The real Bread of Life or just words

I’ve told this story before, but I think it’s a good one and one that can offer us some real encouragement and perhaps a little challenge in our Christian lives.  The theologian Soren Kierkegaard wrote about a community of ducks waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher… 

At the service, 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 high into the sky... Shouts of "Amen!" were quacked throughout the duck congregation and there was real excitement at the wonderful gifts that God had given them. At the conclusion of the service, the ducks left commenting on the wonderfuland amazing message… and then they waddled back home – but they never flew.

They talked about God’s wonderful gifts, but they never used them… Using the gifts of God to the full is not easy – it takes trust and faith and it takes courage. The ducks never saw the full possibilities of flying because they never tried it. Today I think that little story can be used in lots of different ways, one of which is a reminder that our words by themselves mean nothing at all…

And our readings today ask us to consider I think what is essential in our lives…. We live in a fairly materialistic society, even if perhaps we don’t think it – many of us will take for granted things like televisions, cars, perhaps holidays and we can begin to think of these things as essential – once when Helen was doing a school assembly she asked about what important things she might take on holiday, things that were essential – there were a number of answers from this Primary school group which included a hair dryer and a bottle of wine… What we class as almost essential these days can be quite wide…. 

In the gospel reading (John 6:35,41-51) Jesus gets down to basics with what is really essential though – ‘I am the bread of Life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’. 

These were powerful words then and they remain powerful today. Then the Jewish authorities got the meaning that Jesus was setting himself up as someone special, perhaps as the Messiah and yet this was Jesus, the son of Joseph… How could he possibly be special ?

And the words are powerful today because they challenge us as well to question what we really think about Jesus and what place we really give him in our lives… 

And our other readings help with this.  In the Old Testament we heard an account of Elijah (1 Kings 19:4-8), and it’s a pretty depressed Elijah in the bit that we heard. He has done what he believes to be God’s work, and yet he has found himself chased away fearing for his life. Tired and discouraged he turns to God with a plea to take his life. 

But God is having none of it ! First of all he tells him to get up and eat and then he lets him rest a little longer, and then he gives the same instruction and adds that he needs food and drink for the journey he is going to take…To go on to Mount Horeb, a sacred place where God had given Moses the laws for the people – like Moses before him, and Jesus after him, Elijah wouldn’t eat or drink for 40 days and 40 nights, but strengthened and sustained by God, he would get to the mountain and from there he would continue God’s work. 

It’s a great lesson in trust and courage for us… 

Then, we heard from Paul writing to the Ephesians (4:25-5:2). TypicallyPaul doesn’t really mince his words – if we’re to be followers of Jesus, we must live like it. We’ve got to get rid of the things that we do that don’t really look like Jesus and we are to be imitators of him… 

As I said earlier, words mean nothing without the actions to match – how we live really matters, how we behave to others is important. We are, as it says, to live in love as Christ loved us – we’re to be kind and compassionate, forgiving, just as we are forgiven… 

But this call to live like Christ is one we sometimes seem to ignore, because it’s too hard – “it’s ok to say bad things behind someone’s back or to their face because they were in the wrong and they deserve it” is too often our attitude, but there is no room for that in these words – ‘Be imitators of Christ’, ‘live in love’ – we’re going to get it wrong sometimes but if we’re not trying to live our lives like this then we’re not trying to follow Jesus whatever our words may say. 

Elijah was told to get up and stop moping around, God had a plan for him… The Christians in Ephesus to whom Paul wrote this letter were told to live like Jesus in order to show Jesus to others and to enjoy a relationship with Him.

And our gospel reading challenges us to think about what is important to us ? There will be all kinds of things and people I’m sure, but do we recognise that Jesus is the Bread of Life for us – the absolute essential ingredient in our lives… He is the one whom we can approach to satisfy our needs… 

In Elijah and in Paul we hear of people who have given up everything to take up what is really important. For them, the bread of life meant a relationship with God, and whatever was called for in that relationship, they would do. Today the Church, and that means you and me, needs similar commitment and courage – the Church needs the faith to push out and to start to see what God can do… 

But in that phrase, I think we have the biggest problem, and that is that too often we judge God’s boundaries and capabilities on our boundaries and capabilities. To see and trust God completely we have to see someone who is bigger than anything or anyone we can ever understand. 

Too often we can recite creeds which talk of a virgin birth, of a miraculous life, of death and resurrection; we can hear stories of miracles done by Jesus and his followers, and forget that these aren’t things of the past, but things that God can do today, and that he can do today using us !

God gives to each one of us gifts – they may be in all kinds of different things, far too numerous to consider in general, but we must seek them out, to find what God is wanting from us, and we do that through prayer, through Bible study, through fellowship with others who may encourage us or guide us, or simply through seeing opportunities or challenges which are put in front of us, and taking them. 

When people look at the Church in this country today, they often see an institution limited by boundaries put there by us, an institution which doesn’t really look as though it believes in miraculous growth even though we talk about resurrection as central to our faith…  God knows no such boundaries – indeed, as it’s been said before, if we can understand God and his purpose then our God is too small – God knows no limits, no boundaries, and wants to do incredible things through us… 

And it is with that thought in mind that we, as individuals making up the church, can move forward with confidence – we can move forward to our Mount Horeb, a place to which we journey trusting God, a place where we seek and find God’s will, and are strengthened to achieve what he wants us to achieve… 

How is our journey going ? Where is God taking us ? When did we last really make time to think about that ?

Jesus invites us to come closer to him – to be changed, to become more like him…. 

And when we do that we can move forward with confidence, displaying love for all, and trusting in Jesus as our guide and strength we can do incredible things…. 

Going back to the beginning of my sermon today we too are left with a choice in our lives – to be like the ducks as we speak of the wonder of God, of his incredible nature and power, and do nothing about it – or we can choose to see what God does for us and fly ever higher in his service as we enjoy and share his promises forever… 

May we ‘Live in love’ and be ‘imitators of Christ’ always… AMEN