“I am the Bread of Life” by the Rev. Brett Gudeman
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 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.”
- JOHN 6:35-51
Bread is perhaps one of the most mundane foods in our lives, though we can get extravagant with it, bread is everywhere and it is cheap. It is a food we really don’t give much thought to unless its a delicious artisan bread. But we must remember, in the Mediterranean world in ancient antiquity it was the main source of life. Growing grain and barley was revolutionary in that part of the world for human development as a species. It allowed humankind to grow in their population, and it also gave communities the opportunity to grow in their thinking. A few people farming could feed the village, instead of every person hunting and gathering all hours of the day, so there was an opportunity for innovation, invention, and development. The bread was the foundation for growth and for life. And so, when Jesus declares, I am the bread of life. Jesus declares that he is the foundation for life, he is the source of hope, he is growth when we feel stagnant, he is a common thread that connects people all throughout the world, he is universal, he is the sustenance for us when we are empty and hungry,
And friends, this is a world that is hungry. We live in a world that seeks to have purpose and meaning but many of us feel lost and moorless. In this country, we have profound resources and endless entertainment, but we are bored and we are hungry. Hungry for something more. We have ample opportunities for connection yet so often we feel alone. We are hungry. There is a desire for love that will connect us and brings us resurrection, new life in the world. That will point us to hope in the midst of pain. We are hungry for connection. It reminds me of a story about a young man named Nick.
Nick grew up in one of those old Victorian homes found in the northeast. It was beautiful, stained glass windows adorned the sides bringing in a kaleidoscope of colors. Old wood shingles kept the house safe from the elements and seasoned panels of siding gave the house tremendous character. The wrap-around porch provided a place of rest and reflection. It was a lovely home, but like most old Victorian homes, it needed constant work to replace the near two hundred-year-old issues. So every Saturday, Nick’s father would go out and work on some project. It was his father’s joy. All through Nick’s childhood, all the way through high school, Nick’s father kept working every Saturday on that beloved old house.
Well, Nick went to college, and then shortly after got a job offer in the city. He continued to live his life, with his big important new job until one day, he received a dreaded call from his mother. She called to tell him that his father had cancer and was on death watch, he could die in the next two to three weeks. Nick came home as soon as he could. Nick and his father sat and talked, but after a couple of days, it was Saturday, and his father went out to do his project for the day, Nick joined. Then they worked again on Sunday. Working on that house gave them something to do together and after one week turned into two weeks turned into four a month went by then three months then a year, every Saturday, and every spare moment they had, they would work on the old house replacing 80 pane windows, replacing the deck on that old wrap around porch that was caving in. One day to cancer went fully into remission. Nick’s father, who was a man of few words, got off the phone after receiving the news, turned to Nick, and said working on this house with you has saved my life, I have found satisfaction.
In the midst of tragedy, in the midst of pain, Nick and his Dad still found meaning in the love shared between them lived out in the fixing of the house. There ended up being new physical life, but before that, and more important, there was new life fostered in the love between father and son which will last far beyond death. This love of Jesus Christ, glimpsed and discovered in the world. This is the bread of life that lasts beyond life. It satisfies both in this world and the next. It is a promise of new life today as well as tomorrow. It is that meal that we come back to over and over again for hope, for meaning, something to satisfy.
In our passage, there is an interplay between hunger and food, and the Old Testament and the New Testament. Manna, as you may or may not remember, was the bread-like substance that fed the Israelites while they were in the wilderness after escaping Egypt's bondage and slavery. It was to be collected each day but only the amount the Israelites needed to survive for that day, it satisfied the Israelites' hunger for that day, but the next day they’d have to return to gather. Here, in John, Jesus says, I am something different, I am the bread of life and I will provide you life not just today, but tomorrow, and the next day, and even beyond the shadows of death. Jesus is resurrection to new life, Jesus is energy for the day, Jesus is meaning, Jesus satisfies.
And sometimes, in the midst of life, it is difficult to remember Jesus' everlasting life, because the chaos of each day winds us up, we are told we don’t have enough, we are missing out, and we feel empty, we feel hungry. But then we catch glimpses of the Divine, glimpses of Jesus’ love and we are filled to go on through the day. Just as Nick made the decision to pause his career to grow his love with his dad, we have opportunities to pause from the chaos and look to love. I get this reminder almost daily. I come downstairs to feed my two-month-old at 5:00 AM, and I am sleep deprived, annoyed, and missing my bed. I’m feeling tired and empty. But then, I get a smile, and she clutches my shirt and clings to me, and all fatigue is replaced by utter joy. New life springs forth from my heart. But then, the next morning, I forget how that smile made me feel, and I’m a bit annoyed, I’m exhausted, and then I see the smile again and I’m filled. This is how it is with Christ's love, it is always present but we must remember to eat. We must return to Jesus over and over because he is the life that will always satisfy. When we are hungry, Jesus satisfies us. Jesus satisfies us when we understand the bounty of God’s Divine love.
Church, we need each other to be reminded of the satisfying love of God, we need to be pointed back to God’s everlasting love, to Jesus as the satisfying bread of life. And we need a loving community to do to help remind us, we need discipline and service in our life to remind us and grow us. We come today and we get to experience a double portion of grace. We will witness and participate in a baptism. Baptism, where we remember that God has chosen us first, in our brokenness, in our failures, God has met us, redeemed us, and called us good, called Beloved even before we can speak, even before we can confess ourselves, we have been claimed as a child of God. That we may be satisfied in our wandering because we have a home in the house of God which we may always return.
We will also partake in communion, where we are satisfied and nourished by the body and bread of Christ, where we remember that Jesus, the Lord God, creator of the cosmos and stars, instiller of the unique beauty of every flower and every tree has promised to be with us in all things. And we remember that not only has Christ promised to be with us, but the whole body of the church, the community has promised to be one in love for this world and for one another. In communion, we remember that we have been called in this world, that we have meaning, meaning by bringing the bread of life into the world. Feeding it.
We feed the world in many ways. Food insecurity is huge, even in our local, prosperous community, and this church partners with so many wonderful ways to satisfy physical hunger through our backpack ministry, second-mile development, our free little pantry, the NA Foodbank, and Village of Promise- I hope you will get involved in some way. But also, the world has a spiritual hunger. A hunger to know something beyond themselves, a hunger to be known by others and by God, and hunger to be loved, a hunger for meaning, all these hungers are satisfied by tasting and knowing the bread of life- Jesus Christ. Tasting and knowing life, tasting and knowing. Church the world is hungry, but Jesus satisfies. We all have been fed, so let us go out and feed the world the bread of life. As our prayer after communion says, we have tasted the living bread- and we cannot remain the same. May it be so and thanks be to God. Amen.