“What? Bread Again?”
9 Pentecost B –
John 6:35, 41-51
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Grace and Peace to you from our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We find ourselves today in the midst of several weeks of Gospel readings that focus on John’s presentation of Jesus as the bread of life. Sometimes, when preachers get tired or distracted – easy enough to do in the god days of summer – they can begin to grumble about the “bread Sundays” – “What? Oh man, not bread again!”
When they do, and believe me, pastors can whine with the best of them, it makes me think of when I was a kid and we would sit down to eat, and I’d whine, not cauliflower again. But it didn’t even have to be yucky stuff like cauliflower or broccoli (I still don’t like either of them). It could be about something I liked, but which we were getting for what seemed like the fourth night in a row. It didn’t matter; I was bored. Let’s try whining: Not steak again? Don’t we have anything else?
Now the end result of this behavior was when you did it (You DID do it, right?) – maybe a kick under the table from a brother or sister who knew trouble was brewing, or a growl from Dad: “Shut up and eat it, it’s good for ya! But the worst was the hurt look on Mom’s face because she worked hard, maybe had to pull the meal together at the last minute, and here you are complaining and questioning her.
The fact is: it’s pretty selfish behavior. We can hurt people, people we love. We lose sight of the truth that whatever the food, it is all a gift. Even the food we associate with punishment – bread and water.
Isn’t it interesting that the two things that we consider the bare minimum for human existence – bread and water – are two things that Jesus identifies with himself and the eternal life in John’s gospel: I am the bread of life in today’s text, and a couple of chapters earlier with the woman at the well, “those who drink of the water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life (John 4:14).
In Jesus the barest minimum, the most common and simple of food because all that we could ever need. And how much we eat, makes no difference – a bite, a slice, or the whole loaf. It is not how much we eat, but THAT we eat of this bread come down from heaven.
“A Whole Loaf” by S.Y. Agnon (Ahg-nohn)
Agnon, an Israeli writer, won the Nobel prize for Literature in 1966. He wrote a story called A Whole Loaf. Bread, as we remember from the Last Supper, is very important in Jewish Sabbath and holy rituals. And it was important that the blessing at the beginning of the meal be made over a whole loaf, not slices or pieces.
The story is about a sort of everyman, a common fellow who was to carry some important messages to the post office. It crucial that the letters be mailed before the post office closed. But on the way to the post office he realizes that he hasn’t eaten all day and is famished. So he stops at a restaurant to get something to eat.
He was so hungry that when after some time when the waiter finally came with a menu, the messenger said impatiently, “Just bring me anything!” But then, he didn’t want to appear like someone who didn’t know about food, who just a rube, the messenger added with a knowing look, “But I want a whole loaf.” The waiter nodded his head and said, “I shall fetch it for you at once!”
After some time, the waiter came back with a serving dish with filled with food. The messenger jumped up in anticipation, but the waiter put the food in front of someone else. The waiter turned to the messenger and said, “You do want a whole loaf, don’t you sir, I am bring it at once.”
Before long the water was back with an even bigger tray than the first. The messenger assumed that it was meant for him and told himself, “It must be for me; the longer the wait the greater the reward you know. As the messenger reached for some of the food, the waiter said, “Excuse me sir, I’m bringing you yours at once.” And proceeded to set the food out before a different guest, just as he had done before.
By now the messenger was getting kind of twitchy – not to mention hungry. He kept reminding himself to stay calm. Remember those other guests were here before he was. It’s got to be my turn next.
The waiter returned. The messenger was so hungry he jumped up from his chair to make sure the waiter knew he was there and still unserved. The waiter came over and bowed before the messenger, which confused the messenger. He wondered if this was the same waiter – it had been so long and he was so hungry.
As he thought about this, the waiter went his way back to the kitchen. He returned in a few moments with a tray full of food that the promptly began to set out before guests seated on either side of the messenger. These were people were who had been seated after the messenger.
The messenger slumped back into his chair, dispirited and still ravenously hungry. And then he realized, “I had asked specially for the whole loaf. They are waiting to get a whole loaf from the baker.” And the messenger began to berate himself for asking for a whole loaf, when in reality, he knew he would have been satisfied with even a small slice.
You don’t a whole loaf or even a slice. Just one bite will suffice – when you believe that Jesus is the bread comes down from heaven to feed your spirit, to fill your need, to empower you
Bread and water.
Of course , out of frustration or boredom, they may pick one of the other readings for their text.
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