Strong medicine

I mentioned it on Sunday morning, and I know you're going to know exactly what I'm talking about, but do you know about the mythical cough syrup known as Buckley's? You may not know about this, given that you might be looking at this from outside the great nation of Canada, but Buckley's cough syrup is an institution.  In a world in which cough syrups, medications have gone to a lot of effort to try to all put themselves forward as being inoffensive, even good enough for children to eat, in this world Buckley's puts themselves forward as being openly bad.  It's a bad tasting syrup, it's a revolting, unpleasant flavour that if you're Canadian, if you spell flavor "flavour," you'll know that Buckley's don't taste too good.  Now it's not just that Buckley's tastes bad, it's that it prides itself on tasting bad, on being an unpleasant experience.  

Bitter medicine should be enough of a meme that we all get it by now, that if something is good for you, it's going to be relatively unpleasant, and if something's bad for you, it's going to be delicious.  That's the deal, that's the rule.  But even though this makes sense to us on paper, you know that it's a possibility that we are still going to be like children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.  And that's going to make it tougher.  

Consider this - why is it that senior's menus always seem to have beef liver and onions on them, but kids' menus never do? Is there something magic that happens in your brain when you turn 65 that you all of a sudden start craving beef liver? Or, as I suspect is the case, that you will find yourself eating what you ate growing up; and we don't tend to eat liver much anymore.  Now the average child is so completely used to only eating what they like, that they never get to dealing with things they might not care too much for.  That is, they are so unused to the idea of anything beyond the bliss point, that if you serve them anything but what they are absolutely craving, it's almost an act of violence.  How dare you serve me an olive, how could you possibly serve me fish? Never mind that these things were standard fare for a few thousand years, but children these days are so used to bear paws that anything beyond the hyper-palatable becomes a violent, cruel thing to do.

Well, let's talk about the Bible now, and the idea of only consuming that which is hyper-palatable. If all you want to do is to eat what is delicious, what will taste good, and what is familiar, then you are going to be surprised by what is contained within the pages of the scriptures.  When Ezekiel is presented with a scroll that God wants him to eat, the scroll is full of mourning and lamentation and woe.  Hardly the most appetizing thing to be sitting down to eat, wouldn't you say? But it isn't just that, it's bigger, because the nature of the scroll, and the nature of eating God's word takes on a new and wonderful dimension as Christians.  Consider this item here:  

If you're a good Christian, you'll know what this is, which is communion bread.  It's also known as the host, the wafer or the biscuit.  And this communion bread is marked with something very clearly - and it's not just these ones, most of them are.  I've enlarged the picture here to show the picture and texture properly, and here you can see that there is a wee little tiny cross on each of the wafers.  In other words, each wafer is marked with the evidence of mourning, lamentation and woe.  The crucifixion of Christ was incredibly unpleasant, and we are reminded of it every moment that we are in church.  If you're in a good church, then the cross will be one of the most prominent things in there, and there will likely be several surfaces marked with a cross all over the nave.  The cross of Christ is the biggest and most prominent feature of the room, and it goes from the massive cross at the end of the sanctuary, all the way to the tiny tiny cross on each wafer.  And if you think about it, each of those wafers is marked with mourning, lamentation and woe.  They're marked with the evidence of the excruciating suffering of Christ.  Each little wafer is marked with suffering and lamentation, and we are told to eat them.

God places these before us in Holy Communion, and tells us all to eat of that scroll.  For Jesus, as you know, is the word of God made flesh, and as such, is the word that we are, in Holy Communion, commanded to eat.  He is the word of God made flesh, and when we are compelled to consume him, we are eating a scroll marked with suffering and woe, and how does it taste? Well, physically, it doesn't taste like too much.  But spiritually, well, now we're talking.  Spiritually, it doesn't taste bitter.  Spiritually, it tastes as sweet as honey in your mouth.  Spiritually, it builds up your faith, spiritually it guides and protects you, spiritually it enables you to encounter the true presence of the Lord your God, to consume God's word, not just to scan it and forget it.  It enables you to take God's word and to make it a part of your cells, to have your body driven by it, that sort of thing.  In other words the thing that is marked with mourning and lamentation is sweet as honey for all of us spiritually, and we need to remember that what is happening in Holy Communion isn't like what is happening in Ezekiel, it is what is happening in Ezekiel.  And as Ezekiel was being equipped to go out into the world, into a people set against him, a rebellious people, a hard hearted people, a people who would resist his message, God equipped him by filling him with that scroll.  That's what happens at Holy Communion, which is why worship, communion are so important.  It's there that you are equipped, strengthened, and nourished for the road ahead.  It's a hard road, and a tough road, but the hard things are the things worth doing.