Dionysus on a Bike

Proverbs 4:10-27 – 6/17/2026

Today’s Hebrew Bible reading in the Revised Common Liturgy has a verse reminiscent of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. In a section that exhorts the reader to follow the path of good and reject the path of evil, the elements that would become the food and drink of the Eucharist are mentioned, not as the sustaining nourishment that connects the spiritual and the material, but as the result of following the path of evil. Here we have a picture, not of a Sacrament but of an anti-Sacrament, images that point toward the intertwining and inseparability of the spiritual and the physical but as a curse instead of a blessing.

Among the many things that the Sacrament of Holy Communion represents is the idea that our physical nourishment and spiritual nourishment come from one source. The Holy Meal sanctifies all eating and drinking through the love and grace of God through Jesus Christ. The communion bread and wine, never eaten alone individually, connect the assembly of the baptized together in love and fellowship, providing the blessing of holy community as a gift of God.

If Holy Communion is the gift of a gracious God, then the anti-communion is outcome of other ways of living than in loving community with others. When food and drink are consumed through practices of exploitation and oppression, they are the results not of God’s gracious gift but rather of our own greed and mistreatment of others.

Receive in thanksgiving and humble gratitude and the result will be a sacramental gift. If instead you take what you consume out of a desire for power, wealth, and abundance at the expense of others and the bread and wine and all the other food one eats will not be the body and blood of the risen Christ but instead the “bread of wickedness” and the “wine of violence.” The exploits of the oppressor are not joyful prosperity but a curse.

The promises of God and the rejection of violence both boil down to the material relationship we have with have with the basic necessities of our sustenance. Eaten in love with communion with others, our daily bread is a connection with the very heart of Being.

Reflections of a Dionysian Lutheran, comments on the daily readings of the Revised Common Lectionary by Justin Marquis