JC Disciples
When Bread Alone Is Not Enough
Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15, Ephesians 4:1-16, John 6:24-35
Nothing is ever the same the second time around. I knew that going into my recent pregnancy with Catalina. While I expected the experience to be different from my own perspective, I was surprised to find the way other people treated me was also different.
The differences started when I first began to let people know I was pregnant. Several people asked if the pregnancy was good news before they offered their congratulations. That never happened the first time. When I was expecting Benjamin, everyone seemed to assume that it was good news and offered immediate congratulations.
Another difference I noticed the second time around was that no one asked me if I was scared or nervous about labor and delivery. As Benjamin's due date approached, I had been asked that question quite often. My response was always the same: I'm not worried about labor or delivery. It's a very natural process and I figure my body pretty much knows what to do. It's the next 18 years that I'm worried about.
However little I knew about parenting before I had children, I did know that it was not enough simply to have a child. My child would have to be nurtured, cared for. He would require teaching if he were to learn things. Stimulation would be needed to help him develop. Someone would have to provide these things, and I was going to be the key provider.
Two years and two children later, I know more than ever that it is not enough to simply give birth to them. They have to be nurtured. And I become more aware each day what a job it is to provide that nurturing.
It's not enough to have a life. That life must be nurtured. It's true for my children. It was no less true for the children of Israel.
Our first lesson tonight came soon after the Israelites crossed through the Red Sea after leaving the land of Egypt where they had served for slaves for generations. While they had taken provisions for their journey, there was not a lot of time to prepare and there was a limit to how much they could carry. So it really isn't surprising that they quickly ran out of food.
When it happened, they were frightened. They had left a fertile land for a barren wilderness. Yes, they had their freedom -- and their lives, but they saw no means of sustaining their lives. God had done some impressive things to bring about their escape, but could God provide food where there was none?
If you've read the Book of Exodus, you know the Israelites were prone to whining. However, this is one of the very few times when God was not angered by their whining. I suspect it is because God knew their needs. Their concern was legitimate. It was not enough to escape from slavery with their lives; those lives required nurturing.
God provided that physical nurturing with a flock of quail that evening and the gift of manna, the bread of heaven, in the morning. That same bread was there on all mornings except those of Sabbath throughout the forty years in which the Israelites journeyed to the Promised Land.
But with the manna, God provided not only physical nurturing but spiritual as well. Along with the manna, God gave instructions. The Israelites were to gather a set ration for each person every morning and twice that ration the day before the Sabbath. These instructions had a twofold purpose. The first was to help the Israelites become accustomed to following God's directions. The second, and perhaps more subtle, was to teach a dependence on God for the needs of each day.
Some Israelites were obedient from the beginning. They gathered their specified rations and were content with what they had. But others were more greedy than obedient and gathered more than they needed. Their efforts proved to be futile because manna gathered on one day was rotten by the next morning -- unless it was the Sabbath morning. So by a direct or indirect route, the people learned to trust God and follow God's instructions.
When Jesus fed the multitudes by the sea of Galilee centuries later, many who were there remembered the stories of manna in the wilderness. Since the time of the Exodus, God had never fed so many in such a miraculous way. Now an occasional person like the prophet Elijah had received food from God. But a miraculous feeding like this had not been experienced by the people of God in generations. The comparisons were probably inevitable. "Who is this man?" the people surely wondered. "This thing he has done could set him right up there with Moses."
So they went after Jesus to find out. Our gospel lesson tonight follows the accounts of the feeding of the five thousand and of Jesus walking on the water to meet the disciples in their boat. The people Jesus fed the day before have come to Capernaum to find him again. While they ask about the physical details of Jesus' journey to Capernaum, Jesus knows their real question. He doesn't answer their question, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"; instead, he tells them why they have come looking for him. In short, they are seeking a free lunch.
I suspect we can understand that motivation. Sometime ago, Jack in the Box Restaurants aired a commercial in which "Jack" reported on his findings after surveying people across the country about what they wanted. "It turns out," he announced, "they want great food for free." When I heard it, I thought "That sounds about right." It was no different then. As food goes, bread and fish was probably no more spectacular to the people in Jesus' day than fast food hamburgers are in our own time. But it was adequate food and it had cost them nothing.
In the gospel of John, every miracle recorded must serve the purpose of the book: to foster belief that Jesus Christ is the indeed the Son of God. The miracles recorded are never just a means to meet an immediate need like some sort of divine shortcut. The miracles are teaching moments, opportunities to see God's purpose unfold through the life of Jesus.
So Jesus directs the attention of the seekers from the miraculous event of the day before to the purpose of that event, the lesson he wants them to learn from it. "Do not work for food that perishes," he tells them, "but for the food that endures for eternal life." Still eager for food, the seekers ask Jesus what sort of work they should do. The work, according to Jesus, is simple: "believe in him whom God has sent."
But it's still not simple to these seekers. They need a reason to believe and finally they make the inevitable comparison with Moses. "Moses gave our ancestors manna in the wilderness," they argue, "What sign will you give?" Jesus corrects them on two counts. First, it was God, not Moses, who provided food in the wilderness. Secondly, the true bread of heaven gives life to the world; it isn't just food for the body.
To the seekers, this sounds even better than another free lunch. So they ask Jesus to give this bread to them -- not just on this day, but always. Jesus replies: "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
It's a very comforting, very reassuring statement. But what does it mean for all of us believers? Do we really think that believers in Christ never ever go hungry, never ever suffer thirst? I don't know about you, but I'm thirsty quite often. I can get pretty hungry too. But then again, water and food are always available to me.
Does it mean that we'll always have food and beverages when we need them? I don't think so. Over the ages of the Christian faith, believers have suffered famines and droughts. They have been imprisoned for faith and been denied food and water. They have suffered in other ways too. And lest we deceive ourselves, Christians continue to suffer for their beliefs in some parts of the world today.
Obviously, Jesus is speaking of something other than physical food, physical hunger, and physical thirst in this passage. It isn't enough to have life; life must be nurtured. Likewise, it's not enough to have a spiritual life; that life too must be nurtured.
So how do we nurture that inner spiritual life? The answer is we can't. We don't have the resources to do that. Only God can provide the food for our spirits. The question is not how we might nurture our spiritual lives but rather how do we stay connected to the Source of spiritual nurturing. How do we stay close to God? Or as the seekers asked Jesus, "What must we do to perform the works of God?"
Jesus' answer was rather simple: "Believe in him whom God has sent." We do believe. We will confess that belief in the words of the Apostle's Creed tonight. But outside these walls lies a world that can shake our faith to the very core. There are scoffers and temptations to struggle with. There is pressure to keep our faith out of sight. How does a spirit survive -- let alone thrive -- in such a world?
In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul urges the believers to live lives worthy of their calling as Christians, to stand together in one faith against the forces arrayed against them. That's the answer for us as well. We stand united in faith, using our gifts in the service of others, growing in faith in God and love for one another. In this setting, our spiritual lives will be nurtured. Our spirits will not just survive, they will thrive.
On Sunday, my daughter Catalina will be baptized. David and I, my parents and Catalina's godparents along with the whole congregation will again recite the words of the Apostle's Creed as part of the baptismal liturgy. We will stand united in our Christian faith and experience again one more way in which God nurtures our spiritual lives. We will hear the splash of water as it is poured over the head of an infant and remember how God has used water over the ages to renew and refresh creation. We will see a reenactment of a death, in this case by drowning, and a resurrection to new life.
We will experience another means by which God nourishes our spirits tonight when we celebrate communion in a few minutes. To look at the flour wafer and the miniature cup of wine, it scarcely seems a feast by physical standards. Yet there is more to these small, simple things than we can see. God is meeting us here, intersecting the physical world of our senses in a way that we can perceive. We see the food; we feel it in our hands; we smell and taste the wine and the bread. Somehow, someway, God is present within this simple meal of wafers and wine. It is no less a miracle than the gift of manna or the feeding of the multitudes by the Sea of Galilee.
These are moments of profound spiritual nurturing. God reaches out and actually connects with us in a way our physical bodies can experience. But it is not enough for Catalina -- or any one of us -- to be baptized. That baptism needs to be lived out. New life is a most precious gift and should not be wasted. Likewise, we eat food for the energy we need to do the work of living. If a person eats but does not use the energy from the food, that person gains only pounds of fat. It is not enough, then, to eat the communion meal, we must "work it off."
Our spiritual lives require nurturing just as our physical lives do. God is always present to supply all that we truly need when and as we need it. Receive this gift of life that God offers. Believe it. Rejoice in it. Be alive with it. Amen.