Today think of items for sale at stores or on line: electronics, cars, boats, or campers. Think also about these pictures (sent by email from an acquaintance whose husband has died this past year) of the following items that are for sale: “original TEXAS 1950 Ford for Sale – it is a classic and has won trophies at car shows,” “1995 - 30 foot Starcraft ‘Leisure Star’ travel trailer,” and a “12’X24’ Kayak Pool – 4’ deep.” (The items are displayed next to a picture of a cross.)

    They wanted manna. Don’t we all?  I mean, free food, sent down from heaven every day.  All we would have to do is go around and collect it.  Think how much time that would save – and money, too.  No more grocery shopping, no more lists, no more thinking in the late afternoon, “Now I wonder what I should do about dinner tonight?”  It would be taken care of, always the same.

    Wait. That could be a problem: always the same.  Remember how Moses’ people begged for food, but when they had the manna for a while, they got tired of it?  I guess there are only so many ways you can fix manna: boiled manna, sautéed manna, baked manna, raw manna.  The kids start to complain about always eating the same thing.  You start asking the other people who are out collecting their daily supply if they have any new manna recipes. You are in the desert wilderness, so there are not a lot of choices for other ingredients.  No manna and peanut butter sandwiches; no manna with spring greens and sun-ripened tomatoes.  It is just manna!

    Jesus gave this crowd something more than manna: barley loves and fish.  Now that is a pretty good lunch.  They had enough to eat and they had not even had to collect it.  They had just gone out to hear Jesus teach and really gave not a thought to how or what they were going to eat; but Jesus did.  As soon as he saw them coming, he asked the disciples how they were going to feed them all.  And then, Jesus fed them all.  The people loved being fed for free.  They loved it so much they followed Jesus to the other side of the lake so he could do it again.  And they asked him for a sign, as if feeding thousands of people the day before wasn’t enough of a sign:  “Jesus how about another sign?  You remember that Moses fed the people manna from heaven, don’t you?  What will you do for us?”

    It wasn’t Moses, Jesus said.  It was God.  God feeds with bread that gives life.

    OK, they said. That sounds good. Give us some of that.

    And that is when Jesus told them that he was “the bread of life.”
 
    Jesus is always using words like “I am” and “life” to describe his work in the world.  This conversation is reminiscent of the one he had with the Samaritan woman, only that one was about “living water” instead of “the bread of life.”

    Bread and Water: the things that sustain our physical life.  But Jesus knows that there is more.  We look to gain things that feed our bodies; Jesus wants to feed our bodies and our souls.

    We are a hungry and thirsty people, and we fill up on things that don’t really feed our deep needs.  We eat junk food instead of vegetables.  We drink carbonated beverages instead of water and fruit juice.  (I do, however, like root beer floats, especially at Conference.)  We go shopping instead of being satisfied with what we have.  We fill our hours with television and iPods instead of paying attention to our internal voice crying out for silence.

    “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35).

    When Jesus spoke these words, he was speaking to a people who likely knew what it felt like to be hungry, who had probably survived food shortages.  The idea of never being hungry again meant something to them.

    For most of us, who have never gone hungry in our lives, it is hard to imagine what true physical hunger is.  That does not mean we cannot relate to the kind of hunger Jesus is talking about.  We are hungry, whether we realize it or not.  What are we hungry for?  What are the deep hungers of our hearts that are unmet, perhaps unspoken?  Do we long for the perfect family? For just one loving relationship, for the end of loneliness, for a decent job, for enough money to pay the bills, for a younger and healthier body, for true peace in places where there is nothing but fighting, for true peace in our homes, for true peace in our hearts?  Do we hunger for a sense of purpose and for more intimacy with God?  We seem to long for something deeper, for something more fulfilling.

    We certainly have glimpses of the bread from heaven in the good gifts of God for which we give thanks.  Yet our longings tell us there is more to come.  Our hunger for something more in life causes us to reach out to God.

    And here is the best part of Jesus’ teaching; the “bread of life” is pure gift.  “What must we do to perform the works of God?” (v. 28) the people asked.  Nothing.  God performs the work.  We let the “bread of life” transform us.  It is indeed the gift of God.

    How would our lives be different if we spent a little more time in silence and a little less plugged into our electronics?  How much would we feel nurtured if we stopped our work just for a moment to pay attention to the sunrise or the sunset, the touch of a breeze, the taste of summer NJ tomatoes, the smell of rain on the earth, the sound of children’s conversation or laughter?  How much could we be fed by worship if we tried to lay our worship down in the presence of God and attempted to listen for God’s voice among all the other voices that compete for our attention?  Sabbath worship at Conference this year was for the most part a number of sung hymns and praise songs, which were mostly prayers with a silent sermon where we corporately engaged in silent prayer listening for God to speak.  (We could hear the children in the background as we prayed and I thought that was wonderful!)

    Jesus recognizes the hunger and thirst in all of us and he offers something different: being renewed by a connection with God instead of filling up on things that do not give us life.  Manna was a good thing; bread and fish even better.  But the best of all is the life-giving “bread of life.”  Eat, and be filled.

    PRAYER: O nurturing God, we are grateful that you fill our deeper longings with bread that lasts.  We are a hungry people, yet we fill up on things that are not always good for us.  The variety of good things that come from you is more than we could possibly imagine.  So fill us, we pray, and then enable us to share with others who are also hungry.  Send us out to look for them and bring them to your table in the Name of Jesus Christ.  Amen.