The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
There was a man who was just not feeling right. His energy was waning and he felt himself a bit lethargic. Setting himself up with a homespun plan of attack, he visited an upscale grocery store that promised to wow the consumer with the purest, healthiest and brightest organic vegetables. He purchased beautiful vibrant cucumbers, colorful and rich carrots, and the juiciest looking dark green beans he had ever seen. A few days later, still feeling the same lethargy as before, he visited his doctor, his new remedy in hand. Strange as it may seem, he entered the doctor’s office with beautiful cucumbers, one in each ear, a bright orange carrot in one nostril, and the deepest green, juiciest string bean in the other. He told the doctor of his issues and asked, “What do you think is wrong?” The doctor responded, “Well, for one thing you just don’t seem to be eating right!”
Our Old Testament and gospel readings for today seem to present to us the question of just what will satisfy the needs we have. How do we find the right “diet,” if you will, that leads us into a place of wholeness? The need in the case of these scriptures, it seems, is the real need for daily sustenance using the well-known commodity of the ancient world – bread. The need also stated is the need to know of God’s faithful presence in the yearnings of life, everyday life, even when there is nothing wowing that life. For in the Old Testament lesson, the Israelites, coming off a spectacular and wowing experience of liberation to freedom who are now experiencing firsthand that freedom comes at a cost, no longer have bread provided for them as they did as slaves. How will they eat? Will this God they have followed be with them now, faithful to them now? The relationships with one another and with God is being re-defined now as a free people, what will it be, how will it be?
The Gospel story picks up where Jesus left off last week. A crowd of folks coming off the “wow” of the feeding of 5,000 chase Jesus down and want to know “was that for real?” and “could you do that ‘wow’ thing again, so we know this God you speak of will be faithful?” In both cases, the relationship of God and God’s people is being re-shaped, re-imagined. In both cases the transition from the experience of God through the wow moves into the invitation to a deeper experience of the holy through the hard work of a daily relationship. The sustenance of life, it seems, really does come through the ingredients of a daily faith life; “give us this day our daily bread” the prayer reads, after all.
How complex are we? We are spiritual beings, having our human experience as we rightly yearn for stability and safety, for the basic provisions of food, water, and shelter. We live our complexity as we simultaneously seek to be wowed by life and, I suggest, by the holy. Jesus’ response to the listener, who is looking to be wowed with literal bread as their ancestors were in the wilderness, is that “bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Jesus goes on to say that he himself is that bread. I think what this means is that the real ingredients to a sustained and holy life are not found in the “wow,” but are instead found in the hard work of everyday living into a deeper understanding of God and God’s desire for a just world. A world where faithful living is striving for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being, a world where we seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves. Bread is the image Jesus uses, the simple ingredients of flour, water, yeast, and maybe a little salt for taste. Literal bread is the difference between life and death for the listener. The simple ingredients for the followers of Jesus are prayer, humility, forgiveness, and living for the good of the others. These are the simple ingredients for a life in Christ.
Living in a culture, as we do, that is driven so fiercely by the concepts of commodities that are dressed and marketed to create a belief that we will be and should be wowed, I wonder how we hear such a simple image and message about our need for God and God’s desire for us. I wonder how we receive the bread of life, the daily bread we pray for in the prayer our Lord taught us to pray. I confess, as a product of our culture, I too look for the glitzy, the sexy, the salty, the sweet. Jamaican spice bread, Maine pumpkin raisin bread, jalapeno corn bread – these sound like they may have the ability to wow me, much more so than something called daily bread. Jesus, it seems to me, is saying to those who will listen, then and now, in response to the yearnings and hungers of our lives, that it is an everyday thing, this life in God that is fulfilling and sustaining. The ingredients are as simple as a daily loaf of bread, and there may not be anything glitzy about it, but it is life-giving, life-changing.
There is nothing new from my lips today that you have not heard before about these ingredients for a life in Christ, but as Robert Frost once said, “Everything deserves repeating until we answer from within. The thousandth time may prove the charm.”
Ingredients:
Two cups of scripture daily, stirred and salted for your own understanding and growth. A good measure of prayer daily to be still and be aware of God’s presence in your life. A pinch or two of forgiveness for your own shortcomings and for those who have offended you.
A large cup of fellowship, listening for and encountering the joys and sorrows of your neighbor.
Mixed, kneaded, shaped, baked, broken and shared, Jesus said, “I am the bread of heaven.” Give us this day our daily bread.
