Manava!

What a stunning sermon we had in Chapel last Friday at our weekly Holy Communion service!

Preaching and presiding was Pastor Henri Manaena a TUPAIA, (seen on the right) from the Etaretia Porotetani Maohi (Maohi Protestant Church in French Polynesia). Henri and his wife Katia are both pursuing PhD research here at PTC and bring depth, vibrancy and challenge to this community in so many ways. 

With characteristic generosity, Henri has permitted me to include his sermon on the blog. I'm very grateful to him for this treasure and predict you will be too. 

As Christians, we are what we eat, Henri suggests. John 6.35-51 will never read in quite the same way for me again...

John 6.

35 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. 

36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.
37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away;
38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day."
41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
42 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'?"
43 Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves.
44 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.
45 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.
46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.
47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
51 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."

Feasting in Maohi Nui

Theme: “The manava or womb, stomach: A place to become or not to become”

Just a short glimpse of what I mean by manava. Manava has to do with eating but is also a greeting. In fact, we have three ways of greeting someone. The first one is Maeva. Maeva is especially to greet someone of high status like the king or God. The second one is Ia ora na which is the common greeting, literally translated as life be in you. The third one is Manava. Manava, because of its first meaning stomach or womb, means two things, a greeting followed by eating. When someone or a group of people is greeted or welcomed by the word manava, it just means that they will end up feasting. My womb or manava greet you and will feed you. This is the practicality of manava, it is not only to greet with words but to fellowship in the sharing of food.

However in a symbolic meaning, manava has to do with life, with one’s own being, with one’s identity. Have you ever heard of this saying, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are? What you are? And where you are from?” 

In other words, what you eat reflects your being whether spiritually, physically, socially, politically and so on. It is a way of life that emphasizes not only gastronomy but also learning, knowledge, belief, philosophy. In the old days, the manava is the centre of everything. It is a place where everything is kept especially what we do, what we learn, what we know and what we believe. To eat is to learn. To eat is to know. To eat is to believe. It is not only for food but for the betterment of the whole being. To speak from my manava or womb is to speak from my whole being.

Manava is about eating, and eating has a special and critical place in our text this morning. Special because Jesus is speaking from his manava, from his womb. “Eat this bread; eat this flesh.” Not only that he is food but more importantly he is food that comes from heaven, from God. What then is Jesus’ food if it is not to do the will of the Father? But for those present at that time, they could not understand the difference between speaking from the manava and speaking from the mind and reason. They were critical because they were arguing from the perspective of human reason. Let me now go back to our text.

While many meanings can be drawn out from our biblical passage this morning, however, I wish to highlight one of the most problematic theological understanding which is the identity of Jesus. The “Jews” as they are addressed by Jesus, were struck by Jesus’ words, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” In response to Jesus, they said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” Their knowledge about Jesus was limited to his earthly life. Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary, the son of a carpenter. In fact, in their ignorance, Jesus’ opponents used rhetoric of logic to contradict his declaration. It was inconceivable for the Jews to accept that Jesus came from heaven or was from above, meaning that he was the one who had lived and communed with God; someone who knew everything about God; someone who got his essence from God Himself. Let’s consider this logic of reasoning from two statements and a conclusion. The first statement is the Father is God. The second statement is the Father is not the Son. And the conclusion, therefore, the Son is not God. Jesus is a mere mortal, a human. He cannot be God.

In Jesus’ time and during the time of the early church fathers, the debate on Jesus’ identity was so intense until it reached to an agreement stipulated in the Nicaea-Constantinople council. If ask today who Jesus is, the answer will no doubt be, he is the Son of God, fully human and fully divine, God from God, light from light. I hope we understood what we are confessing and in what circumstances the Nicene Creed was formulated.There are however reasons to believe that Monarchianism and subordinationism are still alive in some of our church tradition, my church for example. Some have adopted a creation-centred theological orientation against a Christ-centred theological orientation. There are those who hold the view that to know nature is to know God, hence, enough to have a grasp of who God is. Some have said that the missionaries should not have brought the gospel because it was already there, hidden in one’s own culture. But Jesus has this to say, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[a] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father.”

Knowledge of God should come from both nature and Jesus but never from a dominant one. The Jews tended to overreact against Jesus’ declaration because they could not believe that he has great knowledge of God or that he has lived in heaven, beside his Father. Of course, the Jews had the Torah but were very much influenced by philosophical arguments. In Luke 12, 54-56, “Jesus said to the crowd: When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?” Jesus was referring to what will happen to him. As in our text this morning, the Jews fail to see in Jesus the hope of Israel, the messiah who the prophets of the Old Testament had prophesized. Jesus invites them to seize the opportunity, this pointing time to see in Himself the one and only saviour they were waiting for.

What actually Jesus wanted them to grasp is that the bread that came down from heaven has become flesh, seize it, take it and eat it. But more disturbing, Jesus said to them that when they eat this bread, they are eating his flesh. This is too much for the Jews. Is Jesus saying that the bread is really his body? Well that is what the Jews thought about which made them more and more angry. However, if we take sometimes to reflect on Jesus’ words about the bread and his body, it makes sense. The Roman Catholics believes that the bread and wine are really body and blood of Jesus. This is perhaps taken literally from Jesus’ words “This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” Is it real body or just presence? You might have your own understanding and answer for that.But the big question for me is how I am going to interpret these words of Jesus “This bread is my flesh…” and later in this same chapter, we hear Jesus says “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.” I want to use the concept of Manava to reread Jesus’ declaration to eat his flesh which had upset Jesus’ audiences.

Manava means stomach or womb. It is where life begins and is nurtured. More than being a place where everything we eat goes, it is also a place where we store knowledge, wisdom, sayings, stories, legends. They are all kept in the manava, the opu. We eat not only food but also everything that is taught, told, preached. Story in our language is aamu or aai which is in English to eat. We eat stories. We eat words. For us, the manava or womb speaks stronger than the heart. The French introduced this concept of heart and started to teach such as “learn by heart”, “listen to your heart”, “speak from your heart” but these are all foreign and abstract to our people. We learn from our manava. We listen from our manava. We speak from our manava. When we express something, we express it from our manava because manava is not only abstract but also practical.

Manava is about what we eat. It is not only restricted to material food but also to spiritual and epistemological food. I am not surprised why we have revived our old word for theological school, actually translated by fare haapiiraa (house for learning) by fare airaa upu (house to eat prayer) or fare airaa vanaa (house to eat knowledge). It is said that what we eat will tell us who we are and where we are from. This is true. Our identity is revealed in what we eat. Our behaviour is judged in what we eat. If we ask Jesus what he eats, he will surely answer that his food is to do the will of God. And by doing the will of God, this will tell us of his identity and where he is from. Jesus is speaking from his manava, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” (NIV, John 4, 32)

I have heard old people saying “eat the gods and you will be like the gods”. This is not to be taken literally but the meaning behind this will shed light on Jesus’ words “He is the bread of life, and this bread is my flesh.” In other words, if I rephrase the old people saying, it will go like this, “eat Jesus and you will be like Jesus.” This sound strange and weird but for these old people it is quite normal. Unlike the Jews, Jesus’ saying was an insult to them because they were thinking with their mind but not with their manava. Jesus is asking to eat him because he is the bread. And because Jesus’ food is to do the will of God, this should also be our food. What actually the old people meant by their saying is to try and learn more about God’s ways and to grow in knowledge of Him.

As we grow into Jesus and Jesus in us, our life becomes transformed and we become more like him, calling us not only to eat his bread but also to share in the joyous and challenging life of being him in the world; bread for a hungry world and drink for those who thirst for justice, peace and reconciliation.

As we approach Holy Communion, Jesus is welcoming us - Manava - meaning we are about to eat his body and to drink his blood.

Manava!