Pondering for Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Daily Office Readings for Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Epiphany: Year 2

Morning, Psalm 72; Evening, Psalm 119:73-96:
Genesis 22:1 to 18; Hebrews 11:23 to 31; John 6:52  to 59:

“Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day;” (John 6:54)

I joined the Episcopal Church with the introduction of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Holy Communion became the liturgy for every Sunday as the weekly Feast Day of our Lord. I have heard that before the 1979 Prayer Book, Holy Communion was celebrated once or perhaps twice a month on specific Sundays. It was decided (using the same scriptures we had always used), that every Sunday was the Feast Day of our Lord. For me, Holy Communion  (Liturgy of the Table) is the most important part of the service.

While the verse from John 6:54 above sounds cannibalistic on the surface, its true meaning makes much more spiritual sense. In the Anglican view of Consubstantiation, the bread and wine are not “changed” into the body and blood of Christ, but rather, embedded with the body and blood of Christ. The material never changes, but the spiritual presence of our Lord is added to it.  The celebrant and people asks God to be in the bread and wine so that life, true life, eternal life will also dwell in us as we dwell in Him.

Maybe God knew that one day we would have streaming Church services and fixed it more than 2000 years ago with our Lord Jesus saying “ Take and eat, do this in remembrance of me.”  We can’t stream a piece of bread or a sip of wine to parishioners, nor should we want to.

Our regular attendance in Church and the receiving of Holy Communion, the taking inside us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus is life changing for all who partake of it.

Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.

As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John