This Week

This week at praxis...Wonder Bread

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.  
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, 
and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." 
Then the Jews began to complain about him 
because he said, "I am the bread that came 
down from heaven." They were saying, 
"Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, 
whose father and mother we know? How can he now say,
'I have come down from heaven'?"

Jesus answered them, 
"Do not complain among yourselves.  
No one can come to me unless drawn by 
the Father who sent me; and I will raise 
that person up on the last day.  
It is written in the prophets, 
'And they shall all be taught by God.' 
Everyone who has heard and learned from 
the Father comes to me.  
Not that anyone has seen the Father 
except the one who is from God; 
he has seen the Father. Very truly, 
I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life.  
Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, 
and they died.  This is the bread that 
comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. 
Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; 
and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
----John 6:35, 41-51

The question of bread for myself is a material question, 
but the question of bread for my neighbor is a spiritual question.
----Nikolai Berdyaev

Bread, bread, bread!  No more preachers, 
no more politicians, no more lawyers, 
no more gods, no more heavens, no more promises!  Bread!
---- Voltairine de Cleyre, in Paul Avrich, An American Anarchist (1978)


Your body may respond to foods made with white 
flour as if they were sugars.  
You may find you feel good soon after eating 
them but then feel terrible later on.  
You may love bread.  Cereal may be a staple for
you...You would kill for French bread...Don't get nervous.  
It's okay to feel this way.  Your attachment to 
these foods tells us only how powerful your sugar-sensitive biochemistry is.
----Kathleen DesMaisons, Potatoes not Prozac


Ask Richard Boudon, owner of the 
Berkshire Mountain Bakery in Housatonic, 
Massachusetts, about the secrets to his fabulous 
line of organic breads and you get a most unusual answer. 
"Theory, practice, and passion," he says...
"You have to grasp the theory of 'what is bread?' 
and learn the basic reason for its existence," 
he says.  "There is a good amount of time needed to 
understand the theory...Then you need to practice, 
and practice, and practice enough to develop the 
talent for baking great bread.  And then the passion must follow."
----"The Secrets of Great Bread", in Organic Style, Preview Issue 2000
 

 1857:  Louis Pasteur demonstrates that fermentation 
of wild yeast makes dough rise.  Pasteur's findings 
contradict those who believed the process was divine intervention.
---- The Story of Wheat, Organic Style, Preview Issue, 2000

Traditionally, worshipers were seated in a circle 
or around a table.  Bread was broken into small portions, 
or a common loaf was passed from hand to hand.  
A loving cup with two handles was provided for water, 
but later individual glasses were used.
----The United Methodist Book of Worship, 1964



Questions:


	How do you feel about bread?
	What is the importance of bread in religious ritual for you? 
	What does it mean that the communion elements (bread, wine/juice) need to be manipulated by human hands? 
	Do you like the love feast? 
	Does the love feast function differently for you than communion? Are both functions useful?
	What other directions would you like to see the use of love feast go?