Food for the Journey - February 4

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 72; PM Psalm 119:73-96; Gen. 22:1-18; Heb. 11:23-31; John 6:52-59

If you read John’s Gospel on a very surface level, you might wonder why there is no meal at the Last Supper. In John, we are given the foot washing instead, and Jesus’s command to go out and do likewise. There is no moment where everyone simply sits down to eat, like there is Matthew, Mark, and Luke. You might wonder, “Wow, how can that be?”

Many scholars suggest that parts of John’s Gospel reflect the prayers and reflections of the earliest Christian communities as they gathered around the table. Today’s reading is one of those moments. I can imagine those first Christians seated together and someone holding bread and wine, and the words being spoken aloud: “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.”

When we hear the reading this way, it shifts. It sounds less like a boundary marker and more like an invitation into shared life.  For me, it changes the way I hear today’s Gospel text, less as a prescriptive statement of beliefs and more about how we embody the faith.  We know that God is with us, moving us to action and love and grace because God is abiding in us.

One of my biggest takeaways from a class at Sewanee last summer was that the earliest rituals were done at common meals.  If this is true, the table becomes a place of real nourishment. If you are feeling weary, gather with your community. If you are tired or worn down, come and share a meal. If you need strength to go out and wash the feet of those in need—to serve, to forgive, to love with patience and compassion—then come and be fed first.  My hope is that you continue to grow to see the Holy Eucharist shaping your very life and an embodied way of responding to the needs of the world. 

Sacred food is not meant to keep us here. It is meant to give us courage. We are nourished at this table so that we can rise from it and love the world, just as Christ loves us.  To receive the Eucharist is a step in our response to the world.

John+

Question for Self-Reflection: How does the Holy Eucharist nourish your spiritual life?  How do you gather with your faith community, and what gives you strength and hope?