Last Sabbath was Communion Sabbath and as a reminder think about the bread and the fruit of the vine that we shared.  Also think of what we might call “care packages.”  While we were in college or away from home in the military or on some service project did we ever receive a “care package”?

      Jesus gave himself to hungry humankind as the bread of heaven.  Imagine it!  He called himself "the bread of life."  What did he mean?  Among other things, Jesus meant that a relationship with him satisfies the deepest hungers of our lives.  This Sabbath let us consider some of these hungers.
   
      All of us have a hunger for satisfaction in our relationships to others.  We want to be connected to other people and to feel valued by them.  Do you remember the story of shipwrecked Robinson Crusoe?   We may remember that even Crusoe had his man, Friday!
   
      Dale Carnegie sold millions of copies of his book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People."  Friends, we want to be loved and needed.  One of our deep needs is to have satisfaction in our relationships with other persons.  That satisfaction is given through Christ.  Jesus Christ puts us together as the church and makes us brothers and sisters in him.  We may and can rejoice about our worshiping church family.
   
      Shared life is worthwhile and I believe illustrated by the old story about stone soup.  Once a beggar wandered into a village and announced to the villagers that he had a magic stone that could make the best soup they ever tasted.  The people did not believe him but one person put a pot of water on the fire to test the beggar.  Once the water began to warm up, the beggar dropped his stone into it.  He said, "This will be delicious soup, but if someone had a few carrots to add, it would be much better."  A farmer watching the event said he had some, so he went and got them and threw them into the pot.  The beggar said, "This is going to be great soup! But if someone had a bit of beef and some bacon to add, it would be even better!"  A couple of villagers went home and brought back a few chunks of meat and some pieces of bacon and dropped them in.  The beggar mentioned potatoes, a little salt, and some cabbage.  People brought them and placed them into the pot.  Before long the villagers sat down to the best pot of soup they had ever tasted.  We may and can rejoice in our families and our church family.
   
      A second deep hunger we have is significance in relation to the world.  We may ask ourselves, "Does life really matter?  Am I contributing anything worthwhile?"  I think that each of us wants to feel that we are contributing something worthwhile.   Don't we like to feel special?  Perhaps as a child we were made to feel special as our parents gave us special gifts or did little things for us that we liked.  God does this for us now.
   
      In Jesus Christ, we are given a sense of significance to him and to the world.  We Christians are given the special task of proclaiming the gospel and helping others to realize their salvation in Christ.  "We have a story to tell to the nations."  Can that ever be insignificant?
   
      A third, hunger we all have is for security in our relation to God.  We want some assurance that God knows us and cares about what happens to us.  In verse 47, Jesus gave one of his clearest words about what he offers us all.
   
      "Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life."  What Jesus has to offer is not a matter of earning, but of receiving.  This eternal life Jesus spoke of us does not perish, as does regular food.  This eternal life is sustained, not by what one eats, but by what one believes.
   
      Jesus gives eternal life to everyone who believes.  This, in short, is the gospel story - the good news.  God, Christ, The Holy Spirit, (The Holy Trinity) wills salvation for everyone and Christ offers himself as the One able to give this salvation.  Verses 50 and 51 indicate that as persons eat the "living bread" offered them, they are nourished into a whole new realm – a whole new world - the realm of eternal life or the world of eternal life.
   
      Jesus said in verse 51, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and this bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."  This statement is a metaphor or word picture.  Jesus was trying to communicate the truth that he, and he alone, can offer to all persons what they most need.  There is story told about the slaveholders in the South who would not allow their slaves to pray or call upon the name of the Lord.  They were afraid that the slaves' prayers would be answered.  But no amount of rules or legislation can halt a person's heartfelt need to reach out to God.  Many of the slaves, it is said, would go into their cabins at night, kneel over a bucket of water and press their faces right into the water.  That was to absorb the sound as they called out to God to rescue them and to free them.
   
      Yes, the deepest hungers of life can be satisfied in Christ.  These hungers are 1) for satisfaction in our relationships with others, 2) our hunger for significance in relation to the world, and 3) our hunger for security in our relationship with God.  All three hungers are satisfied through our faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Jesus is genuinely the bread of life.  Jesus invites us to come - now  - and at all times to have a slice of the heavenly loaf.
     
      PRAYER: O Living Bread you have been blessed and broken for generations.  Grant us the grace to receive you, in the spirit in which you offer yourself, so that having partaken of your holiness, we may become holy; so that having been blessed, we may become a blessing to others, we pray in your Name.  Amen.