“Companions in Christ”
A Communion Meditation Preached by the
Rev. Jean Niven Lenk
Sunday, August 7, 2011
First Congregational Church of Stoughton, United Church of Christ
Text: Matthew 14:13-21
Some things just naturally go together… peanut butter and jelly, peace and love, TV and couch; Rocky and Bullwinkle. How about this one: church and food.
If you ever have difficulty getting your youngsters to come to Sunday School, just point out to them where else can they eat cake and cookies before lunch – and it’s OK!
There is a lot of eating at church – coffee hour, brunches, potluck suppers, pancake breakfasts, pancake suppers, chowder suppers, etc. etc.
In the Gospels, Jesus does a lot of eating. He eats with tax collectors and sinners. He invites himself for supper to Zacchaeus’ house. He eats at the homes of Mary and Martha and of the Pharisees. He partakes in a Last Supper with his disciples. And Jesus uses the image of a heavenly banquet to describe the Kingdom of God.
In the scriptures, eating together becomes a religious experience, and sharing a meal is a means of grace. On the road to Emmaus, two of his disciples finally recognize Jesus when they sit down and break bread together. I always find that when people sit down together for a meal, the relationship deepens. Gathering for a shared meal is a universal expression of friendship, love and welcome, and the act of eating together changes things, for it can nurture relationships, heal families, and repair broken bonds.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the Latin word for “bread” --- pane – and the word for “with” – cum – form the root of the word companion. Com-pan-ion – to break bread with.
Throughout the gospels, Jesus is concerned that other people get to eat, too. He defends his disciples against the Pharisees when they pick grain on the Sabbath to satisfy their hunger [Mt 12:1-8]. As soon as he raises Jairus’ daughter, he tells her parents to give the girl something to eat [Mark 5:43]. And in this morning’s scripture lesson, he tells his disciples to feed the five thousand people who have listened to him preach.
This story shows Jesus’ ability to meet our most basic human needs, our deepest hungers, both physical and spiritual. Perhaps that is why it is told by all four gospel writers. As the scene opens, Jesus is feeling the need to be by himself for a while. He has just received news of the beheading of John the Baptist, the one who baptized him and “prepared the way” for his coming. So Jesus leaves by boat to withdraw to "a deserted place" for some alone time.
But the unrelenting crowds follow him to the opposite shore. No doubt they, too, have heard about John’s death. And so, disregarding his own needs, Jesus goes back to work, fueled by compassion at the sight of the sick and needy people gathered around him. Compassion – literally meaning “to suffer with.” No doubt they are all able to draw strength and consolation from one another as he walks among them, laying hands on them and saying the things they need to hear. And this includes sharing a meal together, because, as preacher and author Barbara Brown Taylor notes, "Sometimes, after very bad news, it does not matter what you eat as long as you eat it with someone.”[i]
But it takes a miracle to provide enough food for so many. Finding just two loaves of bread and five fish among the throngs of people, Jesus says a blessing over the meager portion, and then the disciples begin to distribute them to the crowds. Nobody can describe exactly how it happens, but somehow the food keeps multiplying until there is enough for everyone.
In Jesus' time, it was believed that the Messiah would reveal himself by renewing the miraculous manna that God had given to their ancestors in the wilderness. In the book of Exodus, we read the story of how Moses led the ancient Hebrews out of Egypt toward the Promised Land. During their 40 years of wandering, the Israelites were sustained by the thick flakes of bread called manna, which God provided. And it is through the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 that Jesus reveals himself as the promised Savior, the Son of God.
That Jesus’ divinity would become recognizable to his disciples not through a prayer nor a moment of silence but through the physical act of eating underscores that ours is an embodied, incarnational faith. It is not enough for Jesus’ followers, then and now, to hear about him or to see him from a distance; Jesus knows that we must touch and experience him – and that is what happens when we share a common meal at the communion table, because he promises that whenever we partake together at his table, he will right here in our midst.
When we bless, break and share the bread of communion with each other, just as Jesus blessed, broke and shared those two loaves of bread with the 5,000, he is present among us, just as surely as he was with the crowds on that hillside so long ago. And in breaking bread in remembrance of him, we become con-pan, with bread, companions of Christ.
But Jesus calls us not only to hear this story but to embody it in our time and place.. We too are people Jesus has welcomed with compassion, choosing to be in our midst, healing and providing for us. And what God has given us, we are in turn to give to others. That’s how grace works; that’s how God’s life flows through the world. We give from what we have already received. We are invited into God’s movement of grace, sharing the food of companionship, of friendship, of caring for others; sharing our life with the life of the world.
In this place, at this table, we feel Christ’s sustaining presence; we are fed by his life-giving meal; we see and taste the promised and hoped-for future. And he invites us to go from simply being his companions, companions of Christ, to being companions in Christ to others – blessing, serving, sharing, and loving in His holy name. Amen.
[i] Barbara Brown Taylor, The Seeds of Heaven: Sermons on the Gospel of Matthew (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004), p. 50.
