The people argued, "How can this man give us flesh to eat?" To eat and drink the Lord's portion of an offered sacrifice was considered (later on in the Jewish tradition) a desecration or offensive because it was believed that the sacrifice belonged to God. To consume the life force, to consume God, was believed to be a sacrilege.

But despite the religious calcification of the covenant tradition, the heart and spirit of the covenant tradition did break through at various times. One such time was when David ate the bread which was considered to be the Lord's portion and which only the priests were allowed to eat. (1 Samuel 21) Certain priests were consecrated and therefore held an exclusive right and holy privilege to eat the holy bread that was set apart for the temple sacrifice. Through this consuming of a very select few priests, God's hunger was believed to be satisfied.

Thus, the people listening to Jesus believed him to be showing contempt and a lack of reverence for God when he invited the people to eat his flesh; when he said that his flesh was the bread of life.

Last week we mentioned that the Jewish tradition, by the time of Jesus' ministry, finally evolved into believing that life, breath, wind, the life force all emanated from the physical sphere. From the domain of blood and flesh.

Thus, for the Hebrews, nationality, race, blood, the clan, the group, all became equated with life and salvation. One was saved by being a part of the right group, clan or race. One's blood line became very important. Salvation became equated with nepotism. One thought that by being related to Abraham one had automatically and ritually consumed the bread of life and salvation. Recall John's warning, "And don't think you can escape punishment by saying that Abraham is your ancestor. I tell you that God can take these rocks and make descendants for Abraham!" (Matthew 3:9)

Thus, the Hebrews believed they had to coax God with sacrificial offerings in order to get what they wanted from him. For the Jews, God was distant, hidden, not readily accessible. God did not associate intimately, so they thought. But this was actually an aberration of the original covenant as we see in today's lesson.

So the people had a strong need to lure God, to manipulate him, to appease and pacify him with exclusive sacrifice and ritual. God could never be close if it took this much work and currency to get his attention. And if it was this difficult to approach God, how could God ever be intimate with men and women?

For the Gentiles, the issue was just the opposite. Life and breath emanated from the spiritual realm. This is actually what John says, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." But the Gentiles pushed this idea too far. They finally came to the conclusion that if all things emanated from the spirit world then the flesh was no good. One's spiritual life was then spent trying to get up and out and away from the flesh. They desired to get to God.

But this idea still made God distant and difficult to get to as well as approach. In this case one needed to possess the correct formula, steps, degrees, and assume the proper position and posturing in meditation, chants, rites, thoughts and prayers. All was said and done according to proper protoc_esermonsol so as not to offend the gods. All this in order to get to God!

But in our text, Jesus "tells it like it is," he comes clean with the people. He tells the people that they did not have to play ritualistic and posturing games to get his Father's attention. He says that his Father desires to be close to them. He says, "I am the living bread ... the bread I will give you is my flesh ... I give it so the world may live ... whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in himwhoever eats me will live ..."

In order to make his point of how close his Father desires to be to the people Jesus says quite literally, "Eat me. Consume me. Put me on. Wear me. Take me into yourself. Participate with me in my Father's kingdom work. Lose yourself. Lose your life for my sake. Let go of established ways. Take me into yourself. Receive eternal life."

A story: Mark's schedule of late had been extremely busy and hectic. First, all of the area church cluster study meetings and the internal congregational long range study had resulted in enough extra meetings to send Mark reeling. And even now the intensity of his schedule continued. The results of all of the data recently collected was that the church where Mark was pastor was to undergo a complete and total renovation. This meant more time commitments, meetings with the building committee, the capital fund-raising committee and the architect.

Mark was under the wheel; time-strained. He was barely able to get his shut-in visits done this particular quarter as a result of the exciting confluence of the church renovation project. But a thought kept nagging at his mind. Elizabeth Crane, one of his grand old homebound members had recently come home from the hospital after suffering a mild stroke. And Mark hadn't seen her yet. Guilt was starting to work its way to the surface of Mark's conscience.

Nagging him was the fact that Elizabeth had actually called, inviting Mark to come to her home for a cup of tea. "I should have gone to see her without being called," he thought as he considered the invitation with pricked conscience.

Elizabeth had said over the phone, "I do understand, pastor, if you cannot come. I know you are a busy man, but if you have time, how wonderful it would be to share a cup of tea with you."

Despite his guilt Mark invented all sorts of reasons not to go to see Elizabeth. He had important meetings to attend: the County Helpline Board was meeting that afternoon and he was a member of the board; there was also a vacation Bible school meeting late into the afternoon and a district church meeting in the evening in a nearby city. He had almost justified his not going to see Elizabeth when he heard a voice in his inner ear. "Mark, you really need to go and see Elizabeth!" And so grudgingly, he went.

A glimmer of hope flashed across Mark's mind as he suddenly realized that Elizabeth wasn't coming to the door. "Oh, her daughter must have come and gotten her for her regular medical check-up," Mark considered with great anticipation. But just as he was about to turn and go, he heard footsteps and an intermittent crutch on the foyer floor. Waiting for the door to be opened, Mark stood, rigid.

"Come on in! I am so glad you could come, pastor. I know how busy you are. Please sit down in that chair over there. That one is much more comfortable," Elizabeth was simply delighted.

While they casually chatted, Mark recalled all of the old stuff he had seen in the comfortable parlor of previous visits. The old side board, he noticed the stately china cabinet, the lovely buffet filled with glittering cut glass and crystal. "Memories," he thought, what a marvelous precious life Elizabeth has had. Everyone in the parish loved Elizabeth. She had raised four children, had been a school teacher and her husband, Henry, had died some 10 years ago.

But Elizabeth's real priorities were evident throughout this room. Pictures of children and grandchildren were in and on every nook and cranny one could find. And the prize treasures were not the beautiful Hummels that were proudly displayed on the piano and in the curio cabinet, but the pictures and presents that the kids had made. They were clearly evident everywhere Mark looked. Whether on the coffee table or atop the end tables or tucked into the book shelves, the "kid projects" were proudly displayed. "Oh, this is the little hot plate my little Stephanie made for me. And this picture of a cat my little Jimmy colored for me, isn't it great? And over there on the shelf are all things my Sunday school children made for me over the years!"

After a little while Elizabeth said, "Let's go over to the dining room table to have our tea." As the two of them walked into the dining room, Mark was a bit nonplussed. The table was set with linen table cloth and silver. Not stainless steel but the stuff that Elizabeth must have retrieved from the handsome walnut box in the bottom drawer of her buffet cupboard. Sitting down at the table Mark noticed the table was set with linen napkins, china cups and saucers and even crystal goblets.

Elizabeth poured the tea and asked Mark, "Pastor, how about a nice freshly baked cinnamon roll with butter and some of my strawberry preserves." All of a sudden Mark found himself to be very hungry.

"These are the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had, Elizabeth," Mark intoned. And while they ate and drank they talked of things past, things present and what the future held for both of them. Elizabeth was also extremely interested in all of the church activities. She missed not being able to participate in the life of the congregation as she had once been able to do. But she still kept current on all of the activities. She took part where she was able, she was coordinator of the phone prayer chain and she continued to be an extremely good giver to the ministry and mission of the church.

As their conversation progressed a veil of complete joy settled upon Mark as he listened to Elizabeth. She was so intensely interested in every aspect of the church's ministry; she was thoroughly positive and encouraging. Mark smiled when Elizabeth demanded specifics. "I don't want generalities, pastor. I want all of the particulars," she crooned. "I want to know why our missionary is not being supported like he should be and what I can do to help," she continued forthrightly.

Elizabeth spoke with honesty and candor about the limitations imposed on her by the stroke. She spoke of her life and death. "You know pastor, I feel so fortunate to be a part of a servant community. An old friend once told me, 'Elizabeth, if you practice dying enough during your lifetime, you will hardly notice the difference when the actual time comes.' I've tried to live that way, pastor. I'm not afraid to die. I know God is right now walking with me in the valley of the shadow of death. My faith is everything to me, pastor."

Mark got a big lump in his throat, "That's beautiful, Elizabeth." And as Mark took his leave from that faithful home that day he thought, "I came here for a cup of tea and instead I received a banquet. I ate the bread of life."