Saturday, November 16, 2013

You are what your eat

John 4:31  Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32  But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33  So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" 34  Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35  Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36  The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37  For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38  I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

In an 1863 essay Concerning Spiritualism and Materialism, Ludwig  Feuerbach wrote: "Der Mensch ist, was er ißt.", which  translates into English as 'man is what he eats'. A more modern form of this “You are what you eat”.

Jesus says this long before Feuerbach. He says that he “eats” the will of God and becomes what he should be. This then is the invitation for us all: if we want to be like Jesus we must make obedience to the will of God our overriding passion.  

Prayer
We offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee; humbly beseeching thee that we, and all others who shall be partakers of this Holy Communion, may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him.. Amen
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1549


Ordinary 33 / Pentecost +26
55 See...Judge...Act
The Scripture passage for the day is drawn from Reuben Job and Norman Shawchuck, A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, (Nashville, The Upper Room 1983), 335.
This reflection is from my own devotional exercises for the day.




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