WATCHWORD:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. Exodus 16:4
48 Yes, I am the bread of life! 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. John 6:48, 51
Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living of living water will flow from his heart.’” John 7:38
Meditation:
Living Bread, Living Water
Living bread and living water, what a feast, what a life-giving feast. The Eucharist, the Body and the Blood. The Word of God, the word made flesh, the living bread of life. And Jesus Christ descends to us. The manna that Jesus refers to in the John passage which was introduced in Exodus 16. This manna, a fine flaky, white-like due substance that appeared on the ground for Israelite consumption was the bread of heaven that God promised to send. His Word descended and fed the people.
When we kneel at the rail and participate in Communion, taking the bread that is Jesus and the wine of His blood into our own body, what goes through our minds? Is this a significant event in our faith journey? For me it’s a weekly event, and, I look forward to it because for me it is a rededication of my faith.
This coming fall my book, The Inn on Jericho Road, a Biblically-based retelling of the Good Samaritan, will be released. This is not a commercial, that will come later, but I do want to share with you the encounter of the woman at the well with Jesus, who spent two days ministering to her and the entire village. Jesus and his disciples are now leaving and the woman stands and watches them until they’re out of sight.
Her mind replayed the past several days and she recalled asking Jesus “What is this living water?” Jesus had responded by saying “We can talk about that”, but, as she thought about it, they never did. Then she remembered something else that happened just the day before. A women of the village came to her and asked that very same question, “What is this living water?” She responded with hardly a thought, “Living water is the love that God has for us. It is what Jesus has been teaching. That is what we pass on to others.” The realization that she knew the truth filled her eyes with tears of joy.
Can we think of the Eucharist as God’s love that we take into our bodies, with the bread and wine, rededicating and refreshing that love and then we pass that love on to others. We come to the rail and we lay our darkness there at the foot of the Cross and in exchange we receive Him, the Living Bread and the Living Water which is His Blood, and like Baptism, we are cleansed with Gods’ love. Amen, and amen.
Word of Institution:
The Lord Jesus in the same night in which he was betrayed took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the cup, saying, this cup is the New Covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.
Prayer of Thanksgiving;
We give thanks to you Almighty God, that You have refreshed us with this memorial of thy love, and has granted to us the presence of thy Son, Jesus Christ our lord; And pray that You would strengthen our faith and increase our love toward one another; through Jesus, our Redeemer. Amen.
(The Service of Holy Communion taken from the Book of Worship of the Congregational and Christian churches, copyright 1948)
