Outdoor Service, Pet Blessing and Picnic

Good Morning!!

What a gorgeous and perfect day to worship and celebrate together
outside!

With Family, Friends, and even some of our beloved pets.

On this beautiful day, we’ll share TWO meals together:
The Eucharistic meal: here during our worship,

And a celebratory picnic meal after our service.

So it’s really fitting that we hear some words from Jesus today, about
eating, and drinking the living bread.

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.”

Our lectionary has given us this “bread of life” discourse for the past three
weeks.

And in that time, We’ve heard a lot about Jesus flesh and blood.

Anyone walking into a Christian church for the first time in the last few
weeks would likely be disturbed:
If not slightly creeped out:
Or at the very least,
Confused by all of this bizarre talk.

And then there’s the flip side:
Some of us are so used to hearing this weird stuff,
That we stop actually HEARING it.

We’re used to hearing “On the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took
bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it, gave it to his disciples
and said, “Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you.”

When we’re familiar with the larger story, and we hear Jesus words “I will
give my flesh for the life of the world.”
We know he’s alluding to his crucifixion:
His sacrificial death for all of us.

And even though it sounds weird,
we have some sense of what Jesus means when he says :
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.”

We have SOME sense that all of this is an image for the Eucharist
For the celebration of communion:

The first of two meals that we’ll share together today.

But it’s also MORE than that.
And the meal we’ll share together at this table is just the beginning.

In fact, the words that we hear today, (and for the past three weeks) are
words that Jesus spoke in the FIRST year of his public ministry.

With these bread of life passages coming so early in Jesus’ ministry,
Johns Gospel makes clear that all of this business about flesh, blood,
Bread, and Eucharist isn’t just about the night before Jesus died.

It’s not just a remembrance of that night that Jesus sat with his friends and
told them to “do this in remembrance of me.”

Because Jesus was alluding to all of this way before the institution of the
first last supper.

These words, coming so early on in John’s gospel is a signal to us that the
flesh, blood, bread, and eucharist is about ALL of it:
Jesus’ whole life:
And not just the events of his last days.

Jesus’ WHOLE life institutes holy communion.
And real communion:
REAL Eucharist:

Is about much more than a tiny piece of bread and a little sip of wine once
a week.

Real communion is our whole lives:
And the WHOLE of our lives.

Jesus’ institution of Holy Communion isn’t confined to the night before he
died,
And our faith is not confined to Jesus’ death and resurrection either:
But in Jesus’ whole life.

From Bethlehem, to the sending of the Holy Spirit, and everything in
between.

The feedings, the miracles, the healings, the trial, the walk to the cross, the
empty tomb, and the appearances in the garden.

All of it.
Everything Jesus did:
Who Jesus was,
How Jesus acted,
Is a part of God’s revelation to us,
And Jesus’ invitation to “do this” in remembrance of me.

We are invited to take Jesus’ whole story and make it a part of our own.

God took not only a piece of bread and a sip of wine:

But God also took Jesus’ WHOLE life:
Blessed it: Broke it:
And gave it to us.

And in return, we don’t just show up for a piece of bread and a sip of wine
once a week.
We are to actually let the story of God’s love for us take us:
Bless us: Break us:
And give us back to the world.

And not just on Sunday morning.
But our whole lives,
And our whole selves.

So it makes sense that we would do things a little bit differently today.
Getting out of the building,
And worshipping together in the beauty of God’s creation.

And not only that:
But we’ll bless much more than bread and wine today.

Normally, we bless our pets in October:
Around the feast day of St. Francis.

But we’re doing things differently this year!
As a reminder of the Wholeness of God’s blessing:
We bring before our Lord today not just bread and wine,

Not just our selves, our souls, and our bodies,
But our pets,
And maybe even our special stuffed animals!

Or maybe there’s something else you’d like blessed today:
A piece of jewelry,
Or maybe even a rock from the church yard:
Bring anything you’d like forward,
To remind you of the wholeness that Jesus blesses us with.

Because Real communion, Real Eucharist:
Is about more than bread and wine.

It’s about the whole of life.
The wholeness of life:
All of it:
Blessed, Broken, and shared.

Amen.