Proper 15 :: Proverbs 9:1 – 6 / Psalm 111 / Ephesians 5:15 – 20 / John 6:51 - 58
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene Tucker
on Sunday August 15, 2021.
“THE MEANING HAPPENS BETWEEN….”
(Homily
text: John 6:51 - 58)
“The music happens between the notes.
The music doesn’t happen on the notes.” So said a graduate student at the
Eastman School of Music when I was an undergraduate there. That grad student had
formed a small vocal ensemble of five singers, for which he served as its
conductor (I was the tenor in the group).
There’s a great deal of wisdom in the
statement, for it reminds us of the truth that music-making is, to a large
degree, concerned with the business of making the relationships between the
notes into something more than organized sound. It is, then, essentially about
relationship, about the relationship between the various parts of the musical
composition. It is, also, a quest to discover the composer’s intent in creating
the work in the first place.
Transferring that idea into our
reading and understanding of Holy Scripture, we could say that the meaning of
the sacred writings doesn’t lie in the words themselves (as important as they
are), but in the relationships of the words one to another, and, more
importantly, in what the words themselves reveal to us about God’s nature and
God’s purposes in relating to us. So then, if we were to rephrase the quote we
began with, we might state it this way: “The meaning doesn’t happen on the
words. The meaning happens between the words.”
To concentrate on the words alone is
to run the risk of seeing the words only in their literal sense. To be sure,
sometimes the literal meanings of the words is critically important to the
business of seeing the text correctly. After all, as my first Bishop was fond
of saying, “We are so easily fooled.” We can easily substitute our own
understandings and purposes for what the text originally meant. So paying
attention to the literal sense of the words in the text is a biblical
interpretation tool that must be readily at hand, at all times.
That said, there are other times when
the literal sense isn’t, clearly, the intent at all. In such times, I like to
say that the “plain sense” of the text is much more important. A good example
is Jesus’ statement that, “If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw
it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to
be thrown into the hell of fire.” (Matthew 18:9)
If we were to believe that the Lord
intended us to accept that statement literally, we’d be seeing a whole lot of
one-eyed Christians, for the blunt truth is that we all, every one of us,
commits sin.
The statement makes much more sense if
we accept and understand it in its “plain sense”. The plain sense of our Lord’s
comment is that we shouldn’t allow anything to stand in the way of our walk
with God. At least that’s how I understand it.
This discussion now brings us to
today’s Gospel text, where we read Jesus’ statement that goes like this: “Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink
his blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53)
Taken literally, our Lord’s statement
is repugnant and offensive. No wonder that John tells us that, in response,
some of Jesus’s hearers say, “This is a hard saying, who can hear it?” (John
6:60). John goes on to tell us that, in response to this statement, some of
Jesus’ disciples no longer went about with Him. (See John 6:66.)
It the Lord didn’t intend for those
original hearers and us to understand His statement literally, then what might
the “plain sense” of His statement be?
Perhaps just this: By eating the Lord’s flesh and by drinking
His blood, we become one with Him. We incorporate into our very inner and most
intimate beings the Lord Himself.
Wow!
What a wonderful thought! What a cosmic understanding, to know that the
Lord of all life desires to be one with us, with each of us individually,
fully, completely and eternally.
Each time we come to the holy table of
the Eucharist, we will benefit immensely if we will remember that we are coming
to be one with Jesus. This is no memorial meal, in which we look back mentally
at the Lord’s earthly sojourn with us. No, it is much more, for the Lord is
really present under the forms of bread and wine, in a way we might not fully
understand, but which is, nonetheless, actually so. Remembering in this sense
is to be understood as “putting it all together again, just like the first
time”, as my former Bishop once said.
As we approach the holy table, we come
to commune with (the literal meaning of this word is to “be one with”) the
Lord. This token of the Lord’s love for us strengthens us, empowers us, reminds
us that we have been claimed by Christ in Holy Baptism, by which we have become
a child of God forever and forevermore.
Thanks be to God!
AMEN.
