Blood

Proverbs 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls from the highest places in the town, ‘you that are simple, turn in here!’ To those without sense she says, ‘come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity and live, and walk in the way of insight.’

Psalm 34:9-14

Fear the Lord, you saints of the Lord, for those who fear the Lord lack nothing. The lions are in want and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good. Come, children, and listen to me; I will teach you reverence for the Lord. Who among you takes pleasure in life and desires long life to enjoy prosperity? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from lying words. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Ephesians 5:15-20

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 6:51-58

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the [Son of Man/Human One] and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

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For a faith that is centered on the Incarnation of God, we don’t tend to deal well with conversations about flesh. More often than not, if we talk about flesh, it’s in contrast to Spirit, as in ‘sins of the flesh,’ and ‘gifts of the Spirit.’  Throughout Paul’s letters he struggles with this relationship, at least in the way he uses his language to talk about new life in Christ, living by the Spirit and putting away the desires of the flesh. We tend to talk of ‘flesh,’ in ‘church-speak,’ as though it is dirty, and we talk about matters of the Spirit in a way that separates the realm of Sunday morning entirely apart from the rest of our week. But we can’t separate the two, as much as we would like to. We bring the cares of the week into Sunday worship, and the actions of worship - forgiveness, prayer, passing peace around - are meant to be lived out in our Monday through Saturday lives. We recognize the language of flesh and spirit being in conflict, the thoughtless things we want to do working against the nature we might call our ‘better selves.’ It’s why we make children do what they don’t want to do even when they whine and complain, because our actions, as they become habit, feed our values, and our values, as they become second nature, inform our actions. But flesh and spirit are not so easily disentangled from each other. If you ever need to take stock of where your values lie, to clarify what you actually value, take a look at your checkbook or credit card spending. There is clear evidence of what Paul calls ‘flesh’ and ‘spirit,’ right there in hard numbers. Even math and money are spiritual.

Sometimes, though, the talk of these either/or experiences can get a bit… theoretical. A bit oversimplified? A bit… distant. So Jesus switches from talking about his body being bread to telling people they need to gnaw on his flesh like a dog with a bone, and that they need to drink his blood, which is the thing which gives a body life. When Jesus tells his listeners to chew on his flesh and drink his blood, he’s making a pretty disgusting statement. Blood is such a mystery to the ancient people, that it’s considered unclean, it’s forbidden stuff, it’s life energy spilled out of the cut throat of the sacrificial animal. It’s blood on Joseph’s coat that his brothers use to convince Jacob that his son was killed. It’s the first plague on Egypt when Moses confronts Pharoah, and the Nile turns to blood, and all the fish die. The blood of Abel cries out to God from the ground after Cain killed him. This is serious stuff, flesh and blood, and it is the Word made flesh who bleeds it into us. 

When we say someone is our blood, we mean we are family, related through birth, connected genetically, and there’s no getting away from that sort of connection.  When we say someone’s behavior is in their blood, it means that is so ingrained no amount of work will change that person. Bloodlines in ruling families are supposed to be kept pure so that power passed down remains in the family line. And then there is the common phrase, “blood is thicker than water,” meaning family ties are deeper and more lasting than any other relationships.

Except, in the blood of Jesus, as we are drawn into the family of faith through baptism, our blood, our personal blood, is not thicker than the waters of baptism, not thicker than the blood of Jesus. No claim on us lasts longer than those baptismal waters and that blood of Christ. Nothing. Not family of origin. Not membership in any club or organization. Not best hopes or worst disasters. Not great achievements or terrible mistakes.

We are a month away from our event responding to the Heroin crisis in our community. Not only does addiction hold sway over people from all walks of life, but when drugs are shared by needles, blood is passed between people, oftentimes carrying viruses, diseases that can easily do as much harm as the effects of the drug on a body. Then in a person’s own body the blood becomes like a poison, and in the community, the illness becomes a social disease typically treated with shame. When the individual body starts to self-destruct, the corporate body, the community, can either succumb to illness and gangrene as it shuns people with illness, or it can pump new lifeblood socially and spiritually through care of those who are sick and struggling.

And, truth be told, we are all sick. Our common illness is bondage to sin, and we cannot free ourselves, and we need a transfusion. Only the Great Physician, the Author of Life, the Word made flesh, can provide the blood required. Only the Creator can bleed enough to answer Abel’s blood crying murder from the ground. Think about it: the first children on this earth, and one brother kills the other out of jealousy, spilling family blood and leaving home. This is the story we tell about the beginning of civilization, Cain abandoning Adam and Eve with the grief of losing not one, but both of their children in a moment of violent anger. The first lesson in humanity’s struggle with our own: take away the blood, take away the life. So Abel’s blood cried out from the ground, and God’s blood cried out in answer from the cross, as it cries out from this Table week after week, day after day, heartbeat by heartbeat.

Because, brothers and sisters, to eat of the flesh of the Son of Humanity, and drink of His Blood, is to receive Christ on a cellular level. As Jesus, the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, has taken our humanity on, even to a cellular level, now the flesh and blood of Christ is alive among us today, walking and breathing and bleeding and blessing. One commentary I read this week said something along the lines of ‘you cannot remove last Tuesday’s lunch from my body any more than you can remove the body and blood of Christ from my body.’  This is our transfusion, our transfiguration, our hope and the promise we are given each time we come hungry to the Table. Jesus Christ, body and blood, flesh and spirit, given and shed, restoring, redeeming, renewing, flowing and pulsing, in and through and for you.