July 26, 2009 Cycle B
2 Kings 4:42-44 Ephesians 4:1-6 John 6:1-15
In our Gospel today, Jesus and the disciples are attempting to hangout on a hilltop only to find that a large crowd gathers around. From all indications it was a stadium full of people. Lines of people as far as the eye could see. Thousands upon thousands were hungry for whatever it was that this rock star rabbi would do next. Jesus engaged in what would be His most magnificent miracle yet. He took the five loaves of the bread and the two fish and told the disciples to have the people sit down. Then He gave thanks and to the surprise of all, but Jesus Himself, it lasted. That simple, insignificant little meal, more than satisfied the hunger of thousands upon thousands of Jesus’ biggest fans.
The temptation is to see a Savior in this message who is here to meet your needs and make your temporal troubles melt away. One can easily begin to see Jesus as a short-order Savior. Here to quench all our earthly cravings. In fact, Jesus tells us that the people were so moved by the miracle that they wanted to throw a crown on Jesus and anoint Him as their earthly king. Perhaps they were thinking, “Yeah, with this guy in power, life will be one nonstop buffet of blessings.”
And if we are honest with ourselves we’ll admit that many of us approach Jesus first with that same attitude. Our lives are filled with cravings for things such as financial security, physical well-being and peaceful relationships. We enlist the help of folks such as Dr. Phil and Oprah, we try the secrets to satisfaction taunted on magazine covers, and we devour our latest self-help book hoping it will provide the healing we hunger for.
This brings me to a story with the opening question, “If you were alive, where were you 40 years ago?” Well I was in graduate school in Chicago at Loyola and I remember well the night that the world was focused on the skies. It was on the 20th of July 1969 that American’s astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, took their historic first steps on the surface of the moon.
Another first took place just before the two astronauts climbed out of their lunar module, Eagle, and set foot on the moon that was kept quiet at the time by NASA. Communion was celebrated on the moon. Recorded in his memoirs, Buzz Aldrin speaks about his participation in the Communion Service.
Two Sunday’s before the launch of Apollo 11, Buzz participated in a private Communion Service at his Presbyterian Church. During the service a small piece of the bread and a small chalice of wine were sealed in a plastic packet. The packets were then safely stowed in Aldrin’s personal preference kit. When the lunar module touched down on the moon, Aldrin took out the Communion elements and set them out in front of the guidance system computer. He then radioed to Houston.
“Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM Pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whomever or wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours and to give thanks in his own individual way.” Next came the moment of Communion. Aldrin writes in his autobiography,” I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and wine. I poured the wine into a chalice, the chalice our Church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there were the Communion elements.
Just before I partook of the elements I read the words, which I had chosen to indicate our trust that as man probes into space we are in fact acting in Christ. I sensed especially strongly my unity with our Church back home and with the Church everywhere – I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility.” I read, “I am the vine, you are the branches, who ever remains in me and I in him will bare much fruit. For you can do nothing without me.”
Bread blessed and broken on the surface of the moon. Bread blessed and broken on a Palestine hillside centuries ago. Bread blessed and broken inside our own Church. Bread blessed and broken uniting all humankind into a community transcending time and space.
Our Gospel readings over the next five weekends will invite us to consider the deeper meaning of Eucharist. Christ the Bread of Life present to us in this sacrament that is given to us in order that we might become sacrament for one another. Eucharist is possible only when self defers to community, when serving others is exulted over being served, only when differences dissolve and the common and shared are given priority. As we pray in the second Eucharistic prayer, “May all of us who share in the Body and Blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Amen. Msgr. Tom, Pastor Christ the King