centers. It is a legacy of care for refugees and immigrants. It is a legacy of abolitionists and civil rights advocates. It is a legacy of peace making. It is a legacy of well drilling. It is a legacy of forgiveness and reconciliation and welcome and compassion.
This is the church…filled with the bread of life, united with Christ…and with one another… this is the body of Christ, God incarnate in the world.
Every Sunday, as we receive communion, we receive the body of Christ. Christ’s very breath and blood flow through us. And together, we become the body of Christ. Behold what you are. Become what you receive.
Fredrick Beuchner put it this way — in the church “God was making a body for Christ… Christ didn’t have a regular body any more so God was making him one out of anybody he could find who looked as if he might just possibly do. He was using other people’s hands to be Christ’s hands and other people’s feet to be Christ’s feet, and when there was some place where Christ was needed in a hurry and needed bad, he put the finger on some maybe-not-all-that-innocent bystander and got him to go and be Christ in that place himself for lack of anybody better.”
Here’s the thing. I have a hard time with a lot of Christians…it’s true. Some who are judgmental or nasty or self-righteous …some who have hurt others deeply with their narrow vision and blind self-righteousness. But you know what? God still uses those not all that innocent bystanders to go and be Christ at times, for lack of anybody better. And here’s the truth — there are a lot of other Christians who have a hard time with me. And with you. But you know what? God still uses us…not all that innocent bystanders to go and be Christ too….for lack of anybody better.
We are not perfect children of God….we church people. But we are the ones God has chosen…God has called…to be Christ for the world. To love the world. To redeem the world. To save us from ourselves.
You are …WE ARE…all of us together are…the body of Christ in the world. Behold what you are. Christ’s body and blood, Christ’s life and love poured out for the world. Become what you will receive. Amen
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