Bread for life...

Great theologians are known to sometimes totally confuse people – and I rarely begin any address by quoting a theologian but today I will. 

Søren Kierkegaard told a parable about a community of ducks waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher. The duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly. 

With these wings there was nowhere the ducks could not go. With those wings they could soar. Shouts of "Amen!" were quacked throughout the duck congregation. At the conclusion of the service, the ducks left commenting on the message and waddled back home. But they never flew.

They had listened to the message, recognised its value, celebrated that value…, and done nothing about it…. And so often, as we hear the gospel message we too can run into the same sort of danger – we can proclaim our faith in word and song and prayer through a service, but leave without recognising that the gospel demands a response - always ! 

Today, in the gospel (John 6:24-35) Jesus is addressing a crowd who don’t know what to make of him – some hate him for fear that he is turning upside down all of their traditions and maybe even laws – others are intrigued by him, others waiting to see what miracle he can perform on that particular day… 

Jesus had a reputation, fuelled by events such as the feeding of the 5,000 – for some gathered that day it may have been to be spiritually fed, to hear Jesus teaching, but for others they would be there because Jesus has become associated with drama, or even with throwing a good party with plenty of food for everyone ! 

Now this reputation of Jesus throwing a good party or providing abundantly for people is not a bad one to have, and the Church would be blessed to enjoy such a reputation today, but it wasn’t and it isn’t enough – the bread that Jesus talks about when he says, ‘I am the bread of life’ must point to something more. 

People must see beyond the bread to see their Saviour.  Jesus of course was born in Bethlehem, and Bethlehem literally means, ‘House of Bread’, but it was beyond the baby Jesus and beyond Bethlehem that people saw Jesus the Saviour.

Now there are some foods which we like as treats, some would call them comfort food – for me it might be Jaffa Cakes – although ‘low in fat and high in energy’ it’s probably not good for me to eat too many of them, and then there are the essentials in the house – things like tomato sauce !  It always amazes me that chips were invented before tomato sauce, because without tomato sauce there is just no point to them at all ! 

But anyway back to essentials and joking aside, bread is an essential part of a diet, a fundamental and basic food. When Jesus talks about bread, he is certainly pointing to something more than just the crusty loaf, but he is not ignoring that ! 

Many people who came to see Jesus that day were not looking for anything beyond the literal bread, but he explained that they needed to be looking for more than that whilst not ignoring the fact that they needed that as well. 

When the people asked him what sign he would give them that day he knew that he was being treated almost as just a novelty item – he took them back to the Old testament and explained that it was not Moses who provided the bread from heaven that their ancestors had eaten, but God himself, and it was God who was the one who would constantly feed them with life changing and life enhancing food. 

That is the bread we need for all eternity, and that is the bread we eat, not just at communion, but each time we offer our thoughts and prayers, each time we worship him, we praise him, we listen to him, we read and study the Bible, when we enjoy fellowship with other Christians and so on… 

That is the bread which will last, that is the bread which will sustain us through good times and through bad times, and that is the bread we will feast on into eternity. 

There is no more important bread than that with which we fill ourselves spiritually – Jesus tells the people that whoever comes to him will never be hungry and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty, and that is a message that is still true today – to satisfy hunger and thirst we must turn to Jesus. 

But that doesn’t mean we can ignore the physical need for food. Globally it’s impossible to provide a definitely accurate figure but estimates suggest upwards of 13 million people die of starvation each year, some sources reckon it’s about 18 million people. In a world where that is happening, and where there are enough resources to go around for everyone a number of times over, then we can never ignore the physical plight of people. In a country where comparatively most of us have so much, then much will be expected of us. 

It’s no coincidence that Jesus met the physical needs of people before going on to talk about the spiritual – he fed the 5,000 and then went on to talk about bread that was even more important and even longer lasting as he addressed their spiritual needs. Following his example, we must be ready to meet the physical needs of people, and often we must meet those needs before they will listen to anything that we have to say that is spiritual. 

The needs of people come in all kinds of different forms. For some it will be literal starvation, perhaps for those closer to home it will be in depression, loneliness, anger, drink or drugs, homelessness, or any of so many other forms of misery which hurt people. We can’t ignore these things – we may never be able to do enough to solve the problems but anything we can do to help in a small way will help someone somewhere. 

As Churches, as Christian people, we need to be people who feed others physically and spiritually, and who care about their needs and look to answer need. To do that we need to be people who are responding to Jesus as the bread of life – a basic need in our lives… 

In our Old Testament Reading (Exodus 16:24, 9-15) the exiles had left Egypt but weren’t satisfied. They’d moaned about being there, they’d longed to get away but now they thought nothing had changed – in fact instead of slowly dying in Egypt, they believed they were dying out in the wilderness – they’d moved from one bad situation to another. 

But what had happened was that they’d forgotten God – they’d lost their faith in him and their reliance upon him. And they’d forgotten the promises he’d given them to care for them and provide for them always… 

And God again showed his care for them as he provided the bread from heaven... This passage has great lessons for us as a church today. Often we move on with projects to preserve the church, with little regard for what God wants… The reality is that if God is not at the heart of all we’re doing as a church, then we haven’t got a church worth preserving as a church… 

For the Israelites they were learning again to focus on God who provided everything they needed… And that is the invitation Jesus gave to the people who came to listen to him that day as well – focus on him for all that we need... 

And when we do that then God begins to feel very different – God takes control and urges us to trust him as he leads us to new and exciting adventures of faith and love, filled with hope… 

As we hear the gospel message, we can be like the ducks I began with, and remain unchanged – we can do the things we’ve always done, worship as we’ve always done, pray and read the bible as we’ve always done, keep church as we want it or we can respond by letting God lead us – we can respond by opening our lives to him and to the incredible riches of his love and mercy and strength and grace… God is not a concept – he is not a distant being, but a Father who loves and invites us to accept his love and share his love….

And we do that, as Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians (4:1-6) with humility and gentleness, with patience and bearing with one another in love… United, we answer a call to live with and for Jesus, the bread of life, the one who promises to always provide for us… 

May we live as people who understand that message is real – may we live as people transformed by that message – and may we be people ready to share that message. AMEN