Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. [BCP p. 219]
Who doesn’t get hungry? I am always hungry. As I approach the end of breakfast, it isn’t unusual for me to ask my life-partner, “What’s for dinner?” I do that after every meal. I wonder what I’m eating next. Half the time, I’ll do my wondering while nibbling on a small handful of cashews to hold me between meals, or chocolate covered raisins. Hey, sometimes I need something sweet; other times, I want something savory. I like to keep my options open.
Jesus says, of course, “One does not live by bread alone.” We heard that at the beginning of Lent.
Who doesn’t get hungry? My problems are first-world problems. Where ninety percent of the world is food-insecure, I ramble around the house wondering what to snack on next. Seldom are celery or carrots on the list of things to consider. Most of the time, I’m not really hungry when I nibble or eat, but am bored, instead. How sad!
Yes, a decadent Devil's Food cake with chocolate frosting - during Lent? Only on Sundays :-)
Did Jesus nibble between meals? If he was human like us (as the Bible affirms), I’m sure he did; he was a guy. I’m sorry, but I believe snacking and nibbling are guy things. One of my favorite stories in the Gospels is the story of Jesus getting razzed by local do-gooders for allowing his disciples to snack on grains while walking past or through a field. It wasn’t their snacking that irritated the holy molies. It was that they did so on the Sabbath.
Rules may seem silly to most of us. Oh, we don’t mind the big ones, like the rules against murder, stealing, and lying. A day of rest is important, too, although most of us aren’t sticklers about it. I grew up when Blue Laws were still on the books in the 50s and 60s, but one by one they dropped away like day old smelt. I admit it doesn’t bother me to run into the store on a Saturday or Sunday when I need something. Life that’s off and running 24/7 is the norm, and that’s sad. Being retired, I find one day merges into the next so easily I’m barely aware the weekend is arriving and, before you know it, it has swooshed off and become just another day.
Who doesn’t get hungry? Our collect acknowledges the reality that we DO get hungry. We hunger for things more substantial than bread or meat. We hunger for company and companionship. We hunger for friends and friendships. We hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice. As we begin our prayer, we find ourselves acknowledging that Jesus has come, not just to feed us, but to BE true bread for us who hunger, and to BE our life-giver – and not for us only (lest we be selfish) but for the whole world.
“... life to the world.” That’s what it says. That’s what we pray. That is our intention, if we’re paying attention.
We pray this because we know we get hungry, and nothing we do lasts forever; nothing we do truly satisfies; nothing we do keeps us energized and empowered like Jesus does. And really, isn’t that what we want for the world, too? An opportunity to know this Bread that truly satisfies?
Every now and then I look at old sermons, meditations, and columns I have written over the years, and although I enjoy perusing them, they are a time-capsule of sorts. They fit a variety of needs at the time (and I strove to keep them entertaining and find they are still readable, for the most part), but if I were to recycle them, they would be a bit more stale, a bit less enlightening, a bit less entertaining. That’s OK. I don’t mind. That is the way of all flesh.
But when I read the scriptures, and especially the Gospels, I never tire of reading them, marking them, learning what they are saying today (for they never seem to age), and inwardly digesting them (as another collect in another place phrases it). Jesus continues to feed me (and us) in both word and sacrament.
That moves us to our petition, asking God to “Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him.”
What does that look like? Well, just as bread enters the body and is broken down with nutrients going where they need to go, so Jesus enters into us continually. We receive Jesus sacramentally, of course, when we gather for Holy Communion, Holy Eucharist, the Mass, or the Lord’s Supper. We also receive Jesus as we read scripture. We receive Jesus when we gather with fellow travelers and discover how our hearts burn within us as we speak, listen, care, and share with one another. We receive Jesus when we see him with our eyes, hear him with our ears, smell his fragrance in the world around us. We receive Jesus when he touches us through the loving care of another person, or within a community of the beloved, which includes people far beyond our own circles of faith.
I think Lent invites us to be more intentional about this part of our journey. As a friend recently said, the first half of Lent focuses on turning away from those habits or practices that remove us from the love of God, neighbor, and self, while the second half of Lent shifts eyes forward to seeing the ultimate sacrifice of love made on our behalf, and inviting us to join Jesus as he makes his way to Jerusalem, the Cross, and beyond to the day of Resurrection.
A life broken for us; blood shed for us; healing and life given to us. He is Bread for this purpose. May we be, too.
Amen
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