Manna vs. Bread

John 6:51-58

Bread, Bread, everywhere! I don’t know about you but I often get overwhelmed in the bread section of the grocery store.  There are so many different brands and so many different types of bread.  Then there are those fresh bakery breads, too.  And after I peruse the whole section, I usually just end up buying the same kind of bread I always buy.  It is usually the cheapest wheat sliced bread that I can find. 

Today we find ourselves reading about bread again.  Now we are invited to eat the bread.  This bread is not found in the local Safeway or Family Thrift.  It is not white or wheat.  It is not a croissant, a bagel, or ciabatta.  It is not spread with butter or peanut butter.  It is the bread of life that came down from heaven.

Last week we were drawn into relationship with Jesus and this week we are invited to eat and drink, to participate in the life giving power of Jesus.  To an outsider this may seem crazy, but to us on the inside we understand this to be part of our tradition.

This text reminds us of communion, eating and drinking, one of the sacraments of our church.  But, for a moment just imagine what kind of thoughts might go through an outsiders mind.  One of my professors in seminary used to say “imagine if an alien was dropped from outer space into our worship space, what would the alien think.”  What would an alien think if she entered into our worship space and heard this lesson about eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking his blood and then witnessed us participating in the sacrament of holy communion?  I imagine the alien would be a bit confused, surprised, and filled with many questions about this faith practice.

How then would we explain the reason for eating and drinking to the alien?  The text explains some benefits of this eating and drinking.  Through eating and drinking we will have life in ourselves, we will have eternal life, we will be raised on the last day, we will abide in Jesus and he in us, we will live through Jesus, and we will live forever.  Those are some big results.  Results only Jesus can give.

Who are these benefits given for?  The text says “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  Jesus gives his life for the whole world.  His body and blood poured out for all.  Not just for us.  Not just for Lutherans.  Not just for Americans.  For everyone.  It is the same Greek word that is used in the familiar John 3:16.  For God so loved the whole world.  For the life of the entire cosmos Jesus gives his life.

Now, it would be easy to write this text off as completely being about communion, but remember we are in John chapter 6 and Jesus has not celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples.  In fact, in the gospel of John we don’t even get that well known story.  In its place, the story that John brings us is of Jesus washing the disciples feet.  That is the story we hear on Maundy Thursday each year.

So, while I think we can read into this text and say that it is in some aspects related to our practice of communion, I think it is also saying something more.  Jesus is saying that he is the main course.  He is the meat and potatoes.  He is not the soup and salad appetizer.  He isn’t dessert either.  Jesus is telling us that he has something we want—the main course.  He invites us to participate in the hearty meal of himself, flesh and blood that will give us life eternal.

Manna, the bread-like substance, which the previous generation ate was only an appetizer.  It was not like the hearty main course that Jesus provides.  What things in our lives are just manna?  I think the biggest culprit here is stuff, those materialistic things that we think we need.  We, myself included, want the biggest and best toys.  We want new cars, new cell phones, new houses, new furniture, and designer brand clothes.  I think this becomes even more prevalent as children get ready to head back to school.  If they are not up on the latest fashions and newest school supplies they don’t feel like they fit in.  They may even get teased for being out of style.  The plain notebooks and folders often don’t cut it anymore, we need the more expensive supplies that reflect our favorite movie characters, sports teams, and hip music groups.  We can’t just buy the cheapest clothes, we want to shop at the Gap, the Buckle, and other designer stores.  Each day our society seems to care more and more about what we look like and the image that our stuff reflects to others.

            Manna is not the main course though.  It doesn’t feed our souls.  It only feeds our self-interest.  No, the appetizer of manna is not necessary.  God promises to give us everything we need.  In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “give us today our daily bread.”  In doing so we ask God to provide us with the things we need like food, shelter, clothing.  These basic necessities are daily bread.  The manna that we ask for through our materialistic wants is just that—a want. 

What we need is Jesus, the rest is just empty calories.  We need life giving bread.  We feast on the main course of Jesus through worship, prayer, study, and service.  We participate in this eating and drinking when can look past our wants and be thankful that our needs have been provided for.  We get the main course that Jesus offers through forgiveness and grace, which is freely given to each of us, because of the way in which Jesus gave his life for us.

            So, today receive Jesus.  The one who poured out his life for everyone.  The one who gave his flesh and blood for the life of the whole world.  The one who continues to feed us with himself, the life giving main course.  Eat, drink, and be filled with the sustaining bread of life.  Amen.

Fast Food vs. Fine Dining

John 6:35, 41-51

Today I want to test your fast food knowledge.  I am going to begin with a few interactive questions.  Yes, that means you have to respond.

What do the golden arches represent? – McDonalds

Where can you buy a blizzard? – Dairy Queen

Which chain restaurant claims to serve the better butter burger? – Culvers

Which restaurant was founded by Colonel Sanders? – Kentucky Fried Chicken

Our world is filled with fast food.  If there is one thing we are good at identifying it is fast food.  The book Fast Food Nation claimed that 88 percent of people could identify the golden arches.  We can recognize the signs and know which fast food joint is ahead.  We can find fast food just about anywhere and we expect that when we pull up to the drive thru at Taco John’s on our road trip that they will serve the same signature items, like our dearly loved potato oles, as the one down the street.  This type of food, while usually un-healthy, is quick.  It provides nourishment in an instant, no waiting required.  It is fast and convenient, but does it really nourish us?

So if that is fast food, then what is fine dining?  I think we get a glimpse of it today in our gospel text.  We hear about another type of food and it isn’t fast.  This is the bread of life.  If we feast on this food, the bread of life, we live forever.  We will be nourished eternally.  This is food that is founded on relationship.  Dare I suggest that I don’t think we can live without this fine dining?  In fact if there is one diet that I don’t think Jesus would recommend it is the Atkins diet.  He wouldn’t want us to ditch those carbohydrates.  He wouldn’t want us to miss out on the bread of life.

Just in case there is any confusion I want to make it clear that Jesus isn’t talking about literal bread here.  Jesus is using a metaphor to make the point that just like one cannot survive without the staple food of bread, one also cannot survive without a relationship with him.  Jesus is the staple of our spiritual diet.

            Bread, although a staple food, is pretty ordinary.  It really doesn’t seem that special.  If the metaphor used filet mignon or lobster, then it might seem more special.  I think that is part of Jesus’ point here though.  He is comparing himself to something ordinary.  In doing so he helps us to recognize that God is present in the ordinary, mundane, and unremarkable things in our life.  I also think this plain Jane metaphor is used to emphasize the ordinary part of Jesus.  Jesus, human flesh, born of a young ordinary woman.  However, some people cannot get over how ordinary Jesus was.  That seems to be the problem that the Jews are having in our text today.  They don’t understand how Jesus can claim that he came down from heaven, when they know that he was the son of Mary and Joseph.  They don’t seem to comprehend that Jesus is out of the ordinary, too.  In fact, Jesus is extraordinary, born from above, as living bread from heaven. 

            In order to be in relationship with Jesus, the bread of life, we must be drawn by the God.  We must be pulled, beckoned, even dragged by God.  In this we do not make the first move.  It is not our decision.  God makes the first move, drawing us in closer.  I think this is where the Holy Spirit comes into play.  What brought us to church today?  Sure maybe it is part of your routine.  You enjoy the fellowship.  Maybe your just can’t survive without donut holes and coffee.  Whatever your reason may be I think there is an even bigger reason.  I think the reason is relational.  There is a spiritual need to come to worship to be refreshed, renewed, and revitalized.  I think there is a God sized hole in our bodies that needs to be filled.  For most of us that God sized hole was discovered before we even walked or talked.  In Holy Baptism our parents and sponsors brought us to the font to have that God sized hole filled.  They promised that they would nourish us with more than fast food.  They promised us relational nourishment with the bread of life.  Like children, we are all in need of nourishment and sometimes we can’t even describe what it might look like.

I remember a story, told as a sermon illustration about a minister who was discouraged to learn that his parishioners were hard pressed to recall any of the sermons he had delivered over all the years he had served in their church.  He lamented to his wife that he felt his work was useless if he had made such a little impression on the people he served.  Fifty two sermons a year for so many years, and hardly anyone could specifically recall more than one or two.  After allowing her husband to feel sorry for himself for a while, his wife asked him to describe in detail all the meals she had prepared and served him over the many years of their marriage.  He was hard pressed to specifically remember more than a few. She said to him, “You don’t remember the food I’ve prepared and served this family with love, and yet it has nourished you and sustained you day in and day out for all our lives.”  Then she added, “So it is with the work you do in the church.  The love and care you put into delivering God’s message, both in sermon and in deed, has nourished and sustained the people you serve, whether they can describe it or not.”

Indeed, here we are nourished and sustained.  From this place where we are fed in communion and washed in the waters of baptism we are sent out into the world.  We are sent to be bread for others, nourishment for their lives.  And we are sent to point others towards the bread of life, Jesus, who provides eternal life.  In doing so we show the world that there is something much better than the convenience of fast food, there is fine dining that will fill the God sized hole within us.  Our nourishment can be found in Jesus, the bread that came down from heaven.  Amen.