Jesus tell us that we must "eat his flesh" if we are to have "life within us, we have to see the scripture as more than literal. In the early days of Christianity, rumors spread through the Roman Empire that Christians were cannibals.  Think about it, they claimed to gather each week to eat the flesh and drink the blood of their savior.  These rumors, based on a loose misinterpretation of John chapter six, fanned the flames of persecution against the early church. John 6, this chapter we find ourselves so deep in this week, the chapter we have been reading all month at Saint John's, is not LITERALLY about flesh, or even about bread.  This is an extended mixed metaphor, and if you are having a hard time following what Jesus is saying, take heart, you are in good company with your priests, and with our seminary professors.  Even the disciples, in the next few verses will say "This teaching is difficult." BUT, the invitation, however strange, is profound.  Jesus invites us to eat his flesh, to inwardly digest HIM.  Jesus OFFERS his flesh for the life of the world.  Jesus offers his life to us, that we might have life.  The words are gruesome, there's no way around how gruesome the words are, but at their heart is a profound offer, an offer of life, an offer of sustenance.  I believe our world desperately needs the sustenance of Christ, needs to learn to inwardly digest this message of