The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: I Kings 2:10-12, 2:3-14
Psalm 111:1-10
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20
Gospel Reading: John 6:51-58

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

This is John’s Gospel, and things can be read on that physical level, but they can also need to be read on the vertical level of spiritual life where God reaches down into our humanity pulling God’s very being and presence over us to shift our understanding and view of all.

On both those levels we do well to remember how John starts.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

John is saying this Word became flesh.  John is saying this about Christ.  He is our flesh.  He is our bread.  He is our blood.  He is—to John—our everything.  Christ is our everything and he is in everything that we know and touch and are.

To limit him to less than that is to miss the very presence of God.  Unless we really take that in—eat it like flesh and swallow it like drink and let it flow through us like blood—we miss the reality of how very present and real God is in Christ Jesus.  To embrace how very real and present God is to us in Christ Jesus is to live this wisdom filled life that knows everything is both physical and spiritual all at the same time.  Such insight becomes the wisdom of Solomon for us who seek to live as wise people, “making the most of the time.” (Ephesians 5:16a)

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Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk