One Last Serving of Bread

August 26^th, 2012         “One Last Serving of Bread”    Rev. Heather Jepsen

John 6:56-69 and Ephesians 6:10-20

          It’s the last Sunday of August and we have come to our final serving of bread.  This sermon series has been a challenge for me: to preach for a whole month on just one section of text and just one topic.  I have to admit it has gone better than I thought it would.  If nothing else, everyone here ought to remember what we have been talking about in church.  We have been talking about (and eating) bread.

          We are in our final reading from John chapter six.  You will remember the setting.  The day before Jesus fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves and two fish.  He crossed the sea, walking on the water, and the crowds followed him in boats.  They came looking for more bread, but Jesus challenged them to consider a different kind of loaf.  Not the barley loaf of yesterday but the bread of life of tomorrow.

          Jesus then began a discourse on how he himself was this bread of life.  Like manna he came down from heaven but unlike manna those who eat him will never die.  People begin to be offended and ask questions.  Rather than make things easier Jesus makes them harder.  He begins to use graphic language about how folks need to eat his flesh and drink his blood for life.  He talks about rudely eating him, chewing with the mouth open, and that this is the only way to eternal life.

          Our new material for this week shares the final reaction of the crowds to this strange discourse.  The disciples appear to have had enough and say to Jesus “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”  I think at this point everyone is in the same boat.  The things Jesus says are strange and challenging.  His teachings are offensive and they draw us out of our comfort zones.  I am sure that at some point this month you have probably thought something very similar; “This teaching is too hard!”  I know I have thought that.

          Once again, instead of making things easier Jesus continues to spin a complicated theological web.  “You think this is offensive?” he seems to say.  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!  I am so much better than manna that I don’t just come down from heaven but I am going to go back up again!”  That’s it, the last straw, and the writer of the gospel of John tells us that because of this many of Jesus’ disciples turn back and no longer went about with him. 

          Jesus’ actions here in John chapter six fly in the face of what many consider to be the most successful way to run a church.  Pastor Wallace Bubar in this week’s Christian Century illustrates it wonderfully when he writes . . .

“What was Jesus thinking?  He had such a great following before he spoke.  He’d just fed 5,000 people, and they were ready to sign up to become disciples.  This would’ve been the time to use his best preaching material – toss out a few Beatitudes, or tell a couple of stories about farmers or sheep.  Jesus could have had the biggest church in town.

But instead he launched into a ridiculously long, convoluted discourse about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, which – let’s face it – sounds creepy.  And when he was confronted with raised eyebrows and expressions of bewilderment and a barrage of questions, Jesus didn’t let up but just kept getting more and more obscure.

No wonder his followers started grumbling: “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”  Many turned away and went home, never to be seen again.

And Jesus let them go!  He let them just wander off and made no attempt to stop them.  He didn’t say, “Hey, hold on a second! Let me break it down for you.”  He didn’t offer a Jesus for Dummies version of things.  Instead he made things difficult.  He left his followers with their questions unanswered, apparently preferring to let them go off and wrestle with those questions rather than give them easy answers or a user-friendly faith."

          As a pastor, I have to admit, that I love that Jesus just lets folks go.  Sometimes it feels like the only mark of a successful pastor is growing the church and bringing folks in.  Let me tell you, every single church wants to grow.  But that’s not the example that Jesus sets.  Jesus shows us that teaching the gospel is more important than growing the church; and that if folks leave, we shouldn’t feel compelled to chase after them.   

I have always been of the opinion that everyone is on their own faith journey.  You can do it in my church or you can do it in the church down the street.  As one friend of mine put it; the church has an open door policy: the front door is certainly open, but the back door is open too!  People will move in and out of the community of faith.  It is God who works in each person’s life to determine these steps.  As Jesus said, “No one can follow him unless it is granted by the Father.”

          After the crowds leave, Jesus turns to the disciples and shows them the door as well.  “Do you also wish to go away?” he asks.  Peter responds “Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”

          I love Peter here.  While some read this as a bold declaration of faith I read it as a shrugging of the shoulders.  Perhaps it is simply a reflection of my own faith journey, or my own experience of the front and back doors of churches; but I hear Peter say “Where else would I go?  This is hard, it’s confusing, and frankly it stinks sometimes, but it’s still the best thing going.”

          Our faith is one of questions, and it always will be.  It is a faith of mystery and complex ideas and things that we are just never gonna get.  And yet we keep coming back for more.  We keep coming back, because we have tasted the bread of life.  And after eating the bread of life, nothing else in the world will satisfy.

          This whole month we have been pairing these readings from John with the letter to the church in Ephesus.  Our final reading from Ephesians is one that sounds offensive at first.  Using military imagery, the writer encourages us to put on the whole armor of God.  I am one who bristles at the image of shield and sword.  I also bristle at the language regarding spiritual warfare.  This passage is a challenge.

          And yet upon further study, the scripture reveals that these implements of war are not for war at all, but are for peace.  The purpose is not to fight, but to go out into the world spreading the gospel of peace.  Now that is something I can get behind.

          Our reading concludes with a word on prayer.  The writer says that we should pray in the Spirit at all times; praying for each other, praying for the world, praying for peace.

          When I pair these readings, I find that prayer might just be the answer to our questions.  When things of the faith get tough, and Jesus is leaving us with more questions than answers, and that back door begins to look awfully good, the place to turn is prayer.  If we can simply quiet the mind, and commune with the divine, it gets better.  We find not answers exactly, but we find that though we have questions, we can be OK with questions, we can be OK with ambiguity, we can be OK with not fully understanding but believing and following anyway.

          As I mentioned last week, this church is hungry for the bread of life.  We are hungry to go deeper in our faith.  In Sunday school we are sharing with each other what we believe about God.  All are welcome and it is never too late to join this conversation.

          Paired with that, on Tuesday nights, we are going to gather here in prayer.  We are going to gather here in a way that just lets questions be, rather than searching for answers.  We are going to gather here to use our bodies and our hearts a little more and our minds a little less.  We are going to gather here to just be with each other, and to just be with God.  I hope you can join me here in the sanctuary at 6pm, with quiet and candles starting on Tuesday September 4^th

          You know, I called this sermon, “One Last Serving of Bread” but it’s really not the last serving of bread you will have here.  Every Sunday, this is a place to gather with others to celebrate and enjoy the bread of life.  We will gather again for communion in just a few Sundays and eat bread together.  And we will gather next week, to chew on the bread of life in Sunday school.  We will even begin to gather on Tuesday evenings to search out deeper nourishment to feed our spiritual hunger.  This church is a church of bread, this church is a place to come and be fed. 

          Like the early followers of Jesus, there will be times in our lives when our faith leaves us with more questions than answers.  That’s OK.  One of the few things that Jesus actually makes clear here in John chapter 6 is that if we are to follow him, than we need to be willing to be confused, even offended, by the things he says and the places he takes us.  But as Peter said, “where else would we go” Jesus still has the best game in town.   Amen.

More Bread

August 19^th, 2012           “More Bread”                Rev. Heather Jepsen

John 6:51-58 and Ephesians 5:15-20

          This morning we are continuing in our discussion of John chapter 6 and the idea that Jesus is the bread of life.  Together we have wondered on the reasons why we come to church on Sundays as well as how we are called to give of ourselves to those around us.  We have talked about nourishment at church and nourishment at the communion table.  Today we will explore what I believe to be the most offensive portion of this discussion in the gospel of John.

          Picking up where we left of last week, Jesus makes a bold statement to his disciples as well as those gathered.  “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”  It doesn’t take long at all for those listening to take offense at these words.  The writer of John tells us that the Jews gathered who were not of his sect immediately began to argue about what Jesus was saying.  “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  I imagine that even the disciples were asking this question among themselves.  Just what in the world is Jesus talking about?

          Rather than calmly explaining what he means in clear language, Jesus takes the conversation to the next level in terms of offensiveness and outright outrageous speech.  Listen to it again: Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.”

          What in the world is Jesus talking about?   This just sounds like crazy talk.  Can you imagine walking into a church, or anyplace for that matter, and hearing someone talk like this?  You would think it was a church of cannibals, a church of zombies, a church of vampires.  This is truly some outrageous language.  As modern believers, we like to dumb it down and say, “oh he’s just talking about communion” but that really doesn’t do the passage any justice.

          The writer of the gospel of John is really pushing the envelope here and he is doing it on purpose.  While it is certainly a reference to the Eucharistic meal, the writer of John really wants to catch your attention and get you off guard.  The purpose of this language is to make you uncomfortable.

          I’m going to pass out some bread to share while we think a bit about eating. 

So far in John chapter 6, the writer uses the Greek verb phagein when he writes “to eat”.  This is a nice little respectable verb, eating politely like this . . .  But suddenly in verse 54 when Jesus says eat my flesh, the verb changes to trogein which is not a polite verb for eating but rather an impolite term for crunching or munching on something with your teeth.  Basically chewing with your mouth open, like this . . . 

The writer of the gospel of John has deliberately set out to shock the reader.  When it comes to eating Jesus, we aren’t supposed to politely nibble, we aren’t supposed to simply pull a delicate crumb off the loaf.  No, we’re supposed to grab a giant piece and chow down.  Chow down on the flesh of Jesus. 

That’s a shocking thing to say but I hope you get the point.  If we are going to be fed by the Lord than we really need to take it in.  When we celebrate communion take a big piece, take two pieces, grab a handful.  This is the bread of life, take a good share.  Like the loaves and fishes there is plenty to go around. 

I am reminded of a time once when I came forward to take communion at a Presbytery meeting.  I was 6 months pregnant with Olivia and already quite big.  Folks were coming up and pinching off pieces of bread to dip in the cup.  When I got up front I saw what a beautiful loaf it was, fresh baked and tasty, and I was hungry, so I ripped off a giant piece and walked back to my seat with this huge hunk of bread.  It was a great image for me and for those around me as many in the congregation giggled to see the pregnant lady with a big chunk of bread.  We should always take communion with such gusto.

In addition to sharing communion with passion, we need to be more passionate about our faith in general.  This leads to the other offensive language in this section of John chapter 6.  In this passage, Jesus speaks in very exclusive terms “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life . . . Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, abide in me and I in them . . . whoever eats me will live because of me.”

I think we like to gloss over it but the language used in this section of John is extremely exclusive.  Unless you do this, unless you are part of this in-crowd, you have no life, you have no eternal life, you have nothing.  There is no way forward in grace or faith, without going through the flesh of Jesus.

At the time this was written this idea of exclusivity would be offensive to all the other sects trying to discover just how to be good Jews now that the temple has fallen and this Jesus person has come and gone.  But I think this language is even more offensive now.  As modern believers and as Presbyterians, we are very hesitant to claim that we have a foothold on the faith.  We are very hesitant to claim that ours is the only way to life or to eternal life.  We are much more comfortable being inclusive that we are at being exclusive.  We are much more comfortable saying “to each his own” in regards to faith, than in saying “if you don’t eat this meal of Christ than you might as well die.”    

Don’t get me wrong, I am as much into inclusivity as the next guy, but I think we run a real risk there.  If we welcome everything under then sun, then we start thinking that our faith is nothing special.  And if our faith is nothing special, than why in the world are we wasting our time here on Sunday mornings?  This text challenges us to take our faith more seriously.  I’m not saying we need to get out there with an “it’s my way or the highway” type of thing, but we do need to get out there and say “hey, we got something special here, we got the way to life.”  There are a lot of embarrassing Christians out in the world but that doesn’t mean we need to be embarrassed or ashamed of our faith.  No, rather we need to be out in the world as well, proclaiming all the wonderful things that our faith, and our faith alone, has to offer.

All month we are pairing our readings from John with the letter to the church in Ephesus.  Our passage from Ephesians for this week reminds us that the time is short.  Every second counts, every day counts, we need to work for the building up of our faith every chance we have.  The writer tells us that rather than getting drunk on wine, or getting fat on the world around us, we should be getting drunk on the Holy Spirit, we should be taking nourishment from the church.

As the gathered assembly, we feed on the bread of life by worshipping together.  In singing and listening to music, in reading scripture and preaching, in teaching and learning we are fed.   Time is running out for all of us.  Now is the time to come together as a church and receive nourishment in worship and nourishment from each other.

One thing that I assessed from my meetings with the PNC and I have observed in my first few months here is that this church is hungry.  This church, this body of Christ, needs more nourishment of our faith.  We do a great job at getting together for meetings and a fine job at mission and an ok job at worship on Sundays but we don’t ever go deeper.  We need to feed more together.  We need to welcome the Spirit more together.  We need to explore the depths of our faith more together.  Rather than politely nibbling on the bread of life, we need to rip off a big chunk and chow down.

Now I am offering two opportunities for us to do this, two opportunities for us as a body of Christ to go deeper in our faith.  The first one you already know about and that is the adult Sunday school class.  This will be a comfortable thing for most of you and as we have many academic minded folks here.  This Sunday school class is a chance to study, explore, and discuss our faith in a deeper way than we simply do here in worship.

The second opportunity I am presenting will be harder for many of us which makes it all the more important that you come.  This is thing that I think we really need to help deepen the faith of us as individuals and of this church family.   On Tuesday evenings here at the church, I purpose that we explore some spiritual disciplines together.  This is a chance for us to go much deeper in our faith.  This is a chance for us to get in touch with our spirituality.  This is a chance to expand and explore what we do here in worship on Sundays.  This is a chance for us to think a little bit less about our faith and feel a little bit more about it.  This is a chance to explore our faith with all of our senses.  I hope you will consider joining me here on Tuesday evenings, starting in September, for some quiet time of reflection as we dig deeper into our own spirits and our personal relationships with God.

Our readings from John continue to challenge us.  From considering chewing on a big portion of the bread of life, to embracing the exclusive claims of our faith, to digging deeper for more nourishment from our God; this morning’s lesson asks us to leave our comfort zone and that’s a good thing.  As long as we stay in our comfort zone we can’t grow in our faith and we can’t grow as a church.  Jesus is calling to us, and challenging us to join together in experiences that deepen our faith.  May we boldly explore our faith in new ways together, may we boldly gather to chew on the bread of life with our mouths open.  Amen.

Bread Again

August 12^th, 2012         “Bread Again”             Rev. Heather Jepsen

John 6:35, 41-51 with Ephesians 4:25-5:2

          This Sunday we pick up where we left off last week.  We are following Jesus’ discussion with the crowds and with the disciples in John chapter 6.  Jesus is talking about bread, about loaves and fishes versus the bread of life.  Last Sunday we were challenged to consider why we come to church.  Do we come to fill up on bread, or do we come to experience and know the bread of life?  This Sunday we will continue to explore the way Jesus challenges his followers to live.

          The Jews, or at least those that oppose the Jewish sect that John is writing for, begin to complain about this strange “bread of life” teaching.  Their complaint is probably justified.  Jesus appears to want to draw people to him and yet at the same time he pushes them away with all his strange talk about bread, flesh, and his father in heaven.  It’s no wonder that folks start trying to understand just where he is coming from.

          “Aren’t you the son of Mary and Joseph?” they ask.  How could you have possibly come down from heaven if you were born and raised right here with the rest of us?  It’s a good question.  I think that whenever anyone starts talking like they know something of God we are tempted to wonder just where they are coming from; especially if we knew them growing up.  Personally I am thinking of the strange looks I get when I go back to the town where I grew up and tell folks I’m a pastor.  “Hey, aren’t you Tom and Patty’s daughter; the one with the red Doc Martins who plays the harp?”  When someone we’ve known forever starts talking like they have had a profound experience of the divine, we are all tempted to cock our head to one side and ask “what?”  It’s no wonder that folks don’t understand what Jesus is talking about.

          Brushing this question aside Jesus launches into a discourse that is supposed to clarify things but just muddies the waters further.  Jesus teaches that no one can come to him, no one can even understand him, unless God makes it happen.  Again he talks about this bread of life and how it is different from manna in the wilderness.  Like manna, the bread of life comes down from heaven.  But unlike manna, those who eat the bread of life live forever.

          While on the surface it is confusing, if we dig deeper into the metaphorical language of John we find that Jesus’ discussion is relatively simple.  In him is something new, something lasting, something different from the things we have fed on in the past.  It is my experience that we are a very hungry people.  In our hunger, we will consume anything.  In fact, we consume everything in our path.  We consume everything we can take into ourselves, be it literal food and drink, or the clothes we can buy and wear, or the TV and internet options we have, or all the little doodads for sale around every corner.  We are rabid consumers because we are hungry people.  We eat and eat and eat and we never get our fill because the stuff we consume contains no nourishment.  Like the folks in the gospel of John, we need to hear again about this bread of life, this bread that will not leave us hungry.

          Today we gather as a community at the communion table, and in doing this we remember the bread of life.  We eat bread together to consider the nourishment that Christ offers.  We remember his great sacrifice of love as we consume the loaf and the juice.  Jesus says that the bread he gives for the life of the world is his very flesh.  At the table we remember, honor, and take part in that gift.

          The lectionary continues to pair John with Ephesians and in the letter today we read more about the body of Christ.  As the body of Christ we are called to be the bread of life for each other.  The community of faith is called to nourish each other in life and in faith.  The writer of Ephesians reminds us that we are to speak truth to each other and to control our anger.  We are to work honestly so that we have gifts to share with those in need.  We are to speak gently for the building up of each other.  It is a tall order for any community.

          The writer of Ephesians calls us to a higher order of living.  The writer calls the church community to a new way of life together.  Unlike the world around us who feeds on everything including each other, we are called to feed at the table of Christ and work to nourish each other.  “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.”  Stop feeding on the life of others.  “Be kind to one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”  Nourish one another as you are nourished by God.

          I particularly love the last line of our reading today.  “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.”  Be imitators of God, imitators of Christ, and live in love.  What does Jesus show us about living in love?  “I am the bread of life . . . the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

          This week I was struck by this simple idea.  If we are called to be like Christ, and Christ gives of his flesh, what would it mean for us to give of our flesh as well?  It’s one thing for me to think about giving my time or energy to the church, it is a whole other thing to think about giving my flesh.  To consider an offering of flesh is to consider an offering of life, an offering of vitality, on offering of my very self.  An offering of flesh is a costly offering, one that I would feel in my gut, an offering that hurts and might make me uncomfortable. 

Imagine how your life would change if you were willing to give as Christ gives, if you were willing to give your life, your flesh for the nourishment of others.  To give of your flesh as nourishment for others is so much more than just coming to church on Sundays.  To consider an offering of the flesh is to consider a deeper and more profound gift of yourself to God and to the church.

          To give deeply to God and the church will cost us.  To give deeply to God and the church will feed others.  To give deeply to God and the church will also allow us to be nourished in profoundly new ways. 

          Today as we gather at the table some will come already full.  We have gorged on the world around us, on the loaves and fishes, on the gifts of others, and we come to the table fat.  When we come to the table fat, we cannot take any nourishment.  But if we have given of ourselves, if we have given our flesh, our lives for others, than we come to the table lean.  We come to the table hungry.  We come to the table to be fed.  When we gather in this way, after giving ourselves for the nourishment of others; than we are truly able to eat the bread of life.  We our nourished, we are filled, and it is a meal which is lasting.

          This whole month we will continue our exploration of Jesus as the bread of life.  Last week we considered why we come looking for bread.  This week we consider what it means to be bread for others.  In the next few weeks we will continue to wonder on this deep teaching; what it asks of us and how it can affect our lives.  Let us come to the table today as people looking not for loaves and fishes but for the bread of life.  Let us come as people looking to be fed so that they in turn can feed others.  Amen.

              

Bread

August 5^th, 2012          “Bread”           Rev. Heather Jepsen

John 6:24-35 and Ephesians 4:1-16

          This morning’s texts beg the question, why are you here?  What are you really doing here in church this morning?  What are you seeking?  What do you hope to find?  What is your reason, your motivation, for getting out of bed, leaving behind that giantly delicious Sunday paper, and coming to church?

          Our gospel reading continues in John chapter 6.  Last week Jesus fed the crowd of 5,000 and when they were full, the people looked to make Jesus their king.  He fled from them, walking across the sea of Tiberius.  Since that time the people have been searching for him.  Where is this man that gave us the bread?  Where is the prophet who is come into the world?

          The folks cross the sea, looking for Jesus, and when they find him they ask what’s up.  Where has he been, they have been looking for him.  Why wasn’t Jesus where they expected him to be?  Why is he fleeing from their adoration? 

          Jesus calls them out, “You’re looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.”  Jesus goes on to declare that he doesn’t want for them to eat their fill of his gifts, rather he wants them to understand who he is and why he came.  He is about more than simple loaves and fishes.  He is the bread of life.  To know him is to no longer know hunger. 

          That Jesus is the bread of life is a rich metaphor, one that we will spend the whole month exploring.  Today though, I am thinking more about the crowd then I am thinking about Jesus.

          Jesus accuses them of not seeing the sign.  But I think that they did see the sign of the loaves.  They ate their fill, and that is precisely why they are following Jesus.  I think they had to have seen the sign, or they wouldn’t have crossed the sea to follow him.  They are people of faith.  The people saw the sign; they just didn’t understand the sign.  Similarly, we are at risk of not understanding the sign.  We are at risk of only seeing the miracle of the loaves and not understanding the miracle of the bread of life.

          Like the crowds in the gospel of John, we have a belly full.  Like the crowds, we have experienced the blessings of God.  In our private lives we have been blessed with home and family, with financial comfort and good health care.  Now I know this is not true of all of us, but it is true of many of us.  In our past, we have experienced blessings and we attribute those blessings to God.  Similarly our church has experienced blessings in its past.  There was Alex’s long years of committed service, there is the honor and joy that is our music program, there was our wonderful church remodel, and of course our record of service in the community and beyond.  We have been blessed.

          Like the crowds, we have had our fill of the loaves and we are ready to make Jesus our king.  And so we seek him.  And like the crowds, we may or may not find him.  You will notice that the people had to leave their comfort zone to find Jesus.  They had to leave the area they were familiar with and cross the sea looking for him.  Such was an act of faith.

Similarly, if we are looking for Jesus we need to leave our comfort zone.  If we look for him here in our sanctuary, we are as likely to find him as the crowds were.  For many of us the sign has already happened here and Jesus has moved on.  It is only when we are willing to get in the boat and cross the water that we will find him.  In the gospels Jesus is always moving on to new mission and ministry.  We can’t be surprised if we don’t find him in the same old places.  If we are to find him we need to move on as well.

          I am afraid that when we do find the Christ, his response to us will likely be the same as it was to the crowds.  You are here for the wrong reason.  You are here because you ate bread and are looking for another belly full.  We will all be tempted to deny such a judgment but the chances are that we all stand guilty.  We are here because we want more of what we have had in the past.  Personally we want more money so we can live at a greater level of comfort and give more to the church.  We want a better home life, so we can devote more time to ministry.  We want healing, so we can serve.  We want a repeat of the blessings we have had in the past.  We want more bread.

          The same is true of the church; we are following Jesus because we want more.  Like the crowds in the story, we want a repeat of the same miracle.  We want to go back to the time when this church was full to the rafters.  We want to go back to the time when we ran a successful campaign to build the Culton Street outreach center.  We want to go back to the time when this was the church that all the college kids went too.  Just like the crowds talking about Moses and manna, we want to go back to the past, the old miracles, and the old blessings.  We want more bread.

          Jesus challenges us and the crowds to reexamine what we are looking for and why.  Why are we following Jesus, (assuming we are even able to leave behind the old and follow him)?  And what are we looking for?  Are we looking for him to feed us, the 5,000 again?  Jesus doesn’t do that.  Are we looking for a repeat of the same old miracles in the same old places?  Jesus doesn’t do that.  Are we looking to return to the glory days of the church?  Jesus doesn’t do that.

          Jesus has moved on to new places performing new signs and he expects us to move on too.  He expects us to realize that it’s not about getting our fill of bread; it’s about understanding where true nourishment comes from.  It’s not about returning to our old days of glory, it’s about following God into the new life of the church.  We can’t keep looking for Jesus in the same old places; we need to follow him across the waters into new discussions and new understandings.  As individuals and as a church we need to leave behind the loaves and fishes and embrace the true bread of life. 

          Following this train of thought, our reading from Ephesians talks about what the role and work of the church should be.  Building upon the wonderful body of Christ metaphor; the writer of Ephesians calls us to remember that the church is a unit.  In fact the church is one.  One bread, one body, one baptism, one church.  But oneness is not about sameness, and unity is not about uniformity.  Rather the church is about unity and diversity.  There is a diversity of gifts given to the church for the lifting up of the church.  There is diversity in the body of Christ.  One in the Lord and yet diverse in gifts, in service, and even in thought. 

          If the church is unity in diversity, and the church is the body of Christ, then the church will go through periods of change.  In fact, I would say that just as the human body ages and changes, so does the body of Christ.  The church goes through life cycles much as the human body does.  There are times when we are weak and times when we are strong.  Times when we are injured and times when he heal.  There are times when we are young and vital and times when we are old and tired.  There are even times when some churches die.  Like a human body, the church body can’t go back in time.  As the writer of Ephesians says, we are no longer children but are called to grow in our faith.  We can’t go back to the way things used to be, we can only move forward into the way things are and the way God calls us to be now.   

          The crowds in the gospel of John are good faithful people.  They follow Jesus because they believe.  They are just looking for the wrong thing; they are looking for the same old miracles, and they are looking for more loaves and fishes.  Similarly modern believers and churches also follow Jesus for the wrong reason.  We too are looking for the same old miracles, looking to recapture a way we felt in our past or the way that God blessed this church years ago.  Like the folks in John, we stand before the Lord and listen again to the word about the bread of life.  Jesus didn’t come to give us material blessings; Jesus came to give us himself, the bread of life.

          As the church we are called to grow into this understanding of spiritual nourishment.  We are called to work together as one body, with various gifts and ministry.  We are called to boldly move into the future, following Christ wherever he leads us.  As the writer of Ephesians tells us, some are called to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers.  Like bread, all of these roles are for the building up, the nourishment of the body.  We are not called to ask, “What’s in it for me, how many loaves can I get?” or “what’s in it for our church, how can we grow?”  No, we are called to ask “how can we work together to be the body of Christ, the bread of life, in the world around us?”

          Weekly, as we gather in worship, the words of Christ should challenge us, and today is no exception.  Today we are called to ask ourselves as individuals and as a church why we are here.  Have we come looking for loaves and fishes?  Have we come looking for a miracle from the past? Or have we come to follow Jesus willingly into new territories?  Have we come to turn away from material blessings and willingly seek after that which is the bread of life?

          We will spend a month considering these words of Christ, “I am the bread of life.”  My prayer is that we will come with pure hearts and motives to receive true nourishment as individuals and as a church.  Amen.