The Bread of Life in Marcus Garvey Park

 8/8

Ecclesia

It is my first time to be with the Ecclesia congregation since Covid...long before...maybe two years...This community of people...many people who are homeless....that gathers every Sunday in Marcus Garvey Park in the heart of Harlem. To share the word. And eucharist. And break bread with food prepared by various congregations.  Due to covid, our singing aloud is circumscribed. The consecrated hots will be placed in a napkin held by hands.  And only the celebrant will drink the cup. But nevertheless, we are here...The Delta variant is re-raising our caution and our anxiety.   Here are my reflections for this Sunday....

So what comes to mind when you think about bread? I was just visiting my family in Germany. They take bread very seriously there. It’s dark and thick and crunchy and has seeds …and..let’s just say it’s the polar opposite of Wonder Bread. I can close my eyes and remember the warm sweet smell of the bakery I would go to with my grandfather when I was little. I can remember watching the  machines at work preparing loaves of sliced bread.  I can remember the Irish soda breads I have made…the caraway seeds and raisins. And cornbread to go with chili or barbecue. Tortillas to make tacos or burritos or…Naan bread to go with curry…Italian bread to mop up tomato sauce or the fresh bread my relatives bake to wipe out the pots on apple butter weekend. Close your eyes …what do you smell?

And then of course, the paper thin wafer we share in the Eucharist…..

Bread is our most elemental and elementary of foods. The traditional prison meal was bread and water…Our word companion…and the Spanish word companero, both connote those whom we break bread with…the phrase “our daily bread” means all our personal essential needs…and the word has been used colloquially to refer to our money, our wages…

And that’s what we will be  doing at the end of our service today…sharing the eucharist, and a meal made for us by friends.

In our Gospel lesson this morning, Jesus is telling  us that he is the bread of life. The crowd, the good church people can’t seem to understand what this young man they have know all these years is capable of.  Isn’t this just Joe and Mary’s kid?  They can’t seem to accept that God can act in unexpected ways.

And that coming, seeing, believing, and being given to him are all related. 

Jesus also makes clear that it is God who draws people to him. It is a function of grace, not our will that brings us to him. It’s not about being deserving. We don’t choose God, God chooses us, There’s nothing we can do to earn it and nothing we can do to keep from being offered it…and we are drawn to Jesus, not coerced or forced…and God’s love is always resistible, always vulnerable to rejection…but it keeps on coming….

So Jesus tells us that he is the Bread of Life and asks us to eat that bread. What does that mean? Raymond Brown says simply to fully take another in, to fully accept them in the fullness of who they are. We are invited this morning to take in Jesus as he is. To accept him, To take his life into ours and receive that offer of acceptance and love.  This is the bread of life, meant for you. Let those who will come, come. 

Amen

After we have shared bread and cup and sandwiches, we spread out to share the leftovers with whoever we will find in the park...a light drizzle starts to fall as I head home...

John 6: 35, 41-51

35Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."

41Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." 42They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" 43Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves. 44No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48I am the bread of life. 49Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."