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Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)

The idea of bread coming down from heaven was probably not hard for Jews in Jesus time because they had the stories of manna coming from God during the exodus. The idea that second century Christians ate the body and blood of Jesus would have been very difficult to grasp. As you are probably aware, the very idea of drinking blood runs contrary to Jewish law. The derivation of the Eucharist does come in part from the Jewish family meal. Before the meal, a loaf of bread was blessed, prayers were spoken, and the bread was shared. After the meal, a cup of wine was blessed, more elaborate prayers were spoken, and the cup was passed. The Jewish service at the temple included one reading from Moses and one from the Hebrew Bible. Psalms were read, the shema would be sung, prayers were then given and the teaching of scripture would follow. If you don’t remember the shema it sounds something like this. “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your might." The shema was fairly easy to understand, but Jews were also expected to follow the law, which was difficult to understand.

At the Last Supper, Jesus teaches the disciples a new understanding of this ritual. Jesus was Jewish and therefore would have celebrated the Passover. Jesus simplifies the law to two commandments. Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. You all know the words of institution from the Eucharist. Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to the disciples, “Take eat, This is my body which is given for you.” Jesus blood and body are given for our sins. In Jesus suffering, death and resurrection we are offered new life in him. The wine and bread become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

The early Christians shared a meal at their first services and eventually shared just bread and wine. Unfortunately this ritual becomes distorted in the middle ages. Only priests are holy enough to drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ and the public observes a ceremonial ocular communion. The service is very fancy with all the bells and whistles. Certain parts of the service become very important, such as the raising of the chalice. The people can see, but are not allowed to taste the communion.

Priests begin to charge for blessings and the assurance of eternal life. The public feels that the church and the priests have taken too much control of God’s grace. They rebel against the rituals of the church and the reformation is born. In an effort to correct their excesses the true meaning of the Eucharist is lost. Scripture and teaching become the central focus of the Protestant service. The Protestant Church looked distinctly different from the Roman Catholic Church at this time. The Church of England reformed the service into a language that the people could all understand. The prayer book sought to retain many of the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church that Protestants like the Puritans had completely abandoned. Our church was known as the middle way. The Anglican Theologian Hooker said, “Through Christ’s presence in the sacrament, God’s causative presence in the world was transformed into his saving presence in the Church.”

The understanding of the Eucharist was still difficult for our church. Transubstanciation or the changing of the physical elements to actual body and blood was refined to consubstanciation by Luther. This meant the changing of the elements to the body and blood of Christ while retaining the physical elements of bread and wine at the same time. Today, the Holy Eucharist is the principal act of Christian worship on the Lord’s day in the Episcopal Church (BCP). The bread we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ. We are talking about the real presence of Christ in the bread and the wine.

In Christ’s love,

Fr. Duncan

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Over these past few weeks, we have encountered imagery of bread and eating in the lectionary readings. These stories should evoke for us the feast that is to come in the Gospel stories, that of the Last Supper, which is itself a preview of the Great Feast we are promised in the new heaven and new earth. The Gospels, however, never call that meal “the Last Supper” and it receives its name from Da Vinci’s famous painting. It being called the Last Supper seems to me to be a misnomer and if anything, it is the First Supper!

Jesus is the bread of life. He is what sustains us and satisfies our desires and needs in order that we might grow spiritually, which in turns helps us grow in all other ways as well. In the Old Testament reading, the Israelites are complaining because they would rather be in slavery than drudge through the wilderness. I can be a complainer. I recognize this in myself and am always working to recognize the blessings I have in my life. Gratitude is key when fighting the ungratefulness that complaining usually stems from. In the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about maturity that we are called to in our life in Christ. I know I need to reflect on this often. God knows and hears our complaints, and He will answer them.  In what ways may we need to spiritually grow so that we may feast on the bread of life, grateful of what our God has done, allowing the complaining that hardens our hearts to melt away? 

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Zach

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Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” (John 6:1-14)

Jesus gives thanks for the five loaves of barley and two fish, blesses them and distributes enough food for a stadium full of people. This is unlike his transformative miracle of turning water into wine and all the healing miracles. Jesus creates enough food for women, children, and 5000 men. This story was never denied because of all the eye witnesses. So I ask again, “Who is this that feeds 10,000 people with five loaves and two fish and has twelve baskets of food left over?”

John ends his Gospel by saying, “This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:24-25)

In Christ’s love,  Fr. Duncan

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Only a few days ago the disciples almost sank in a storm. They cried to Jesus who was asleep in the back of the boat. When the wind and seas were calmed, Jesus accused them of not having faith. Then he sent them out to evangelize and heal the world two by two. Jesus asked them to pack light. He sent them out with the Holy Spirit, but they were still ripe with doubt, fear and anger.

“The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves, taking nothing with them except the cloths on your back.” (Mark 6:30-32)

Last week I returned from Bermuda on a 43-foot sailboat and we hit some rough wind and waves. We heard that a fifty foot boat was lost, but the crew was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. That was the third boat to sink on the way to and from Bermuda in that past week. The captain asked me what my last sermon was, I told him, “Jesus may be asleep, but he’s still in the boat. We are going to get through this.” I heard the captain on the radio later saying, “we are going to be fine.” When I arrived home, I went to Shelter Island for a week of rest and relaxation.

I turned on the news when I got home to hear of the Trump assassination attempt. This past week I spoke to many folks that mentioned to me that they were broken by the politics in our nation, and a few said that they were very angry. Some expressed fear and doubt.

Please take time for rest and renewal this summer, Jesus asks us to balance our doing and our rest. Jesus asks us to have faith in the Holy Spirit and to rest in the love and peace of God that passes all understanding. My sermon for this week is entitled, “Many of us have cracks in our pots, but God’s love is the glue that keeps us strong.”

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Duncan

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One of my favorite descriptions of God is “architect of the universe”. I just imagine God sitting as his drawing desk, protractor, and pencil in hand, intricately measuring and designing a far-off planet for His good pleasure. In this weekend’s reading from Amos, we hear about God using a plumb line as a way to measure their faithfulness to him. If you didn’t know, a plumb line historically been used to survey property and boundary lines. 

The days of Amos were not unlike our day today. The time in which Amos was living (8th century B.C.) was a time of great power and prestige for the Kingdom of Israel, but this wealth and power also led to great iniquity and division between the urban elite and the rural villages. Amos’ most famous saying is 5:24, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Amos was a small-time farmer who didn’t regard himself as a prophet but was instructed by God to prophesy to the Kingdom of Israel. Indeed, chapter 7 ends, “Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.” By the end of the 8th century BC, Israel would be conquered by the Assyrians. 

This is not the way God originally designed His creation, warring, conquering, iniquity, and division. The blueprint God has for us might seem daunting or unreachable. While He commands us “to be holy as I am holy” (Leviticus 21:8; Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 1:16) we know we fall short. But we have a plumb line. We have the blueprint. We have a way, when He picks us up after we fall, to follow the straight and narrow. Fulfilled in Jesus Christ and written in Holy Scripture, the Word of God speaks to us today like it did to Amos those many centuries ago, continually designing and forming us into a new creation.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Zach

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The Power of Christian Community in Action!

“Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits… They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.” Mark 6:7, 13

Comic by Steve Thomason

The Lord now sends us forth
with hands to serve and give,
To make of all the earth
a better place to live.

By Jose Aguiar
Translated by Gerhard M. Cartford

Are you ready to seek and serve God in the mission field? Join me for services on Sunday, July 7^th for a collaborative message and a joyous send off to seek and serve!

Joining with you in God’s service,
Deacon Claire

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The picture above is a fresco depiction of the healing of the woman with a hemorrhage. I think of her story often because how seemingly easy it was for her to be healed. She simply touched his cloak, and in an instant she was healed! But it wasn’t easy. For one, she was an unclean person, so she needed to make sure she wasn’t recognized and caught. And secondly, the pain of what she had to go through plus the pressure of the dense crowd probably made her ability to get to Jesus a difficult one with that much more pain. But she knew the power of Christ. She may not have fully understood what that meant but she knew He could save her. It was not the cloak in itself that saved her, but her faith in Christ that saved her. Fr. Duncan has been reiterating Mark’s central question of, put succinctly, “Who is Jesus Christ?” The power of a simple touch, borne out of great faith, reveals to us the simplicity of this answer. Jesus Christ heals.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Zach

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The Kingdom of God

Things are not always what they seem!

This week, we will ponder anew what God’s Kingdom looks like. I can only imagine what it might look like to you, but there are certainly times when I wish God’s Kingdom on earth would be a place of total predictability. If I do A and God does B, then every time I do “A” God will do “B.”  If I pray for healing, God heals – immediately and in a way that I can totally understand and just as I would expect it to look like.

When I think of God’s Kingdom, I also want to see God as doing impressive and spectacular things – I want to be able to understand what’s going on. When life gets hard, I want to better understand what’s happening. In other words, when life gets hard, God at least provides decent answers to the “why?” questions, instead of leaving me to flounder in the unknown.

But my ideal is not God’s.

The prophet Ezekiel saw that his nation had abandoned the path of God. It’s wealthy rulers showed no compassion for the poor whom they continually oppressed. Ezekiel prophesied that his nation would be destroyed because of its corruption and sure enough that is what happened. While in exile in Babylon, Ezekiel told is people that God would preserve a remnant of the tree of Israel and nurture it so it would bear fruit. God would restore the way of justice and mercy so that the nation would become a beloved community. All those formerly oppressed would be lifted high. A kingdom of compassion and love.

By the time we get to Mark’s Gospel – over six hundred years have passed since God restored Judah to a place of compassion and love and it seems as if God’s people have totally forgotten Ezekiel’s prophetic words – which by the way, were pretty radical. And like Ezekiel, Jesus too has a message that is radical – so radical that he resorts to parables to get his point across.

In the first parable Jesus tells in this week’s Gospel, a gardener scatters seed on the ground, and then goes off to sleep. The seeds fend for themselves, and when the grain is ripe, the gardener harvests it. In the second parable, someone sows a tiny mustard seed in the ground, and it grows into a gigantic bush, large enough to offer birds shelter in its branches.

Both parables are meant to show us what the kingdom of God looks like. Parables are intended to stretch our imaginations far beyond any place we’d take them on our own. Not to keep us comfortable and complacent, but to prod and needle us into altogether different ways of perceiving and relating to what is sacred. What’s the kingdom of God? Are you sure you want to know? Okay, get ready for the mystery to unravel: the kingdom of God is like a sleeping gardener, mysterious soil, an invasive weed, and a nuisance flock of birds. 

As you prepare for Sunday’s service, take a look at the scriptures in advance. Ponder some of these questions:

• How is the Kingdom of God growing within you?
• How do you see the Kingdom of God growing around you?
• How is the kingdom of God ripening among us at St. John’s? Do you have your sickle?

In Christ's love,
Deacon Claire

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The crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind” (Mark 3:20-21).

As we study the Gospel of Mark this year, I ask you to look a little deeper into this Gospel. The passage contains several questions that lead you to Mark’s main purpose of the Gospel. The Gospel begins, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1 NRSV). In the end of the passage the disciples are asking, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? (Mark 4:41b NRSV)” It is important to see the literary context of this question. The rhetorical effect of asking these questions is that the reader must look for their own answer. To heighten this rhetorical effect Mark portrays the disciples as totally unaware of who Jesus is. The audience now shares the enlightened viewpoint of Jesus with the narrator. We therefore need to approach the passage within the context of this irony and Mark’s overall purpose in this Gospel. Mark challenges us to answer the question, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” My hope is that you live with an expectancy of many great possibilities with the Risen Lord at St. John’s.

In Sunday’s Gospel, the people are saying that Jesus has gone out of his mind. God is able to reach his arms of love through Jesus Christ to find the lost, heal the sick, cloth the naked, repair the broken and give Living Water to the thirsty. At St. John’s we are called to open our doors wide and welcome everyone into our church. Jesus calls on you to be peaceful, loving, caring, and selfless. Be kind to everyone who enters our space and love them like they were your family. This month is Gay Pride Month and we celebrate all our LGBTQ+ members. On Sunday, we will meet on Gerard Street and march with the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island in the Pride Parade at 12:00. Please meet our wardens Patti and Sean and show your support by marching to Heckscher Park. The Gay Men’s Chorus will be performing “Jukebox Saturday Night” at 5:30. This concert will feature some of your favorite songs from Billy Joel to Queen. LGBTQ+ folks have fought hard over their lifetime to be treated with respect and dignity. At St. John’s we are open and affirming and I ask you to show your support this Sunday for Pride Month by inviting the entire community to be a part of the St. John’s. 

This Sunday is Christian Education Recognition. We thank our Sunday school teachers and children for their participation. We will also award the Florence and Robert Scott Scholarship at the 10:00 service. Confirmation is Saturday at 11:00 am at St. John’s, Cold Spring Harbor. The confirmands will receive their bibles on Sunday. We ask all of our parishioners to join us on this special day.

In Christ's love,
Fr. Duncan