Today we celebrate and give thanks for the Institution of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Holy Communion is like an onion. Why? Because it has many layers. …also has a number of layers. Our reading is the end of a longer dialogue which begins at verse 25, and follows on from the miraculous feeding of the 5000. Jesus made a swift departure from that scene, for fear that the crowd would seize him and make him king by force. He travelled by boat to Capernaum. Some of the crowd have followed him, and found him teaching there in the synagogue. Jesus knows who they are, he tells them that they have come because they It is the physical satisfaction of eating real bread that has hooked their attention. But the dialogue moves to another level, and then another. He speaks of the daily manna in the wilderness which God gave in response to the prayers of Moses. This was another kind of bread, bread from the sky, bread from heaven. In v58 he refers to it as the bread which their ancestors ate, and… died. But now he speaks of the : and it is clear in v35, and also in v51 which we read tonight, that Jesus is claiming to be that bread. So we have moved from the bread of the feeding of the 5000, to the miraculous manna of Moses, to the ‘true bread from heaven’. This is not just food for the stomach, but food for the soul; food not to sustain our earthly life, but food that gives eternal life. Food that we receive by coming to Jesus and believing in him.
Anyone who has read any popular or serious psychology will have heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Abraham Harold Maslow was an american psychologist who pointed out, in the 1950s, that human beings have different kinds of needs: starting with the most basic, such as food, clothing and shelter. Then come security and stability; then community; and at the top of the pile ‘self-actualisation’ which is a combination of creativity and morality.
I am probably not doing Mr Maslow justice, but I think you get the idea: we have physical needs, then social needs, then spiritual needs. Obviously the basic physical needs have to be met, before one can spend any serious time on the higher needs. As an African proverb puts it: an empty stomach has no ears.
The people followed Jesus because he met their physical needs - but he tells them that his real task is to address their spiritual needs. However there is yet another layer of meaning in our gospel passage: the four verses 53, 54, 55 & 56 each refer both to eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus.
This looks like a forward reference to Holy Communion, but let us note that although much has already been said about bread, there is absolutely no mention here of drinking wine. Earlier in the chapter he has said that those who believe in him will never be thirsty; and in chapter 4 of the gospel he has told the woman at the well that he offers living water such that those who drink it will never thirst again.
The absence of the word ‘wine’ here is a little odd. Some commentators say that Jesus was cryptically pointing ahead, knowing what he was going to do on the night before he died; others say that John has inserted his own reflections on the words of Jesus. Whichever is true, the link to Communion would have been in John’s mind, and in the minds of his first readers. So we have four layers of meaning in this gospel passage: bread; manna; saving faith; and Holy Communion. …itself has many layers of meaning, and these different layers can come to mind, as we approach the Lord’s table to receive the bread and the wine week by week.

• OBEDIENCE:
  even if we don’t fully understand what we are doing, we can at least obey our Lord’s command. And just as he left that meal to go and do his Father’s will, we too should be resolved to go from the “service” in church to service in the world. The word Mass has the same Latin derivation as the word ‘mission’: we are sent to do God’s work.
• REMEMBRANCE & REPENTANCE:
  we remember that Jesus gave his body and shed his blood 2000 years ago; that he died in pain to save us from sin. So we eat and drink in a spirit of repentance, resolving to leave behind our sins and live better lives.
• ACCEPTANCE:
  as we accept the symbols of his life, we accept again the gift of new life, eternal life, that he gives us.
• THANKSGIVING:
  we thank God for his great love for us in Christ, and ‘all the benefits of his passion’. The word Eucharist is from the Greek for thanks.
• COMMUNITY:
  Jesus prayed that his followers might be one. Sharing the bread and the wine is a sign of our unity with him and with each other. We remember also our unity with other Christians around the world and through the ages. We share the body of Christ - and we are the body of Christ. We share the Corpus Christi - and we are the Corpus Christi.

If you want help in remembering these different aspects of Holy Communion, rather than think of the different layers of an onion, think of another vegetable,

• Community as we share together
• Acceptance of God’s gift of life
• Remembrance of Christ’s death
• Repentance of our sins
• Obedience to his will
• Thanksgiving for his love.

On different days, or in different seasons of our lives, different aspects of the sacrament will be uppermost in our minds. No matter which one we identify with on any given occasion, we are invited to draw near with faith; we meet with God in the sacrament; and he feeds our souls in whatever way we need most.