Padre Pollo's Holy Smoke Barbecue

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 6th Chapter

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.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

It’s time for me to tell you about Padre Pollo’s Holy Smoke Barbecue.  It was a my brief venture into the barbecue business.  I sold my Q every Friday night at Crabtree Brewing out of a modified hot dog cart.  I did pulled pork all the time, ribs and brisket as specials.  I had Brunswick stew and a Tipsy Chicken sandwich.  All my own recipes and sauces.  It was good. 

Barbecue isn’t something to be taken lightly.  Barbecue is serious.  You can’t get it from a box or whip it up in an hour.  Barbecue requires a serious investment of time and effort.  Rubs need to be made, fires started and tended, sauce cooked... I cooked my pork shoulders at least nine hours over low heat made with only hickory wood.  

In a similar way, eating barbecue also requires an investment of time and takes effort.  You can’t eat real barbecue in the car, on the go.  Real barbecue requires a table, a roll of paper towels and both hands to make sure every piece gets gnawed off the bone.  

But the thing about real barbecue is that even though it demands a significant investment of time to create, and even though real barbecue insists upon a real effort to free every last bit of wonderful meat from the bone… IT’S SO WORTH IT!  The commitment, the investment of time and the effort... it’s all worth it for the wonderful, succulent, juicy, sweet and spicy richness that is barbecue.

Jesus said to the people, “Very truly I tell you, unless you gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life, you’re lifeless!”  The translators toned down the language a bunch in this one.  Jesus really didn’t say eat here.  Jesus didn’t say take nice, polite, little bites, using the correct fork and sitting up straight with elbows off the table, linen napkin in your lap.  NO!  Jesus said GNAW.  He said roll up your sleeves, put your elbows on the table, grab that bone with both hands and chomp down!  Jesus said, “Get into it, get obsessed with it.  Get messy!  Get it stuck in your teeth and sauce on your face and don’t expect to keep your shirt clean!  None of that matters.  Just GNAW!  Which sounds great when you’re talking ribs at a picnic table with rolls of paper towels for napkins, but here we are talking about Jesus’s flesh... not baby back ribs and no amount of good table manners makes that alright!  And we haven’t even gotten to the drinking blood part yet!

Many of us have heard this flesh and blood talk for so long in church we don’t think of how shocking it really is anymore, but this isn’t just a symbol... this isn’t just a remembrance... Jesus really said, “Those who gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.”  That was a challenge for the people back then... and if we’re paying attention now it should be a challenge for us as well!  “Those who gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life.”  Eeek!  

It’s frankly, shocking!  The crowd Jesus was telling this to couldn’t wrap their minds around what he was saying, and you know what, I’ve not yet met anyone who completely can.  How this Communion meal is fully Christ’s Body and Blood is beyond us all.  How in this meal we are given eternal life... it is a mystery without a solution and not even a group of meddling kids are going to solve it!  But in spite of the repulsive imagery... in spite of the unfathomable mystery, THAT is what Jesus was, and is, saying.  Gnawing on Jesus is the only thing that matters.  Gnawing on Jesus is the only thing that will feed us forever.  Nothing else gives life.

What this graphic image of gnawing on Jesus does, is call us, not just to a fast food meal wolfed down on the way to the next meeting.  That shocking image calls us to completely and totally make Jesus a part of every molecule of our being because he is the source of all goodness and life.  He is our true food and we are being called to invest EVERYTHING... all our time and all our being into making Jesus a part of every part of us.  Jesus is calling us to give every ounce of our entire effort to get in there and taste and see the goodness of the Lord.  

Like an amazing feast of real honest to goodness holy smoke barbecue, Jesus is asking each one of us to set aside REAL time... make the investment to mix the spices and put on the rub and then patiently, slowly, passionately smoke our faith over genuine hard wood... serving others, caring for those on the margins, studying, praying and living each day with patience and passion.  Jesus is calling us to become completely involved and completely internalize the gift of God’s infinite love and acceptance so that the Jesus-life becomes a core part of every aspect of our lives.  Our calling is to put into our faith life, the same kind of effort it takes to eat the meat off every bone of a whole rack of ribs to the very last miniscule morsel... to live lives of love, compassion, generosity, justice, kindness and humility until every last miniscule morsel of humanity knows down to their bones, how much they are loved by God and how much each of us has a place in God’s Kingdom. 

Being a Christian just isn’t like hitting the drive thru at McDonald’s for a McRib sandwich on a Sunday afternoon.  Being a Christian is more like spending the whole day mixing the spices, creating the sauce, tending the fire and slowly allowing a tough, low grade cut of meat to be lovingly, miraculously, beautifully transformed into the amazing gift from God that is barbecue.

Being a Christian is a serious thing that needs to be entered into with deep commitment, patience and passion.  But just like the rewards of preparing and cooking real barbecue are SO worth it, so too is the sweetness, the fullness and the abundant life that comes from taking the time to gnaw on Jesus.  Amen