Life

(this is part 3, for part one click here)
It was through the study of the catholic and Anglican understandings of what it means to "eat his flesh and drink his blood" that I arrived at my present conclusion; and I believe that God reveals himself to us through our simple acts of obedience. Let me suggest a parallel passage in John's first epistle that helps us understand Jesus command to eat his flesh and drink his blood.

"Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." (1 John 3: 13-18)

That is; unless we love our brother, we have no life in us; if we love our brother, it will cost us.

Again, our lives are to be the living breathing body of Christ. We eat his flesh; we take him within us, as we become more like him through acts of obedience. John says that we know that we have the life of Christ within us because of our love for our brother.

The Blood of Christ is the cup of his suffering, which he prays about in the garden. We drink this cup when our obedience calls us to do things which will cost us. We drink this cup when we are ridiculed for our foolishness, we drink this cup when we suffer for following Christ.

This is how we understand Jesus Words in Luke 22:
here speaking about the bread: "For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."
and speaking about the wine: "For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."

We are to be the fulfillment of this, the embodiment of Christ on earth and the advancers of the kingdom of God. We must be transformed from thinking like the world into the likeness of Christ. We should not expect to be liked for this, but rather we should not be surprised if the world hates us.

We must literally take Christ within us.
We must literally share in His sufferings.
Unless we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we have no life in us; unless we live the life of Christ, transformed by love, and unless we suffer for it, sharing in his suffering, we have no life.

Transubstantiation

(this is part 2, for part 1 click here)

"I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him." (John 6: 53-56)

At hearing this, many disciples turned back and no longer followed Jesus. Jesus asks of the twelve in vs. 67 "You do not want to leave too, do you?"

This passage became a crisis for me; I was raised a Baptist, and went to an Evangelical college. We were taught that the bread and the wine (or grape juice) were just symbols to us, we symbolically ate the flesh and drank the blood because Jesus told us to "do this in remembrance of me" at the last supper.

In John 6 Jesus commands that we literally eat his flesh and drink his blood, and we can't get around that he is not using a symbolic cup or bread such as at the last supper. Like the disciples, my answer to Jesus question has to be "Lord, to whom shall I go? You have the words of life;" I say this, as patient rather than practitioner, more as penitent than preacher. This crisis lead me to study Catholicism and eventually to become an Episcopalian - strictly in a blind sense of obedience, for their doctrine of Transubstantiation holds that the bread and the wine are “of the same essence” as the actual body and blood of Christ - How else was I to understand John 6?

An introduction (to toilet paper?)

A professor of music once referred to contemporary worship music as "Paper towel music" That is, in regard to how it is often poorly written poetry and formulaic music cheaply assembled and used for only a short time to be replaced by more of the same, it is disposable. This for him was in contrast to hymns, which held a kind longevity. Even the hymns are often forgotten, and words changed to suit a contemporary climate. If church music, which is sung for 10 years and then forgotten; is "paper towel music" then how much more dubious is the value of the sermon, which is written anew each week and often forgotten within four minutes of its close.

Now to counteract this disposable nature various methods have been employed which assist in maintaining the longevity of the message. I personally however have sat through thousands of sermons however, and recall only a few where the principle or illustration was direct and simple (such as Larry Callander’s “Jesus Egg” for “take my yolk upon you”). The fact of the matter is that God speaks to our hearts individually on these very same matters; it is just as likely if not more likely that God speaks to us when we are reading a Chilton’s auto repair manual, or doing something we shouldn't be, than it is that he will direct each of your hearts through a sermon (At most it is an instrument through which the real Word of God, that which became flesh, touches the heart) Indeed we should not to forget: our actual lives are the "proclaimed word of God" and the living breathing body of that Word - made flesh.

(For part 2 click here)

The Church is Impotent (Synchroblog)

If one looks around at how the cultural dictates of gay marriage legislation whip her into a frenzy, one realizes how little social "capital" she has. Indeed the primary problem behind the present lack of leadership ability comes from its abdication of that responsibility in years past; she's forgotten how. I am not here referencing the churches ability to influence, but rather observation that Today's popular consensus evolved from the positions of the church in years past (pluralism was first adopted by the church to fend off the proponents of Natural Theology, and Science).

Tony Jones in a recent blog post gives his take on the homosexual marriage issue. (responding to this Christianity Today article)He expresses an opinion that I have held in the past, but I was troubled by this: "So, marry whomever you want in your church (sacramental marriage), but let’s all band together and encourage monogamy". I think Tony's closer than many when it comes to this stuff, but it displays the churches failings to see a bigger picture (I do it too).

The fundamental problem is that everyone is taking positions around marriage that affirm the assumption that marriage is about SEX; this is a dangerous presumption. When God made man, he says "It is not good for man to be alone" and "not a suitable helper could be found." Now God made woman out of man, not for his pleasure, but because there is something essential to the nature of woman which made man better. When god says "it is not good for man to be alone," it's the first time in the creation account that God says anything is other than good. To say that marriage IS about sex is to affirm that woman was created by God solely for MANS pleasure, a position which is clearly untenable (both because it is misogynistic, and denies her role as [Ezer Kenegdo] - helper/rescuer).

The problem with homosexuality has nothing to do with the image of two men satisfying sexual urges or two women enjoying each others "company," (this notion merely illustrates our pornographic minds) rather it has to do with the abandonment of those relationships that make us full people. "It is NOT GOOD for man to be alone;" Here is a suitable helper (in woman) thus man is better than he was. While sex is a wonderful part of a full and healthy relationship, there is far more to the marriage relationship than the bed. But here the church has succumbed to the pattern of the world even surpassing the world in the divorce rate (I've been divorced too).

God demonstrates his commitment to us by loving us, and sticking by us and making it work, even when we could care less, or aren't trying... There is something about the nature of God, that was meant to be revealed to us through a committed intimate relationship with the other gender... other than sex.

For more of my thoughts on Homosexuality check out this post

Synchroblog contributors:
Kathy Baldock at Canyonwalker Connections - Marriage "I Do" For Who
Dan Brennan at Faith Dance - Sexual Difference, Marriage and Friendship
Steve Hayes at Khanya - Same Sex Marriage Synchroblog
Sonja Andrews at Calacirian - In Defense Of Marriage
John C O'Keefe - Exactly What Is Gay Marriage
Liz Dyer at Grace Rules - Nobody knows why or how same-sex marriage is harmful
Herman Groenewald at Along The Way - Same Sex Debate
Margaret Boelman at Minnowspeaks - What Have We Done
David Henson at unorthodoxology - ban marriage
Erin Word at Mapless - Synchroblog: Legalizing Same Sex Marriage
Joshua Jinno at Antechurch - The Church Is Impotent
K.W. leslie - Mountains, Molehills and Same-Sex Marriage 
Peter Walker at Emerging Christian – Synchroblog – Same Sex Marriage
Tia Linn at Abandon Image - Conservative Christians and Same-Sex Marriage: