“BREAD THAT TRANSFORMS OUR LIVES”

9th Sunday after Pentecost—August 6, 2006

United Lutheran Church-Red Wing

John 6:24-35

Grace to you and peace from Jesus who is the Bread of Life for the World.   Amen

              There they were again—hungry!  The crowd that had their fill of loaves and fishes were back looking for Jesus to fill their bellies once again.  Hungry for more fish, hungry for more bread!  In the first segment of the 6th Chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus had produced an abundance of food from the five loaves and the two fish for the more than

5,000 people.  Everyone was fed, no one went away hungry, there was even some left over—truly a miracle.  And some thought he should become the prophet or king of their lives and then they would never want for food.

              Jesus will have no part of it and had set out to a deserted place then later walked across the water toward the disciples.  His disciples saw him but by morning, the crowds were back looking for him again.  Empty stomachs!  Food from yesterday worn off! Now they were hungry for more!  They wondered how Jesus had gotten there.  Funny, he should be there.  Reminiscent of the gents who stood outside my hometown post office and would say things like, “So, you’re in town then too!”

              Jesus discerns that they are probably not really looking for him, but for what he can give to them.  More bread-like yesterday!  “You’re looking for me, not because you

recognized the signs of my identity, but because you ate your fill of food”.  And the reality is, out of necessity we do have to eat to survive.  But Jesus also discerns that what they truly need is more than perishable food.  Something deeper than physical hunger is taking place within them.  He knows what they really need is bread, a food that will last.

Food that gives life not just for the moment, but forever.  Substantial stuff!  Life-saving bread!  And so he says, “Do not work for food that perishes, work for food that endures

for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.”

              When reading these texts from John 6, I’m drawn to focus more on a day like today on hunger which is such a critical issue for life in the world.  Daily bread! Wheat and grain bread!  Bread for the World bread!  That too is so critical and an essential call of Jesus as we live daily in a world where the hunger numbers are on the agenda for the church.  That will come on other Sundays as we consider these lessons from John over

these next weeks. But this morning it is this other hunger that grabs the headlines.

While people come to Jesus and want a list of what they must do to keep the free bread coming, Jesus seems to be saying—“Wrong questions!”   For God is about the business of giving a gift of life to those who hunger and thirst for meaning and purpose.  A hunger

that searches, longs, desires for something, better yet, Someone, who will give us a reason to be alive and a purpose to live.

              Yet, we sometimes try to fill the eternal hunger of the heart with those things that are less than eternal.  We spend a lot of time eating perishables to satisfy a hunger that

won’t be sated by lesser nourishment.  It’s easy to substitute food that perishes for food that lasts.  It seems that if you’re really hunger, it doesn’t matter what it is that fills you, just as long as you get filled. Wrong!

              When my life becomes uncertain as it sometimes is, when my life fills with anxiety as it sometimes does, when my life is unsettled by fear which occasionally takes place, the hunger level increase exponentially.  Hasn’t it happened to you that when life gets difficult, painful, that the easy route is to turn to those things that give us instant

comfort and security.  Some of us turn to food to help soothe our uneasy spirits. I’ve come to recognize that there are some things that might be called “comfort foods.”  We probably all have our list of those.  It’s food that fills the emptiness of our bodies and comforts our hurt spirits.  We week to satisfy our deepest hunger with stuff that satisfies us for the moment. 

              It doesn’t need to be food, it can be any number of things, like shopping until we drop, or chemical substances, or activities that keep every waking moment occupied.

Whatever it is that keeps us from feeling an emptiness, hungry for meaning or without a reason to go on living.

              The problem is, we will fill with things that will fade later.  This “food” as it were, never lasts.  “Do not work for food that perishes,” Jesus says.   “Work for food that endures for eternal life.”   So while the crowd of hungry people stand in front of him with their bellies fumbling and their hearts longing for more, they don’t’ see him. So they ask, “How do you work for this food?”   And Jesus says, “The work is just to believe. Believe in the one God has sent into the world.”   And then he says, “The true bread of heaven comes from God.  The true bread of heaven comes from God and gives live to the world.”

              “Yes, give us that bread!”  they cry.  And Jesus says in words that have echoed throughout history ever since in matters of faith and hunger, one of the great “I AM”

statements.  “I AM THE BREAD!  I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE.  WHOEVER COMES TO ME WILL NEVER HUNGER, WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME WILL NEVER BE THIRSTY, I AM THE BREAD, THE BREAD OF LIFE!”

              The truth is, the bread the crowd has been looking for has been standing right in front of them. But they didn’t see nor understand him.  The bread to satisfy their hunger in life, and fill their very souls was before their very eyes.  It’s possible not to see the forest for the trees, I guess.  It’s also possible to ask for too little, so that we will continue to be disappointed in life.  Or to think too small, or to have a myopic vision  and not see at all.  Or to focus on the may be “mundane”, good stuff,  but temporal and to miss what is life-giving, essential, eternal.  To miss the bread that transforms our lives!!!

              Jesus is that bread!  Jesus is the only food that will finally satisfy the hunger that lurks within us.   He is the bread to satisfy the hunger in life and fill the soul and lift our spirits, and transform us into the people of God.   It’s too simple to say that Jesus is the answer to every question we have.  Yet, in this case, the revelation of God in Christ is the very thing that allows us to live lives worthy of our calling.  The “life” Jesus promises is precisely what Paul in the Letter to the Ephesians(our second lesson for the day) has in mind by admonishing readers to “lead a life worthy of you calling”.  In Christ we find the meaning of life and the clue as to what makes it full and worthwhile.  The bread that nourishes us for living full lives is the love, the grace of the God who calls us to faith in Him.

              When Jesus declares himself to be the “True bread that comes down from heaven”, He is saying that he can provide the nourishment needed to sustain life, even in the midst of hunger, uncertainty, and want.  This suddenly puts a different spin, for me, on how literally I pray for daily bread as I/we do in the Lord’s Prayer each time we pray it.   How often do we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread of life” and mean it?  Or do we just pray for “daily bread”?  Don’t we rather save the bread of life stuff for times of crisis—sort of like emergency rations?  Yet without constant spiritual nourishment how can we expect to have strength when the crisis comes?  We are so anxious to store up material supplies for future emergencies.  But I wonder how often we think to store up spiritual strength for the future.  If only we were as concerned about Christ’s presence in our lives as we are about having food in the freezer and money in the bank.

              When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, we confess our need for constant spiritual nourishment as well as physical provision.  And we seek it from its only true source-Jesus the Christ, “The Bread of Life, The Bread of God”, coming to give life to the world and coming as Bread to transform our lives.

              Then I believe that the provision of bread of all kinds is a partnership.  God provides for our physical needs by creating a world full of resources for our use and endowing us with the ability to work and plan and share those resources.  Similarly, God provides for our spiritual needs by giving us those gifts which enhance our faith such as access to god through prayer, access to God’s Word in the scriptures, fellowship in God’s Spirit through the family of faith(congregation), union and communion with Christ through our baptism as we become children of God as did Breanna this morning, and food for our journey of faith as we will at the table in the Eucharist this morning-forgiveness, life, and life eternal.  Yet to receive, we actively seek to be open to this bread, this Christ who feeds us until we want no more.

              We enter into this communion with Christ and the fellowship with all God’s people, not just for times of spiritual emergencies, but constantly day after day as we gather in what is needed to live out our lives as people of faith.  There is yet one more thought about praying this familiar “bread phrase” in The Lord’s Prayer.  When we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, it doesn’t “pray”, “Give me this day my daily bread”.   We voice this prayer not just for ourselves but for all.  Friends and relatives,  people we know and care about and strangers and enemies as well.  People of this nation and people all around the world,  employed and unemployed.  And when we pray for physical and spiritual bread, we pray as well to be instruments of God’s provision.

When we do so, we witness to a generous and gracious God who invites us and others to feed on the bread of life. 

              We live out our faith in Jesus, the Bread of Life.  Where and when we can, we relieve  all hungers and when and were we cannot, nevertheless we pray and never cease to pray for the Bread of Life who can and will transforms lives, always by God’s grace.

Amen.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Pastor Clark Cary