SERMON PREACHED BY JESSE ABELL ON AUGUST 13, 2006

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."

Let me start by saying that it is truly a pleasure to be with all of you here at All Saints this weekend. Our gospel today is from the sixth chapter of John, a well known chapter about the Eucharist. For some time I have been looking forward to preaching on this particular gospel, so it is a privilege to be in a place like All Saints when this sort of reading comes up. I have enjoy meeting all of you, and I thank you for the invitation.

Any time that I hear about living bread coming down from heaven, I can’t help but think of an early church saint, St. Tarsicius. St. Tarsicius was a member of the early Church in Rome. We are not quite sure if he was an acolyte or a deacon. Those details have been lost, but the circumstances of his death will never be forgotten. St. Tarsicius, as was the custom at that time in the early Church, would go faithfully from the Eucharist on Sunday morning, carrying some of the consecrated bread to his separated brethren. They might be sick or injured or in prison, and he would take communion to them so they might join in celebration.

On this particular day St. Tarsicius carefully wrapped up that bread from the altar and he placed it inside his tunic, safe from sacrilege, and he set out on his way on the road toward the prison.

Along the way he was accosted by some Roman soldiers, or, some traditions say, an entire mob. One of the soldiers commanded him again and again to hand over whatever it was that he was carrying, Tarsicius trying to prevent all sacrilege refused and the man said: “Don’t you know that we can kill you. Hand over whatever it is that you have.”

And again and a gain St. Tarscius refused. Finally at one point a soldier grew impatient and ran him through a spear, and the young man collapsed dead onto the ground and the bread rolled out from out of his tunic.

The guards weren't quite sure what to make of this event, and they looked down at that bread, and one of the soldiers turned to the others and said, “Who would die for a crust of bread?”

Who would die for a crust of bread? I think our gospel today speaks to that very question. This chapter of John, the entire sixth chapter, seems to be about the Eucharist.

The chapter opens with the story that we have already heard from Mark’s account of Jesus feeding the multitude, some 5,000 men and women, with only a few loaves and a few fish. As if to say, if Christ nourished all of those people with a few loaves and a few fish, then Christ can nourish his Church forever with his one Body and his one Blood.

St. John described to us how Christ walked across the water and demonstrates to us that Christ is the very Lord of creation. That God can do miraculous things beyond our comprehension.

Finally we come to this treatise at the end that describes the Eucharist, “The living bread which came down from heaven."

I'm always particularly interested, as I shared with the bible study group earlier this week, that there are some churches that like to take the Book of Revelation, even with all of its metaphoric and symbolic language, so very literally. And yet when they come to this chapter of John, with very literal strong, straight-forward language, they take it as metaphoric.

Christ indeed in this passage seems to be telling us that he means what he says. He starts out by telling them that “I am the living bread which came down from heaven.” And the crowd knows Jesus and so they respond amongst themselves, “Who is this guy and who does he think he is? We know who he is and he could not come from heaven, he came from that house in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph.” And Christ knows what they are saying amongst themselves and so he reiterates what he has said in even stronger language: “I'm the bread of life and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Now the crowd is mortified and they say, “Who is this man that he dares to give us his flesh to eat.” Now Christ at this point was meaning to talk metaphorically could have corrected them; he could have said, “Wait a minute guys you misunderstood, I'm talking metaphorically believing in me is like eating bread…”

But, he doesn't say that. He becomes even more graphic and says, “Truly I say to you that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood you will not have life within you.” And the crowd can’t stand it anymore and even many, who had followed Jesus faithfully up to that point turned away, as the evangelist tells us. They say to themselves, “This is a very hard teaching to accept, who could possibly put up with it?” And so many of them turn away. And indeed Jesus left and walked away—he doesn't compromise. His teaching is so very important to his message and it is one that he is not willing to give on.

Then he turns to his disciples and said, that you will hear in later sequences in two Sundays ahead, “Will you all leave too?” And Peter says, “But Lord you have the words of everlasting life. To whom could we go?”

And so we come back to this passage. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever, and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Indeed Christ describes to us that he nourishes us with his very Body and Blood. St. Tarsicius understood that. That’s why he so faithfully protected the Eucharist he carried.

And the Church has understood this for 2,000 years. That is why she has surrounded the celebration of the Holy Eucharist with such reverence and sacred liturgy, as we witness here today.

The church understood, as Tarscius did, that we are not merely taking a crust of bread. What we receive is the most precious Body and Blood of our Lord. It is the same Body and Blood of the same Lord who walked about in Nazareth 2,000 years ago. It is the same Body and Blood of the same Lord who died on the cross for our salvation. It is the same Body and Blood of the same Lord who nourishes his church throughout eternity.

And, so it is this day that we are invited by the evangelist to come to the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, recognizing with the same reverence and devotion of St. Tarscius that what we receive is not merely a crust of bread but the very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord and Savior.