St John Chrystostom, a shark, and a little bit about LLMs

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. In Nomine +

Dear Friends, when writing this sermon I started off thinking about what has been a common denominator for all the parishes I have been in and felt at home, and I agree with what I thought at my first ever visit here (at Fr Sam’s installation), that we are a church (capital AND lower-case C) that our Church is a place of friendship and support, rooted in the Eucharist.

Just before the Peace, I will be “read in” as your Reader, and while I have had the joy and honour (with the then Bishop of Kensington, Dr Graham Tomlin and Fr Sam’s permission) to preach here since 2019, I am very happy to now have the Diocesan Bishop, Bishop Sarah’s, official license to say that I am now one of your two licensed ministers - the other one being the Vicar - to whom I should direct my first thanks for being a generous Training Incumbent (whom I promised during my licensing to obey in all things lawful and honest!), but above all, my thanks go out to you all, for welcoming a stray Swede, for listening to my sermons, for teaching me more than I have taught you about the Bible, through conversations and through the Bible Studies I have covered here and there, and in general, for being the St Thomas Family.

At my licensing last Wednesday, the Bishop started with these words:

God has gathered us into the fellowship of the universal Church. As members together of his body, Christ calls us to minister in his name and, according to our gifts, to be instruments of his love in the world. Within this ministry, Readers are called to serve the Church of God and to work together with clergy and other ministers. They are to lead public worship, to preach and teach the word of God, to assist at the eucharist and to share in pastoral and evangelistic work. As authorized lay ministers, they are to encourage the ministries of God’s people, as the Spirit distributes gifts among us all. They are called to help the whole Church to participate in God’s mission to the world.

I have been training for this role for 3 years, and I very much look forward to continue to walk together with you as the St Thomas family, today and in the years to come!

So - over to the readings we have just heard...

An atheist was swimming in the ocean one day. Suddenly he saw a shark in the water, so he started swimming furiously toward his boat. He looked back and saw the shark turn and head towards him. He was scared to death, and as he saw the jaws of the great white beast open, revealing its horrific teeth, he screamed “Oh God! Save me!”

In an instant, time was frozen and a bright light shone down from above. The man was motionless in the water when he heard the voice of God say, “You are an atheist. Why do you call up on me when you do not believe in me?” The man was confused and knew he could not lie, so he replied, “Well, that’s true. I don’t believe in you, but what about the shark? Can you make the shark believe in you?”

The Lord replied, “As you wish,” and the light retracted back into the heavens. The man felt the water move once again. As he looked back, he saw the jaws of the shark start to close down on him, when all of a sudden the shark stopped and pulled back. The man watched as the huge beast closed its eyes, bowed its head, and said, “Thank you Lord for this food which I’m about to receive…”

Like many things that are good and holy in the Church today, the feast we are celebrating today was made possible by a nun. Sister Julianna of Liege, born in the twelfth century, did all the groundwork that was needed for us to celebrate what is officially known as The Day of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ the Lord, or, in the Anglican Kalendar, Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion, today in St Thomas’ in 2023.

At the time, however, it must have been rather offensive for the Jewish audience - not only is the consuming of blood strictly forbidden according to the kashrut dietary laws, but the word for eat used is more akin to devour or the more primal way of eating we see among animals. In the verse that follows directly after the Gospel reading we just heard, John writes “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”. Let us turn to the experts:

St John Chrysostom (or John the Golden-mouthed), the 4th Century Church Father (who was a Reader too!) said that in this Gospel passage, Christ “brought his body down to our level, namely, that we might be one with Him as the body is joined with the head”, and in the passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we did hear Paul recall the institution of the Eucharist, and that is what John’s gospel too is all about.

We are being told about the life-giving reconciliation and redemption that we were given that day when Our Lord himself died on the cross for us and today we celebrate that very same feast where bread and wine joins us with the LIVING Christ, and we belong to (and with) Christ in this community that is eternal, not for any major achievement of our own, but through the action of the One who laid down his life for the sins of the cosmos.

And that, my friends, is exactly what we are celebrating today. We are being saved, not by our enemies saying grace before supper like the shark did, but by that overwhelming Love God had for us, when he sacrificed his only Son, our Saviour, on the cross for our sins.

Let me finish with one of my favourite poems about the Eucharist, Love by George Herbert:

LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,             

Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack     

From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning             

If I lack’d anything.

‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’            

Love said, ‘You shall be he.’

‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,             

I cannot look on Thee.’ Love took my hand and smiling did reply,             

‘Who made the eyes but I?’

‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame             

Go where it doth deserve.’

‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’            

 ‘My dear, then I will serve.’ ‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’            

 So I did sit and eat.

Amen.