Home Sermons Reflection on John 6:24-35, Jesus says "I am the bread of life..."

Reflection on John 6:24-35, Jesus says "I am the bread of life..."

August 2, 2009 Preached at St. Andrew’s and Green Ridge United Churches John 6:24-35 Prayer: God, Bread of Life, we hunger for your Word. We thirst for your good news. Open our eyes and ears to you, and you only. AMEN A pastor I have had the privilege of knowing for many years would typically return from his summer vacation in July and almost without fail, the topic of his first sermon back on Sunday morning began with food. On one occasion he began his sermon with “I’d like to talk about Chicago style pizza. Another sermon he spoke about family BBQ’s. Yet another included slurpees. On one occasion he spoke about things that hung in his kitchen that referred to food. You know those fridge magnets like: There’s only one thing better than a good friend and that is a good friend with chocolate! and Where there’s tea there’s hope. My mother gave my sister and I two magnets she tucked into a Christmas parcel. Mine was “I’m not fat. I’m just fluffy! (L) And my sisters said, “Skinny cooks can’t be trusted.” My sister and I faithfully put them on our fridges for years (because we love our mother and knew that she wasn’t judging us—she just thought they were funny). I was glad when mine wore out and I could take it off my fridge! Anyway, I wondered what that pastor did on his vacation always coming back to church talking about food. And I realized just this week that it wasn’t about this pastors fixation with food at all. It was that food is the big topic in the scripture reading for this Sunday. And so it seems that the way to begin this sermon on my first Sunday back from vacation is to talk about FOOD. But what to say about it? Food is such an all-encompassing part of our lives: Farmers and gardeners grow it, combine it, harvest it. –Corn, canola, flax, lentils, soybeans, beef, pork, chicken, lamb, milk—. We prepare it. Everybody eats it. We share it. Food is even used in politics. We merely need to go back a few months for a good example of this. Remember when our Governor General Michelle Jean put the world into a political uproar when she ate a raw seal heart with the Inuit people up in the high Arctic in Rankin Inlet. Many in the world gave their seal of disapproval, saying that Michelle Jean who gets a seal and eats its heart out, is worse than Sara Palin who just shoots wolves from helicopters (oh my!). And Canada for the most part gave their seal of approval and said she was just going along with what the policy was in that land. Politics and food often cross paths, it seems. We use food for weapons: If nations withhold oil for us then we withhold bread from them. We do things with food like making it into cutlery, and who knows what else. We indulge in food. I think everyone indulges at least some time. Here’s mine. I whip up a recipe of chocolate chip cookies and put two pans of cookies in the oven. And there’s always some left over (because I make sure there is). With that leftover dough I plop it into a bowl and bake it, but not too long, just long enough to cook the top a little bit, and melt the chocolate. Then I take an oven mitt and a spoon, and away I go! My apologies to anyone who is trying to lose weight. How about this? I’ll offer something that’s better for you and just as yummy. Imagine it’s about 3 o’clock in the afternoon on a hot day in August and you go out into the garden to where the peas are growing, you pull off a nice round pea pod, snap it open (check for worms), and push the line of plump peas into the palm of your hand, and toss the morsels of crunchy greenness into your mouth. Or how about a big juicy red garden tomatoe. I swear the taste of sunshine is in them. Let’s not forget the taste of homemade bread, hot from the oven Is anybody getting hungry talking about all this good FOOD? So much of our lives is taken up with food. But the odd thing is that when Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” he is talking to a lot of very hungry people who really, really want (and possibly maybe even need) some bread. These people were under Roman occupation and had to give most of the food they grew to the Romans. And this is the same hungry crowd that Jesus had just finished feeding with the little boys lunch of 5 loaves and the 2 fish, and the amazing 12 baskets left over. And they’re back wanting more of that miracle food. They must have been shocked when Jesus in effect says, “No, I’m not giving you any bread today, like I did yesterday.” I’m not the breadman—even to you hungry people. Jesus refuses to be a kind of Santa Claus Jesus who gives things out like a vending machine. You want bread but you need me. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” I had one of those, “What you want is bread, but what you need is me” experiences. Just before I was ordained two years ago I went on a 3-day silent retreat to St. Benedict’s retreat centre. So I got there, all excited to be silent. I had been on such retreats before and they had been rich and wonderful. I arrived at St. Benedict’s Retreat Centre and for the first 24 hours I waited for some sort of wonderful event to happen like say a miracle of insight or a vision or clarity or a new feeling about life. Day two I walked the grounds, meditated on the stations of the cross, and walked the labyrinth. Still nothing. No bread! Day three I thought, “This is so boring!” As right as it felt to be there, it was not an easy place to be. It felt like I was in such an empty place. Then it was on that third day that I realized that I wasn’t getting what I needed. I was getting what I needed, and that was that I was being emptied. I was expecting something big and flashy from Jesus and what I got was an emptying (of all those expectations). Jesus says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” Through baptism wee little __________ came to Jesus this morning. Jesus, the bread of life was made visible right here this morning in this sanctuary. I don’t know if she got what she wanted. But I do know that she got what she needed. She got Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. She got Jesus, the Bread of Life, her teacher in times of learning how to live in this beautiful world. I have to add something that ________ passed on to me and that is: When you bring a child into the world allow that child the rest of her life, to tell you about that world. She got Jesus Christ, her comforter in trying times. We all know that we can’t protect our children from absolutely everything….but Jesus can. No matter what, Jesus will be there to hold her hand and her heart. Her companion in lonely times, her life coach in all her days · And she will be grounded in her community of Christ here at Green Ridge United Church as a valued and loved member of the church universal. · And in this baptism, this turning to Jesus, ______ will never be hungry I like to end with a poem that expresses so well the grace of God, who hears what we WANT, but gives us what we NEED I asked God for strength, that I might achieve, I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health, that I might do greater things, I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches, that I might be happy; I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of others, I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life, I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all people most richly blessed. written by an unknown Confederate Soldier Jesus Christ, the bread of life! Eat and drink— and never be hungry