From Catherine’s sermon Aug 5, 2012
“The crowd is looking for Jesus after having been fed last week in the feeding of the 5,000. This time they have trailed around the lake to the new location on the other side. The new location is going to provide a new context for the interpretation of the miracles from the previous text. The crowd is still struggling with what happened and Jesus is finding they didn’t get the point.
“Where do we find God? In wonders? In some mighty achievements of our own or of others? John reduces the options to one: we find God in relationship. That relationship is established when we believe that Jesus is the message and messenger from God.
“This relationship is the source of life, eternal life. Belief is involved, in as much as we need to believe that Jesus really does play that role. Faith is then acting on that belief in trust and becoming part of God’s life in the world.
“Bread is the metaphor in today’s scripture. Jesus continues to use the image that comes from the “feeding” miracle. Bread (and fish) is what filled their stomachs. They have become so focused, though, on being full in their stomachs that they have lost what really happened – what it means. This is like another story in John about Nicodemus who only saw Jesus on a superficial and not on the need for rebirth. Also in John, just as the conversation with the woman at the well was about water, but was not, this conversation is about bread, but is not.
“Jesus uses the bread as an extended metaphor for who he is — someone capable of truly sustaining life. This spiritual food from Jesus contrasts with the physical bread. As the sermon states.. “when Jesus is our bread, and we take Jesus into ourselves, we take in the following nutrients that help us maintain our unity in the Spirit in the bond of peace: and these nutrients are humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing one another in love.
“1. Humility is “not arrogant in relation to others. It is not ‘puffed up.’ It does not use difference to destroy community.” We should serve each other
“2. Gentleness is the second nutrient. Gentle Christians do not condemn or despise others for being different. Gentle Christians are not rude. And when corrections are required, then we find that they should be done with a spirit of gentleness so that we can maintain our community.
“3. Patience means to be “long tempered”—to patiently forbear one with whom you disagree. “To be patient is to be magnanimous, broad-minded, and big-hearted, to be ready to ‘endure’ a little discomfort for the sake of community with others rather than to assert one’s own ways and rights.”
“4. Love – We should bear one another, even when the other is a heavy burden to us. Christian love (as Paul tells the Corinthians) is humble and gentle; it is not boastful or arrogant, it is not irritable or resentful—but it is patient, and gracious and generous. Love binds everything together in perfect harmony. Love is the gift of the Spirit. And the way to peace is through the gift and the practice—the performance—of Christian love.
“In our day and age, we tend to fill up on the junk food served up in our culture—strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, self centeredness, bitterness, hatred for those who are different, and this list could go on forever”
“But Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” and God rains down this gentle, humble, patient and loving manna from heaven for us, even today, and like the Israelites we are to gather up our daily bread, and eat until we are full, to fill ourselves with Jesus, so that we can practice peace, and live bound together in peace—as one body, under one God and Father of all.”