Devotion - Monday, August 29

There are some sections of scripture which we tend to gloss over, failing to realize the significance the content played in the early Church.  Today's lesson from John 6:52-59 might be as good an example as any.

Jesus has been speaking of his sacrifice; of how his "body" will be the food which sustains and gives life.  These verses represent the necessity of the early Church to work out what we have come to speak of as "Sacraments."  The bread at our communion service is that body.

This discussion was essential to the early Church; and it is a discussion still happening in the contemporary Church.  Not all expressions of Christianity share in a sacramental understanding of the bread and wine.

In my prayers this morning I remembered those other expressions; praying that differences in theological teachings would not separate us in mission in the world.  My prayers expressed appreciation for the sense of sacrament present in our part of the Christian family.  Appreciation for the ability to proclaim in sermons, in liturgies, and in pastoral conversation the certainty that those searching for Christ are always able to find him - he is there, in the bread and in the wine.  Just as he is there in the waters of Holy Baptism.

Talk of sacraments was confusing to the early Church, and it remains a topic of active discussion in the Church today.  "Active" is a word I use intentionally; to remind us that all of this activity is intimately connected to Jesus, who is as active among us as he was among those who heard him speak the words recorded in John 6.  Sacraments make this activity apparent.