Satisfying the Hungers of the Heart

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1 Satisfying the Hungers of the Heart When All You ve Ever Wanted Isn t Enough: That s the title of a book Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote several years ago. You may know what the Rabbi was getting at. We work hard, plot our goals, plan our strategy, and climb the career ladder. We focus on getting the right job, meeting the right people, and joining the right club all in the pursuit of success only we discover that success doesn t satisfy. When we think we have it all, it s never enough. Jack Higgins, the author of such novels as The Eagle Has Landed, was asked what he would like to have known as a boy. His answer: That when you get to the top, there s nothing there. (1) That s the experience of many high achievers. When you get to the top, there s nothing there. How many so-called successful people have had that sense of emptiness in their lives? They are at the top of their professions, and yet there is a deep dissatisfaction in their lives? I have known such people, and maybe you have too. They have been climbing the career ladder their whole lives only to discover as they reach the top that they are on the wrong ladder. They have everything, yet they are unhappy. They have no inner peace, no contentment, and no joy in their lives. The result: the satisfaction they so desperately crave becomes as elusive as chasing the wind. It was to fulfill this emptiness that Christ came into the world. Jesus says, I am the bread of life You can search all over the earth to find that one thing that is missing in your life, but until you feed on Jesus, you will never be satisfied.

2 Feeding on Jesus comes spiritually by faith but it also is symbolized in a powerful way in the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist is many things. It is a memorial of Christ s saving love for us when he died on the cross for our redemption. It is a meal in which we receive the bread and wine of Christ s Body and Blood in obedience to Jesus who said, Do this in memory of me. But the Eucharist is also a symbol of human wholeness. It dramatizes both God s feeding and our need to be fed. It communicates God s desire to satisfy our deepest hunger. Jesus says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Coming to the Eucharist is much like the boy who came to the International Red Cross truck where workers were serving hot meals to flood victims. As he approached the truck, the boy shyly told a worker he was from another area in the town, not directly affected by the flood. The tone of his voice suggested that he wanted something to eat but wondered whether he could have any food since he was not a flood victim. The Red Cross worker knew there was only one criterion for receiving the food and asked the boy, Are you hungry? The boy said he was and then took a hot meal for himself and one for his mother. That s how God works. There is only one criterion to be fed at the Eucharist Are you hungry? hungry for relationship, hungry for acceptance, hungry for pardon, hungry for self-esteem, hungry for self-worth, hungry for meaning. Perhaps that s why the Eucharist has remained such a powerful symbol through the centuries. It is the symbol of human wholeness. It dramatizes God s feeding and our need to be fed. It communicates God s desire to satisfy the hunger of our hearts. I tell you the truth, Jesus says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son

3 of Man and drink his blood; you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. There are two movements in every Eucharist: grace and faith. Another way of putting it is to speak in terms of God s acceptance of us and our commitment to God. God s acceptance, our commitment here is the key to a satisfying life. The primary movement of the Eucharist is God s acceptance of us. What an incredible thought: total, unconditional acceptance by God! Before God we don t have to be anyone but ourselves. We don t have to hide behind the masks of convention or put on airs or project the person we are not. In a world where it is often hard to be authentically who we are, God accepts us just as we are. The Eucharist declares God s love for us totally and unconditionally. It s not a matter of good works or even being a good person. It s a matter of accepting the love that God freely gives simply because God loves us. Consider the flow of the Eucharist: Christ breaks the bread; we eat it. Christ takes the cup; we drink it. The movement is from Christ to us; from what God gives to what we receive; from the God who is love to we who are loved. So first and foremost, the Eucharist is God s assurance that we are totally and unconditionally loved. The theologian Paul Tillich famously said that the great act of faith is to accept that you are accepted. In the Eucharist we are accepted just as we are. When we approach the Eucharist to receive Christ s Body and Blood, we affirm that we are loved simply because God loves us. A middle-aged lady had gone through a difficult divorce after her husband abandoned her for a younger woman. Loneliness and

4 depression were her constant companions. She was always a heavy drinker, but now she started to pop pills to get through the day and then to sleep at night. She began to hate herself because she knew what she was becoming: a lonely, aged, addict. Then, one day, tragedy struck. Too much alcohol and too many pills took their toll. By some miracle she survived and was soon released from the hospital. Still on the brink of self-destruction, and with her self-respect in ruins, she decided to visit an old friend who happened to be a priest at a New York City church. When she came to the church, the priest was celebrating a weekday Eucharist. She decided to sit in the back pew and wait until the service was ended. When the time for communion came, the priest noticed that the woman remained in her seat, weeping. He knew her story. He knew about the divorce, about the alcohol, about the pills, and about her brush with death. When everyone else in the church had received communion, the priest hastened down the aisle with the bread and wine. He put the bread in her hand, whispering gently, Go ahead. Take it. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you very much. Listening to his gentle voice as she looked at the bread, she experienced an overwhelming sense that she was indeed loved by God. It was as if God had pulled her back from the depths. She felt reassured that she was accepted by God, just as she was. And more than that, she no longer felt alone. God was with her. The bread and the wine told her so. The Eucharist is God s assurance of our acceptance, but it is also a symbol of our commitment. Every Eucharist is a call to decision either to accept or reject God s love. The truth is, in the face of God s overwhelming love, some of us do not believe. It s not that

5 we don t believe in God, or even in Christ. It s that we don t believe, when confronted with our felt inadequacies, that we are loved unconditionally loved by a personal, powerful presence that cares about us. As a young parish priest on the Gaspe Coast of Quebec, I met a couple from Texas that was searching for the meaning of life. Both were highly educated. One was a university professor; the other was studying to be a medical doctor. Twice a year they would come to the Gaspe from Texas where they would attend church every Sunday yet they never received communion. Instinctively, they recognized that to stand up, leave the pew and proceed to the communion rail to receive the bread and wine meant a special kind of commitment they were not sure they could make. When they expressed their hesitancy to me, I told them that communion is the Episcopal version of an altar call only our altar call takes place every Sunday at every Eucharist when people literally Stand up for Jesus. One Sunday, when the church was mostly empty because of a severe snowstorm, this couple rose from their seats, and for the first time, came forward for communion. The moment I put the bread into their hands shall ever remain one of the highlights of my priestly ministry. They had taken seriously Christ s invitation to receive his unconditional love. God s acceptance of them led to their commitment as disciples of Jesus. Years later, when I served as Canon for Ministries at the cathedral in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, I had the joy to baptize their child as Christ s own forever. And so, we come back to the title of Rabbi Kushner s book: When All You ve Ever Wanted Isn t Enough. In the Eucharist there is

6 enough enough grace to live your life abundantly, enough love to sustain you through the tough times, enough power to give you the strength to live for today and to face the future with courage. God s love is with us always and forever. During the Great Depression, the future king of England, Edward VIII, visited Wales to see for himself the incredible misery of the miners. Edward had lived a very privileged and sheltered life, and was unfamiliar with dire poverty or harsh working conditions. What he saw shocked him: the miners blackened faces, the squalid conditions, the young teens, the sick and the aged, all struggling to survive. Edward began speaking to the miners but then suddenly paused, so overcome was he by their miserable state. He struggled for words to say, but found none. It could have been a very embarrassing moment, but just then, one of the miners began singing that great Welsh hymn, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. Then another miner joined in, and then a few more, and soon the entire assembly of miners were singing the hymn. As they sang the verse, Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven, / Feed me till I want no more it is reported that Edward, seeing the faces of the hungry miners, began to weep. As we approach the communion rail to receive the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation, let us, like the miners, come as hungry people to our king hungry for the abundant, satisfying life that only Christ can give. As we eat and drink with our mouths, may that Welsh hymn be sung in our hearts: Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven / Feed me till I want no more. Dr. Gary Nicolosi August 19, 2018 Text John 6:51-58 Proper 15, B

7 1. Our Daily Bread, July 9, 1994

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