Don't want to die?

Pentecost +10 – Year B

Don't want to die?

There are a few options open. Jesus suggests "eating" his "bread". Obviously there are going to be a number of interpretations of this kind of talk. Of most fun is remembering something else we might eat and thus not die – a tree-of-life that is well-guarded lest we return to sample it.

There is a sense in which that tree is still off limits. It is not for us to grasp, lest we do so for any wrong reason. Even a Living and Expansively Loving G*D seems to not let go of royal prerogatives, something once said is forever said. So how to get a tree-of-life reconnected to our lives without it becoming so common that we lose track of its value (like we do so easily of nature and its otherness)? Esther's story returns – a new vehicle (law) is put in place that essentially preempts a former vehicle (law) without doing away with it.

For G*D so loved, that bread was sent. Jesus brings not Promethean fire but Tree-of-Life seeds. Jesus followers are like Little Red Hens who receive said seed, plant it in the "stuff" of life (you can be more graphic here if you want to), nurture it, harvest a mystery of more seeds, disciplinedly grind it, bake it, and, unlike the hen, share it. In this whole cycle we find life and more life.

This is a long way around for the Tree-of-Life to escape its confine, but Life will out.

On the other hand you may want to investigate:

- Leaving a legacy

- A Live Forever Diet

- Investing in Cryonics