"They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces."

[hermionesviolin]

So, I'm listening to last Tuesday's World Religions lecture online 'cause I was so sleepy when I was sitting in class, and I keep auto-inclusivizing. Possibly relatedly, the prof is talking about John Dominic Crossan's idea of Jesus as "a peasant Jewish cynic whose main interest was in healing people and getting them to eat together" and the Gospel of Mark, and when he says Kingdom of Heaven it reminds me of how at Rest and Bread last week, when I served Laura Ruth I couldn't remember whether "Bread of Heaven" or "Bread of Life" was what we say at Rest and Bread. Any of you have preferences (or other thoughts)?

[Addendum, for my reference: unrelated Communion conversation]

Comments

[wisdomeagle]

Since we're in the middle of the Bread of Life discourse from John in the lectionary and I'm preaching on "I am the Bread of Life," I am kind of in favor of that language at the moment. (At APL, of course, we say, "the Body of Christ," but when I preside at communion next week \o/ I am thinking I may say something like, "[name], this is Body of Christ, the Bread of Life, and it is given for you," although I realize that is long and unwieldy.

In thinking about the Bread of Life discourse I am seeing a set of interlinking images and symbols and sacraments

Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life; the communion bread becomes (is a sacrament of) the Body of Christ; the Church consumes and becomes the Body of Christ in the world; the Church prefigures (is a sacrament of) the Kingdom. (And Communion prefigures (is a sacrament of) the heavenly banquet.)

I like the "bread of life" because of the reminder that Christ gives us life and abundant life and eternal life; I like "bread of heaven" because it's a reminder of the sacramental nature of the feast. I think the latter -- especially e.g. combined with v. high liturgy and wafers -- might give the sense that there's no connection between earthly bread and heavenly bread, which is absolutely not the case: the bread of life is bread. It is also the Body of Christ and it gives life, abundant life, eternal life.

[wisdomeagle]

Okay, so I looked up Communion in Baptized We Live, doing sermon research, and I feel like it's worth sharing although perhaps it doesn't directly answer your question.

From Baptized, We Live: Lutheranism as a Way of Life by Daniel Erlander:

Bread is broken, wine is poured, and we share a family meal.

The words, "This is my body" and "This is my blood" assure us that Christ is present. We believe he is with us as...

• the Christ of memory.
  
  In the meal the Lord's death is proclaimed. We remember that it was by a body broken and by blood poured that God chose to save the world. By eating and drinking we participate in that saving event


• the Christ of the present.
  
  In the meal Christ is present. He is Immanuel -- God with us, the living word calling us from lesser loyalties, forgiving our sin and nourishing us for discipleship. As the host of the meal he feeds us with himself so we may be his body in the world.


• the Christ of the future
  
  In the meal we are given a foretaste of the feast to come, the great banquet in the coming Kingdom of God. The future breaks into the present. We see a picture of the coming day when all creation will be united under the Lordship of Christ.

Okay, so in typing that out, I am seeing problematics that my first reading didn't give me, but I still really like the idea of the presence of Christ as a past, present, and future event.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I like bread of life better. I'm reading this book right now (which I will post on at one point) that really articulates one of the issues I have with how I was raised religiously. When the whole focus is on afterlife, behaving in such a way that you don't go to hell and do go to heaven and worrying about your state of salvation (which is what I grew up with), I think a person misses a lot of the here and now. I like "life" because that's about living right now in the moment. Does that make sense?

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

That's the exact liturgy from last Sunday. Is your church on the same liturgical schedule as Catholic Church?

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Technically my Subject Line quotes from Mark since that's the Gospel the prof was working from, but yes, the Revised Common Lectionary* has The Feeding of the Five Thousand, Gospel of John version, for The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost (which was last Sunday) (http://www.textweek.com/yearb/properb12.htm).

* "The Revised Common Lectionary is used in its original or an adapted form by a number of churches around the world. The Ordo Lectionum Missae, on which it is based, is used in the Roman Catholic Church in local translations as the standard lectionary. A number of Protestant churches have also adopted (and sometimes adapted) the RCL. In the United States of America this includes the Disciples of Christ, the Christian Fellowship of the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the Community of Christ, and the American Baptist Churches, USA, among others." -Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revised_Common_Lectionary#Denominational_practices)

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

This I did not know. Thank you!

I guess I'm just used to low church where there isn't any scheduled liturgy, just whatever the preacher wants to talk about.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that is what I grew up with as well. If I knew about lectionary, I'm sure I assumed it was just a Catholic thing. I've come to be a big fan of lectionary, though. It forces you to deal with more than just the stuff that you like and which is easy for you. Plus you get these nice arcs -- like the healing stories in Mark this Lent, or the current arc of David and the Temple. Though I wish we covered more of the Bible in the lectionary; a 3-year cycle seems insufficient to me.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

There is something really cool about knowing that lots of other people are reading and talking about the same passages that you are at the same time.

[speacechilde.livejournal.com]

Is Rest and Bread the same as Communion?

I don't know "preference" is the right word for someone who can recite the BCP in her sleep, but I guess I'm comfortable with "bread of Heaven."

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Rest and Bread is a meditative midweek service I attend, which includes Communion as part of it, and during Communion we serve the bread to one another.