Pentecost 11B
August 5, 2018
John 6:24-35
INTRODUCTION
Last week we
began what is known as the Bread of Life discourse. Each of Jesus’ discourses
in John’s Gospel are explanations of some sign, or miracle, he’s performed, so
it’s important for our understanding that we recall what that sign was. Anyone
remember what we heard last week? [Jesus feeding the 5000.] I’m sure you
remember this story – Jesus and the disciples are all out, far away from town,
and everyone gets hungry. One boy shares his lunch (five small loaves and two
small fish), and miraculously everyone ends up with plenty to eat, with 12
baskets left over. It is one of Jesus’ seven signs that we see in John’s
Gospel.
The next
part of the story happens the next day. Folks have gone to pretty great lengths
to track down Jesus, and they find him, and today we will be hearing the
conversation that ensues. As always in John, conversation with Jesus is characterized
by a lack of understanding, because Jesus is always talking from up here, in
the heavenly realm, and people respond from down here, in the earthly realm. They
totally miss what Jesus is really saying, because they are so stuck down in the
world of the flesh. Not that we can really blame them. This is tough stuff
Jesus is saying. Jesus is totally blowing their minds here.
One more quick comment about our
first reading: for Jesus’ disciples, it is this story of being fed in the
wilderness has been the defining story about how God provides. It is so
foundational, that it is what the crowd refers to in trying to understand who
Jesus is. So listen carefully, and then hold onto that story as you listen to
what Jesus says about being the bread of life.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
There are
some chores I really hate, and some I don’t mind doing. Some aren’t so bad
because at the end of them, there is a sense of satisfaction, and
accomplishment. Like folding laundry. I sort as I go, so by the end, I have all
these nice little stacks all organized, which then go neatly into a basket, to
be carried upstairs and put away. Satisfying!
What I do
mind, however, is when the clothes I’m folding belong to my kids, who get very
excited to see their clothes all clean, and come barreling into what I’m doing,
grabbing their favorite items out of what is inevitably the center of the pile,
and totally undoing 15 minutes of effort. All that time, wasted.
“Do not work
for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life.”
I’m not sure Jesus had in mind folding laundry with toddlers around when he
said this, but sometimes life can feel a bit like that! Isn’t it so frustrating
when you work diligently for something, only to find that it means nothing
moments later? Or maybe weeks or even years later? I think about all the people
in the Rochester area, many of you members of this congregation, who worked for
Kodak, developing film technology… a technology now made mostly obsolete by
digital photography. It can feel a bit, can’t it, like all those years were
work for food that perishes, that does not endure. It is incredibly frustrating
and disheartening to pour so much time and energy into something that does not,
in the end, endure.
And yet,
this is exactly what we do, isn’t it, not just in our careers, or daily chores,
but also in seeking joy and depth and fulfillment in life. With so many demands
on our time, not to mention, of course, the pressure to build up savings and
retirement accounts, and making sure everything in life is in order… who has
time to meaningfully seek joy and fulfillment? And so what we do instead is try
to find that life elsewhere, somewhere quick and easy: shopping, or working more
or harder, or a bag of chips, or binge watching a TV show, or scrolling through
Facebook or Twitter to look at silly cat memes, or to comment on the latest
outrageous news story, or to superficially connect with people who may or may
not hold meaningful places in our lives. All these things give us a quick buzz,
a brief moment of satisfaction, but ultimately, it doesn’t last. It doesn’t
bring enduring life or joy. We work for the food that perishes, not the food
that endures for eternal life. And then we wonder how it can be that we are
working so hard, and keeping so busy, and yet not feeling full of life.
So where do
we find this food, this nourishment and sustenance that does fill us up, that does endure for eternal life? Well, Jesus
tells us: the Son of Man will give it to you. The crowd is as eager about this as
we are: “What does that mean? What do we have to do to get it?” Simple, Jesus
says. Just believe.
Simple, but
not easy – for them or for us! I have often thought, “If I could just have been
there, and met Jesus, and seen the signs he performed and the ways he touched
and taught people, faith would be so much easier!” But here the crowd proves
that theory wrong. They have just witnessed the feeding of the 5000, and Jesus
walking on water, and yet still, they ask for a sign. They even bring up God’s
past faithfulness, just like I do: “Well if only I could see the sort of thing
God used to do, like for the Israelites, like when they were in the wilderness
and Moses gave them bread from heaven. Show me something like that, and I’ll believe!”
Can’t we
always find some excuse for our lack of faith, some way that faith would be
easier “if only”? “If I could just see a sign… if I only had more time to
devote to prayer, or if results and gratification from prayer came faster… if I
knew more about the Bible… if God would just prove to me that all this effort
will be worth it in the end… then I
would have more faith!” But all that sounds hard, even impossible, and so instead,
we continue to work for the food that perishes, throwing ourselves into
activities and mindsets and ways of life that give us a quick fix, but do not
offer us the sustaining goodness that we will only find in Christ Jesus.
During one
Lent, I tried as a discipline doing what’s called the examen. At the end of
each day, I answered in writing two questions: when did I feel full of life today,
and when did I feel life draining out of me? Then at the end of the week, I looked
at what I had written, and looked for patterns. Did I consistently feel life
draining out of me during an activity that I, nevertheless, continue to devote
time to? Did I feel full of life doing something that I don’t make enough time
for? I admit to you, that it was a very revealing exercise – a bit too
revealing. I didn’t like what I saw. I quickly recognized some patterns that I
knew should change, but I also knew it would be so hard to change them. It
would be easier to ignore this revelation, and keep doing what may not be as
life-giving as something else, but was much easier and was, in the end, not
great, but fine. I continued to work for the food that perishes, rather than
the food that endures for eternal life.
Yes, friends,
I regularly fail at this. I’m guessing you do, too. We are a people who
consistently work for the food that perishes. I wonder if a part of the reason
for that is that we fancy ourselves to be self-sufficient. We think, if we work
hard enough, keep busy enough, learn enough, then we will succeed. We will live! We will have full, satisfying
lives. We are quite accustomed to relying on ourselves, and we are quicker to
trust ourselves than anyone or anything else.
And yet,
remember what Jesus says. “Do not work for the food that perishes,” he says,
“but for the food that endures for eternal life… which the Son of Man will give you.” This food, this thing that
fills us up and sustains us and does not disappoint us – it will be given to
us, by Christ himself. It will be given to us when we read the Word, when we do
as one old prayer says, “hear the words of scripture, read, mark, learn, and
inwardly digest them.” It will be given to us when we notice God’s movement in
our daily lives, giving credit to our Maker for all that we have and not to
ourselves. It will be given to us when we talk to God regularly, living into
that abiding relationship God so wants with us. It will be given to us when we
come forward to this table, stretch out our beggar’s hands, and don’t take, but
rather are given grace itself, the
bread of life, and told, “This is my body, given for you… even though you
regularly fail. It’s given for you anyway, my beloved child. Take and eat it.
This is my body, given even for you.”
Such a gift
of grace is hard to accept, for a bunch of folks accustomed to working hard
(even, working for food that perishes). We don’t have to earn it. We don’t
deserve it. We don’t have to check all the boxes and do all the things that we
or society tells us we need to do in order to be valued members of society.
This grace is merely given, to us bunch of failures, to us bunch of beloved
children of God. This grace is given to us, so that we might have an abiding
relationship with our loving God, not because of who we are or what we
accomplish, but because of who God is and what God has accomplished.
That’s a
message I know I need to hear, to be reminded of again and again. I need to be
told, “Johanna, you’re gonna drop the ball sometimes. You’re gonna totally blow
it other times. You’re gonna work your behind off and feel like after all that,
you got absolutely nowhere… and in the midst of all that, God loves you so
much, that God actually still wants to be in a serious and committed
relationship with you, and will go great lengths to do so.” That is life. That
is enduring. That is a promise to sink your teeth into. And so we shall.
Let us pray…
Bread of life, we work so hard in hopes
of being valued by ourselves and others. But this is food that perishes. Remind
us every day that we are already valued because we are loved by a life-giving
God. Fill us up with your life and your love. In the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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