Good Shepherd Lutheran

Nourished by God’s Love – John 6:56-69
Most of us spend a fair amount of time, energy, and prayer trying to create the life we want. But despite our best efforts, sometimes we live a life that’s less than fully alive. The outside and inside of who we are don’t match up. We ask ourselves, “What am I doing with my life?” We wonder if this is all there is. We complain about what’s become of us, but nothing seems to satisfy that empty hole inside us. So, we despair about how we’re living and what will become of us in the future. And despite family and friends, it feels like there’s no place we really belong.
Those questions and feelings aren’t so much a judgement on us as they are a diagnosis of who we’ve become. They’re symptoms of our emptiness. They’re signs that there’s no life in us because we’re dying from the inside out.
But there is a treatment for our condition and food for our hunger. The flesh and blood of Christ are the medicine that saves. It’s what St. Ignatius called “the medicine of immortality.” But one dose isn’t enough. We need a steady diet of this sacred medicine and this holy food.
By eating and drinking of Christ’s flesh and blood, He lives in us, and we live in Him. When we come to the communion table, we eat and digest His love, mercy, and forgiveness. We consume and are changed by His way of being and seeing. We’re nourished by His compassion, His presence, and His relationship with the Father. We eat and drink our way to new life. By consuming His life, He consumes and changes ours.
And isn’t this what we hope for when we kneel at the communion rail each Sunday? Aren’t we seeking a mystical connection with our God when we eat that holy flesh and drink that sacred blood in the form of bread and wine? We’re seeking to be transformed into a new creation through that simple act of consuming the bread and wine that unites us with Christ and with the Father through Him.
This is Jesus’ message. It’s what He feels compelled to say when He repeats that phrase “I am the Bread of Life.” There’s one simple and sure way to know Him, to feel Him so deeply as a part of us that His love radiates in every cell of our being. That’s what we seek when we come to the table, in all our imperfection and human brokenness. To take in a piece of perfection that in turn perfects us.
So, join us at the table. Take the bread and wine: His body and blood. Accept it, and digest it, knowing that there’s no gift more precious. Come and be nourished by God’s love.