Friday, September 07, 2007

discuss amongst yourselves

remember coffee talk with linda richman on snl? mike myers in drag with those buttuh-like nails all verklempt over bah-bra?

well, i am pondering a question in my daily ready "praying with jesus" (eugene peterson) and i can't get it out of my head - so i want your take on this please. i know it's tied into my eating and holds keys that i can't wrap my head around. i'd love to hear your thoughts as i put my own together on this. i'll give you a topic...

how is jesus like bread? discuss amongst yourselves...

give me a call 555-4444, we'll talk, no big whoop.

6 comments:

Sarah Louise said...

I remember in college being at a party and a guy was dressed up and his costume was saying how Christians are vampires because they drink Jesus' blood and eat his flesh. I will never forget that, til the day I die.

When I was Catholic (for about a year) I couldn't get past that the bread "really" was Jesus. I prefer the Presbyterian view that it's "in memory of Him" but that it brings us closer in communion with Him.

Although I think the Catholics do a better job at holding onto the mystery of God than Protestants.

I bet Jesus' voice would sound like buttah though...they said he had nothing about what he looked like that would make us want to look at him, but I think it must have been in his voice.

Hmmmm...I don't know.

Anonymous said...

How about...Jesus, like bread, was/is broken (as in He died on the cross and each communion service we break bread as a symbol of His death....until He comes again).

Interestingly, in current Jewish passover feasts, bread is broken in three and the second portion is hidden until a ransom is paid or it is discovered by the least in the family - which for believers symbolises the 2nd person of the trinity once hidden and now revealed. For more info see: http://www.chaim.org/afikomen.htm

Ciao, Brother Tadhg

Erin said...

I've been thinking about this alot since I first read your post. It is highly possible that my thoughts have gone off into odd directions, but here is what it looks like fwiw...

-bread seems to be one food that has been common in all cultures. Ever present. Nourishing. Sustaining.
-thinking of bread broken, I tend to think of the first breaking: of wheat broken to make flour. Makes me think of what it may have been like for Jesus to take human form.
-this may be stretching things, but I think of Jesus as Whole Wheat or a really dark Rye. Broken, but not lesser. We want a sliced White Bread Jesus. Easy to digest, flavourless really, but convenient.

bobbie said...

oh i love the directions this has taken - it has nourished me in my thoughts because THIS WILL NOT LET ME GO - i can't stop thinking about it - and it's unfolding into something really big and i'll be blogging on it this week, but i have no time to really put the thoughts together properly yet.

thank you sl, bro tadhg & erin for your contributions to this, it has nurtured my own thoughts and it is bigger than i had imagined for me. as i served communion at church yesterday (an unplanned surprise) i was able to hold the bread and offer it to each one as they came forward - i know this is weaving together into something truly transformation for me.

thank you again!

Hope said...

What comes to me is to ask you what you are hungry for?

So often I have stuffed myself with food that will not nourish - trying to fill that place that only Jesus can fill. Kind of like taking pieces of white bread and trying to fill all those cracks in my soul. Those wounded places within me that continue to bleed and I try to use the (bread) to sop it all up.

What I think happens in the Eucharist is that taking in the body and blood of Christ transforms those wounded places within. I am very aware when I am partaking that I am being nourished. I believe that Christ can transcend any communion service anywhere and nourish in this way.

What rarely gets talked about is how hard the waiting is for that place to be filled and the risk that I may not feel filled. Sometimes I think it is the waiting that scares me. The waiting I often bypass, instead turning to those things that will not nourish or fill me in the long run.

owenswain said...

Having moved from Protestant minister to convert to the Catholic Church I have to go with Flannery O'Connor on this one and say, "'Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it."

Of the many things that made me fall in love with Jesus in a new way through his old, old church, the core for me was that yes, I believe the bread is "really" Jesus. Like Presbyterians and others we certainly do this in memory of him even as we consume him as he instructed we must. A way he knew even then would cause offense to some of his own. Unlike the guy at sarah louise's party I know I am not a vampire :) but a participant in a most holy mystery. ::thrive! O