August 10, 2003
By Jack Price

Gracious Spirit, open our minds and our hearts to the power of your presence.  In community and through music, reflection, and the spoken word we worship and proclaim You.  Let us perceive your Spirit in its movement now.  Amen."

The year was 1962 and Chaplain Bill Devanney was on assignment in Turkey.  He was serving as a "circuit-riding" pastor for two United States Army outposts.  On this particular day, Bill had gone to celebrate a wedding in that part of Turkey opening onto the Sea of Mamre at the point the land looks across into Russia, what was then the Soviet Union.  That night, while asleep in his tent, he was awakened suddenly by a great squawking noise.  It was unbelievably loud.  Bill stumbled out of his tent to witness an event seemingly of biblical proportion.  Hundreds, maybe thousands, of live quail lay on the sand beaches of Mamre.   He had chanced to come to this area on the one day of the year that the quail, after making the long flight from Russia, collapsed to rest on the beach of Mamre.  Knowing this, the village fisherman had laid out their nets.  When the quail landed, the fishermen covered them, entrapping them.   There was a great feast!  Suddenly Bill, being a fine theologian and a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, was reminded of an Old Testament story.  In Exodus 16, the people of Israel in the Wilderness of Sin and journeying toward Promised Land, had an experience not unlike that of Chaplain Bill Devanney.

² The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day.

¹¹ The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ¹² "I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.' "  ¹³ In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴ When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. ¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.  ³⁵ The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a habitable land; they ate manna, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.

It is good to be back in Kansas City after a busy, yet relaxing, vacation time.  We got to see family and friends and, of course, heard lots of stories.  The particular story above was told me by my father's wife Margaret when she learned the topic of today's sermon.  Her first husband was Bill Devanney and he had been so impressed by this experience in Turkey that he had shared it with his family back in the states.  It was to him a recreation of the feeding of Israel in the wilderness.

The word "manna" was actually derived from the very question the Israelites asked, "What is it?" or "manna."  Manna was the miraculous food supply for the Israelites during forty years of wilderness wandering.  It did not cease until the Israelites arrived at the border of Canaan.  Manna was provided each day and could be gathered only for that day, accept for the Sabbath.  It was truly "daily bread." 

Today's Gospel lesson stands powerfully in the context of that story.  From John 6: 35:  "Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.'"

John's gospel was the last of the biblical gospels to have been written, dating from possibly as late as the early 2^nd century.  This is important because it reflects significant developments in understanding about nature of who Jesus was.  For John, the historic Jesus was conscious of his divine nature.  When he says, "I am the bread of life," John's readers would first have heard "I Am."  This was God's answer to Moses who asked, "Whom should I tell the Hebrews has sent me?"  God said,  "I Am that I Am, the four-letter name YHWH from which we derived Yahweh.  John 6:35 is one of a series of "I am" passages in John's gospel and reflects that John clearly identifies Jesus as God.

The term "bread of life" sounds a eucharistic theme.  Earlier in the same chapter, Jesus fed a hungry multitude.  In response, the crowd tried to take him by force to make him king.  They saw Jesus as host of the apocalyptic Messianic banquet, an intimate gathering feast of the people with their messiah at the end of time.  Our communion celebration anticipates this messianic banquet.  When we gather to celebrate our Lord's Supper, we take the bread and the cup in remembrance of Jesus. 

"Bread of life" also sounds the theme of social action ministry.  This precious bread is to be shared.  When we share bread, we share with others the very resources of life.  Father Ernesto Cardinal of Nicaragua identifies the real power of the Gospel with this act of sharing the bread of life.

Jesus said, "I am the bread of life" and then adds a promise:  "Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."  This is the same promise Jesus gave the Samaritan woman at the well:  "Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst again."  It is a promise of complete satisfaction, but it is also a paradox.  In the Apocryphal book of Sirach (24: 21) it is written, "He who eats of me [Wisdom] will hunger still; he who drinks of me will thirst for more."  In truth, wisdom does foster in us a desire for more wisdom.  The bread of Life does not dull our curiosity for learning or progress or wisdom.  It does, however, free us from the hunger and thirst characterized by an aching sense of despair and meaninglessness.  It satisfies the loneliness of feeling cut off from the eternal and soothes  the anxiety and fear born from feelings of emptiness.  The "bread of life" frees us from the need to search for meaning through:  achievement, domination of others, sexuality, religion, a search for acceptance, and accruing power or wealth.  Life's meaning not found in any of these.

What does Jesus promise mean for us?  First, it means a challenge.  These words challenge us to trust that God's nature was and is revealed in Jesus; to trust that we can experience the Holy Spirit in the living, post-Easter Jesus; and to trust this Spirit as an answer to the universal quest for life's meaning. 

What did Jesus teach and what does this living presence offer us?  The Spirit's presence brings a new perspective to our own lives.   Compared to be in the Spirit and having the Spirit in us, natural hunger and thirst, and even physical death itself, become almost insignificant.  The communion will celebrate today is a symbol of the bread of life, the bread from heaven, Jesus.  This real spiritual presence is with us today, even now in this place.  Taking the bread of life into ourselves is a question of choice and will.  It is as simple as taking the bread of communion.  The opportunity is yours to receive the bread of life in these moments of worship, either for the first time or to receive this bread again and again.

Becoming conscious of the spiritual presence of Jesus in our lives presents more of a challenge:  a challenge and an opportunity.  Perception of this Spirit requires "daily bread" including everything that nourishes us physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  There are many ways to understand who Jesus was before Easter, but the promise of our faith is that Jesus is a living Spiritual presence, our living bread.  It is this Spirit that enables us to become more conscious of God's presence in our lives and the relationship and gives a sense of life's meaningful to us.

            Let us not fail to grasp enormity of the nature God has given us, its capacity, what is needed for its growth as well as for its healthy maintenance.  CS Lewis, writes in Mere Christianity:  "A car is made to run on gasoline and it would not run properly on anything else.  Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.  [God] the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.  There is no other."  We are designed for God.  Nothing less than the divine itself is our fuel.  Without the Spirit, we starve ourselves.  Mind and body feel run down or flat.

Since the living Christ nourishes you and me as spiritual beings, how do we receive this living bread into ourselves?  There are ways of being open to spiritual nourishment.  They include:  prayer and practicing quiet time, meditation, confession, reflection.  They also include worship, praising, giving thanks, and sharing worship with others.  Serving others, giving to those in need is an important way to take in spiritual nutrition as is the practice of spiritual disciplines.  Studying and developing a deeper theological understanding can help.  Nothing is more important than acting to connect spiritual growth to our everyday life choices and experiences.  Through these practices, we are learning to perceive God's Spirit in and around us.  Through challenging times, we find ourselves growing spiritually and fixing our sight on the Holy.

When do we know we are not getting proper nutrition?  Symptoms of poor spiritual nutrition can include:  feeling a lack of direction in our lives, feeling stuck in feelings of anger, experiencing emotional and spiritual "flatness," finding ourselves consistently being critical and developing a "party spirit."  This is not "party spirit" in the sense of wanting to party all the time.  That's not necessarily a bad thing.   This is "party spirit" in the biblical sense of becoming divisive rather than unifying, of finding yourself always in a partisan position.  We may also be suffering some spiritual malnutrition when we find ourselves living in other people's skin rather than our own and living other people's lives more than our own. 

Jesus said, "I am the bread of life."  The world presses us to action, to achieve instant results, and to be always getting bigger and better.  The way of spiritual nutrition is more often found in stillness, patience, and learning to release.   The key is learning to desire the "bread of life" and take it into ourselves.  This is a task that remains for each individual to engage.  Others can lead us to the bread, show us where and how to find eat, tell us how much it means to them, guide us in spiritual discipline, and encourage us to partake it consistently.  We have to come to this bread and take it in to ourselves.  When we do, the promise is true.

"Bread of life, fill us with your living presence.  Guide each of us to our daily bread.  Motivate us to receive the spiritual nourishment our soul's require.  Give us the strength of will and the grace of spirit to live in you each day.  Amen."