Holy Thursday Bread and Story

Holy Thursday 2008
As we gather this evening we have two right things in front of us
we have the sacrament.. this Holy food....
Sacramental bread
and a story ...and we also have a sacred story.
They ..of course,,, go together....
It reminds me of another story about bread and stories.
a true story...
It was During WW2 in a Nazi labor camp,
concentration camp......
the prisoners
were packed into tents
with a few hundred people
in every tent
I cant imagine what the conditions were like
and Every morning, the prisoners would come out of those tents
and they would be marched out for another day of hard labor.
When they got back in the evening,
they gave out the food rations
but they only gave food to the prisoners who had worked that day
of course
it wasn’t much
thin soup
and some stale bread.
Now of course
with such poor nutrition,
prisoners usually got sick.
It barely kept them alive and sometimes it just was not enough
But still
If you did not walk out from your tent
for that days work,
if you did not work
you got no food at all that evening,
and soon that person
would die of starvation.
The food was so scarce
that they had this unwritten rule
don’t share your food..
The evening food rations ....just could not be shared
– it was everyone for himself or herself.
So Every tent got into this horrible rhythm of work,
starvation and death.

But now the people in this one tent
had a story teller in there group
every night they also got into the rythymn of listening to this old women
who told them stories
the would huddle together
they would hold their meager rations in their hands.
and listen to her stories.
But one morning
they woke up
to find
that their storyteller was sick.
They left her in the tent that morning,
they knew what this would mean
would she even make it through the day?
But then
That night
the people in this tent broke the pattern
they did something different
and one by one
they broke off a little piece of their own stale bread
and gave a drop or two
of their soup
and they shared with the old story teller.
And she told them stories.
The next night,
the same thing,
they shared what little they had with the old story teller
and she kept telling them those life giving stories.
Soon
the people in that tent decided
that the old storyteller
just should not go out and work anymore.
They would..work all together
to guard her health
they would all share their food rations with her.
From that day on,
until the war ended
and the camp got liberated
there were no more deaths
from starvation in that tent that had the storyteller
now of course people still died
starvation was not the only horrible thing that happened in that labor camp

but in that tent
nobody else died of starvation,
and most of them lived and survived the war.’
That’s the story
and it true
its true in many ways
Now,
I could let you think about the story and find your own meaning but let me point you into a few directions

in some ways that story is like us
Here we are in our tent,
certainly not in the misery of a concentration camp
I don’t mean to compare us. Tot hat.. Or minimize the horror of that setting..
But
we also live in a world
where selfishness and work and sickness and death...can get to be the pattern of existence.. Just look out for yourself.
except that we also have something different going on in our tent..

We have a story teller
and we have stories
we have stories that bring us together
and keep us alive

this week
the story is bringing us together
It is story of a crowd that shouts hosanna to Jesus
it the story of a different kind of power and authority making an entrance into our lives
it is the story of a last supper..
it the story of a crowd that shouts Crucify him
it is the story of a selfless life
and a sacrifice
it is the story of a divine power
that forgives us
and it forgive us from the cross
when we are at our worse
when the injustice is at its worst
when faith had died
and betrayal and denial has gone to work
but it is also this story of an undying power
and undefeatable love
it is the death and rising of Jesus Christ
it is our story//
and in that sacred story of Jesus Christ there is also the sharing of food..
This is my body this is my blood
the bread and the cup..
And we too come with that food and the story and the story teller
is there enough to share
.is it mine and only mine
to keep it for myself
and we discover that there is enough to share..
Love to share. .grace to share..
Does that change you..?
We do not have to protect or hoard this bread of life
It creates
the community of sharing
..and it makes life different in this tent of faith
and in this world
we share the forgiveness
yes we protect the story
by keeping it alive.. We believe it.. We tell it..
we share the possibilities
we share the vision
we share..
and because we learn to share and to give..
in light of the story
no body goes hungry anymore..
The law of selfishness gets broken.
Life gets changed because we come to the story
there is an old song
I love to tell the story of Jesus and his love..
Come tonight as we in this gospel tent
the old revival tent....I suppose
or you can call it,
story tellers tent..
Share the food.. ...and live.
This is how survive.
. This is how we live the bread of life
by .the WORD of God

Source Mircea Eliade by way of David Mesenbring SEE
(the St. Mark’s website: http://saintmarks.org/)