Every year Uncle Floyd plants a wonderful garden in his back yard.  And he always has the very best tomatoes.  And every year he brings the first really big tomato to Mrs. Potato Head.  He calls on the phone ahead of time so she will have the bread and the mayonnaise and the salt and pepper ready and when he arrives they have their first home grown tomato sandwich!   Yum!

Yesterday morning Uncle Floyd called, but there was no answer.  That sort of surprised him, because he thought Mrs. Potato Head would be expecting the call.  He placed the tomato in a paper bag and drove over anyway. 

When he arrived he knocked on the door.  No answer.  So he knocked again.  And then a third time, very loudly, he knocked on the door.  And Mrs. Potato Head opened the door. 

“Hello Floyd!” she said.  And he said “I reckon you know what is in THIS bag.”

“Did he just call me an old hag?!” Mrs. Potato Head said to herself.

He saw her confusion and said “It’s a tomato, do you have the bread?”

And she smiled and said “Yes I’m Mrs. Potato Head.”

Uncle Floyd said “Do you have the mayonnaise and the bread?”

And she answered with alarm “I have a man with trays on my head?”

And he said “Oh for Heaven’s sake, where’s your hearing aid.”

And she said “You want jelly cake and lemonade?”

Uncle Floyd realized that it must be time for her to put new batteries in her hearing aid so he pointed to her ear and pointed to the dresser. 

“Oh!  Dear me!”  She opened her dresser and retrieved fresh batteries and put them in her hearing aid and put it back on.  Now she would be able to understand what was being said.  “I wondered what you were talking about.  Men with trays and jelly cake?  Now, what was your question?”

Uncle Floyd gave her the bag.  She got the tomato out and said “Oh my!  That is beautiful!” 

“Do you have the bread?” said Uncle Floyd.  “Oh yes, and the mayonnaise and the salt and pepper!”  And she got the dishes out and they had heavenly, succulent tomato sandwiches.  This is always a special meal.

Jesus said “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”  And the people who were there said “This man thinks he is a loaf of bread sent from the sky?”  They could not understand.  It was not because they needed batteries for their hearing aids.  It was because faith had not yet been fully revealed to them.

In today’s bulletin you will see that there is a section called “The Meal”.

 That is when everyone comes forward and the pastor and her assistants feed everyone bread.  And wine.  And somehow, this bread becomes Jesus.  I don’t know how, but when faith is revealed to us and when we eat this bread, Jesus is present. 

I hope that as faith is revealed to you, that you will grow to recognize Jesus in this very special meal. 

THE END

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