Being the Body of Christ the Bread of Heaven
Reposted from an old Bible Study Mailing list I used to run. Written in my "Do I want to be a Messianic Jew" stage. When I talk about preparing communion bread - I was on the rota of bakers for my former (Episcopal) parish. I made communion bread about once a month. This was again posted on the blog (2004.I.3) as well as year ago (2005.VI.2) and there are still the original comments from readers there. I made some slight edits from the Original Posting (on 2001.VIII.14) each time.I'm reposting this - again - today because a post on Pres. Elizabeth's blog reminded me of it. Her post, however, is a story of the childlike faith we need. Mine, well...
Indeed everyone is going to be salted with fire.
Mark 9:49
I like this passage, which in some translations talks rather overmuch about the "worm that shall not die and the flame that shall not be quenched." Yeshua is calling to mind the closing words of Isaiah, which do, in fact, talk about punishments for those who rebel against God, but it is verse 49 that attracts my attention just now.
Please note that Yeshua promises everyone fire - not just the evil ones - but everyone will be "salted" with fire. Obviously, I think, there must be some meaning here that I'm missing. Who wants to be salted in Hell?
Today as I write, I am preparing bread for Communion at my Church this Sunday. Some of you reading this will have already tasted the bread I am preparing today.
Jewish theology talks not of "original sin" as western (mostly Protestant) Christians tend to understand it, but rather of a good inclination and a bad inclination that are given to everyone. The two inclinations ("Yetzer" or plural "Yetzerim") are in everyone. In the most basic understanding we have:
Yetzer HaRa - (m.); "evil" inclination, the desire to commit sin; as in "Yoseph HaTzaddik cavash et ha-yetzer ha-ra shelo," ("'Joseph the Righteous' conquered his 'evil' inclination.")
Yetzer HaTov - (m.); "good" inclination, the desire not to commit sin; as in "Lekol echad yesh Yetzer HaTov," ("Everyone has a 'good' inclination.")
Source
But there is more they are not only good and evil, like a devil and an angel sitting on my shoulders: Yetzer HaRa is the nature that urges one to procreate - to have children, who are, in part, "little copies of me" - the drive to seek pleasure, to succeed and excel. When it gets out of balance, it becomes hoarding wealth, having sex in ways that harm others, and drinking too much. Yetzer HaTov is the nature that urges one to give - the drive to share with others and to love. When it gets out of balance, it becomes having no healthy boundaries and not respecting the boundaries of others.
Jewish prayer often asks God to make Yetzer HaRa subservient to His will and asks that the one praying not become subservient to her own Yetzter HaRa - the seeker requests to use Yetzer HaRa in the service of Yetzer HaTov, both in the service of God. Jewish prayer asks for all of us to be used in the service of God - the Yetzer HaTov and the Yetzer HaRa both come from God and can be used by God to further God's plan.
Some years later, I think these notions match up well with the Orthodox idea of "passions". After all, Orthodoxy is only Judaism under different rabbis. Orthodox would ask for the passions themselves to be taken away - purified, returned to ther natural state. For the passions to be returned to ballance and subservience to God's will. And the Holy Apostle Hermas says, that we are "to know that with every man, there is a good and an evil spirit." Hermas, too, was trained in Jewish thinking!
The Hebrew word for life, Chai'im, has in it two of the letter yod (Chet, Yod, Yod, Mem). Yod is also the first letter of Yetzer. The Rabbis teach that those two yods symbolize the two yetzerim. When the Creation story says that God blew into Adam the Breath of Life (Genesis 2:7) - it comes with both of the Yods, with both of these inclinations. All life (Kol Chai'im) has both sides.
Bread is the most amazing thing: flour - most often wheat - and water, really, along with yeast. That's all it is. Through the process of stirring and kneading, flour and water together have an unusual property: the flour's natural gluten protein separates from the starch and develops a structure - threads. But it's flat and lifeless. Then yeast is introduced. Yeast survives by reproducing maddeningly fast, but it requires three things: warmth, food and water. The yeast that makes my bread rise today eats the flour and drinks the water and makes babies. The babies eat the flour and drink the water. Then there are babies having babies. Then babies having babies having babies having babies. And while this is all happening, everyone burps. The belching releases gases, and the gases make the bread rise: the selfish desires, the Yetzer HaRa, of the yeast raise my bread.
The Church Fathers and Mothers speak of each of us having evil and good within us. They preach about the Parable of the Wheat and Tares as referring to the good and bad within each of us and say that at our deaths, the demons will come and claim the tares and chaff from our souls. This also sounds like the words John the Baptist spoke - (Luke 3:16-17) "He will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh [the Holy Spirit] and in fire, He has with him his winnowing fork to clear out his threshing floor and father his wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the straw with unquenchable fire!" Remember that no kernel of grain is without its chaff - we each have parts of us that will be burned away in God the Consuming Fire.
My bread rises the most when I first put it my oven. The warmth of the fire speeds up the yeast's reproduction. Babies having babies having babies having babies having babies-until the heat is too much and everything dies. The bread is not bread until the fire comes.
We will all be salted with fire - the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will burn to purity all whom it fills, all who are immersed in it. It all makes an odd bit of sense if we consider the wheat=us equation. Leviticus 2:13 says, "You are to season every grain offering of yours with salt - do not omit from your grain offering the salt of the covenant with your God, but offer salt with all your offerings."
My bread, containing not only flour and water and dead yeast, also contains a surprise ingredient: me. No matter how I wash and scrub my hands, parts of me enter the bread. My skin cells come off, moisture from my breath stirs the air. Small drops of perspiration add water. My bread is me; I flavor the bread.
It is hard for me to share my bread, my home holds six or eight guests maybe, so even if I bake all day, I'm limited in the scope, the reach of my giving. When I put my bread on the altar, it is so small, alone. But it is no longer me - but becomes Christ - as I am no longer me. The Bread and I are salted with the fire that descends in prayer, the answer to the upraised hands of the Church and the downward-bending hands of God.
As the bread is made Christ it is an icon of our salvation. The bread sacrificed to God, salted with the Spirit, feeds the multitudes. So are we, Little Christs salted with Fire, are sent as Bread and Life to the world.
COMMENTS
Erica - I don't know all the answers to these questions, maybe some of my clergy readers do!
Bread and Wine are used because that's what Jesus used. The Orthodox Church uses yeast-raised bread because, out of all the words that could have been used in the Gospels to describe what Jesus was doing that night, the Gospels use the word indicating bread with yeast.
No one used grapejuice, btw, until teetotaling became a Protestant bug-a-boo.
Having said that, I'm not at all sure about the western rite Orthodox. I know the Uniates use yeast bread as well. I do know that many Protestants and some Romans are now also using yeast bread (such as pita). But the Armenians do not use yeast.
Jesus used bread and wine (most Protestants will even admit that). But is it then wrong to use something else? Not to be rude (or sacrilegious), but why not gatorade and pizza? If it is consecrated, then isn't it still the body and blood? How far is too far?
Also, if the bread Christ used had yeast, why don't the Armenians use yeast? Also, does it matter? It seems like they did a lot of things that we don't do becuase of time, culture, and location. Maybe this is just my quasi-Protestant past speaking, but it seems as though Jesus would have been slightly more practical than the Church is today. (That sounds rude. Sorry, but do you know what I mean?). If there wasn't bread with yeast around, wouldn't he have used bread without yeast? Aren't there just some things that are too much, too literal? (I hear how this could sound flippant, or offensive, but really, really, I mean no offense!)
Not rude at all - although my answer may seem so: I don't know the answers to your questions here, other than to say that's what the Church teaches and I'm happy with that.
I come from a tradition that would have used anything to hand to "do church" as they would have said. I'm happier without that attitude.
But as far as the real "why" or "when" etc, I just don't have the answers. I'm sure there are some books - maybe from SVS :-)
Regarding the last comment about Jesus and practical, I will say no: he used to hand the two items that religious Jews bless at every meal - bread and wine. There may be other items on the table, and there are blessings for them as well. But bread and wine are the materials for celebrations. They are blessed at Shabbat, and every festival: even at Passover, when yeast is not permitted in bread, it is used in the wine.
It's not intended to be practical - it's a celebration.
My comment got away from me. It is posted on my blog .
The good thing is I don't have a space limitation like you do in your comments. But yes, still pretty protestant. LOL. Like I said, I'm happy with the Church's answer of "because I said so." I'm getting more like that every day, I fear.
I open the invite to any of my clergy readers or theolgians to go have a gander at your post and feel free to reply.
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
The Orthodox Church uses leavened (yeast-raised) bread in her offering of the Eucharist for two reasons:
(1) The Gospel accounts of the Last Supper (the first Eucharist) use the Greek word for "bread," rather than "unleavened bread."
(2) Yeast is a living organism, so, in a sense, leavened bread is "risen" and "living," while unleavened bread is not. The use of leavened bread thus points to the Lord Jesus Christ's words about Himself in the Eucharist: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6:51). It's something of an edible theological analogy.
I know this relates not so much to your question of practicality but, I knew I had something on it around here. Gregory has offered us two reasons for Artos Bread instead of Azymes Bread. Here's more. This is from The Liturgy of the Orthodox Church by H.E., ATHENAGORAS, Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain. I note he uses the Orthodox curse word, "innovation".
According to the New Testament testimony, our Lord in instituting the Sacrament at the Last Supper used common bread and wine. Today, wine, mixed with water, is commonly used at Eucharistic Services of almost all main Christian bodies. Bread, however, became the subject of controversial discussion. The Orthodox Church, following the New Testament testimony, uses leavened, ie common natural bread, The Roman Church and those of the Protestant groups who follow her liturgical customs use azymes, that is unleavened bread.
The reasons supporting the Orthodox practice are many. Among the most important are the following:
1 The last supper was not a Passover Supper, because in the New Testament there is no mention of the special characteristics of the Passover Story, and the four cups to be used according to the Jewish tradition and ritual.
2 Our Lord died the day before the Passover, a day on which work was permissible, otherwise the employment of Simon the Cyrenean to carry the Cross, the crucifixion of the two thieves, the release of the convicts can not be explained.
3 Unleavened bread was customarily in use exclusively a the Passover and the whole week afterwards. Our Lord instituted the Sacrament the night before the even of the great feast.
4 The Word 'Artos' (bread) in the Bible is used in contrast to the Azymes or unleavened bread, The Apostles, both in describing the institution of the Sacrament and their own practice, used the word 'Artos'. This is considered another indication that the Last Supper, being not a Passover Supper but a Kiddush Supper, a semi-religious supper, our Lord used common bread and not the ceremonial azymes of the Passover.
The practice of the Orthodox Church is consonant to this tradition. As a matter of fact, all Christian bodies followed the same practice till the eleventh century when the Roman Church replaced the traditional with unleavened bread. However, both Roman and Protestant theologians admit that the used of the unleavened bread is an innovation which they justify as not affecting in any way the meaning and the essential character of the Sacrament.
Interesting bible study. Now that you have become Orthodox, do you find that you are still able to get as much mileage out of these metaphysical constructs that you picked up from Jewish theological traditions as before, or is exploring that territory risking being out of synch with the Church tradition and the Fathers and your home church mind-set? Is cross-cultural borrowing more of an Episcopalian thing?
I don't think it's out of synch... if it is True, it is True. If not, then I will be corrected: and I pray I will be able to be humble when it happens. But I did stop exploring in that direction, as I noted.
On Wine vs Grape Juice
I grew up Catholic in Alabama amdist a sea of Baptists....all of which are sure that Jesus used grape juice and that any alchohol is "devil water". In self defense this is what I found out....
Until very recently, (last 100 yrs or so)there was no way of keeping grape juice ...well, grape juice. It either ferments and becomes wine or vinegar. The harvest happens once a year and there being no Wal-Mart super stores in Jesus' era..or any era up until the middle of the last century, fresh grape juice was very rare. In the Middle Eastern heat it turned very quickly. Hence people drank wine socially and ritually.
They also watered it down, ancient wine being much thicker than ours. (Mavrodaphni wine and the wines of Samos are still made this way.) The modern Greek word for wine is "crassi", i.e. "mixture". This little ritual was usually performed by the host. Children and woman had very well watered wine. To drink it without water usually meant that the parties wanted to get drunk- it was a "man" thing - and happened after the meal was over.
Arguments about Jesus using grape juice at the last Supper are simply misguided, and display a early victorian Prostestant aversion. However praiseworthy the Temperance Movement was in trying to help the gin soaked people of London slums, it isn't "in the Bible".
I like your approach Huw. For one, if I truly believe that Jesus is the Word made flesh, the Only-Begotten - then there's some fair importance when he takes wine and bread as the sign of the new covenant in His blood. I had better consider whether I would want to tinker with that very carefully.
Some things have an intrinsic importance that escapes me on a purely rational level - the OT blood sacrifices, for example. Gory. Shocking, to the modern mind. Blood everywhere. Animals killed right and left. Or - if God knows all, why should we need to smear blood over doorposts as a sign for the Angel to pass over?? Yet all sorts of cultures have blood sacrifices. There is something very deep there.
Same with bread and wine, I think.
It may be a late gloss, but St. Nicolas Cabasilas (14th Cent.) suggests that the reason it is particularly bread and wine is that these are not only food, the means of life, but also foods peculiar to humans - animals eat grain, but do not bake bread, and wine is generally something man has 'made'. I rather like this thought.
As Huw suggests, there is a certain cooperation of oneself in the making of bread and the miracle of wine (yes - wine grapes will ferment on their own, but fail to care for the wine and you have poor wine or vinegar).
And, in the ancient world, at least, there was only one way to press the grapes... stomp stomp - and tell me no one sweats in the press! We are intimately connected with both of these products.
The eucharistic hosts used by the Western Rite Orthodox (AWRV) contain yeast, but they are baked thin and have the appearance of unleavened bread.
There is at least one major eucharistic bread company that makes them with hosts, specifically for Western Rite Orthodox usage.
And in a couple of parishes, such as mine, the parish ladies bake the eucharistic bread, using special ovens similar to waffle irons, but with iconographic patterns of hosts on them (e.g. crosses, crowns of thorns, "IHS" etc.)
As a side note, the Church in the West used Leavened Bread until the nineth century. I can't remember why they changed, it's in the Catholic Encyclopedia. It still had the appearance of leavened bread, though. As time rolled on, it became the small thin cardboard wafers used today in many churches.
I had a random question that only partially relates, but...
While there are special ingredients and all that fun stuff in the bread that becomes the Lamb, is there yeast? Why or why not? Also, I have heard that the Western Rite Orthodox have it the other way around (although I can't remember which is which). Why? Also, does it need to be bread and wine? Why not grape juice? Is there a certain point at which the Sacrament is no longer a sacrament, because the elements are so different? If so, what is that point, or is it lost in the idea of economy (oekoinomia) in the church? Just idle curiousity...and it kinda related...