Be the Blessing.
Pentecost 11, Proper 13
August 4, 2024
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
My grandmother would make bread. I doubt she ever bought bread in a store. Nothing fancy, just the same standard loaves that she would use every day. When we were at her house, she’d invite my brother and me to knead it. She told us to “find the mice” because when you did find a bubble, it would kind of squeak. Then that wonderful aroma of freshly baking bread would fill their little house. Mmmm – you know what I mean! Then came the freshly baked bread, still warm, it almost didn’t need butter. But there was butter, real butter. What a joy!
Bread smells so good to us because it is a staple of life. For most of history and in many places right now, bread isn’t part of the meal, it is the meal. Even for us today, breaking bread is short for sharing a meal.
It’s easy to understand why these folks are following Jesus all around. He’s just fed the 5000. I bet his bread was even better than even my grandmother’s. They aren’t quite sure how he got there, so they come at him with sort of a “Hey! When did you get here, old pal Jesus, right, buddy?”
Jesus nails them right away. “You’re not looking for me. You’re looking for more of that bread.” They were. And they went pretty far chasing after it because they were hungry.
The truth is people are hungry. It’s neat to see how God works through people to feed people today, just like he used Moses to give that life-sustaining gift of manna. One small example is the Care Center’s community kitchen. They feed whoever wants to come a free meal every Sunday afternoon. It began as a single church’s ministry and is now done by many churches and individuals. We have several members who volunteer every week, others who participate on cook teams regularly, and our Youth Group provides it several times a year. That’s a wonderful ministry, and we thank God for giving us the means and the opportunity to serve Him that way.
Bread has the power to sustain life. It will keep you alive for a time. Sustaining life, meeting needs today, is important. But we can’t stop there. Bread is limited. It doesn’t have the power to give life. Look at where it comes from. What happens to the grain to make bread? It gets cut off. It dies and is not replanted. It fuels us for a time. We will get hungry again.
Jesus tells the crowd, “Hey, I know what you’re after. Don’t stop there, that’s short term. I’ve brought you something much better.” He wants them to look beyond their immediate, physical needs and see their need for God and to see him in Jesus.
Jesus, on the other hand, is the bread of life. He isn’t just life-giving in a metaphorical sense; he is the author of life. He overcame death. His death was not final, it was a point of transformation, a point of revelation, a point of victory over the grave. It’s because of who he is that we have this bread of life from heaven. He can’t die anymore. That’s done, that’s over.
We can’t just believe in him, ask him to do us some favors when it’s convenient. We have to believe in him, to trust in him.
He invites us to share in him, by faith, in his very being and essence as his body. If we partake of him, then we ingest his presence into our very being. Just like regular bread goes into our systems and those nutrients get carried all over our body to sustain life, Jesus comes into our hearts, and minds and souls and bodies to give life. New life. Eternal life. Life that promises we will never hunger again.
Now, I wish the presence of Christ were as obvious to our physical senses as the smell of freshly baked bread. I wish that people could smell the love of Christ as they drove by our church. Seeking after the things of God is that simple, but it requires us to open ourselves spiritually to his presence. In order to know the benefits of that faith we have to have it. Looking at a piece of bread won’t fill you up. You’ve got to eat it.
At our Wednesday services, quite often we have a saint to remember. This past week it was William Wilberforce. Not many that evening knew who he was or what he did. He is a fine example of how Jesus – the bread of life – fills us and uses us to feed Him to the world.
Wilberforce was born into an affluent English family in 1759. He was elected to the House of Commons at the ripe old age of 21. A few years later, he came to know Christ as his savior. He ate the bread of life and seriously contemplated leaving his political career to become a priest. His mentors and friends encouraged him to stay in Parliament. (One of his chief mentors was John Newton, the former slave trader who also ate the bread of life, wrote that most-loved hymn Amazing Grace about the experience and did become a priest.)
Wilberforce did a lot of great things in Parliament and in his personal life. But his biggest contribution was his decades-long, passionate crusade to end slavery. The first major step came in 1807, when Parliament abolished slave trafficking. The British were by far the biggest naval power at the time and they convinced countries like Spain, France, Denmark and the United States to ban the traffic as well. Together, they were able to largely end the trafficking.
Sadly, it was not until 1833, about a month after Wilberforce died, that the British banned slavery altogether and another 30 years and the Civil War for the United States to end it here.
Today, slavery is illegal in every country in the world. It still exists, but it is a crime that has been pushed to the shadows and the margins. Wilberforce is an historic example of how “…the bread of God…which comes down from heaven” gives life to the world. He knew and continually confessed that it was not him, but Christ working in him. He said, "I take courage. I determine to forget all my other fears, and I march forward with a firm step in the full assurance that my labour is not in vain in the Lord."
But God did not reserve his gifts for special people like Wilberforce and the many other great women and men that we remember in our stained glass or as a saint. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me shall never be thirsty.” Whoever.
Pray on that as we approach his table to eat the Body of Christ, the bread of heaven and drink the Blood of Christ, the cup of our salvation. It will course throughout our bodies, may he course through our bodies, minds and spirits. And may he use us to be the blessing his people need today, tomorrow and the rest of our lives. You cannot do this. That’s the point. He will.
Let us pray.
AMEN!