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What is at the Heart of our Faith and Traditions?

Cartoon by Steve Thomason

Our Gospel this week comes sandwiched among many stories of Jesus doing miraculous works and how the people respond to his display of power. In Mark 6, Jesus fed the 5000, he also walked on water and healed the sick in Gennesaret. Further along in chapter 7 of Mark’s gospel, Jesus continues to travel among the Gentiles and perform healing miracles.

It is interesting that in today’s reading, the Pharisees are present – and they must have traveled quite a distance from Jerusalem just to check on this Jesus of Nazareth. What is he up to? Perhaps to find a legal loophole in his teaching? Perhaps to trap him?

The Pharisees, dedicated to obeying and pleasing God follow traditions that helped them maintain their identity as God’s people – especially in a world that was tempting them to worship their neighbors’ Gods. Nothing wrong with that…yet in their desire to obey God they established strict rules which ultimately became traditions. In doing that, they lost sight of the line between God’s law and their own human opinion. They emphasized human tradition which caused them to neglect – and even forget the deeper Torah law -- Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

They question why Jesus allowed his disciples to eat with unwashed hands but at the heart of their concern was a more significant issue: Jesus’ authority and the transformative nature of his teaching. There is nothing wrong with honoring traditions – and certainly, Jesus, as a Jew, observed many of the Jewish customs and traditions. Yet, there comes a time when holding on to a tradition can become a trap which prevents us from grasping the big picture.

Jesus is asking us to search for God in our hearts – what is God’s will as we make decisions each day? Sometimes we must step outside of traditions – especially when they have lost their meaning – and even more especially, when they trap us into an inability to see where love is – what is the most loving thing we are being called to do?

I invite each or us to reflect on some of the traditions we hold dear here at St. John’s. Where did they come from? Do we know why we adhere to some practices? What prevents us from stepping out in faith to stretch and grow into an even more loving community?

In God’s Boundless Love,
Deacon Claire

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As I mentioned last week, we welcome Fr. Mark Kowalewski to church this week where he will be both preacher and celebrant for both services. Please give him a warm St. John's welcome!

This Sunday, the lectionary ends the Bread of Life discourse from chapter 6 of John's Gospel. Some of the disciples remark, "This teaching is difficult, who can accept it?" The Gospel can be hard to accept because it makes us confront things about ourselves we'd rather not remember and let go. But only in Jesus can we truly let it go because it is forgiven. Erased. Scrubbed from our souls. Indeed, when we feast on the Bread of Life we are going through a spiritual cleanse. This isn't just taking communion, mind you, but feasting on all the spiritual graces and blessings bestowed upon us.

In the Letter to the Ephesians reading, Paul's famous words of "putting on the armour of God" also mirrors such a feasting. We are not fighting against our flesh and bones but powers of darkness that seek to destroy us. If you've ever read C.S. Lewis' classic The Screwtape Letters, you know what I mean. We have access to the belt of truth and breastplate of righteousness, because in the Bread of Life is found the what is needed to be prepared for our Christian lives.

We are soon to start a new program year. A new school year for some. A new year in which we can perhaps renew our lives in those spiritual blessings, so that whatever the future may hold, we know we are walking with God's protective love over us.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Zach

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This week has been a very somber week as we said goodbye to Mary White and Marie Gilles. Trusting in our sure hope as Christians, we know that we will see them again and we continue to hold their families in our prayers.

This Sunday, we welcome back Fr. Dan Ade into our pulpit for all Sunday services and as celebrant for the 10 am service. Fr. Dan helped us out last year by doing supply work during Fr. Duncan's sabbatical. Fr. Mark Kowalewski will be with us the following week. Fr. Dan and Fr. Mark are ministry partners leading the Incarnation Chapel in Carle Place. We welcome them both to our community!

As we continue John's Bread of Life discourse this week, I have been especially nourished by Vacation Bible Camp (I feel "School" gives kids the wrong impression!). We have been meeting Jesus in various points of his ministry, the temple, the beach, the Sea of Galilee, among others. The children have given some great insight into who Jesus is for them and where they meet him. We are excited to showcase the musical soon at St. John's in Huntington.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Zach

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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