On the Way to Wonder

First Reading: 1 Kings 19:4-8

⁴[Elijah] went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.”⁵Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.” ⁶He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷The angel of the Lord came a second time, touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” ⁸He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God.

Psalm: Psalm 34:1-8

 ¹I will bless the Lord at all times;
  the praise of God shall ever be in my mouth.
 ²I will glory in the Lord;
  let the lowly hear and rejoice.
 ³Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord;
  let us exalt God’s name together.
 ⁴I sought the Lord, who answered me
  and delivered me from all my terrors. 
 ⁵Look upon the Lord and be radiant,
  and let not your faces be ashamed.
 ⁶I called in my affliction, and the Lord heard me
  and saved me from all my troubles.
 ⁷The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear the Lord
  and delivers them.
 ⁸Taste and see that the Lord is good;
  happy are they who take refuge in God! 

Second Reading: Ephesians 4:25–5:2

²⁵So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, ²⁷and do not make room for the devil. ²⁸Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. ²⁹Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. ³¹Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³²and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. ^5:1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, ²and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Gospel: John 6:35, 41-51

³⁵Jesus said to [the crowd,] “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ⁴¹Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” ⁴²They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” ⁴³Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.⁴⁵It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. ⁴⁶Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. ⁴⁷Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ⁵⁰This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

CHILDREN’S SERMON:  Turn to your neighbor and tell them briefly about your favorite type of bread or a favorite memory involving bread.

Let us pray:  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

“I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.“

We start today where we left off last week.  We are still tracking with the conversations between the hungry crowds who followed Jesus from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other, being fed with teaching but also with bread and fish.  Could Jesus be the Messiah and the King that will feed them forever?

         Before we jump to the crowd’s discussion with Jesus, let us review the scene of Moses and the people of Israel in the wilderness, as there is a strong parallel that both Jesus and the crowd are drawing on.  In Exodus 16, God delivered the people of Israel from Egypt, protected them through the Red Sea, three days later gave them water at Marah and led them to springs at Elim. But, … but 15 days into the next leg of the journey, the people “grumble.”  The food supply for so many seems so little.  So God supplied quails for meat and manna for bread.  Moses told the people, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning because he has heard your grumbling against him.”

         Drawing a parallel to Moses and the people in the wilderness grumbling, Jesus claims to be bread from heaven, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”  The people grumble, looking at Jesus but blinded by physical reality.  Is he not the son of Joseph?  Sometimes what we know, or think we know, blinds us to the spiritual truth that is facing us.  Jesus claims to be bread from heaven but obviously he is a person they think they know. 

         You shared with your neighbor your favorite bread.  My whole family would vote for Paul’s Bakery in Kenya.  It was on the outskirts of our town and we would stop by and get a long, rectangle loaf that was fresh from the ovens, dense in texture, aromatic, with the plastic bag clinging to its warmth.  We would each take a handful and savor it in our mouth.  Did I mention how good it smelled?  Sometimes our faith is like those memories of our favorite bread.  The bread Moses provided appeared every morning on the ground and satisfied.  How can Jesus be like that bread?  The people are confused and they grumble, just like the people of old.

         So what do we “know” that stops us from hearing or understanding Jesus saying that he is the bread of life?  For many Americans, I thinking spiritual learning is thought to be done in Sunday school as a child with Bible stories and pictures.  “Adult Sunday school” seems like a contradiction of terms.  We know the basics and the adventure of daily devotions does not entice us.  OR, perhaps we remember those spiritual highs of camp as youth.  The campfire, rousing songs, good fellowship, challenging speaker all lie dormant in our hearts as we come to church and our soul wants that emotional experience that warmed us so.  Many, many young adults finish confirmation and feel they now know the basics of faith and do not need to build on that cognitive foundation. Perhaps we too feel our baptism and confirmation is enough and growth does not seem necessary.  God loves us, right?  For other adults the reality of life with all the potholes of divorce, death of children, illness creates a cynicism about faith and Jesus. Our hearts are numb with disappointment as we have a sour taste in our mouth about Jesus.  And of course, how do we choose which church, which faith, where to start devotions – so many choices, we throw our hands in the air — tomorrow!  Jesus says, “I am the bread of life,” and we do not think of that bread of our dreams that smelled so good and that we could eat at any time and was so satisfying.  Like the Jews, familiarity breeds, perhaps not contempt but laziness in our relationship with Christ.

         I want to read The Message version of the next part of the conversation.  It is far easier to follow Jesus’ reasoning of the text.

            ^43-46 Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father—and you can see me.

Jesus responds, “Do not complain among yourselves. ⁴⁴No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.”  The people are mistaken.  The bread is a gift from God and God draws them to him even as the smell of bread draws us to the kitchen. It is only after we are drawn to the bread, drawn to Jesus, that we are able to eat, to be fed.   Jesus points out that the joy of the experience is actually rooted in the relationship with the giver and the relationship we experience around the gift.  We need to realize the gift, the bread, is God reaching out for relationship.

         We are continually challenged by the Word of God to see beyond what we know, the obvious, through our human experience to see the eternal truth that God is calling us to.  The parables Jesus tells always have that ironic twist that makes us think and reinterpret reality.  It is the Samaritan, the foreigner, who is the Good Samaritan.  Jesus tells Nicodemus, an old man, he must be born again.  Jesus heals on the Sabbath.  The water at the wedding becomes wine. Jesus is using the image of bread to speak of feeding that deep hunger in our hearts that draws us to God who wants relationship.

         Perhaps another way of saying this is that faith is not a work we do but a relationship we are drawn into.  We do not read the Bible because we want good marks from God for starting or ending the day right.  We don’t do it because we have to.  We do it because even as we check in with our friends or spouse, we want to check in with God and chat.  Drawing close to God and hearing his voice feeds our souls even as bread feeds our bodies.  God calls us to wholeness.

         I think the word we use now to talk about a “substitute” or look alike product is “knock off.”  Can you believe there is a coffee shop called “Sunbucks” with a logo in a green circle?  Lots of things imitate and present a false identity.  Jesus claims he is from the real God who teaches us personally, face to face, an incarnation of God the Father for his creation.  He is the real thing, not the substitute and he is the one who will raise us up on the last day.  He is the real thing.  Don’t be confused by what you think you know about him!  Don’t chase knock-offs because they are cheaper.

         So how do we reconcile grumbling and faith that results from God drawing us in?  We live in that irony.  We live in the mysterious.  We have free will as we come and yet we are drawn.  Perhaps that realization gives us patience with youth who are still developing, with friends who are so resistant to our stories of faith, or with those so burdened with grief.  It may even give us patience with ourselves when we sin and help us immediately humble ourselves and seek restored relationship.  Our task is to share the truth and God works with the heart.  Our task is to see beyond the obvious and be sensitive to the real message and how God is working.  Faith is a journey and we are all traveling and needing each other.  The real map is Jesus who is one with the Father and presents truth to us.  Are we blinded by what we know and settling for knock-offs today?

         Jesus now summarizes in light of the Moses’ wilderness experience.  The manna, the bread, given from God in the wilderness did indeed feed the people as they traveled but they eventually died.  Jesus is not bread just to keep the body alive but he is the bread from heaven that will keep our souls alive for eternity.  He is the living Bread!  The Message translates this way:

         ^47-51 “I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever    believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your         ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here         is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this         Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came          down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and          forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and      live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”

         So how do we pull this together?  What does it mean to you and me living in a Pandemic, in political polarization, is social distress around our world?  Our world proclaims the value of honoring diversity of ethnicity or of faith.  We are afraid of being judgmental and critical.  We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or offend.  This text challenges us:

• Don’t allow what you think you know about Jesus to blind you to the eternal truth he is offering you.  Faith is a journey and not a decision made at some moment in time.  There will be deserts and mountains but Jesus is one with God and incarnated so we might know truth.
• We are drawn to God through Christ and it is in that eternal relationship that we will find the real bread that feeds our souls.  Don’t settle for knock-offs that are cheaper and may be fun for a moment but are not the real thing.  Look for the food that sustains and strengthens through all situations.
• Jesus is the living bread!  He will carry us into eternity.  He died on Calvary and we remember that every time we take communion.  No matter how distressing today may seem, God is walking with us to eternity.  We can trust in him!

As we think of the words of praise we would use for that memory of tasty bread and fellowship, let us look beyond what we experienced to the God who leads us into even more satisfying bread experiences!  Praise his name.  Amen.

First Reading: Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15

²The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
  ⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.”
  ⁹Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’ ” ¹⁰And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. ¹¹The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ¹²“I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ”
  ¹³In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. ¹⁵When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

Psalm: Psalm 78:23-29

 ²³So God commanded the clouds above
  and opened the doors of heaven,
 ²⁴raining down manna upon them to eat
  and giving them grain from heaven. 
 ²⁵So mortals ate the bread of angels;
  God provided for them food enough.
 ²⁶The Lord caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
  and powerfully led out the south wind,
 ²⁷raining down flesh upon them like dust
  and flying birds like the sand of the seas,
 ²⁸letting them fall in the midst of the camp
  and round about the dwellings.
 ²⁹So the people ate and were well filled,
  for God gave them what they craved.

Second Reading: Ephesians 4:1-16

¹I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
  ⁷But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. ⁸Therefore it is said,
 “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive;
  he gave gifts to his people.”
⁹(When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? ¹⁰He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) ¹¹The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹²to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. ¹⁴We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. ¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.

Gospel: John 6:24-35

²⁴When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were [beside the sea,] they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
  ²⁵When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” ²⁶Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. ²⁷Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.” ²⁸Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” ²⁹Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” ³⁰So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? ³¹Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” ³²Then Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” ³⁴They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
  ³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Let us pray:  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

         I feel like we need a geography lesson as we tackle our text today.  We have been following Jesus through a journey near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel for three or four weeks.  The hungry crowds have followed Jesus from one side to the other of the sea except they have gone by foot along the edge and the disciples have gone by boat amidst storms. Jesus walked on water! Jesus has fed the crowds, healed the sick, and taught.  The crowds wanted to make him king and this Sunday, walk back to Capernaum to find him.  They are still baffled about who he is and how relationship works.  Today they ask three questions in our text.

1. Rabbi, when did you come here?
2. What must we do to perform the works of God?
3. What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you?  What work are you performing?

It seems to me these three questions are continually asked of Jesus and are still being asked today?  Most of us come today with some version of these three basic questions.

“Rabbi, when did you come here?”   

         Actually there are two parts to this question that challenges us today.  The crowd addresses Jesus as “rabbi”, teacher.  For many today Jesus is a great teacher, one of the prophets like Mohammed, as good as Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, on the level of Confucius or Buddha but not God or perhaps one of many ways to reach God.  We come to church today hoping for a great sermon that will engage our minds but not necessarily expecting an encounter with the almighty God.  The better the preacher, the better the choir, the better the programs for the youth, we think means the better the church.  Why are we here today?  Turn to your neighbor and share one thing you were hoping for as you came to church today.

         Jesus reflects back to the crowds that they have come looking for him because their stomachs were filled with bread.  We come to Jesus with our list of needs and wants.  That is not necessarily wrong except that when we approach Jesus like a bank, then prayer becomes the check that draws from the deposits of tithes, good deeds, or faithful life we have lived or deposited in our account.  We come with an agenda for God, not to meet and ponder together. We are somehow off center.  Jesus accuses the crowd of selfishness or self-centeredness.

         Jesus was a rabbi but he was more.  The products of relationships are not the relationship.  To put it a bit crudely, having children is not the same as building a marriage.  When I address my husband or my friend with my list of wants and needs, my focus or understanding of our relationship is off balance.  We come to church to meet with God, not just for a spiritual experience.  Jesus was able to feed them with bread because he was God.  So perhaps the question we need to ask ourselves today is if we came to worship just with our shopping list, or out of habit, or with hungry souls to meet with God?

         “When did you come here?”  God’s presence is in our situations before we realize.  We sometimes seem to be as surprised as the crowds that Jesus has entered a situation before us.  How did Jesus get there?  Perhaps we think our prayers wake God up and help him focus! Hmmm?  This is not to say that God is organizing everything to go according to his plans.  Sometimes people look back on events and rationalize that “God knew” such-and-such needed to happen so that such-and-such would happen and so we would learn the lesson God wanted us to learn.  I didn’t get that job because God knew this better job was coming.  Even though I did not want to move, it worked out for the best because…fill in the blank.  That makes God very manipulative and diminishes our free will.  King David prayed in Psalm 139: 7-12:

Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light around me become night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

Jesus is a teacher but he is also God.  Jesus goes before us, walks with us, and Jesus has our back.  We need not be surprised to find him already working in the events of our lives, not just for our good but for all concerned.  Jesus admonishes the crowd to not work for food that passes through the body but to work on the relationship with God that feeds the soul.

         Next the people ask, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”  I think this comes from the thinking that if we labor for the food we eat, then how do we labor for the food that feeds our souls.  What must we do?  Jesus responds,   “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

         Food for the soul does not come from work of the hands but from work of the heart.  Each Sunday we recite the Apostle’s Creed.  Faith is based on the doctrines or confessions that unite us.  Our creeds and our prayers like reciting the Lord’s Prayer are beacons pointing us to the ground zero of our faith.  We build on these foundation stones with the works of our heart.

         Let us review the second article of the creed.  Let’s say it together:

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,   suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; 

he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again;

he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will          come to judge the living and the dead.

Let me review the explanation of the second article as found in Luther’s Small Catechism.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, (pause and reflect)

who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with his holy, and precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death, (pause and reflect)

that I may be his own and  live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting, righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. 

THIS IS MOST CERTAINLY TRUE!  Jesus is my Lord, my redeemer, and I am his.

I should hear a loud AMEN now!  What is doing the work of God?  What does he want from us?  He wants us to believe these truths.  Full stop.  Period.  To believe he is here now and goes before us, goes with us, and has our back.

         Third question:  “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?  Prove yourself and then we’ll believe.

         Just as we get all tangled up about the identity of Jesus as member of the Trinity and don’t recognize his presence, we also get all tangled up about our role in our relationship with God, and so we seek proof that this relationship with the unseen is really working.  We look for those flowers on anniversaries and all the little “works” that affirm that the other cares.  As we age, as we enter trials, we need the reassurance of “signs.”  When I was a chaplain, I walked through the lobby and chanced to overhear a conversation between a little ole lady sitting on a couch gently crying.  “I’m old, crumpled, no longer beautiful.  How can you still love me?”  The aged gentleman, her husband, standing with his walker beside her, was gently reassuring her of his commitment forever.

         What is the sign of commitment, of relationship?  Our wedding rings represent that and yet we know in this world today that words are cheap and people go their separate ways.  Our children grow up and find new loves that take them far from us and somehow a phone call is never often enough.  Accidents happen and our beauty, health, talents that give us value disappear in a moment.  Diseases now rob us of mental ability and leave the body unable to express itself.  Life speaks to transition so what ties down and solidifies in cement our relationship with God?

         The cross has become that symbol of what we call The Covenant between God and humans. I love the picture of a handshake.  In that mysterious handshake between God and humans, God holds on to us when we have little strength, faith the side of a mustard seed, and eyes clouded with tears.  God holds on to us.  The empty cross shows how far God will go for us.  Jesus points the crowd to God and not to bread.  We cry like our children, “If you love me, you’ll let me do what I want to do,” and yet we know relationship is not built on giving us what we want, not giving us just bread but faith that is built on the cross.

1. Crowd:  Rabbi, when did you come here?  Jesus:  God fills our past, present, and future, leading and loving us to his kingdom
2. Crowd:  What must we do to perform the works of God?  Jesus:  Believe in Christ.
3. Crowd:  What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you?  What work are you performing?  Jesus:  The cross is the reminder that God sees, cares, and has your back.

³⁵Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

What a wonderful promise.  May we cling to that promise.  Amen.