The Lord said to Moses, “These you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. But anything in the seas or the rivers that does not have fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you. You shall regard them as detestable; you shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall detest their carcasses. Everything in the waters that does not have fins and scales is detestable to you.” (Leviticus 11:9-12)
With that, out went the crawfish boils, shrimp boils, clam bakes, raw oyster eating contests, shark steaks, unagi handroll, baked octopus, and the quintessential crustacean—lobster. Poor ol’ Moses had no idea what he was missing out on, or he might have asked for a revision.
Crawdads are considered a poor man’s lobster, yet they are tasty, but I’ll still take lobster when I can afford it. However, lobster did not always hold such a prestigious spot on fine dining menus, far from it. Early on, lobster was called the cockroach of the sea because it was so plentiful.
On the northeast coast, the Native People would not eat them but used them as fertilizer for soil. They were the food of the poor, prisoners, and indentured servants, and at one point, those servants in the state of Massachusetts sued to limit the number of meals with lobster they could be served in a week. The poor that ate them would hide the shells because it was an embarrassment to be so poor that you were forced to eat lobster. However, when the railroad came along, lobster was served on the trains, and those who had never had it before fell in love with it. As the market for the crustacean increased, the supply decreased, which is when, around 1950, the lobster meal began the transformation and became a sign of prestige and not poverty.
I pulled up the web page for the Cape Porpoise Lobster Company in Kennebunkport, Maine, and found that you can purchase a twelve-pack of 2 1/2-pound lobsters for only $651.20. That would make for some pretty expensive fertilizer.
Something so common that it was thought of as the cockroach of the sea transformed into one of the sumptuous delicacies.
Starting with this week’s Gospel lesson and continuing for three more Sundays, we will read from John’s Gospel—specifically, chapter six. By the end of the month, when you hear the Gospel, you’ll begin to think, Didn’t we read that one last week? The reason is that each of these lessons deals with two very common things that are also transformed into something far greater—bread and wine. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”
Given the part of the country we live in, I suspect that most of you have bitten down on a grain of wheat. It is not the easiest thing to chew up, so somewhere along the way, somebody said, Why don’t we grind this up? Make it easier to chew. That worked out well, but someone else said, Sure is dry. Maybe add some water. That, too, worked out, so I can imagine someone mixing up their flour and water, but just as they were about to sit down and eat, they had to rush off on some errand, so they set their bowl down next to the fire. When they returned, they said, What is that delicious smell? And discovered they had baked the first loaf of bread. According to the smart people, we’ve been doing that for at least 30,000 years and probably longer, and in one form or another, bread is a staple of every culture.
Both bread and wine are signs of society because neither is something you can casually put together. It varies depending on the recipe, but a loaf of bread contains about one pound of flour. Given our modern farming techniques, you will need ten square feet to grow enough wheat to produce that much flour. That requires a knowledge of agriculture, tools, and the ability to cultivate the land and the crops. Making wine is similar. It takes 600 to 800 grapes to make a bottle of wine. So, for both bread and wine, you’ve got to work for it. Even so, in the time of Jesus, bread and wine were common food and drink. They were the basics, yet, as with the common lobster, Jesus came along and transformed the bread and wine and made what was common into the extraordinary—His Body and Blood.
This is what takes place each time we celebrate the Eucharist. We take the ordinary—bread and wine—and through the prayers of the priest, the common is transformed. St. Justin Martyr, writing in the second century, says, “Not as ordinary bread or as ordinary drink do we partake of them, but just as, through the word of God, our savior Jesus Christ became incarnate and took upon himself flesh and blood for our salvation, so, we have been taught, the food which has been made the Eucharist by the prayer of his word, and which nourishes our flesh and blood by assimilation, is both the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.” And that is not an easy teaching or something that everyone will believe.
For the Jews, Jesus saying that the bread and wine were his body and blood was deeply offensive. The fact that Jesus encouraged them to eat and drink even more so. For us today, with all our science and ability to look at things down to the molecular level, the bread and wine becoming the body and blood is simply unscientific. This is why today, we have different ways of understanding what is taking place, which fall into three main categories: memorialism, consubstantiation, and transubstantiation.
The details of these can become quite tedious, but the simple explanation works out like this:
Memorialism is the belief that at the prayers of the Eucharist, nothing really happens. The bread and wine remain bread and wine. Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me,” so by receiving the bread and the wine, we only remember this act.
Consubstantiation is the belief that the bread and wine retain the form of bread and wine but have, in fact, truly become the body and blood of Christ. This transformation is the real presence of Christ. In remembering Him, we have made Him present. Some of you may recall your Confirmation class where we looked at the word remembrance, translated from the Greek anamnesis—to make truly present.
The third understanding, transubstantiation, goes one step further. It states that Jesus is truly present but that the bread and wine have been transformed and are no longer bread and wine but flesh and blood.
Memorialism is a protestant understanding of the Eucharist, and transubstantiation is the Roman Catholic understanding. Consubstantiation is the best explanation of what is happening, and most Episcopalians, but not all, fall into that category. Is it something you must believe before receiving communion? No. However, we must understand that something is “different” about the bread and wine we receive at communion. As Justyn Martyr said, following the prayers, it is no longer ordinary bread and ordinary wine. Something common has become something extraordinary. If it were not so, why would St. Paul say to us, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29) It is a mystery how, but something is different following the prayers.
How can we enter more deeply into this mystery of the Body and Blood? Paul says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Seeing Christ in the bread and wine is not something I can teach you because it is a matter of faith. If you don’t believe, does that mean you don’t have any faith? No. Not at all. Should you receive communion if you don’t believe that the bread and wine become the body and blood? Of course, you should! But you should believe that it is not ordinary and that it is a gift given to you—not by me, not by the Church—but by Christ Jesus Himself.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” and He gives you Himself in the bread and the wine so that He might become a part of you and you, Him, and so that we all may be one—so that we may be transformed from the common into the extraordinary in Him.
Let us pray: Grant, O merciful God, that your church, being gathered by your Holy Spirit into one, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Candle in a Cave 