Sermon - I am the Bread of Life - 10th Sunday after Pentecost - 9th Sunday after Trinity

Sermon

10^th Sunday after Pentecost - 9th Sunday after Trinity

All Saints' Cyncoed 1030

Proper 13

5th August 2012

Jesus said to the crowd “ I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”

In last week’s reading, Jesus fed the 5,000 and left before they forced him to be “king”. 

He sailed away to Capernaum with the Disciples, and the crowd have got into boats and followed him, I suspect that this had taken a couple of days.  Eventually, the multitude arrived.

In the reading we hear someone ask the question…“Rabbi, when did you come here?”

As I read it, I thought it was a bit odd.  Wouldn’t it have been funny if Jesus said “about ten minutes before you chased me up this hill with your mad multitude” Of course he knew when Jesus got there, he was feeding the 5,000 then slipped away, and they chased him to Capernaum.

It isn’t a “how long have you been here” though, it is deeper than that – it is a question to Jesus about who he is.  “Who are you?” It’s a bit like in the superhero films, like The 1989 BATMAN film (the first of many remakes of the story) when the baddie is subdued for the final time, he has been fighting a man dressed as a BAT off and on for days, the newspapers call him BATMAN, the people call him BATMAN, everybody knows him as BATMAN, and then he asks the question “who are you?”.  It’s a bit obvious really. 

Just like the question asked of Jesus - it’s a question and a statement, it is “who are you REALLY?”, and a statement “We have underestimated you”, we have “failed to understand what you were really all about”.

That’s where the similarities between Jesus and Batman end though.

It got me thinking that Jesus should have taken the opportunity to be a little more cryptic really, after all, God said “I am who I am” after all.  Ehyeh asher ehyeh (more literally translated “I shall be what I shall be”).

The discussion that follows asks whether Jesus is acting as the new Moses when he feeds the 5000 in what appears to be a reworking of history. But as I said last week, Jesus is not another Moses: his time is present, past, and future all at once; so later on in John’s Gospel, he will declare: “Before Abraham was, I am.”

Jesus invites us to a point of intersection between earth and heaven, where time is captured and transcended by eternity. He uses historical language and symbolism to reveal new meaning and new life that is not bound by history — life that is whole and perfect, like God.

So, from the stories of Israel’s past, the manna of the exodus is now the bread of life, the water from the rock is the spring of living water welling up to eternal life, the Shepherd of Israel is now the Good Shepherd who lays down his earthly life in order to give eternal life to his sheep.

Asking what time Jesus got a ferry across the Sea of Galilee has begun to uncover some of the complexity of who Jesus is. He does not simply reminisce or retell old stories from the past in a new and relevant way. His actions use already potent symbols and language to break out of time into eternity, out of death into life.

The Gospel reading today gives us one of the most important statements to be found in John’s Gospel, if not the whole of the New Testament.

John’s gospel gives us affirmation, that whatever our understanding of salvation is, that expectation is fulfilled (and corrected) by the unique revelation of GOD in JESUS.

There is a characteristic division in the Gospel of John.  The first half of the Gospel is concerned with describing Jesus as the one who is ‘from above’ and the second half focuses on Jesus’ return to be with the Father.

The Gospel has Jesus claiming to be speaking for God.  Jesus is seen in the imagery as God’s agent on earth.  This would have been clearly understood by the community at the time, because in Jewish law, the Agent has the authority to function as though he were the sender.

In the reading, amid the murmurings and the questioning of the Jews, the statement “I am the bread of life” stands out.  It would remind the community of the manna sent to the Jews in exile; and God, in the Old Testament, known only as ‘I AM’.

“I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” is a well-known Christian slogan.  So well known in fact, that it has appeared in the last two Sundays in the lectionary. 

I must be honest, however and say that it always confused me.  As I see horrific images of perfectly good Christians suffering in other countries for want of food, I needed to unpack the meaning of the phrase, and try to discover what it means to us 2,000 years after Christ was born.

At a baptism preparation recently, I was reminded about the awesomeness of being a Christian, and being in communication with God. 

To one of God’s Children is to be eternally in touch with God, through Jesus Christ.  It is ever present.  Similarly, as we are baptised, we are in touch with all other Christians, and we must accept the responsibilities that that entails.

For me, the Bread of life is not merely the Holy Sacrament that we meet to share this morning, it is a link between me and the one who created me; AND my link to you, my church community.  It is the knowledge that I am not alone.

St. Paul, in the letter to the Ephesians that we heard today says just that “for we are members of one another”.  He gives guidelines for a Christian community based on honesty, generosity, peace and forgiveness.  He says “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you”.  He is encouraging the community to be an offering to God, en masse, to provide a model for society, all being fed with the Bread of Life.  This appeals to me, and as you will know, I am keen not to forget the importance of community.

Therefore, I truly believe that the theology of personal salvation on it’s own, is not enough, unless considered in the wider context of Christian community.

When I come down from the pulpit, it’s an important day for my son.  He is to receive communion for the first time.  He will receive communion as one of the baptized, as a member of this church family, and as someone who has some understanding of the mystery we all enter into when we stand or kneel at the altar rail.

And my prayer for us all is that we too can be taken into the mystery again.

In the name of Father: Son and Holy Spirit – AMEN