In the Breaking of Bread

by Rev. Dr. Michael Stotts

Acts 2:1-14a,36-41
Lk. 24:13-35

What's so important about bread? The Risen Christ had walked quite a distance with these disciples, yet still they did not recognize him. Until he had them sit and share a meal -- and then they broke bread together. It was only then, says Luke that he "became known to them, in the breaking of bread."

But why bread? What was it about the breaking of bread that caused that recognition of the Risen Christ? And why is bread so important to us that breaking and sharing it has become a Sacrament in our lives. As followers, ourselves, of the Risen Christ, what does that bread-breaking ceremony, that revealed him to the disciples, tell us about how we can discover him and reveal him to others as his followers today?

Well first is it not true? The breaking of bread--the sharing of a family community meal together is powerful for us--because of the memories it brings forth. For the disciples, on that walk to Emmaus, it was when they paused, and the Risen Christ broke bread with them, that they finally recognized him. After all they knew he had died. Before they recognized him, as they were walking on that road to Emmaus they had even told him the accounts they'd heard of his death, and burial, and then what they'd heard of the empty tomb--as if his body'd been stolen! But these disciples, (who apparently hadn't been with the others who had seen the Risen Christ)these disciples had no earthly reason to think he might have been risen from the dead. Yet in fact he was there with them now, and it was that act of breaking bread with them that reminded them finally--took them back in memory to that oh so memorable night, when he had shared the bread, spoke of it being his body broken for them--and so they remembered, and recognized him.

I think all of us can relate to the powerful nature of memories of our own times of breaking bread--sharing a family meal-- with close loved ones--those are powerful memories. To this day, one of my own fondest memories are the Sunday dinners I enjoyed with my family in my growing up years. That was the one day of the week, every week, we ate in the dining room, instead of the kitchen. It was always an extra special meal. Very often it was a roast, my Mom had prepared. To this day, as I think about it, my mouth waters, remem-bering the good smells of that roast my mom had put in the oven before church. Those delicious smells always filled the house and seemed to lovingly welcome us home when we arrived home after the worship. Those were always loving times--instead of hurried meals in the kitchen together, as on weekdays before going off to finish homework. On Sunday we would linger instead, and share stories of good family times together, or share with each other what we'd done during the weak, or talk about the Sunday service we'd been to. We didn't have fast food so much, and microwaves in those days. All meals were much more of a time to be together--to be connected in love.

Well in much the same way it was so as the disciples shared from their souls with this stranger on the road to Emmaus and then when he stopped to invite them to eat with him. They broke bread together, and they remembered that other loving, family meal-- that last meal he had with them before his death, with that group of disciples that had been very much like Jesus caring family over the years of his ministry.
Breaking bread, you see--like the sacrament we say is in remembrance of him--memories of loving times- come forth in that breaking of bread. As we gather at the table here on communion Sundays, who do you remember sharing with you here--they're with us in memory. With whom in your past have you shared bread. Who baked bread at your house, or filled your house with the delicious smells of meal prepared with love for you. And so too, do we remember Jesus, who lovingly shared the bread with his disciples at the last supper. We take this meal--in remembrance of him--the one to whom we have been drawn as Master and friend. Why do we break bread together here every month, the Lord's Supper? To remember him, and know again his love in those memories.

Which tells us then something else the Lord's Supper means for us. It is of course symbolic for us-- that breaking of bread--and the sharing of the wine --symbolic for us--as Jesus said it should be-of Christ's body, broken for us, and Christ's blood shed for us. It reminds us indeed of how much he gave for us--how great was his love--how great was God's love, that he would allow the sacrifice of his son for our sins--to take away our sins. Another way of putting it is that the bread and wine powerfully remind us--because of that symbolism--of the Grace of God. There's no way we could have earned such a sacrifice--but Christ, mercifully gave of himself-- for us--anyway.
It's something like the way families share bread together. In poor families all over the world, parents routinely, hungry and desperate though they are, often will give up much of what they could keep for themselves, that their children might be fed. They will eat less, or nothing at all, so their children can eat more. The sacrifice of the parent for the child, don't you see! And that's what God did for us! And we remember it, in communion.

Today is Native American Ministries Sunday in our United Methodist Tradition, and as such we are called on this day to sacrifice something of our-selves for needy, hungry members of our larger world family, God's family--for some of our native American brothers and sisters who are in need. Indeed, part of our connection with those who were first in this land, is that even when we first came here--our Pilgrim forbearers--they themselves, you'll recall, were starving in those first hard winters, and they survived only because they learned from the native Americans, who took the time to teach and share with them, how to grow crops and fish, and build shelter against the hard New England winters. The pilgrims would not have survived unless the native Americans had taken the time to help them discover how to get the bread of life in this land.

You see how, in many ways, the breaking of bread is a symbol of loving sacrifice, and for us as Christians, of the ultimate sacrifice God and God's Son made for us. The Body of Christ, broken for us; the blood of Christ shed for us. We are forgiven of our sins in the sharing of the sacrament--because of sacrifice-- Christ took the punishment we deserved for our sins, on himself, and died for us all.
I reminded of Sidney Carton's last words in Charles Dickens classic novel written long ago -- The Tale of Two Cities. One of the main characters, Carton, said, " it is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever; it is a far, far better rest I go to, than I have ever known." Those closing words of course, in Dickens Tale, summed up the sacrifice that one man in the novel, Sidney Carton, had made. He actually went to the gallows, in the place of his friend. And this he did intentionally, as an act of love for that friend, even though the friend had fallen in love with the woman Sidney himself had hoped to marry.

Sacrificial love--this, in an even more momentous way, for all humankind, was what God did for us--and we remember it, and hence know his love again, in our hearts, in the breaking of bread. His self-sacrifice--his body, broken for us.

And in the end, that love does not stop as something just between us and God, and God's Son Jesus Christ. Rather the breaking of bread also connects us in a very real way with a horizontal love-that is between us and the loving community which is the church, and beyond it, to the world. The apostle Paul called the Church the Body of Christ --- because we become the living Christ, you see, when gathered in community. The apostle talked about how each of us is an important part of that Body--each of us like the different parts of the body, bringing different gifts to the common table of our lives--but each gift, though different, is extremely important for the whole. And so we are connected--like the ingredients in bread--each ingredient needed lest the bread fail to rise or have unwelcome taste. So this bread which reminds us of the Body of Christ, is symbolic of our connection in the church as the living, risen Body of Christ today--each of us doing our part--and together becoming Christ's living body for the world.

I mentioned a moment ago that today is Native American Ministries Sunday. Well the bread that we're using today for communion is in fact a bread common among Native American cultures--a simple bread called fry bread. It's special for us today, because one of our members, Barbara Pabone made it for us--for our communion. And it was special for native Americans, you see? For no matter what tribe, almost every group or Native culture made the bread in the same way--so it was commonly shared in pow-wows when the tribes came together. The fry bread was a staple and a universal symbol for them of tribal unity. And so it is for all of us, with people of many cultures, on this Native American Ministries Sunday, all over the country in our United Methodist Church. We are one in Christ, for we all partake of the same loaf.

And so it can be for us, in the lives we live beyond the Christian community in the world. We are indeed called by our faith--to share the bread with others--to feed the hungry, and to break bread in fellowship--extending the love of Christ to the stranger, even our enemies.
Have you ever noticed how, if you're having a disagreement in the family, sometimes the best way solve the problem is to sit down together, and share a meal, and talk it out. As the bread is shared each person reveals the person inside--that person comes out--and is shared with the other, so now the other understands how they're feeling, and then they share likewise and back and forth--until with the miracle of the shared bread--something called love for the other--a new bond grows, and Christ's love is known again.

Know his presence today, brothers and sisters in Christ, as we break bread together. As we share the fry bread, know our unity especially with our Native American brothers and sisters--our unity with them as children of God--and followers of Christ. And remember too the sacrifice in the breaking of the bread--the mother sacrificing for her child, God giving of God's self for us on the cross, and the importance for you and me to also turn around and give ourselves that others might have life, through our Native American Ministries offering, or in countless other ways, in which God enables us to love one another in this world.

What a wonder--the breaking of bread. As the disciples walked the road to Emmaus, like all of life's roads, they walked along it talking of struggle and death and pain, but in the breaking of bread, God brought them to life again with sacrificial love, and a resurrection took place for them, as it does for us today--in the breaking of bread. Amen.