Sermon, August 2, 2009

Pentecost 9b – 8-2-09

John 6:24-35

Previously on “as the bread multiplies,” we found Jesus and the disciples going up to a mountain only to be followed by a large crowd of people who had seen the signs Jesus had done for the sick. The multitude are fed from what began as five barley loaves and two fish and as the crowd seems ready to take Jesus by force and make him King, he withdraws up the mountain while the disciples ready a boat. Then, the disciples embark on their journey across the Sea of Galilee only to realize that Jesus isn’t there…until he appears to them while walking across the water. And immediately they reached the shore to which they were headed.

I’m starting to wonder what Jesus is thinking of the crowds that follow him so closely. They follow him up the mountain because of the signs they had witnessed him performing on the sick. And, the morning after they had all been fed with more than enough food to satisfy all 5,000 appetites, they realize that neither Jesus nor his disciples are there on the mountain anymore. Maybe they all slipped into food comas on that grassy patch when Jesus went up on the Mountain to be by himself and the disciples got into a boat to return to Capernaum. At any rate, the crowd that stuck around after the feeding realizes that Jesus has gone somewhere and so they decide to locate him. They are driven, this crowd of people. For some reason they need to be where Jesus is right now. And so, like ancient paparazzi, they hop into boats and make the 8 mile voyage to Capernaum.

When they find Jesus, though, I’m not sure they know what to do. They’re like a person who is really excited about talking to a celebrity but when they actually get to talk to them they clam up. “So Jesus….umm…how long have you been here?” Brian Stoffregen, a pastor from California, conjures up the image of the crowd being like a dog chasing a car. Would the dog know what to do if it actually caught the car?

It would seem that Jesus might want to lose patience with the crowd, but instead of doing that, he just moves around their question..."you have not come looking for me because you saw signs, but because you were fed, don't go after the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.” Basically, he's saying "don't follow your stomachs, you're just going to keep getting hungry...but seek out what nourishes your whole body." That’s hard, though, isn’t it? It’s hard to seek for only what nourishes the whole body when we live in a society that is obsessed with stuff. And I’m not talking about food, though that can be part of the equation. I’m talking about stuff. We’re a society that likes stuff. We want good stuff, new stuff. None of us are totally immune to this. In addition, we live in a society that is dominated by prosperity gospel. It might not be as effective as it was before the economic crisis hit, but last I checked, Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar are still preaching that if we do not have the things we desire, it is because we lack confidence in God.

Now, I’m not knocking stuff. I like stuff. We work hard to get stuff. The problem occurs when we lose focus on other things in life and concentrate on stuff. Getting stuff feels good at the time…that feeling doesn’t always last. How often do we put things up on a shelf, or in a closet, or a box, only to discover those items years later...oh, I had that? In the end, stuff perishes…we’re left hungry again. When we hunger for stuff, our hunger muffles the cries of those who do not have stuff. When we make stuff the focus of our lives, it becomes incredibly easy to forget those who hunger for basic necessities, for food, for shelter, for fundamental human rights.

But then we have the second half of our exhortation from Jesus in which the instruction comes to seek the food that endures for eternal life. He’s not talking about food with a really long shelf life. He’s speaking about the things that feed the soul. And what’s more, this bread that endures is what the Son of Man will give! It is a gift, there isn’t anything that needs to be done to receive it. God is pretty good like that, giving us the things that we need to feed our souls. God has always been good with that. God gives us the gifts that bring us life.

The crowd just doesn’t seem to be with it, something is just not clicking. They have been raised and trained to live according to laws and customs that required they do works. This was not a bad thing, it helped make their society to be what it was and helped the people to live with each other. But that’s what they get transfixed on, works. What must we do to perform the work of God? What work are you doing Jesus, so that we might see and believe? They rely on works. That’s how things worked back then. That’s how things work quite often in our current time and place. We say “I won’t believe it until I see it” or “unless I had seen it for myself, there’s no way I would have believed what I saw.”

But God is gracious and giving. Like God provided manna in the wilderness to sustain life, so too, God gives the things that sustain us to eternal life. God gives us the food that will not perish…the bread of life. This bread of life is Christ. The one whom God sent to be among us, live with us, cry and suffer with us and, ultimately, die for us. We receive the bread of life when we come to the table to partake of bread and wine, body and blood. But Christ is not confined to this place and these elements. Christ still is in our midst, living in us and among us as we go about our everyday lives, working and playing. We are fed with the bread of life when we seek out things that feed our souls. When we study scripture, when we pray for friends, when we take walks around town and marvel at the beauty of the trees and flowers. We are fed when we feed those who do not have food, when we donate clothes and school supplies to those who cannot afford them…when we smile at a co-worker or classmate who may be suffering from a case of the Mondays. There are so many other ways that we are fed with the bread of life and I invite you to think about what activities of your daily life fed you…and possibly help others to be fed as well.

And remember, the bread of life, the food which sustains to eternal life is not something we work for. Yes we should work not for food that perishes, but receive the food that endures, which God, through the Son of Man…the bread of life himself, give us. Jesus said “I am the bread of life, whoever comes toward me will never hunger, whoever believes in me will never thirst.” There is so much in this last verse, in this proclamation of what the bread of life truly is. And yet one little word makes all the difference. The New Revised Standard Version of the text, as well as many other translations read “whoever comes to me will never hunger” but, going back to the greek, it actually says “whoever comes toward me” or “whoever is coming toward me.” This one little change means a world of difference in what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying that what matters is that there is movement towards him, even if there are bumps in the road. It also means that the bread of life is open to all who will receive it, no matter where we are in our journeys. And I think that this is the greatest piece of good news that we hear today. And so, until next time on “as the bread multiplies,” we are fed at the table and then sent out. And as we are sent, we are able to ponder the bread of life, where we find it in our every day lives and how we can share it with others. Thanks be to God, Amen