The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost-The Rev Melanie Lemburg
The Very Rev. Melanie Dickson Lemburg
The 13th Sunday
after Pentecost-Proper 15B
August 18, 2024
Our gospel reading for today is the
fourth out of five weeks in chapter 6 of the gospel of John where Jesus is
talking to his disciples and others about bread. John’s gospel uses repetition of
certain phrases to help emphasize points, and it is the only gospel of the four
that doesn’t include Jesus’s Last Supper with his disciples. Instead, John has Jesus washing the disciples
feet in their last night together.
So our reading for today is the
culmination of this chapter where Jesus talks about bread over and over again,
and it is how the writer of John’s gospel chooses to introduce the Eucharist or
Communion.
But if we flash forward to next week’s
gospel (which actually includes some lines from this week’s gospel), we see that
Jesus’ original hearers, including some disciples, struggle with the difficulty
of this teaching around the Eucharist.
And that can actually be comforting to us. Because who in this church is willing to say that
you actually understand what is happening in the Eucharist? (Don’t look at me!) We can certainly talk about it, about how
experience it. We can talk about what we
have been taught about it-like how eucharist is the Greek word that means
thanksgiving. And even though we participate in it week after week after week,
there’s an aspect of mystery to Eucharist that defies our language. It’s a mystery that we know through our
participation, that invites us more into a heart knowledge than a head
knowledge.
When we
come before God and hold out our hands, our hearts know that this act of
thanksgiving is both about our individual relationships with God through Christ
as well as how we are connected to God through Christ all together as Christ’s
body. We know that this gift is
something that is completely unearned on our part, something we may at times
feel unworthy to receive, and it is the free gift of God’s love offered to all
people, a sign that each of us is made by God and belongs to God and to each
other. We know that even as the bread is
broken, we come to the altar-each one of us-with all of our own brokenness, and
we celebrate Jesus’s brokenness which heals our own.
Today at St. Thomas, we are celebrating
Back to School Sunday. We’re blessing
students, teachers, and administrators.
We’ve got Children’s Chapel resuming after its summer hiatus, and we’re
celebrating the grand-reopening of our nursery.
Today is a day when we intentionally celebrate children. And I think that children have a lot to teach
us about how they receive Eucharist. I’ve
often had parents tell me that they want their children to wait to receive Eucharist
until they understand it. And I will say
back to them, so do you understand it? Because
I don’t. When I see children receiving
communion, I see people who freely receive the gift of belonging that Jesus is offering
without overthinking it. I see open
hearts and small, open hands stretched out eagerly to receive. I think children have much they could teach
us about what the Eucharist means, so in closing, I’ll share with you the book
the kids are reading together in children’s chapel today.
(Here we
read the book We Gather at This Table written by Anna V. Ostenso Moore
and illustrated by Peter Krueger.)
Big
Question this week: Think about how you
experience the Eucharist or communion. How
has God been revealed to you in the Eucharist?
What lessons can children teach you about the Eucharist? What are you
being invited to take from the Eucharist out into the world?
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