Preaching and teaching

The early chapters of Mark’s gospel describe Jesus ministry of preaching and teaching in Galilee. Mark describes the way Jesus calls fishermen: Simon and Andrew, James and John and then later a tax collector called Levi. Each of them leave everything to follow him. Jesus is drawing together a new community of disciples, men and women who travelled together and shared common meals.

And then in Mark 3 comes a solemn moment in the gospel.

One short phrase catches the whole rhythm of the Christian life, the rhythm of the Eucharist and the whole rhythm of our discipleship - “to be with him and to be sent out”.

Jesus calls us, like the twelve, to live in this rhythm of being with Jesus together and being sent out. We are all disciples, we come to Jesus to learn his ways and his character and his nature and his mission. And we are all apostles: the word means simply those who are sent.

The rhythm of life

Mark 3.14 is a statement about the community, the Church which is forming around Jesus. We know that in part because of the number of disciples and apostles is twelve, the same number as the twelve tribes of Israel. The twelve represent the new, reformed people of God.

This rhythm of being with Jesus and being sent out is meant to run through the whole of our lives. The rhythm is centred once again around meeting Jesus in the Eucharist. Week by week we are called together around the table of the Lord to be with him in scripture, in fellowship in sung and spoken worship and in the sacrament.

Week by week we find forgiveness, we find bread for the journey and rest in the vine, we are drawn into the worship of heaven. And then, week by week we are sent out to be the people of God in the world, in every part of our lives.

A faith of my own

Meeting Christ as the one who sends in the Eucharist is deeply personal for me. When I was fifteen or sixteen years of age, the Christian faith became my own in a service of Holy Communion.

I’d always had a faith in God. My parents were not regular church goers at the time but they sent me to Sunday School. I was held within the family of the local Church in Halifax growing up. As a young teenager, I asked lots of questions and explored and tested my faith. But faith wasn’t yet personal, it wasn’t yet my own.

When I was in my mid-teens, I went away on a youth weekend with other young people from the diocese to a retreat centre near Harrogate called Barrowby House. Barrowby had a beautiful chapel, with a picture window looking out over the Yorkshire countryside.

The weekend ended with a final Eucharist on the Sunday morning. Through that Eucharist, the risen Christ spoke to me very powerfully and called me to follow.

Called and commissioned

The element which spoke most powerfully was the invitation and sense of being sent. All these years later there are two elements in that service I can remember very clearly.

The first was praying and understanding the prayer which we now use at the end of nearly every service of Holy Communion. It’s a prayer based on this verse from Romans 12, an invitation to offer all of our lives in the service of God:

This is the prayer of thanksgiving, taken from that verse, which I know you will recognise, At the centre of the prayer is offering our lives to God and being sent right:

Almighty God, we thank you for feeding us with the body and blood of your Son, Jesus Christ.
Through him we offer you our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice.
Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory. Amen.

Through that prayer I was able to make an offering of myself to God in soul and body and every time I say the prayer I make the same offering. I was able to respond to the call Isaiah heard in the temple and through the prayer say to the Lord, Here I am, send me.

The second element was singing together as the final hymn in the service, Lord Jesus Christ by Patrick Appleford, written originally for his church youth group. I was especially moved by the second verse and the final verse. The second verse describes the Eucharist in these words:

You have commanded us to do
This in remembrance Lord of you
Into our lives your power breaks through,
Living Lord.

The final verse is built around the idea of offering our lives, being sent:

Lord Jesus Christ
I would come to you
Live my life for you,
Son of God.
All your commands I know are true,
Your many gifts will make me new,
Into my life your power breaks through,
Living Lord.

More than fifty years later I can still remember the grace of God in that moment, the sense of being called and sent in the final words of the service, which again we hear in every Eucharist:

Go in peace to the love and serve the Lord
In the name of Christ, Amen.
We are called as disciples and we are sent as apostles.

“Mitto” - I send

In the Roman Catholic Church and in some Anglican churches, the service of Holy Communion is called the mass. The word mass comes from the Latin term Mitto, I send. The love of Christ sends us out into God’s world to love, to trust and to hope together.

The idea of mission, of being sent, is fundamental to the nature of God. God’s love for the world overflows in the creation of the world and in the making of humankind in God’s image. The God of mission sends the patriarchs and prophets, kings and priests to form a people for himself and to guide that people in God’s ways.

In the fulness of time the God of mission sends his own Son to be our Saviour. In the famous words of John 3.16:

The Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus himself the Apostle and High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3.1). Jesus is himself an apostle, sent by God. In Jesus’ great high priestly prayer in John 17, the Lord reminds us over and over again that he is sent from God and that he now sends the disciples into the world:

These same words are echoed after the resurrection by the risen Lord:

The little words in those verses “so” and “as” are very important. We are sent into the world week by week in the same way that God sent Jesus in the world: with humility, as servants, in love, bearing the message of Christ and continuing the mission of God.

And then the Father and the Son together send the Spirit. Jesus equips those he sends with the same grace and power of God for God’s mission in the world. John 21 continues in this way:

“When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained”

John 20.22-23

So Christ calls us, forgives us, feeds us and inspires us in the Eucharist and then sends us out into the world. What does all of this mean for us week by week?

A common calling

We all have a common calling to share in God’s mission of love for the world. At the heart of that calling is love. We are to love our families, our neighbours, our friends, the stranger in our midst.

We are to live out what the Anglican Communion calls the five marks of God’s mission: to proclaim the kingdom of God through our whole lives; to preach and teach and baptise new believers; to offer loving service in the wider community; to challenge unjust structures and work for justice and for peace and to tend and treasure the earth.

Within that common calling, Christians have their own particular callings according to the gifts God has given to us and the needs of the church and for the world.

One of those callings is to share in the ministry of the Church and the ministry of the Eucharist in different ways. We are in a place now as a church when we need many more vocations to ordained ministry from people at every stage of life and every part of our community. It is such a privilege to preside at the gathering of God’s people as together we meet with Jesus and are sent out.

I hope and pray that through Come and See this year many more people will hear God’s call to offer to share in this ministry in the months and years to come. My own call to be a priest came just a year or so after that powerful experience of God’s grace on the youth weekend.

How is Christ calling you?

But there are many gifts and many callings. In the words of the great Methodist covenant service:

Christ has many services to be done: some are easy, others are difficult;
Some bring honour, others bring reproach;
Some are suitable to our natural inclinations and material interests,
Others are contrary to both
In some we may please Christ and please ourselves;
In others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselfs
Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ, who strengthens us.

You may want to take a moment to reflect on your own calling and vocation as we draw to the end of Come and See this year.

How is Christ calling you to serve him at this point in your life? How are you devoting your best gifts and abilities to God’s service? Is there an offer you need to make, a question you need to ask, a conversation you need to have? Do you need to explore a particular aspect of the Christian life and faith?

Whatever your response, may God bless you richly in the next part of the journey.

Food for the journey

John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism, were ordained as Anglicans in our own Cathedral. Their memorial is at the foot of the pulpit steps. Both John and Charles played their part in helping Anglicans and Methodists deepen our understanding of the Eucharist: Charles through his hymnody and John through his preaching.

John Wesley called Holy Communion a converting ordinance: a command of Christ – do this in remembrance of me – but also a gift of God’s mercy and grace to draw us deeper into Christ and give us food for the journey.

My prayer is that through Come and See this year we will all encounter the risen Christ afresh as the one who welcomes us, cleanses us from sin, strengthens us for the journey, gives us a place to rest and belong, draws us deeper into the worship of heaven and sends us out in the world.

But as the final part of Come and See, let’s remember one of the very greatest of the Easter stories. On the first Easter Day according to Luke, two disciples walk to Emmaus, heading in the wrong direction, away from Jerusalem. A stranger draws near to them. The risen Christ listens to the pain of his grieving disciples but they do not recognise him.

In the second part of the journey, he teaches them from the Scriptures everything concerning himself. They will later say that their hearts burned within them but still they do not recognise him.

They come to the place to which they were going. The stranger walks ahead as if he were going on. But they urge him to stay with them. And then Luke writes:

“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them”.

The same words used in the feeding of the five thousand and at the Last Supper.

“Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him and he vanished from their sight”

Immediately they return to Jerusalem, sent out to bear witness to the resurrection.

“Then they told what had happened to them and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread”

May each of us, in all our lives, meet the Risen Christ in the Eucharist and be able to say to others - Come and see!

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The Trinity

Take a moment to look carefully at the most famous icon in the world. What do you see? The icon was painted by the Russian artist Andrei Rublev.

It depicts a particular moment in the Book of Genesis. Abraham and his wife Sarah are visited by the Lord in the form of three distinct persons (Genesis 18). Abraham and Sarah prepare a meal for their guests under the oaks of Mamre. You can see the oak tree behind the central figure.

From earliest times, the Church has seen the story as a picture of God the Holy Trinity and this is what Rublev has tried to capture in this holy painting: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in communion.

The colours in the painting are significant. The Son in the centre is clothed in blue, the colour of humanity and red, the colour of divinity. The Son wears a stole over his right shoulder to signify he is a deacon, a servant who lays down his life.

The Holy Spirit on the right is clothed in blue, again for humanity but also green for creation to signify the Spirit’s work in bringing the world into being. The Father on the left wears a coat of many colours. The Father is the author of the whole of life. The Son and the Spirit look to the Father in adoration and worship.

See how the figures are seated around a table. On the table is a chalice of wine, a sign of the sacrifice of the Son but also a sign of the Eucharist. If you look carefully, it’s possible to see the shape of the chalice or of cupped hands in the central space between the figures. The Trinity is a community of love.

And take a moment to notice that there is an empty place at the table. You and I are invited to come and eat. We are invited to the feast. We are drawn into the worship of heaven.

The Son of God

The Eucharist is the most amazing gift to the Church. This is the meal in which we meet with Jesus our risen Lord. Christ is the servant who welcomes us. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is the Bread of Life who nurtures us and strengthens us life’s journey. Jesus is the Vine who lives in us as we live in him and enables our lives to bear fruit.

But through all of this, we need to remember also that in the Eucharist, Jesus the Son of God draws us into the life of the Trinity, into the very worship of heaven.

The Old Testament reminds us in powerful stories about the holiness of God: that we should approach Almighty God, maker of heaven and earth with reverence and awe and that this reverence should be reflected in the way God’s people worship.

When God calls Moses from the burning bush in the desert, the first words Moses hears after his name are these: “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3.5).

How much of that kind of holiness is reflected in our worship? How often do we take off our sandals on holy ground?

Holy is the Lord

In a moment of national crisis, the prophet Isaiah has a powerful vision of God in the temple in Jerusalem. Isaiah’s vision engages all the senses and conveys the majesty and otherness and holiness of Almighty God:

This same song of the Seraphs which Isaiah heard in this moment is echoed in every service of Holy Communion at the most solemn moment of the service as we share in the worship of heaven:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (3).

There is great drama in the temple worship:

“The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called and the house filled with smoke” (4).

Isaiah’s vision of the holiness of God makes him aware of his own sinfulness and need of grace:

“Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”.

Isaiah is made clean by grace. A seraph flies to him with a burning coal. Then the prophet hears the Lord speaking to him and asking “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?”. And Isaiah responds:

“Here I am, send me!”.

Our duty and our joy

In every Eucharist, we are drawn into the worship of heaven. At the beginning of the service we sing the Gloria, the great hymn of praise to God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. On Sundays and Holy Days we solemnly declare our faith in one God who is Trinity in the words of the Nicene Creed.

In the great Eucharistic Prayer, the president offers thanks and praise on behalf of all the people. Thanks and praise are offered in the first part of the prayer (Prayer A) to the Trinity: to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rehearsing the story of salvation.

“It is indeed our duty and our joy at all times and in all places to give you thanks and praise, holy Father, heavenly King, almighty and eternal God, through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.

For he is your living Word, through him you have created all things from the beginning and formed us in your own image.

Through him you have freed us from the slavery of sin, giving him to be born of a woman and to die upon the cross; you raised him from the dead and exalted him to right hand on high.

Through him you have given us your holy and life giving Spirit and made us a people for your own possession”

So we are drawn into the worship of heaven here on earth. The Sanctus is sung and then in the central part of the prayer the President recalls the institution of Holy Communion and all that Christ’s sacrifice means.

After the words of institution we pray for grace and renewal in this Eucharist and we are reminded that our worship on earth is joined with the worship of heaven:

“Send the Holy Spirit on your people and gather into one in your kingdom all who share this one bread and one cup so that we in the company of all your saints may praise and glorify you for ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord”

Finally all the glory and all the worship is offered back to the Father (Prayer B):

There is a present and future dimension to being drawn into the worship of heaven. In the present our prayers are joined to the prayers of the saints and the song of the angels.

The Letter to the Hebrews catches this sense of awe and reverence and being part of something much greater than ourselves as we gather in worship.

The writer contrasts the experience of the Israelites at Mount Sinai with the experience of those who are drawn into Christian worship. First the Israelites:

“You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them”

12.18-19

And now the contrast in Christian worship:

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel”

12:22-24

We should worship in the present, then, with awe, says Hebrews (12.28), for our God is a consuming fire. But we should also know that our worship in the present looks forward as well as backwards. We remember but we also anticipate what is to come.

Looking forward

The meal in which we share is a foretaste of God’s banquet in heaven, the meal to which we are all invited, the great celebration which will mark the renewal of the heavens and the earth.

Jesus’ parables look forward to this great banquet, as does Jesus’ own great love of parties. Even at the Last Supper, Jesus looks forward to the moment when he will eat and drink again in the kingdom of God (Luke 22.16).

This is why all Christian worship is marked by deep joy and celebration even though we are worshipping in a world marked by suffering and pain, crisis and injustice. We are anticipating the time when all will be set right, when Christ will return, when we will sit and eat with him in heaven:

“Send your Spirit on us now that by these gifts we may feed on Christ with opened eyes and hearts on fire.
May we and all who share this food offer ourselves to live for you and be welcomed at your feast in heaven where all creation worships you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

Prayer D

Hallowed be your name

In every service of Holy Communion, the congregation then pray together the Lord’s Prayer, after the great prayer of thanksgiving but before we come to receive the bread and the wine.

Many of the themes we have explored are echoed in the prayer. Together as the family of God we come to God as Our Father.

We remember God’s holiness and our need for reverence as we pray: Hallowed be your name.

We look to the future together in hope and cry out with longing for the world to be changed: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We look to God for the provision of all that we need, physically and spiritually: Give us this day our daily bread.

We acknowledge our sin and seek God’s forgiveness and we commit ourselves to continuing to forgive others: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

We pray for God’s protection on the journey: Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

And finally we acknowledge God’s power and sovereignty and glory in heaven and on earth: For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.

Together we are drawn into the fellowship of God the Trinity. Together we are forgiven and fed. Together we rest in the vine. But then, but then, Christ who calls us will also send us out. That will be our theme next time. Come and see.

Called to welcome

Every time we share the Eucharist and come to Holy Communion we gather round the table and we meet our risen Lord in bread and wine. Jesus is the one who welcomes us in and spreads this table before us. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We come needing forgiveness and cleansing week by week. Jesus is the Bread of Life who brings new hope and energy and strength for the journey.

Each time we meet our risen Lord, there is a potential for all of us to be changed, to be transformed from within, through the power of God in Christ. Remember those words from the ancient prayer of humble access: that we may dwell in him and he in us.

As Christ dwells in us, together, so we are changed to be more like Jesus. Christ is forming his church, building his body, through every Eucharist.

All of us are called to welcome others as Christ welcomes us. That might mean finding practical ways to share in offering this service Sunday by Sunday. No parish church can function without a whole range of committed volunteers to steward and serve coffee; to sing or maintain the building; to lead the prayers, provide financially and care for God’s people. It might mean befriending those who are new in our community. It might mean opening our own homes and offering hospitality to others in church or community.

All of us are called to extend forgiveness to others just as we have been forgiven. Remember the fourth line of the Lord’s prayer: forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Remember that saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount about leaving your gift at the altar and setting things right with your brother or sister before you make your offering (Matthew 5.23).

All of us are called to build others up and nurture them in faith and in life just as Jesus the Bread of Life offers us his life each day. We are to be channels of God’s life and peace to others. Just imagine the difference we could make if every time Christians gathered around the table of the Lord we left determined to welcome others; to forgive others; to build others up by all we say and do. The grace and love which is there as we celebrate this meal Sunday by Sunday overflows into all the world.

Rich, deep wine

The same is true as we will see, of our next encounter with Jesus as the true vine. We’ve focussed so far on Jesus as the Bread. But there are two elements and two rich symbols in our meal of Holy Communion: there is bread but there is also rich, deep wine.

Bread and wine go together in the scriptures. In a very early story in the Book of Genesis, Abraham is caught up in a great battle between nine kings (Genesis 14). After the battle, Genesis tells us:

“And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was a priest of God most High”. Melchizedek offers Abraham a solemn blessing.

In Proverbs 9, Wisdom personified builds a house, prepares a feast and invites everyone to come and eat:

“Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.”

Psalm 104 speaks of wine to bring joy and bread to give strength (104.15). Wine has a leading role in the great feast in Isaiah when God will destroy death for ever:

So how do we understand and meet Jesus in the wine in the Eucharist? What does this symbol mean?

Wine is a symbol of two different things here and we find meaning in the tension between them. Bread is a symbol for strength and the power to live. Bread represents the ordinary days. But wine goes beyond the ordinary. Wine is a symbol of both suffering and of joy, finely woven together – a lesson in how we are to understand our lives.

Wine in the Eucharist represents the blood of Christ, the blood of the new covenant. We know this from the words of institution at the last supper:

The cup of suffering and sacrifice

In Gethsemane Jesus prays that God may take this cup of suffering away. But the cup of wine is not only a symbol of Christ’s suffering. Remember the story of James and John the two sons of Zebedee. Their mother comes and asks a favour of Jesus: can these two sons of mine sit one on your right and one on your left when you come into your kingdom.

Jesus answered: “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”

Every Christian is called to follow Jesus in the way of sacrifice and suffering, to lay down our lives for others, to take up our cross and follow him.

As we take the cup of wine in Holy Communion we are remembering again our willingness to share in the suffering of Christ, in laying down our lives as part of what it means to live as a disciple.

But here is the paradox and it is a paradox which takes us right to the centre of our humanity.

The wine is a symbol of suffering, of mortality, of death and of a willingness to lay down our lives. But this rich, deep, fine wine is also the symbol of the most wonderful joy and celebration and contentment.

An inescapable paradox

Here we come to one of the deepest truths to learn about the Christian life. Joy and suffering are not alternatives or opposites. Joy and suffering are both an inescapable part of what it means to be human, of what it means to love, of what it means to be a Christian. Joy and suffering are held together in this most glorious sign and symbol of wine. This wine is offered to you and I, Sunday by Sunday, in the heart of our worship and we meet Jesus there together, sharing the common cup.

But there is more.

The Fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John, is structured first around seven great signs or miracles and second around seven great “I am” sayings. We’ve already explored one of the most important of these where Jesus says to the crowd: “I am the Bread of Life”.

The first of the signs is the miracle of the wedding in Cana. Jesus changes water into wine. A sign of what Christ is able to do in our lives. The ordinary water is transformed. Our lives are taken to a new level: not a level simply of happiness and freedom from pain but a deeper level of being able to offer our whole lives back to God and know and understand and live the joy of the gospel. This is life.

The gospel returns to the symbolism of the wine in the last of the great “I am” sayings in John 15. Jesus says this:

Again there more than a hint that living and growing in Christ will involve pain seasons of and difficulty alongside joy and fruitfulness.

But then comes the principal invitation and lesson of this powerful picture. Jesus says:

A deep part of being human is to know that our lives can be fruitful and are a benefit and a blessing to others. Fruit means many different things in Scripture.

Sometimes it can mean an increase of justice and peace in the world as in Isaiah 5 and the beautiful song of the vineyard. Sometimes it can mean an increase in the number of disciples, as in the great catch of fish and the picture of the disciples fishing for people in Luke 5.

Sometimes it can mean inner change and transformation: developing the beautiful fruits of the Spirit in our own lives as in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control – the character of Jesus.

Abide in Jesus

We all long to live lives which are fruitful and meaningful, which make a difference in the world. Jesus invites us in this picture to explore how to do that. It is not primarily through rushing around and being busy and active.

We are simply invited together to abide, to live in Jesus, as the branch abides in the vine. Then the fruit will come naturally, inevitably, as the life of the vine flows through our own lives. If we become disconnected from the vine then we are like a dead branch. There can be no lasting fruit.

The word “abide” occurs nine times in the first ten verses of John 15: over and over again we are invited to rest in Jesus, to remain in Jesus, to live in Jesus. This abiding is to be mutual: “abide in me as I abide in you”, ”if you abide in me and I abide in you…”

Jesus is describing here how close is the bond and the connection between the branch and the vine. Again this draws us back to the Eucharist.

Abide in the vine

Holy Communion is one of the ways in which we abide in the vine. We eat the bread and drink the wine which represent the body and blood of Christ and become part of us: Christ abides in us. At the same time we ourselves rest Christ in this moment of drawing near in this precious sacrament of grace.

The heart of the service is where we come forward to receive. The priest invites us to draw near in these words:

“Draw near with faith.
Receive the body of our Lord Jesus Christ which he gave for you and his blood which he shed for you.
Eat and drink in remembrance that he died for you and feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

Every line is full of meaning.

We are invited to draw near: to come close to God, to the place where God has promised to meet with us. Because we are physical beings, flesh and blood, it can be helpful to get out of our seats and move – not because God is more present at one end of the church than the other, but because our moving signifies a desire to respond to God’s grace and presence.

We are invited to draw near with faith: believing the words of Jesus that Christ is here and will be near to us. We come with empty hands needing the gifts of forgiveness and new purpose and life which are in these simple actions.

We are invited then to eat and to drink the bread and the wine in remembrance that he died for you: to hold in our minds as we receive Holy Communion, Christ’s gift of himself on the cross and all this means for our salvation. Finally we are invited to feed on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving. Although the physical portions of bread and wine are small, we are invited to abide here, to savour this sacrament. This is the place to focus our hearts and our devotion as we return and kneel to pray: a simple act of thanksgiving.

As we eat and drink these holy gifts Christ is present. As we receive his body, together we become his body. We are transformed together into his likeness, each refracting a different part of the rainbow grace of God. Celebrating and receiving Holy Communion must always be more than an individual action. As we are united with Christ so we are united with one another around the table of the Lord. Our wounds are healed and our fellowship mended. We are becoming a church which is one, holy, catholic and apostolic.

As we rest in Christ the true vine and Christ lives in us, so our lives are caught up into the worship of heaven. That will be our theme next time: come and see…

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Bread of heaven

Come back to that scene by the shore of Lake Galilee.

It’s the morning after the night before. The crowd have coming looking for Jesus on the other side of the Lake. They want to know more about what happened. Although they ate well yesterday, they know they will be hungry again today.

What does this miracle mean? Is Jesus able to feed his followers every day? There would be no need to work.

Jesus and his disciples have gone ahead by boat. It’s late in the day when the crowds catch up with him. Jesus first encourages the crowd not to work for the food that perishes.

Then the crowd ask a different question:

We meet Jesus in so many different ways in Holy Communion. Jesus is first of all the servant and host who welcomes us into the meal and spreads a spiritual banquet before us of bread and wine.

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world: we are able to come and to be forgiven because of Christ’s death on the cross. We saw how the Eucharist looks back to the Passover which remembers the Exodus from Egypt and the journey out of slavery to freedom and the promised land.

But here there is another reference to a meal in the Exodus story, or rather a series of meals. The Egyptians let God’s people go. They cross the Red Sea into the wilderness of Sinai, a great multitude. But straight away there are challenges and problems. The people cry out with hunger. Are they to die in the desert?

God provides

The special bread which God provides helps us to understand the gift of Holy Communion. This bread was called manna. The manna was given by the grace of God each night. Every morning the Israelites would go out and gather daily bread for the next part of the journey. They would gather a set amount for each person – called an omer in the Bible – about 2 kilos by weight.

According to Exodus 16, it was possible to bake or boil the manna. It was like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. Manna lasted only for a day – except on the Sabbath when it was possible to gather enough for two days. The Israelites ate the manna for forty years - God’s provision of daily bread - until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

Back to Galilee. We can see what the Israelites are asking here. Our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness. Yesterday we ate the bread you provided. What sign can you give to us so that we can believe in you?

This is how Jesus responds:

Note the way in which Jesus refers to God as my Father. Note the present tense: my Father who gives. This is about today not long ago.

Jesus goes on:

Jesus is talking about himself of course. Life is a major theme in John’s gospel. Remember the words from the opening verses: in him was life and the life was the light of all people.

The crowds respond, longing for this sign, this bread which gives life:

“They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always”. And this is how Jesus replies:

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Bread of life

Jesus himself is the bread of life. Jesus himself offers abundant life; deep spiritual satisfaction; the quenching of inner longings of hunger and thirst for meaning; for purpose; for hope and for love.

The dialogue continues. The Jews begin to question and complain. Jesus repeats and expands his extraordinary promises:

As the chapter moves on, we are drawn more and more to the meal that Jesus gives us, to Holy Communion, to the Eucharist:

Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you…

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them…

The one who eats this bread will live for ever.

There are powerful promises here about meeting Jesus in the Eucharist. As we eat and drink we receive, through faith, the body and blood of Jesus. This food and drink gives us strength for our own journey through the desert. This is not a once and for all gift like baptism. This is an ongoing miracle, an ongoing gift, like manna in the wilderness.

When we meet Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world we are looking back to his death on the cross for the sins of the whole world. When we meet Jesus the Bread of Life, we are remembering his resurrection and the gift of life for the whole world which flows from his own overcoming of death. We are remembering that Jesus is present with us, really present with us, not only in the sacrament but in our daily lives giving daily strength. That we are invited into eternal life with God.

Physical bread is not enough

Physical daily bread is important. We need enough to eat for our bodies and bread is a fantastic food. But this kind of bread is not enough. We are more than physical bodies.

Our world is living through such difficult times. We face immense challenges in this generation: challenges of war, of global poverty, of the environment, of learning to live well with new technology.

These great global challenges affect our confidence and our mental health, they sap life and hope, especially from the young. We need more than physical bread alone. The world needs desperately to hear again this good news of new life: the promise of eternity; of rich fulfilling life in the present; of food and love and nurture for the journey.

And that begins with the Church, with Christians, coming to a new understanding of Jesus as the Bread of Life especially in the great gift of Holy Communion. There is an immense and often forgotten treasure here, a gift from God, celebrated in every parish church in every neighbourhood in the land, a source of life to everyone who finds their way, because Jesus is at the centre.

Bread and wine

When the Fourth Gospel comes to tell the story of the Last Supper, John focuses on the footwashing not the institution of Holy Communion. He is writing for a church which already knows that story. Instead, earlier in the gospel John takes us deeper into the signs and symbols of Jesus as the Bread of Life and Jesus as new wine, as the true Vine.

So how do we meet with Jesus the Bread of Life as we come to share Holy Communion together. At the end of the great prayer of thanksgiving the priest prays in these words:

… as we eat and drink these holy gifts in the presence of your divine majesty
Renew us by your Spirit
Inspire us with your love
And unite us in the body of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is our journey Sunday by Sunday from the place of weariness, languishing fogginess and emptiness back to life: renew us by your Spirit, inspire us with your love and unite us in the body of your Son.

Inward, invisible grace

There is an old definition of a sacrament which all Anglican Christians used to learn by heart, but not many now do. The words are beautiful and important even though they are neglected.

A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace. Jesus knows that we are flesh and blood. Our faith must be more than intellectual and cerebral. There must be aspects of our worship that we can do and feel and touch and taste which are accessible to everyone. This is the reason for this gift.

The outward and visible sign here is the bread and wine which are taken and blessed and broken and given, in continuity with the manna, the feeding by the lakeside, the Last Supper.

The inward and spiritual grace is the sense of the Lord’s presence, of holy communion with God, of resting in God’s presence which comes as we receive together, as we enjoy and appreciate fellowship with Almighty God in these moments and in what follows. God’s love made visible in Jesus Christ is offered to us in this sacrament of bread and wine.

We eat and drink and receive Christ deep within us, to inspire and transform us from within from death to life, from hate to love, from fear to peace, from sadness to joy.

We do not receive these gifts through an intellectual understanding. A child is able to receive Holy Communion as a sacrament of God’s love just as an adult can. Someone with learning difficulties is able to find as much joy here as a university professor. We come as equals.

We receive these gifts through faith: through choosing to trust and believe that God keeps his promises, that Jesus is present as we remember in these powerful symbols which he chose and which he gives us, that Jesus is the bread of life.

Draw near with faith

Listen to the words of invitation which the priest offers to the people Sunday by Sunday:

We come and eat and in this sharing in the meal Christ gives to us we find our life again.

One of my very favourite hymns for Easter is Now the green blade riseth. It’s the work of John McCrum, at one-time chaplain to one of my predecessors as Bishop of Oxford.

The hymn connects the themes of Easter, of spring time, of new life and resurrection. I especially love the final verse. Our hearts are indeed wintry, grieving and in pain. Below is a particularly beautiful version of the hymn by Steve Winwood.

Now the green blade riseth, from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

In the grave they laid Him, Love who had been slain,
Thinking that He never would awake again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

Forth He came at Easter, like the risen grain,
Jesus who for three days in the grave had lain;
Quick from the dead the risen One is seen:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain,
Jesus’ touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again like wheat that springeth green.

We come to Christ the host and servant who welcomes us; to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; to Jesus the Bread of Life who gives us food for the journey.

Next time we will explore meeting with Jesus who is the vine who asks us to make our home in him. Come and see.

Thirsty for new life

A great crowd has gathered on the banks of the river Jordan this day, like all the days before. John the Baptist is standing on the shore, like one of the prophets of old. Day after day the people come, streaming from the towns and villages. They come seeking forgiveness and a new beginning, hungry and thirsty for new life. They come for news of God’s Messiah.

They know that John is not the one, but John the Baptist has come to prepare the way.

Then one day John is in the midst of the river, baptising. The crowds part and John sees someone coming towards him on the shore: Jesus. As I imagine the scene, there is a deep silence as Jesus reaches the shore and each looks at the other with understanding and with love. Then, before Jesus comes into the water to be baptised, John declares to the crowd:

It’s an astonishing statement. John the Baptist’s cry stands as a kind of headline above the whole of the fourth gospel. Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The chapters which follow will show the reader again and again the truth contained in this single declaration.

This is the mystery

Welcome back to Come and See. Our theme is meeting Jesus in the Eucharist. We began with meeting Jesus here as a servant who welcomes us, as the gracious, gentle host at the meal. All of us are invited. We are all loved and valued deeply.

Our theme this week is set by John’s words, words which form a key part of every celebration of Holy Communion: Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

John’s words capture something essential about who Jesus is and something vital about what Jesus has done. The image of the Lamb is a surprising image of weakness and vulnerability. John will testify after the baptism that Jesus is the Son of God.

But this Son of God does not come among us in power and strength and glory as the world understands these things. This is the mystery.

The Son of God comes as a lamb: gentle, vulnerable, humble. There is a fragility to Almighty God taking flesh and coming to live among us.

This image of the Lamb right at the beginning of the gospel draws our attention above all to the cross, to the way that Jesus will die and to the meaning of Jesus death. John is drawing here on several strands of the Old Testament to offer us his picture of Jesus, his understanding of who Christ is.

The Passover Lamb

First Jesus is the Passover Lamb. The story of the Passover is told in the Book of Exodus in Chapter 12. The Passover is a meal which remembers, like the Eucharist. The Passover recalls the exodus itself: the night that God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

Each family was to take and prepare a lamb from their flock. They were to put some of the blood of the lamb on the doorposts and the lintels of their homes. When God brought the final plague on the Egyptians to bring Israel out of captivity, the Angel of the Lord would pass over the homes marked with the blood of the lamb. These homes would be places of life and not of death.

This great symbolic meal at the heart of Israel’s identity now becomes also a sign which points to a deeper reality. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The great purpose of his life is in his death. Jesus offers up his life on the cross so that forgiveness and freedom can be offered by God not to one nation but to all the world.

The sacrificial lamb

Second, Jesus is the sacrificial lamb which God has provided. The Book of Genesis tells the story of Abraham and his son Isaac told in Genesis 22.

God seems to ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac his son on Mount Moriah, later, by tradition, near the site of the temple in Jerusalem. As Abraham and Isaac make the journey up the mountain to the place of sacrifice, with Isaac carrying the wood for the sacrifice, Isaac asks this question: “The fire and the wood are here but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”.

Abraham responds: “God himself will provide a lamb for a burnt offering, my son”.

According to John the Baptist, Jesus, the Son of God, is the Lamb God has provided for a sacrifice to take away the sins of the whole world and to enable new life and new beginnings.

The lamb led to the slaughter

Third, John the Baptist recalls the Servant Songs of the Book of Isaiah and especially Isaiah 53:

“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53.5,7)

In the long story of the Universe, God made the whole of creation and declared that creation was good. Sin, wrong doing, falling short, missing the mark, entered the world through human disobedience, disobedience in which we all share.

God sends his son to give his life once and for all for the sins of the world so that our sin can be taken away and forgiven and so that the world can be restored and be remade. All this meaning is wrapped up in John the Baptist’s words.

A cry of victory

The gospels will show us in different ways the deep meaning of Christ’s death on the cross. In John’s gospel we will read of Jesus description of himself as the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep (10.11).

We will read of the grain of wheat which must fall into the ground and die in order that it might bear much fruit (12.23).

We will read of Jesus being lifted up on the cross like the bronze image of the snake raised up in the wilderness to bring healing to his people (3.14).

Most powerfully of all we will read Jesus final words from the cross: It is finished (19.30) - a cry of victory not defeat in the face of death.

The meal that Jesus gives us in Holy Communion is memory of his life but most of all of the meaning of his death. Remember Paul’s words: “For as often as you eat the bread and drink the cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11.26)”.

Jesus himself, at the Last Supper, is clear about the meaning of his death and the signs he gives us in the bread and in the wine:

All of these ideas are deeply woven into the service of Holy Communion.

Humble access

One of the most beautiful prayers in the English language, adapted from the old Prayer Book, is used now as the congregation prepare to receive Holy Communion. It’s known as the Prayer of Humble Access.

The prayer begins with the theme of radical welcome: we know we are invited. But we also know we are not worthy and we come with empty hands needing God’s grace and God’s forgiveness:

We do not presume to come to this your table, merciful Lord,

Trusting in our own righteousness but in your manifold and great mercies.

We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table

But you are the same Lord whose nature is always to have mercy.

We come like the tax collector in the parable, in humility before God and before others. Then the second part of the prayer seeks again the grace of forgiveness as we share through faith in the body and blood of the Lord:

Grant us therefore, gracious Lord,

So to eat the flesh of your dear Son, Jesus Christ and to drink his blood

That our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body

And our souls washed through his most precious blood

And that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.

We have been healed and forgiven, once and for all. But every time we come to this meal we stand on holy ground, poor in Spirit, conscious of our sin and weakness and need of grace offering empty hands to receive, by faith, the gift of Christ’s body and his blood.

This is why every time we come to Holy Communion we confess our sins and hear the priest pronounce forgiveness and absolution, because of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Have mercy on us

John the Baptist’s solemn declaration is quoted directly in not one but two solemn moments in the service. In the Gloria, the song of praise near the beginning of the service, we sing these words:

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God

You take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.

And just before we come forward to receive, we sing again, three times:

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us

Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us peace.

There is nothing we can do to merit, earn or deserve God’s forgiveness in Christ. Everything is grace. There is nothing we can do either to reach a complete understanding of exactly how the death of Jesus on the cross accomplishes the forgiveness of sins in all of creation. We can explore and think and imagine and draw on the insights of other Christians before us.

But in the end we simply trust in the truth of John the Baptist’s testimony, in the assurances of Jesus himself and of the scriptures, in the experience of countless millions of faithful Christians who have gone this way before us: this forgiveness, this making new, this cleansing, this salvation is real and is made present to us Sunday by Sunday in these powerful gifts of bread which is broken and wine poured out.

Until he comes again

The next time you share in the Eucharist, know that you come to meet the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. One of the greatest privileges of my life, like that of any priest, is to celebrate the Eucharist with God’s people. Every time I pray the Eucharistic prayer I wonder afresh at the wideness of God’s mercy and the depth of what was accomplished in Christ’s death on the cross.

These are for me the most powerful words in any of our great prayers of thanksgiving and consecration and are taken again from the old Prayer Book:

All glory to you our heavenly Father, who in your tender mercy gave your only Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption;

Who made there by his one oblation of himself once offered a full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world;
he instituted and in his holy gospel commanded us to continue, a perpetual memory of that his precious death until he comes again…

The words and the sentence structure may be unfamiliar here. The word oblation means Jesus offering of himself. The adjectives and nouns are set in an unfamiliar structure like a mirror image. The prayer is describing Jesus full satisfaction, perfect sacrifice and sufficient oblation in his death on the cross.

But the line which always catches in my heart and sometimes in my throat is “for the sins of the whole world”.

I know and understand, painfully, how much sin there can be in one human heart and life. I have some understanding of how much sin there can be in one part of God’s church and God’s world. The sin of the whole world is beyond measure and comprehension: yet Christ’s sacrifice is enough and more than enough to offer forgiveness.

And so I come, in every Eucharist, just as I am to the foot of the cross in the words of Charlotte Elliot’s great hymn:

Just as I am, without one plea,
but that thy blood was shed for me,
and that thou bidd’st me come to thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt,
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
because thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

We meet discover Jesus in the Eucharist first as the servant and host who welcomes us; second as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Next time we will explore Jesus as the Bread of Life who feeds us on the journey. Come and see…

Come and See is a Lent devotional from Bishop Steven and the Diocese of Oxford. If you’d like to sign up for the daily reflections or podcasts, there’s still time.

Five barley loaves

There’s a beautiful story told in all four of the gospels. A great crowd follows Jesus into the wilderness to be near him and to listen to his teaching. They stay with him until late in the day and they are hungry. Jesus asks his disciples, where are they to find bread?

Philip responds: “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat? Six months wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little”.

Andrew brings forward a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish: “|But what are they among so many”.

There are around five thousand people on the mountainside, far from home. What can they do?

How does Jesus respond? First, he asks the disciples to make the people sit down. John tells us there was a great deal of grass in the place. So they sat down. Take a moment to picture the scene. It’s early evening. This great crowd is gathered on the hillside. There is a great stillness. Everyone can see what Jesus is about to do.

And this is what John says next:

“Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated, also the fish; as much as they wanted”.

Jesus takes bread, gives thanks, breaks it and gives it to the people. They all have enough to eat, and there are twelve baskets of fragments left over.

Much later, on the night Jesus was betrayed, he does something very similar, with the disciples in the Upper Room. Jesus gives to us in this moment a special meal. This is St Paul’s description of the Last Supper, the earliest one we have:

Welcome to Come and See. We’re taking six sessions to explore Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the profound meal which is at the heart of all Christian worship and at the heart of the Christian life. You’re very welcome, whether you are new to the faith or whether you have been a Christian for many years.

The heart of the Eucharist

I hope that together we can discover or rediscover Jesus at the heart of the Eucharist. This sacrament, this sign is his beautiful gift to us. Jesus Christ is present with us as we gather around the table of the Lord. Jesus is present to us in the bread and the wine, in as we listen to the scriptures, as we meet Christ in one another.

How do we meet Jesus and how does Jesus meet with us? What does this special meal mean?

Each of these six pieces will explore a different way in which we discover Jesus in the Eucharist. This meal is given so we can get to know Jesus better in all these different ways. Every one of them is for beginners in the Christian life and for those who have been Christians many years. We never come to the end of the meaning of this meal. There are daily readings as well which will help all of us explore these themes as part of our learning and our prayer.

Jesus, the servant

But we begin with these two simple pictures: of Jesus on the hillside and Jesus in the upper room. Jesus is first in this meal a servant, a host, someone who welcomes us to Holy Communion.

I don’t know how you picture God. Most of us perhaps begin with an image of an impersonal remote force, a stern figure, a king or a judge or a strict teacher or parent. But one of the most powerful pictures of God in the Bible is the picture of God as a host, a servant at the table.

There’s a story in the Old Testament about the prophet Elijah. He has survived the greatest crisis of his life: an encounter with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. But Elijah is now exhausted, and his life is in danger.

Elijah flees into the wilderness. He comes to sit down under a solitary broom tree, the only place where there is shade. Elijah has completely come to the end of his own resources.

“He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors”.

Later in the story, the Lord will lead him up a mountain and send an earthquake, wind and fire, and then a still, small voice, and renew his faith and calling. But that’s not the first thing that happens to this exhausted prophet who has come to the end of his strength.

This is the first thing, according to I Kings 19:

God becomes a servant to his people, who prepares food for the journey. God is servant and host right from the beginning in the creation stories in Genesis, providing food for every creature and for the first man and first woman. God is servant to the people of Israel as they wander through the desert giving them the special meal of the Passover and the manna in the wilderness.

The prophet Isaiah has a beautiful song in which God is servant and host, calling out and inviting everyone to come and eat – and eat for free:

“Ho everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55.1).

Psalm 23 has two beautiful pictures of the Lord providing for his people. The first is of the Lord as shepherd: He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. The second image remarkably is of God as host, as servant:

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows”

Jesus understands these scriptures and many others about God sending a messenger and a king who is also a servant, who will provide for God’s people.

A full wine

At his first miracle in Cana of Galilee, Jesus is a guest at a wedding, but the wedding runs out of wine. Jesus becomes the servant and the one who provides for the celebration: six stone jars are filled with water. When the water is drawn out, it is turned to rich, full, beautiful wine bringing joy to bridegroom and bride and all their guests.

On the mountainside Jesus is host and servant, providing for the crowds who come to hear his teaching. At the last supper, John deepens this picture of Jesus as a servant. Christ takes a towel and a basin of water and kneels and washes the feet of each of his disciples. Again, this was the role of the host at the meal. Each is made welcome to the banquet. Each is offered healing and renewal and forgiveness.

Come and have breakfast

And after the resurrection, Jesus remains the servant and the host, preparing a meal for his disciples. Simon Peter and six others spend the night fishing on Lake Galilee but catch nothing. In the morning, they see a stranger on the shore who tells them to let down their nets again on the right side of the boat. Instantly their nets are full.

The disciples realise the stranger is the risen Lord. Peter puts on his clothes and jumps into the water and swims to shore. When they reach the shore with the boat full of fish, what do they find? They see a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus says to them: Come and have breakfast. Christ is the servant, the host who welcomes all of us, whoever we are, to this meal.

You are the guest of honour

What does it mean for us to discover Jesus as the host and friend in the Eucharist, to rediscover that every Eucharist is a banquet, and you are the guest of honour at this meal?

Christ has prepared this meal for you: to bring you refreshment and spiritual strength when you are weary, to minister to you when you are at the end of your resources, to strengthen you for life’s journey.

There is no cost and no charge for this meal. Everyone is welcome. No matter how many times we come. The price has been paid.

Every one of us is here because of grace. We have done nothing to deserve this invitation.

It is a privilege to be here. It is a privilege also to share in welcoming others into this meal. We should welcome everyone as though they are a guest of honour whether they are newcomers to church or faithful members of the congregation. We should especially welcome children because Jesus welcomes children. We should welcome poor and rich together, people of different races and class, people of different sexuality and in different kinds of families: we are all together around the table of the Lord.

Each of us has a part to play

Whether our role is to be a steward; or to serve refreshments after the meal; or to serve at the altar or to simple help new people find their place, we all have a part to play in this ministry of host and servant which is the ministry of Christ. Sadly, not everyone finds it easy to cross the threshold of a church or to find friendship among the people of God. Each of us has a part to play.

Christ’s role as host and servant should remind us that we too are called to offer hospitality in our own homes to one another where we are able. We read in Acts that the early Christians broke bread together and ate in one another’s homes (Acts 2.46). This is one of the ways in which the community of the local church is deepened and relationships and friendships grow.

But most of us will also wonder this as we discover or rediscover Jesus as servant and host. What have we done to deserve this. We are unworthy guests, unkind and ungrateful and undeserving of this great love. This is Peter’s response in the Upper Room when Jesus kneels to wash his feet. But Jesus persists, tenderly: Unless I wash you, you have no part of me.

You must sit down

One of the most beautiful poems in the English language from the Anglican priest and poet George Herbert catches exactly this sense of unworthiness and Christ as host:

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.

The more we understand of God’s grace, the more we come to Jesus who is servant and host, the more we realise our need of God’s forgiveness. That will be our theme next week as explore the ways we discover Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Come and see.

Week one of Come and See, exploring Holy Communion through Lent.

The invitation echoes Jesus first words to two would be disciples who want to discover more about him in John 1.39. They are almost the first words Jesus speaks in the entire Gospel of John:

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following he said to them, “What are you looking for?”

They said to him, “Rabbi… where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.”

An (imperfect) example

Come and See has its roots in the COVID lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.

For some years I’d been trying to encourage clergy and parishes to give serious time in Lent each year to Christian formation and to invite men and women and young people to explore faith and come to baptism and confirmation – building on the long, deep tradition of catechesis explored in the last post.

All the clergy I met and spoke with recognised the importance of this ministry and how life giving it can be. For some it comes naturally. But many struggle to find time and motivation. I wrestled (like Augustine) with the reasons for this.

Eventually I came to a deep conviction that perhaps the most helpful thing I could do was try and set an (imperfect) example of making this ministry a priority rather than nag people to do something they were finding it difficult to do. My sense was that God’s call to me was to find a way simply to do this rather than focus on enabling others. But how?

Church at Home

The answer came through the lockdowns, which were so very difficult for clergy and for churches.

We made the decision early in the first lockdown to provide a weekly Sunday service as a diocese every Sunday to support local churches. Church at Home drew on the gifts of many different clergy, lay leaders and musicians across the diocese and was co-ordinated by a small creative team.

There was a wide take-up – even though many churches quickly adapted to livestreaming or recording services. One of the very good memories of a difficult time was sharing in worship with friends across the diocese each Sunday morning from the sofa.

Building on what was happening through Church at Home, we decided to try and offer something during Lent 2021 to support clergy and parishes who simply did not have the energy to develop programmes for Lent.

I believe in God, the Father almighty

The first Come and See focused on the Apostles’ Creed. We thought it was just for that Lent. I produced a simple video for churches and individuals for each Sunday. We used daily bible readings already prepared for the Pilgrim Journeys series of reflections and sent them out to subscribers by email each day. Our diocesan team produced some notes for small groups.

It was all very last minute and hand to mouth – but the take-up was much higher than anticipated and the feedback very positive, except that (understandably) there was a request to have the materials further in advance to give parishes more time to prepare. Some rural churches began incorporating the videos into their Sunday worship. Small groups met online. Over a thousand people listened to or read the daily reflections and prayers.

I had discovered a way in which a bishop could join in this core work of Christian formation with the help of a very creative team. Over the next few years, we based Come and See around the other three texts which have been at the core of Christian formation: the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes, and the Commandments. Last year we focused on baptism (under the themes of earth, water, wind and fire).

This year Come and See focuses on meeting Jesus in the Eucharist. You can find full details (and materials from previous years) online.

Contemplative, compassionate, courageous

Participation has grown each year. Groups moved from online to onsite, when that was possible. We’ve added prayer exercises linked to our Space Makers material based on Ignatian spiritual exercises. The team have developed materials for young people, for families, and for schools.

We always invite feedback and try to improve year on year. Although I still write and record the videos and the daily reflections, a whole team is involved behind the scenes in editing, writing, production, design and distribution.

Year by year it’s been a joy to hear of people who have made the journey into Christian faith through engaging with Come and See through their local church. It’s been a joy as well to connect with so many churches across the diocese who have used the material in different ways.

My sense is that Come and See has been a particular help to smaller churches and to rural churches, and, I hope, has given clergy in particular confidence to shape and lead this kind of course and develop their own material in due course.

The experience of Come and See has given the diocese insights which have fed into our online learning hub and wider reflection on discipleship.

One of the unexpected insights has been visiting churches across the diocese and people saying to me:

No bishop can be everywhere at once in person – but its good to use this kind of technology to offer some teaching and to connect.

Come and see for yourself

This year, as an experiment, we are offering the six Come and See reflections on the Eucharist through this Substack in audio and text. Anyone inside or beyond the diocese can sign up to receive the daily reflections and the videos here. We’d be glad of feedback as ever.

There is so much still to explore in Christian faith. Come and see…

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