Living Bread: Jonathan Daniels (John 6:51-58)
A Sermon for Pentecost XII – Proper 15B – August 16, 2015
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Laurel, DE
(the Rev’d Dr) Elizabeth Kaeton
This morning’s Gospel presents a real challenge for many of
us.
Jesus says, “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.”
The religious leaders of his day (whenever John says, “Jews”
it’s helpful to read ‘religious leaders’, because many scholars believe this is
really what John meant) disputed these words of Jesus among themselves, asking,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Well, and who could blame them? The church has been debating
this question for centuries. Indeed, the Church of England – our founding
church – imprisoned and tortured and executed people over the question of
whether or not what happened during Holy Eucharist was transubstantiation or
consubstantiation.
So, here’s a wee bit of teaching you all learned way back
when you took Confirmation Class.
And, I know you all learned this because I know you all took Confirmation Class, right?
At least a full year – maybe even two – right? Of course, right.
You maybe a little bit rusty. So, to review.
And, I know you all learned this because I know you all took Confirmation Class, right?
At least a full year – maybe even two – right? Of course, right.
You maybe a little bit rusty. So, to review.
Transubstantiation is the believe that the change by which the bread
and the wine used in the sacrament of the Eucharist become, not merely as a
sign or a figure, but also in actual reality the body and blood of Christ. This
was the ‘catholic’ view of Eucharist.
Consubstantiation is the
doctrine that the substance of the bread and wine coexists with the body and
blood of Christ in the Eucharist. This was the theology Luther espoused which
became the prevailing “protestant’ view of Eucharist.
Lots
of blood was shed over these two opposing theologies – especially under the
beautiful princess Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, who was Roman Catholic.
Catholics throughout Europe, including some in England, believed that Mary was
the true heir to the English crown because they did not accept the annulment of
King Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
So,
according to Roman Catholic belief, Elizabeth was the “illegitimate” child of
Henry and his next wife, Ann Bolyn and, therefore, not fit to be Queen. Except,
of course, she was. Queen. Of England.
Does that face look familiar? * |
In
1580, Pope Gregory XIII announced that killing Elizabeth would not count as a
sin, and the whole thing got very . . . well, let’s just say she didn’t become
known as “Bloody Mary” for nothing.
But, that’s another story for another time.
But, that’s another story for another time.
If
you didn’t take Confirmation Class, see what fun stuff you missed learning!
Perhaps
you didn’t know this, but we hear vestiges of the history of this great
theological debate every time we celebrate Eucharist.
After the consecration, the priest says, “The gifts of God for the people of God, take them in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving.”
After the consecration, the priest says, “The gifts of God for the people of God, take them in remembrance that Christ died for you and feed on him in your hearts by faith, with thanksgiving.”
That
was part of the genius of Elizabeth. Do you hear it? Listen to it again: “The
GIFTS of God, for the people of God.” Jesus is the ‘gift of God’ and we are
reminded that we are ‘God’s people’.
And
then, the priest says, “Feed on him (Jesus). In your HEARTS. By FAITH.”
See?
Not exactly Transubstantiation. Not
exactly Consubstantiation. Do you
hear it? It’s the Good Anglican way of not either/or, but rather, both/and.
And, always, always, always, with thanksgiving.
That’s
known as the Via Media – or, the “Middle Way” between Catholicism and
Protestantism which was the genius of The Elizabethan Settlement. Draw a circle
large enough so that everyone is included and no one is left out. Because, as
Elizabeth says, it is, ultimately, a matter of faith, which is belief shaped
and formed by the heart.
That’s
what happens when you try to believe something with just your head and not your
heart as well. Which was a stumbling block for the ancient religious leaders to
whom Jesus was speaking in this morning’s gospel.
Let
me give you an example of the life of someone who believed with his head and
his heart that Jesus was the ‘living bread come down from heaven’. Indeed, he
believed it so much that he was able to take the risks of his faith because he
knew and understood what Jesus meant when he said, “But the one who eats this
bread will live forever.”
Jonathan M. Daniels, VMI |
This
past week - and, even today - Episcopalians from around the country have been on a pilgrimage to
Ft. Deposit and Hayneville (outside of Selman), Alabama to the site where Jonathan Daniels was martyred fifty
years ago on August 20, 1965. His feast
day is August 14, the day of his arrest.
A graduate
of Virginia Military Institute, he was a seminarian at the (then) Episcopal
Theological School (now Episcopal Divinity School) in Cambridge, MA.
He was
working that summer, with his classmate and my now dear friend Judy Upham (at
whose marriage I was recently privileged to preside) to help with the Voter
Registration project of the Civil Rights Movement.
Just
eight days earlier, President Lyndon Baines Johnson had signed the historic
Voting Rights Act. Jonathan was back in Alabama that summer to help with the
first Voter Registration effort in Lowndes County, Alabama, often called
“Bloody Lowndes” for the way violence enforced segregation.
For
his efforts, Jonathan had been arrested and jailed along with several others
and spent six hot August days in the jail without air conditioning. There were
no showers and no toilets. It is said that Daniels led the group in hymn
singing and prayers, boosting morale and combating the bleakness of the
situation.
On
August 20, he and all the others were inexplicably released from prison. As far
as they knew, no one had set bail for them. Judy Upham remains convinced that “it was a
set up.”
While waiting for a ride and after having been ordered off
the jail property, Daniels, Catholic priest Richard Morrisroe and two black
demonstrators, Joyce Bailey and Ruby Sales, walked to buy soda for the group at
Varner’s Cash Store, about 50 yards from the jail.
Judy Upham reports, “They’d
been there before in mixed groups, so it theoretically wasn’t that big a deal.”
Jonathan, Judy Upham and friend 1965 |
“The next thing I know there was a pull and I fall back. And there was a shotgun blast. And another shotgun blast. I heard Father Morrisroe, moaning for water.”
“I thought to myself: ‘I’m dead. This is what it feels like to be dead. I’m dead.”
Joyce Bailey, who had run behind an abandoned car, called to Sales who, realizing she was still alive, crawled over to her. They began to run.
The rest of the group scattered and ran, knocking on doors as they passed homes. “Nobody would let us in; people were so terrified,” Ruby said.
Coleman, a county engineer and a member of one of the oldest white families in Lowndes County, had leveled his gun and fired, blowing Daniels backwards. Daniels lay motionless on the ground.
Morrisroe had retreated, taking Joyce Bailey by the hand. Coleman shot him in the back. He required hours of surgery to survive.
When other SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) workers went to look for Daniels’ body, they could not find it, Ruby Sales said. “The streets had been swept clean, and you could not tell a murder had taken place.”
Two months before his murder, Daniels wrote this about living with and advocating with blacks in what was known as the so-called Alabama Black Belt:
“I lost fear in the black belt when I began to know in my bones and sinews that I have truly been baptized into the Lord’s death and resurrection, that in the only sense that really matters I am already dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God.”Do you hear it? Do you hear the words of faith coming from the heart of Jonathan Daniels?
To the human mind, his words are as confounding as the words Jesus spoke to the religious leaders of his time.
But, Jonathan Daniels knew in his “bones and sinews” that he had truly been baptized into the Lord’s death and resurrection. That he, as St. Paul had written centuries before, was alive in Christ and that Christ lived in him.
At this point, let me offer a simple reminder: This did not happen in the year 65. This is not ancient history. Jonathan Daniels was martyred for his faith on August 20, 1965. Fifty years ago. His feast day was yesterday, August 14, the day of his arrest.
Not all of us are called to be martyrs, as Jonathan Daniels was. Or, St. Paul. Or any of the millions of other martyrs who have died, as our first reading poetically described David’s death and now are “asleep with the ancestors.”
We know that, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, all the saints who have gone on before are awake and alive with the joy of the Risen Christ.
We who – here and now – are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and nourished by the sacrament of Eucharist – The Great Thanksgiving of and for his body and blood – are called to “feed on Jesus in our hearts, by faith, with thanksgiving,” so that we may become more like Jesus and take the risks of our faith, no matter what specific task God calls us to.
Sometimes, that means the sacrifice – and sometimes, it does require sacrifice – of being generous of spirit, drawing a circle large enough to bring everyone in, instead of keeping some folks out. That sometimes requires real effort, especially when people don’t look like us or talk like us or believe the way we do.
That’s the genius of our faith as Anglicans. Not either/or but both/and. Believing not just with our heads but with hearts and, as Jonathan Daniels said, “in our bones and sinews”.
Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever."
That’s a matter of transubstantiation AND consubstantiation. Jesus is actually with us, in the flesh and stands with us, in the simple matter of the world.
It
presents a real challenge, but one I believe – indeed, I have no doubt that -
we are capable of living up to.
Because,
we are Christians who are people of the Via Media, the Middle Way.
And, ultimately,
it is a matter of faith which is belief shaped and formed by the heart.
Amen
NB#1: I am grateful to the ENS article "Remembering Jonathan Daniels 50 Years After his Martyrdom" for the pictures and information contained in this post.
NB#2: See also "1,500+ honor slain seminarian Jonathan Daniels" and "Pilgrims Gather in Hayneville to Remember Martyrs," for a report of the pilgrimage.
*NB#3:
And, yes, that's a picture of Elizabeth I with my face photoshoped on
top. It was done years ago by a priest who left for ACNA. He was trying
to insult me. It didn't work.
4 comments:
Actually "Bloody Mary" was Elizabeth's half sister Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry's first wife Katherine of Aragon. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Mary was queen before Elizabeth and tried to restore Roman Catholicism to England by the usual means, persecution. Protestants, called reformers, had persecuted Catholics under the reign of Henry's son Edward and late in Henry's reign also, although who was persecuting whom wasn't always just one way or the other. Elizabeth, when she became queen after Mary's death, was a bit less fanatic about persecuting Catholics, although she did have her moments. As always, politics ruled policy.
Huh, see? Just goes to show that you can learn this stuff in Confirmation Class and teach it in Confirmation Class and still get your Mary's mixed up. Thanks for that good pick up, Bex. I appreciate it. Good thing that wasn't the main point of my sermon or I would have been even more embarrassed. Thanks again.
I wish I had been there for this sermon, the things I miss for not doing church in the summer....
Wish you had been there, too, Lis. We miss you.
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