"From the Pulpit" - reflections on the weekly texts from Pastor Greg at Living Lord Lutheran Church in Vero Beach, FL
Jesus said,] 51“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; 55 for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
John 6:51-58
Bread Everywhere!
Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the LORD Jesus Christ.
For the next couple of weeks, we'll be in the sixth Chapter of John's gospel (a total of six weeks in all this July/August.) We're hearing some of Jesus' "I am" claims, too. "I am the bread of heaven." "I am the bread of life", and more. With us as a church preparing to partner with Our Father's Table Food Pantry here in VB, we're also talking bread a lot these days. Dave Wallace and Claire Kaeliln have worked hard to find a way to offer food for OFT's weekend clients, who often don't have enough food to last from Friday until Monday. Beginning in September, we'll be preparing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, to be picked up by the volunteers of OFT, who will deliver these sandwiches we make here at the church, along with other food items, to the nearly 100 families in Gifford and surrounding areas, to help supplement what OFT normally delivers to them. So we'll need bread, lots of bread, every week, to be brought to the church, for preparation on Thursday afternoon. OFT will pick these up on Friday mornings, and deliver them to a needy and hungry community for the weekend.
One of the themes throughout John's gospel these six weeks is food, in abundance. Abundant food. More than enough. Abundant food that comes from what seems to be a scarcity - remember the disciples were looking at a few loaves and some fish, hardly enough, it seems, to feed the multitude of the thousands gathered on the hill this day with Jesus in their midst. And yet, not only was everyone filled, but there were loaves and fishes left over.
So, a miracle story of multiplication of food? After all, Jesus was there. He could have magically made these small items multiply and grow, enough to feed this hungry 5,000 or so - a small town in Jesus' day. Did someone count incorrectly, and there were more fish and loaves of bread to begin with? Did folks who had maybe brought their own food just pass the fish and bread along to the next person? Did they put into the plates, some of what they had brought, and in doing so, multiply the food so that there was enough to go around? We don't know for sure.
The disciples this day, as we do, operated out of a sense of scarcity. They looked at the meager resources in front of them and immediately concluded that there just wasn't enough to go around. They did the math in their heads - 5,000 people, two fishes and some loaves of bread, and concluded that it wasn't going to work, even with Jesus there. And, don't we do the same thing? We tend to see things - the world, from a point of view of scarcity. There just isn't enough to go around. I'll take my share first and let the others behind me worry about theirs. We tend to hoard our stuff so that the thief in the night won't get it. We lock it up so that no one will take it from us. For most of us, that's our world view. Whether it's food, our money, our stuff. There's just not enough to go around, so I'd better store up what I can so I'll be protected.
But Jesus, thanks be to God, operates out of a different set of assumptions. We and the disciples operate out of a sense of scarcity. Jesus operates out of a sense of abundance and plenty. Where the disciples this day, facing the 5,000, said "no way", Jesus sees the same scene, and sees only possibilities, even with the meager resources at hand. Barbara Brown Taylor, theologian, pastor, and author, says in one of her many writings about this scene, that "What Jesus knew beyond a shadow of a doubt was that wherever there was plenty of God, there would be plenty of everything else." Think about that statement. Repeat it, and hear it again.
Brown Taylor goes on to say in this amazing article that when it comes to "miracle", we expect God to do the heavy lifting. After all, what can we possibly bring to a seemingly impossible situation, whether it's feeding 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes, or feeding a hungry world, or even just feeding a hungry community right here in our own backyard. Where and how can we possibly do anything that will even make a dent in the needs of the world or community. They're just so overwhelming. What can one person, one congregation, one church do that can possibly make a difference? So, we either throw our hands up and give up, or we defer the miracle doing to God. Let God figure it all out. As Brown Taylor says in her article, "let God feed the crowd, save the world, do it all." We don't have what it takes. What we have to offer won't even make a dent in the problems of the world. So, God, do a miracle and we'll just sort of sit back and watch it all unfold.
She ends her article by asking us, charging us, who have much, to stop looking for someone else to solve it all, and to solve it ourselves. Stop waiting for food to fall from the sky, and instead, share what you already have. Stop waiting for a miracle, and participate in one instead. Wow!
Jesus reminds us to "bring what you have to me." That's where it starts. Remember that there is no such thing as your bread, my bread, but only our bread. Jesus invites us, just like the disciples on this one day, to bring it all to him. Because with Jesus in the mix, whether on a hill somewhere in 1st century Palestine, or in a little community in the Vero Beach, FL area trying to feed lots of hungry sisters and brothers, all will be fed, with plenty left over. We lift up our prayers as we embark on this ministry to feed hungry people, just like us, in our own community. We pray blessing on those whose hands will help prepare these weekly sandwiches, no matter how humble they may be. We pray for Our Father's Table and all who feed hungry people every week. And we pray for those who will be receiving these meals, that not only their bellies be filled with good things, but that their spirits may know the Lord, and that the Lord is good, all the time. Amen? Amen.
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