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Welcome and Theme: Dennis
We welcome you this morning as we ponder the meaning of Jesus’ words, “I am the bread of life”, the first of many I Am statements he will make in the Gospel of John. As we listen to the readings and reflect together, let us keep in mind that we, as members of the Body of Christ, can say, I am the bread of life. If we truly believe this, then what does that mean for a world ravaged with hunger, disease, and a changing environment? Where or how can we bring life to the world?
Opening Prayer: Ellen
O God, Bread of Life, we are hungry for life and love. You have gifted us with each other on the journey to find You in all things and to be Your love to each other. Mary our hearts and minds be broken open to Your Word shared in our voices and stories that they may become a banquet, a shelter for the world, a living sign of God.
Opening Song: Companions on the Journey by Carey Landry
LITURGY OF THE WORD
Reading 1: A reading from the works of Miriam Therese Winter
Dave: It was barely midday, and I was already exhausted. We had set up this makeshift feeding center in Ethiopia for victims of a devastating famine, and they now blanketed the room. Women cradling emaciated children pressed against one another, as each claimed a coveted piece of that hard mud floor.
I was about to assist the nurses attending a dying baby, when one of our Ethiopian aides burst into the room. “Come!” she shouted. “Hurry! They are calling for a doctor. They say there is a dead body beyond the outer wall.”
We had no doctors.
Preoccupied with the emergencies at hand, one nurse said to her, “If he’s dead, he doesn’t need a doctor. Can’t you see? We are busy here.”
The aide persisted. “Someone must certify that the person is dead before they can proceed with a burial. It is our tradition. It must be done before the sun goes down.”
“You go,” the head nurse said to me.
“I can’t do that,” I said. “I’m not qualified.”
“Dead is dead,” she said. “Surely you can handle that. Go make the official pronouncement.”
The body was a long way off, on a sandy beach by a river’s edge, where a very large crowd was waiting. All of them were male. When they saw me, they began to shout in a language I did not understand. Warning signals went off within me. I’m in the middle of nowhere. Nobody knows I am here. We two are the only women in the midst of a hostile mob.
“Why are they so angry?” I asked my companion. “Why are they angry with me?”
One of the men responded, “We are angry because you up there in that camp are the ones who killed this man. Yesterday, he came to beg for food, and you turned him away. Now he has died of hunger, and he died because of you.”
I had to calm this volatile situation. I said, “Let us first be certain he is dead. Then we can investigate why.” They agreed. I approached the body baking in the sun.
As I stood there, staring death in the face, I recognized who the one looking up at me through his unseeing eyes was, and I was horrified. A young adult male, stick-thin, in rags, had indeed come into the compound yesterday, saying he was hungry. He pleaded for a box of biscuits, that staple of intensive feeding centers everywhere. I was about to give it to him when a staff member berated me: “Those biscuits are for the children. There won’t be enough if you start giving them to whoever comes along.” Then she said sharply to the starving man, “Why did you come here? You know you are not allowed. This camp is only for children and those biscuits are for them.”
After she left, I took a biscuit and placed it in the man’s hand.
I barely slept at all that night, for my heart had been filled with remorse. Now the source of my guilt and regret had returned in death, but our status was reversed. He was secure in the embrace of Allah, and I was in need of deliverance.
I prayed for divine guidance, and said to the mob, “This man is indeed dead, but he did not die of hunger. Look, a piece of uneaten biscuit, which I had given to him yesterday, is still there in his hand.” He was indeed clutching that life-giving bread in his lifeless hand. A murmur of appreciation arose and spilled over into prayer. After the young man’s body had been wrapped in a clean new cloth, something amazing happened: A beautiful butterfly -- the first I had seen in Ethiopia in all the times I had been there -- circled the dead man’s body, settled briefly on the cloth that covered his forehead, and then flew away, circling, spiraling upward, until it disappeared.
I saw something invisible but real through the eye of my soul.
Living among the disenfranchised had transformed my perspective. I would never look at religion and society or my own faith traditions in the same way again. I saw more than ever that the spirit of the living God inhabits all creation, even biscuits and butterflies, the living and the dead. When we see life in this way, we behold the secular as sacred, the “other” as part of our self and of one another, and we welcome the outsider in. Any meal that nourishes both body and spirit is a eucharist with a small “e” and potentially transformative to one with eyes to see.
The spirit of God, the spirit of Jesus, earth’s spirit, our spirit is all one spirit.
You, I, we, and they, are no more.
This is what I was graced to see in Ethiopia.
These are the inspired words of Miriam Therese Winter, and we affirm them by saying, Amen.
Alleluia
Gospel: John 6:24-35
Clare Julian: A reading from the author of the Gospel attributed to John.
The next day, the crowd, which was still on the other side of the lake, remembered that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gotten into that boat with the disciples, but that his disciples had set off alone. Other boats came out from Tiberias, near the place where hey had eaten bread. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they, too, got into boats and set out for Capernaum to look for Jesus.
They found him on the other side of the lake and asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
“I tell you truly”, Jesus replied, “you’re looking for me only because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you witnessed miracles. Don’t work for food that goes to waste, but for food that lasts – food for real life – which the son of Adam will give you ; on him Abba God has put his stamp of approval.”
So they asked him, “What must we do to set about what God wants done?”
“What God wants you to do,” Jesus answered, “is to believe in the one God sent.”
They asked him, “What miracle are you going to perform so we can see it and come to believe in you? What labor are you going to perform? Our ancestors had manna to eat in the wilderness. As the scripture put it, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus responded to them: “I tell you truly, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven to eat; rather, it is my Father who gives you real bread from heaven. I mean this: God’s bread comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
“Sir,” they said to him, “give us this bread every time.”
Jesus explained to them: “I am the bread of life. Anyone who comes to me will never be hungry again, and anyone who believes in me will never again be thirsty.”
These are the inspired words from the author of the Gospel attributed to John, and the community affirms them by saying, Amen.
Homily Starter (Dennis & Ellen)
This week’s Gospel flows directly from last week’s story of the loaves and fishes. After that amazing experience, Jesus and his disciples go to the other side of the lake. The next morning people go in search of him, wondering what sign or miracle he will provide so that they might believe. We might question, what does it take to convince them, since they had just witnessed the feeding of thousands. Jesus responds that it is not miracles to watch for but to recognize the deeper understanding that he is “the bread of life”, the one sent to bring love to the world. Similar to last week in Lynn’s homily, there is a comparison to an earlier prophet, Moses, and this reading indicates that Jesus is beyond the physical manifestation of bread, he is the deeper mystical bread, the mystical body that provides spiritual food for the soul, which feeds us for all time. We are, through our baptism and being followers of Jesus part of that Mystical Body that provides love to the world
Our first reading is a difficult one, speaking of human hunger and the desperation of a young man wanting to obtain something to eat. Miriam Therese Winters struggles when he appears, wanting to desperately provide it, but is told this can’t be done, only certain ones, in this case children are to receive biscuits. What a moral dilemma this presents to her, and she decides to stand against this “rule” and provides the biscuit. If the story ended there, we would congratulate her for standing in solidarity with the downtrodden, for feeding the hungry. However, the story continues, and the young man dies. Where does that leave us? It leaves Miriam Therese facing an angry, accusatory crowd. What good was a biscuit? Where is the Bread of Life in this scenario?
When I first read Holy Biscuits in Ethiopia, I felt a bit angry. Why was the author trying to defend her action, giving only one biscuit to that poor dying man? And the nerve of her to say “this man is indeed dead, but he did not die of hunger” just because he was clutching a measly piece of biscuit. Of course he died of hunger! He had been starving for a long time. On further reflection though, could it be that this young man did not die of hunger? That the small action of the author was her being the Bread of Life for him? That this young man’s spirit was nourished by his interaction with the author, and her life by him?
In the midst of this young man’s death a butterfly appears, circles, and settles momentarily on the man’s forehead, and then spirals upward. The butterfly, when it appears after death, represents, in some interpretations, the soul of the recently departed. Jesus proclaims that he is the Bread of Life, the one who brings love to the world. Miriam Therese, in emulating Jesus, brought love to the young man in the form of a biscuit. While not saving his life, the biscuit spoke of her recognition of his human dignity, his being a son of the Divine. We don’t know, but I am guessing that he left the camp feeling recognized, feeling loved. And the butterfly provided Miriam Therese the comfort that the man was released from hunger and pain, and spiraling upward into the Love that created him.
I myself am the bread of life. You and I are the bread of life.
This bread is spirit, gift of the Maker’s love and we who share it know that we can be one: a living sign of God in Christ.
Do you recognize the Christ within you, moving you to be the Bread of Life, bringing life to the world?
Statement of Faith:
Gayle: We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of divine love,
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
Dennis: As we prepare for this sacred meal, we are aware of our call to serve, and just as Jesus is anointed, so is each of us. We bring to this table our blessings, cares and concerns.
Intentions read
We bring these and all deeply held blessings, cares, and concerns to the table of friendship and peace.
Liturgy of the Eucharist
adapted from Diarmuid O’Murchu
Ellen: With open hands let us pray our Eucharistic Prayer together:
Gracious God, source and sustenance of life, redeeming presence to the pain and brokenness of our world, Holy Spirit, who enlivens and inebriates all that exists, we beseech your healing power upon us and all we pray for today.
Down through the ages, you rescue us from darkness.
you light up our ways with wise and holy people. You restore our spirits and you revive our dwindling hope.
May the Spirit of life and wholeness transform us that we may be refreshed in our inner being and be empowered to bring mercy, love, and healing to those whose lives we touch.
For all you bring to our lives, and for all we seek amid
pain and suffering, we acclaim your love and greatness,
and we join with all creation to sing our hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy, Holy – Here In This Place by Chris Grundy
Dennis:
Source of our health and wholeness, healer of body, mind, and spirit, we bring before you the darkness of our world, and the pain and suffering of your people.
We seek to be healed and made whole; we seek to be reconciled and united; we seek peace in our hearts and in our world.
Please extend your hands in blessing
We ask you to awaken anew in our hearts the empowering grace of your abundant Spirit, who infuses these gifts of bread and wine with the transforming energy of life, to nourish and sustain us in our time of need.
On the night before he died, Jesus gathered for the Seder supper with the people closest to him. Like the least of household servants, he washed their feet. Once again he showed us how to love one another.
All lifts the bread.
Back at the table, he took the Passover Bread, spoke the grace, broke the bread and offered it to them saying, Take and eat, this is my very self.
All lift the cup
Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink of the covenant
Made new again through my life in you.
Whenever you remember me like this,
I am among you.
What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives, as we share Communion, we will become Communion, both love’s nourishment and love’s challenge
Receive the bread and cup with the words, We are Bread that nourishes and sustains.
Communion Meditation: Bread of Life by Rory Cooney
Ellen:
In faith and hope we are sustained,
In grace our dignity reclaimed,
In praise we thank our God.
As we gather around this friendship table, we recall God’s
blessing and love from ages past, and we celebrate anew
the gift of life which we share among us at this Eucharistic feast.
The bread we break and the cup we share are symbols of our world of abundance where all are invited to partake of the fullness of life. But that life we often impede by our greed and selfishness, and by our exploitation of other people.
So grant that we may strive to create a world where suffering and pain are diminished, where justice and peace are restored, and where all people can live in health and wholeness, united in acclaiming the God of life, whose abundance is offered to each and to all, until the Kin-dom arrives in the fullness of time.
This prayer we make in the name of our healing and nurturing God through, with, and in whom we offer these gifts, sources of life, love, and goodness, now and forever. Amen.
Kathy: Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
O Holy One, who is within, around and among us,
We celebrate your many names.
Your Wisdom come.
Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us,
Each day you give us all we need;
You remind us of our limits, and we let go.
You support us in our power, and we act with courage.
For you are the dwelling place within us,
the empowerment around us,
and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen (Miriam Therese Winter)
Blessing
Dennis: Let us raise our hands and bless each other.
May we continue to be the face of the God to each other. May our companionship make us new each day. May our name be a blessing in our time. Amen.
Closing Song: Ever by Heatherlyn
Peace ever
Joy ever
Following you
Light ever
Love ever
Radiating through
Hope ever
Faith ever
Strengthening you
Life ever
Breath ever
Nourishing you
And everywhere you go, may you always be home.
And everyone you meet, be messengers of peace.
Let your light shine through
And your hearts ever be true
Move in grace and gratitude
And walk in wisdom, sharin’ all that’s good.
Peace ever
Joy ever
Following you
Light ever
Love ever
Radiating through
And everywhere you go, may you always be home.
And everyone you meet, be messengers of peace.
May we choose courageously
May we hope defiantly
May we love outrageously
And walk on lightly in humility.
May we choose courageously
May we hope defiantly
May we love outrageously
And walk on lightly in humility.
Beauty and Laughter
Ever filling you
Friendship, Affection
Surrounding you
(Words and Music by HeatherlynMusic.com (c) ASCAP 2019)
