Readings:
Sermon:
You are what you eat, we're told, and that makes complete sense. Our bodies take in the stuff we need and turn it into more of us. In my case that's probably a bit more of me than I actually need, but hey ho.
John, in his gospel account of Jesus, takes us deeper and deeper into what the business of consuming bread and wine at Holy Communion actually means.
John puts Jesus' words bluntly "Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them".
I remember seeing a poster years ago in a church porch - it read, "If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?"
And of course we might be tempted to say well, look at what I do and the way I live. But the trouble if there are plenty of people who wouldn't call themselves Christian who behave in kind and generous ways, who are selfless and look out for others. Christians do not have a monopoly of good behaviour, in fact the history of the Church is mostly about how awful Christians have behaved.
If we are to be convicted of being Christians it must have something to do with out knowledge of God. Kingdom people, people who celebrate the Kingdom of God, must be those who have an inner knowing of God, who act out of that experience, that faith. And faith is simply knowing that we are loved.
If we know that we are loved then we can relax, accept our lives for what they are, much more easily, and start to act as God's children. And you are loved by God without limit. It's witnessing to that by our words, and also by our lives, what would get us convicted in a court of law on the charge of being Christian. It's God that matters, and the presence of God visible in our lives.
As Christians we discover that we have something of God within us. We are fed by God, and we become what we eat, God's own children. That's why Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the Mass, the Lord's Supper, is so central to the life of God's people. It is the outward and visible sign of the inward and invisible grace of God's indwelling.
And the result of that indwelling might well be that we get involved in social action, changing the world by all kinds of means.
But we won't change the world unless we ourselves are changed. And we can only be changed by allowing God in on the inside, to rework us, re make us, help us to grown in the very nature of God, in holiness.
What we do together at Holy Communion is to share in the abundant grace of God. The result of that should be changing lives - our own lives. In many places these days Holy Communion is only offered monthly -and that's OK, because it's the the faithfulness, not the frequency, that matters.
And once we start to allow Holy Communion to do it's work then we will start to need to deepen our life our prayer. It's only our deep experience of the love of God on the inside that will provide evidence for our conviction as Christians.
God abides in us, we abide in God. That's what the good news of Jesus is all about. We can't tell that good news unless it really has affected us and changed us, and given us what we need - that is the confidence to know we are safe in God. Then we really can love God back, and love our neighbours in the same way as we love ourselves.
Whether it's a daily Mass, a weekly Sung Eucharist, or a simple monthly Holy Communion, what matters is that we allow God in, so that we become what we eat.