“Eat What?”

Proverbs 9:1-6

John 6:51-58

Rev. Dr. R. Tim Meadows, Associate Pastor

In reading today’s New Testament lesson it is clear that Jesus would not make the list of our sacred Tellico sacrament, dinners for six or dinners for eight, since the dish he would choose to bring, his flesh, and the drink, his blood, would not complement the host’s entrée choice. I’m not even sure we would want Jesus to join us at T.V.C.C. for communion where his hunks of flesh and blood in the communion service would make our wine vs. grape juice discussions seem minimal. Jesus concludes this teaching on the Bread of Life with a challenging, graphic, messy, all consuming, all empowering teaching. Eat my flesh, drink my blood, Jesus says and we are left puzzled trying to figure out what he meant.

Dean Kamen must have known what Jesus meant. Your puzzled looks tell me that most of you do not know who Dean is or why he would understand Jesus! Dean Kamen invented the Segway Human Transporter. Remember that device which you now see employed in limited places. It was unveiled to great fanfare on December 03, 2001 on Good Morning America, the morning news show I happen to watch. I remember two things about the unveiling;

1. December 03^rd 2001 must have been late in the week because for several days prior to the unveiling ABC ran numerous trailers and teasers to build interest and no doubt increase ratings.

2. Even more vividly, I remember what Dean’s associate said to the interviewing host. He said “Dean intends for this machine to cause a revolution in human transportation. He expects that it will change the way the world thinks about and does transportation. Anything less and he will feel he has failed in his mission.

This was also Jesus’ vision of his life and teachings. Jesus never dreamed of being just another rabbi, teacher, prophet, or soothsayer, no clearly, Jesus intended to be a revolutionary and anything less would be failure of his mission.

Jesus gives us this challenging, graphic, messy; all consuming, all empowering teaching to say that it is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that we understand Jesus. Eat my flesh, drink my blood, is not given as some weird cannibalistic notion meant to discourage; rather it is a revolutionary call to allow all of our life to be consumed in all of his life.

It is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that we can truly know what it means to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

It is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that we can truly know how to love God and love our neighbor and welcome the stranger in our land who may not look or sound like us.

It is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that we can understand why one would be asked to sell everything they have and give the money to the poor or why Jesus cared so much about the poor anyway.

It is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that we can understand how one comes to God as a little child.

It is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that that the Sermon on the Mount, especially the Golden Rule, makes any sense as the only possible way to live.

It is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that community is possible among radically different people like us.

It is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that anyone would dare listen to Jesus in the first place and grown men and women would abandon their chosen paths to form his inner circle.

It is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that we understand his life to be as important to us as his death.

It is only in consuming and being consumed by the life of Christ that we understand why Jesus would die for the way he lived and call us to do so as well.

Taste my flesh and drink my blood. How disgusting, how demanding, how consuming. Consuming and being consumed that is what life with Jesus is all about. Having our lives radically altered that is the call of Christ. Only when we eat his flesh and drink his blood, and allow that food to transform us does any of this teaching make sense. May God give us the grace to consume and be consumed by the radical life of Christ. AMEN!