August 3, 2003
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Mindekirken August 3, 2003 The bread of life John 6.24-35 This week Trude and I have our 20th anniversary. And since today’s text is concerned about the bread of life, I would like to reflect a little bit on the meals we have had together during these years. I remember the wedding banquet as a highlight. When important things in life are to be celebrated, gathering around a prepared table is a central event. We have had a lot of trips in the mountains and the woods, we have prepared food on camping stoves and fires. We have gathered berries and mushrooms, caught fish and picked fruit in our own garden. I think of the children we got. There have been five of us around the table for many of years. Every day meals are an important part of our life. In three weeks our daughter Linn will move out and begin studying at St. Olaf College. It will be strange to be only four around our table. My mother said it’s no real dinner without boiled potatoes. We belong to the pizza and pasta generation who fall short of this ideal. And I do think I know what our children will do differently from us. They belong to the McDonald’s generation which has adopted the American habit of eating out. Jesus taught us to pray: Give us today our daily bread. In that respect we’ve got a lot to be grateful for. I think it’s hard for us to figure out what it means to not have enough food. We probably belong to a minority in the history of mankind who haven’t had the experience of starving. Today’s text has some reflections about food. The Israelites had a 40 year wandering from the meat pots of Egypt to the land of milk and honey. Note that both the slavery in Egypt and the promised land are described in terms of food. The wandering in the desert was difficult for the Israelites. They didn’t have enough food, but at the critical time, God gave them manna which they found on the ground. They gathered what they needed for every day, and this miracle followed them as a sign of the faithfulness of the Lord. And when Jesus gave food to the 5000, the story of the manna miracle was brought forth again. This is the prophet who is to come to the world, they said when they got satisfied, John 6.14. And they were so convinced that they came to take him by force to make him their king. But Jesus withdrew. He saw a hunger which food wouldn’t be able to satisfy. Man doesn’t live by bread alone… Mat.4.4. I remember one day many years ago I had a bag lunch that my wife had made. As I started on the third sandwich, a piece of paper appeared: I love you. Your Trude, it said. There I sat together with my colleagues and had to explain the meaning of the paper with a love letter on the one side and mayonaise on the other. What do you think gave me the most strength that day, the sandwiches or the nice words from my wife? Man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by words…. Living together means to meet another human’s need. Words are important to reach the other, love includes attention, the ability to listen and be close. One might experience being lonesome in a relationship. One might be hungry in a pictorial way, longing to be met in a deeper sense. Mindekirken maintains important food traditions. But more important than waffles, lefse and lutefisk are conversation and understanding. It’s always interesting to listen to people who tell what the fellowship here at Mindekirken means to them. A new commandment I give you. You shall love one another, Jesus said, John 14.34. The social fellowship is important. Maybe we also could talk about music, theater, literature, art etc. as spiritual food, everything which enriches us as humans. And we may see all these things from the angle that God told men to fill the earth and subdue it, Gen 1.28. Jesus reminds us today that life is more than bread, it’s more than human warmth and fellowship, it’s more than cultural experiences and the taste of the good life. Jesus presents himself as the bread of life. In this connection he says that he is even more than Moses. He puts Moses in his own shadow. Moses belonged to the old covenant. With Jesus a basis for a whole new relationship with God is brought forth. The bread of life appears as necessary for the one who will live a new life where the connection with God is reestablished. Work for the food that endures to eternal life. We are encouraged to eat this nourishment, Jesus himself. What does this mean? Jesus explains it as the work of God wants us to do, to believe in Jesus. These words of Jesus sounds like a paradox. The work God is to believe. Haven’t we learned that works and faith are the opposite of each other? Maybe Jesus has a hint to Moses here. The law of Moses requires man to do this and that and it prohibits other things. And the Jesus comes and says that the ultimate work God demands of us is no work at all. Just faith. Men will never be able to do the perfect. But God has in his grace given us what we’re not able to achieve ourselves. It sounds like Jesus is saying: You’re not supposed to do anything, just rest in God’s grace, be confident in his love. In verse 35 to come to Jesus and to believe in Jesus are put together. This has to do with prayer, to commit oneself to Jesus , lay all one’s life open to him. The 5000 who had eaten in a miraculous way were challenged to give their lives to Jesus, to live committed to him and have him as their Lord. Jesus wants people to have a totally new life. And this life has its source and ground in Jesus himself. For five Sundays we will harp on these texts from John 6. They started with the people who got food in their stomach, then we are reminded that we are supposed to satisfy each others needs on a human level. We are satisfied by the beautiful things in life. We’re supposed to receive this as God’s good gifts. But the bread of life has to be counted in a different category than what we elsewhere think of as spiritual values in a cultural sense of the word. The food at our table, the human fellowship and the joy for all that makes life a rich experience should be considered gifts from God our Creator. But by the expression the bread of life, we meet God as our Savior. Jesus gives us a foretaste of the resurrection, that’s what the bread of life is about. This is similar to the promises of the OT. The Israelites never forgot the faithfulness of God when he gave them manna in the desert. And the thought that God one day will provide a perfect banquette became more clearly expressed by the prophets. Isaiah said: The Lord will make a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. Isaiah 25.6. And this great banquet of the Lord is linked to the thought that he will swallow up death forever. Isaiah 25.8. The thought of the bread of life is linked to eternal life. When Jesus says: Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty, it doesn’t mean that a Christian will be released from all needs. Jesus doesn’t speak of a life without suffering. Christians doesn’t have a guaranty for being spared from hunger. Ask the church of Ethiopia. Christians may experience the claw of dread or the darkness of depression. Ask the hospital chaplains. Christians may face a difficult life. We shouldn’t lie about that. Even so, we can be satisfied by the bread of life. In the baptism we’ve got a new life in Jesus Christ. We are enveloped in a love which is not dependant on the circumstances of our lives. To eat the bread of life is not a work. It’s simply to listen to the words of Jesus and believe in him. |
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