Bread for the body, bread for the soul
Sermon for Pentecost XIII, 2024, delivered at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Louisville, KY Text: John 6:56-69 This morning’s Gospel reading sounds a little familiar, similar to the reading for the fifth Sunday in Easter at the beginning of John 15. In that passage, we heard Jesus say. “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” This morning we hear, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” The word “abide” appears again in our cycle of Gospel readings, representing a theme in John's Gospel. This time it is a more positive statement than what we heard about the vine. It says the same thing, though, that there is more than one way in which we can live in or dwell in Jesus. While one way sounds like we’re eating Jesus and the other sounds like we’re a plant, both are metaphorical, whether we are a part of Jesus or that he is a part of us. Contrary to what has been said negative