John 6: 35, 41-51; Ephesians 4:25-5: 2           Give and Take          August 10, 2003

I love bread. My adult life has been a quest to make a loaf of bread exactly like the one's rolled out by the millions every morning in Spain. I have never succeeded in that quest but I do make bread that is good enough to eat. It does take some effort to make bread and you have to set aside time and space to do it. There is also requires a good state of mind. You shouldn't be in a hurry. You shouldn't try to bake bread and do something else at the same time. You should want to be giving yourself to the baking of the bread.  There is give and take in making bread as in most things. You give your effort and time and thought to it and you take joy and nourishment from it. Pretty simple arrangement.

I am not surprised that bread has become such a powerful part of the Christian story and experience. Bread is common stuff. It is also sustaining. As food it is essential to life. Jesus chose the simple common elements of bread and wine to express something however that is not quite so simple. The last sentence of the gospel reading for today was controversial even then. Early on Christianity was accused of eating the flesh of babies by those who wanted to discourage the movement and also by those who were just plain ignorant and liked a little scandal to lessen the boredom of their lives. Some things never change I guess. When Jesus said that his own flesh was the bread that, once eaten, would provide eternal life, he was not suggesting cannibalism as holy practice. He was using an extraordinary metaphor to help people understand the profound mystery of the indwelling of God in the human heart. The metaphor is extraordinary I think because of the simplicity of images used, bread and wine, and the complexity of the reality expressed, the presence of the living Christ, the mystery of his sacrifice, incarnate love, and eternal life. Simple and complex, tangible and intangible, visible and invisible. But even more than that, bread is not just a word or an idea, it is something one can do something with, something one can eat. Take and eat. As such it transcends knowledge and becomes experience. It is not about life anymore but is life itself. It is not just an idea but an action. And in the context of the story and the community of Christ gathered around the table, it is not only an action but an act of faith.

The bread on our table is not flesh neither is it bread. It is the life of Christ that we take. It is our own life that we give.

We live in a broken world. When the bread is broken we know what that means even if we couldn't say it or even if we all said it with different details. One of us might be thinking of God's own heart being broken while another may be thinking of the actual suffering of Jesus broken by the blows and the nails. Another might remember the brokenness of a world where such things can happen, where people harm one another, do despicable acts of terror and violence to others. When the bread is broken we know that it is more than Jesus who is broken, it is the broken world, our own broken hearts, our own failure to be faithful, to love enough, to do no harm. We know that it is for us that he is broken, the bread is broken for us. We take the bread in pieces to eat and we take the brokenness into ourselves, the sacrifice, the suffering of love, the redemptive life of God in order to live redemptively in a broken world holding the pieces together with our own lives. There will be no peace without sacrificing self-interest. There can be no love without sacrificing the fear of losing all that we love. To take life we must also give life. It is the reverse of common wisdom which is expressed very well by Lucy in yet another explanation of how things really are aimed at Charlie Brown. Sooner or later, Charlie Brown, there's one thing you're going to have to learn . . .You reap what you sow! You get out of life exactly what you put into it! No more and no less! Snoopy, overhearing this speaks for all of us when it is revealed what he is thinking: I'd kind of like to see a little more margin for error!  The good news is that there is a margin of error and it is as wide as the grace of God. We do not give so that we can take. We take so that we can give. It is like breathing in and breathing out. It is not possible to do one without the other and live. And one other thing, there is nothing exact about it.

We may think that who we are decides what we will do but maybe what we do decides who we are. The beauty and power of the bread in this holy meal is that it is something we can do and something that we cannot do, something we take, something we give, the breath of life, it is an entrance into the mystery, a stepping into eternity, a break in time, beyond the rational explanation, an organic connection with the divine, as common as the bread, as holy as the breath of God. Expressed here in this real time and this real place is the mystery of every time and every place, the mystery of the human heart and of God's grace.  

Life is full of connections I think. Every action carries with it some consequence. Some will be significant and others not but there is no escaping the fact that in the give and take of life things happen, heroic things and tragic things, many things. One cannot expect to cause harm and avoid being harmed. No act of kindness or mercy is insignificant no matter how small. As recounted in 2 Samuel, King David's adultery resulted in the death of Uriah and the birth of Absalon who would later die tragically in battle against David. In this case there are no real surprises. Violence begets violence. When will we ever learn? Such things do happen. People get hurt every day in countless ways. Human life is complicated and very often sad. One thing leads to another for good and for ill. The tears of David are well earned. One can only imagine the tears of Bathsheba. As the words of the Psalmist remind us If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

Yet our brokenness is not the end of the story. Brokenness cries out for redemption, for healing. This is what is offered, given, in fact, if only we will take it. Take from God's grace freely given and give your heart, your broken heart, to God. Our deeds may define us but it is God's grace that saves us, that takes what we have made of ourselves and gives us back what God made us to  be, that takes all our broken pieces and makes us whole.

When Jesus claimed to be the bread from heaven there were some who complained about his audacity. There were others who believed him. Little has changed really in this regard. How are we to know what or who to believe? How are we to know when and what to give and when and what to take? And the answer is we cannot know until we act on what we do not know but hope for and claim in faith. We cannot know forgiveness and healing are abundantly present in the bread and wine and in the imagination and faith of those who believe in the God of grace until we are forgiven and healed ourselves, until we believe the God of grace ourselves, until we give ourselves in taking what God offers to us. Give and take, breathe in and breathe out, live in Christ and let Christ live in you. This is the bread of life. Take and eat. Amen.