John 6:25-35
Bread is a staple of civilization. Every culture has it in some form: some type of grain that’s the basis of every culture’s diet. About 10,000 years ago humans learned to plant seeds and grow crops. The first and most important ones were grains like wheat, oats, barley, rice, and corn. This was the agricultural revolution: the movement from hunter-gatherer societies to the invention of farming, and it changed the course of global history. It led to permanent human settlements. First small villages, then larger cities, and eventually to civilizations and nations. Such permanent settlements led to the development of culture, writing, and commerce and so much of what it means to be human today. And so bread—whether cultivated wheat or one of its grainy cousin—is the foundation of world civilization. There’s an article online titled Bread: The Most Important Thing in Human History and in that article the author says: “[Bread] is indispensable and has been key in human survival. Bread created the structure of modern day society and gave order to our way of living. Without this seemingly simple food, civilization wouldn’t exist in the way we know it today.”[1]
Considering all this, it’s no wonder Jesus talked about Himself as the bread of life. Bread, the food of basic human sustenance, is what Christ is to us—the basic sustenance of all reality. Christ is the foundation of the universe, that which created and sustains all reality, the Heart at the heart of each of us. Christ is present in every piece of creation, and nourishes the universe as bread nourishes the body.
In the Gospel lesson we just read, Jesus is having a conversation with a crowd of potential followers. The day before Jesus had miraculously fed 5,000 people. The next day is the passage we read this morning. A group of those who Jesus fed the day before find him and start asking if he’ll perform another “sign.” Jesus basically says, “Hmm it sounds like you guys want some more food, don’t you?” Which is understandable; it’s the next day and they’re hungry again. But instead of feeding them again with earthly bread, Jesus teaches them about heavenly bread: a way of talking about Himself, and even more so about the Cosmic Christ, the Eternal Logos, of which He is the Incarnation.
But the people listening don’t seem to understand Jesus. They’re hungry for food, not a theology lesson. When they hear God has bread that will make them never go hungry again, bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world— they really want that bread! They ask for this bread and Jesus tells them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”.
We live in a world that is spiritually malnourished. A world where we’re distracted by many tasks and technologies that stress us out and draw us away from the present moment where God is present. We often feel alienated from God, from each other, and even from our own true selves. War persists throughout the world in Ukraine, Gaza, northwest Africa, Myanmar, and so many other places. Our own country is divided politically and ideologically, and issues of racism and wealth inequality continue to oppress. And even in the more privileged sectors of society, everybody seems stressed out, emotionally drained, and mentally unwell.
We could call this state of the world “sin” and we wouldn’t be wrong. But that word has a lot of historic baggage that clouds its true meaning. Maybe a better way of expressing this truth is saying there is a universal un-wholeness. Because sin is much more a brokenness that needs to be healed than it is a crime that needs to be punished. The state of the world is one of spiritual malnourishment, in desperate need of divine nourishment to make us whole, healthy, and well.
And into this spiritually malnourished world, Jesus Christ came. And Jesus Christ still comes and is always present. He comes to us in Word and Sacrament. He feeds us with His Body and Blood. He nourishes us spiritually with the good news of God’s love, grace, forgiveness, and healing. When we ingest His Word and literally eat the bread that He is, we are nourished, healed, and transformed. We take God into our bodies and are healed from our separation from God. We are welcomed into reconciliation and wholeness. We are given the peace of God, the joy of relationship, the freedom and liberation of spiritual wholeness.
And Scripture tells us that we are what we eat: we are the body of Christ, called to be bread for the world, just like Jesus is bread for the world. As St. Augustine was fond of saying when distributing Holy Communion: “Receive what you are, the Body of Christ, given for you.” And so when we receive the bread of life in the Eucharist, we are not only welcomed into wholeness ourselves, we are also strengthened and empowered to bring wholeness to a broken world: to be what we are the Body of Christ, bread for a hungry world. We are filled up and sent out to feed those who are hungry. We are filled up and sent out to heal those who are sick. We are filled up and sent out to advocate for those who are poor and oppressed. We are filled up and sent out to share the good news of God’s love and grace.
When I think of feeding the world with bread, one of the first things that comes to mind is our partnership with Grace Lutheran in Hartford and their Friday night meals. This fall we plan to grow our partnership with monthly trips to Grace for us to serve and be in community. Both to cook and also to eat with them. They need more chefs so if you’re a good cook willing to volunteer once a month let me know, your gifts are definitely needed. And while providing physical nourishment of the meals is important, Pastor Rick always emphasizes that it’s even more important that we share the spiritual nourishment of community. Of being together. Of loving one another with respect and dignity. Not volunteering out of pity, but joining them in community with a genuine desire to be in relationship with our neighbors in Hartford. So we’d like to bring a crew from St. Matthew who just want to eat, who just want to be in community and talk and get to know the people there. Keep an eye out for this invitation; we’re planning to start organizing St. Matthew trips to Grace in September.
And there are of course so many other ways we can be the Body of Christ for a hungry world. We can pray for God’s guidance in discerning whatever it is we are called to do, and ask the Spirit to help us be attentive to how we can be spiritual bread for everyone we meet in our daily lives. And we also must not forget to be spiritually nourished ourselves. We can’t let ourselves become malnourished because we’ve been so focused on emptying ourselves for others. We can’t run out of gas or let our buckets go dry. And so we remember to keep coming back to the Lord’s Table so that we can be filled with spiritual nourishment. The spiritual nourishment we receive from the Eucharist, from being in Christian community together, and from spending time alone with God in prayer and meditation, in reading scripture and in being in prayerful silence. Then, our wells won’t go dry and we can continue to overflow with God’s goodness to help feed a spiritually malnourished world. Then we can be vehicles of Christ’s nourishment to all.
And so let us celebrate today with the gift of Jesus Christ, the bread of life! Let us receive the Body of Christ in this holy meal. Let us sing for joy about the high feast we are so graciously welcomed to. Let us be filled up and sent out to feed a hungry world. Alleluia! Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Pastor Brian Rajcok | August 4, 2024 | Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
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