Come and eat ! (the Bread of Life)
1 Kings 19:4-8
This last week Susan & I have been at the Wales Synod Summer school at Llangasty Retreat House, overlooking Llangorse Lake.
The views were spectacular, the weather was mostly kind, and it was good to relax and learn with colleagues across the Synod. A really striking part of the week was the welcome and hospitality offered to us by Janet and her very small team of two in the house.
The food and drink was freshly prepared, a lot of it local, and arriving at regular intervals, yet the staff were flexible enough to fit our programme of sessions. The large dining table became a place of not just food, but conversation and laughter as we shared together in what was given to us so happily.
No wonder Jesus spent so much time eating at table with people – and used the image of the banquet to describe the kingdom of God.
And that is why, regularly, we share a communion meal together.
Here we remember that this is the table of Jesus, and that his love welcomes everyone. Here we are offered not just a piece of bread and a taste of wine – but we are offered a place at the table – a reminder that we belong in God’s loving arms, and that through Jesus, the bread of life, God gives us everything that we need to live.
I have given each one of you a copy of the poem “Love” by George Herbert. It’s written as a dialogue or conversation between a would-be believer in God, and ‘Love’ – who you might think of as God the Father, or Jesus himself. You might notice that some words, the words of ‘Love’ are in red, to help us see and hear clearly the invitation we are all given today – the invitation to sit and eat together with the risen Jesus, surrounded by the love and care of God the Father.
You’ll see in the poem that the person approaching God feels unsure, unworthy to be welcomed at Love’s table, but Love is firm and sure in the welcome it gives.
Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.’
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’
‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.’
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
‘My dear, then I will serve.’
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
So I did sit and eat.
This is a lovely image of God’s invitation to be part of the feast of love.
We have heard that we are welcome – but we hold back, feeling all too aware of our guilt. God is a great host and sees that we are unsure, and asks what we need. When we say the guest should be worthy, God answers that we are worthy, God reassures us that God made us and loves us and came to earth in Jesus to show us how loved we are.
Even then we are reluctant to accept this free gift of love and say that we should serve at the table, we think we should do something to earn this love. But the invitation comes again ‘you must sit down and taste my meat’.
And finally, we accept, and sit and eat.
We are all welcomed by God’s love to come and eat with each other and with the risen Jesus.
When Jesus told the crowd of people following him ““I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Some people, instead of responding to the amazing invitation, started to wonder how Jesus of Nazareth could give the such a generous offer.
They said “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?”.
They saw that Jesus was a real human, living among them, and they thought he couldn’t give an invitation from God.
Perhaps they remembered the story of Elijah being woken by angels, who told him to eat. Maybe they thought an invitation from God should look and feel much more special than this man Jesus, standing right there in front of them.
But Jesus tells them that he is ‘the living bread sent down from heaven’ – he is a gift and an invitation from God.
If we listen to Jesus and follow Jesus it is like being invited to join in the wonderful banquet of life, love, joy and peace.
And like the voice of ‘Love’ in George Herbert’s poem, God’s love in Jesus doesn’t just invite us and allow us to say ‘no’ because we think we’re not worthy, or we’re too busy, or we don’t feel ready.
Jesus says
‘No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me’.
God’s love pulls us in, insists on us sitting at the table. The word Jesus uses for being God drawing us in is the same as the word used when the fishermen pull in their nets – Jesus says that God drags us to him.
Everyone is invited to be part of God’s love – and God doesn’t give us any reason to say no – he pulls us in to be part of this shared feast together. God doesn’t accept any excuses: this invitation is for everyone.
Philip Yancey – an American author whose most famous book is probably ‘What’s so amazing about grace?” says this :
‘There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.’
An invitation to be welcomed and to eat can change everything.
During recent riots in Liverpool there was a crowd outside the mosque – the oldest mosque in the UK.
The Imam, Adam Kelwick, crossed the police line to speak to people on the other side. He said
"We walked over to their side and we shared food. We shared smiles. We talked. We listened,"
As a result, people in Liverpool have come together against violence, and have begun to understand each other.
Love bade them welcome.
You are invited to this table today – to eat, to drink, to share – and to know the love of God which drags you closer, and the life of Jesus which is with you always.
Amen.
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