Sermon for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost Year B
July 28, 2024
“Bread a gift from God” (John 6:1-21)
Have you ever made bread from scratch?
It’s a fascinating process that never ceases to amaze me.
First, we gather the ingredients- flour, yeast, salt, and water. Then we measure the dry ingredients together and stir, distributing the yeast, flour and salt throughout. United now, no longer identifiable as individual ingredients. Then we add the water and mix it all together, watching it change into a cohesive ball of dough, again, all ingredients are incorporated into this new form as dough. We knead it and place it in a bowl to allow it to rise until it’s double its size. Finally, we shape the dough and put it in the oven to bake. The heavenly smell as the dough bakes, permeates the house, as a dense ball of dough changes into a light, risen, soft loaf of bread that tastes truly divine.
Bread is a major source of food in the Bible beginning with God providing manna for the Israelites in the desert.
Bread is made of different ingredients coming together to form one nourishing life-giving food, in a similar way the Church is made up of many different members who come together as one with faith in Jesus, the Bread of Life.
Today we begin a five- week journey through John chapter 6 which seeks to show us the abundant life God gives us through the signs and teachings of Jesus.
In John 6 Jesus reveals that he is the everlasting bread of life.
According to the Gospel of John, the Word made flesh,
- brings God out, it makes us aware of God’s greatest gift –Jesus, his beloved Son
It reveals God to us so that we may experience God’s love with every sense of our being.
In John chapter 1 we learn about God’s abundant love and his desire that we live a life of abundance.
In chapter 6 we experience Jesus performing signs in ways that impact our daily life…
Here, Jesus feeds the hungry crowd, reminding us of our plea in the Lord’s Prayer where we pray to God to give us our daily bread.
Just as he gave manna daily to the Israelites fleeing Egypt
When we focus on the Lord’s Prayer, we see that Bread is the essence of life and bread is the gift of God because in the end, we see that Jesus offers himself in his entirety as the bread of life for all humanity.
A tangible physical sign of grace.
The incarnation of the Word as flesh redefines the relationship between God and humanity.
Now humanity can see, hear, and know God in new ways
Jesus’ signs are always done because of human need,
Jesus shows us God’s abundance in a world that believes scarcity rules.
A world that always longs for more…
more money,
more food,
more authority,
more power.
Both the sign in Cana where Jesus turns the water into wine and this sign where Jesus feeds the crowd of 5 thousand are signs of abundance.
Both take place in Galilee,
Both turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Both show the grace and glory of Jesus, revealing God to the people.
The fact that the first two miracles involve wine and bread shows us the sacramental elements of God’s grace in Jesus.
The feeding of the five thousand is the only miracle that occurs in all four gospels.
Yet, only in John does Jesus himself bring up the feeding of the crowd-
Jesus tests Philip asking him “what will it take to feed this crowd?”
Philip fails the test miserably—just as we would-
he doesn’t really understand who Jesus is and therefore he responds logically, practically,
showing the impossibility and cost involved in feeding such a large crowd.
Philip answers from a human point of view…
he lacks the understanding of who Jesus is to perceive the correct answer.
To be fair, most of us would respond in exactly the same way…
in real time situations we often miss the presence of God in our midst
So, the answer of course is Jesus,
Afterall, we all learned in Sunday School- when in doubt say Jesus!
but Philip sees only the distance, the size of crowd
and the cost of the food when he answers.
This detail is important because later Jesus will be revealed to us as the true bread of life.
Friends, Jesus knows all along that he will provide the food that feeds the crowd.
And later Jesus will identify himself as divine…
using the divine name “I AM”.
In this sign as in all the signs that Jesus will do, Jesus’ grace is not revealed simply as a spiritual gift but as a- tangible-, physical- gift.
The crowd is tired and hungry and Jesus “gives them their daily bread.”
The feeding of the crowd confirms that Jesus is the source of life.
Then Jesus shows abundance in his gift by providing more than was needed. Listen:
12 When they were satisfied, Jesus told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.
Unexpected abundance where the crowd expects not simply scarcity … the crowd expects to receive nothing…
they do not expect to be fed…not at all
The crowd reacts…
identifying Jesus as a prophet and then desiring even more,
they resolve to make him king.
The crowd has a visceral reaction to Jesus’ gift, but they are unable to accept his gift on his terms.
Instead, they take Jesus’ gifts and translate them into their own needs and wants…
The people need a leader,
someone to save them from the tyranny of Rome,
so, the crowd decides Jesus needs to be King.
They- like us- try to twist Jesus’ identity to meet their own needs,
taking Jesus’ grace and twisting it to conform to existing systems of power, authority, and government.
In their desire to make Jesus king, the crowd judges him according to human glory rather than witnessing God’s divine glory in him.
Jesus withdraws to show the world his gift of grace has nothing to do with claiming worldly power.
Jesus’ grace was the vehicle for the revelation of his glory,
revealing his identity as the son of God.
Jesus doesn’t allow his grace to be controlled by the crowd’s desire for glory.
The heart of this story is this: Jesus the bread of life came down from heaven for us, just as God sent manna down from heaven to feed the Israelites in the desert.
Both are gifts of God’s grace, God’s grace and love poured out on his people.
How we hold the grace and glory of Jesus in balance is critical to our life of faith.
Grace is destroyed if we try to use it for false power and authority.
Glory is lost if we don’t recognize the presence of glory in the quiet places of Jesus’ grace.
Both – grace and glory- are essential to God’s revelation in Jesus.
Jesus is the bread of life.
The good news of the gospel is this:
Jesus invites us…all of us…to follow him to the table
to be fed by the word of God, present in the bread and wine. Amen
