John 6:52-59
After a week of vacationing with my family, I'm back to resume our meditations on John's Gospel, via William Temple. Today's thoughts by Temple are at the heart of why I bid the congregation to stand after receiving communion.
"Then Jesus said unto them 'Amen, Amen, I say to you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves.'" (John 6:53)
"The phrase would have been quite as startling, even horrifying, to the Jews as well as to ourselves. The blood of animals might not be received as food: 'Be sure thou shalt not eat the blood; for the blood is the life; and thou shalt nor eat the life with the flesh' (Deuteronomy 12,23; cf. Leviticus 17,14-15 and many similar passages)…
"It is clear that the 'Flesh' and the 'Blood' are thought of as separated and separately received. But flesh from which the blood is separated is dead. We receive the Broken Body; we make our own the 'dying of Jesus' (II Corinthians 4,10). Blood, on the other hand, when poured out, is the life released by death and given to God…
"To 'eat the flesh' and to 'drink the blood' of the Son of Man are not the same. The former is to receive the power of self-giving and self-sacrifice to the uttermost. The latter is to receive…the life that is triumphant over death and united to God."*
My comment: We are never more fully alive than just after we have received the Body and Blood and Jesus Christ, through bread and wine. It is a life we are called to take out into the world, marching out of church united in the mission of reconciling all people to God and each other.
*From Readings in St. John's Gospel, by Archbishop William Temple
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