I’m off on more adventures this week! I am delighted to be worshipping with the people of St Mary’s, Great Bedwyn in the Savernake Team.

It is August, the middle of Ordinary Time (God is with us all the time) and the lectionary invites us to spend quite a few weeks dwelling upon what it means for Jesus to be the ‘Bread of Heaven’. I recall previous Augusts where I have snuck into church the night before and planted a bread-maker primed and timed so that the congregation could smell freshly baking bread as I preached, and then shared it over communion. I also recall the not-to-be-repeated time I brought a toaster into a tiny rural church whose electrics weren’t quite up to the task and blew all the fuses – including the organ! I may bring a less dramatic visual aid with me to St Mary’s especially as it’s my first visit!

Today John introduces us to the the Jews who are scratching their heads in confusion at Jesus’ claim to be the bread of life;

I 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.

John 6:51

Note these aren’t the Pharisees or Sadducees trying to stir up trouble, simply ‘the Jews’, ordinary people of Israel, Jesus’ kin, neighbours, fellow countrymen and siblings of faith. These are people who would have been raised on the stories of Moses in the Wilderness, they would have celebrated all the harvest festivals, their worship would have included an awareness of the Bread of Presence in the Temple. These people knew how important bread was to faith. Do we read this in frustration that they just don’t ‘get it’?

Jesus has presented the Jews with a jigsaw puzzle, but they struggle to fit it together. They have all the pieces, but still it feels as if something is missing, and it is, they have left the most important piece, the piece which holds it all together, in the box.

They understand that manna came from heaven, that bread means life, that Y_hw_h sent the bread to sustain them in their wondering. They know the story of Elijah and the Widow from Zarephath and the jar of flour that never ran empty throughout the famine. All this they understand. What they don’t understand is how Jesus fits in the picture.

How can a Rabbi, a teacher, a religious man (even a somewhat maverick and rebellious one such as Jesus) even consider the cannibalistic actions of eating his flesh and drinking his blood? How can such murderous, and ‘unclean’ actions create life? To drink the blood of an animal was forbidden, not Kosher, un-clean; but that of a man? A fellow Jew?

Whoever eats me will live because of me.

John 6:57

These Jews are missing the wisdom to understand what it is that Jesus is truly trying to tell them. Perhaps if, like Solomon, they had asked God for a double portion of wisdom they might have been able to piece everything together. They might have understood that the bread of heaven, the manna, created by Y_hw_h was in fact baked by the one stood in front of them, the one who is claiming, stating quite clearly, that the Father sent him. Sent him from where? From heaven, just as the bread in the wilderness came from heaven. Jesus has been with us since the beginning of creation, indeed he was there when the bread was being created to send down to those wondering the wilderness. Was it Jesus too who ensured that the flour-pot never ran empty? Jesus is the missing piece of the puzzle. Jesus is the Bread of Heaven.

It’s so simple, with hindsight. It is so obvious for us who gather around the communion table to share in his bread and his wine, his body and his blood, to invite Jesus to live in us afresh; and yet still we struggle. We struggle in our faith so much, and sometimes we don’t even realise it. We say our prayers, we come to church, we reverently receive the bread and the wine, and yet… is Jesus living in us?

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me.

John 6: 56

Are we fully alive in our faith? Do we seek to commune with God on a personal level? Do we spend time listening, wholeheartedly with expectation that Jesus will guide us? And are we ready to respond, to be obedient, to be daring? This bread and wine which we consume at the Lord’s Table are not just symbols of belonging to the faith; it is not about being ‘in the club’ of the good old CofE, it’s about belonging to Jesus.

For those Jews who struggled, to receive the bread of heaven would have meant huge changes in their perceptions of faith; it would have meant changing the rules, breaking the laws of hygiene and belonging, distancing themselves from their communities, their families. They would have faced rejection, punishment, perhaps even (had they dared to claim Jesus as Messiah) death.

So as we stand or kneel, it really doesn’t matter which, ready to receive from him, let us open our hearts and our minds and all our strength, to receive Jesus into the whole of our lives.

If you would like to spend some time listening intently to God why not join me for my next Petite Retreat? Seashells: Listening to God invites you to engage in biblical meditations and creative prayer workshops throughout the course of a day. Join me on Saturday 28th September at the Lopcombe Quiet Garden on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border, https://SeashellsQuietGarden.eventbrite.co.uk or order a ‘Retreat in a Box’ to spend time with God wherever you are. Message me for details.