“Behold God’s love for you”. With these words the Temple priest would hold up
the Bread of Presence (manna) reminding the sojourning Jews making their tri-
annual visits to Jerusalem of how God had provided for them when they had been
wandering in the wilderness after being set free from 400 years of slavery.
This Bread of Presence was kept along with the Ark of the Covenant, and the
Golden Menorah in the Temple and was made visible three times a year. According
to the religious practice all Jews were required to come to the Temple to
present their sacrificial offerings. Only the priest of the Temple could
perform the duty. Blood sacrifices were a sign of their covenant relationship
with God. At that time, no Jew would have missed the importance of this Bread.
It embodied their freedom and their confirmation as God’s chosen people. This
physical presence of the “ Showbread” invited the people to fulfill their
obligation to “ … look on the face of God….” and to remind them that this
“miracle of the manna” which had sustain them every day for 40 years in the
wilderness was provide by God who would continue to be present with them. The
Exodus was not simply setting a people free from slavery but literally creating
“… a sacred family relationship between God and the people by means of a
covenant.” (29) The ritual of offering thrice yearly sacrifices in the temple of
Jerusalem was not only to remind people of what God had done but what God
continued to do . It was a foreshadowing of what the ancient Jew hoped would be
the coming of the Messiah. Unfortunately, they like us, settled into the
practice of obligation without the miracle of transformation. The danger of
religious ritual is the tendency to separate the personal meaning it holds and
its corporate connection to the community of believers . In our worship and
Eucharist, as was true of our ancient sojourners, there is a danger of
practicing the obligation and losing connection with the reality: the living
relationship with God.
Embodiment (incarnation) is a sign of God’s ongoing presence with God’s creation. It began in the first act of creation and continues to this very moment. Our God is continually incarnating the eternal kingdom in each breath we take. Its literal fulfillment is in the body and blood of Jesus. Is it any wonder that the scripture proclaims , “ taste and see that the Lord is good.” Healing the whole earth and the people (Body of Christ on earth) is an invitation to reclaim our ancient past so that through the Holy Spirit “the Body of Christ” can be transformed into the new covenant, the new Eucharist each breath we take. The point of being “set free” as an ancient Jew and as a modern day Christian is to freely worship the Lord our God with all our life. (1st Commandment) To worship God is to embody (incarnate) the very life of the Spirit. The bread of Presence becomes for us the body and blood of Jesus, the ongoing miracle of God’s supernatural provision for us. Jesus taught us this prayer, “… Our Father who art in heaven hallow be Thy name, Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth (embodiment) as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily supernatural bread…” Our Jewish brothers and sister knew , if not always trusted , that God would provide. Is it a surprise that the one prayer Jesus taught embodied the body of God’s provision? Before the destruction of the 1st Temple in 70AD God had commanded that Israel have one central place of worship. It contain three divisions; “… the Outer Court where on a Bronze altar the animal sacrifices were offered by the priest. (Only the priest could make this offering.) The second room was the Holy Place which contained the golden Lampstand (the menorah); the golden Altar of Incense, and the golden table of the 12 Cakes of bread, known as the Bread of Presence. In this room the priest of Israel would worship God through the unbloody offering of incense, bread and wine.”(33) The third room, was the Holy of Holies , the inner most sanctum that house the golden Ark of the Covenant… containing the Ten Commandments, an urn of the manna, and the staff of Aaron. ….the importance to the ancient Israelites of this place was they saw it as the dwelling place of God on earth.(34) In Israel, belief in body and Spirit could not be separated. The sacrificial presentation was not complete until the slaughtered lamb was taken back by the family , roasted and eaten. Many Christians today miss the connection between the Temple sacrifice and Jesus words, eat and drink this is My body and blood …the bold offering of Jesus on the cross invites us to consume His presence.
Embodiment points a way for us to integrate the ancient ache we have carried in our communal mind, physical body and spiritual legacy that can be understood only by faith, literally a miracle. This embodiment is a slowly developing awareness in which we are being drawn into a unity of the Trinity and Its expression in the legacy of our Jewish, Catholic and Protestant tributaries of grace. We can learn that our Jewish roots call us to remember; our Catholic roots call us to receive; our Protestant roots call us to proclaim the mystery of the supernatural bread and wine we call Eucharist. Brant Petri, a Catholic scholar at Notre Dame Seminary in N.O. states in his book, Jesus and the Jewish roots of the Eucharist, “When we look at the mystery of the Last Supper through ancient Jewish eyes… we discover there is much more in common between ancient Judaism and early Christianity.” (18) Behold ,” for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten…” ONE to all of us. See how much God loves us.
Embodiment (incarnation) is a sign of God’s ongoing presence with God’s creation. It began in the first act of creation and continues to this very moment. Our God is continually incarnating the eternal kingdom in each breath we take. Its literal fulfillment is in the body and blood of Jesus. Is it any wonder that the scripture proclaims , “ taste and see that the Lord is good.” Healing the whole earth and the people (Body of Christ on earth) is an invitation to reclaim our ancient past so that through the Holy Spirit “the Body of Christ” can be transformed into the new covenant, the new Eucharist each breath we take. The point of being “set free” as an ancient Jew and as a modern day Christian is to freely worship the Lord our God with all our life. (1st Commandment) To worship God is to embody (incarnate) the very life of the Spirit. The bread of Presence becomes for us the body and blood of Jesus, the ongoing miracle of God’s supernatural provision for us. Jesus taught us this prayer, “… Our Father who art in heaven hallow be Thy name, Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth (embodiment) as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily supernatural bread…” Our Jewish brothers and sister knew , if not always trusted , that God would provide. Is it a surprise that the one prayer Jesus taught embodied the body of God’s provision? Before the destruction of the 1st Temple in 70AD God had commanded that Israel have one central place of worship. It contain three divisions; “… the Outer Court where on a Bronze altar the animal sacrifices were offered by the priest. (Only the priest could make this offering.) The second room was the Holy Place which contained the golden Lampstand (the menorah); the golden Altar of Incense, and the golden table of the 12 Cakes of bread, known as the Bread of Presence. In this room the priest of Israel would worship God through the unbloody offering of incense, bread and wine.”(33) The third room, was the Holy of Holies , the inner most sanctum that house the golden Ark of the Covenant… containing the Ten Commandments, an urn of the manna, and the staff of Aaron. ….the importance to the ancient Israelites of this place was they saw it as the dwelling place of God on earth.(34) In Israel, belief in body and Spirit could not be separated. The sacrificial presentation was not complete until the slaughtered lamb was taken back by the family , roasted and eaten. Many Christians today miss the connection between the Temple sacrifice and Jesus words, eat and drink this is My body and blood …the bold offering of Jesus on the cross invites us to consume His presence.
Embodiment points a way for us to integrate the ancient ache we have carried in our communal mind, physical body and spiritual legacy that can be understood only by faith, literally a miracle. This embodiment is a slowly developing awareness in which we are being drawn into a unity of the Trinity and Its expression in the legacy of our Jewish, Catholic and Protestant tributaries of grace. We can learn that our Jewish roots call us to remember; our Catholic roots call us to receive; our Protestant roots call us to proclaim the mystery of the supernatural bread and wine we call Eucharist. Brant Petri, a Catholic scholar at Notre Dame Seminary in N.O. states in his book, Jesus and the Jewish roots of the Eucharist, “When we look at the mystery of the Last Supper through ancient Jewish eyes… we discover there is much more in common between ancient Judaism and early Christianity.” (18) Behold ,” for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten…” ONE to all of us. See how much God loves us.
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