In last week’s gospel we heard the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. This week we hear about a different type of bread. Jesus tells the gathered crowd that he is “the bread of life. Whoever comes to him will never be hungry, and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty”. Jesus is talking about spiritual bread. He tells the crowd to not work for food that perishes but for food that endures for eternal life.
God's recommended diet must be understood in the context of the ancient Middle Eastern world. Bread was the major source of nourishment. To offer bread to another was seen as an offer of friendship. To give bread to strangers implied safety and welcome. To "break bread" together was perceived as a sign of hospitality.
When the Hebrew people fled Egypt and wandered through the desert wilderness, God provided them with "bread" every morning. Not only was it their daily sustenance, but also it reminded them of God's care, God's Presence. It was a sign of Divine friendship.
Taking this symbolism further, Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life." He was so at one with God that His life embodied the Divine friendship. And to share in His life was to share in the Bread of Heaven.
But this is no ordinary Bread. This is Bread with an attitude. This is bread that binds us together, as a community. This is Bread that nourishes our spiritual awareness. This is Bread that strengthens and sustains us.
Of all the ways that God feeds us, there is one unique, supremely valuable and nourishing way, and that is through God’s Presence in the Living Christ. As you identify with Christ, as you let Christ give you life, as you abide with Christ and accept Christ at the center of your being, you are being nourished with grace and you are being empowered to share Christ our Bread with our brothers and sisters everywhere!
We frequently hear evangelicals described as “born again Christians”. What they are wonderfully alive to is the startling difference that a relationship to God in Jesus Christ makes to life. God in Jesus is personal. Abundant life in Jesus is a life that overflows. We are made for joy, for love, for hope, for laughter, for deep relationships. Yet these depth experiences of God in Jesus and through the Spirit are pooh-poohed as “emotionalism” or something equally unimportant. Evangelism then becomes “selling” some sort of “spiritual experience”. I do not believe that we have to “sell” how wonderful God is to anyone. So it is no wonder many Christians are uncomfortable with notions of evangelism! Yet……and here is a thought…..if knowing and following Jesus – being “born again” – is genuinely a new birth and transformation of personal life, then evangelism is nothing more sinister than passing on Good News. DT Niles said in a way that is marvelously appropriate to today’s readings that, in evangelism, “We are nothing more than beggars telling other beggars where to find bread”.
We fail people if we do not recognize the reality of spiritual hunger. The signs of the hunger for the Bread of Life are evident everywhere to any eyes that are open. The evidence has been in the sales of self-help books on the subject spirituality. Magazines carry stories and accounts. Psychic fairs, seminars on spirituality, meditation centers and classes on eastern mysticism are all flourishing growth industries. Millions of people who have nothing to do with the Church are desperate to make connections with spiritual reality. People have found something of significance in witchcraft, meditation, Buddhism, Wicca, yoga, astral travel and reincarnation and they share their experiences eagerly and find them equally eagerly received. Yet as Christians we stand by, not reaching out or sharing our excitement for God, Christ and the Holy Spirit, why is that? If the reason for our choice is that we do not recognize in it a mirror of our own deep hunger and thirst for God, we ought to examine ourselves, lest we, like the crowd who stood before Jesus, fail to read the sign correctly.
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul talks about the Church as a body which needs “feeding”. Whether we are talking about bread, manna or spiritual gifts, the point is that they are all gifts of grace . Grace is a measure of God’s love. It is also God’s provision. Grace means that God provides life and that which is necessary to sustain life. Grace further means that God provides the means of growth . Bodies are not just meant to exist: they are meant also to grow and develop.
God’s intention is for us to become Christ-like. The gifts of the Spirit are given, not to individuals for their own glory, enjoyment or ownership, but to the whole Church. They are manifested in individuals precisely in order to make us interdependent.
Christian life is essentially communal. We make a great deal of “I don’t have to go to Church to be a Christian! I can worship God on a golf-course or up a mountain just as well as at Church!” Not according to Paul! This isn’t a point about church membership or attendance, or a campaign to get “bums on seats”: it’s a point about growing . We are all given gifts for the common good. Unless we take an active part in the life of the Christian body of which we are a part, we are amputating part of the body and failing others. Similarly, unless we are part of the body – part of the flow of the life-blood of the Spirit ( 4:16 ) – we will remain stunted in our own growth. The image of a body growing by means of the grace given through gifts stands as a strong critical counter to the excessive individualism of our present age. One of our challenges is to restore the Church’s “body image” – to rediscover it and make it work.
God has provided a family for you and for me -- a spiritual community in which the glorious vision of Christ's life comes alive for us. Our "spiritual house" is a community in which we experience loving relationships with one another. It is the very special milieu God has given us in which to experience Christ's love for us. And while we are together in Jesus' name, worshipping and praising God, we who were lonely, we who were grieving, we who were hurting, we who were living as though in a bad dream, we who were struggling to find wholeness and meaning for our life, become God's people in a very special way: a chosen people. We are a people chosen for discipleship. We are a people chosen for ministry. We are a people chosen to assume the responsibility of relating in a Christ-like way to those who are lonely, or grieving, or hurting in some way, or living as though in a bad dream, or struggling to find wholeness and meaning for their life.
Ernest Gordon, a Scotch preacher, has written a powerful book about his experiences as a prisoner of war in a World War II Asian death camp. In the first part of the book he describes the struggle to survive -- men fighting to the death over a morsel of bread. It was every man for himself, literally. Care for the sick was grossly inadequate. A mood of hopelessness permeated the camp. Then, one day, a man named Angus did an unheard of thing. He gave his blanket to a wounded comrade. And he gave some of his meager food ration to the wounded comrade. He even risked his life to get some medicine for the wounded comrade. Then Angus died, partly because of his sacrifices. But his wounded comrade lived. And as the story of Angus spread through the camp, other prisoners began to share their blankets and food. They began to organize Bible study groups. They set up a little altar and began to worship together. They began to be more caring toward the sick. Many of them spent long hours fashioning crude, artificial limbs for the amputees, using whatever materials they could find. The atmosphere of the camp changed so incredibly that when new prisoners arrived, they were immediately caught up in the spirit of new life and hopefulness. When the camp finally was liberated, the liberating forces wanted to execute the captors on the spot. And it was the prisoners who asked for mercy and forgiveness for them. In his book, Ernest Gordon raises the question: What was there that made it possible for that situation to turn around as it did? His answer is simple: The prisoners became the Church. They simply became a Community of Christ. [1]
This Church of ours is not merely a building. It is our spiritual house. We are a spiritual family, united in a common cause. Jesus beckons us to come on in, not for an occasional spiritual raid, but for the exercise of an ongoing Holy Priesthood. We are people chosen to minister to one another and to the world. "For the Bread of Life is that which comes down from Heaven, and gives life to the world." We are a Royal Priesthood called upon to declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called us out of darkness into light.
This coming week, there will be someone in your life who needs to hear the story of Christ. There will be someone who needs to have his or her worthwhile ness affirmed by you, a Holy Priest of the Community of Faith. This very week, you have been chosen to transform someone's bad dreams into a glorious vision of life -- through your ministry of loving service. Because of you, someone this week will open his or her eyes to the glorious vision of a gracious God who chose to give us life and who chose to promise us fulfillment through the life and love of Jesus Christ, our Lord -- the Bread of Life which comes down from Heaven, and is now in our midst.
[1] - "Through the Valley of the Kwai.""