Sermon for the 11th of August - Eleventh Sunday after Trinity
Bread of Life
I wonder what you like best to eat?
Do you prefer healthy kinds of foods...salads, vegetables, fruit, fish, wholegrain breads?
Or do you prefer the less healthy kind – cakes, sweets, white pasta, sugary cereals?
We all know that some food is better for us than others, and we are becoming increasingly aware of the impact of sugar and heavily processed or fast foods on our bodies – but it doesn’t stop us from liking them!
Of my 2 children, one much prefers eating healthy food, is vegetarian, and tries to keep sugar intake to a very low level, the other likes chocolate cereal for breakfast, pasta pesto, McDonalds and meat in as many meals as possible… I’ll let you guess which is which!
As a parent, trying to ensure our children eat healthy balanced diets and get the right level of nutrition is an ongoing challenge. Have you ever tried to feed someone who doesn’t want to eat? I’m sure any parents here have experienced children refusing food, but probably all of us have encountered people who don’t want to eat what we are providing – maybe they are sick and have very little appetite, maybe they have very few foods they like. It can be utterly exasperating, can’t it?
And today, we are probably seeing more young people with eating disorders than ever before. For some, just trying to get enough food into their children to survive can be one of the hardest challenges of all.
We want to provide for those we love – we want to ensure they are nourished and eating enough of the right kinds of foods to be healthy and strong.
And I wonder if this is what this collection of gospel readings we are in the middle of, are all about – commonly called the “Bread” series – we are spending 5 weeks contemplating emptiness and fullness, hunger and nourishment, Christ and Bread [Debie Thomas].
Bread - something so ordinary – an everyday staple for many. To the audience Jesus is addressing, Manna was a sign of God’s provision – it was what God gave the Israelites in the desert to sustain them during the Exodus. And the feeding of the 5000 that precedes today’s reading is intentionally reminding us of a God who wants to feed and nourish his people.
God is offering us healthy food – not the sugary stuff, but the food that really sustains us. The bread passages show us a God who wants to provide, care for, and feed us “in ways that satisfy our basic hunger, but also our hunger for trust, for relationship, for belonging, and for community”. [K Lewis] Jesus says “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever”. He wants to nourish our souls as well as our bodies.
Paul often reminds us of this in his letters. In Galatians he talks about acts, which lead to death, including hatred, jealousy, selfish ambition and envy, and compares them to the fruits of the Spirit, including love, joy, peace and kindness. And in today’s passage from Ephesians he writes:
“Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another.”
God is inviting us to receive the bread of life - the bread that doesn’t just sustain us physically but sustains us spiritually – he is offering the gifts of the Spirit – allowing us to live in the best possible way for ourselves and for others.
Just as a parent wants the best for their children, these passages show the maternal side of God – a mother who wants to provide what is good and sustaining and will help her children to thrive. Now there is a danger that this passage can be and has been used to exclude people from God’s love, but as Karoline Lewis says, Jesus saying ““whoever believes has eternal life,” was never meant to be a word of condemnation but a word of commendation. Not a word of privatization but a word of promise. Not a word of condition and uncertainty but a word of absolute confidence in our God who holds our life.”
Jesus 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.
We live in a world which can be really hard. We see constant images of suffering and pain. We see the damage we do to our planet and each other. There is an ongoing obsession with looks, image, money and achievement. We see hatred, jealousy, selfish ambition and envy around us – and we all too often encounter feelings of powerlessness, guilt, inadequacy or failure.
And in the face of all of this, Jesus is offering something better. He is offering himself, the bread of life.
By comparing himself to Manna, Jesus shows his desire to sustain us, no matter what we encounter….his desire to be our substance and our strength - not in some magical, cure-all way, but in ways that meet us in our real lives, real challenges, real fears and griefs and hopes. Because Jesus knows better than anyone that life can be hard. He knows it may be too much for us to handle on our own. He knows we need bread that sustains and gives us strength.” [Debie Thomas]
This is what we are being offered, His bread. His flesh. His love… “given for the life of the world”, given so that we may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). Are we willing to open ourselves up to God’s love, to receive the food that sustains us and gives us life, to receive the fruits of the Spirit… of love, joy and peace?
Will we take and eat? Will we accept this gift being offered?